Windows 8 frustrates users – Windows 8 users are restricted when watching YouTube and other Flash videos
Meteor streaks across Russian city in Ural Mountains, injuring 1,100
Friday February 15th was supposed to be a near-miss for the asteroid hitting the earth.
Instead of an asteroid, a giant meteorite – UPDATE renamed as an asteroid – slammed into the atmosphere over the Russian skies injuring more than 1,100 people.
Russians were posting dash-cam and smartphone videos of the event almost as soon as it happened Friday morning.
If you are using Windows 8 “Modern”, you cannot watch those videos.
For its own bizarre reasons Microsoft has blocked Windows 8 from showing Adobe Flash videos in the “Modern” aka Metro interface.
Early Friday morning I kept clicking on sites like NBC News, their Windows 8 app, Reuters news, and BBC to watch the videos but they would not work. Even the official YouTube app for Windows 8 was not allowed to show the video.
There was a hidden option to show the video in the browser which finally worked.
My question is simple: why do users have to click-through to several apps and sites to just watch the video.
YouTube Player app with blank screen trying to stream Russian Meteor video
Steve Jobs made the same user-unfriendly decision when he shipped the iPad – no Flash videos would play despite the fact that most of the world, including YouTube, used Flash to stream videos.
Microsoft allows Flash videos to stream from some sites in Windows 8. If you get lucky and find an approved site, things work. Otherwise, you are left to click around until you find the right combination of app, browser. Call that a user frustration design feature.
Avoid Windows 8 Modern interface
The solution is to avoid Modern (Metro) altogether and use the Windows 8 Desktop and a browser like Chrome. Or as some would suggest, avoid Windows 8 altogether.
Sometimes you can’t help it. If you click and email link in Outlook, Internet Explorer will be the default browser. In that case, it’s hit or miss if the video will play.
Why would Microsoft create a confusing user experience in Windows 8? Microsoft claims that they have enhanced the user experience with Windows 8.
There are tweaks to work around the Microsoft Flash video restrictions but why should users be trying to re-work the registry. Microsoft has an official explanation of “controlling the user experience” which is double-speak for most users.
Microsoft gives an even longer explanation for things a user can do to “fix” their design issues. Troubleshoot video problems when using Internet Explorer The problem is not with the technical information but with the technical efforts users have to exert to overcome the design mistakes in Windows 8.
Windows 8 is not easier to use: it’s harder than Windows 7. Users have to remember where they – Desktop or Modern – to interact with the internet and video.
Surely Microsoft could do a better job.
Russian Meteor Videos
LiveLeak has some of the best untouched videos of the meteor explosion. The sonic boom and chaos at the factory is amazing.
For more videos check out the LiveLeak channel dedicated to the Russian meteor.
bdc2000
Not true. Flash videos play fine for me on Windows8 Modern and Desktop. I am watching flash videos fine on NBCNews,com and BBC. Your screenshot the Windows 8 YouTube App not displaying a player leads me to reason you have an issue.
The below comment is only your opinion and I do not agree, Having used Windows 8 for a few months now. I love it.
Windows 8 is not easier to use: it’s harder than Windows 7. Users have to remember where they – Desktop or Modern – to interact with the internet and video.
Stephen Pate
Thanks for your comment and opinion. In order to show Flash videos on Windows 8 Modern, the site must be “white listed” by Microsoft. I pointed to sites that will explain how you can tweak your own system, although I believe that’s a nuisance for most people and dangerous for some.
I’m glad you enjoy Windows 8. I’ve been using it for exactly one year on two different computers and recently came to the conclusion it’s an unfinished work, after defending it against critics for months.
BaSH PR0MPT
Flash sucks and Adobe are jerks; the lean to allow Adobe to control the multimedia market as a whole was pathologically insane. It was tech-unsavvy office dimwits who forced PDF’s down our throats–which have only in recent years just become freely accessible without $600 licenses–and it’s the same ignorant bunch who have propogated the use of flash for video streaming even though it is a heinously poor quality product. HTML5 will be the final nail in the Adobe coffin, and hopefully the internet will stop listening to technological noobs like OP.