Hewlett Packard Promotes Windows 7 On New PCs

[porous_shield]

I recently got a laptop with Win 8 on it because there was no option for Win 7 and I figured it can't be that bad and I was mostly right. Right out of the box I hated Win 8 with a passion. Trying to browse the internet I kept activating the gestures, hot corners, or charms and it was extremely annoying. Another thing I hated about it was after installing something I had trouble finding the program again and Win 8 liked to add icons for everything to the metro screen making it a cluttered mess.

The annoyances finally became too much and I Start8 and all those problems went away. My Win 8 now looks and acts just like Win 7 and I never have to see the Metro screen unless I want to. I wish they'd just give everyone an option to enable all that touchscreen metro nonsense rather than trying to force it down my throat.

I haven't gotten the 8.1 update yet though since 8 is working fine for me and I have no desire to screw up my mouse control or mess with my sli any more than I already have.

 

[Nimcha]

People just can't handle change can they... Aside from the missing start button Windows 8 is pretty much exactly the same as 7...

Except, y'know, all of what the previous commenter said:

HP actually lost a sale from me because they only offered Windows 8. I was wanting to a new desktop, but all they offered was 8.

All the people who defend 8 seem to say "It's no so bad after you change it or move things around to how you like it". However, that simply translates to "W8 is not so bad after you fix it," which is a laughable defense.

I have 8 on my laptop I got only because it was so cheap on a Black Friday sale. I figured I could put up with 8 for as big of a discount I was getting. I really hate 8 for all the reasons stated more. I've been putting up with it for over a year now, so don't tell me I haven't given it a chance.

-The apps are nothing more than pathetically stripped down versions of the real programs used on the desktop side, yet somehow seem to take longer to open, and often have ads integrated into them as well.
-Apps only have 3 possible window sizes: 1/3rd of the screen, 2/3rds of the screen, or full screen.
-An app or desktop in 1/3rd of the screen is nearly useless it's so small and narrow.
-The music and video apps have no volume control, and you can't have music videos in the same playlist as mp3's because it the "music" player; not the "video" player, (& vice-versa).
-The pdf viewer has no option to print.
-If you don't want to bother with an update for an app, W8 won't let you use the app at all.
-When there's an update for W8, the default setting is for W8 to download it and give you a warning that it's going to shutdown and install them. You have 15 minutes to finish up whatever you're doing and save. I was not given any option to delay it any longer than 15 minutes. Would be disastrous if that were to happen during a timed online test for class or during an important business meeting. (But it's ok because I can change the settings to only check for updates when I tell it to. Right?)
-Instead of a nice, compact Start menu, we get 3 pages of everything that would be on the start menu, grouped into categories so all the programs are no longer alphabetized, but in all these different groups, sprawled out with all the subfolders listed as well. Talk about clutter!

And why do ebay and netflix need apps??? Does MS think we've gotten too stupid to use shortcuts or web browsers???

I could go on, but I won't.

^ Agree with this on all counts. Look... we all know this is a mobile OS that they pushed onto desktop users because they sorely needed a mobile OS and figured they'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone. It's horrific, alright? I'm a campus IT admin, and our district has been visiting other districts who've made the leap to get in bed with google, and we're looking more in favor of making the plunge and just going Chrome OS and chrome books rather than implementing Win8 district wide. On my campus, all our new purchases for the last couple years have been either refurb'ed systems running Win7 or OSX 10.8-9 machines.

I don't get that critique. Why use apps at all? All normal programs still work. There really is no reason to use the metro interface or the apps if you don't want to.

I can see why you wouldn't upgrade if you have W7 but to purposely downgrade seems extremely silly and petty.

 

[RicoADF]

I really don't see why people hate Windows 8. I use it in a traditional desktop computer, and it works fine. You don't have to use the Metro interface and can easily hide it. And it boots much faster than Windows 7, so there's that.

Haters gonna hate, I guess.

I've been having issue with compatibility, some games which worked on Win 7 take a dump on 8. 8.1 got worse until I reinstalled the graphics drivers, so that may have been the issue. I still prefer 7 by far, but 8.1 atleast makes it usable and on my hybrid device I can see where they were coming from. Just think they were stupid for not giving options, a simple place where you can select metro or traditional start menu would have solved most of the issues with the interface people have. We like the start menu, so to remove it caused annoyance. When the UI gets in the way of quick and easy usage it's doing something wrong.

Simply put they should have phased the new interface in as an option, most would have given it a try and if they liked it they'd have used it. Forcing people is what causes them to reject it outright.

 

[goldenheart323]

I just installed the 8.1 patch. What a let down. MS said they put the start button back. Horray! I'll finally be able to see all my programs in a nice, compact, convenient, alphabetized list! NOT!!! All MS did was put an icon for the Start Button in the bottom left corner.
Before, I had to move my mouse to the bottom left corner & click to get to the Start screen on the app side.
Now, I have to move my mouse to the bottom left corner (where the Start icon is,) & click to get to the Start screen on the app side. How lame is that? They really think all our complaining is because they removed a little graphic in the corner??? Seriously???!!!

Also, the Start screen doesn't show all my programs. It never did. It only shows the ones pinned to the Start screen. I have to click on the arrow at the bottom of that screen to go to the "Apps by name" screen. THAT'S where all my programs are. All of them plus all the contents of the subfolders sprawled out across 3 whole pages.

There are some things I think they could do better, though. They really need to find a better place for the Search/Run text box, it's a critical part of starting various programs easily and was better where I could reach it in one click, instead of moving the mouse to the top corner and waiting patiently for the appropriate menu to saunter over for the OPTION to click it.

I guess you didn't realise that you don't need to do that - you just start typing and it populates the search field, you don't need to select Search first.

I... er... hmmm.

Looks like I'm forced to retract my previous criticism, that feature is once again considerably better than the Win7 version.
...

Actually, your previous criticism is still partly correct. You can only use that shortcut if you're on the app side. If you're on the desktop side, you still have to do the steps you listed.

...
I don't get that critique. Why use apps at all? All normal programs still work. There really is no reason to use the metro interface or the apps if you don't want to.

I can see why you wouldn't upgrade if you have W7 but to purposely downgrade seems extremely silly and petty.

Why use those stripped down apps at all? because they are the default way to open files. The full version of Windows Media player is available on the desktop side, but you have to change the settings or manually tell Windows8 to use it instead of the gimped app. It's yet another annoyance where the user has to manually make a change in the settings to make it more functional.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I thought the whole point of turning windows into a smart phone was to get people to impulse buy shitty apps on their computer just like they do on their androids?

 

[Signa]

Not Plagued with technical flaws? It pushed the 8.1 update pretty hard and I was one of the many affected by the balnk black screen error

Our IT department has been dealing with that left and right. The fix is easy, but damn, it's annoying. MS is just making it worse by how they've handled this.

How did you fix yours, may I ask?

 

[Signa]

There are some things I think they could do better, though. They really need to find a better place for the Search/Run text box, it's a critical part of starting various programs easily and was better where I could reach it in one click, instead of moving the mouse to the top corner and waiting patiently for the appropriate menu to saunter over for the OPTION to click it.

I guess you didn't realise that you don't need to do that - you just start typing and it populates the search field, you don't need to select Search first.

I... er... hmmm.

Looks like I'm forced to retract my previous criticism, that feature is once again considerably better than the Win7 version.

See, this is the thing about Windows 8, especially 8.1. Most of the criticisms don't have anything to do with actual operating system flaws, just peoples perceptions of them. Once you're over the learning curve you see why Microsoft did it this way, everything just sort of works.

Fun fact about the search feature on Windows 8: If you have Office installed on both a Win 7 and Win 8 machine, and type "Word" into the search and press enter, in 7 it will open Word, in 8, Wordpad. If you want to open Word in 8 without clicking through the messy interface, you have to at least type "word 2" to filter the results down to "word 2010 (or 2013)."

 

[Darxide]

It's as simple as this graphic:

 

[goldenheart323]

It's as simple as this graphic:

Don't forget Windows 2000. That was a great one. I preferred that over XP. I know it spoils the pattern, but just once, and there's no down side to having 2 good versions of Windows in a row... unless Windows 8 is so bad because it has to cancel out the greatness of having 2 good Windows in a row.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I really don't see why people hate Windows 8. I use it in a traditional desktop computer, and it works fine. You don't have to use the Metro interface and can easily hide it. And it boots much faster than Windows 7, so there's that.

Haters gonna hate, I guess.

Exactly this, while the whole Metro thingy is a bad idea, all programs running in Metro are easily removed and replaced by desktop items. Windows 8 is the tits when you use the desktop, more hardware friendly and as you said, it boots up faster than you can say "Open sesame".
Funny thing is, W8 is the first windows OS that refers programs as apps, their real name.

 

[grimallq]

Don't forget Windows 2000. That was a great one. I preferred that over XP. I know it spoils the pattern, but just once, and there's no down side to having 2 good versions of Windows in a row... unless Windows 8 is so bad because it has to cancel out the greatness of having 2 good Windows in a row.

While plenty of people might have used 2000 on their home PCs it was never meant as a home OS, so it doesn't really fit into that comparison.

If you want to use 2000 you'd also have to fit 2003, 2008 and all the older NT editons into that graphic somehow, or compare them separately.

 

[votemarvel]

Don't forget Windows 2000. That was a great one. I preferred that over XP. I know it spoils the pattern, but just once, and there's no down side to having 2 good versions of Windows in a row... unless Windows 8 is so bad because it has to cancel out the greatness of having 2 good Windows in a row.

To be fair though Windows 2000 was never meant to be a operating system for the home.

So the graphic still holds water if you discount it for that reason.

Oddly enough I never had a problem with Windows ME and liked it more than Windows 98. It was to me Windows 98 3rd Edition. I also still use the Windows ME icons for the Recycle Bin and My Computer on my current operating systems. The only thing that made me move from ME to XP was that I wanted to play The Battle for Middle-Earth.

Back to the topic though. I bought Windows 8 when it was on offer before release, Windows 8 Pro for £24.99 seemed like too good a price to pass up. If I ended up hating it, the money wasn't a huge amount to lose.

And I did end up hating it. It seemed schizophrenic in its nature between Metro and the traditional desktop, they just didn't work well with each other.

Windows 8.1 seems to have fixed a lot of my dislike with one simple thing, having the ability to have the desktop image on the Metro Start Screen. It makes the transition between the two far less jarring.

I also like how now when installing a program it doesn't just dump every little thing on the Metro Start Screen, keeping it clean to look at and so you don't have to waste time unpinning things. You can go down to the extremely cluttered looking section below and pin just the items you want.

While I still tend to default to the Windows XP side of my dual-boot, I do now with 8.1 find myself using it more and more often.

 

[LadyLightning]

Same thing happened with Windows Vista. It was a buggy piece of shit that broke lots of software developed for Windows XP, and pretty much until Windows 7 came out, anyone who had half a brain kept using Windows XP.

 

[Shalok]

Not Plagued with technical flaws? It pushed the 8.1 update pretty hard and I was one of the many affected by the balnk black screen error

Our IT department has been dealing with that left and right. The fix is easy, but damn, it's annoying. MS is just making it worse by how they've handled this.

How did you fix yours, may I ask?

By reverting to windows 8.0 and not upgrading ever I'll check in a couple of months if they have actually fixed it

 

[Dragonbums]

That honestly doesn't surprise me.

I recently got an HP laptop for Christmas, and I made absolutely sure that it was the one that came with Windows 7 and not 8. I bet HP saw this too, and decided to simply revert their computers back to Windows 7. Since that seems to be the ones that sell the most.

 

[Signa]

Not Plagued with technical flaws? It pushed the 8.1 update pretty hard and I was one of the many affected by the balnk black screen error

Our IT department has been dealing with that left and right. The fix is easy, but damn, it's annoying. MS is just making it worse by how they've handled this.

How did you fix yours, may I ask?

By reverting to windows 8.0 and not upgrading ever I'll check in a couple of months if they have actually fixed it

Heh, not likely. I'm sure MS is pointing their finger at the hardware manufacturers and users over their own faults with 8.1. News flash, MS: not every user is always up to date on every piece of software and firmware ever.

 

[TelHybrid]

I have a Windows 8 laptop. I hate the default interface. First thing I install on a new format is a program that Lenovo includes on their Windows 8 products called Pokki. I have Windows 7's interface with Windows 8's speed. It's great!