HP Ultrabook 1202ea Touchscreen Win 8

Bought one of these 8pm April 16, from John Lewis, due to the imminent demise of my Sony Vaio.

So far extremely pleased with it and with Win 8. I've just re-read this thread and think most of the criticisms stem from Windows RT.

Getting from the tiled "Start" screen to desktop mode is just a matter of tapping the bottom left (currently) tile for "Desktop". Pulled stuff across on a Seagate GoFlex, ignoring for now the pestilential Memeo backup software packaged with it.

Everything hunky-dory so far, though I am occasionally catching the touchpad with the ball of my right hand and messing things up when I do. It's wider and in a different position to my Vaio.

The touchscreen is a dream for website scrolling, especially on these forums, and tapping the links onscreen far more ergonomically friendly to my wrist and hand than touchpad and button use. Typing this on the real rather than onscreen keyboard, then using screen actions to click, scroll and post through the preview process, is so much easier than touchpad and button.

Just a bigger version of smartphone navigation really. I didn't expect to find touchscreens so useful on a laptop, and by extension on a normal computer.

I can't see why Win RT would be responsible for criticisms, more likely using Win 8 without a touchscreen.

Possibly. I only re-read it quickly.

But once you get to the desktop screen it is identical to Win 7 so far as I can see. That takes one click.

Where the restart button would be is interesting, as I can only see it from the side-swipe Power button.

Coincidentally, I just got a Macbook Air which is also quite similar to Win 7

Same I got mine quite recently.

I tried out a few windows 8 devices. I didn't like the windows updates on windows 8 especially. It always fails and has to retry over and over... It's because it tries to install too many updates at once...
I just find OSX far smoother on websites, touchpad etc.

Overall though I really like windows 8. For me the issue is to get something on Windows 8 that I like is as expensive as the macbook air & then I swing to the apple product. I get around 17% apple discount I think though.

That said my macbook has a habit of randomly rebooting around once every few weeks. Need to go to apple about that at some stage.

I bet the HP Ultrabook 1202ea is beautiful though. It looks stunning.

I'm a big fan of windows 8 though. I don't see the big fuss. It's just like windows 7 with apps added.

Random reboots and shutdowns can indicate that the lappy thinks it's overheating when it's not. Temperature sensor?

I use Windows 8 on my main machne, no touch screen. I find it more responsive than windows 7 also more applications run much better than they did before. Just installed Classic Start Menu button and it loads straight into desktop. Best MS OS yet.

I can confirm there are adverts during F1 practice sessions on Sky.

[chuckle]
I assume you mean on a TV broadcast on Sky? Don't care. That was flogged to death. There are none during during qualifying or the race. That's all I care about.

Maybe we could stay on the W8/touchscreen topic?

How easy is it to get to and start a particular Programme (app), say Word for example, once you are at the Desktop?

One click... if you pin it to the taskbar. A double click, if you have an icon on the desktop. Two clicks from the start screen (one to click the start "button" and the other to launch word".

Largely the same as in all earlier versions of Windows. Icons on the Desktop and some pinned to the Task Bar. What hadn't occurred to me when starting to reply is that as there is no old-style "Start" button on the screen you can't get the All programs menu.

Also IE10 insists on opening to a standard height, which is a pain. Width is as last used.

Access to Control Panel is by hitting the new (to me) "Start" key on the keyboard where the Windows key used to be, or a screen swipe from the right to get the onscreen one, then type c. Lots of stuff then turns up. I'll go and see if I can get an "All programs" button.

For years I've always made opening things/icons a 1-click action not a double-click. Double-clicking has always seemed pointless to me.

Easier to start it from the Start Screen. (Easier than in any other version of Windows.)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Largely the same as in all earlier versions of Windows. Icons on the Desktop and some pinned to the Task Bar. What hadn't occurred to me when starting to reply is that as there is no old-style "Start" button on the screen you can't get the All programs menu. ... I'll go and see if I can get an "All programs" button.

Looks like you are required to use the "Start screen" tile system, as on a smartphone. Apparently you can rearrange the tiles and alter sizes and so on, but I haven't looked into that yet.

Looks as though it could be quite good once you get used to it. I'll get back on the subject, in a while ....

Was playing around before posting, so hadn't read yours. Looks like I came to that conclusion as well, but yet to put it into practice.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I'll go and see if I can get an "All programs" button.

http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-add-an-all-programs...

Thanks . That's interesting. I had failed to find a way.

However I might try not to use it, as I think there's a lot of scope for doing it quite acceptably via the Start screen, which would be cleaner in the long-term.

I have loads of programmes that I use once in a blue moon. I can't remember what they are called so can't type their name into the run cmd (or whatever it's called) and obviously can't pin them to the taskbar. Is there a way to see all the installed programmes in Win8?

Just right-click a blank area on the Start Screen and select "All Apps".

Or on a touchscreen swipe up from the bottom works for me.

So the user has always to go to the Start screen?

Instead of the Start button .

It boots to the Start screen. One tap or click on the Desktop tile takes you to the familiar Win x screen. Quick launch, Taskbar, System Tray, desktop icons as desired. No big deal at all.

I've been concentrating on getting that working and getting stuff across in the short periods my old Vaio works. Next step is to learn about the Start screen, and play around with the tiles.

Delete some, replace some (Mail goes, Thunderbird comes), add some, (right-clicking programs in Desktop mode has an option to pin to the Start screen just like pinning to the Desktop), and generally re-arrange to what suits me.

Given how I find a smartphone system brilliant, I'm sure I shall rapidly take to using the Start screen nearly full-time. It has to be the future, and I like it.

I suspect that most users will do as they did in 7 and put icons for the applications they use on the Task Bar or the Desktop. I hardly ever use the All Programs menu in 7; everything is in folders on the Desktop - the very common applications are on the Task Bar.

But, it's only a single button press to get to the Start Screen, so no problem if you do it that way. Or if you are really fussed just add a Start Menu.

In reply to a post by AEP:

I suspect that most users will do as they did in 7 and put icons for the applications they use on the Task Bar or the Desktop. I hardly ever use the All Programs menu in 7; everything is in folders on the Desktop - the very common applications are on the Task Bar.

But, it's only a single button press to get to the Start Screen, so no problem if you do it that way. Or if you are really fussed just add a Start Menu.

Exactly what I've done with all my shortcuts in appropriate folders on the desktop.

I've also added a scheduled task to run at logon that takes me to the desktop. This works 95% of the time but every so often it fails and I have to click through to my desktop - no big deal.

When I first got Win8 I thought I was never going to take to it but I've got used to it now given that I see virtually nothing of that awful Metro crud!

In reply to a post by AEP:

I suspect that most users will do as they did in 7 and put icons for the applications they use on the Task Bar or the Desktop. I hardly ever use the All Programs menu in 7; everything is in folders on the Desktop - the very common applications are on the Task Bar.

But, it's only a single button press to get to the Start Screen, so no problem if you do it that way. Or if you are really fussed just add a Start Menu.

And this is the trap MS itself fell into, assuming that people will behave in a certain way without proof is a surefire way of coming a cropper.

I use the start button and programs menu a lot more than the desktop and will only have 1 or 2 bits of active projects sitting on the desktop and only 3 icons next to the start button.

Given that there has been tens of millions of downloads of start menu apps means that MS doesn't understand it's user base or is acting in a dictorial manner. Although it is amusing as they abandoned widgets as the claimed nobody was using them and brought them back in the form of charms.

I'm sure that people who feel like that will give Windows 8 a miss. No point in using an OS that doesn't work the way you want it to. Luckily, upgrading is not compulsory (indeed, it's not even compulsory to use Windows!).

In reply to a post by undecidedadrian:

Although it is amusing as they abandoned widgets as the claimed nobody was using them and brought them back in the form of charms.

[cough]
"Gadgets"?

How do they know whether or not I used them? I really liked the processor/memory one as it gave an early indication of summat oop. The one doing a slide-show through several years of photos was brilliant at bringing back memories. A couple of copies of the of the Exchange Rate one. I do regret those going.

Charms aren't really the same thing at all. Or can you add to the standard ones?

Widgets?

Charms aren't the same as gadgets, which were abandoned as they were a security risk. You can't add charms.

/me looks at the last line of my post .

Were there widgets as well as gadgets then? I assumed he meant gadgets. Why were they (the supplied ones) a security risk?

I agree. A widget is a made-up name like a doodad. He meant gadgets, which were a security risk http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/07/12/disable-w...

Totally unrelated, but looking back at gadgets now in 2013, you could say they were ahead of their time.

A bit scary - and that it took so long to come out.

Or - as it took so long to come out may it have not been as serious as suggested. But once the weakness was discovered it was unblockable perhaps.

Tiles, and publicly-submitted apps, will of course be hack and malware-proof .

The security model is tighter so there should be less issues overall, but that doesn't eliminate everything.

Each succeeding Windows version has been "the most secure yet" .

That statement has been consistently true though since they started using the phrase (which was on XP I think). I would go as far as saying Windows is probably the most secure OS available, even compared to Linux/UNIX operating systems of the same class.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

He meant gadgets, which were a security risk

Only by insecure gadgets that were added on top of the MS supplied ones?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Each succeeding Windows version has been "the most secure yet" .

I wonder if the next version of Windows should even be called Windows, since Microsoft seem to want to evolve it into a system of full-screen apps (without windows).

Microsoft TileHome.

With an ancillary TileShop.

That should mess up Google result pages .

Or "Tiles 'r Us".

Ceramics 2 Go

Well!

The machine went back to John Lewis today. Full refund. I'm now using my old Vista laptop that the dead Sony Vaio replaced.

The touchscreen was great even in desktop mode which I ended up using for normal use, such as coming here, browsing and email. Browsing using "Win 8 Start Screen" mode is however dreadful, unless I missed a trick. The lack of tabbed browsing wrecks the whole experience, as dragging down the top of the screen to see other open pages litereally is a drag. Far too cumbersome. Fractionally better than multiple screens on Galaxy SIII browsing but not much.

(Now someone will tell me I didn't have to have IE10 full screen in that mode and I shall curse if it's true ).

I could have lived reasonably happy with all that.

But! The HP 1202ea, and nearly every HP machine on display at JL is a mess so far as I'm concerned.

The killer drawback is the positioning and general nastiness of the touchpad and its integrated buttons. The buttons appear to have multi-function depending where you click them, and half the time do nothing anyway. Right-clicking went badly wrong very often, so that I opened links in the current tab rather than a new one. Hitting the backspace in small amounts of text frequently even took me out and closed the tab! Incredible.

The touchpad is well offset to the right of the centre of the keyboard and spacebar. I found, (not being a touch-typist), I could be typing away like this then look up and find the curser nowhere obvious, (that's the good case!), or somewhere amongst earlier typing so that everything had become garbage. (No rude comments thank you ).

I concluded that the ball of my thumb, or shirt cuffs, or whatever, were causing cursor movement. Tilting the whole machine by mounting it on a MS laptop cooling stand I got a few years ago helped to some extent, but not sufficiently. It also increased the "bounciness" of the screen when using the touch facility to click links, so the tap often needed repeating even more than in unmounted mode.

Holding my wrists high to guarantee no contact stopped the problem but was not an acceptable solution.

There seemed in other circumstances also to be too close coordination of touchscreen and touchpad actions. In particular, unless I got confused, disabling touch-clicking which I hoped might fix it also disabled screen tapping. Maybe I did get confused. Too late now.

The question is what, if anything, to get now? Some good touchscreen kit due in June, so I shall probably wait. I keep reaching to tap/scroll this darn screen [chuckle].