Windows 8 - you'll get used to it

With almost every new version of Windows, people complain about this and that and how Microsoft has ruined it. It happened with Windows 95, which was a radical change from Windows 3.1, it happened with Windows XP and people didn't like the new interface, it happened with Vista and lots of people criticised that for various reasons. It is happening with Windows 8.

After a while the complaints all but disappear and looking back at XP for example, it has to be Microsoft's most successful version of Windows. Lots of people are still using it today more than 10 years after it was originally released. Yet it was criticised and people complained about it when it was launched. I read quite an interesting blog post that had lots of examples from way back. I can't remember where it was and it might have been one of Ed Bott's posts, but I don't know which one.

I think that the reason the complaints fade away is because people get used to the new version of Windows. I'm getting used to Windows 8. However, because people stop complaining it doesn't mean that it is better after all and it's not just that we don't like change. Here's an example.

To shut down Windows 7 I click Start and then click Shut Down. I simply click, click and walk away.

To shut down Windows 8 I click my name in the top right corner, click to log off and then sit and wait while it logs off and goes to the lock screen. (A year or two on this will take a lot longer than it does now.) Then I click and drag the lock screen photo out of the way, click the power button and then click shut down. Then I can go.

That's a lot of clicking and waiting and menus and screens, but I'm getting used to it. It's beginning to feel normal now. That's just the way Windows 8 is. It doesn't mean it's better. I miss things in Windows 7, I even miss things in XP that were simpler and quicker. I guess I'll get used to it though.