What would you do ?

[Glenn]

Just press the 'Windows' key. I use 8.0 everyday at work, I go on to the tiled screen maybe twice a day.

One of the best features of 8.0/8.1 is the search, no need to find the search option on the tiled screen, just type the name of the application, so you want Notepad, so just type note and it will appear.

[camdave]

Sorry, I have confused you; the computer displayed all the start-up tiles as expected (some/many of which I will get rid off) and also a 'Lenovo Desktop' tile. My point was that so far I have had no issues with 8/8.1 despite all the negative comments for the past year or so.

I admit it is only an hour or so since I set up the PC but I really can't understand why people say it is so different and difficult to use.
The tiles could, I'm sure, be quite useful some of the time.

[Glenn]

The vast majority of negative comments will come from people that have never used it.

8.1 can be configured to boot straight on to the desktop if desired. If you right click a tile it can be added to desktop taskbar or removed from the start screen.

[Technical Ben]

8.1 is fine. It's 8.0 that is problematic. For example, loading up IE may give you the desktop or the Metro version depending on where you were/load it from or it's settings. Each has different features. I think most of the missing required GUI elements and program options are added to the 8.1 update.

Saying that, I still find almost no functionality of Metro helpful. Plus the hot corners are actually counter productive to any work I'd want to do (have painting tools that would activate it in error etc)

[camdave]

Latest update: My wife's Lenovo is great and no issues with 8.1 but my five year old Sony all-in-one running Vista is driving me up the wall. Despite two complete re-installs I am still getting problems with programs not opening properly (usually 'xxxx not responding) and slow startup and shutdowns. I am convinced there is a problem with the hardware which is causing this so I think it is time for a replacement.

I am impressed with the Lenovo, it's a good spec. and not a lot of 'bloatware'. JL are currently offering a machine with much the same spec. as my wife's but with an AMD A8 6500 processor. Given that I don't game, edit video or do heavy photo editing would an AMD (with dedicated graphis card) be OK for general use. I realise it won't be as 'fast' as the Intel i5 but in practice would this make a real difference?

[Technical Ben]

Yep. AMD should still be ok if the price is right. It's only if you can get a comparative i3 or Intel at the same price it's worth going over to intel.

A quick glance says it's comparable to a Intel Core i3-4330T @ 3.00GHz. And priced very competitive for it's performance (though might be American site ).
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A8-6500+APU

PS, by sheer coincidence it is the same performance as my old AMD PhenII, though my experience is bias, as mine is massively OverClocked.
But even normal it runs web and stuff fine. The only thing to watch is power consumption on the higher end AMD, but I don't think it effects that series.