[SyphonPayne]

I worked with the Developer Preview a lot and after the novelty wore off I found the interface clunky and counter-intuitive for any machine without a touch screen. I went back to 7 on those machines. Hopefully the Consumer Preview has fixed a lot of those issues, I'll see when I install it within the next few days.

I think it'll be a long while before I have a Windows PC with a touchscreen though. Considering the fact that my main computer has a 32-inch screen, I don't think it would make much sense to make it touch-capable. I also much prefer notebooks to tablets, more power, resolution, more precision with an external mouse, and if I want to touch something I'll play with my iPhone or GPS receiver. I think that real work machines (in the majority of situations) require a keyboard and a mouse. That is where Windows 8 is failing, so far. Granted, I have not installed the Consumer Preview just yet, but based on my experience with the Developer Preview, normal applications (as opposed to the Metro "apps") are harder to access, and the Metro UI just ended up feeling out-of-place and slowed me down as I had to type in programs, click several more times, instead of just going to the start menu, meanwhile watching flashy graphics while the Metro UI activates/deactivates.

Granted, just like Vista and 7, I'll probably get 8, might invest in some touchscreen/tablet on the side, if it's worthwhile, but for now it's all just novelty. I guess Microsoft's main goal for Win 8 is to replace iOS, Android and the likes. I think that Windows has a much greater capability to do more things than those operating systems, yet full-blown Windows (and not the mobile variants) will require some full-fledged hardware, more powerful than most of today's phones, but who knows, maybe 8 will influence the phone hardware market, and improve our phone experiences (even moreso than now.)

Yeah Wolf, I remember those XP days with the start menu. Absolutely terrible. I remember for one thing you had to change a setting in XP to make the programs scroll, as when the menu got full, it would go off of the screen. Even with scrolling, might as well go get you a cup of coffee if you need to access a program in the R-Z range. Vista/7's start menu search is great, couldn't/wouldn't go without it these days...

EDIT: Oh, the Windows 8 Task Manager is actually pretty nifty. It's almost as good as something like Sysinternals Process Explorer or Autoruns. Though, if you want the old-fashioned variety, I found that declining the UAC prompt when you open the task manager in the DP would give you the old one (of course, might not work with UAC disabled and/or on lower level than maximum.) The other way to get it was to disable Metro altogether via registry or renaming/deleting a dll. Though both of those methods disabled the new task manager and also caused other issues, watermarks, etc.

Which reminds me, this is off-topic, but those of you that want to disable the Windows 7 boot animation (for faster startup, especially if you're on an SSD,) simply rename/delete bootres.dll in the system32 folder. It will give you the old Vista-style (which is basically the same as XP except green) loading bar.

This post has been edited by SyphonPayne on Saturday, Mar 3 2012, 05:44

[Slamman]

I have challenged anyone with a OEM of Windows ME to show a failure test for it, or even try a copy of mine and see how it works out for ya! With my first laptop, swapped a ME format on it (Dell Latitude LS) and all the drivers were there, it worked without a hitch
I'd like to see Win 8 handling games without need of SP1 or 2, as Vista did need.

Some reviewers are as hyped about Win8 as MS it seems, but as you mention, what is their goal in perhaps replacing Win7 with Win8!??

This post has been edited by Slamman on Saturday, Mar 3 2012, 07:30

[Wolf68k]

I forgot to ask this before and I know it's a mild point and might even sound stupid but....
What about the desktop wallpaper? From what I've seen you'll only see when you go from metro to the desktop itself, but when you're in metro even if you would set a custom background you won't see it because it'll be covered by all of the buttons, or whatever they are called and I don't really care at this point. Pretty much can be said for the color schemes/themes.


@Slamman
Since 8 is based on 7, I don't see that being too much of a problem. You can even use the 7 drivers for your hardware within 8.

[SyphonPayne]

Well, in the DP, only the desktop wallpaper was changeable, as in Win 7/Vista/etc. ... So you'd only see it when you were on the Desktop and not on Metro. As for how it works in the CP, I have yet to see, I'll install it when I get a chance. I have an SSD dedicated to Windows 8, most likely that SSD will have it installed on day 1 of RTM. If Win8 fails too badly though, I'll just stick with 7.

[Slamman]

I found I already have the earlier one downloaded on this HDD, the evaluation (Developer Preview IIRC) copy of Win8, so I suspect I'll have to download the latest version and compare the two!?

With Wolf's mention of Windows 7 drivers, I wonder if 8 would be more backward compatible, the same, or less?

This post has been edited by Slamman on Saturday, Mar 3 2012, 19:35

[Cursed]

QUOTE (Slamman @ Saturday, Mar 3 2012, 19:33)

With Wolf's mention of Windows 7 drivers, I wonder if 8 would be more backward compatible, the same, or less?

Well the standard VGA driver supports Aero which is good to see.

[finn4life]

I think there should be a UI option to make 8 more like 7.
I understand the idea of bringing everything together, make tablets and phones more like computers, not the other way around.

Open a compatibility mode when you wanna play with your laptop, i doubt i will be upgrading unless major changes are made.

[Outcast]

I dont understand why people keep saying there should be an option to make the GUI more like Win 7. the option is right there on the home screen of Win 8, its a massive tile!

[Wolf68k]

If you're talking about the one that says Desktop, that's not the point...at least not mine.
I personally would want to completely disable Metro. But for others they mostly want the 7 start menu back. The way 8 is now, when you click Desktop, yes you're taking to the desktop but when you click what use to be the Start menu you're taking back to the Metro tiles.

[Outcast]

fair enough, my mistake

[Slamman]

QUOTE (Stinky12 @ Friday, Mar 2 2012, 14:49)

I've tried both developers preview which was released a few months back and their consumer preview that was released a few days ago. Running on VM, there is only 1 word that can describe both version. Complete and utter sh*t!!! In DP you can at least still function to the basics, but in CP it's so dumb down you can't do anything. First start is not start any more and has been integrated into the metro ui menu place on the right. There is no way to close off a open app unless you head over to task manager. Right now I'm stuck in IE and have no way of closing it.

Did you try ALT+F4 good buddy?!

[Algonquin Bridge]

Tried it on a VM...and not impressed, to be honest.

I'm sure it's wonderful on a Tablet or PC with a touchscreen. But for me, a simple Keyboard, Mouse n' Generic PnP Monitor user? Feels far too clunky.

And it's probably the filthy elitist in me feeling like this but...I actually find this simplification rather...insulting. As if it assumes I'm some kind of cretin who needs all his computer-y stuff all streamlined and simplified; who needs all his applications (or 'apps') in big tiles in front of him, instead of neatly filed away in the Start Menu/organised on the desktop.

Funnily enough, I'm okay with Metro on my Windows Phone. I think for something smaller and more portable like that, it works. But for a big boy PC? It's too big of a change; at least for the moment. If it was eased in somehow, I think it could work. But to jump from 7 being the good ol' Start Menu n' Desktop to 8 with the whole METRO SLIDEY TILES AND APPS is very sudden.

Thankfully, this might put off lots of businesses from migrating to 8, instead sticking with XP or 7. Something I can capitalize on, aha, aha, aha.

[sjaak327]

QUOTE (Stinky12 @ Friday, Mar 2 2012, 16:49)

I've tried both developers preview which was released a few months back and their consumer preview that was released a few days ago. Running on VM, there is only 1 word that can describe both version. Complete and utter sh*t!!! In DP you can at least still function to the basics, but in CP it's so dumb down you can't do anything. First start is not start any more and has been integrated into the metro ui menu place on the right. There is no way to close off a open app unless you head over to task manager. Right now I'm stuck in IE and have no way of closing it.

Maybe using the keyboard ? ALt+f4 works fine over here. The new startscreen is much better then the old start screen, especially when using the keyboard.

It is so much better and quicker then Windows 7, that I will probably going to load 8 on all of my pc's, the startup is so massively quicker, it isn't even funny.

[Indi]

Does anyone know how to name groups? I drag the tiles on the Start Menu and create a group, but I am not sure how to actually make the tiles in a group have names so that it is more organized for me to go around.

Okay, I found out how to do that, i went onto the Start Screen and I then zoomed out and then right clicked on the tile, and then just created a group name and it did it for me.

Now, how do I add my contacts from the "People App" onto the Start Menu?

This post has been edited by Indi on Sunday, Mar 4 2012, 16:33

[Wolf68k]

I would be interested in this.
If someone has it 8 installed on the exact same type of drive as 7 or maybe on a partition with 7, the point is not USB, SSD while the 7 is on a HDD (or vise versa) or has a virtual system or anything else that's not the same. I'd like to see the start up time. There's a video on YT of someone doing a test between 7 and 8 DP and 8 was so much faster, to me it was way way way too fast as most as if the 7 was on a HDD while 8 was on a SSD, and he never went into any details to the specs and you can't read the BIOS post well enough to see what drives were used enough that could have been edited later.

[Cursed]

I put it on my brothers laptop yesterday and all I can say is it's quite confusing. Quite a lot of the time it's not obvious how to get back to somewhere or how to do something. It also confirmed my thoughts about the two interfaces not really working together. Your classic Windows apps are kept separately from the Start Screen. There are basically two separate versions of Control Panel and Internet Explorer which aren't at all related. I'm also fed up of being asked to login to my Microsoft Account.

Positives - The whole Metro UI design is very nice looking. The animations are all very smooth.

[sjaak327]

QUOTE (Wolf68k @ Sunday, Mar 4 2012, 18:58)

I would be interested in this. If someone has it 8 installed on the exact same type of drive as 7 or maybe on a partition with 7, the point is not USB, SSD while the 7 is on a HDD (or vise versa) or has a virtual system or anything else that's not the same. I'd like to see the start up time. There's a video on YT of someone doing a test between 7 and 8 DP and 8 was so much faster, to me it was way way way too fast as most as if the 7 was on a HDD while 8 was on a SSD, and he never went into any details to the specs and you can't read the BIOS post well enough to see what drives were used enough that could have been edited later.

Windows 8 boots up really really fast, on my celeron powered laptop with normal SATA disk and 3 GB of memory, a cold boot will get me to the start screen/desktop in about 10 seconds, as opposed to 40 seconds on Windows 7 with the exact same hardware.

On my main desktop, I see the exact same thing, but on this machine post boot takes a while on either OS, the Alienware bios on that machine takes about 25 seconds to reach post.

[SyphonPayne]

QUOTE (Wolf68k @ Sunday, Mar 4 2012, 10:58)

I would be interested in this. If someone has it 8 installed on the exact same type of drive as 7 or maybe on a partition with 7, the point is not USB, SSD while the 7 is on a HDD (or vise versa) or has a virtual system or anything else that's not the same. I'd like to see the start up time. There's a video on YT of someone doing a test between 7 and 8 DP and 8 was so much faster, to me it was way way way too fast as most as if the 7 was on a HDD while 8 was on a SSD, and he never went into any details to the specs and you can't read the BIOS post well enough to see what drives were used enough that could have been edited later.

Based on my experience with the Developer Preview (and I bet it's the same on the Consumer Preview,) in Windows 8, when you "shut down" your computer, it actually just logs you off and hibernates. This actually makes shutting down slower, but speeds up the next boot. I'm not really a big fan of that. Never really used sleep/hibernation much on previous operating systems. The only way to have a "clean" boot in Windows 8 is to restart. There is no way to "shut down" in Windows 8 without it automatically hibernating, unless you completely disable hibernation (may or may not have changed that in the Consumer Preview, I'll find out in a few days.)

[Xcommunicated]

I have yet to play around with the CP, but I'm not seeing that great of reviews so far. The general consensus seems to be that 8 is hell bent on the user sticking with Metro and basically tries to usher you back into it after switching over to the desktop. I'm also reading that any power user looking to do meaningful work on the desktop has to put up with extra clicks to circumvent the overall dumbed-down feel of the OS.

I can't say for sure, but it looks like MS is trying to drive a square peg into a round hole. Trying to mesh a dumbed-down jack-off interface that will satisfy the schmucky mobile gizmo craze with a traditional desktop interface is bound to step on some toes, and those seem to be the toes of people looking to actually get sh*t done. MS must be banking a lot on the mobile craze being the bread and butter of the future, otherwise it seems like a lot of revenue could be lost on the business front.

[Slamman]

MS Windows should allow customizing to user preference, we all are pretty much used to the taskbar and START formatting, but I like clicking on something like a Program heading, and it branches deeper into the option list, one of the features I only recently got working was a layering of open windows in 3D filing cabinet effect, with the one you want up front, and Bill Gates once predicted that Windows would allow you to move things on your desktop with hand movements on a virtual screen that could detect what motions were being presented, much like Kinect, maybe, but for all computing tasks.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso