5 Worst Windows 8 Issues and Suitable Ways to Fix Them

It has been almost a year now, when Windows 8 has entered the market with an aim of changing the whole scenario of PCs in the world. The company has to a considerable extent achieved its goals by bringing in the touch technology in personal as well as business computers, as nowadays everyone aspires to enjoy the touch experience at work, home or play. In the initial stages, Windows 8 was cursed for many reasons, but the update from the company took over the charge and resulted in less complaints and wider acceptability. Beyond its modern and tile-based surface, Microsoft's new OS plays the host to introduce touch-screen features and all new gesture controls that can work without an external stylus or pointer.

Even after putting on so much effort and hard work, the company’s OS has encountered some serious issues that leave a user worried and confused. Users have to agree that nothing is perfect hence, we always need to cope up with the emerging technologies and adopt the latest changes for a better experience. Win 8 features a unique blend of new and old interfaces that may annoy and gratify a user while working on some crucial projects. Ranging from issues with Start screen, Search and limited Modern UI feature, to the problem while copying and transferring files, you might have not to work harder to perform the same tasks in Windows 7.

Therefore, go through the below mentioned issues along with their possible fixes to turn your Windows 8 device in to a full blown productive equipment.

1. Said goodbye to Start Menu

The missing ‘Start’ menu has annoyed a lot of Windows 8 users while completing their crucial business assignments, school homework, and Internet surfing. Multitasking is an amazing feature of this new OS, but there is no Start menu. A user has to leave the desktop environment and go to the Modern UI Start screen to launch other desktop apps that will take you right back to the desktop again. The OS supports the switching screens feature, thus takes more time to launch an application rather than simply launching it using a Start menu. The system software will make your work in the first application off-screen, hence, you may lose track of what you were actually doing.

How to fix?

Fortunately, various tweaks and tips are available over the Internet to avoid going through the Start screen while trying to launch a desktop app. You can easily create keyboard shortcuts, install a third-party Start menu, and pin applications to the taskbar to avoid the hassles of getting redirected to the ‘Start’ menu again and again.

2. Switcher Groups All Desktop Apps into Just One Thumbnail

All the desktop applications are often treated as second-class citizens in Windows 8, as they will make you feel annoyed and frustrated while looking for something really important. Go to the Switcher menu immediately while trying to separate thumbnails for all of your open Windows 8 applications. The default settings will make your entire desktop get just one thumbnail, even when, no matter how many different applications and programs are running on it.

The OS is developed in such a way that while looking for a program that's running on the desktop, you must navigate from the Switcher menu and look at the windows or taskbar there. This practice takes a lot of time and may result in irritating situations.

How to fix?

To fix the same, you can easily use your old-fashioned ‘ALT Tab’ key combination. Additionally, dock to the desktop located next to your primary app in the Metro UI to view a list of tiles representing all of your opened desktop apps.

3. Slide away the Lock Screen just before Log-in

You might have noticed that your Windows 8 device might ask you to perform so many unnecessary clicks and mouse gestures. The waste of time and muscle movement caused by the lock screens the most irritating thing that you need to do whenever you boot or wake your computer. Whenever, you awake your PC you do it by dragging it off screen or clicking on it. Tablet users may like to view the time during which their devices were inactive, but it’s a giant roadblock between you and your login prompt, when it comes to desktop users.

How to fix?

The ideal solution for this issue is to make the lock screen disappear permanently. Go to the Computer Configuration> Administrative Tools> Control Panel> Personalization> and then click on the ‘Do not display lock screen’ setting.

4. The Power button issues

Windows 8 was developed with the main aim of serving as an OS for tablet as well as other mobile devices, which don’t require frequent shut down and restart. All these power related functions are buried in the menu structure. In Windows 7, the ‘Shut Down’ button was displayed right on the Start menu, whereas in Windows 8, a user need to pull out the Charms> Settings> Power button and then select ‘Shut Down’ from a menu.

How to fix?

If you don't have time to waste, you can easily create shortcuts for both the Shut Down and Restart functions. All you need to do is to assign the shortcuts to the command-line with commands as ‘shutdown /s /t 0’ (for shutdown) and ‘shutdown /r /t 0’ (for restart) respectively. Don’t forget to pin these shortcuts to the Start screen and taskbar for ensuring smooth and easy access.

5. POP accounts not supported by Windows Mail

Many users have POP email accounts, but Windows 8's inbuilt mail doesn't support POP connections. On an initial log-in on Windows Mail, the program will ask you to enter your email address along with its mail client details. The program will ask you to choose from the available options for email address i.e. POP, IMAP or Exchange, if it doesn't recognize your login email address as Outlook or Hotmail.com. If a user selects POP, then it will display a message that Mail doesn't support POP3 accounts and you should get an IMAP or Exchange account instead.

How to fix?

Users can easily use a different mail client, but if they want to stick with Windows Mail then they must perform the following steps. Set up any other mail client to check your POP mail and then add that account to Windows Mail. Suppose, you’re using Outlook.com, then choose the option ‘send/receive mail from a POP account’ under the ‘More Mail Settings’ menu to receive the POP mails on your outlook accounts.

The above mentioned are some of the major issues that are faced by users having Windows 8 installed on their devices. Owing to the lukewarm market response and various other consumer grievances, Microsoft has released an OS update in October 2013. The update was made available for free for all the existing Windows 8 users and can be easily downloaded from the official website of the company. The update was a solution for a lot of issues that are enlisted above and the OS has gained more popularity after offering the update to the users for free.

About the Author: Brooke M. Perry is an ardent technician associated with Qresolve online computer support with wide experience of fixing issues with PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphone. With a strong track record of devising effective ways of online android tablet support and system security, she has so far helped thousands of users across the globe.

Brooke M. Perry is an ardent technician associated with Qresolve computer security, with wide experience of fixing issues with PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.