some_stars | (no subject)

question, because i don't trust the internet: my netbook is finally dying, and as no one sells netbooks anymore, i need to find some kind of replacement laptop that's cheap and light and not a tablet. i am very, very tablet-averse, because in my experience i can't do what i need to do with a tablet. and of course all the new cheap laptops available are Windows 8 (or Chromebooks which: NO) and Windows 8 is designed for tablets and touching and blugh. But I would really rather get a new machine than something refurbished.

So, question: how much can you use Windows 8 like a normal, non-tablet computer? my specific needs usually involve having multiple documents from multiple programs all visible on the screen at the same time. and i need a normal filing/explorer system, where i can access files on their own, not just through an app. i also want the taskbar or something like it--not having to go back to a home screen every time i want to get something that's not currently onscreen. and i would really really rather use a trackpad than touch the screen.

do i have any hope? or should i go back to looking up refurbished old laptops from before the world went mad?

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Saw this on Network- they've updated to Windows 8.1, which has a traditional desktop screen you can work in. If you go out to the home screen for something, you can get back to the desktop screen by selecting it from the home screen. (sorry if that doesn't make sense; but you do have the ability to have a traditional desktop to work in.)

I hate most of the ways Windows 8 is different from 7, but my non-touchscreen laptop runs 8 and it's totally manageable as a computer -- Windows Explorer is still a thing, there are start menus you can install, and while Chrome defaulted for me to opening outside all bounds of tab and window, I got it to act as a normal window on my desktop again after googling how. (I forget what I did though.) I basically just avoid the start screen and keep to my <8-y desktop (which does have a taskbar).

The really annoying thing for me has been a multitouch touchpad, because I haven't used a touchpad at all in years and years, and I keep accidentally doing things and then screaming, and it's making my roommates jumpy.

You could do that in 8, too. Just the button wasn't there, because the functionality of the button (finding programs, etc) had been replaced by the start screen. (I'm exceedingly fond of the search functionality of the start screen, but it is a bit of a learning curve, it seems.)

The button was restored for 8.1, in all its context menu glory, and there's an option (buried, and I never recall where, because I, as they say, set it and forget it) to set so you boot into the desktop instead of into the start screen.

Multitouch trackpads are the work of the devil and OEMs think they are a good idea is beyond me.

Oh, look! I accidentally shrunk my screen/highlighted everything/destroyed the universe!

So when are you thinking of buying? I can pick brains at work as to opinions on the best lightweight and inexpensive (non-touch, if you prefer it that way) laptops out there right now, with a side of "and tell me who has the most durable hardware?" but it would have to be after New Year's, because we're pretty much all burning vacation over there for the next two weeks.

well, uh, i actually lost my patience and went ahead and bought a new windows 8 machine, partly because part of what's making me so crazy is not being able to get any work done in private while i'm here since my netbook is so fragile. it sounds like i'll be able to cope with it, but if it's a disaster and i have to send it back, i will definitely request picked brains!

Ha! Well, if you have questions about anything related to the OS, you can ask me. I could make so many hipster jokes about how early I was running it, you see. So very, very many.