Windows Windows 8 - Pre-Beta availible (OUT NOW)

Who knows, it's alpha os there are bound to be glitches.

 

I was going to skip it but now I just might try it if I have the time.

 

I really hate this metro thing. It is no good on the desktop. From now on I will refer to it as BOB 2.0. Ok, well it doesn't suck quite that hard, since you don't have animated characters popping out to 'help' you.
It isn't right on the desktop though, I don't want a crappy phone centric feeling thing getting in my way constantly.
I suppose I could force myself to get used to it, like anything, but I would rather not have to.

 

What do you expect? A "Guru Meditation"?



You and I may feel comfortable with that sort of error message (althoug let's face it, even we barely know what it means), but the majority of computer users do not see computers as fascinatingly esoteric playthings. They do not want to relate to it as some sort of complex intellectual challenge and they do not get a sense of excitement and challenge from bending a capricious piece of advanced technology to their will (mostly because they can't). To them, a computer is only so much as a toaster. It's a tool, with which to do things. It has no raison d'être in itself. So they don't want error messages that sound like cryptic riddles. They want solutions, even if that just means pressing 'restart'.

 

I dual booted as well

I **** myself when the os selection came up it's like it boots before you tell it to boot

 

This is a real hit and miss. I believe. It depends if Win8 finds drivers or like Win7 drivers.
My Laptop E6400, showed no problem, but do face with reduce battery life... The reduction in battery life could be linked to the full GPU interface or missing or not well optimized drivers. This was the same story with Win7 beta. Once the drivers were out during the Beta or/and Release Candidate, then everything went great.

I have 7 hours and half of battery life with Win8 compared to 10hours with Win7. I have what is considered today, a low end and old Nvidia GPU. But I don't feel like the UI is struggling the GPU. I think my GPU is not clocking down, and my sound card has the same problem.
I am still looking into it, playing around with drivers and what not.

The OS itself is stable, if you have most drivers. It never crashed on me, so far, on my laptop.
I see more BSOD's from people running it from VM.. but that is just me lurking around the web and looking at google images. Not actually looking in threads and such.

Windows 8 is NT 6.2, so it is based on Win7, which is based on Vista. So the core part is stable. Most bugs I encountered are small, and doesn't break the OS< but does the experience a bit, when you fall on them. It's about the same bugs visible on the demo's of Win8 at the keynote.

Well I am a developer.. not a professional, yet... but my project and working one seams to be running fine. Keep in mind that I just got Win8 yesterday night. Give me a month or so, and I can tell you something better.

But based on my experience on my laptop, I see it as a keeper, in term of stability.
The OS has issues here and there, like you can't close a Metro app (unless from the task bar),
wireless at university, but not at home, doesn't auto-reconnect. You can't side scroll the start screen, which is a bit unintuitive to me (you scroll up and down), turning off the system is a pain, Esc key doesn't Escape from anything, despite being a menu of sorts (the Start screen), and that the Weather application shows only degrees in Fahrenheit and not in Celcius. And the rest mentioned previously.

The above issue I can live with... assuming that they are fixed. The big problem, is getting used to the idea, that hitting the Start key, doesn't open the Start Menu (they are none), it shows the start screen. You can type anytime on the start screen and it searches, like Win7/Vista start menu. But, for settings, if you don't do Win+W (or Win+Q I forgot), it won't search on control panel items, as you need to click on App or Settings, for what you are looking on the search box. There is no "All" like the default in Win7. We have to see if that will be added.

Good they are not called "apps". They are called Applications, and Metro Applications for programs specifically for the start screen.

My mother calls the computer case an engine... so it's not better.

You can have everything in life.
I think I would just enjoy the ride.. as long as 16:10 IPS/PVA monitors are produced, I am all good.

No problem on my side. Might have been just a fluke.

Actually it is friendly. Works great. What I like about it, is big buttons, which makes my life easier on a laptop, with a touchpad, as you don't need to pin point anything, like the Win7 task bar.
I use teh scroll wheel (or thing on the touchpad) to scroll, scrolls fast and nice. I still wish dei scrolling ability, as the start menu is left/right.. makes more sense to use the side scrolling, especially on a touchpad. Having both, is perfect for me.

If you use the keyboard, I discover you can do stuff like Ctrl+Direction key to jump sections.. you might want to try one of those combination.

I agree and I don't agree. I know I am not used to the idea... and I get fooled every time I hit the Windows key... but I like to try and get used to it for several weeks, and see from there.
I find that it's better to break my habit, so that I can try something new, at the best experience possible, and NOW compare Old vs New. 'cause if we keep it "as we are conformable to". then we would still be using MSDOS command line, and continue to call GUI for computer illiterates. Wait aren't we saying the same for the ribbon bar?

Simple really:
1- Doing what you want.. essentially just replaced the look of gadgets... we go nowhere with this.. the OS is still not touch friendly.
2- Nothing would be develop on it, the same as gadgets
3- Few items, works... many would be way to clutter... and would conflicts with desktop icons.

I know this, because I tried this: http://omnimo.info/ under Win7...

Windows 7 doesn't slow down over time.. so no. In fact a re-install feels slower as you lose the startup optimization thing that happens every couple of days.

 

HAHAH, I know!

 

remote desktop works, but slows down massively, on my machine, but it is only connected to my network @100mb, and 3d gaming appears to work, but thats only based on the game copper

 

oopsy ie10 triple post glitch

 

delete me, ie10 triple post

 

You know, honestly what I dislike so much about metro, since I keep using it, is the inconsistency in the UI experience. If they are going to do it, do it all the way and make it the same. Control panel really should be the same, not half and half. Is it too hard to make metro like tiles and have a control panel screen. The list thing is odd especially since only about half is on the list, then you have to launch the classic control panel in an explorer window. This makes anything take twice as long, since it is a pain to go straight there by typing either since the win key combination is different and I can't remember it most of the time yet.
I would also like to see a dedicated tile that launches a context menu to choose logoff, sleep shutdown etc. as I keep doing a control+alt+del since that is the first place I found shutdown options. I'm dual booting, but had my 7 install disconnected when I installed 8 so it wouldn't change the boot manager. I do disk select at bios instead. Screenshots of the boot manager looks interesting and reminds me a lot of the burg frontend for grub. Much nicer than a black screen with a text menu.
There are a lot of things I like, and some i don't but I can say I'm looking forward to seeing more polish on it as it continues on to rtm.
I think I'll try some gaming on it tomorrow.

 

Yay start menu!
Launch the registry editor (win+r > regedit >enter)
Drill down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Double-click on RPEnabled
Change the value from 1 to (zero)
Tap enter or click OK

goodbye metro.

 

Yea, but it does not work well.
If you hit Win key, Windows is totally lost and you get Metro, and it leaves, then shows the start menu, and do it a few times, and you can really get the thing lost.

 

You're right. It is annoying. Metro lives in shsxs.dll if you rename, that does the job. I'm having a play around with the resources. It's interesting.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsft\Windows\Curren tVersion\Explorer\Advanced
"SHSXSWasEnabled"
is also needed changed or errors result

edit:
Seems there is some more parts in twinui.dll
Ribbon lives in UIRibbon.dll UIRibbonres.dll

 

That really should be an easily accessible option through the OS though.

For desktop users, the metro UI is an annoying feature. If they made the UI so that it would scroll when your mouse went near the edges of the screen it'd probably be a little easier to use. It would be nice if you could resize, recolor, and organize the icons on the metro UI more. That way you could setup something like a home screen for yourself with your most used programs.

Anyway, ignoring the metro UI (if that's possible) W8 feels pretty much like Windows 7 with a few extra baubles.

 

Nice find +1:
Ok simply disabling SHSXSWasEnabled, and RPEnabled, gets you to WIn7 looks.

BUT:
-> You have a warning that Microsoft will fire you if you say anything on Win8
-> You lose Metro completely... Win8 becomes Win7 fully. EVen the wireless manager is back to Win7.
-> Ribbon bar is totally gone, it's Win7 windows. Up button still there.
-> But that stupid menu level scaling bar that can't be scaled is still there (see my old post, I show what I am talking about... and I still don't know how to solve this problem for people that has this issue in Win7 (it's account base Win7 issue).
-> Because of the switch, now some things are screwed up (look at the boarder window of when you do Win+P) as an example. Or Alt+Tab (transparency effect is partially showing)
-> Task manager is back to classic Win7 one.
-> System Memory consumption is about the same

So really, it brings Win8 down to Win7.

 

I have a feeling that there will be an option to return to 'classic' menu and not use the new ui. Microsoft would be committing suicide if they try to force metro on the enterprise desktop customers. I don't think it will go over well on insurance companies, banks, etc that are Microsofts largest support. They don't want distracting eye candy in the cube farms.

You're right, but I like tinkering and finding what does what. If it's broken run that image restore feature and it will return things to new style. So essentially all Windows 8 is at the moment in the early build is 7 with a few new dll that is reskinning some resources. But Windows 7 was Vista in the early builds too, before they had things more integrated and polished.

 

But you CAN do all this.
You can drag around tiles, and if you right-click on some of them, you have the option on the application bar (bottom screen, it will appear), to make it smaller.
You can't change the background color, but that is probably a coming soon feature.

That is what I did, I put my most used programs where I want them, for quick startup layout.

 

You know what, you are most likely right... I won't be surprised if it's a last minute option that will appear, to push beta testers (us) to use and test Metro UI. Else it would be all buggy, as no one tested it, kinda like Vista 32-bit, where most computer enthusiasts tried the 64-bit one.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4806/build-details-on-direct3d-111
Win8 will have Direct 11.1