Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread

Phonesis said:
Very tempted to just go for it and install Win8 as my main OS. I want to try and embrace this new paradigm early so to speak (and then spend a year convincing my mates it's the way forward).

Am I right in saying that software compatibility with Win8 shouldn't be a big problem in terms of stuff suddenly not working for me if I take the plunge from Win7? Does the Hyper-V backwards compatibility feature essentially mean that virtually everything should be fine?

I want the transition to be smooth so am hoping it's like the Vista to Win7 upgrade, which I found relatively painless.
Click to expand...

For some reason one or two applications that i use did not want to work, came up with 64bit compatibility errors, but they worked fine in windows 7 64bit. But then some applications i installed have not been updated since 2005 and they worked. So It may just be specific applications that are made in a certain way are no longer compatible.

Maybe they have implemented "security features" that prevent applications from modifying windows as much as they used to. I am not sure.

If you install a pre release OS there is bound to be some issues.
 
Phonesis said:
Very tempted to just go for it and install Win8 as my main OS. I want to try and embrace this new paradigm early so to speak (and then spend a year convincing my mates it's the way forward).

Am I right in saying that sofrware compability with Win8 shouldn't be a big problem in terms of stuff suddenly not working for me if I take the plunge from Win7? Does the Hyper-V backwards compatibility feature essentially mean that virtually everything should be fine?

I want the transition to be smooth so am hoping it's like the Vista to Win7 upgrade, which I found relatively painless.
Click to expand...

I'd dual boot first. Xonar dg drivers are a no go apparently so I'm stuck using on-board sound. I'm sure there's more, although I've yet to find a program that doesn't work just yet.
 
Is it safe to install some applications to the same location that I did in windows 7, to save space?

I'm thinking that Win 7 & 8 are similar, its not going to cause many conflicts. I could, free up some space and make a new apps folder, if needed.

What's your thoughts?
 
Anyone used the Mail app in Metro? It's really good. Most useful Metro app so far (on a desktop anyway) because it works good with keyboard + mouse, is very easy to use, works with Gmail and others, and it does some pretty cool things with the new sharing feature.

I'm using it to receive emails from multiple accounts.
 
I wasn't sold to it at first, but I decided to use it yesterday at uni, and I have to say I'm impressed by it. Its running on my netbook - which has a 1024*768 screen, and It just works. Its a lot lighter to run than 7 is, hence its quicker.

Metro grows on you, and most of its intuitive. Though there should be a guide to how to use it.
 
Lucero said:
Unless MS change their mind with the ability to have the Metro UI chosen to be on/off by the user, corporate companies will skip this release.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:
, have you got any idea how much enterprise stuff is built in, as well as corporation now fully looking at or allread using tablets as productive devices. There'sa huge number still on XP, who need to upgrade as well.
 
Lucero said:
Unless MS change their mind with the ability to have the Metro UI chosen to be on/off by the user, corporate companies will skip this release.
Click to expand...

Why ? Corps need their apps to be portable across mobiles, tablets and PCs and since the accounts created will be local/domain controlled this is secure/sandboxed unlike Google and Apple.
 
Last edited:
groen said:
I thought windows 8 was meant to be great for old hardware etc. I see the new ati drivers only support new gpu. Probably more amd than ms though. But still a bit annoying. I should update my graphics card though, it is getting a bit dated.
Click to expand...

I cant even get new drivers for Windows 7 on my ancient laptop, but 8 works fine on it anyway and detects the correct screen res. I cant believe 8 runs as good on it as XP which is over a decade old.

Might switch to 8 as my main OS, because even on my main computer with a 4.9GHz i7, 32GB RAM, and RAID-0 SSD's i can still notice that 8 is faster than 7.
 
Lucero said:
Unless MS change their mind with the ability to have the Metro UI chosen to be on/off by the user, corporate companies will skip this release.
Click to expand...

I'm leaning to agree with you on this one. Speaking as a developer. I really can't be bothered to wade thru the layers of fluff they can metro. My desktop is setup with all the icons I use daily, and my task bar.

I don't need to left click here, and right click there to find options and menu items. I don't have any need to use metro in day to day use. Underneath metro, is essentially base windows 7 with added extras. Will these added extras be worth the time and cost of moving from Windows 7 to 8?

I don't think so. I know many developers share the same feeling as me.

For the home user, I guess its just the reverse. Metro is good for them. It hides them from the desktop and presents them with things they can access, quickly and easily. IMO, Metro is a very tablet UI, very less so a desktop UI.

Just my opinions.
 
Sod it. Downloading now. Anything I should know about installing this to an SSD rather than a standard drive? I'm just going to run it as a completely seperate computer off my hardware rather than dual boot. So I'll unplug my existing drives and just plug in my spare SSD and boot off of that. Shouldn't create any issues should it?

Going to be fun playing with this though. I've got a touchscreen 23'' monitor. So looking forward to trying it out.

kd
 
Photek said:
Anyone used the Mail app in Metro? It's really good. Most useful Metro app so far (on a desktop anyway) because it works good with keyboard + mouse, is very easy to use, works with Gmail and others, and it does some pretty cool things with the new sharing feature.

I'm using it to receive emails from multiple accounts.
Click to expand...

Can you use it OK with POP3 accounts, as I thought these were a problem?
 
After staying up almost all night playing around with Windows 8 CP I can safely say that I cannot wait for its release :D I hate it.

I really hate it and its galvanised my decision to move to OSX, but the front-end is sooooo oversimplified and dumbed down that its going to convince many many many people who are too stupid to own a computer that they can, and that is going to make me and everyone else in consumer IT support a hell of a lot of money :D
 
Last edited:
Lucero said:
Unless MS change their mind with the ability to have the Metro UI chosen to be on/off by the user, corporate companies will skip this release.
Click to expand...

This simply isn't the case. We have countless customers in our market that can't wait to get their applications redesigned as touch-first applications. "Mobile working" is coming and when it arrives it is here to stay.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom