• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Windows 8 / RT |OT|

Alx

Member
You know what you never do on a touchscreen? Swipe to get somewhere. You simply touch. But on a touchpad/mouse you move the cursor. Sometimes to the right, because you want to point somewhere to the right. Which means switching applications by swiping in that case is a fucking stupid idea to do.

Aren't you having it backwards ? Swiping on a touch screen is something you do all the time : change page on a reader, change screen, scroll in any direction... it's supposed to be natural because it's the same motion and context as turning pages on a book.
And I don't think windows 8 handles the mouse like a touch screen, a motion of the pointer wouldn't be registered as a swipe.
 
Problem is that Metro in Windows 8 is handling a mouse/touchpad like a touchscreen.

You know what you never do on a touchscreen? Swipe to get somewhere. You simply touch. But on a touchpad/mouse you move the cursor. Sometimes to the right, because you want to point somewhere to the right. Which means switching applications by swiping in that case is a fucking stupid idea to do.

You don't swipe on a touchscreen?

I'VE BEEN LIVING A LIE
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Problem is that Metro in Windows 8 is handling a mouse/touchpad like a touchscreen.

You know what you never do on a touchscreen? Swipe to get somewhere. You simply touch. But on a touchpad/mouse you move the cursor. Sometimes to the right, because you want to point somewhere to the right. Which means switching applications by swiping in that case is a fucking stupid idea to do.
have you used windows 8? You don't swipe with the mouse. The mouse actions in windows 8 are totally different than the touch actions. To switch applications you click in the top left or use alt tab/win tab.
 

venne

Member
Problem is that Metro in Windows 8 is handling a mouse/touchpad like a touchscreen.

You know what you never do on a touchscreen? Swipe to get somewhere. You simply touch. But on a touchpad/mouse you move the cursor. Sometimes to the right, because you want to point somewhere to the right. Which means switching applications by swiping in that case is a fucking stupid idea to do.

Alt + tab
 

Alx

Member

The ellipsis icon is an interesting idea... but I don't approve its suggested use, with a small bar stretching across the whole screen. The main appeal of the Metro style (and one of its design rules IIRC) is its full-screen orientation, hiding everything that is seldom used. A permanent bar, even thin, is a loss of space. But having a translucent icon in a corner meaning that "something is hidden there", why not.

Although it won't make so much sense if all applications have "something hidden there" as a general rule. It's true that it may not be intuitive to "swipe up" to look for additional options, like it's not really intuitive to right click in a window for the same purpose, but the latter became natural once everybody got used to it.
Why should right click mean contextual menu, double click mean open/launch, or middle click mean "paste highlighted content" (for linux users) ? It's just an arbitrary rule, that you have to get used to, and that will become second nature with time.
 

jagowar

Member
The ellipsis icon is an interesting idea... but I don't approve its suggested use, with a small bar stretching across the whole screen. The main appeal of the Metro style (and one of its design rules IIRC) is its full-screen orientation, hiding everything that is seldom used. A permanent bar, even thin, is a loss of space. But having a translucent icon in a corner meaning that "something is hidden there", why not.

Although it won't make so much sense if all applications have "something hidden there" as a general rule. It's true that it may not be intuitive to "swipe up" to look for additional options, like it's not really intuitive to right click in a window for the same purpose, but the latter became natural once everybody got used to it.
Why should right click mean contextual menu, double click mean open/launch, or middle click mean "paste highlighted content" (for linux users) ? It's just an arbitrary rule, that you have to get used to, and that will become second nature with time.

Agreed.... also if you go this route you would have to have visible bars on all 4 edges since there is stuff on each edge. Even just the top and bottom would get annoying. I think the current system is the best and will just require a painful transition until people know what is there.

To me the bigger issue is how some apps use the hidden bars and some try to put the UI in the app. They need to go one way or the other imo. I still think what will end up being the best is using the top and bottom bar and then leverage the circle for contextual things inside the app. Onenote to me is the ultimate UI and how I hope to see everything done.
 

Jzero

Member
The popular iOS games "Where's My Water" and "Where's My Perry" have been added to the Windows 8 Store and are free for a limited time.

They are buggy as hell though so i would just install and delete them so you can download it when it's not so buggy.
 

JaggedSac

Member
The popular iOS games "Where's My Water" and "Where's My Perry" have been added to the Windows 8 Store and are free for a limited time.

They are buggy as hell though so i would just install and delete them so you can download it when it's not so buggy.

Cool thanks.
 

SPDIF

Member
The popular iOS games "Where's My Water" and "Where's My Perry" have been added to the Windows 8 Store and are free for a limited time.

They are buggy as hell though so i would just install and delete them so you can download it when it's not so buggy.

Weird. Where's My Water runs fine on my Surface
 

PaulLFC

Member
Quoting myself from the other thread in the hope that someone's found a way around this "issue" (shit design) - from what I've read elsewhere I don't think there's any way around it, means I've had to go back to one display for now:

Windows 8's handling of multiple displays is garbage. It refuses to take any notice of the "make this my main display" setting for my monitor (DVI), instead deciding it knows my setup better than me, and defaults the TV (HDMI, used mainly for Netflix) as the main display.

This causes no end of problems that would be avoided if it actually bothered taking any notice of the settings I've told it to use. I don't particularly need the TV if I'm not using the second screen, so the sensible thing would be to turn it off - except, I can't do that, because Windows 8 gets confused at the mess it's created for itself, turns off my monitor for a few seconds while it figures itself out, then continues to treat the TV as if it's still in use even though it's turned off. It will still open some windows, and, most annoyingly, UAC prompts, on the now-switched-off screen, meaning I have to switch it on to do anything.

Just today, I turned on the PC and monitor, and the BIOS screen and Windows 8 loading screens appeared fine on the monitor - then, it presented me with a blank screen and no logon prompt. So I restarted a few times, same outcome. Time to boot into safe mode to see what's going on, I thought. Restart, hit F8, nothing happens. Read on phone that it's changed to Shift+F8 for no apparent reason. Restart, shift+F8, nothing.

Start to contemplate that I might have to reinstall when I turn on the TV - initially to go on the PS3, only to see the welcome screen pop up - the TV being off had prevented the logon screen from showing on my monitor, all because of Windows 8's stupid implementation of multiple monitors.

Just now Win 8 has completely ignored the "only display on this screen (the monitor)" setting - I turned off the TV (which, by that setting, shouldn't even have been in use) - the monitor went blank, came back on and all my taskbar buttons were there but the windows weren't - presumably they opened on the TV. So I go to display settings - same result, can't see it on my monitor until I physically unplug the HDMI cable from the TV. Unbelievably poor design.
 

jimi_dini

Member
have you used windows 8? You don't swipe with the mouse. The mouse actions in windows 8 are totally different than the touch actions. To switch applications you click in the top left or use alt tab/win tab.

Mouse/touchpad "swipes" are detected as swipes (sometimes). That's one of the broken things in Windows 8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo

I see what their idea was: use any input device and the OS behaves "the same". But the one thinking this up didn't think it through. I mean the whole Metro is designed for touchscreen, not for mouse/touchpad nor keyboard.

You don't swipe on a touchscreen?

I'VE BEEN LIVING A LIE

No. I meant you swipe for those special actions. But besides that you don't swipe. That's why swiping on a touchscreen works. Because you don't need to do it besides those special actions. If you want to "click somewhere" you will touch where you want to "click". You don't have to move a cursor. But using a touchpad/mouse you are doing exactly that. That's why trying to detect "swipes" using those input devices is stupid, because the OS can't know, if the user meant to move the mouse-cursor or if he meant to do a swipe action. Which means it's a guessing game.
 
Quoting myself from the other thread in the hope that someone's found a way around this "issue" (shit design) - from what I've read elsewhere I don't think there's any way around it, means I've had to go back to one display for now:



Just now Win 8 has completely ignored the "only display on this screen (the monitor)" setting - I turned off the TV (which, by that setting, shouldn't even have been in use) - the monitor went blank, came back on and all my taskbar buttons were there but the windows weren't - presumably they opened on the TV. So I go to display settings - same result, can't see it on my monitor until I physically unplug the HDMI cable from the TV. Unbelievably poor design.

Check your graphics card settings application.

I have the exact same setup as you, use DVI for my main monitor and I occassionally plug in my TV via HDMI. Zero problems for me. It keeps my DVI monitor as my main which is why I don't think it's Windows but your graphics card settings overriding Windows settings.

As a helpful tip, use Winkey + P to switch settings for multiple monitors (from extend, duplicate, and viewing only on the different monitors). When I plug in my TV, it uses the same settings I used last time (for me, I use extend).
 

JaggedSac

Member
Mouse/touchpad "swipes" are detected as swipes (sometimes). That's one of the broken things in Windows 8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo

I see what their idea was: use any input device and the OS behaves "the same". But the one thinking this up didn't think it through. I mean the whole Metro is designed for touchscreen, not for mouse/touchpad nor keyboard.



No. I meant you swipe for those special actions. But besides that you don't swipe. That's why swiping on a touchscreen works. Because you don't need to do it besides those special actions. If you want to "click somewhere" you will touch where you want to "click". You don't have to move a cursor. But using a touchpad/mouse you are doing exactly that. That's why trying to detect "swipes" using those input devices is stupid, because the OS can't know, if the user meant to move the mouse-cursor or if he meant to do a swipe action. Which means it's a guessing game.

Touchpad gestures are very nice to have. Not sure what you are referring to in regards to mouse movement being interpreted as swipes though. Charms bar or left bar corner and then up gestures?
 

jimi_dini

Member
Touchpad gestures are very nice to have.

Hell no. Because it's not consistent.
Even having "tap slightly" on the touchpad being interpreted as single click is annoying. Because sometimes you just want to move the mouse-cursor a tiny bit and then let go. Computer assumes you wanted to click.

Not sure what you are referring to in regards to mouse movement being interpreted as swipes though. Charms bar or left bar corner and then up gestures?

Watch the video that I linked to.
 

SPDIF

Member
Mouse/touchpad "swipes" are detected as swipes (sometimes). That's one of the broken things in Windows 8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo



No. I meant you swipe for those special actions. But besides that you don't swipe. That's why swiping on a touchscreen works. Because you don't need to do it besides those special actions. If you want to "click somewhere" you will touch where you want to "click". You don't have to move a cursor. But using a touchpad/mouse you are doing exactly that. That's why trying to detect "swipes" using those input devices is stupid, because the OS can't know, if the user meant to move the mouse-cursor or if he meant to do a swipe action. Which means it's a guessing game.

I don't know what laptop/touchpad that guy is using, but clearly he either has some bad driver installed for the touchpad, or he's somehow using the touchpad incorrectly if that's even possible. Most of my time spent using Windows 8 has been on my laptop, and I've never had the same issue he's having.

At first I was wondering why the weather app was constantly popping up, but after he talked about the touchpad thing, it made sense. On touch screens swiping in from the edge of the left bezel switches between apps, doing the same swiping gesture on a touchpad has the same effect.

There has to be a problem with the touchpad and the way it's communicating gestures to Windows here, since Windows 8 definitely does not detect a typical touchpad swiping movement as a swiping gesture.
 

JaggedSac

Member
Just started watching the video and am picturing this guy as the one talking, lol:

Wallace-Shawn-Vizzini-The-Princess-Bride-2.jpg

Yeah, that guy is retarded. Did u just watch that video without actually using Win 8 and come in here and proclaim something broken?
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
alright I made it about 8 minutes into the video before I had to shut it down. Anyway, what he is talking about is touchpad gestures which are made to mimic touch gestures. This is not normal mouse or touchpad movement. With the mouse to change applications, you move your mouse to the top left and click. It goes back to the previous application. If you want to open up the task switcher you move the mouse to the top left or bottom right and move up/down. The only gesture that I know of for the mouse is just dragging down to close applications and that is only if you want to actually close them for good. Windows 8 metro applications are like iOS applications, they suspend in RAM after a short time to all you want to do is go back to the start screen. Start Screen = Home Screen. Windows key = iOS Home Button. (windows key = keyboard button, bottom left click, or the charms bar windows button)

Here are the touchpad gestures that are in windows 8:
Pinch zoom. You can pinch (and “reverse pinch”) on the trackpad surface to zoom in compatible apps and experiences, such as a photo you’re viewing in the Photos app.

Pan and scroll. You can use two fingers to pan and scroll. To pan, which is basically a horizontal scrolling (typical for multi-screen Metro-style experiences, including the Start screen), you drag two fingers from left to right (or vice versa) across the surface of the trackpad. Scrolling works as it does today: You drag two fingers up and down on the trackpad surface.

Charms. To display the Charms, you slide in on the trackpad surface from the right edge of the trackpad.

Switcher. To access the new Switcher interface, you slide in on the trackpad surface from the left edge of the trackpad.

App bar. To display an app’s (or the Start screen’s) app bar, you slide in on the trackpad surface from the top edge of the trackpad.

Rotate. An uncommon gesture (and it could be disabled by default), this lets you use two fingers to rotate an onscreen display, such as you might want to do in an image editing solution.

http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-8-tip-use-trackpad-multi-touch-gestures
Then on top of that 3rd parties can also create gestures.

Now the way a mouse, trackpad or keyboard would do those gestures are like this:

Pinch Zoom

Mouse/Touchpad by itself = click the minus button in the bottom right of the screen.

Keyboard = ctrl + minus/plus keyboard key

Mouse Wheel + Keyboard = ctrl + mouse wheel

Pan and scroll

Mouse/Touchpad:

  • Select the scroll bar at the bottom of the screen.
  • Use the Mouse Wheel. (on a touchpad, many have scroll bars on the touchpad so it does the same thing)
  • Put your mouse toward the edge of the screen and it will slowly scroll (I believe this might just be for touchpads)

Keyboard - arrow keys, home/end, page up/down

Charms

Mouse/Touchpad - Move your mouse cursor to the lower right or top right corner then move up/down.

Keyboard - win+c

Switcher

Mouse/Touchpad - move mouse to top left and click to change to previous application. Move mouse to top/bottom right and move up/down to open up the task switcher.

Keyboard - Win+Tab opens up the new task switcher. Alt+tab opens up the same stuff as before.

App bar

Mouse/Touchpad - right click

Keyboard - win+z

Rotate

this is something I don't think you can do easily with a mouse or keyboard.

useful links:

Windows 8 in 4 minutes

Windows 8 How-To

Keyboard Shortcuts

EightForums Tutorials
 

Cyrillus

Member
Mouse/touchpad "swipes" are detected as swipes (sometimes). That's one of the broken things in Windows 8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo

I see what their idea was: use any input device and the OS behaves "the same". But the one thinking this up didn't think it through. I mean the whole Metro is designed for touchscreen, not for mouse/touchpad nor keyboard.



No. I meant you swipe for those special actions. But besides that you don't swipe. That's why swiping on a touchscreen works. Because you don't need to do it besides those special actions. If you want to "click somewhere" you will touch where you want to "click". You don't have to move a cursor. But using a touchpad/mouse you are doing exactly that. That's why trying to detect "swipes" using those input devices is stupid, because the OS can't know, if the user meant to move the mouse-cursor or if he meant to do a swipe action. Which means it's a guessing game.
"Less user friendly than DOS." ...and I'm done with that video.
 

Lynn616

Member
Problem is that Metro in Windows 8 is handling a mouse/touchpad like a touchscreen.

You know what you never do on a touchscreen? Swipe to get somewhere. You simply touch. But on a touchpad/mouse you move the cursor. Sometimes to the right, because you want to point somewhere to the right. Which means switching applications by swiping in that case is a fucking stupid idea to do.

Do you have Windows 8? I have been using it for months and none of what you describe has ever happened.

Did u just watch that video without actually using Win 8 and come in here and proclaim something broken?

That is what I want to know. Very weird to come in here and declare Windows 8 broken without ever using it. Funny thing is the video is complete inaccurate.
 

Mr_Zombie

Member
The popular iOS games "Where's My Water" and "Where's My Perry" have been added to the Windows 8 Store and are free for a limited time.

They are buggy as hell though so i would just install and delete them so you can download it when it's not so buggy.

Where's My Perry is really buggy. I start it, see the loading screen... *bam*, it returns to the Windows start screen. Try it again - and again it returns to the start screen. Shouldn't the certification process detect such things?
 

Mr_Zombie

Member
Mouse/touchpad "swipes" are detected as swipes (sometimes). That's one of the broken things in Windows 8.

I've been using the system for a year now (since the release of Developer Preview) on my notebook and since then I've used about one hundred apps. My primary control device is a touchpad and not even once moving around the touchpad was registered as swipe. My mom has a notebook with multitouch touchpad that detects gestures and even then in order to do the swipe motion you have to use two fingers.
 

venne

Member
Hell no. Because it's not consistent.
Even having "tap slightly" on the touchpad being interpreted as single click is annoying. Because sometimes you just want to move the mouse-cursor a tiny bit and then let go. Computer assumes you wanted to click.

I have an option to switch that off on my touchpad.
 

Pooya

Member
ilomilo is pretty good, probably the only worthwhile game on the store right now. but there is no graphic options in the game, looks like it's running at lower resolution than my monitor right now with some jaggies, how do I change it? :|

edit: there is a resolution option actually, but only has low, medium, high options, high seems to be 1080p, but jaggies still, I guess I have to force it via nvidia.

How to download Tinker? I searched and it comes up as a... xbox 360 game on game app, the game isn't even on 360 lol.
 
Just finished the install on my desktop!

Feels bad having to google "how to restart windows 8" and "how to open notepad in Windows 8".

Feels really bad. Outside of installing Start8 or whatever it's called to bring back the normal start button, is there a way to access apps like Notepad outside of having to do:

Windows key --> mouse to top right --> search --> "notepad"

?

I know I can pin it after doing that, but I didn't really want it pinned. Seems hella obtuse.

Also, why the FUCK is the reboot button hidden in the settings submenu??? Why not put it in line with the other options that appear when you mouse over to the right corner?

I'll be fine once I get most of my stuff pinned to the task bar, but I have to admit that I'm not feeling a lot of these UI design decisions.
 

dLMN8R

Member
Also, why the FUCK is the reboot button hidden in the settings submenu??? Why not put it in line with the other options that appear when you mouse over to the right corner?

Why the heck would you ever want to put a button in a prominent place that could be easily mis-clicked resulting in unintentional data loss? Especially when in the vast majority of cases people don't actually need to restart for anything except to finish installing updates once a month?
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Just finished the install on my desktop!

Feels bad having to google "how to restart windows 8" and "how to open notepad in Windows 8".

Feels really bad. Outside of installing Start8 or whatever it's called to bring back the normal start button, is there a way to access apps like Notepad outside of having to do:

Windows key --> mouse to top right --> search --> "notepad"

?

I know I can pin it after doing that, but I didn't really want it pinned. Seems hella obtuse.

Also, why the FUCK is the reboot button hidden in the settings submenu??? Why not put it in line with the other options that appear when you mouse over to the right corner?

I'll be fine once I get most of my stuff pinned to the task bar, but I have to admit that I'm not feeling a lot of these UI design decisions.
win key + "no" + enter
 

f0lken

Member
Just finished the install on my desktop!

Feels bad having to google "how to restart windows 8" and "how to open notepad in Windows 8".

Feels really bad. Outside of installing Start8 or whatever it's called to bring back the normal start button, is there a way to access apps like Notepad outside of having to do:

Windows key --> mouse to top right --> search --> "notepad"

?

I know I can pin it after doing that, but I didn't really want it pinned. Seems hella obtuse.

Also, why the FUCK is the reboot button hidden in the settings submenu??? Why not put it in line with the other options that appear when you mouse over to the right corner?

I'll be fine once I get most of my stuff pinned to the task bar, but I have to admit that I'm not feeling a lot of these UI design decisions.

You don't need to do that, just start typing, and you can right click in the start screen and click in "all apps" in the bar below
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Paul's on a streak
this should have been there day one
fix8-shutdown.jpg
yep. that was the first place I looked for a shutdown button to be honest.

edit: thinking about it a little more though. they probably wanted the power button to be accessed from anywhere in the OS. The charms bar allows for that, putting it in the profile picture does not. Although I do think it should be added.
 

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
edit: thinking about it a little more though. they probably wanted the power button to be accessed from anywhere in the OS. The charms bar allows for that, putting it in the profile picture does not. Although I do think it should be added.

I agree it should be accessible from both. at the start screen its the most obvious way to get there.
From other screens the charm bar gives another option
 

Razdek

Banned
Why the heck would you ever want to put a button in a prominent place that could be easily mis-clicked resulting in unintentional data loss? Especially when in the vast majority of cases people don't actually need to restart for anything except to finish installing updates once a month?

People need to restart when they install software and when Windows starts to act wonky so it's more than once a month. Well for me anyways.
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Why the heck would you ever want to put a button in a prominent place that could be easily mis-clicked resulting in unintentional data loss? Especially when in the vast majority of cases people don't actually need to restart for anything except to finish installing updates once a month?

dLMN8R ignore that guy. (Dreams, if you want a restart button, you could create a shortcut to shutdown.exe and pin it to start.)

Focus on removing Run Admin in Admin Approval Mode as a requirement for Modern API. It's a deal breaker for development. Cannot use subst and other commands in Admin because that's not my admin account. Various applications error out with shell execution errors and other file ownership weirdness. Push comes to shove in development world, people are either going to stick with Win7 or just not use modern API at all with that policy disabled. Yes, maybe we shouldn't need these tools to use these commands, but that boundary isn't just current stuff but infrastructural tools that have been around since the 1990s.

Also auto-update store apps.

I'd also like a way to either disable charms from gestures, or a way to change the gesture to require a complete top right corner (top to right corner, then down) because by default it gets triggered way too often from going to Minimize/Maximize/Exit and scroll-bar. For desktop I'm completely okay with just Win+C to get to charms as an option, though I get the gesture being a default.
 
I don't know where to ask, but is there a free way to display on a live tile the current disk usage on the hard drive? I want to be able to see at a glance if I have 30% or 60% of free space left on my hard drive. Also, it is certainly weird that you had to download a clock app in order to have the time. I guess it was just a way to get you to sign up for an account.
 
Top Bottom