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0 pointsPaulHoule12y ago0 comments

A big part of the Metro nightmare is that the built in apps (other than the core shell) suck.

For instance, Metro lacks a file chooser where you can easily find files anywhere in your system. If the Metro interface had a good file chooser, you wouldn't have to drop out to use the file desktop chooser to find a file on any filesystem.

If Windows 8.1 adds a good file chooser and if Microsoft addresses a few specific problems like that, life in Metro could get much better.

I hope Microsoft can get its branding straight -- I find it weird that I click on a music file across the network and it pops up in a pretty Metro app with the tag line "Xbox Music". There's also some thing (which has never quite worked for me) called "Xbox Games" which I'm not sure will do anything for me if I don't own an Xbox.

Or is everything that runs Windows 8 an "Xbox" of some kind? And how come I see tiles for all kinds of music except for the music that I've got in my own collection?

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Random_Person12y ago

Step one for me was uninstalling all the default apps. Some of them have good replacements in the Market, others I just do without. The lack of quality is a serious issue. I'm not sure how they are going to fix that considering Microsoft themselves can't seem to make anything terribly impressive.

canthonytucci12y ago

Why are you trying to work with files in the metro interface?

I'm having trouble coming up with a use case where I'd need the file chooser to do any of the things you'd want to do in the touch interface.

I can't speak to the music file thing because I haven't dealt with music files in years, it's always been an annoying and tedious experience for me (as is working with any large number of files with wonky metadata), so I switched to streaming and haven't looked back.

EDIT: That said, videos on my NAS just show up in the metro "Videos" app and I can watch them without issue. I haven't tried it with music but I can't imagine why that would be any different.

BrentOzar12y ago

Videos and music based on a NAS do indeed show up automatically. I just don't need that part - I need the music and videos when I'm on the road. (Streaming doesn't work on most airplanes.)

PaulHouleOP12y ago

It's fair to expect to write a document in Microsoft Word on the Desktop and then view the file, or a PDF copy, when it is in tablet mode.

A good file chooser enables that scenario and generally, maximizes the benefit that Windows 8 brings to a tablet OS, which is the Windows desktop. If Metro can stream, read from memory cards, view files from Desktop apps, etc. the high purchase price of these systems would be justified.

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