Spencer.....always the voice of reason......

..........this time, you have no reason.

Agreed.

It is however a shame that they didn't try and preserve some more of the features in 7 that have been a big success; I see this process a lot with the corporate clients I work with. Baby + Bath-water, they always have to go.

1) Aero - I love it and so do lots of people, should let you turn it on in desktop mode. Cruel people.

2) Gadgets - Clock, Cal, Weather and CoreTemp. I am so attached to these, did they really have to die?

3) Start-menu - finally got it just right then dumped it. Say no more.

I will add that there are a lot of very good things under the covers which may not be so obvious. New Driver models. Hyper-V. Disc virtualisation. Fast boot. Storage Spaces (bit like SAN).

You win some, you lose some. 

That for me is a complete waste of time as I do not want or need to merge/sync with anything to or from my desktop, nor do I want to be made to jump through hoops and beg "pretty please" to access a traditional working desktop with the regular functions. 

Now MS could have made the "we're not allowed to call it Metro anymore" UI optional for users such as myself - like NOT having us boot into it by default, and making it off-screen unless required - but did MS think of me and the millions of users worldwide who'll never ever want or need to sync with a confounded a smart phone, pad or laptop halfway across town?  No it didn't... and for mine, it is damned arrogant of MS to foist this Metro crap upon those who neither need or want it in their daily lives.

Worse still, MS' arrogance extends to impeding those who just want a regular PC desktop without the confounding, unnecessarily complicating UI that is Metro.. or WhateverTF they call it these days.  Stardock and others came up with ways to assist users achieve this with 3rd party apps, but MS, with its bully boy tactics, has more or less told users "fuck you, you'll use Windows 8 as we prescribe" and implemented blocking measures to prevent even a measly start button.  Now if that's not arrogance in the 1st degree then I'll eat Jafo's socks [he knows what I mean].

If MS had allowed me to use Win 8 as I do Win 7, with a regular start button and start menu, and booting directly to the desktop, they wouldn't have needed to tempt me with a $39.95 price tag.... I would likely have paid the full asking price for it simply to take advantage of the speed increases it delivers with my new FX8170 CPU.  Now it's a wait and see game, and if I cannot use Win 8 as I do now [ the Release Preview], then they can shove it where the sun don't shine... SIDEWAYS.

I like Windows 8 (with Start8, ex7forw8, or other alternative running in the background) and the proper configurations made. It does improve on SOME features, like copy/paste, which I do a lot of. And it is a faster and generally prettier experience.

HATE THE START SCREEN THOUGH. I need to have 10 programs running to make sure that I never have to see it. Completely all over the place and illogical tile system. A chore to organize.

I do like the Netflix app, which I run in the background, and the music app is nice for having parties with a TV running in the background, and I like getting toaster popups for facebook chat. With the proper fixes, it could be an acceptable HTPC UI or, even better an actual desktop OS. It has decent multimonitor support, and I'm assuming Xbox 360 controller support isn't far off.

The problem with the Start Screen though is that it doesnt improve on the start menu, and even these Metro apps, generally, are worse and harder to use than their desktop counterpart, so who would ever use them? Desktops are about multitasking and uninterruptable, limitless consumption of anything you can find with a google search. Windows can keep the theme of Windows 8, and maybe even the tiles, but Microsoft needs to realize that Desktops and Laptops are NOT tablets. Buttons do NOT need to be 128x128 for me to click on them, and every app on my computer could be viewed in a SINGLE screen without any scrolling necessary.

I recommend Start8 with a few important configurations made, mainly, use the Windows 7 start menu, and enable "Windows Button opens last Metro UI app". Opens up Metro a lot on the desktop, allowing you to quickly jump in and out of a metro app without having to go back and forth through the Start Screen. I find it especially useful for Netflix (or Hulu, or anything of that nature)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2012885/20-must-know-windows-8-tips-and-tricks.html

You'll notice right on the first page of that article that one can quite easily "zoom out" in order to see all available 'apps' on the screen at once and 'grouping of apps' is actually quite easy and logical (I thought).  The list of hotkeys should also prove useful.

There are some other websites with even more indepth and advanced tips 'n tricks but I thought this one quickly touched on two of your noted issues with Win8.

Hope that helps.....

I love the start screen

Oh God, those colors are hideous.  Any way to change them from "Eye-Melting Purple"?

you can change the color for your taste. that was a Christmas shot I've have changed it since.

Never mind the colors, they're square, flat and as exciting as oatmeal to look at.

Oatmeal ain't so bad to look at....if it's round and a cookie.

Windows8 sucks all around.  I have installed it twice and uninstalled twice.

Can I ask how long you attempted to use it for?

For instance, I have installed it as the "daily drivers" for each of my family members.  Of course there was much protest in the first few weeks, that has since not only quieted down but has actually turned into praise for the re-imagined OS and that should say something. 

It does. Win 8 will take some getting used to because its such a radical departure from the norm. I'm not all that keen on it and I have yet to use it. Not for lack of trying though. It was as if my laptop was saying "Get that s**t off me." So I did. I played a little bit with Ubuntu instead. That one is more fun!