So, in order to add some stuff specific to Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 I end up working a bit on Windows 8.1 these days. Mind you, it’s only for testing and therefore by no means the full horror experience.
One thing I learned already is that there is no gpedit in the version of Windows 8.1 I installed. So the straightforward way of getting rid of the help tips that try to tell me how to use gestures that are anyway unusable within a VMware guest, is out. Instead I had to search a bit and ended up with the first option from this article. Because these unhelpful tips are placed atop everything at all and usually are placed exactly on top of the GUI elements you want to click with your mouse.
And then of course I had to connect my local account to a Microsoft account, because WinDirStat should support SkyDrive files. Oopsie daisy, Windows takes the liberty to reset all my settings. Back to the ugly welcome screen, back to the login screen and back to the start screen before getting to the desktop. My other account was configured to auto-login.
My guess is that this is some plot by Microsoft in an attempt to make the user experience as horrible as possible. But I could be wrong, of course 😉 . While Ballmer considers Vista his biggest mistake, I consider the versions since Windows 8 Microsoft’s biggest mistake since Windows Me. The internals are still fine, in fact a lot has been improved on that front, but the user experience … meh …
Oh, btw, the verification email concerning SkyDrive? I clicked the link with Opera and Microsoft was experiencing technical difficulties:
We’re unable to complete your request
Microsoft account is experiencing technical problems. Please try again later.
I wonder whether that’s a euphemism for: we don’t service users of competing browsers 😆
// Oliver