Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread
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Thanks for clarifying the situation here... this was exactly what I was getting at, but with your other comments also, you have explained it all far better!
I was assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that most folks would currently just have the 90 day Enterprise trial version.
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Wow! 55"! Isn't that size a bit overwhelming when standing next to it to use the touch screen features? It does sound like a possible chalk board replacement - but only when the price comes down.
lol ive found it ok atm mines not crashed or anythign yet.
installed steam last night and played a cpl hours on anno 2070 seems to be working fine
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So, what didn't you like about it? You don't seem to have given it much a a try. Once you customise it to suit the way you work it is quite a bit faster and cleaner than Windows 7 and you won't even miss the lack of a start button. (there are add-ons to put the Start Button back if you really want to.)
if you really don't like it, I'll have you copy to save it going to waste!
I use start 8 its ace. Boots straight to normal desktop as well so don't even see metro now.
What other things have you changed? I haven't messed at all with it??
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I just pin things to the Quick Start bar - you can do this from the 'metro' start menu and it is more or less done. For games I have Steam so only one thing to pin for games.
i removed border padding, have to change the registry for that.
added Computer to the desktop
added Quicklaunch to the taskbar.
that's it really.
Its a nice OS with some good features, pausing a file transfer, the new task manager etc i want to like it and im ready for an upgrade from windows 7 but its just completely cripped by metro. Ill maybe look at it again come SP1 but for now ill stay with 7, its supported up until 2020 anyways so no problems there
Using metro is in no way intuitive for a mouse and keyboard setup. Its not really like the start button has dissapeared either, metro is the new start button and it functions worse than the old start button in every way. Avoiding it wont work either unless you want a desktop/taskbar littered with seldomly used shortcuts. I sometimes use the command prompt, not enough to have it on the taskbar and not enough to stick it on the desktop so it stays in the start menu so in windows 8 if i want to go to the command prompt i have to open metro and navigate that mess to find it. Its a waste of time when doing things in windows 7 is more intuitive, if i had a tablet i would use it on that but not for a desktop.
I hate to say it but MS should take a leaf out of apples book with OSX, keep the desktop and mobile operating systems separate, or at the very least leave metro as an disabled by default option on a desktop system.
Its clear that MS will not make any inroads with the tablet or mobile space unless they can get people to embrace metro since android and iOS already dominate, their strategy seems to be forcing their huge desktop userbase to use metro so they will want it on their future tablet/mobile, this will fail monumentally and they will only be helping windows 7/OSX/linux.
Firstly, Windows 8 is an evolution of Vista just like 7 was so its highly unlikely to be unstable as 8 is basically a refined version of 7 which was a refined version of Vista SP2 which was a very stable O/S. The only issues that may occur is teething things with Metro apps and ofc the minefield of third party software (which is almost never an issue with the O/S).
Secondly, what exactly didn't you like about it? I never gave the DP and CP versions a chance but when the RTM hit technet I decided I had to force myself to get to grips with it on the basis that it is the biggest GUI alteration since 3.11>95 and looks set up to be the biggest cash cow for I.T firms since the millennium bug. However after using it on my laptop I quickly changed my desktop over from 7 as once your used to it not only does it look cooler but it just does everything better (barring gadget support ofc
).Metro Vs Start menu is pretty straight forward, Metro wins every time.
If you want to run a program Metro is laid out better and much easier to use, if you want to get to something like control panel or device manager or computer management then again its much better as using right click in the bottom left instead of left click brings up a jump menu with pretty everything a power user would have needed from the start menu and then some.
*EDIT*
I see, to be blunt, the problem is you, your doing something wrong.
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Its a nice OS with some good features, pausing a file transfer, the new task manager etc i want to like it and im ready for an upgrade from windows 7 but its just completely cripped by metro. Ill maybe look at it again come SP1 but for now ill stay with 7, its supported up until 2020 anyways so no problems there
Using metro is in no way intuitive for a mouse and keyboard setup. Its not really like the start button has dissapeared either, metro is the new start button and it functions worse than the old start button in every way. Avoiding it wont work either unless you want a desktop/taskbar littered with seldomly used shortcuts. I sometimes use the command prompt, not enough to have it on the taskbar and not enough to stick it on the desktop so it stays in the start menu so in windows 8 if i want to go to the command prompt i have to open metro and navigate that mess to find it. Its a waste of time when doing things in windows 7 is more intuitive, if i had a tablet i would use it on that but not for a desktop.
I hate to say it but MS should take a leaf out of apples book with OSX, keep the desktop and mobile operating systems separate, or at the very least leave metro as an disabled by default option on a desktop system.
Its clear that MS will not make any inroads with the tablet or mobile space unless they can get people to embrace metro since android and iOS already dominate, their strategy seems to be forcing their huge desktop userbase to use metro so they will want it on their future tablet/mobile, this will fail monumentally and they will only be helping windows 7/OSX/linux.
If u install Sart8 it adds the start button back on. Boots straight to normal desktop and acts just like windows 7 on speed.
I never use metro on my desktop waste of time but i never have to see it now.
On my tablet yeh i pretty much only use metro.
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It does everything the existing Start menu does just in full screen so the only thing you lose is the ability to open the start screen and still see the desktop which generally isn't a problem because you'd be focusing on the start menu anyway. Under 7 or 8 running something is exactly the same, hit the windows button and start typing.
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Yes, and it is really about organising the 'Metro' screen to have only the applications that you actually use. There's a lot of junk installed by default. Mail, Messaging, Calendar and Contacts all go for me as I use Thunderbird and have everything there. That starts to make inroads into the mess. it doesn't take long to arrange one's important applications into groups.
After that, jumping into 'Metro' is actually faster than the old start menu to lauch a desktop application.
After that, jumping into 'Metro' is actually faster than the old start menu to lauch a desktop application.
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Errr... depends. If you have MSDN or other ways to get the full version now, you can activate it now. If you continue to use the release Preview I think it is going to be a re-install.
As was mentioned earlier... "The 90 day Enterprise cannot be upgraded, and whilst it is the same as the release version, Enterprise won't be made available through retail channels."