Windows 8 who's buying/upgrading

V F · 3 Feb 2013 at 17:25

Bubo said:
Are they ever going to reintroduce an Aero style look to desktop window borders? To me it feels like its Windows 3.11 again.

No, because...

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/windows-8-to-drop-aero-ui-for-desktop-1081981 said:
Ditching Aero to make Windows lighter

Many reasons for the change are stated in the blog post, most of which revolve around compatibility with existing Windows 7 applications and creating a clean interface that doesn't distract from the actual content on the screen.
They are good points, but perhaps not the most important benefit of cutting Aero out of the UI.

Perhaps Microsoft wouldn't like to say it, but they know Aero is kind of a resource and power hog.

On a desktop PC the effect on performance is negligible, if even noticeable at all, thanks to the constant stream of power flowing to the machine.

Notebooks are a different case though, as the GPU's extra effort can take a toll on performance, power consumption, and system heat.

Many users already opt to turn off Aero effects in Windows 7 due to the drain on lower-spec machines.

And with Windows 8 making a big push for the notebook and tablet market, those are exactly the machines being targeted.

For those who have grown to love Aero, they will at least find some solace knowing that only the cosmetics of Aero are being sacrificed, with features such as application previews still accessible through keyboard shortcuts.

Microsoft is taking the unified experience of Windows 8 across multiple devices very seriously, both in how the desktop looks and how it runs.

Puzzled · 3 Feb 2013 at 18:05

The 4OD app is buggy for me as well, it will happily play the adverts but as soon as the actual program starts it just closes and goes back to the start menu.

That aside I'm finding Windows 8 brilliant for my media PC, the apps while few are a great way to navigate on the TV. Still using XBMC of course but I think if developers get behind it there could be some excellent Home Theatre apps in the near future.
(Shame it doesn't work that great with a standard media remote but works really well with my air mouse remote)

The new start menu doesn't really add much to my main desktop use but for £25 I can't complain. I did have to turn the delete confirmation screen back on though, felt weird without it!

Gogl · 3 Feb 2013 at 19:32

Glaucus said:
Gives you an option to fresh install

Doesn't ask for key. The upgrade assistant checks it.

Thanks for the info.

I'm a bit rusty on licensing, are you limited to one machine within the home for your install? I have a friend who has installed the same XP licence (not bootleg for sure) on several machines, I didn't think this was possible. Or am I missing something?

It's not so much that it's a concern but he seems to think Windows 8 will be the same, but aren't you just going to get your licence banned by using it on different machines? I would have thought using keys was fairly straight forward, once it's activated on one machine, that's it and even if you tried it would fail.

Glaucus · 3 Feb 2013 at 19:57

Legally no, it's licensed for one machine only

Gogl · 4 Feb 2013 at 14:38

Glaucus said:
Legally no, it's licensed for one machine only

I was hoping there would be a more definitive reason, not that the legality isn't reason enough for me, it's just that I'd rather say you can't do it because it can't be done, rather than you can't do it because you shouldn't.

Well I for one am not risking it, thanks for your help.

antijoke · 4 Feb 2013 at 16:37

FFS.

So know in windows 8 I can't change my profile picture unless I activate windows. I try this with my supplied key from my download and I get invalid licence.

Anyone know what I need to do?

Edit: so it appears my upgrade licence is just that, an upgrade for my current os and I can't fresh install it. Damn it. Didn't want to do it on my old disk.

gareth170 · 4 Feb 2013 at 16:37

Gogl said:
I was hoping there would be a more definitive reason, not that the legality isn't reason enough for me, it's just that I'd rather say you can't do it because it can't be done, rather than you can't do it because you shouldn't.

Well I for one am not risking it, thanks for your help.

once activated on a system it won't let you online activate on another system

gareth170 · 4 Feb 2013 at 16:40

anticonscience said:
FFS.

So know in windows 8 I can't change my profile picture unless I activate windows. I try this with my supplied key from my download and I get invalid licence.

Anyone know what I need to do?

did u do a clean install without any previous os installed?

try this

Activate Windows 8 Pro Upgrade

Windows 8 users who noticed that the operating system can’t be activated after the installation may want to try the following workaround that worked to activate when installing Windows 7 using an upgrade on a clean PC.

Open regedit by pressing Windows-q, entering regedit and selecting the result from the list of hits.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Change MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0

Go back to the start screen and enter cmd there.

Right-click Command Prompt and select to run it as administrator.

Type slmgr /rearm on the command line and hit enter.

Reboot Windows now.

Run the activation utility afterwards, enter your product key to activate Windows.

http://www.ghacks.net/2012/10/27/windows-8-upgrade-clean-install-possible/

antijoke · 4 Feb 2013 at 16:59

Didn't work says something's preventing windows from activating.

And it has worked. Thanks, took a few restarts but its all done now.

Gogl · 5 Feb 2013 at 07:53

gareth170 said:
once activated on a system it won't let you online activate on another system

Good, now there'll be no more suggestions to do so. Good to know, thanks.

Rathlin1 · 5 Feb 2013 at 14:20

I would upgrade if it allowed me.

Anyone else having the ""Unfortunately, based on the information you provided during the registration process you are not eligible for the upgrade offer" problem? Even though I meet the requirements (date of purchase etc) it just says I'm ineligible. Perhaps I'm not inputting something correctly?

PapaLazaru · 5 Feb 2013 at 14:25

Rathlin1 said:
I would upgrade if it allowed me.

Anyone else having the ""Unfortunately, based on the information you provided during the registration process you are not eligible for the upgrade offer" problem? Even though I meet the requirements (date of purchase etc) it just says I'm ineligible. Perhaps I'm not inputting something correctly?

What OS do you currently have and when did you buy the upgrade key and from where?

Rathlin1 · 5 Feb 2013 at 14:29

Windows 7 Home Premium. I didn't buy the upgrade key, I bought an Overclockers UK system that advertised the "£15 deal on windows 8" on the 4th January. Asked them what was up and they said for me to contact the Microsoft Store.

Perhaps I inputted something wrong like the PC Model or something like that.

DanF · 5 Feb 2013 at 14:36

The metro kindle app is the worst version of it I've tried and I've tried most, osx, ios & android. It's like this for pretty much all the metro apps though, none of them are better yet.

DanF · 5 Feb 2013 at 14:46

Bubo said:
Are they ever going to reintroduce an Aero style look to desktop window borders? To me it feels like its Windows 3.11 again.

Also people asking them to do it will do nothing to brining it back. When they released the new Visual Studio 2012 they made it look totally horrible, it's all grey with menu's all in CAPS, the nice colour icons from previous versions have been replaced with new black and white icons making it very hard to quickly find what your looking for.

There where so many complaints and blogs about this, even their own uservoice site got the most votes about these issues and they have basically done nothing about it, you have to mod VS yourself with 3rd party hacks to get it looking nice again.

add-some-color-to-visual-studio-2012
change-all-caps-menu-in-vs-2012-to-vs-beta-format-
bring-back-the-visual-in-visual-studio
bring-back-full-color-icons-to-visual-studio-2012

Glaucus · 5 Feb 2013 at 15:23

DanF said:
The metro kindle app is the worst version of it I've tried and I've tried most, osx, ios & android. It's like this for pretty much all the metro apps though, none of them are better yet.

Netflix app is much better on metro than the others.

What's wrong with the kindle app? It's pretty much identical to iOS.

antijoke · 6 Feb 2013 at 10:48

OspreyO · 6 Feb 2013 at 11:14

Glaucus said:
Netflix app is much better on metro than the others.

What's wrong with the kindle app? It's pretty much identical to iOS.

Whats better about the Netflix app?

mmj_uk · 6 Feb 2013 at 11:48

V F said:
No, because...

That's only because W8 is aimed at slow battery powered portable/touch systems and not desktop machines:

Perhaps Microsoft wouldn't like to say it, but they know Aero is kind of a resource and power hog.

On a desktop PC the effect on performance is negligible, if even noticeable at all, thanks to the constant stream of power flowing to the machine.

Notebooks are a different case though, as the GPU's extra effort can take a toll on performance, power consumption, and system heat.

If Microsoft decide to make separate portable/desktop OS's instead of a mixed "Jack of all trades, master of none" effort that W8 is there's no reason why Aero can't come back.

Blood&IceCream · 6 Feb 2013 at 12:49

gareth170 said:
once activated on a system it won't let you online activate on another system

considering a purchase of win8 oem on a new build i'm nearing completion on (been away from computing for sometime), but what happens if say you've built a new system, install win8 and couple of months later it turns out your motherboard has an issue and it gets replaced under warranty - would the same OS work?