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Hi - New UK Pro User

OP
T

T3Jn

New Member
Firstly - welcome, you're going to love the Pro!

One question about your original post - you said that you went back to Win7 because Win8 was no good on a multiscreen Desktop - I'll been running win8 Pro for the last 3-4 Months using twin Dell 24" Monitors and it's superb. What was it that you didn't like about the multimonitor handling?

It really depends on what you are doing and how you use the system. I am a software developer, I have a 30", 2 x 24" dell displays and a Precision 6700m all running. On 2 screens I will have multiple instances of Visual Studio, each instance also supports multi screen. On another I will have SQL Server and on the final the application being developed and communication (email, skype, lync, etc), plus a few browsers for research, code examples, etc.

People talk about multi tasking, but that's switching between applications or using a couple at a time. Developers really do multi task applications and have to jump in and out of many other utilities and run additional instances of software. The start menu allows you to Win + R and start typing what you want, now I know the new start screen works the same, but the second you get the full screen start menu your concentration is completely thrown, you lose all your code, etc. The old start menu is unobtrusive.

Then on top of this you'll suddenly be thrown into an metro app to view something like a PDF, an image, lync or skype (even mail/calendar if you are using the built in programs) and you've lost a screen (rather than having a little floating window). You can install the Desktop version of these applications to avoid this, but that just adds to the "whats the point of having the metro".

Additionally using the mouse to get perfectly into the corners of the screen is a nightmare on multi screen setup where resolutions/screen size/orientation are not the same.

There are huge arguments everywhere about this, everyone's opinions are valid, but it really depends on what you do. It is getting a bit tiresome on this forum, people need to appreciate that others use their computers differently.

I have said many times here the Metro/Win8 is awesome on the surface/phone, but sucks for a multi screen development environment where touch is absolutely pointless (excuse the pun). I work with a large number of very experienced developers all using MS tools across the board and I've not come across a single person who disagrees and as a whole we all love a) using new technology and b) love writing software in new technology/for new technology. I imagine a dev who works in a single application probably won't mind... but that's not very common these days if you are using the MS stack.

TBH as I know MS are doing a massive U-Turn on this I have installed StartIsBack/Start8 to get over most of my gripes and stuck with Win8, just waiting for Windows Blue, I'll be able to get the beta as soon as it's available so will be interesting.
 
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