The quality of default apps on Windows 8 is abysmal, and the weird choices (Finance? Travel? A separate app for Sports News and regular News?) discourage me from making my own apps.

Hey guys if your reading this i thank you

Anyway, so i need to know how long it would take to install windows 8 pro , 64x, on a 3 year old sony vaio that previously ran windows 7 with 6gb ram.

Thank you to everyone who answers :D

I just tried to contact Microsoft customer support for an issue that I was having refreshing my OS.

1. I talked to online support. When I click the 'I prefer to talk by phone' button the woman told me that her 'phone was broken.' Every time I asked a question, she said 'please hold.' This went on five or six times, until eventually (while holding for her) she said "You have not messaged me in several minutes so I am going to have to end this seesion now. I'm glad that I could be of help!"

2. I called 1-800-microsoft. The first gentleman hung up on me 'accidentally' I'm sure. The second man recommended that I take coursework on using Windows 8 and that there "could obviously not be a problem with my OS" since "MS never releases a faulty product." After I told him that I would prefer speak to someone else and asked if he could please give me my case number he said "no." I asked why and he said "because I don't feel like it." (I'm taking this to mean that he didn't know anything about the issue and did not want me to complain).

I spent over three hours trying to resolve one issue with a string of customer service people who were uninformed, rude, and obviously just trying to skirt their duties. I'm now backing up my hard drive because I'm just going to reinstall windows 8 entirely rather than try to deal with MS customer support again. It's also made me definitely not want to invest in other windows products.

Has anyone had any good experience with anyone who works there? Bad experiences? I simply can't believe that it was bad luck that I got so many people who were literally trying to collect a paycheck without actually doing anything.

I found the following list of updates to deinstall on Win7 or Win8 if you want to avoid telemetry. Should I add more?

wusa /uninstall /KB:2505438 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /KB:2976978 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /KB:3035583 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3068708 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3075249 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3080149 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:2976978 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3021917 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:2952664 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:2990214 /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3044374 /norestart

Note: not all of these are used on Win8

That purple on metro is ugly. The default should be the blue to its right. What sucks is even if you change it, you get the purple color in html5 videos. The desktop also needs a new color, preferably the darker hue of blue that I just suggested for metro. And please change that default wallpaper, Microsoft.

FYI, I know you can change colors, but that's irrelevant. A product is its default settings.

How do I get rid of it? I don't even know how I'm activating it/making it pop out, but all it does is get in way. /ragequit

Thanks!

A bit drunk in my hotelroom, and english isn't first language so apologies for that ;)

But please... This isn't about your very important personal need for the start menu - this is about the evolvement of computing. And apparently if you were in charge, we wouldn't go anywhere.

Microsoft has been the leader on the software market for 20 something years. They made the first wide spread home computer coding language, and have dominated the market ever since - from DOS to Win7, and by that defined the personal computer as we (and you) know it today. You might not like it (although enough so that you miss your start menu), but that's how the cookie crumbled.

Apple did commercialise the use of a graphical interface and mouse in the eighties. They have a reputation for very stable computers (which shouldn't be that hard when you only ship with designated hardware - compared to an OS that functions on literally thousands of different combinations of hardware) but reputation is getting stained as their userbase is getting bigger. More users means more stupid - meaning more problems.

Besides this, and good GUIs the most important thing Apple did - excluding a grand marketing scheme (sheeple) - was introducing the iphone, and making mobile computing widespread.

But they haven't evolved the interface since 2007, and I'm afraid the whole "right decision" about splitting OS' is as much a fright of losing users, as a decision to do it right. Apple is dumbing down - and that doesn't evolve anything! The one person who made the good parts of Apples contributions happen, isn't around anymore (R.I.P), and Apple isn't even close to domination on the software market... So who do you think are still gonna keep the ball rolling?

Everybody was bitching when Microsoft introduced the startmenu, and now you are bitching when they take it away?!

It might not be perfect in its present state, but if (what seems likely) mobile computing is the future, making an all round OS sounds like a pretty good Idea.

You might not like it right now, and wants everybody to hear about it - but you will conform.

And if you, and others, don't, then maybe Linux or other solutions will get a chance. Thats fine... But either way - the future is here. Please get used to it.

TL;DR: The only reason you are whining is because Microsoft made you... And you will be whining again in, hopefully less than, ten years time.

I really tried to enjoy Win8.

I wasn't planning on upgrading but came across a cheap copy of it a Staples on launch day and figured, "It's only $50, that doesn't sound so bad." After an easy upgrade I was running Win8 on my laptop. I was obsessed for the first few days configuring the Metro UI and frustrated that we couldn't create our own tiles. "Oh well, I'm sure it will get better as more people start to integrate with Win8." I still feel that way, and I believe that it's one of the largest mistakes that Microsoft did with Win8; I can't fully make it feel like my own and make my shortcuts it look great to match with the other apps that it looks really bad.

But after more than a month using it, I just skip the Metro UI completely. It's just another step of trying to get open programs that i don't have pinned on my taskbar. Yes, typing in a few letters of the program name is cool, but it doesn't scream "awesome". It feels like it's two OS trying to fight each other on how you should use the computer. I have a iPad and iPhone, so I'm used to apps, but I never used them on Win8.

This isn't to say that I believe that Win8 is a failure, it just doesn't feel like it was completed. It's very easy to see that this is a stepping stone to Win9 but like Vista was to Win7. I don't have a touchscreen and I can imagine that might help with the Metro experience, but then it's just a different OS then. I continue to trip over small things still a month later that slows me down and makes me sigh. I haven't recommended this to anyone who isn't a power user, and even then I tell them about the short comings.

I've followed this subreddit ever since I installed Win8 hoping that it would help me. I learned some things here, and you've been great (I've been a silent member, not an active one). I wish you all good luck, and thanks for letting me tag along for the ride. It's now time for me to depart.

TL;DR I never meshed with Win8. It had some fancy tricks, but I still stumbled around with it too much while using it.