Support for Windows XP is ending soon

Hi, David.

Now then; I've been talking this over with a friend in the States who uses 8 (not by choice, but I'm not going into that), and he tells me more or less what you've now done.

Just confirm for me, please. You're saying you CAN use 8 as a standard desktop/mouse/keyboard setup, without having to use the 'Metro' interface? 'Cos it's Metro that I will never, EVER be persuaded to like (not even the Pope could make me like it!) I'm sorry, but to me, it's just ugly; but I was never much of a fan of the 'minimalist' school of design, anyway.

Get this; although I've been saying about the user experience on XP, I never used the standard XP theme...because to me, it was too stark. It was just one of the things I liked about XP; the fact that EVERYTHING about it was customisable to the nth degree. Perhaps 7 and 8 are, too; but for the life of me, I could never find out how you achieved it.....and believe me, I looked VERY hard.

If I could sort that, and if Microsoft would consider doing something about this perceived need to confirm what you've just asked the computer to do, over & over again, ad nauseam...then I could be persuaded to like 8.

It's just personal niggles, to be honest! Believe it or not, I am NOT that much of a 'stick-in-the-mud'.. I don't mind moving to new technology...but I DO like it to 'prove' itself a wee bit before I invest in it.

There have been a fair number of reports of Windows 8 doing ANYTHING other than what it was asked to do; I guess you're going to get that with any O/S until people DO get used to it. But you've always got those individuals who feel that the best solution for everything under the sun is to make an enormous, public fuss about it...

Mike W.

Why would you even considering listening to the pope about computing?

Look at this:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-desktop/modifying-windows-81-for-those-who-want-to-ease/47425a3a-a652-4d0a-9537-68d36fa36947

...

That's all the advice?

A few years back, I actually read somewhere on Microsoft.com (some list of 10 reasons to switch to Windows 7, back before anyone thought of Windows 8) that Windows 7 was better for touch. Then with Windows 8, they made another OS and claimed that it was "built for touch", but this time, it was as if touchscreen capability/adaptation was at the very least one of the main goals.

Although I have heard similar stories about different aspects of Windows.

I like Window 8.1

Signatures: san go cong nghiep - sàn gỗ công nghiệp

But the user interface has just got increasingly worse & worse, and simply more awkward to use.

I disagree, the entire Metro interface of Windows 8 is more simplified than any other version of Windows. The interface works entirely on left-clicks, right-clicks and movements to the corners of the screen. Nothing awkward about that at all. It's not like they are asking you to move in a counter-clockwise direction and left-click when you get to the middle of the screen.

I think it's more of an excuse than anything else. Some idea that justifies why you don't want to try and learn something new. I understand that you don't have time to learn new things but these tutorials only take a few minutes to go through and then everything just makes sense. It's better than stumbling along yourself and getting frustrated that you just aren't getting anywhere.

Plus the best part of the new Start Screen interface is that it's customizable to YOUR needs. Unlike Windows XP where they stuck you in an alphabetical list of ever expanding programs. Once things are pinned to your Start menu, they are literally a click away. And you can pin everything you need from websites, to apps, to programs, to folders, to control panel icons to whatever you need.