Microsoft to offer early look at next Windows

Windows 8 was a marketing disaster, as was the Office Ribbon. Those responsible should have been sacked - there was no way people (the majority) would prefer either interface to preexisting ones.

I can understand desiring a unified underlying code for different platforms, but please: Different platforms require different interfaces. That's why my car has a steering wheel and my motorcycle has handles.

Bring on the next failure! People hated Vista, they hated 8, and they'll hate the next one, too. If Windows didn't dominate office software like word processing and databasing, they'd be done already.

People hated Vista, they hated 8, and they'll hate the next one, too.

Actually, if the trend continues, people should like the next one. It's like Star Trek movies - people like every other one. XP yes, Vista no, 7 yes, 8 no, so 9 yes.

XP was,is and always will be the BEST windows based program ever! Hey Microsoft here is an Idea! Why not ask or listen to YOUR customers?! Why not revamp XP and call it XP plus? Why not just keep a good thing going? I am not a fan of Apple so I stick with Microsoft,have windows 8 or should I say windows HATE! it sucks,then I heard about 8.1,glad I did not upgrade even worse than 8,why on earth is it so hard to come up with an OS that actually makes people happy? Everything after XP is utter crap!

XP was,is and always will be the BEST windows based program ever! Hey Microsoft here is an Idea! Why not ask or listen to YOUR customers?! Why not revamp XP and call it XP plus? Why not just keep a good thing going? I am not a fan of Apple so I stick with Microsoft,have windows 8 or should I say windows HATE! it sucks,then I heard about 8.1,glad I did not upgrade even worse than 8,why on earth is it so hard to come up with an OS that actually makes people happy? Everything after XP is utter crap!

I've been working with Windows since Win 1.0 back in the 80's. Not to rain on your religious fervor, but Win XP doesn't hold a candle to Win 7 (which would probably be the most current equivalent Windows OS). Win 8 and 8.1 default desktops are optimized for touch screen devices so as a desktop OS, Win 7 is probably a better choice if you want a similar "look and feel"..

We use Win 7 at work and I have Win 8.1 at home. Once you get used to the differences, they WORK just as efficiently. My Win 8.1 machine at home runs 24/7 and that's 24/7 of WORKING. When I'm not actually at the computer, it's doing distributed computing for Stanford University's Folding@Home (F@H). With Win 8.1 I don't have to reboot the computer every couple of days because of a lock-up like I had to when I was running F@H on Win XP.

Want to know what people are REALLY upset about with Win Vista and newer??? The initial gripe about Win Vista was that there were few hardware drivers for legacy equipment ready when the OS was released. The third party manufacturers couldn't be bothered to create the new Win Vista/Win 7drivers for their older equipment. All those printers HP had out prior to Win Vista didn't get a new driver written. Instead, HP wrote a "universal" driver to cover all the old equipment. So the duplex printer you had? Now it can't duplex. And certain models of HP printers will only print out one copy of the document no matter how many copies you request. Need 20 copies? Then get ready to send 20 print jobs. THAT'S what people are upset about with the change over to Win Vista/7/8.1. People are blaming the OS manufacturer for the lack of driver support by the peripheral manufacturers.

I like Windows XP, I ain't changing.

I'll probably make my next computer run Linux as the main operating system, as mostly everything is online now so you don't really need Windows anyway. It helps that I like the occasional command line. (I'm not affected by the bash bug). I'll then run Windows in a virtual machine, whatever version.

For all the free office programs out there, MSOffice is still needed for 100% compatibility with sharing files but that and OneNote which is my fav are the only reasons to stay with Windows for me. This is a big downturn and if there is ever a worthy OneNote challenger made for Linux (Evernote isn't it) then I'll use Windows much much less.

It's harder to justify upgrading now that the 2013 versions are terrible compared to 2010 (they messed up OneNote ugh) and that Microsoft is going to the Internet anyway as seen with Office365. They are still a force and can sometimes make really good products, but it seems they've jumped the sharknado and it's only a matter of time before I leave them completely.

Windows? LOL. Some business just started to move from XP to W7. Still do not like to reboot a zillion times for updating something that is totally non-essential applications such as IE, outlook......that has nothing to do with OS/kernel.

Repackage Windows 7 and call it Windows 9. Everyone will be happy.

Why don't people like Win 8? I've been using it on both my machines for the last few months with no problems or issues.

What specifically are the problems with it? Just curious.

Why don't people like Win 8?

There are only a very few programs I use, and I'm used to the old desktop with Start buttons and Start menus. Now every time I have to immediately hit Win-D to get out of the Metro(?) desktop at boot and go to the familiar desktop, if I don't want be presented with all the icons for all the programs I don't use, plus scroll bar needed to get to some I do use. And every time I need to remember to Alt-F4 to get to the Shutdown menu, or else Win-I to get to the config icon map or whatever they're calling it and then look for the Power icon.

I didn't like the gratuitous changes introducing Document Libraries (Win 7?) or Office Ribbons (Vista?) either.

All these changes in eye candy are unnecessary to me and as I see it only necessary for Microsoft to churn the O/S environment to keep the money flowing to them ("churn" as stockbrokers use it, for churning accounts). Zero benefit to me as a user.

I can still get the old-style Win desktop with various flavors of Linux.

Have got Linux installed on all the old Windows desktops in my house, since one by one they have crashed to non-bootable state over the years. Did same for my parents on their old Win machine and they've been using Linux now for over 7 years and they are not at all computer-literate. All they want is browser, email client, some games.

"Now every time I have to immediately hit Win-D to get out of the Metro(?) desktop at boot "

No you don't. With one single setting, you can boot to the old familiar desktop.

Right-click any open area in the taskbar, then click Properties. Click the Navigation tab, then check the box next to "Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in."

Presto.

JeffLee:

Microsoft: "... 8.1 ... not ... Windows 8"

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mis_laboratory/archive/2013/08/09/windows-8-1-boot-to-desktop-maybe-the-designers-were-right.aspx

... Changing the settings isn’t hard, but it’s not something you’ll find just searching for it. Note: this only works with the 8.1 preview; it is not part of the production version of Windows 8.

Go to the Desktop, then right-click in the taskbar, and select “Properties”, then click on the navigation tab to open up this menu:

@turbostat The upgrade is free. People normally do all the major free upgrades that are offered, no?

"but it’s not something you’ll find just searching for it."

That's true. But I googled it, and it took me all of 3 seconds to find it, and another 15 seconds to implement it.

Free but not automatic. We only have one Win8 laptop at home and it's shared so I don't use it much and don't update much except automatically.

But thanks, I will try it.

I just want one OS that stays still and doesn't come up with "features" I don't want, ESPECIALLY user interface changes.

Microsoft is not in that business, because they ARE a business.