Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread

silversurfer · 28 Jul 2012 at 15:30

None of those apps are core. Windows is just a graphical dos and tasking system, anything more is MS trying to saturate the market

the 300mb of memory used on startup compared to 600 is also impressive, them sort of builds are great if just using it for gaming

For comparison, a basic XP load was 100mb or best I could do anyway.

prescott28 · 28 Jul 2012 at 15:42

silversurfer said:
None of those apps are core. Windows is just a graphical dos and tasking system, anything more is MS trying to saturate the market

For comparison, a basic XP load was 100mb or best I could do anyway.

That was creating a special slipstreamed disc I presume. We used to manage a rather reduced size for XP. I haven't bother for Windows 7 though I moved the users profiles to another disc. My boot disk is a 60GB SSD so not that much room.

Is there a way to slipstream Windows 8 to get a smaller install?

mrk · 28 Jul 2012 at 16:22

I've been playing with the new Preview and it's much better than the Developer version from before but I still don't like it over Win7. As someone mentioned above, it's small changes on top of Win7 that make it better but for me personally they've missed a few tickboxes as far as Metro goes.

I have dual screens, I like widgets and being able to move open apps permanently to my 2nd screen set in portrait orientation. I like the idea behind Metro but not being able to organise a logical Start menu in Desktop mode is a major kick in the teeth.

Yes, it is change and "par for the course" but it's not logical. They're forcing a touch screen interface on users that don't want anything to do with touch screens.

If MS had allowed you to at least organise apps into folders in Metro when you right click to view all apps instead of just showing all apps on one scrollable screen then I might have been fine with that because the screen transitions switching between Desktop and Metro are rather pretty and pretty things please me.

As it stands, it's a 2 step affair now whereas with Win7 it's one step.

I want Firefox? Sure thing, on Win7 I click Firefox and it opens.

On Win8, I click Firefox on Metro, it opens the Desktop app then loads Firefox. A 2 step affair. I don't want this. I want a classic desktop with a Windows 7 start menu that I can search, organise and manage my apps.

FWIW, this preview has been running on VMWare Player on my Win7 OS SSD, no slowdowns, no problems whatsoever and hardware acceleration works just fine. I'm happy with the performance, everything is so slick but the things I mentioned above affect me as a power user.

Now, unless I've missed something here then I don't think I will be upgrading to Win8 and wait for Win9 with hope that they have some sense restored as far as proper desktop PC users go!

prescott28 · 28 Jul 2012 at 16:34

how about pining the applications you use all the time to the quick launch bar? the everything is as normal. Classic Shell is available to add a start button and start menu if you need one.

mrk · 28 Jul 2012 at 16:38

I have select apps on the taskbar pinned (pinned context menu items in them as well). Everything else gets accessed via highly organised folders in the start menu.

This is what I mean, if Metro's "All Apps" view allowed you to create folders then that would be just fine by me. Like how on Android you can create folders and drag apps into them.

Just how true is Classic shell to Win7 start menu? I've not used it yet, not heard about it even.

ChileanLlama · 28 Jul 2012 at 16:40

Have you tried creating groups on the Start Screen? It's not as granular as you're used to on the Start Menu, but allows for some customisation of your commonly used stuff.

mrk · 28 Jul 2012 at 16:46

Aye I've got stuff grouped but like with the lack of folders feature, there's no way I can see to label groups. That too would have been fine, to be able to put a label to groups such as "Imaging Apps" and then when you use the inline type to search function, you could search for a labelled group as opposed to scrolling all the way to the right for labels starting with later letters of the alphabet.

dogmanstaruk · 28 Jul 2012 at 16:54

ic1male said:
The Metro IE10 has a special "white list" of sites that are allowed to use Flash. You can't alter that as it's set by Microsoft.

You are kidding me right? Microsoft determine which sites I am allowed to visit, and enjoy? Bugger that.

heh, it isn't as if the site I was needing the flash install was for porn;p

It seems so pointless having two versions of IE 10 available. One restricted, and one not. Which raises the question why bother with the Metro IE?

Back to Chrome I go. You had your opportunity to impress me MS, you failed.

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:01

Flash uses more battery and insecurity for portable devices. Hence metro ie is restricted. But they decided on legacy support for Some big name websites which use flash. Same as apple and even android are getting rid of flash support. Flash is used on few websites these days anyway.

Also as far as I've read nothing stopping Firefox or other webbroser making a flash capable metro browser.

Why not just use desktop ie, I wish I could delete the names on ie quick launch bar thing. If they allowed that I would use it. Why do I want icons and names.

silversurfer · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:01

On Win8, I click Firefox on Metro, it opens the Desktop app then loads Firefox. A 2 step affair. I don't want this. I want a classic desktop with a Windows 7 start menu that I can search, organise and manage my apps.

I consistently fail to get wth people are upto. Click desktop, thats it. Now just use it like win7 desktop. The end.

Firefox is an icon on the desktop, on the taskbar. Or just ctrl alt del and browse, whatever. Forget metro

Mei · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:02

mrk said:
*snip stuff about metro i agree with*

Now, unless I've missed something here then I don't think I will be upgrading to Win8 and wait for Win9 with hope that they have some sense restored as far as proper desktop PC users go!

try a stripped down version it can boot up in under 3 seconds on a ssd
if ur pc is on all the time and you have loads of memory yeh you might not see the appeal, theres an app to get the start menu back but i agree yeh its lame they trying force us to use metro

i think most will switch but they will hack it up

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:04

mrk said:
Aye I've got stuff grouped but like with the lack of folders feature, there's no way I can see to label groups. That too would have been fine, to be able to put a label to groups such as "Imaging Apps" and then when you use the inline type to search function, you could search for a labelled group as opposed to scrolling all the way to the right for labels starting with later letters of the alphabet.

http://robti.me/windows-8-create-and-label-groups-to-organize-the-metro-start-screen/

Mei · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:16

prescott28 said:
That was creating a special slipstreamed disc I presume. We used to manage a rather reduced size for XP. I haven't bother for Windows 7 though I moved the users profiles to another disc. My boot disk is a 60GB SSD so not that much room.

Is there a way to slipstream Windows 8 to get a smaller install?

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28997
im using this to mess around, warning it involves a little reading if not done it b4

silversurfer · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:19

metromoan

Ctrl-Shift-Esc Alt F N

Or if desperate to use metro, Win-Q type the program name & press return. 5 secs or less, no fuss

In a simple test, this publication found an old Compaq Pentium II PC which had been left in storage after being rejected by several charity shops as being of no value. A beta copy of Windows 8 was written to CD and installed over the existing Windows 95. Not only did the install work, but it ran faster than the old Windows 95 operating system. Although at present it will only support an old 10MBPS 3Com Network card, it ran a copy of Google's Chrome browser perfectly.

The implications of this could be enormous. It is estimated that around 30% of PCs in use in the UK are not capable of supporting Windows 7. Yet they could be capable of supporting Windows 8. And what about all the PCs that are no longer in use but have been stuck in the loft or the garage? They could suddenly be made operational once more.

When Windows 8 is released later this year, it could well turn out to be the operating system that turned built-in-obsolescence on its head.

Industry in Shock as Microsoft does something right ?

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:31

silversurfer said:
Ctrl-Shift-Esc Alt F N
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/4976/metronome.pngIMG]

Or if desperate to use metro, Win-Q type the program name & press return. 5 secs or less, no fuss
?[/QUOTE]

What are you trying to do?

why would you do it this way, just stick an icon either in metro or on desktop toolbar.

Mei · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:35

silversurfer said:
Industry in Shock as Microsoft does something right ?

i agree with that test too, its why my 1st screeny was it running on a atom single core, remove the bloat and its the fastest windows yet

silversurfer · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:44

Glaucus said:
What are you trying to do?

why would you do it this way, just stick an icon either in metro or on desktop toolbar.

I do use desktop, I never liked start menu anyway, its just 1 click to use taskbar and it saves all the previous docs/URL on the jumplist, perfect.
I just wonder why people still moan about metro when its nothing but a front door, theres multiple alternatives

I was using Windows 3.11 upto 2002. I still have winxp on a machine but theres really nothing much to criticise in this latest ver

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:46

But why are you opening something up in task manager?

silversurfer · 28 Jul 2012 at 17:51

Its an alternative. Some may like this. You can remove taskbar altogether maybe, have zero dekstop icons and never use metro but still load programs in less then 5 seconds.
Its maybe slightly perverse as win Q works just fine imo.
My own use is desktop, dozens of icons and its messy but whatever works for people is fine same as it always was, just making a point

dogmanstaruk · 28 Jul 2012 at 18:59

Glaucus said:
Flash uses more battery and insecurity for portable devices. Hence metro ie is restricted. But they decided on legacy support for Some big name websites which use flash. Same as apple and even android are getting rid of flash support. Flash is used on few websites these days anyway.

Also as far as I've read nothing stopping Firefox or other webbroser making a flash capable metro browser.

Why not just use desktop ie, I wish I could delete the names on ie quick launch bar thing. If they allowed that I would use it. Why do I want icons and names.

Yeah ill just use the desktop browser for the moment.

Just needed flash for a couple of sites like twitch tv.