Windows Windows 8 Marmite thread... Because you either love it or hate it.

[impar]

Greetings!

Microsoft Sees 24 Percent Increase in Windows Revenue, Drop in Profit

Microsoft reported a 2.7 percent increase in overall revenue thanks to a small boost from Windows 8

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=29744

Microsoft: This is just the start of the Windows 8 business

Microsoft held its regular quarterly conference call with financial analysts today as part of its fourth quarter 2012 financial announcements. During the call and its follow up Q&A session, the company's chief financial officer Peter Klein seemed very optimistic that Windows 8 growth would continue, despite outside reports of slow sales of the first Windows 8 specific products.

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft...ows-8-business

Microsoft blasts PC makers: It's YOUR fault Windows 8 crash landed
Slab builders ignored Redmond, claims Reg source

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01..._8_blame_game/

[GoodBytes]

I agree that it was OEM.
Their "high-end" systems were identical to their low end in every single way.
Not even dedicated graphic card of any sort, even if you had 3000$ to give them, same for the CPU. No reason to buy the high-end models. And build quality wasn't that good on the high-end system to justify the price.

[rollo]

Can't really blame pc makers for not wanting to take risks.

Nothing is selling in the pc hardware market.

Most of the manufactures have tried the tablet market and lost cash, I'd guess none of there market research showed that a windows tablet would do alot better than the andriod ones they already tried to sell in many cases.

We're also down to only 3 main pc distributors these days.

Dell, hp, Lenovo. All 3 are loosing cash and would struggle to invest the R&D in a product they though might not sell.

Not like Microsoft surface rt has set any sales records to show them there's a market. And with the high hardware requirements actually making something that beats or = a surface rt is very difficult.

Asus came out and said themselves as much once cost of OS was added on top there unit price was $150 above the surface rt.

None of them have the supply chains that Apple or Samsung have so parts are very expensive.

I'd be surprised if we see another tablet with windows rt on it outside of the Microsoft surface range. Manufactures seem more intent on exploiting a tablet using atom CPUs as cheap x86 tablets than more expensive than Microsoft ARM tablets.

Have a feeling to see wider adoption Microsoft may need to drop its windows rt price tag to allow there pc makers its moaning at to build more viable tablets.

[GoodBytes]

The problem with OEM is that they are public. So "0" risk. They HAVE TO not only show that they reached their goals, they need to surpass expectation or the stock plummets.
I am glad that Dell is going private. I hope that they succeed in going private, and not stop selling PC (or sale their PC division to some other company), and that they can take more risk, whether it's new marketing risk, focus on improving their image to attract sales, or focus on high end computer, and presenting them self as the Apple of PC's or return to it's root by ACTUALLY having customization. Picking you warranty length IS NOT customizing. What Dell is now is the last thing Dell wanted to be when it started.

It would be truly silly to think that the the Surface RT will sale great deal. It's only availible in limited quantities online and on Microsoft stores, and it's not cheap. I said it since the begging. Microsoft allowed OEM to have the entire market to themselves. What Microsoft done is a reference design.

Imagine if Nvidia or AMD reference design card are much better than the alternative from the rest? That's how I see the PC market. While, it is true that Microsoft deign is a bit over board for a reference design, it never stopped Nvidia or AMD card manufacture to find creative ways to surpass it.

The that the Surface RT sold anything, shows that people are sick and tired of the OEM crap, and were willing to jump on a device from a manufacture that never made physically a device to the mass market, and no idea on the warranty service quality, or build quality.

Apple supply chain is very very small. They don't sale as many PC's as Dell or HP. They are just good at negotiating prices, and due in having essentially a "1-2 model fits" design, they can order even more identical parts, and instead of have let's say 1000 engineer split in working on 30 different laptop design at a rush paste, they have 1000 engineer talking their time, be in a productive environment, and working on 1-2 laptop/desktop design, and one at a time.

Apple order from 1 manufacture they displays for a laptop and desktop. Dell, HP, etc. Uses 2-3 manufactures for the same laptop. What the heck? Since when multiple small orders is better? Beside you create different experiences. For my laptop I recall 3 monitors LG being the best, Samsung being so-so, and if you had AOC you would return the laptop due that the color were extremely washed out, and very yellow.

[oasked]

Can anyone fill me in on how I can enable DVD playback in Windows 8? I have downloaded (and installed) Windows Media Centre, but it still won't play DVDs. Do I just have to give up and use VLC?

I know Microsoft didn't want to include DVD playback by default to avoid paying license fees, but I thought Media Centre included support?!

Thanks

[rollo]

It will only play the DVDs through windows media centre program itself, so if your trying to use windows media player instead that won't work.

[GoodBytes]

Correct.

In the AutoPlay panel of Windows, you can set Windows Media Center to start when you insert a DVD movie. When you do that, it will open and play the DVD movie as you soon as you insert it. So that you don't have to go through the menu of Media Center.

[oasked]

Originally Posted by GoodBytes

Correct.

In the AutoPlay panel of Windows, you can set Windows Media Center to start when you insert a DVD movie. When you do that, it will open and play the DVD movie as you soon as you insert it. So that you don't have to go through the menu of Media Center.

I tried that, but I get an error message:



This is a vanilla install of Windows 8 Pro x64 with Media Centre installed.

EDIT:
Doing a bit of googling, I think the issue might be this:

http://www.eightforums.com/software-...play-dvds.html

I shall investigate further...

[GoodBytes]

Well I can assure you it works for everyone. So its definitely a driver related issue, or a conflict.
I would also try a different DVD player drive.

[thefriscokid]

Silly question but will win7 drivers work in win8.

[RedFlames]

Originally Posted by thefriscokid

Silly question but will win7 drivers work in win8.

the drivers themselves should [as should vista drivers], but any installers may need to be run in compatibility mode

[wolfticket]

Originally Posted by thefriscokid

Silly question but will win7 drivers work in win8.

Short answer: pretty much, yes

[impar]

Greetings!

8GadgetPack

8GadgetPack is a small utility with which you can install the original Gadget program files on Windows 8.



http://8gadgetpack.bplaced.net/

[theshadow2001]

Originally Posted by impar

Greetings!

Wasn't there some security issues with gadgets?

[RichCreedy]

Originally Posted by theshadow2001

Wasn't there some security issues with gadgets?

yes that's why they were removed

[impar]

Greetings!

Originally Posted by theshadow2001

Wasn't there some security issues with gadgets?

What other excuse could Microsoft give to remove them from W8 and open the field to live tiles?

[steveo_mcg]

Seriously? You think MS need to invent security issues?

[theshadow2001]

Originally Posted by impar

Greetings!

What other excuse could Microsoft give to remove them from W8 and open the field to live tiles?

To be honest, I think it really was a happy coincidence. I mean some hackers and security experts must have verified the exploit.

[Nexxo]

Good riddance, IMO. Sidebar Gadgets were crap. Rainmeter is much better. And it has been recomplied for ARM so I've got it running on my Surface RT too.

[GoodBytes]

I agree. The only gadget I was using was the weather, and the dam thing works only for some months. Most of the time it could not pull the weather info from the website, or just showing the temperature, not the weather condition.