1581

Live tiles only make sense as a data source when the start screen functions as your “home” page. So they make sense on phones and tablets, but on a desktop PC, the desktop is your home. Pretty much the only time most people will see the start screen is when they’re launching a program, and they won’t be hanging around to gawk at live tiles.

1582

Which, in my mind, makes them an improvement over the omnipresent widgets that Vista started with.

Personally, I always liked the fact that OSX segregated their widgets to their own virtual desktop. And live tiles on the start screen functions in much the same way.

1583

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but in 8.1 you can shutdown/restart/sleep by right-clicking the start button.

I know, not discoverable. Just saying that once you know it’s there, it makes it really easy.

1584

Yep, not discoverable, but it is an improvement. Rightclicking on the start button will be easier than rightclicking on the bottom-left hot-corner, too, particularly if you have another monitor to the left.

I really don’t see why they don’t just put the settings cog and power icons from the charms panel in the bottom right of the start screen where they obviously belong.

1585

Because having a persistent icon on the screen that performs actions that most people do extremely rarely, and that overlaps with tiles on a screen that’s supposed to be completely personal, is both unnecessary and ugly clutter.

1586

We have a fundamental disagreement there.

1587

I know, we already have a fundamental disagreement on how to solve discoverability :-)

You like putting more and more buttons everywhere. I’m of the belief that a little lack of discoverability is OK in the name of a clean interface, as long as the design is consistent with the rest of the system, making the actions easy enough to repeat after learning them (even if it takes a little 3rd-party help to learn)

1588

“More and more buttons everywhere” is a straw man attack. I just think that everything should be discoverable. The charms bar is not, using a mouse+keyboard.

1589

The 8.1 improvements seem to be relegated to Metro, which AFAIK no one ever uses. Are there any metrics suggesting people actually use these apps if they can make a conscious choice?

One of my co-workers just took an early-retirement. She bought a Dell all-in-one Windows 8 PC. She’s called me many times asking me how to get out of programs (the default image and PDF viewers are Metro apps). She couldn’t stand not having the ‘X’ to close the app. Finally, I slapped classic shell on there and she’s much happier. Of course, Metro essentially doesn’t exist for the remainder of this computers life.

1590

I would use some of them, if they could work in a window. Unfortunately, there are only two programs to make that happen, retroui (which sucks and isn’t free) and stardock’s modernmix (which isn’t free), and I don’t care enough to pay for it. I’d like to use the netflix modern app in particular, as it’s much ligher than silverlight in a browser.

There are some minor desktop improvements in 8.1. The video LMN8R posted on the previous page shows new settings for the hot corners-- it looks like you can just plain turn them off. I plan to disable the charms bar upper right (which interferes with closing windows) and upper-left modern multitasking (which is useless when I can just alt-tab) hotcorners immediately. I’ll use the new right-click on the start button functionality for shutdown/restart.

1591

Interesting. I wonder if she’d similarly call you about being “trapped” in an iPad full screen app.

Home button, etc.

1592

The only really bad one is search. That should NEVER be buried behind a gesture. Ever. Is there anything else in the charms bar we give a crap about, really?

I have NEVER used “devices” or “share” for anything, EVER. And Settings is pretty easy to get to other ways.

Fix that stuff first before worrying about hiding stuff.

1593

That happens to old people all. the. time. It’s the twenty first century equivalent to “I’ve fallen and I cant’ get up!” The man who creates an equivalent web servicefor them will make a fortune.

1594

Shutdown and reboot.

1595

Does an iPad offer a mouse and keyboard?

1596

I dunno about that. I discover it every time my mouse gets near the damn corners screen…

1597

Never do either one of those, really. Statistically speaking.

1598

I always preferred desktop icons to the Start menu anyway, so it’s no biggie for me. I may be old, but I can still remember how to set up a shortcut :).

1599

I sleep or shutdown my desktop PC almost everyday after I use them, well to save electricity (I’m old school) and so I use these two all the time and find it irritating that I have to jiggle my mouse near the right corner of the screen for the Charms to appear. I definitely wish it is in the Start menu.

1600

ctrl+alt+del, then click the power icon in the lower right.

My PC’s power button sleeps my PC, I usually use that.