Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread

I got that working MRB, thanks very much. :cool:

Windows 8 looks rather interesting, I do have a slight problem which I'm sure is probably just something I'm doing wrong - When I click on one of the buttons, internet explorer for example, the program starts, and I can see it if I hover in the top-left, but I can't actually get to it to go on.

Is there something I need to do, or does it sound like a bug?
 
Right, I've been using it for a couple of days now (although I've used the Dev preview quite a lot)

Some thoughts...

  • The more I use it, the more I like it. Although that's largely down to working out keyboard short cuts and general exploration.
  • This is going to be brilliant on a good tablet. So much so I'm starting to question whether to bother buying an iPad 3 (although I still might, and then upgrade to a Win8 tablet when it's matured a bit and better hardware is out there)
  • It's nice to see they have addressed quitting apps without having to launch task manager, and also getting to open apps more quickly.
  • As a desktop user, I feel like a second class citizen.
  • Some apps don't recognize the scroll wheel for left to right navigation. This should be mandatory in my opinion because having to use a horizontal scroll bar is just a pain.
  • It will be worth Microsoft's while throwing a bone to those whining about not being able to go "classic". If they learned anything from the whole Vista/Win7 it's that the opinions of the geeks and nerds matter. A simple option could make a massive difference in public perception. Drop it in Windows 9.
  • Speaking of perception, four common interactions with a computer are logging in, opening an application, closing an application and shutting down. 3 out of 4 of those operations have changed significantly, and people are going to freak out when they can't close an app or shut the computer down. The interface is not intuitive. The killer friendly feature on iOS hardware is the home button because you can always "get out" if you get stuck, even if you're using it in an inefficient way. If Windows 8 leaves people in no-man's land in the first few minutes of using it then it's going to turn them right off.
  • Some of the apps are just so light on features it's almost comical, but they are there for demo purposes so I won't judge them yet.

Based on the consumer preview, I will be buying the final release. I expect them to discount pre-orders (and I want the Pro version).

As time goes on, I can certainly see myself spending more and more time in the start screen/apps than visiting the desktop. The desktop will be for word processing, games, photo editing, file management etc. but as apps for everything come out I'd see less reason to go in and launch a browser.

It would work really well with a nice remote - the interface could scale up as soon as it recognises the remote input and then you can roll around the tiles and open your music/video/photo apps.

So far so good, but it's still got a long way to go.
 
I'm probably being an idiot but how do make an application go back in the centre after you've snapped it to one of the sides? like just put it back centred.

Does pulling the app to the bottom of the screen close it? - very neat if so! :)
 
There's a lot I want to like about it and there is a lot that I do to be honest. But... I really don't like metro. I mean on a tablet sure, it'd be really good and I'm quite with impressed with it, just not on my desktop :(. I'm quite happy with my current setup of all my commonly used software pinned to my taskbar, without an annoying metro thing in my way.

The only things I'd take from Windows 8 and dump into 7 is aesthetic stuff. Kudos for making a really good looking tablet OS though.
 
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Just installed it to a VM.

It's a bit crap. Interface is poorly designed and counter-intuitive. Needs a LOT of work imo.

EDIT: Most of the new "Apps" are totally retarded. The MSN/Chat/People ones are just totally shocking.
 
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The core design of the UI is actually very good. Running it inside a VM like a lot of people are is arguably worst case scenario where it can be difficult to even hit the hot corners.

The thing that worries me is there doesn't seem to be a lot of time left to work out the obvious kinks in the desktop experience.
 
theheyes said:
The core design of the UI is actually very good. Running it inside a VM like a lot of people are is arguably worst case scenario where it can be difficult to even hit the hot corners.

The thing that worries me is there doesn't seem to be a lot of time left to work out the obvious kinks in the desktop experience.
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Running it on a VM makes no difference.

It's not very good at all. It's ugly, childish, inconsistent, counter-intuitive and in some places just laughable.

The hot corners you speak of... what are they? Where are they? If you don't know they are there, how do you know they are there? When or how can you use them? None of this is obvious and this tends to be the theme. Lots of different features scattered about with no consistency or explanation.

There's no set place where specific things appear. For example right clicking brings up random menus in random places. There's no clear way to do many things. It takes longer and with more clicks to do things that no one ever had an issue with in the first place. You can't always get to where you want to go quickly. They have introduced even more stupid keyboard shortcuts which take longer than a few clicks that we are used to.

Change is good, but not just for the sake of it.

It's just a complete mess.

I prefer Android ;):p
 
dbmzk1 said:
It's not very good at all. It's ugly, childish, inconsistent, counter-intuitive and in some places just laughable.

The hot corners you speak of... what are they? Where are they? If you don't know they are there, how do you know they are there? When or how can you use them? None of this is obvious and this tends to be the theme. Lots of different features scattered about with no consistency or explanation.
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But how does one learn to open a folder? Double-clicking is no more logical. Nor is right-clicking to access additional tasks. Nor is snapping a window to the top or side of your screen in Windows 7. Nor is using a mouse wheel to scroll down a page. The point is that you learn everything from experience. It took me no time at all to discover the Charm bar, the application switching, the click-and-drag functionality of the Start screen, etc. And I've already mastered additional commands like Win+P to change multi-monitor settings, Win+I to bring up settings, Win+C for the Charm bar, etc. That's after a couple of days.

Seriously, people need to grow up and just use it. Obviously if you go into with the impression that you're going to hate it and that any change is immediately a bad thing then you're going to end up with a negative experience. I went in open-minded and found it fine. There are some design decisions I disagree with or hope are changed before release but overall it's a good experience. And I gave it to my Dad to try out and he said he didn't really think it was particularly different.

dbmzk1 said:
It's not very good at all. It's ugly, childish, inconsistent, counter-intuitive and in some places just laughable.
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So the same things they said about Windows XP, yet apparently XP was so good that nobody wanted to upgrade to Vista.
 
I've had it installed on my laptop for a few days now, I have to say that I hate it when using mouse+keyboard or trackpad+keyboard, it really feels broken. But it seems like as long as you stay in metro it'd be nice with a touch screen.

IE in metro interface is also so confusing, I gave it to 3 different devs and asked them to do simple tasks, it took them ages as they tried to figure out how to use it. So un-intuitive to use which is pretty poor as this should be a case of best practice since it's built in to windows.

I just can't see recommending this to anyone in it's current state. Unless your really geeky and love learning new pointless short-cuts it just doesn't work.

Also the new Visual Studio beta is just horrible, everything is totally grey and depressing, god what have their UI team been thinking for the last year :o
 
Mmmmm I am thinking just the same. I decided to update my main machine using the automatic upgrade system, which I must say worked flawlessly. It downloaded the new OS and then installed it and, when complete, I had all my files still in place and ready to go.

however, the OS to use day to day isn't. We are used to having icons as short cuts so the horrid Metro interface (great for touch screen) just looks old and clunky. Some things, like Windows Update are hard to find and even turning the machine off is hardly intuitive.

I changed from Firefox to Chrome a while ago so haven't used the new IE to any extent. I do have to recommend the Chrome synch system, though, as a reinstall got everything back to normal quickly.

I haven't seen anything I would pay money for in Windows 8 so, unless something special turns up, Windows 7 is going back on.
 
TAC4U said:
But how does one learn to open a folder? Double-clicking is no more logical. Nor is right-clicking to access additional tasks. Nor is snapping a window to the top or side of your screen in Windows 7. Nor is using a mouse wheel to scroll down a page. The point is that you learn everything from experience. It took me no time at all to discover the Charm bar, the application switching, the click-and-drag functionality of the Start screen, etc. And I've already mastered additional commands like Win+P to change multi-monitor settings, Win+I to bring up settings, Win+C for the Charm bar, etc. That's after a couple of days.

Seriously, people need to grow up and just use it. Obviously if you go into with the impression that you're going to hate it and that any change is immediately a bad thing then you're going to end up with a negative experience. I went in open-minded and found it fine. There are some design decisions I disagree with or hope are changed before release but overall it's a good experience. And I gave it to my Dad to try out and he said he didn't really think it was particularly different.

So the same things they said about Windows XP, yet apparently XP was so good that nobody wanted to upgrade to Vista.
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Things like double clicking have been around since forever. Scrolling a mouse wheel is what its for and most people know that, its kind of obvious and not inherent to Windows anyway. (Though 8 makes you use it to scroll SIDEWAYS?!)

Everything in XP and Vista/7 were big changes, but nothing that fundamentally changed the way Windows worked. 95 was the first one to do that, but it was for the better and didn't as much change everything but re-arrange it. Windows 8 has taken everything thats good about Windows XP/7 and changed it, just because they felt like it and/or so it's better on touch screen tablets.

This is NOT designed for a PC and it shows massively. It just doesn't work properly as said. It's annoying, you have to learn stupid shortcuts you never had to that are not listed anywhere and stuff like that. It's just poor.

I didn't go into it thinking it was going to be bad - I just installed it, played with it for a few hours, and these are my opinions on it. It's not about growing up and using it. Why should I use something that is poorly designed, harder to use than what I've already got and generally is just annoying. Basically, it's terrible.
 
Photek said:
Even though it is better, because as i pointed out it's not just easier to pick up, the beginners were also more efficient and produced better work when using the Ribbon. And new users are always the best to test these things with because they're not going to be bias or used to the previous design.
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So it makes users who use it the most slower and users who use it the least faster. I'm sure that makes sense to someone, While they've rolled out the ribbon to more apps, they've actually made it much closer to the old menus than the original ribbon release. So thats a bit of a admittance that it doesn't fully work as intended. From the wiki


.."[3] Richard Ericson from Computerworld noted that experienced users might find difficulties adapting to the new interface, and that some tasks take more key-presses or clicks to activate....[7] An online survey conducted by ExcelUser reports that a majority of respondents had a negative opinion of the change, with advanced users being "somewhat more negative" than intermediate users; the self-estimated reduction in productivity was an average of about 20%, and "about 35%" for people with a negative opinion.[8]
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I find it works better in some apps more than others. Access is much better than word or excel. Which suggests to me that the logical grouping isn't very scientific. Ditto the button sizes so you get odd things the "next" button in Outlook being tiny, and the "translate" being huge. Commonly used things are often more clicks away than they used to be.

I'm not a power user, I rarely use office compared to many. However even after 5 or so years of using the ribbon I still find myself having to hunt for things far more than I did in the past.

However if I compare MS products with Apples, or even Google, they are noticeably less concise and much more cluttered and illogical. So I don't think MS mindset really gets it tbh.
 
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