Someone with a PC/notebook (without a sensor screen) is using Windows 8 in reality?
LoL.

Gamecollector wrote:

Someone with a PC/notebook (without a sensor screen) is using Windows 8 in reality?
LoL.

If you're referring to me, the reason is primarily because I want to make sure the software I write works across every Windows OS from XP onwards, which I now have access to. :B

Besides, Windows 8 is not nearly as terrible as some people make it out to be. It's just DIFFERENT, and what Microsoft originally set out to do with it was scary, though I think even they are realizing their approach was a stupid mistake, especially given that they're coding a start menu back into it. :P

Gamecollector wrote:

Someone with a PC/notebook (without a sensor screen) is using Windows 8 in reality?
LoL.

Judgemental, aren't we?

I installed Windows 8 when it came out, just to see what the fuss was about. I'm not "unimpressed" as much as I'm just indifferent. I maybe like Windows 7 slightly more because there weren't so many roadblocks to installing unsigned drivers (which I have for Android ADB, USBasp, and a couple of other things), but I don't do that often enough to justify re-formatting again and going back.

I finished getting indignant about software when I turned 18. It does normal computer things, and runs all the games+programs I need, the rest is just meh.

sliderider wrote:

Windows 8 Pro users can get a free backgrade to 7, but not the consumer version. Sort of like how 7 had an XP mode on the expensive versions that the consumer version didn't get.

Not quite the same as XP Mode - XP Mode is virtualization to run some XP-based apps, and primarily targets business users who need to support IE6.0 among other things (and Vista actually offered a similar feature for business/enterprise users, its called MED-V). XP Mode is available for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate as a free download; here's a good article about it: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology … indows-xp-mode/ (note specifically that it is not for gaming). 8 Pro offers downgrade rights to Vista Business or 7 Professional (and in that situation you actually are uninstalling Windows 8 and loading Vista Business or 7 Pro in its place, not running a VM), which also isn't new for Microsoft (downgrade rights for pro/enterprise versions that is; Windows 7 Professional includes the same rights to downgrade to Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional). It also isn't universal to all 8 Pro users; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2832566

Microsoft has offered this for quite some time; I think since either Windows Vista or Windows XP. I know I remember hearing about people taking advantage of it with new OEM Vista machines to get XP after its retail availability ended, for example. I'm not sure if XP Professional allowed you to downgrade to 2000 or ??? (Windows Me? 🤣) though.

Oh, and I knew the Bill Gates thing was Vista and was making a joke - I didn't expect to learn about some new horror... 🤣

F2bnp wrote:

Main reasons I want to get rid of Windows 8 are the following: […]
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Main reasons I want to get rid of Windows 8 are the following:

1) Pathetic support for MIDI, setting up BASSMIDI, MUNT and my own Roland SC-7 has been a pain

2) Compatibility with older games and full-screen speed
I had to play an RPG Maker game in a small window because fullscreen was running at like 15fps
Drakan : Order of The Flame is also running fine in a window, but slows down insanely when run full-screen

3) Some weird issues with administrator rights and write privileges on my main disk

Other than that, I have been enjoying the insanely fast boot times and overall snappier feeling to everything. I like the new Task Manager somewhat and some other stuff like the window the combines "Copying files..." windows. I never use the damned Start Screen though.

If Windows 8 could somehow fix the first two issues, I'd never go back to Windows 7.

Is the "admin rights and write privileges" by chance the "take ownership" issue that Vista and 7 also experienced (especially if you're coming from disks that were formatted/used in a Windows 2000 or Windows XP environment)? Otherwise I got no idea there. I've heard the MIDI support is botched from other folks too, so that's probably just "how it is" unfortunately. 😒

On the games running poorly, does disabling desktop composition do anything for it?

You can't disable DWM in Windows 8. I haven't experienced this slowdown issue with old games that I've seen people refer to but I haven't been able to perform extensive compatibility testing with Windows 8 as I have with the earlier versions of windows due to not enough time. It's either a OS issue or a driver/video card issue. I'll see if I can find the time to run some tests.

Doubt the fixed it in 8.1, but Windows 8 messed up all the registry entries for MIDI selection. So, no the tools that worked in WIndows 7 did not work in 8.
It has been a while since I fooled around with it, so things may have been fixed in 8.1.

Have you tried VirtualMIDISynth?

If only it was just the start menu.

EverythingOldIsNewAgain wrote:

If only it was just the start menu.

I enjoyed the liberal use of words like "crime," "fraud," and "cancer." They really show the unbiased and level-headed approach the author is taking, and the care with which the author has conducted their observations and crafted a well-organized and coherent assessment of the key differences between Windows 8 and Windows XP.

obobskivich wrote:

EverythingOldIsNewAgain wrote:

If only it was just the start menu.

I enjoyed the liberal use of words like "crime," "fraud," and "cancer." They really show the unbiased and level-headed approach the author is taking, and the care with which the author has conducted their observations and crafted a well-organized and coherent assessment of the key differences between Windows 8 and Windows XP.

The blog I linked to was written by the dude who makes (or is the lead developer of the team that makes) ClassicShell. He's very opinionated and far from neutral - especially in his tone, I'll grant you that. And I do disagree with his contention that XP was the pinnacle of OS design.

But I haven't really found another site that states in one coherent list all of the regressions in Windows 8 (aside from the biggies: trashed font smoothing, no Aero, no ability to disable DWM even without Aero, no gadgets, a flattened butt-ugly UI, intrusive Metro popping up left and right, features that have randomly disappeared or been deprecated, etc). It is an operating system that appears to have been engineered with the express design to piss you off. Which is probably why just about everyone who had anything to do with it has been either shown the door at Microsoft or reassigned into exile (like Jensen Harris).

EverythingOldIsNewAgain wrote:

But I haven't really found another site that states in one coherent list all of the regressions in Windows 8 (aside from the biggies: trashed font smoothing, no Aero, no ability to disable DWM even without Aero, no gadgets, a flattened butt-ugly UI, intrusive Metro popping up left and right, features that have randomly disappeared or been deprecated, etc). It is an operating system that appears to have been engineered with the express design to piss you off. Which is probably why just about everyone who had anything to do with it has been either shown the door at Microsoft or reassigned into exile (like Jensen Harris).

A number of those changes were made for security reasons - Gadgets are a great example of that, Microsoft openly stated that there are security concerns associated with Gadgets which led to the discontinuation (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/gadgets) for Windows 8 (they also suggest not using them, or not adding non-Microsoft ones, for Vista and 7). Windows 8 replaces Gadgets with Windows Apps that can serve the same functionality but reportedly have less vulnerabilities. It's also really interesting that Gadgets being replaced with Apps is a talking point for "why 8 sucks" - I remember when Vista came out and people were screaming about how much of a worthless resource-hog Gadgets were (and Gadgets isn't the only example I can think of; Aero, UAC, etc all come to mind offhandedly as well).

I do not consider the article a "coherent list of regressions" - it's a whiney, open-ended rant against "newness" (or "change" or whatever-you-like) and Microsoft in general, from someone who purports to be a Microsoft fan. All it's missing is an open death-threat on the lives of Windows developers or Microsoft managers (see: http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/15/4622252/plag … -support-groups). I'm not at all denying that Windows 8 represents *change* from previous versions, I think it's exactly because it DOES represent change that it has people up in arms. Just like you see quite frequently with game developers (hence the linked article from Polygon). I also think it's unreasonable to expect that revisions and improvements over time should be held to a burden of being infinitely backwards compatible - I do disagree with the Xbox developer who said that "backwards compatibility is backwards thinking" but otoh I think it's a little bit ridiculous to demand that a modern computer has to fluently support every application and hardware device ever conceived back to the 1970s just to appease an extremely small minority of users (especially when old hardware is readily and easily available). But as it is with many things, you usually only get to hear about the horror stories or outstanding successes, and the middle 70-90% of contently satisfied voices are never even acknowledged.

Windows 8.x has Aero Basic underneath:

Inconsistent UI. 😵