Windows 8

• Nov 1, 2012 - 16:24

This is not exactly a feature specific request, but after 2.0 is released could someone possibly start work on an app form of the program?


Comments

For more than a year lead developer Werner Schweer has been busy refactoring the MuseScore code and prepare it for mobile platforms such as Android, iOS and Win RT. Expect some news on Win RT early next year.

In reply to by Thomas

I have been using MuseScore for a while now on desktop. I was wondering when it would be available for windows surface rt. I would like to be able to conduct my music from my tablet instead of paper.

In reply to by schepers

My initial reaction is extremely positive.

Everything is running much faster, the touch screen on the tablet is working much more responsively, consequently the unit is much more pleasant to use as a tablet without plugging it onto it's keyboard dock.

The new tablet-friendly UI is a breeze to use, the only problem I had was working out how to shut the machine down.

OK, it takes a bit of getting used to not having a task bar, and I missed the start button a little at first, but 10 minutes in, and I could find my way round the UI with no problems.

I think Microsoft may have got it right for once :)

Incidentally I won't be trying to self-compile on this machine, there's not enough disc space, I am impressed enough, however, to be considering upgrading my 3 XP machines to 8

Editing in Musescore 1.2 is problematic in tablet mode, however, as the keyboard that pops up lacks up and down arrows. This is overcome by using the On Screen Keyboard instead (Run>OSK.exe)

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

Hi.

I know this post is a bit old, but can you tell me the Tablet Model Does it have a ARM processor?
I'm thinking of buying a Surface RT with Win 8.1, but due to the processor it might be difficult to install and run Muse Score.
Your post was a light in the dark in this matter

In reply to by schepers

I am using it on a desktop and I like it very much. Since using it on a desktop with a mouse seemed to be causing the most speculative moaning and groaning I'll outline what I've found.

IMO, the biggest problem with W8 was inadequate instruction on the changed concepts such as you don't shutdown tasks when using the tile UI and what seems to be the big bugaboo, how do I turn it off.

I deleted the tiles I didn't want, and there were several, and then laid out the tiles for my OS and installed programs in a configuration that made sense to me. Funny how nobody really associated the tiles with the icons on the previous versions desktop and considered them some obscure concept. I like the live tile for my email. Before you spend time laying out your tiles, install all your programs first then you know what you are dealing with.

It is very easy to bring up the desktop from its tile and the user should run the mouse pointer in all corners of the Start Page screen to see "what is there".

The IE10 browser operates differently when started from the tile but if you are a tablet user is likely won't be as much culture shock. Right-clicking is your friend since it will bring up a history at the top of the screen and the IE address bar at the bottom. Left-click in the address bar brings up any pinned sites (I have my personal homepage pinned), Frequently visited sites and Favorites.

For flipping between the tile interface and Desktop, the WIndows Key is your friend, Also Windows-E brings up File Explorer as in previous versions. Windows-X brings up a menu that gets you to a lot of stuff that was on the old Start Menu. There are lots of these shortcuts.

The Setting "gear" which is one of the charms is context sensitive so it depends on what is displayed when you click it.

A right-click on the tile Start Page will display an "all apps" button which will provide all the installed apps including all sorts of Windows OS apps like the Control Panel, Calculator, Wordpad, etc. You can pin any of these to the Start Page which makes a tile.

If you like playing with OS admin stuff, you can bring up the charms in the Start Page click settings, tiles, and a switch to display admin tasks will be displayed. Turn it on and you get things like Task Scheduler, Services, Firewall, etc.

If you have a dual-monitor setup, Windows-PgUP or PfDown flips the Start Page/Desktop to the other monitor.

When you are through with an app started by tile interface just hit the Windows key to leave it. It keeps an entry on the disk to it can be quickly restarted and with todays modern machines it is not a burden.

BTW, if you use Windows Media Center, it does not come with W8 and is an extra cost add-on but for a while it is free. Just go to the MS site and download the free key. The software is already on your W8 system and just needs to be enabled with the key. Also, the W8 download upgrade version is only $40 in North America for a couple of months or so. I downloaded it (about 2GB and burned the .iso to a DVD. There are other options than just the DVD.

I am writing this on an XP laptop so I hope I've remembered W8 things correctly.

Does it bring a whole lot more to your desktop computing capabilty than W7. I'd say no but if you are interested in the latest or want to see how things may be evolving then get W8. There are indications of new touch devices becoming available for the desktop computers that will mimic touch control more than a mouse does.

I use Windows 8 on a laptop and on a desktop.

Win 8 is focused on a touchscreen and it may work well on that. Using a mouse it is annoying but tolerable. Using it with a touchpad is maddening. At 'random' the screen changes size, or scrolls rather than moves the cursor, or in the middle of typing the cursor moves elsewhere in the document and sometimes selects a bunch of text which is deleted by the next character typed (thank goodness for undo). And then every so often, for no discernible reason, a black bar appears on the right side and a big box with the time appears on the left side, requiring a click to get rid of (this latter problem happens with the mouse as well as the touchpad).

In reply to by drumcat

Are you describing general frustrations with Windows 8, or something about MuseScore specifically? I've never seen anything like what you describe, with MuseScore or any other program on Windows 8. It sounds perhaps like you aren't accustomed to working with touchpads and keep accidentally brushing it with your hand while trying to do something else - or maybe the specific touchpad on your Windows 8 laptop is larger or more sensitive than what you are accustomed to.

Except: the black bar on the right and the time displaying - isn't that just normal Windows 8 behavior if you move your muse into one of the corner zones?

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Just letting people know my experience with Windows 8. I have used laptops with touchpads pretty much every day (for personal and for work) ever since they came out. It appears they attempted to 'map' touchscreen function to the touchpad. Thus, you can 'pinch' and 'spread' your fingers to decrease the display size. And by touching a 'dimple' with one finger, you can scroll with another. The problem is, these functions activate on some single finger movements as well.
I have no idea what is up with the jumping around and random text marking when editing text.

Agreed, some or all of this might be the laptop I have rather than Windows 8. One expects more of HP though.

As for the black bar/time, it probably is some standard Windows 8 function, but I cannot get it deliberately, no matter what I do. But when I don't expect it, it shows up.

In reply to by drumcat

I was just trying to understand if you were talking about your general experience with Windows 8 or if you were trying to report a bug in MuseScore that only happened on Windows 8. Sounds like it's the former, then. Yes, pinch to zoom etc is part of most modern OS's. Does take a little getting used to at first.

As for the black bar, it is indeed standard. Move your mouse into the top or bottom right corner of the screen to display the kind-of-sort-of-equivalent of the old start menu on the right side of the screen. It displays first as an overlay on top of whatever else you are viewing, but if you then move your mouse toward one of the icons on this menu, it becomes more prominent.

Definitely worth checking out some of the Windows 8 tutorials out there - it is pretty radically different in how some of these things work.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Pinch and zoom is indeed key on touch screen OS, and I use it quite comfortably there. On a touch pad (or at least on my laptop's touch pad), sometimes either it does not do it reliably when I want it to, and sometimes does it for a single finger attempt to move the cursor, and some times it does work as I intend/wish. This is not an education problem or even an experience problem, it is a bug in either Win 8 or the laptop or even both.

And the black bar is indeed standard, as a temporary result of bringing up the 'ghost' menu and hovering over a selection. However, if you move off the menu, the black bar goes away, as it should. What I am talking about is it coming up WITHOUT the ghost menu AND not going away until you click on something. Again, not education, but a software and/or hardware bug.

I use musescore only on the win 8 computers (so far) and the only problem I have seen is when shortening measures so that multiple lines become one line, the measure layout sometimes gets messed up. So far I've always been able to recover by making measure bigger again. Since I have not tried it on a lower level system, I can't say this a Win 8 problem.

Hi!!!

I only want to ask the new MuseScore versions full compatibility with the new and old Windows versions.

Please, think about not all the people in the world has enough money to change from a Windows version to another new... quickly.

Even more, I'm no sure if the change is absolutely desirable in all cases.

For example, I'm still use Windows XP and I don't see any reason to change it but the Microsoft product end of life politics.

So, if you perform any change in the new version of MuseScore (to make it compatible with Windows 8), please, don't forget the compatibility with old Windows versions, please!!!

God bless you all!!!!!!!

In reply to by jotape1960

As far as I know there are no plans for MusScore to abandon XP. The current version 1.3 works on XP up to 8, and the current nightly builds do too, these will become version 2.0, so no reason to assume XP support from MuseScore will get dropped any time soon.

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.