Hi Guys

Last night I spend a couple of hours setting up pre-installed Win8.1 on a new laptop for my son, I must say apart from two items the set-up procedure was the easiest I have ever come across.

However, in use Windows 8.x is a different kettle of fish, I found myself at certain points going around in circles, triggering unwanted functions without pressing any obvious keys or touch pad actioning, etc. There was just no intuitive or logical way of getting what you want when you want, if a particular program or function is needed then it tends to be activated through trial and error rather than straightforward choice.

I definitely believe that Win 8.0 was quickly designed for tablets then had desktop functions slapped on. Why Microsoft could not have designed two separate OS's, one for tablets and the other for desktops but able to communicate with each other, is way beyond me.

In fact, another major problem is that Win 8.x goes out of it's way to hide your system from you, it's extremely difficult to get to any of the hardware functions. This feature you would want in a tablet but not in a desktop that you may want to upgrade at some future date.

Win 8.x is like Vista, a bad OS that MS is trying to force down users (their customers) throats.

OK, the two problems that I had getting this laptop ready were the following:

1) Getting my modem router ready to accept a new Internet enabled device.

2) Having your external email user name and password ready.

Now, the reason I mention these two things because all that the "Quickstart" leaflet mentioned was how to plug the laptop in and switch it on, and that was it (nothing else) as far as how to configure and get the laptop going.

My son has the laptop now, it belongs to him, and he is fighting his way around the OS, he is getting there and, all I can say is, rather him than me.


UK Bob

PS. I managed to install a copy of Norton Internet Security and Sandboxie on the laptop, again very easy to do but I was not given the choice where I wanted the applications to be installed.