Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread

Martini1991 said:
Made my own fix for switching from Speakers to Headphones with no Control Panel with Asus Xonar.
In my Windows 7 partition with speakers active, exported my registry folder that contained the xonar stuff, switched to headphones, restarted PC and then exported the registry folder again.

I can double click my speaker.reg then restart and my speakers will be on, or vice versa with my headphones.
Click to expand...

Recycle the Windows Audio service rather than restarting?

Batch file to apply reg fix then

Netstop AudioSrv
Netstart AudioSrv

+ any other audio services?
 
mrbell1984 said:
Well you see, on tablets it will be lovely but just not on desktops.
Click to expand...

Theres no great obstacle to using windows 8 once you are past the metro part, I think it stays in the background most of the time. Its just 7 with bits

I find flash is unstable, thats far more irritating


Im about carry out for someone a swap from XP to win8 on a machine with 200,000 emails and a wonky SSD
 
The only Metro app I use is Mail, other than that I'm never in it and it doesn't bother me.

I should also add that the removal of the old school start menu hasn't affected me at all. All I use it for is search which is the same number of key presses as before. If I feel like browsing all my apps the full screen list is superior.

The only annoyance is that some of the Metro apps like Photos and Videos are the default for opening various file types even from the desktop. This is not cool, so they're back to their desktop equivalents.
 
Last edited:
I use the mail app and the remote desktop app fairly regularly. When I sign in to Windows/unlock the computer the mail app is usually staring back at me with new mail on the live tile, so I'll automatically go into the Metro app.

This is the way people should generally approach Metro style apps - if you force yourself to use them you're just going to end up hating them because at the moment a lot are barely feature complete. If you just carry on using your computer normally (which you can after you've figured out where they moved stuff) then over time you'll just use the Metro apps that make sense for you.
 
Not changed at all since I tried this months ago. Still basically Vista/7 with a stupid touch screen skin on top which is totally useless if you don't have a touch screen.

Pointless. I will be staying with Windows 7 for a while yet :)
 
mrbell1984 said:
Well you see, on tablets it will be lovely but just not on desktops. Unless a user has a touchscreen (I would think a lot will come with touch screens) then the mouse experience with Windows 8 isn't so nice than touch. This is possibly the aim for Microsoft though.
Click to expand...

Dont get me wrong i just wont use it on my main pc but i have been looking at getting the Acer W800 as it has bigger screen or somethink like that instead of buying an ipad3 any idea of prices for these new Acer W800
 
Touch screens and trackpads suited to the edge UIs and gestures will become standard over time on all but low-end machines, but by then Windows 9/10 will be around and described as "what Windows 8 should have been".
 
theheyes said:
Touch screens and trackpads suited to the edge UIs and gestures will become standard over time on all but low-end machines, but by then Windows 9/10 will be around and described as "what Windows 8 should have been".
Click to expand...

Yeh, I mean the touch screen LED monitors e.t.c. If users have a touchscreen it makes Windows 8 more fluid and a delight to use. This is possibly the plan.

I will only use Windows 8 if the screen panel was touch.
 
dbmzk1 said:
Not changed at all since I tried this months ago. Still basically Vista/7 with a stupid touch screen skin on top which is totally useless if you don't have a touch screen.

Pointless. I will be staying with Windows 7 for a while yet :)
Click to expand...

I quite agree though there are some useful things under the bonnet, there isn't enough to be worth updating.

Incidentally, I am dreading having to use a touch screen 24" monitor. Imagine the grease on such large area!
 
Tbh, if the price is small (as in past os releases) then it wall make sense to update for the dozens of small improvements under the hood. Lenovo are offering a £15 upgrade to W8 for all their laptops bought now and for that price, and price alone, it makes sense.

Still, since they've said they're supporting W7 for so long, some will never change. then again, some are still on xp..
 
Azuse05 said:
Tbh, if the price is small (as in past os releases) then it wall make sense to update for the dozens of small improvements under the hood. Lenovo are offering a £15 upgrade to W8 for all their laptops bought now and for that price, and price alone, it makes sense.

Still, since they've said they're supporting W7 for so long, some will never change. then again, some are still on xp..
Click to expand...

I suppose it all depends on what you call 'small'. I expect that we will be looking at £70 for the basic version and more of the professional one. personally, despite the small improvements, that sounds rather too much. I would have put small as about the price of Lion - £25 - but that won't happen with Microsoft.
 
With Lion though you've already paid part of the licencing by buying the hardware (so a small charge can be offset) though from what I recall OSX 10 has what I'd call service packs (i.e. 10.1 to 10.2) and they seem to happen nigh on every year so £25 every year takes it past the £75 mark which is 50% more than Windows 7 with all updates (£50 on release) based on 3 years.

Just clever marketing really.



M.
 
m4cc45 said:
With Lion though you've already paid part of the licencing by buying the hardware (so a small charge can be offset) though from what I recall OSX 10 has what I'd call service packs (i.e. 10.1 to 10.2) and they seem to happen nigh on every year so £25 every year takes it past the £75 mark which is 50% more than Windows 7 with all updates (£50 on release) based on 3 years.

Just clever marketing really.



M.
Click to expand...

The newer versions of Mac OS X are not anything remotely close to service packs. Service packs add support where needed (for example, adding exFAT capability with XP SP2), and generally fix numerous bugs at once in a large release. Mac OS X updates bring out brand new features; look at Mountain Lion.

After downloading and running Windows 8 in a virtual machine as I had to use Access, I think that Metro is completely unnecessary for the desktop, and more hassle than it's worth. That said, I do like the right sidebar.

Other than that, it feels like a reskinned, PITA version of Windows 7 that is poorly suited to both desktops and touch devices - it's too half-half. I haven't had that much play time with it but I doubt I'll find anything else of interest.

It's a shame really, especially after the success of Windows 7. At least Microsoft OSs see long support.
 
And don't forget, Apple cut the apron strings a lot sooner than Microsoft in terms of support. OSX 10.6 "Snow Leopard" came out at the same time as Windows 7. 10.6 is already in its "security updates only" phase, whereas Windows 7 is still in mainstream support till 2015 and extended support till 2020.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom