Life with a New Computer

There it is. The new time suck. I thought the old laptop with it's constant crashing was bad. I thought life was bad enough when it finally crashed and I only got half the files I needed off of it. (missing 2 years of tax forms I didn't print BECAUSE THEY WERE ON THE COMPUTER)

I did manage to save the important stuff, recipes, because I need to fill my fat face. I lost all my family pictures, the trip to San Francisco with my Grandson and Holidays past. I really need to put those on disk and stop relying on the computer. So many image files. Probably why the poor old girl gave it up after 7+ years. I have NEVER had a laptop last that long.

But enough of the old Girl, I wanted to talk about the new @#*&!. It's really not the laptop's fault. I blame it all on Microsoft whose designers were obviously still on some kind of strong medication or maybe "just kidding" when they designed Windows 8.

Seriously, I have spent more time trying to get this damn thing to function that I should have to waste with a very fast new computer. Last night for instance, all of a sudden, every slightest move of my finger kept flipping me back and forth between Window and the Desktop. For those of you who are not familiar, Windows 8 works on 2 environments, to allow the user time to acclimate I guess. For those of us in the field, it just SUCKS! I finally had to shut my laptop down, because I couldn't stay on any one page long enough to get anything done.

Here's another thing. I did a little research and found that Chrome is the fastest browser for 8 so I downloaded it. I was using in ton desktop, and there were some things not working quite right. There were some dead spots on pages, I couldn't click on. Then I got the idea to launch it in the Windows 8 environment and so, dead spots gone, it works there, right? Well sort of. Some of the things like Silverlight, don't work in the Windows environment.

One of the big issues with Windows 8 ( well maybe is't just another annoying issue) is that there are very few apps. No one wants to put the money into developing apps for a dying dog. And here I sit, typing on a dying dog.

Why don't I upgrade to the new 8.1 you may ask? You know, the version that's supposed to work better? Well after loosing 20 minutes of my life reading the process of backing up all your files on your computer, before starting your upgrade, because it's possible to loose all your files and programs during the upgrade, I decided that today wasn't the day to spend any more time on the computer than necessary.

I mean windows wants you to get familiar with the 8 environment, yet today when I put my image laden SD card in the reader, nothing happened in 8. I have no idea how to get images from the reader on 8. I HAD to go to desktop to get them, even though I have been trying to get used to the 8.

Things I don't get - how the touchpad works. There must be a way to not fip back and forth between 8 and desktop, but I don't know. There must be a way to put your cursor near the frame of you screen without popping up charms, but I don't know. There must be a way to use the computer from 8, but I don't know. I don't even know how to access my files from 8 and when I try to get images in my HUGE files I see only a few at a time and have to scroll through this HUGE mass of tiny images. HOW DO I ADJUST THAT!
Oh Microsoft, I know you had good intentions, but whoever approved this monstrosity ought to be fired. Not the techs that developed it, you know, the supervisor who approved it. This abomination goes to the head of the class me thinks.

If you have one of these monsters, I sympathize. If you're thinking of getting one. Wait a bit till the bugs are worked out if you can. I, unfortunately, couldn't wait.