Windows 8 - How can you actually hate Metro?

Posted by GazaIan on July 31, 2012 05:04 pm 125

This is a rant of a sort to all of those people out there who despise Metro UI being incorporated into Windows 8. While I'm no stranger to Metro UI, ever since I saw it on the Zune HD a few years ago (It was the only Zune I paid somewhat attention to), I instantly fell in love with it. It's focus was content and typography, which is simply just a win. So here, I'm going to tell you all the reasons why I love Metro UI, and I want the opponents to tell me why you guys hate it so much.

DISCLAIMER; I am always sleepy between the hours of 3PM - 11AM, pretty much most of the day. You might witness drunk type, for which I apologize if I do it. Also, to whom it may concern, I use devices from ALL companies, got two Android phones and a tablet, all running Jellybean, Got several Windows computers and an Xbox 360, got a MacBook Pro, an iPad, 4 iPod touches, and several other iPod nanos and shuffles (New Roc city had a crane filled with em, I got pretty damn lucky). I love all my devices, I use all of them in different scenarios, and I'm not biased to any one company.

Let's start with one of the top complaints in Windows 8 - The Start Menu (or Start Screen, rather).

Why I love it;

This Start Screen is a tonload better than the old thing we dealt with. When I learned the Start Menu was pretty much axed in favor of a Metro Start Screen, I knew everyone would be up in arms, and boy was I right. But, I decided to give it a chance (something these hardcore fanboys need to try out once it a while, it's not wrong to open up). I actually liked it. Main reason I loved it is because, the Metro UI is beautiful, and there is no functionality that is lost over the previous Start Menu. All your applications are right there, just like the Start Menu. Want to search? Just start typing, just like the old Start Menu. The search is a whole bunch neater than previous versions, giving you three categories, apps, settings, and files. Start Menu used to throw everything into one (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't used Windows 7 since W8CP came out). You also have Live Tiles, which is a beautiful way to show information in a flash. (However, there's something I hate about the Tiles, which I'll get to). The Start Screen has the same, if not more functionality that the Start Menu, how can you hate it? Not being able to find your apps is no excuse. Put your most commonly used apps to the front like I did, or better yet use the all apps screen that lists apps in alphabetical order. (Secondary click anywhere, or keyboard shortcut WinKey+Z).

What I despise about the Start Menu;

Tiles for legacy applications. They are the ugliest, most boring things ever, and you can't change the look of them. They are super ugly, and the follow the current color scheme you have set. I have Grey and orange, which looks great on the Start Menu, but looks horrible on the tiles. Life would be sweet if I could change them.

Blegh. Dirty.

Next thing; Metro Applications.

Honestly, what's wrong with them? I can understand some cases, where it's clearly obvious the app wasn't made for a mouse and keyboard, though it is fully playable (Case in point, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope). But, apps such as MetroTwit and the FML app are fully usable with a mouse and in my opinion, feel better than using the websites for the two. While these are just two prime examples, I could easily pull out a handful of apps that works good with keyboard and mouse. The Videos app is one (I can't believe people complained about this one, 99% of the time you spend in that app should be watching movies, not bitching about the UI). Photos is another. Music. Xbox Live Games. Xbox Live Companion. People. Mail. Calender. Internet Explorer (I use Chrome, though). Wikipedia. Flow. Need I continue? Point is, Metro is perfectly navigable with a keyboard and mouse, even though it obviously was aimed at touchscreens.

One thing I dislike is the inconsistency between navigability of apps. In the Start Screen (using a multitouch trackpad), you can scroll by pushing the cursor against the edge of the screen, using a two finger scroll, or the arrow keys. In some apps, you can't scroll by pushing the cursor against the edge of the screen, in some apps you can't scroll with the arrow keys, and in some apps you can super scroll by dragging two fingers either up or down, and scroll at a normal speed with two fingers moving left and right. Back when I used the Consumer Preview, there were apps where NONE of these scrolling methods worked, and I had to use the scrollbar. That one, was an ass pain.

Next; Metro Multitasking.

Fine, I'll give you this one. I'm still not a big fan of it. It's just not for the desktop. However, I disagree with those who say that the old way is better. This method would be just fine, if there was an easier way to do it, and a not so easy way to screw up. Countless times have I accidentally dragged the entire desktop app down, when I was just trying to either move it from the top, or 'Restore Down' as Windows calls it.

But, still, it's not awful. It's neat, organized, minimal, easy to use, but not so easy on the Desktop. Closing an app is a hell of pain too, my trackpad isn't big enough to pull the app all the way down, and Windows gets funky when I let go of one finger to move it and keep dragging. Could it be just me and trackpads? Maybe. But I honestly don't use anything but trackpads, unless I'm retro gaming (and I don't use gaming mice, any basic low latency mouse is good enough for me).

But tell me; You haven't lost the Desktop on Windows 8, and the Multitasking works perfectly for RT tablets. Is there really anything to complain about here? IMO, I'll just be looking as a nice addition, or extra candy.

Overall, I don't feel like any functionality was lost.

Now, onto things I dislike; These, I'll keep short and sweet.

Something I hate; The Control Panel.

I'll keep this one simple; There's two of them on Windows 8 (RT has no Desktop, so it's just a W8 issue). Stick everything in the Metro one and call it a day, if you ask me. I find myself using the Desktop Control Panel rather than the Metro one.

You can't set a background outside of the preset background for the Start Screen.

Don't get me wrong, swirly shit is nice looking, but maybe I just to have a monkey or something as my Start Screen background.

The Necessity of Keyboard Shortcuts.

Honestly, I feel that we NEED keyboard shortcuts to survive Windows 8. They make everything a whole lot faster. This isn't really something I picked up from Windows, though, but from Mac OS X. I hated going to the Menu Bar to do every damn thing, when almost every damn thing had a keyboard shortcut. Once I started using them, I never looked back.

I'm in the boat of people who had no idea how to shut down Windows 8, so I used Alt-F4 for the power Menu. Took a Google Search some months later to find out that it was in the Charm Bar. The average consumer is going to be f*cked when they get their hands on this. Then again, I'm sure they'll find it.

The Charm Bar location:

It's freaking invisible. Winkey+C invokes it, but god damn, I never even used the Windows Key as a modifier. I used to use Print Screen and paste it into Paint, then I learned Winkey+PrntScrn takes a screenshots and saves it to a Screenshots folder. Had no damn idea, and Microsoft really doesn't tell you much about keyboard shortcuts unless you look for the one they made, which I can't find a high resolution version of.

I have more things that I can comment on, but I honestly lose my train of though. But here's what I'll end this with; Windows 8 hasn't lost a damn slice of functionality. So, why do you, the opponents, hate it? And please give me good, detailed reasons, not a half assed answer. I honestly want to see some good opinions.

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EDIT: Just felt I could add some extras here.

I just realized that the All Apps screen is entirely different from Consumer Preview; Instead of straight alphabetical order for everything, It firsts list the Metro apps (interesting how some non metro apps fell into the list, is something coming?), then lists your non-Metro applications in what I call categories. And guess what --- These categories are the exact same as what used to be folders in the Start Menu. So there, one less thing for you to complain about.

First, here's the Metro apps;

And next to it, legacy apps;

Also, something I hate; Microsoft gives you the stranger treatment in Internet Explorer if you set another browser as the default browser. the app stops acting as a Metro app and only works as a Windowed app, and won't give you any Metro fullscreen features. Even the tile changes to an ugly app. Kind of mean, but you know what, Chrome doesn't mind.