The Windows 8 thread.

[3dfxrain]

I noticed taskbar like things on the left, from the corner. It pops in and out though and I don't what to go to a corner for it and move the mouse, it's annoying when it's not exactly right when moving to select something, when I want to choose to always show it and expand on it, saves time when it's like the Windows 7 taskbar.

[grimmster]

So, if they would bring back the start menu, and allowed the option to turn off the mouse corner options, Win 8 would be a good SE of Win 7 (like win98SE was), but as I play more with it, it just is too many steps to do simple things, but I still do like the new task manager! and why call them apps when they are just programs that silent install, lol. Although the pinball game FX2 is fun.

It will be interesting to see what RC1 brings.

[3dfxrain]

It's somewhat interesting to compare and contrast Windows 7's user interface and Metro's user interface. I think it's good though.

A couple of things I found. Changing to ACHI in the BIOS from IDE results in blue screen on Windows 8 start up, I think this should be removed, Windows could adjust to the change and continue without blue screening allowing continuation of work with the same installation.

Many more Radeon cards should have Crossfire enabled eventually, Radeon 4000 series in particular, I can test more games with it enabled.

How I want Windows 8 to be:

Windows 7 like taskbar on the left. Gadgets on the right. Tiles/Metro windows in the middle of them, like a sandwich.

[Tico0972]

ROFL! This can NOT be the fastest way to turn off the computer...can it? Yeah, after reading this, I won't be wasting my time with this tablet os.

My exact thoughts when I saw this was the way of doing it! They have simplified the shut down/log off proces on Windows 7 just to complicate it again on Windows 8

This OS is truly not keyboard and mouse friendly but touch friendly instead. They should just call it Windows Tablet PC 8 or something as it is aimed at tablets and touchscreens.

[alex666]

THIS is why there is going to be a Windows 8 (I got this off The Tech Report, it was reported today): laptops with touchscreen. Here's the link. Puts a whole new spin on this OS.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/22594

This could easily be transferred to home monitors, which is something I've always wanted (not a touch-only OS, but a screen that responds to touch and an OS that maximizes the technology, to be used in conjunctions with a mouse, keyboard, voice activation).

[grimmster]

I really hope this is not the direction of PC's. I DO NOT want a touchscreen computer! Tablet, of course, but I do not want to have to sit 6 inches from a 27" monitor so I can use hand gestures on it. So come on MS, have Win 8 with the option to turn off metro for a PC and you have yourselves a winner.

[alex666]

I really hope this is not the direction of PC's. I DO NOT want a touchscreen computer! Tablet, of course, but I do not want to have to sit 6 inches from a 27" monitor so I can use hand gestures on it. So come on MS, have Win 8 with the option to turn off metro for a PC and you have yourselves a winner.

I want all input options possible. Right now I use mouse, keyboard, and voice (Dragon 11.5 is terrific). But I would love to have touch as well. I must be close to the monitor because of my vision. But even when I did not have to be so close, I always wanted the option to do so for any number of programs. So from MS's perspective, why not build a unified OS that can do touch as well as the more traditional input sources and that can be used across a variety of platforms. Makes sense to me. And MS has had to deal with backward compatibility for all these years, so they will need to make sure to make Win8 easy for non-touch users. I'm not sure the beta is there yet. Maybe that's why its a beta.

marty

[Enmore]

Last week I installed Windows 8 on a 23" touchscreen all-in-one PC to see what it's like. It works quite well and recognised the touchscreen without any additional set up or drivers.

Unfortunately, using your entire arm to operate the computer becomes tiresome very quickly. It looks cool at first and is great for showing off, but the bottom line is that it's really not something you want to do for more than a few minutes. Before long you're back to using a mouse & KB because frankly, it's easier to do.

I know they're desperate to push this new interface in order to help their phone-based OS and try to compete in the tablet market, but I think MS are on a hiding to nothing with this on PCs.

PC support centres are going to be bombarded with calls as to 'how do I turn this off to get to Windows". Once they're told they can't, many people are just going to return them to the store to get a Windows 7 PC or a Mac instead.

[kbohip]

I really do hope MS can give Apple some much needed competition with Win 8 on tablets.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mic...dist=countdown

[richardd43]

It would be nice to have an option when installing the OS to be able to choose either with touch screen or without.

Maybe without would give us that want it the start button back.

[grimmster]

So I went and installed "server 8" and its just as bad as desktop. hard to get around and you have to hover over the corners to get anywhere, what mess!

They do offer text install only, so I was going to try that out. Wonder how WINDOWS will work in a text only environment?!?

[Drawde5]

I've had Windows 8 installed on my laptop for several days now. I'm getting the hang of switching between the desktop and the Metro screen, the metro taskbar, etc. This is easy to use, but the point seems to be to migrate people to a solely Microsoft app, user environment as with Apple.

After finding out how to shut down the laptop, as opposed to sleep, it's been smooth. Using the built in music player was a blast. It downloaded profiles of the musician I was listening to, displaying all his work in tiles. It runs the normal programs I use, including Thunderbird, Firefox, openoffice and so on. No real problems yet.

[grimmster]

so I loaded up server 8 text install. lol, what a joke. all it is is windows minus expoler.exe. So it loads and the only thing you have is cmd.exe running, funny thing is, they allow you to close that window, so then you have to log off and log back on to get it back....

[Drawde5]

Okay, there was a problem. It doesn't really shut down. It still drained my laptop battery, so I shut it down using the power switch, and after 4 - 6 shut downs that way the hard drive shut down. Clicks of death. I'm not sure it's directly related. It was an old hard drive, the original I had replaced, but it was healthy when I installed OS8 on it.

Could it be related? Anyone think so?

To add: I found this later, a shutdown gadget. Should work. You might try it.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...nalize/gadgets

Okay, here's another, perhaps better solution: adding the shutdown command to the context menu.

Shut Down - Add to Desktop Context Menu in Windows 8 How to Add "Shut Down" Computer to the Desktop Context Menu in Windows 8

[webwolf359]

so I loaded up server 8 text install. lol, what a joke. all it is is windows minus expoler.exe. So it loads and the only thing you have is cmd.exe running, funny thing is, they allow you to close that window, so then you have to log off and log back on to get it back....

Not true, Ctrl+Alt+Del and then file, new task (run) , cmd.exe

Windows Server Core has been around since Server 2008 and is nothing new btw.

Many people have used this excellent cut down version of Server for quite a while.