Windows 8.1 Complicates Simple Tasks

I have spent the past 2 days trying to get Windows 8.1 usable for my wife. I can't believe people actually use Windows as it is such a pain. I am trying to hold off on installing another operating system on my wife's computer as that will be burning the Windows bridge once I start. Besides, I said I would give Windows a fair chance. Unfortunately Windows 8.1 is not very forgiving when you make mistakes and there are enough variations that trying to get help from the usual Internet sites is really confusing.

I bought a laptop that came with Windows 8.1 pre-installed. That becomes important when trying to figure out problems. It is not Windows 8 nor is it Windows Server 2012. I don't have it connected to a specific domain, which to be honest should be true for most laptops. There are a lot of trolls on forums that assume it is a work computer and provide less than useful advice.

My latest mistake with Windows 8.1 started with user accounts. When you go to set up an account you have the option of a local account or an online account. I originally set up my wife's account as a local account because I think it is pointless to have an online one. Microsoft disagrees with me and strongly recommends the opposite. Why? because they can reset your password in the event that you forget it. They can also keep tabs on you and everything you do. My wife followed their recommendation and changed her local account to an online one and even provided them with her birth-date. When Microsoft gets hacked, as all unhackable sites do, then someone can use that information to help steal my wife's identity. Naturally I removed the online account and that was the mistake. I was sure to set up another administrator account before I did it, but as she was the administrator, it changed a bunch of the default settings. Instead of having a nice piano image when the computer boots, it had a really ugly yellow-rainbowish image that causes epileptic seizures in cats. That ugly image needed to be changed and that was my problem.

Surely I couldn't be the only person who wanted to change the pre-login screen and so I searched the Internet. I checked a number of Microsoft forum pages but they were useless and so I won't even bother to link them. I found one page that shed some light on the issue as well as a number of related issues with Microsoft's latest operating system. If you bother to go through the postings you can see my frustration. In an effort to save you from a lot of reading the string of posts goes something like this:

• I want to change the pre-login screen image
• Here is how to change the lock-screen image
• That is not what I asked
• Here is a link to instructions from Microsoft
• That just tells me how to change the lock-screen image and is not what I asked
• You are a moron, changing the lock-screen image changes the pre-login screen image
• No I'm not a moron, changing the lock-screen image works only if you have one account for your PC, I have multiple and want to know how to change the pre-login screen image.
• Here is a link to instructions from Microsoft on how to do it in Windows Server 2012.
• I'm not running Windows Server 2012, I am running Windows 8.1 on a PERSONAL computer.

The posts go on for quite some time until finally someone actually gives a very convoluted way to do what the original poster asked. Coincidently that was what I was looking for. Other users having the same issue come up with numerous short cuts.

I read through the solutions and found one that seemed reasonable. In the process, I learned that there are a number of hidden directories (e.g. C:\ProgramData) that you can't get to unless you explicitly type it into the File Explorer. Even then there are a number of difficulties as administrators don't have permission to see who owns certain files. You have to change your administrator user to be the owner of files.

I used to belong to the group of people in the world that believed Microsoft knew how to write software. That is no longer the case as I think they over complicate even the simplest of tasks.

Running Something Other Than Windows 8

My wife is fed up with trying to run Windows on her new laptop. I spent some time last weekend playing with it and have to agree that Windows 8 is a giant step backwards in the evolution of operating systems. This week I have spent some time looking at alternatives. There are basically 3 choices when it comes to PC operating systems: Windows, MacOS X, and Linux/Unix. I will be working from home next week and will have more time to devote to my wife's computer and will see what I can get running.

There are a number of tutorials on how to get Windows 8 into a usable state. Just use your favorite search engine and use the following key words: Making Windows 8 Usable. With everyone so dissatisfied, I can't believe it is selling any product.

When you look at a Mac computer from Apple, it uses a lot of the same hardware as a normal Windows PC. Therefore you should be able to run the Mac OS on a carefully assembled PC. You can, and to prove it, there is the Hackintosh website to help you get started. Unfortunately this is more of an option if you are building a desktop as opposed to trying to get it to run on an existing laptop. There are some laptops that work better than others but my wife's model is not among them.

The next option is to throw away Windows and run Linux on the laptop. Unfortunately Linux can be much more difficult to use than Windows. Fortunately there is a UI that is easily installed on Ubuntu Linux that makes it look like a Mac and it is called Macbuntu. I will give that a shot and see if my wife likes that.

I should have an inexpensive laptop that my wife can use by the end of next week. I promise that I will give Windows a fair shake as there are a number of people who think it is awesome (I guarantee you that they are the same people that ate paste in kindergarten but are just grown up now). Look for an update next week.

Another Windows Laptop

My wife has been using one of my old Mac laptops and it is time to get her a new one. We had been looking at another Mac but then I came across a laptop fire sale. I found a name-brand Windows machine with an i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a 750 GB Hybrid hard drive for around $500. I couldn't help but pick one up just to see if my wife could make the switch from Mac to Windows. If not, I have been looking for a new laptop to keep on the boat and so it won't go to waste.

I spent a couple of hours over the weekend setting up the new computer and showing my wife how to navigate around Windows. It reminded me of how much I hate Windows, but I tried not to let it show too much. I told my wife to try and avoid using her old computer and just use the new one. Then I boarded a plane on Monday morning and left her alone with her new toy.

I talked to my wife this evening and the first thing she tried to do was get her e-mail set up. The built-in e-mail program with Windows won't support her e-mail service provider. This is in contrast to her Mac which does quite nicely. Strike one for Windows. Unfortunately, e-mail is the majority of how my wife uses a computer. She has set the new one aside and will wait for me to get home to help set up e-mail. In the mean time, she is back to using her Mac.

My wife says that she wants to continue to try and use the new computer but if I was a betting man, I would bet the boat is getting a new computer and my wife will be looking at the MacBook Air in the very near future.

A Laptop is Not a Tablet

My son was able to solve a number of his problems with Windows 8 today. It turns out that the designers at Microsoft want their users to have the same experience on laptops, tablets, and phones. What a stupid idea. Hopefully Apple never stoops to such a moronic idea.

I thought touchscreens were really cool when they first came out. That lasted about 10 minutes. After that, my screen became so covered with fingerprints and body oils that I came to my senses and realized a mouse or touch pad is a much better interface. Sony figured that out with their PlayStation Vita. In addition to having a touchscreen, the back of the Vita works as a touch pad. Why? They realized that if your finger is on the screen, you might be missing something taking place in the game. Not having your fat finger obscuring your vision very important in first-person shooters.

About as near as I can figure, the guys who came up with the idea that we would all want to treat our laptops the same as our tablets, spent a little too much time sniffing model airplane glue as kids. A touch screen is a compromise in a tablet so you don't have to carry around a mouse. I only hope that the public doesn't try to embrace laptops masquerading as tablet computers. Sure there is a place for tablets, just don't try to make my laptop or desktop computer behave as one.

Windows 8: What Were They Thinking?

My son started playing with his new computer today and loves the hardware. It is not all roses though as this evening he is setting up Windows 8 and I am learning to swear in multiple languages. After living in Romania for 2 years, my son knows how to swear in Romanian, Russian, and Moldovan. Setting up Windows 8 is helping my learning process as there are plenty of opportunities to use such language.

Earlier in my career I worked on Larry Ellison's Network Computer. We basically took NetBSD and wrapped a user friendly interface around it. In the process I worked with our graphics designer and went through countless hours of usability testing. We would sit behind a one-way mirror and watch as users played with our software to do a number of simple computer tasks. We learned a lot in the process and created an award winning user interface. I only wish Microsoft had taken the time to do the same thing with Windows 8.

I don't know how Microsoft let Windows 8 get through any sort of usability testing. As near as I can figure, they wired electrodes to their users and had a plate of cookies on the table. When the users complained about the interface, they received an electric shock. When they appreciated the non-intuitive features of a horribly designed computer interface, they got a cookie. There is no way that anyone would prefer Windows 8 over an abacus.

Here are some examples of why I think only a fool would use Windows 8:

1. If you leave a CD in the drive too long, it won't eject. You have to restart the computer to get the disk out.

2. You have to get updated drivers for your laptop's touch pad in order to use multi-finger scrolling. It doesn't matter which hardware manufacturer you buy the laptop from, they all require the update. Sony, Toshiba, and Lenovo have their drivers posted in their technical support forums on their websites.

3. You have to use the task manager to kill Windows 8 native programs. Who writes a program and doesn't put a quit option in one of the menus? Isn't that part of user interface 101?

The longer I sit here typing my blog, the more examples of Microsoft stupidity are exposed. Unfortunately my son is almost in tears and wants to ditch Windows 8 in favor of Linux. We will probably spend the next couple of nights figuring out a way to run Linux as the primary operating system and Windows 8 in a VM. . . but only as a last resort.