Windows 8 - the Features, Applications and News Thread

Trifid said:
Just think of it as a full screen start menu. I'm getting tired of all this 'it's cool to hate' thing.
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Agreed. I get that some people just won't like it, it's the "omgitsdifferentM$tehdebiltouchnot4keyb0rdorsomymatesontehinternetzsaid!!!!111!!!eleventyone" band wagon that gets boring.

FWIW everyone I know that has taken the time to use it with an open mind and got it set up how they want likes it and wouldn't go back.
 
Athanor said:
Agreed. I get that some people just won't like it, it's the "omgitsdifferentM$tehdebiltouchnot4keyb0rdorsomymatesontehinternetzsaid!!!!111!!!eleventyone" band wagon that gets boring.

FWIW everyone I know that has taken the time to use it with an open mind and got it set up how they want likes it and wouldn't go back.
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Likewise. Fed up of seeing "...I tried it for 20ms and didn't like it" comments.

Yep it's different, it takes a few days to get back up to speed because of the changes, but really it's no worse if you're prepared to put some time in.

If people don't want to change, then stick with Win7, no ones forcing anyone to use it.
 
The new Metro menu looks awesome, very colorful, but at the same time, it's harder to use than the normal Start menu. They should allow the traditional Start menu, if I just want to quickly open something, I don't really need a full screen application for it now do I?

I've had Windows 8 on my laptop for possibly close to a year, and I have to say, I hardly use Metro, the email client is less functional compared to the one I use (built into Opera), Facebook and Twitter are all way more functional on their website or via desktop apps.

The increase in speed of Windows 8, I have to ask myself, is it really actually faster, or is it the fact I've had Windows 7 on for over a year and it's become ever so slightly sluggish. Windows 8 on my laptop after regular use is no faster than Windows 7.

Perhaps if I had a touch screen monitor I'd give Metro more consideration, but on a normal desktop I just can't see it, to me personally it is going in the wrong direction when you're considering desktop, functionality and productivity.
 
willhub said:
The new Metro menu looks awesome, very colorful, but at the same time, it's harder to use than the normal Start menu. They should allow the traditional Start menu, if I just want to quickly open something, I don't really need a full screen application for it now do I?
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I find it quicker. I have all my normal x86 Windows7 style programs pinned to the metro screen just like the few metro apps I use (no one needs to have the store, mail app or any other of the pre installed apps on their screen, just un pin or uninstall them).

It means when I start up I go straight to a screen with 50 or so of my most used apps (and that's without scrolling right) and games along with some links to websites (like OCUK) and people (you can pin contacts from the people hub to start screen) right in front of me. One click and I'm in, the x86 apps aren't full screen any more than they would have been in W7. To be honest I don't use all of the built in metro apps any more than I may previously have used the build in Windows 7 "accessories" apps. Mail, sport etc. are just like the older live apps or stuff bundled into accessories as freebies.

In any case, I find it quicker to get into and out of apps than the old "startbutton:allprograms:random folder:application" from Windows 7. In effect pinning apps to the metro screen is just the same as pinning them to the desktop in Win7, you can still pin to taskbar if you need to so now slow down there.

For anything not pinned I just start typing it's name and usually within 3 or 4 key presses it's found and I just hit enter.

Oh, top tip for those that really want to use old skool desktop a lot, move the desktop link to the top left corner of the metro page. That's the app selected by default so with desktop link there you can just hit enter anytime you go to the metro screen to switch to desktop without having to select and click the desktop app.
 
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Having a real issue with media playback in Windows 8.

As soon as I fire up a game, the framerate in any media app drops to about 1fps.

This happens in VLC, Media Player Classic-HC and playing videos in Flash like iPlayer or Youtube, so it doesn't appear that the application, render method or codec makes any difference.

I am using the latest nvidia drivers for Windows 8 x64.

I cannot find any options for this anywhere in the performance settings, power settings or graphics drivers that could control this.

This is currently a showstopper bug for me, and if I cant resolve it I'll be back to my W7 install. :(
 
willhub said:
Perhaps if I had a touch screen monitor I'd give Metro more consideration, but on a normal desktop I just can't see it, to me personally it is going in the wrong direction when you're considering desktop, functionality and productivity.
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The thing is, over the next decade the "normal desktop" is not going to be the desktop we know today. A mainstream computer will likely be an all in one, touchscreen and fanless with optional optical drives running on either ARM or intel system on chip processors. Tower computers will largely be relegated to enthusiast, server and workstation purposes. So when you take that into consideration, Microsoft are actually heading in the right direction.

Thankfully Windows 8 still works great on a full fat desktop for those that need or want it, but we are definitely in the minority.
 
Windows To Go is only available in the Enterprise SKU, but it will allow you to create a Windows 8 installation on USB that you can boot any PC with.

Has anyone tried this yet, any thoughts on how well it works? And more to my point does anyone know if the USB disk would continue to work after the 90 day expiry of the Enterprise trial?
 
ChileanLlama said:
Windows To Go is only available in the Enterprise SKU, but it will allow you to create a Windows 8 installation on USB that you can boot any PC with.

Has anyone tried this yet, any thoughts on how well it works? And more to my point does anyone know if the USB disk would continue to work after the 90 day expiry of the Enterprise trial?
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i tried windows to go manually on a 16gb usb 3.0 drive and that worked fine. unfortunately my computer failed to boot off the USB 3.0 ports so usb 2.0 made it kinda sluggish.
After trying it on enterprise with the GUI it only allows 32GB+ usb drives to install windows on, even though the 16gb (14.9gb) had plenty of left over room
 
Thanks Alasdair, good to know :) Did you use the trial version of Enterprise? When you had booted from the WTG USB did it say anything about it being a trial v. activated?

I'm just deciding whether to download the trial to a VM purely to create a WTG disk, but if it expires after 90 days probably not worth the time.

Thanks again.
 
ChileanLlama said:
Thanks Alasdair, good to know :) Did you use the trial version of Enterprise? When you had booted from the WTG USB did it say anything about it being a trial v. activated?

I'm just deciding whether to download the trial to a VM purely to create a WTG disk, but if it expires after 90 days probably not worth the time.

Thanks again.
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I just tried the release preview on the USB, i never got anywhere with enterprise, so sorry, can't help with that one :(
 
Thursday 25th of October is the day:

win8invite.jpg
 
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