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Frustrated with its initial launch, Microsoft is reportedly planning to reboot Windows 8 in February.Microsoft is reportedly pissed at PC makers for failing to ready themselves for the launch of Windows 8 back in October. Without naming its source(s), The Register claims Microsoft believes OEMs should have been ready with more attractive Windows 8-based touchscreen tablets, and had they been on the ball, the reception would have been much more positive. There's more.
Redmond reportedly provided specific guidance on the hardware its partners should be using for any machine running Windows 8. Microsoft also provided advice on both high-end and low-end form factors PC makers should build, including Ultrabooks, hybrid laptops, and traditional notebooks.
"Microsoft is very frustrated with major OEMs who didn't build nearly enough touch systems and are now struggling to find parts and ramp up. Microsoft says they provided very specific guidance on what to build," an un-named source told The Register.
For their part, PC makers says that if they followed Microsoft's requirements and stepped up production, they'd essentially be stuck holding onto a bunch of expensive tablets that nobody wants to buy.
So here we are three months later, watching Microsoft and PC makers argue about what consumers do and do not want, while the fate of Windows 8 hangs in the balance. What's Microsoft's next move, then?
Reboot Windows, of course.
Hey, it used to work in Windows 95, and according to The Register, Microsoft is planning to reboot the launch of Windows 8 in February when Surface Pro comes out.
If Microsoft goes through with that strategy, it will be interesting to see what happens next. Call us skeptical, but rebooting the launch of Windows 8 is not going to solve the fundamental problem that exists, which is that consumers never asked for touch-capable desktops or a bunch of overpriced hybrids to begin with.
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Comments are closed on this article
jgottberg
January 24, 2013 at 2:02pm
Silncer... You are back. What happened? Did your entire existence get deleted from the other site you were on after it happened on this one?
DoctorX
January 24, 2013 at 12:53pm
you need help.... metro sucks and is terrible for multitasking...
Servant
January 24, 2013 at 1:00pm
you need help.... you assume sht, and wrongly, and often too.
otherwise some decent posts.
laughing at metro!
;o)
captainjack
January 24, 2013 at 1:37pm
At least the Doc isn't disliked by the whole MPC community huh Silencer? I'm all for second chances but you obviously have no intention of being less annoying so please leave.
Servant
January 24, 2013 at 1:46pm
So you speak for "the whole MPC community"?
That's funny. Perhaps I should post an excerpt from an email I got from MaximumPC?
ROFLMFAO!
I love you too!
Vrmithrax
January 24, 2013 at 12:26pm
So, let me get this straight. Microsoft introduces Windows 8 into beta very early, far sooner than they should have based on how well Windows 7 was already doing and their typical OS life cycle. A huge amount of negativity from long-time Windows users pops up during the beta testing, due (primarily) to the very touch-centric direction they took Win8 in... While this is all percolating, they throw out their Surface RT product direct to the public, resulting in some rather muddied waters for consumers (Windows RT is not Windows 8, but the average uninformed Joe probably has no idea about that). Then they drop Windows 8 officially on the market, with the looming Surface Pro hardware set to jump in and directly compete with the very OEMs they are blaming for not being gung-ho on Windows 8 and spending bazillions of dollars developing systems to run it ahead of the launch...
I have to wonder what the marketing and management teams at Microsoft are smoking lately. Windows 8 might be a fine product, but seriously why blame others for the lackluster launch? Microsoft releases a divergent product that only a small margin of their total user base even wanted, directly competes against their own OEM customers that they rely on for sales, and has the gall to say "not our fault" when the sales are disappointing? Pretty pathetic.
Paper Jam
January 24, 2013 at 1:24pm
MS wants to be Apple and Microsoft at the same time. They want to sell their own hardware like Apple, release devices through multiple OEMs powered with their OS like they have always done (except charging the OEMs for the privilege, unlike Google), and they still want to sell the OS retail. You can't have it all.
Bullwinkle J Moose
January 24, 2013 at 12:37pm
Are you aware how accurate that statement is?
After trying Windows 8 on a computer with a NON-UEFI Bios, Windows XP no longer installs correctly and goes into a perpetual restart untill the Windows 8 partitions are wiped with Killdisk
After using Killdisk, XP installs just fine
Hardware manufacturers can rid themselves of Microshaft malware by doing to Microsoft what Microsoft is doing to everyone else
Prevent new hardware from installing Microshaft products and they may see the light
But I doubt it
DoctorX
January 24, 2013 at 12:56pm
you do realize that there is different bootloader since vista right? if you want xp alongside with win8,7,vista you have to install xp first then the newest last. Always been that way.
mellamojay
January 24, 2013 at 3:24pm
This is not true actually as there are ways to allow booting of several os options through the win8 bootloader but you have to know what you are doing... which you should if you are trying to dual boot. I am currently dual booting on my laptop and tribooting my desktop using windows 8 as the first install on the raid array.
Bullwinkle J Moose
January 24, 2013 at 1:02pm
I DON'T want to Dualboot!
Can I please do what I WANT on MY COMPUTER?
I was deleting Windows 8 partitions with my XP CD so I could install XP without Windows 8 malware
Diddn't work!
I thought you would understood that point by reading my post
Servant
January 24, 2013 at 1:02pm
Thought I'd pop-in!
Windows 8's so juicy!
I see it's about the same as always lately.
How about you?
Engelsstaub
January 24, 2013 at 2:07pm
Aw, you know: jus' chillin' ...giving the people what they want.
Bullwinkle J Moose
January 24, 2013 at 12:14pm
Hey Redmond
Get the Fuck off our computers
If you want to put your crap on our hardware, make your garbage work with our hardware
Don't tell everyone to support Monopolysoft so you can control everything into perpetual perpetuity and beyond
If you can't play nice, take your fucking toy and go home
Cleaver
January 24, 2013 at 12:11pm
Remember that article a while back where Steve Ballmer in an interview was asked "So what are Microsoft's plans if Windows 8 is not recieved well?" and his response was "Oh, people are going to like Windows 8. You'll see."
I don't know why he thought that no backup plan was necessary, or how that was a confidence-boosting response.
I, for one, like windows 8 for the amount of times I have played around with it, but my desktop still runs 7 proudly. My love affair with 7 is not going to change anytime soon.
DeltaFIVEengineer
January 24, 2013 at 12:56pm
It's called hubris and Steve Ballmer might as well have invented the word.
Slowmo
January 24, 2013 at 12:01pm
Let's see. They'll still force desktop users without a touchscreen to default to Metro. They will keep a naming convention to confuse consumers about what software it can run, rt. The store salespeople can tell them. After 4 months I'm sure the manufactures have forgotten about Microsoft advising them to build lame tablets so they could launch a better one. And lastly rumor has it that they are already on a major rework to be pushed out in October.
Yeah, I'm sure a reboot with surface pro will fix everything.
Crazyhorse
January 24, 2013 at 12:00pm
"the fundamental problem...is that consumers never asked for touch-capable desktops or a bunch of overpriced hybrids to begin with."
The boys in Redmond never seem to learn from their mistakes!! F#*@ 'em, Win8 is a product that serves no purpose.
strangelove9
January 24, 2013 at 11:55am
So, M$ says the OEMs should have been more interested in making Win8 tablets? While knowing that M$ themselves were going to put out their own hardware with the newfangled OS?
Yeah... good luck!
xXSINS OF WARXx
January 24, 2013 at 11:43am
And the Microsoft Windows 8 bashing will begin in 3...2...1...
PDX-1337
January 24, 2013 at 12:14pm
I don't get what the big deal is, I'm running Win8 on all my computers and don't have any issues. I've heard all the arguments against it, and the start menu is not gone it's just different, don't like full-screen tablet style apps on your desktop? Don't use them. Other than that, it's a speedier version of Windows 7. I know I won't win an argument with all the Win8 haters, which is fine, I'm just surprised at the level of negativity over what really are small changes to an OS that gained speed along the way.
Paper Jam
January 24, 2013 at 1:47pm
Let's look at it from the other direction. They pushed out an incremental update with a drastically different UI shortly after the release of their first good offering in over a decade, and now they are panicking because it isn't flying off the shelf. Metro is, for the most part, love it or hate it. Windows 7 is mostly just loved, and what a lot of average people were waiting for to upgrade their old XP machines. And the ones wanting a tablet have already bought an iPad or cheap Android. Windows 8 is just too early on the desktop front and late to the mobile scene.
And the negativity is because those of us that don't love Metro really really hate it. Sorry.
PDX-1337
January 24, 2013 at 5:18pm
That's the thing, I don't see it as a drastically different UI. They changed how you fetch your programs, and how you search for items, but that's pretty much it. Other than that you can go on your merry way using the desktop like you always have.
I will totally agree with you though, people either love or hate the Metro/Start Page or whatever it's called, I wonder if there would have been an option (besides having to get an app for it) to use a Win7 style Start menu (which I think there should be, even though I like it, but I understand not everyone does), if all of this negative madness would have been bypassed...
Paper Jam
January 24, 2013 at 7:47pm
If MS had included a native option to boot to the desktop and return the traditional Start Menu, it would have at least eliminated a major gripe hear on MaxPC. But MS, in their infinite wisdom, decided that pushing their unified UI was more important. For me, I just find it unappealing on the PC, but on the Xbox it is terrible. Counter intuitive, loaded with ads (even though I pay for a Gold account), and generally just childish. If the original dashboard hadn't been so bad, I would miss it. In trying to force feed me Metro, they are driving me away.
danwat1234
January 24, 2013 at 1:27pm
Yeah it really is Windows 7 with efficiency enhancements and a new version of Windows Explorer and Task Manager, IE10(which windows 7 is getting) and Metro and the Refresh / Reset functions.
Start8 pushes Metro aside so it's no longer annoying. Windows 8 is polished I like it
wintercoder
January 24, 2013 at 12:05pm
I agree. That is why they came out with the Surface. We've had two since its release.. it blows away android based and iPad tablets in virtually every way, except one... The Microsoft store does not have nearly as many completely useless, foolish apps as do the others.
The OEMs were getting lazy... expecting Microsoft to provide the innovation. Innovation can be hard to profit from... just ask HP about WebOS.
Not only did Microsoft provide the innovation, but according to this article, also gave the OEMs the roadmap to success.
I think it is the OEMs fault for being so stubborn. But I also think that the retailers, specifically BB, are hugely at fault for their extremely poor retail placement of Windows 8 tablets. With the 'Apple Island' located in each store, the blue shirts aggressively dissuade customers from PC purchases.
DeltaFIVEengineer
January 24, 2013 at 12:54pm
I think we all know by know that you have a raging hard on for Best Buy employees and you think them responsible for all the ills of the PC world. I'm sure they probably think the world of you as well.
Microsoft has no one to blame but themselves and now they're doing their absolute best to copy the Apple model to the letter. Unfortunately for them, they'll never be able to acquire that last piece of the puzzle which is controlling all of the hardware that their softwares resides on.
wintercoder
January 24, 2013 at 1:59pm
Last thing first... It is pretty clear that when a software company shames a hardware company at the hardware company's own game then you should applaud the software company and lecture the hardware company about its lackluster efforts. Microsoft is merely attempting to lead by example. If the hardware company doesn't want to follow and benefit from Microsoft's investments, then it's their loss.
First thing last... Oh no.. you've got it wrong. I spend a very large sum of money with BB. They serve a purpose and are a needed resource. I simply don't respect their apparent corporate alliance with Apple... which is a company I have no respect for.
