Windows 8 - the Features, Applications and News Thread

Martini1991 · 8 Aug 2012 at 12:07

That'd make it around 25 quid, not 15-20.

prescott28 · 8 Aug 2012 at 12:09

Don't forget the 20% VAT - that ends up at about £30.

Martini1991 · 8 Aug 2012 at 12:10

Max I'd want to pay for an upgrade from W7 would be about 30, anymore and I'll stay on W7 tbh.

Broken Hope · 8 Aug 2012 at 12:39

Phil2008 said:
Thought it was ment tobe £15-20

This is the UK, we were never going to get it for the equivalent of $40.

ColEx · 8 Aug 2012 at 13:51

Say i got the upgrade version of windows 8, does that mean each time i want to do a fresh install i need to install Windows 7 first and then 8 after? Not that i would do this much, if not ever. Iv never bought a upgrade version before, so dunno how it works.

malachi · 8 Aug 2012 at 14:06

ColEx said:
Say i got the upgrade version of windows 8, does that mean each time i want to do a fresh install i need to install Windows 7 first and then 8 after? Not that i would do this much, if not ever. Iv never bought a upgrade version before, so dunno how it works.

Yep or do the Vista/W7 trick and install twice but activate it after the 2nd installation.

Pdog · 8 Aug 2012 at 14:10

Phil2008 said:
Basically all that has changed is the start, so instead of having the old start menu, you have a full screen start menu (metro) now and tobe honest it isnt too bad once you ve got all the shortcuts you need in the metro.

Its taken me 4 attempts to get the hang of win8, and I cant believe Im going to say this but....... The new start menu(metro) may actually be better as you get 2 menus, your customize menu and a menu with everything.

Thought it was ment tobe £15-20

That is just one pre-order price I have seen, stumbled across it.

point decay · 8 Aug 2012 at 14:11

ColEx said:
Say i got the upgrade version of windows 8, does that mean each time i want to do a fresh install i need to install Windows 7 first and then 8 after? Not that i would do this much, if not ever. Iv never bought a upgrade version before, so dunno how it works.

you could make a drive image of your first install, or just reset win 8

http://liliputing.com/2012/03/windo...button-re-install-windows-without-a-disc.html

prescott28 · 8 Aug 2012 at 14:12

ColEx said:
Say i got the upgrade version of windows 8, does that mean each time i want to do a fresh install i need to install Windows 7 first and then 8 after? Not that i would do this much, if not ever. Iv never bought a upgrade version before, so dunno how it works.

That's a good question. I am really asking that one myself. However if there are to be no 'full' versions then the one I accidentally found on my memory stick this morning must be an upgrade version. It installed fine on my laptop which was wiped before the install. I think the 'upgrade' isn't the same sort of thing as past versions.

In any event, I am going to have to do a full install as it won't upgrade the machine if the profiles are on a separate disk as mine are to same space in the SSD main drive.

djkav · 8 Aug 2012 at 14:15

prescott28 said:
That's a good question. I am really asking that one myself. However if there are to be no 'full' versions then the one I accidentally found on my memory stick this morning must be an upgrade version. It installed fine on my laptop which was wiped before the install. I think the 'upgrade' isn't the same sort of thing as past versions.

In any event, I am going to have to do a full install as it won't upgrade the machine if the profiles are on a separate disk as mine are to same space in the SSD main drive.

There are no "retail" full versions. You can get full install versions from MSDN/Technet - OEM etc as downloadable ISOs. I'm guessing the leaked ISOs are of one of those.

I'm assuming your "accidently found one" was a leaked ISO.

djkav · 8 Aug 2012 at 14:17

r3d zombie said:
you could make a drive image of your first install, or just reset win 8

This is what I do. A 10 minute image restore is better than installing everything separately.

Phil2008 · 8 Aug 2012 at 16:07

The layout of my Start..... Its pretty good as you can get rid of all the other stuff, but you can get the other stuff back if you ever need it by searching or showing all apps.

Nikumba · 8 Aug 2012 at 16:08

Phil2008 said:
The layout of my Start..... Its pretty good as you can get rid of all the other stuff, but you can get the other stuff back if you ever need it by searching or showing all apps.

Looks good, I do wish you could turn off the auto arrange though. Do we know yet if the Metro/Start screen layout is backed up to the cloud along with all other personal settings?

prescott28 · 8 Aug 2012 at 16:30

I'll try this sort of organisation I think. It looks good. The only problem is keeping the number of icons down.

I'd be very interested if this stuff is backed up to teh cloud. I didn't think it was but what do I know? It would be handy.

Nikumba · 8 Aug 2012 at 16:34

prescott28 said:
I'd be very interested if this stuff is backed up to teh cloud. I didn't think it was but what do I know? It would be handy.

Indeed as I imagine we will all spend a lot of time tweaking our settings and be annoyed if were not in the cloud, but will not matter too much, as I will go the ImageX route when its released.

Build and setup the machine to how I want, imagex to bootable stick.

Kimbie

Phil2008 · 8 Aug 2012 at 16:49

Im still undecided if I will buy it or not when its released as it doesn't offer anything over windows 7, and plus reinstalling and setting it up on my main machine will take ages.

Macro · 8 Aug 2012 at 17:27

Nikumba said:
Indeed as I imagine we will all spend a lot of time tweaking our settings and be annoyed if were not in the cloud, but will not matter too much, as I will go the ImageX route when its released.

Build and setup the machine to how I want, imagex to bootable stick.

Kimbie

Personalisations like start page layout are synchronised to the cloud and replicated to any other machines using the same account (if you want it to)

Win8 also offers you two levels of reset which should help prevent the the need to "reinstall OS to get a clean build".

Reset your PC – Remove all personal data, apps, and settings from the PC, and reinstall Windows.
Refresh your PC – Keep all personal data, Metro style apps, and important settings from the PC, and reinstall Windows.

should only take a few minutes, sync and backup will then reapply your customisations (i.e. start screen layout, favourites etc)

You can also establish your own baseline reset point via a command-line tool (recimg.exe). So when you get a Windows 8 PC, you will be able to do the following:

Go through the Windows first-run experience to configure basic settings.
Install your favorite desktop apps (or uninstall things you don’t want).
Configure the machine exactly as you would like it.
Use recimg.exe to capture and set your custom image of the system.

After you’ve created the custom image, whenever you refresh your PC, not only will you be able to keep your personal data, settings, and Metro style apps, but you can restore all the desktop apps in your custom image as well.

More here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/01/04/refresh-and-reset-your-pc.aspx

There's a lot of cool stuff in Win8 if people can get past the "metro UI is ugly and only for touch" thing...

Nikumba · 8 Aug 2012 at 18:45

Oh cool didn't know about the ability to set your own baseline.

That will come in handy

CHeers

Glaucus · 8 Aug 2012 at 19:05

Nikumba said:
Oh cool didn't know about the ability to set your own baseline.

That will come in handy

CHeers

It's an amazing feature. I love built in stuff. Long gone are the days of fiddling. I just want to install and go.

Nikumba · 8 Aug 2012 at 20:38

Glaucus said:
It's an amazing feature. I love built in stuff. Long gone are the days of fiddling. I just want to install and go.

I knew about the reseting the PC bit, genius if you ask me, but I was not aware you could redo the baseline, makes it even more brilliant for a office PC

Add in roaming profiles, problem with a machine, click the button 20 mins later fresh new machine, user logs in job done.

Kimbie