[AccessD] Ramblings of a nutcase

I have been the Windows go-to guy for several families and a couple of my
old employers for many years.  I helped a friend buy a new laptop with
Windows 8.0 on it last year.  I swear that I had the most frustrating two
hours of my entire computer career when I turned that thing on and tried to
get it working with Office.  I ended up stuck with full screen windows
many, many times and had to keep re-booting to start again.

I understand now what my problem was - expecting the Metro interface to be
like yet another shallow shell on top of 'real' Windows.  But  for a while
I was shrieking and cursing like never before.  I notice now that my
friend, who is not exactly a power user, switches to the Windows desktop as
soon as she can, and hardly ever uses the Metro interface.

Just as a contrast, I will never forget watching my 90 year old father pick
up my new iPad and instantly figure out,  with no help from me, how to use
it productively.

Doug


On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 1:50 PM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hi Arthur:
>
> I see Windows 8.x as a great user computer...but in a full office
> environment it becomes hard to use.
>
> My thought is, "Why should the system have to be adapted to?", with all
> sorts of third-party apps just so it becomes business friendly. People, in
> an office, need a number of applications open just to do their work...for
> around home and just play, Windows 8.x is great. But then the question has
> to be asked then why not just get an iPad for home use?
>
> Back in the day, when Windows 95 was first introduced, the company I was
> working for, put on a number of training sessions and these training
> sessions were very well attended. We also went from office to office giving
> training in certain programs. Introducing Windows was not a minor
> task...but after a while  people just got-it. Microsoft, in those days,
> gave a number of open conferences for the tech and user community. Again,
> they were well attended. It is amazing how quickly everyone forgets just
> how hard it was introducing the new windows and the new Office. The UI did
> not appear obvious to all but everyone really wanted to learn.
>
> Today it is a similar problem but this time the average user, or anyone
> for that matter, is on their own and must figure out things by themselves.
> What results is that a few figure some way to do something, other figure
> out another way and some just quit as there are many simple alternatives,
> that just work.
>
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Arthur Fuller" <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
> To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <
> accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, 25 February, 2014 12:05:27 PM
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Ramblings of a nutcase
>
> IMHO, you folks are all pussies and refuse to see what's great about
> Windows 8. With the proviso that you download and install ClassicShell
> (google it). This free tool goes a long way toward making Windows 8
> palatable for old-timers. In fact it goes further than that; it's smarter
> and better than the old classic start menu.
>
> Even without this wonderful tool, there are a few key things you can do to
> smarten up your startup tile UI: most notably, you can drag the tiles into
> an arrangement of your choice, and also create groups of tiles containing
> associated programs (i.e. a Media group, a SQL group, etc. And most
> significantly, you can drag your most frequently-visited programs to the
> top left of the tile groups. In my tile setup, the first tile is Desktop. I
> have two monitors and the desktop opens on the large monitor. I also make
> extensive use of the QuickLaunch bar, and the programs soon learn which
> monitor they should load on.
>
> That custom setup accomplished, you are now in a position to see some of
> the startup, performance and memory management advantages of Windows 8.1. I
> can only say that I'd never consider going back to Windows 7. I still have
> a copy of it, but it's on a separate box entirely, and I find myself using
> that box less and less -- just for large downloads and for running Ubuntu
> Linux.
>
> I have one more customization of the Win 8.1 laptop planned. I recently
> read a net piece on how to hook up two external monitors to a laptop.
> That's next. I'll have three monitors, two external and the laptop monitor.
> That will be very cool.
>
> My $0.02.
>
> Arthur
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