Mike's Window : Windows 8

On the case..

Mike Hall — Tue, 07 May 2013 02:08:36 GMT

The new Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced case has now been in service for thirty five days. In that time, it has not displayed any of the annoying characteristics of it’s predecessor.

Windows has not shutdown once and everything is working. I still dare not set up any Windows 8 apps because I have no desire to tempt providence.

Start8 is keeping the unstable bits at bay, and Windows Defender is quietly keeping the junk out.

From my perspective, Windows 8 desktop does a good job, and I do not feel that I am selling out by staying with the desktop. Windows 8 is a dual OS, and as far as I am concerned, however I want to use is is ok.

I am interested to see how Windows Blue shapes up, and if it is all about the Modern UI, that is ok too. Presently, I have everything I need other than an HP 57 colour cartridge and a decent graphics card. Both can wait..

Windows 8 - Network hardware compatibility ..

Mike Hall — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:09:02 GMT

After a week of moving my workspace around, tidying up cable runs, committing an aging Panasonic Fax/Phone machine to the local Goodwill store, I thought it best to try out some of my older network adapters.

The two adapters are:

An Ultra USB 2.0 Fax Modem
A D-Link DWL- G132 USB network adapter

I am pleased to be able to confirm that Windows 8 Pro 64-bit recognises and installs the Ultra Fax Modem without any user intervention. It still has to be set up manually for send/receive, auto answer et al.

The D-Link DWL G132 was bought in 2006, and it was not too long before D-Link decided to drop support for it. An outcry later, and the unit is still compatible and installs without issues. This is good for me because I am now a fair distance from the modem/router, and I don’t want to have to use multiple Ethernet cables when fixing client desktop machines.

Note that the older D-Link Super G adapters will NOT work in Super G mode when installed on a Windows 7 or 8 machine

So, I can breathe easier now, and my desk is a little less cluttered than it was a week ago.

Did Microsoft miss the point?

Mike Hall — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:35:25 GMT

I’ve spent a bit of time defending Windows 8 in the forums of late, and as a consequence, I am not getting as many ‘marked as answers’. The other reason is that moderators no longer cruise the forums marking answers just to make it look like the forums are working well. In the early days, there was a lot of this happening, and one had to keep open reply notifications long after the post was marked ‘answered’ because the poster’s problems had most definitely NOT been answered. While ‘stock’ answers are good, they do not always address the complexity of the mess that a user has created.

The amount of trolls is increasing and they will have an effect on Windows 8, just as with Vista in the old Microsoft newsgroups. The amount of ‘FUD’ being spread is almost every bit as bad as it was for Vista and IE7. There is a difference though. While Vista was a little intransigent, it was at least familiar. Windows 8 doesn’t have familiarity going for it at all. If Microsoft believed that most Windows 8 users will have had practice on a smart phone before buying a new PC, the sales figures for smart phones were portraying a scenario which simply didn’t exist.

Go to any coffee bar, snack bar, burger joint and look around. Who do you see with smartphones? People under 30 years old generally. Where are the smartphones? Laying on the tables or in hand, on 24 hour alert for the next text message which will give co-ordinates for the next part of the day’s itinerary. A few years ago, these same people would have bought laptops, but lugging around a laptop, using it while driving.

College and university kids get cheap laptops via enterprising geek students who get hold of older ones, clean them up and sell them at a cheap price. These machines are fine for dissertations et al. For everything else, essentially texting, the latest smartphone kicks butt, and it has to be the latest model. The massive sale of phones is not because EVERYBODY has or wants one. The sales are down to the ‘kids’ dumping their old phones for the latest and greatest..

So where does that leave the rest of us who haven’t grown up with a mobile phone surgically attached to our ears?

Yikes, it’s all tiles!!

I give short shrift to anybody who claims to have been a Windows expert since the early days of Windows. They, of all people, should know about 3rd party stuff and workarounds. To be honest, I rarely believe a word written by these people who , In the same ‘breath’, follow up with ‘should have bought a Mac’ or ‘going to switch to Linux’. With all respect, if these people typed anything truthful, Mac and Linux would have been challenging Windows years ago, but neither are even close.

I remember in the Windows 7 beta groups a question being forwarded about how to implement touch into the operating system. I suggested supplying it as an add-on, a shell, bearing in mind that there were very few touch screens around. I think that is how it should have been for Windows 8 too. There are still too few touch screens around and they are still expensive. Any computer where a keyboard is an essential part of the system is NOT going to be used as a touch system even if it has a touch screen, so why supply a touch oriented OS as the default?

I still put it down to internal sabotage. I do NOT believe that Microsoft as a whole would have made such basic mistakes, and certainly not if Bill Gates still had the final say on what went out of the doors. The man didn’t always get everything right, but he was no fool.

What Windows Blue should do..

Improve reliability of the Modern UI. It is far too susceptible to errors, not updating, not re-installing and in general just not working. Had the Modern UI been an optional shell as it should have been, it could have been uninstalled and re-installed easily.
Each app needs to have the traditional ‘X’ to close. Nobody trusts leaving an app running in the background. When they have looked at the weather or checked email, they want it GONE.
Apps need to be made such that they can be tiled rather than running full screen.
The traditional Start menu and task bar needs to be in place regardless of the UI being used, if only to allow easy access to the tools required to fix issues.

Waiting for Windows Blue to do the above at the very least is like waiting for a sunny day in the United Kingdom. Phrases like ‘well, you never know’ spring to mind. The weather is beyond control, but Microsoft has a chance to change the way that the wind is blowing for Windows 8 and whatever follows it. Lets hope that the right decisions are made.

Return of the official Start button?

Mike Hall — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:10:30 GMT

They say that the return would not boost PC sales, but while it might not boost sales to Windows 95 levels, it would no doubt make a difference.

Presently, a consumer walks into a computer retailer, sees a cellphone which has been clumsily disguised to look *** a laptop or desktop computer, and they are bemused by what they see. The sales assistants are no real help, some suggesting that Windows 8 is another Vista. The end result is that the consumer walks away, having decided to stick with what he/she has already.

To be perfectly honest, if I was in the market for a new PC and the only operating system on any of them worked like a smartphone, I would walk away too.

The quality of apps is not too bad as long as you only want info piped to you. BUT..

How long does anybody spend looking at the weather, especially when the person is out in it already.
Apps have no obvious means for being shut down after use. On a smartphone, the user presses the ‘Back’ button. There is no general ‘back’ button on a PC.
What is the use of a mail app which can’t handle the most widely used POP mail protocol and as such, the user can’t even check mail, let alone respond to it.

Even if every program was converted to touch, how many of them would be better for it? Virtually none as I see it. Fingers are ok for sliding from one screen to another and pressing large buttons. Beyond that, touch is of limited value. The constraints for operating a pocketable phone are very different to those imposed sitting in front of a general use laptop or desktop PC. Imposing 4” screen ergonomics onto somebody using a 17” to 24” screen is not and never will be sense.

The complaints that users (and potential users) have voiced about Windows 8 have not gone unnoticed. The question is whether Microsoft would do something about the issues or stick to the original plan.

Rumours concerning the up-coming Windows Blue were rife, with some predicting that Blue would scrub out the desktop completely. For those prophets of doom, I offer this rumour.

“As of October 13, 2013, gas pumps will be globally disabled such that vehicle users will be forced to buy and use all electric vehicles for which there is no global infrastructure. Apologies for any inconvenience that this change may cause.”

OK, back to plausible rumours. This one concerns talk of Microsoft re-instating the Start button, as in an all original bone-fide Microsoft Start button which boots directly to an all original Microsoft desktop.

I hope that Microsoft does bring it back, if only to silence the trolls and MS haters in the Windows 8 forums. I have a feeling that some of the trolls are actually using the 3rd party solutions, but still carrying on in the forums as if Microsoft really had scrubbed the entire desktop from Windows 8. The return of the Microsoft Start Menu would stop them in their tracks.

It would also be more encouraging for consumers looking to replace aging XP, Vista and Windows 7 customers.After so many years of a Start button, it is reassuring to know that the new computer will be a friendly face.

Cross your fingers, people..

Windows Blue, what will you do?

Mike Hall — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:51:20 GMT

How about putting the classic Start menu back in like it used to be? No? Awwww, go on, do it.. How about addressing the ‘Modern UI’ reliability? It would be nice if the tiles always worked and didn’t throw up errors about updating and installing. How...(read more)

The Great Wait..

Mike Hall — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:25:51 GMT

Two great waits actually.. Wait #1. My old case arrived ‘home’ at !0:45, Monday, 18 March. It now has to be checked out by Coolermaster technicians, and in time I will get an email telling me that something is being sent back to me. Due process is probably...(read more)

Simple and usable..

Mike Hall — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:30:07 GMT

It’s the title of a book written by Giles Colborne, who has been designing interactive user experiences since the early 1990s. When he’s not doing that he he’s busy with cxpartners , a design consultancy based in Bristol and London that specialises in...(read more)

8 on a Netbook?

Mike Hall — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:51:34 GMT

I read a post in the Windows 8 forum re installing Windows 8 on a Netbook and getting caught out by the screen resolution. Older Netbooks can’t manage more than 1024 x 600 due to the drivers and/or the screen technology of the day when made, so Windows...(read more)

The ‘8’ ball..

Mike Hall — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 19:52:00 GMT

Unless Microsoft pull something out of the hat and include it in a service pack for Windows 8, this OS will maybe become known as the ‘8’ ball. Presently, it has a real knack for scuppering itself, as can be seen in the Windows 8 forums. Apps...(read more)

Online banking security..

Mike Hall — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:56:02 GMT

Banks are eager to ensure that transactions between themselves and their customers are safe for obvious reasons. To this end, you may get a request to install software called ‘Trusteer Rapport’. Always eager to help out, I landed on the Scotiabank page...(read more)

ATI drivers for the HD 4000,3000, 2000

Mike Hall — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:18:45 GMT

There is a new driver, dated 20/1/2013, on the ATI driver support page.. http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/legacy-radeonaiw-vista64.aspx I wish that I had a snapshot of the driver page when Windows 8 appeared. It was obvious that...(read more)

Desktop applications: 1 Windows 8 UI: 0

Mike Hall — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:07:00 GMT

Apart from MS Office 2010, I have a few minor applications on my PC. Skype Messenger A utility to capture YouTube videos Filezilla to upload changes to my website Paint.net because it is more accomplished than the Windows offering Arcsoft Photostudio...(read more)

Speedfan and Windows 8..

Mike Hall — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 14:50:37 GMT

If you didn’t already know, SpeedFan 4.47 doesn’t like Windows 8, but there is a fix. It is called SpeedFan 4.48 beta6 and to get it, you have to sign up.. http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php SpeedFan is a very useful utility for desktop PCs and I do recommend...(read more)

Try to fix one thing..

Mike Hall — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 02:38:04 GMT

.. and it all goes wrong. I found a chipset driver on the Gigabyte website for my mobo, a GA880g, and thought that it may be a good plan to install it and maybe get beyond the involuntary shutdown issue. Ha.. first sign that it may all go wrong. The ...(read more)

Windows 8 hardware the problem?

Mike Hall — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:59:28 GMT

OK, so Windows 8 is essentially a ‘touch’ operating system, at least that is how it is marketed. I have yet to come across ANY laptop computer sporting Windows 8 AND touch in ANY of the computer stores in my locality. The two may feature on desktops as...(read more)

Windows 8 file options - Copy and Move..

Mike Hall — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:59:11 GMT

Now, I know that it is possible to drag and drop files across open folders, but it can be awkward and messy, especially on smaller screens like the type found on laptops and Netbooks. So, early versions of Windows had functions within the right click...(read more)

Modern UI.. partial success

Mike Hall — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:47:05 GMT

OK, so I managed to install TWO whole apps that work. Way to go. Unfortunately, they are the anti-thesis of production. I now have to Logo Quiz games, very addictive, but lacking any other value. I tried SIX other apps, mainly productive, but they will...(read more)

Three left standing..

Mike Hall — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 15:14:28 GMT

Desktop, Advanced English Dictionary and CBC News are the only apps still working in my Windows 8 Modern UI. Maps almost worked but had no idea of the whereabouts of my actual location. Windows Store is like a retail establishment that looks busy, but...(read more)

Windows 8 was not happy..

Mike Hall — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:53:00 GMT

Yesterday, I was trying to eliminate powering down issues with the computer. It had been shutting down of its own volition, no blue screen, no error messages, no mini-dumps, nothing. I ran the Windows 8 Memory Diagnostic, clean boot, everything suggested...(read more)

Ménage à trois .. Which side are you on?

Mike Hall — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:21:00 GMT

Linux and Mac supporters can stand down. It’s not that you don’t count, even if you actually don’t, so don’t take offence. Windows is now pitching against Windows. In one corner is Windows XP, stable and fast but not slick and...(read more)