Windows 9 release Date?

Well, I read all of this crying about Windows 8, 8.1, and the recent update, and I don't quite get it. I have been using Windows 8 Professional since it came out. So what's not to like. If you understand about security and permissions you can do anything you like. For instance, the start menu is not available to the user. Simply go to the user\start menu folder and modify the permission to get rid of the "deny all" and allow all for your user, and voila, you can do anything you like. I have all of my desktop icons and links on the Start Menu and have set up the groups to reflect the various types. This technique is available to the entire system. Simply learn how your computer and OS work.

The one thing that gets to me is that when I run an application or go to a web site from the Start Menu, I would expect to be back at the Start Menu when I exit the app or link...not so. But punching the left windows key put you back...so big deal.

This OS is almost bullet proof. I rarely need to go to task manager to get rid of an offending application.

So...understanding your system is the key to success

I don't use second party AV apps. I stick with Windows Defender, and use Hitman Pro to clean up the nasty stuff. Defender doesn't slow sown your system. It is integrated and simply runs in the background as all AV programs should.

I can't wait!!!

I completely agree on the odd numbered versions of Windows being much better.

My experience as a MS fan since Windows 3.1 was that XP was just * WOW *,

so intuitive, so generous, so customizable, I really loved using my PC.

Then came Vista as a big disappointment "you are not allowed to do this, you are not allowed to touch that". So unfriendly. I didn't feel welcome in my own space.

Windows 7 won me again, but not as strong as XP did.

Windows 8.1: I so regret having bought that expensive PC (I was saving money every month to treat myself on a very performing one with a huge monitor). Windows 8.1 was alas pre-installed.

Just writing down this sentence makes me feel sad, because I'm not using that PC. I hate it.

I hope Windows 9 will be highly customizable and very intuitive from the first detail to the last one. Especially the desktop and Explorer. 

Apps, drivers & upgrades should always have a standalone downloadable package too. 

MS should not remove options & utilities they gave in the past,

of course I expect them to offer improved old ones and cool new ones,

but they should still leave the past options & utilities available

for those who find out they prefer the previous ways. 

while working in a faster and easier way than each previous version.

Please Microsoft, make it up to me, win me back!

I don't want Mac.

Likewise, I'm too entrenched in PC culture to defect to an IPad but the truth is that they work and are almost never returned. Some of the tablets running Android may do the the trick until Lenovo finds an OS that's worthy of their Yoga 2 but the danger there lies in the possibility that many of us may just stick with Android especially if it improves at the rate it has over the last few years.

Seeing as how McAfee is an Intel product now I have to wonder if there isn't a little inbreeding going on. The problem with McAfee is that it's notorious for not playing well with browsers other than IE. For those of us who prefer those other browsers or to put it more strongly, *won't* use IE. So why are the manufacturers putting McAfee in? Maybe Intel gives it away with the chip. You're right, Windows development has nothing to do with McAfee. So what reason would a manufacturer have for installing an AV that causes a train wreck with browsers other than IE. If it's a not so subtle way of getting users to keep IE it's not working. For that matter if the OEM OS is the #1 reason that devices running 8.1 are being returned to the stores you'd think that they'd be jumping down Microsoft's throat (and from what I hear in the local land of MS, manufacturers are doing just that). I would have returned my Yoga Pro if 8.1 had been my only issue. The McAfee trainwreck was just icing on the cake. As for the world I live in, it's Consumer World, the place Microsoft and manufacturers need to be on good terms with.