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Do you use Metro or Desktop?

Do you use metro or desktop


  • Total voters
    43

Liam2349

Active Member
In term time at uni, I use desktop mostly. Right now in my down time, it's 90% metro - just browsing really.

Next semester I'll be trying to make use of Flashcards Pro though so hopefully it will be a good Metro tool for helping me to learn all my equations and stuff.
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
One huge thing to consider, MUI Applications allow for better battery life than Win32 Applications....
 

Arizona Willie

Active Member
Depends on what I'm doing. I use Metro and IE11 when posting on most sites that use the Facebook verification system, but for most other things I go to the desktop. But I also am using the Reader app in Metro mode for reading and Free Sudoku, also in Metro mode.

So, overall, I'd says it's about 50/50. I don't understand the big deal ... all you have to do to switch modes is touch the Icon. They have added a Start button back in with Windows 8.1 for those who can't figure out how to live without one. I'm surprised they don't complain that there isn't a Stop button as well.

Overall, I'm quite happy with Windows 8.1 and don't really care if they bring out Windows 9 or not. I can do everything I need to do now.

However, that being said, I hope they include that Cortana helper thing in Windows 9 --- that would be great.
 
You've opened a can of worms here, lol.

I originally detested the MUI and used desktop exclusively.

This wasn't for lack of trying. I liked the idea of the MUI but I just felt my hands were tied too often.. for example, whenever I wanted to configure some behavior I sat there staring at the screen wondering where the hell to find the option - or if the option even existed. Often it didn't. If the option did exist, maybe it's accessed from swiping the top of the app, or maybe the bottom, or maybe Win+Z or Win+I.. or??? It was hard to tell.

At least with the old style apps you knew that if the app could do something, it was under a menu option. You might have to look through every menu but at least you know you were in the right spot and the option wasn't hiding behind some swipe gesture that was not obvious or consistent. Microsoft must address the "hidden options" problem. Either put a button on every app that somehow leads to all its options, or consistently force one swiping gesture to access all the apps options.

Now, having said that, now that I have my Sp3 I find myself using the MUI much more. When I'm using the SP3 as a tablet, I use MUI apps almost exclusively. I love snapping multiple apps to the screen, and as Frank said, the workflow for some apps is actually better in the MUI.

Here's one case in point that has me dancing in the street: I have the email app opened and click on a link in an email. IE is automatically snapped to half the screen to show me the link and my email is not closed and I don't have to figure out how to get back to my email app. I can just swipe to close IE and my email app returns to taking the whole screen. Nice. Compare this to how it worked on my ipad - click a link in an email and your email app disappears and the browser takes over the screen. When you're done looking at the browser content and want to return to your email, it felt like an unnecessary chore to get back to your email. MS nailed this one.

Also I like the search ability on the start screen and the ability to launch all apps there. It's sort of similar to the new interface that's showing up in a lot of the linux distro's... you can type a few keystrokes to find and launch an app, which is actually often much faster than using icons. Where MS has bungled it is there search is not smart. It only matches exact names, and it doesn't let me assign my own search terms. So if I want to start Oracle's Virtual Box, I can't just type in "vbox", I have to remember some part of the apps' actual name.
 
For my paid work, I use the desktop mostly. This is because the tools aren't there for the MUI. But with the SP3 my workflow has even changed with that. On the SP3 I usually have emails and chat snapped , then I use external monitors for the desktop, meaning I'm rarely 100% desktop-only any more.

When all is said and done, I think the MUI is on to something good and I actually enjoy the process of snapping apps, swiping to get to my most recent app, etc. If we can just stop dumbing-down the new apps, and give the users a consistent , one-swipe gesture to get at any apps' options, I think we will move beyond a lot of people's resistance.

One more thinkg: who the hell does MS invite to be on their usability panels? lol.
 

Nuspieds

Active Member
Without a doubt I spend most of my time in Desktop mode because most of my applications are Desktop apps.

However, I am very sold on the touch interface and the full-screen look & feel of MUI apps. Every opportunity I get, I replace a legacy Desktop app with a MUI equivalent. Slowly but surely the scale is tipping to MUI being my predominant interface.

I look forward to the day when I seldom have to use Desktop mode.
 
Without a doubt I spend most of my time in Desktop mode because most of my applications are Desktop apps.

However, I am very sold on the touch interface and the full-screen look & feel of MUI apps. Every opportunity I get, I replace a legacy Desktop app with a MUI equivalent. Slowly but surely the scale is tipping to MUI being my predominant interface.

I look forward to the day when I seldom have to use Desktop mode.
Well put.
 

wvevie

Member
Desktop. Desktop. Desktop.

The only time I even see Metro is when I click a link that someone has sent me on email. It automatically defaults to Metro IE. I am such a Metro-phobe that I now copy paste those links into desktop IE.

Is there a setting that changes that default?
 

Liam2349

Active Member
Desktop. Desktop. Desktop.

The only time I even see Metro is when I click a link that someone has sent me on email. It automatically defaults to Metro IE. I am such a Metro-phobe that I now copy paste those links into desktop IE.

Is there a setting that changes that default?

I think it's in the settings in IE desktop. I have them open in the desktop on my desktop and Metro on my Surface.
 

mmoran27

Member
Yea Metro is pretty useless in its current state. This is a full PC yet metro apps are so limited and stupid.

There is not one app that approaches the same functionality as desktop apps except for stupid apps. Even OneNote the flagship app is missing most of the functionality of the desktop app.

So yes it is a failure that's why Ballmer and a lot of others are no longer there.

Will they fix it in 9 who knows but possibly, by putting the start menu back and defaulting to the desktop
 
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