What Browser are you using? Are you using the Classic style or the Metro style?

Use classic IE10, not Metro. Websites all fit perfectly for me. And hit Ctrl-0 to make certain you aren't accidently zoomed out.

I haven't had any problems using IE or Chrome in Classic mode. Metro has been a complete disaster, but why would you use a Metro browser on a laptop anyway?

In related news, I've heard the next Windows update will have a Default-to-Desktop option. As that's currently my biggest complaint, I'm really excited about this.

Yeah, Windows 8 is great but I hate Metro. Looking forward to getting that update on my Sony Vaio Touch.

Do the decent thing and install Windows XP instead. You know it's the best OS they ever produced.

Draug, what's so great about Windows 8? I've heard nothing but complaints and bad reviews about it. It was enough to scare me into buying a Windows 7 laptop late last year, even though the only one I could find lacked the horsepower and goodies I was willing to pay for.

Windows 8 isn't bad. It's just not what people expect. I expect that younger users will pick it up much faster than us old fuddie duddies who just want their damn start menu back. If you just use it like it was meant to be used, and not try to make it Windows 7a, I think you will find it to be kind of cool.

I uninstalled all the apps and installed a start menu, now it's not all that bad.

My complaint is that too few of the applications are written for metro mode and those that are tend to be buggy. Even Microsoft's own Outlook runs in desktop mode. I lile the well integrated touch screen control. If you have a touch screen, Windows 8 is a breeze to work with. That said, mouse only for somethings is a pain and a classic control panel would be nice. Even in Windows 7 I switched my Control Panel to XP/classic mode.

Ugh Windows 8. after 4 days of my new laptop it started to get buggy (granted I set the settings, not the machine) so I deleted the OS and installed Ubuntu. Much happier now.

I bought my Windows 8 system back in December. I'm a software developer with Visual Studio, SQL Server (w/ SSAS & SSRS), IIS, and a whole variety of other tools you probably *haven't* heard of (unless you develop Knowledge Management systems) and it has been great.

There's a lot I like about Win8:

It has much better resource management and runs better than Win7 on the same HW.

I actually love the Start Screen, I just don't like to default to it when I close an App.

It has much better Driver support than Win7.

It has much better Touch than Win7.

The only real complaint I've heard from it is that people don't like the tiles, but you can open to the regular start menu screen if you hit enter while its booting up (I think?). I don't have 8, so its just coming from forums and such that I've read.

What I like about 8 (from what I've heard) is that its the safest OS out there (in terms of difficulty to hack) and it has a lot of cool bells and whistles for developers.

It was to my belief that people were simply upset that windows 8 didn't do much that was new from windows 7. The most visible change was the crazy start screen, and people didn't seem to notice much else that was different. Not that I agree with these people, but that seemed like a common complaint.

That's nonsense.

Win7 to Win8 probably has the most changes since Win3.11 to Win95.

That's good to know, in that case. I've been considering the purchase of a new computer and wasn't completely sure what OS to use.

If you are getting a laptop with a touchscreen, I'd highly recommend Win8. If you aren't getting a touchscreen, I'd get something else, or hold off on a new computer entirely.

Abgemacht is spot on. Touchscreen and Windows 8 rocks. Windows 8 without the touch screen is annoying as sveral features of Windows 8 use a swipe from the side or bottom to get to things like control panel and devices and such. In those cases, get Windows 7. But, that said, for $1200 you get get the new Sony Vaio Touch with Core i7, 8 Gigs, and a 256Gig SSD. Boot is faster than waking from sleep on a typical Windows 7 machine and waking from slip is as fast as opening the lid and getting your fingers to the keyboard and mouse. It's damn near instant.

Agreed. I was in shock with how quickly Win8 booted, even with a 7200 RPM HDD.

Well, 20 posts and no answer. Some Firefox add-on almost fixes it.

Right now, I'd say Windows 8 blows. But that's entirely because of there being no start button. I basically just use a laptop for music, internet, and word processing, so I'm definitely not the one to appreciate whatever else these magic boxes do.

And touch screens on a laptop has to be the dumbest idea I've ever heard of. Thank God I didn't waste some extra money on that high tech bauble.

Touch screens are very useful on a laptop when you are doing detailed graphics work and such. I've yet to see a good swipe or pinch zoom with a mouse.

The apps are terrible, for example app skype is worse than desktop skype, which you can make a small box on the screen (app skype is full screen). Same with app mail, app photos, app music. Why you would want to switch screens between all these apps instead of having the desktop versions baffles me.

And the maps app is terrible compared to google maps (which again is not full screen) basically I don't use ANYTHING full screen and why would you want to? It just restricts you to one activity at a time

Dnt know anything about Win8. But what was so good about the start button? Now on mac, dont miss it one bit.