Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread

ChileanLlama said:
Sorry, I don't understand why you're being forced to use the desktop for icons all of a sudden? You've still got a start menu, but it's full screen now - and I totally get it if you don't like the look of it :)

Also what's wrong with pinning icons to the taskbar - far better than the start menu or desktop icons IMO - I just get the impression a lot of people never got familiar with that feature in Windows 7 so it's a double hit to them now.
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Simply put the start menu on Windows 7 is hidden. I don't have to ever use it if I pin to the taskbar - but even in Windows 7 I've modified it so it's ordered (i.e. I have subfolders for utilities, games, etc. very similar to XP Classic Start Menu).

With Windows 8 you don't get that choice you get it plastered on the main window. It's bang in your face. I get why you'd do this if it was a tablet or touch device, but not if it's a desktop.

It's just bizarre and makes no sense to me it reduces choice. Pressing start is frustrating with the flip as well when you just want a start menu to pop up so you can enter something rather than scrolling to another screen.



M.
 
So ive managed to get a few things working on this including my Creative sound card, when I run the windows and system test sounds all is fine, but im not getting ANY music sound, Movie etc, from any source, any ideas what's going on there then?

Yay doesn't matter found the conflicting driver!
 
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Glaucus said:
Desktop is still there. Look at metro on a desktop as a full screen start menu. It's also a much better start menu, much more efficient. Not only is Tge layout better, can fit more on it and off course it can present information instantly.
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But sadly, as a gamer, these aren't things that interest me. The old Start Menu was fine - there just isn't enough merit in Metro for someone like me to go to the bother of learning it.

I'd just like Windows 7 desktop with the small improvements - like the ribbon menus, speed improvements, and IE10.

As I said above, I can clearly see why Microsoft have done this as I find Metro very nice to use on phones and tablets. But it's really just an obstacle for some keyboard and mouse users.
 
I assume all the region locked stuff is never going to work on this version?...things like xBox etc?...kinda sucks.
 
m4cc45 said:
Simply put the start menu on Windows 7 is hidden. I don't have to ever use it if I pin to the taskbar - but even in Windows 7 I've modified it so it's ordered (i.e. I have subfolders for utilities, games, etc. very similar to XP Classic Start Menu).

With Windows 8 you don't get that choice you get it plastered on the main window. It's bang in your face. I get why you'd do this if it was a tablet or touch device, but not if it's a desktop.
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Firstly, it takes a single click to go to the desktop and from there you only need to access Metro as much as you would the Start Menu. Secondly, if there isn't an option added before release there is already a way to make Windows default to the desktop on login. It's a complete non-issue. If you don't like Metro then fine, but don't pretend it's more of an issue that it really is.

Metro supports improved customisation, better grouping, dynamic tiles, improve accessibility (larger tiles; no need to click on folders to expand) and takes advantage of high resolution displays. The Start Menu uses a tiny fraction of the screen and was never good since it was first introduced in Vista. The Start Menu has terrible usability and to suddenly act like it is one of the greatest inventions in the history of computing is completely disingenuous.
 
TAC4U said:
The Start Menu uses a tiny fraction of the screen and was never good since it was first introduced in Vista. The Start Menu has terrible usability and to suddenly act like it is one of the greatest inventions in the history of computing is completely disingenuous.
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I don't think I've actually used the start menu since Vista. Windows key + whatever I'm looking for and away we go. There was just too much **** (wow, since when was that word censored...) in there to navigate and I was always too lazy to keep everything organised.

I'm not going to say I like the Metro interface, though I can see how some users might appreciate the immediacy of it, as I haven't really used it despite using Win 8 for the past while. In that time however I haven't noticed a huge difference between it and Windows 7 but were I to go back I think the only things I'd miss would be the better file movement interface and the better task manager.

Oh, I also like the ability to launch nearly anything as admin through ctrl+shift+enter where as I've always found this spotty in Windows 7.
 
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Anybody experiencing any weirdness with their Ethernet in Win8? For some reason my on-board Atheros adapter has decided it doesn't want to wake up when Win8 comes out of sleep mode. I have to either run the troubleshooter (which fixes it) or restart the PC. I haven't changed anything - and I've checked all the power saving options and tried re-installing the driver. It was working fine.....just decided to start doing this a few days ago. Very annoying :(
 
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