Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread

Glaucus · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:08

NathanE said:
.

Firms that adopted the iPad are the earliest of early adopters. That's fine. But there is 100x that number still waiting for W8 tablets to arrive before they adopt.

exactly.

wannabedamned · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:09

You guys are aware that Windows 8 can indeed just be made to look and work like windows 7 yes? And with no extras or installs. The User interface is customizable.

Just seems a lot of chatter seems to be aiming at the tablet\App style functionality as the only option

Glaucus · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:10

Lucero said:
Instead, I press start, it takes me back to metro, I click on my application, it then takes me back to the desktop (in theory) and loads the application.

yes I am, the desktop is the same, all the menus and everything else is still there. The on,y difference is start button, which they've replaced and improved.

So where's this wading Hugh metro UI up you said you have to do?

mick4545 · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:14

Only 'issues' I've found so far:

1. Cannot copy files over powerline plugs from computer to WD hub.
2. Media Player reports MP4 files as "Unknown File type" then plays them ok.

Is there a way of reporting these things to MS?

NathanE · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:14

ubersonic said:
Agreed, in fact speaking as the company's Network Overlord (yes, seriously, that's what they get for allowing me to choose my own title) We have no intention of replacing hundreds of machines with touch screen ones when everybody is getting along fine anyway on XP, and I have no intention of advocating a move to 7 either, our domain policy is configured to use the windows classic interface on XP so the new shininess of 8 holds no interest here.

At this rate we shall be sticking with XP for the foreseeable future and imo the only thing that is likely to swa that will be OSX development.

If you were a real "network overload" you'd know that XP extended support ends in 2014, which is certainly the foreseeable future and something you should be planning for.

You sound like the stereotypical IT administrator, always lagging 10 years behind everyone else.

rogueblade · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:15

People keep saying how they don't like that they can't switch from Metro UI to classic UI but a big point they made in the keynote is:
the classic UI is just another APP in Metro!

The classic desktop screen/UI is just another app no different from the SkyDrive app or Mail app (that's the way I saw it), allowing you to run it along side other apps.

I think that's an awesome thing as they demo'd you can run your classic UI app and place other apps next to it as they are no different from one another.

So now we need to not think of Metro vs Classic. Classic is an app that is part of Metro

Django x2 · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:20

Glaucus said:
yes I am, the desktop is the same, all the menus and everything else is still there. The on,y difference is start button, which they've replaced and improved.

So where's this wading Hugh metro UI up you said you have to do?

So whereas before, with 7, I would click Start, Control panel, now, with 8, I click start, then have to click search, and then I see control panel. Wow, an extra step, that's much more efficient

Even moreseo if I ask to "pin" it to my start menu.

I'm Joe Blogs user, I start Win8 and see the nice IE icon on the metro interface. I click it because I want to do some Youtube browsing, oh no, wait, I can't because that IE doesn't support flash, instead I need to load the desktop and run IE from there....etc, etc

King Damager · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:21

I think tablets may be interesting. However, I still think OSX is miles ahead of W7 tablet. Once I've got a bit of experience on Metro on my desktop I might change my mind. I do feel some companies may choose a metro tablet over an iPad though because of compatibility and the such like though.

Apple could easily counter this though if they opened up the iPad to be able to run Metro through a bootcamp app or the such like. (Personally I'd love it if they did this xD)

Anyway, as previously asked, but with no answer, anyone had issues installing this on a SSD? Also, should I have any issues running this of the same hardware but with a different set of drives plugged in? (Figuring no)

kd

NathanE · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:21

Lucero said:
Well it's true that the fundamental idea behind Windows 8 and Metro probably won't die and will be with us now for a long time, but, because it's such a significant change to the way most people are used to interacting with a PC, I personally think the uptake will be minimal. It won't be until Windows 9 that corps realise the tech isn't going away.

Eh? I've only ever been talking about the userbase for desktops. Tablets in organisations seem to be and probably always will be iPads, given that too many manufacturers of Windows tablets makes deciding on one, a tough choice.

You were saying that W8 won't be adopted by corporates, that they will "skip this release", all because of Metro.

I said this isn't the case, correctly, because firms don't judge Windows releases in that way. They operate on asset schedules and that's it. Whatever OS is the latest on the date of their new assets being purchased, is the OS they will get.

Thousands of companies in the world purchased their new computers a week before Windows 7 launched, not because they hated Windows 7, but because a manager somewhere in the depths of the company said they must do so. As such, they were then lumbered with XP or Vista. It sucks, but that's how things work in big firms.

PS: I accept that Vista was a bit of a wildcard in terms of the normal asset schedules. There was widely reported incidents of companies purposely "delaying" their asset renewals due to Vista's extremely poor reception at the time. Some elected to license their new assets with XP instead. This type of scenario is extremely rare for Microsoft and I'm not expecting any repeat with W8. The press coverage thus far has been extremely positive.

Glaucus · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:22

Lucero said:
So whereas before, with 7, I would click Start, Control panel, now, with 8, I click start, then have to click search, and then I see control panel. Wow, an extra step, that's much more efficient Even moreseo if I ask to "pin" it to my start menu.

Or you now actuall spend a bit of I've learning about it and stop speaking BS. No needed to go back to metro start at all. It has an awesome type to search system.

Just like when you say you have to upgrade to touch screen, are you using touchscreen AT

You've spent 2mins, jumped to a conclusion and rather than going and watching any number of keynotes or other videos. Just continue to argue.

Photek · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:24

Lucero said:
You are looking at the Windows 8 BETA right? The desktop (interaction) has changed. I can no longer simply click on start and open an application pinned to my start menu. Believe it or not, that will be a massive annoyance for a lot of users.

88% of Windows 7 users already do not use the Start menu. This is from MS's own statistics of millions of people. Getting rid of the Start menu was a good idea and most people will not care that it's gone.

And since 7 you simply pin your most used software to the taskbar, as everyone else already does. Or you can pin it to the Metro screen, or simply search in Metro which is already much improved over 7.

Michael_10 · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:26

My mouse is about to die after years and years of use. I'm thinking of replacing it, but was wondering how useful a magic trackpad from apple would be? I've been using the Windows 8 preview and thought a trackpad might make some things easier to navigate? Or should I just get a 'normal' mouse?

Glaucus · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:27

Photek said:
.

And since 7 you simply pin your most used software to the taskbar, as everyone else already does. Or you can pin it to the Metro screen, or simply search in Metro which is already much improved over 7.

along with it's the files for that program, awesome feature.

JAzz · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:27

I guess I'm part of the 12%

wannabedamned · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:29

http://www.itproportal.com/2011/11/03/how-disable-metro-ui-windows-8/

That will revert it back to Windows 7 Interface, I didnt do that. I have a tool that does it in a simple click, I actually thought it was part of Windows 8. It's been along time since I installed it, I forgot I put that on seperate.

The one I used was called Metro UI Tweaker. Just FYI

marc2003 · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:36

^ those tweaks don't work on this version.

wannabedamned · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:37

marc2003 said:
^ those tweaks don't work on this version.

Ah, Well then ignore me

I'm back on Windows 7 now. So my information appears to be dated

NathanE · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:38

Photek said:
88% of Windows 7 users already do not use the Start menu. This is from MS's own statistics of millions of people. Getting rid of the Start menu was a good idea and most people will not care that it's gone.

And since 7 you simply pin your most used software to the taskbar, as everyone else already does. Or you can pin it to the Metro screen, or simply search in Metro which is already much improved over 7.

I'm a power user and I rarely ever use the Start menu. Moreover, I can probably count the number of times I click on the "All programs" expansion on one hand, for a whole year.

I use the Start search box (generally as a more casual Run prompt) or the Run prompt itself via WINKEY+R. But W8 provides these anyway.

The Start menu is just a mess these days. It's basically a "God Menu". It tries to do everything but does nothing well.

Django x2 · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:39

Glaucus said:
Or you now actuall spend a bit of I've learning about it and stop speaking BS. No needed to go back to metro start at all. It has an awesome type to search system.

Just like when you say you have to upgrade to touch screen, are you using touchscreen AT

You've spent 2mins, jumped to a conclusion and rather than going and watching any number of keynotes or other videos. Just continue to argue.

I'm not arguing, If you read my own comments on 8, you'll see that I like it. All I'm saying is, desktop users and corporations probably won't.

You still have to access control panel from the UI, and it still opens up the desktop. Metro is not some sort of godsend to the IT community, it's basicaly a glorified overlay. And why type, when I could simply click before. I don't get how you can't see that's primative as far as user input goes. The whole reason for the invention of the mouse was to reduce typing

Macro · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:41

Lucero said:
Desktop users, 1st, 2nd, 3rd line support engineers, do not want to be wadding through a GUI like that to get to simple apps that used to just sit on the desktop (whilst having the ability to interact with the start menu in the same place).

I think you're missing the point. For an enterprise there will be no "wading" through the GUI, their applications will just be links on the Metro start page the same as anything else requiring just a single click to launch the same as if they were shortcuts on a W7 desktop.

Alternatively you just start typing the name of the App you require and it gets found and launched, you don't even need to select "search" first.

There's always this kind of comment when there's a change to a GUI, "old timers" will remember the wailing and gnashing of teeth from people when Windows XP was released with what people referred to as a brightly coloured "Fisher Price" UI for kids, not serious users and Enterprise. For years there were "hard core pros" who insisted in turning Luna off and reverting to the classic Windows 95/200 ui.