I hate Windows 8.

I've been trying to put together a video for my art class, one of the first times I've used Elements 11, and Windows 8 is driving me mad. I'm so used to 7 and the start menu that dealing with this second "screen" is a complete hassle especially with all the "apps" that Microsoft keeps throwing at me.

The art project itself is rather simple. It just has to be a video that we have recorded and edited with footage taken by ourselves. My idea is to basically have a music video of me just playing Halo. Pretty much the basic thing that every kid has on his youtube account. However capturing said video is also a pain as my camera records video in avi and I have no idea how to convert that into a format that Elements 11 can understand. Also I guess the file share system for the Halo games is also a complete mess and is a hassle to get files to your PC.

Any thoughts on my conundrum?

It sounds like, in reality, your problems are nothing to do with Windows 8!

But anyway, to offer some help, Adobe Premiere Elements 11 should definitely support importing .avi... http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WSeffff8bffc802084-1665492e133c9c19956-8000.html

I dunno about working on video, but I do know I prefer Windows 7 to 8.

@bibamatt: I try adding the file to Elements but it says it doesn't support the file or the codec. I'm really new to video editing.

As much I dislike Windows 8 in general, I don't see how your problems have anything to do with it. I edit video on Premiere Pro on a Windows 8 machine almost every day and it's totally fine. Also AVIs are container files so you should probably use a free tool like GSpot to figure out what codec it's using and then convert it to something else that Premiere can use. What camera are you using? Maybe it's just easier to look up what kinds of files it spits out and how to deal with them when editing.

I don't agree for the reasons you state, but I do agree that Windows 8 is awful and a step down from Windows 7. There's just far too much they changed for the worse.

You want a video converter.. The easiest way around that is the most expensive. Just use AVID. But that doesn't help you much. Hmm..

Yea, just look around for a video converter. I have school now today, so I can't help you now. My friend sent me one and it needs a cracked code. Illegal stuff I'm sure. Damn thing doesn't work anyway, it just crashes.

So, yea. Windows 8 has nothing to do with those file converting problems. I expect Adobe should handle .mov files, just fine. I have W8, and its fine. They're releasing an 8.1 update for free in June for all W8 customers. It might help your life not hating it later..

I'm making some progress with the video. I'm now using my webcam instead of the regular camera so I bypass alot of the format problems I've had, though it limits what kind of shots I can do. I still really dislike Win 8. I tried playing the music file I was going to use for the video and Win 8 opened its own separate app and started playing the song twice over lapping each other. I was able to stop one of the songs, but the other continued playing and I couldn't turn it off until the song finished. Really annoying stuff. >_<

All the things people cite when they claim they dislike windows 8 are so easily ignorable it really makes me think people are just complaining for the sake of it. Don't like metro? Hit the windows key and never see it again.

Anyway, are you really using a webcam to film yourself playing halo? Like, is it pointing at your screen? That sounds like a terrible idea for a school project.

I dunno you guys; I like that it boots so much quicker than Win7 and that it's less of a resource hog (in my experience at least - I have to monitor that sort of thing since I produce music and I've had much less system load on Win8 than on 7). Otherwise my use hasn't changed much. I pin most of the programs I use regularly to my taskbar, and for anything else, all I still have to do is hit the windows key and start typing, which is much the same as my process on Win7 was. To be fair, the second screen thing was definitely disorienting at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly (and love the fact that I'm used to the OS when I use my Surface), albeit by removing most apps and disabling UAC (and thereby all metro apps), which limits my options to "desktop" programs.

As for your problems, yeah I dunno, formats and such are definitely a pain in the ass, but they've been a pain in the ass for time immemorial (i.e. since I've started doing video / audio editing - I'm sure it was easier to figure out back when everything was on 8 tracks)

Meh the big problem with Win8 is that it seems to have "dissociative disorder" where it seems to literally be "of two minds" about so many things. The easiest example of this is that BOTH Alt-Tab and Win-Tab show and rotate through lists of applications. Some tools only work with touch while another only works with keyboard/mouse.

It is really apparent in the way it behaves on laptops with touch pads where "Move the pointer right" counts as a Swipe. It is also apparent when you have multiple monitors where for some reason they thought putting a bar on the right side of the screen accessible by putting the pointer on the right edge which falls off to the right monitor when you do that.

The complaints about the missing Start Menu is kind of a red herring because I believe the biggest sin is that Win8 doesn't support the very useful desktop paradigm of multiple windows. You can not look at two Metro applications at the same time. You can try to fiddle with docking one but that isn't sufficient let alone remotely useful when you need to have 3 things to look at. I do agree this topic isn't so much about Win8 but I can easily see being frustrated actually doing graphics work where you are looking at multiple references and have your work available.

On an apparent side note: http://www.tweakhound.com/tweaking-windows-8/

I remember seeing an alternate start menu that wasn't trying to be classic and was quite cool but I don't recall what it was...

This. The perks of 8 outweigh the negatives.

I like Windows 8. I think you guys are just comfortable with 7 and don't like change.

@alexw00d: It is more of a reactionary thing. I won't capture gameplay with the cam. For that I'll just try and get vids of gameplay from the internet

Get Classic Shell.