Windows 8 Beta

[Omniman]

I figured I would start a posting about Windows 8 Beta where we can chat about the features so far. My current question is how do you do a shutdown in the OS? I know it's a silly question but unless I log off then select shutdown is there no other way to shutdown without logging out first?

[vargis14]

Well i have not installed it yet but i did download and unpack it to a folder and will install it from within windows to a esata drive.You can do this buy running the setup exe from the source folder only if you use the setup exe from inside the folder you unpacked W8 iso it will upgrade your win 7 install.Also the Unpacked iso folder must be on a completely different drive that is not holding your current windows OS.
Would have had it installed last night but the latest NV driver was giving my computer fits,driver dying and recovering watching a video,crashing in games,freezes. Since like a idiot I was not uninstalling previous drivers before installing new ones.So add up all the drivers i installed from april,I am surprised i have not had problems sooner.So i followed a great guide for uninstalling all drivers that ended with using driversweeper...was kinda scary had to be done in safe mode.Anyway latest driver works fine now and i gained well over 1 GB of space from my cramped SSD.So many dup files from updating drivers over my current drivers.Plus installing the 3D stuff every time when i don't even need it.
NOTE when installing new Nvidia drivers do not use express setup!! Use advanced and just install what you need.Thats mostly just the graphics driver and physics driver,you can add the audio driver if you use it for sound/HTPC.It will save future headaches.

[StefanVonS]

Holy tangent bat man!

[tanker27]

I have it running on a VM. And while it is quite good for consumer use and for touch pads/screens. I highly doubt they will make a professional version or even a business version of the OS.

I think 8 will be a purely consumer product.

I dont know if I would call it a step forward for an OS. Lets just say its very different and leave it at that.

[DancinJack]

For those people running an actual install (not a VM), how is performance? I don't really have any desire to install this but to just play around for a little while. I wish there was an ARM version out so I could throw it on a tablet where I think it's meant to be used.

[Walkintarget]

I wish there was an ARM version out so I could throw it on a tablet where I think it's meant to be used.

*thumbs up* First MS beta OS I have no interest in trying out. Its meant for mobile users, not a desktop.

[P5-133XL]

I highly doubt they will make a professional version or even a business version of the OS.

I think 8 will be a purely consumer product.

Wrong: It is my understanding that they will still be releasing several different Windows 8 desktop versions

They also released Windows Server "8" yesterday too.

[thegleek]

They also released Windows Server "8" yesterday too.

Oh boy... This is more important then anything since nearly all businesses run some version of Windows Server. And it was hard enough ramping everyone up to Win2k8R2.

[HorseIicious]

I'm running it in a VM too, and the performance in the VM is just fine (I have given it two cores of my i5-2500k, and 8GB of memory though).

But I'm not liking it so much... Basically it feels like a watered down version of 7 streamlined for the masses (and as others have mentioned) for mobile/tablet devices. I hate the start menu/metro stuff (for desktop applications). I hate how there is no clear way to exit a lot of the apps you've launched from the "start" menu (I've just been having to press the Win-key or Win+D to escape). Then once you escape you're basically in Windows 7 without a start button. I'm very underwhelmed by this release. I think it would be pretty awesome if it were for tablets and other touchscreen/ultra portable devices only. Giving some added utility to the backbone of 7. But as it is the only thing I've found that I favor over Windows 7 is the task manager (now that is an improvement IMO).

If I could switch out my Windows 7 task manager for the one in Windows 8 - I think I'd have everything I need from 8. Having said that, with it's supposedly less resource intensive footprint, I still think 8 could be successful, especially in the tablet/touchscreen/ultraportable market.

[tanker27]

I highly doubt they will make a professional version or even a business version of the OS.

I think 8 will be a purely consumer product.

Wrong: It is my understanding that they will still be releasing several different Windows 8 desktop versions

They also released Windows Server "8" yesterday too.

oh god........

[Anarchist]

my recollection of windows, and thing I really did not like, is how the many personal and system folders are fixed to boot drive. From what I understand this is true in win7 as well. Does win8 allow you to mount some system folders to another drive? Let's take the myprogram folder as an example.

[Krogoth]

Windows 8 is going to fail hard in the enterprise world. It offers nothing compelling over Vista/7 and it is just a tiny jump from them. On the other hand, 7/Vista offer quite a bit over XP which made the painful transition worthwhile for the enterprise world in the long-run.

[DancinJack]

And just as an aside, I know that Windows 8 isn’t final by any stretch of the imagination, but while the Metro UI (and UI changes in general) seems like it would work great on a tablet, I’m ready to go on record as saying I think it sucks for traditional desktop and laptop users. Without a touch interface, Metro feels weird at best and downright awful at worst.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5619/wind ... ttery-life

Battery life sucks too. At least initial testing is pretty bad.

Windows 8 probably won't be the next operating system I buy. (If I even pay for an operating system that is)

[tanker27]

For those people running an actual install (not a VM), how is performance? I don't really have any desire to install this but to just play around for a little while. I wish there was an ARM version out so I could throw it on a tablet where I think it's meant to be used.

FWIW, I have it running in three different VM applications, Hyper-V environment, VMWare, and Virtual Box and the performance in all three is outstanding.

[DancinJack]

FWIW, I have it running in three different VM applications, Hyper-V environment, VMWare, and Virtual Box and the performance in all three is outstanding.

I haven't heard any complaints about performance and hearing this makes it sound like it's running okay on most systems. Thanks.

I'd still like to see the ARM version.

[Madman]

Something tells me this will be the next Vista, just worse.

A lot of new, untried stuff. A lot of which will work nicely for tablets, but will suck for the desktop PC. There will be some positive things, like ARM support, but overall, just a test to see what needs to be done for SP1, a.k.a. Windows 9.

Luckily, I've switched to Ubuntu almost completely.

I hate the new Unity, and this will be interesting what will happen when 10.04 LTS runs out of support, but overall, I'm probably okay if Windows 8 bites the dust. Maybe more games will be ported to Linux.

[SlyFerret]

I threw Windows 8 on an HP laptop that doesn't get used much, but is still a decent machine. It had been running Windows 7.

Performance seems good.

The new metro UI is just weird to me. I try to think about it being a touch interface on a tablet, and it still seems weird. I'm trying to give it some time to grow on me.

I did find this while googling around this morning:
There is a registry key that you can toggle to turn the desktop style start menu on and off.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
The value 0 enables the start menu, the value 1 disables it again.

-SF

Edit: Darn. I haven't tried it yet, but now I'm finding information that says that they took this out in the consumer preview.

[Omniman]

I'm running it on a Lenovo 3000 n100 with 2GB of ram and it's pretty peppy. I'm still getting used to all. Finally got soundmax garbage drivers to work on it last night and I think all the drivers are installed on it. I really like the heat map task manager. IE10 seems to have issues going back to the previous page though.

[tanker27]

Something tells me this will be the next Vista, just worse.

Well it is an even numbered release.....if M$ keeps its trending up then yeah.

[End User]

I have it running on a dedicated drive. Performance is excellent. I'm using the suggested Nvidia driver. Dual displays and SLI work perfectly. I copied my Steam folder over and briefly played a few games - no problems.

Metro is terrible. It may work on tablets but it is a waste on my dual display rig. Mouse/keyboard control of the Metro UI is not pleasant. A touchpad may be a better option.

[k00k]

The new metro UI is just weird to me. I try to think about it being a touch interface on a tablet, and it still seems weird. I'm trying to give it some time to grow on me.

I did find this while googling around this morning:
There is a registry key that you can toggle to turn the desktop style start menu on and off.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
The value 0 enables the start menu, the value 1 disables it again.

-SF

Edit: Darn. I haven't tried it yet, but now I'm finding information that says that they took this out in the consumer preview.

Somebody has been working on a Windows 8 tweaker for enabling/disabling the Metro UI: http://www.superutils.com/products/win-eight-metro-ui-switcher/

It makes Windows 8 look like... Windows 7!

YMMV, though. Haven't personally tried it yet. As for me, Metro UI still does not make sense on the desktop.

[ordskiweicz]

The utility to disable metro didn't work for me - still metro.

Metro - really? My three hours with it convicted me not to bother. (Thanks Acronis!) I learned apple for my iPhone and will likely go for an Pad sometime, but the lack of back buttons of any kind and the whole radical re-do offers little for desktop users.

[Anarchist]

so, besides the metro ... any actual change in the OS itself worth talking about?

[rhysl]

IE 10 , I like the new task manager , hate Metro , surley they will have a PC version ?

[r00t61]

so, besides the metro ... any actual change in the OS itself worth talking about?

Anand's preview look outlines most of the under-the-hood changes. I personally really like the new task manager and the clean-reset feature.

After having played around with the CP in a VM, I can't say that I'm all that impressed. After stumbling about for a while, I finally got the hang of Metro. I can see how it'd be useful for consumption of media on tablets. As a desktop replacement, though, I don't think it does anything better than the current design on Win7. The most charitable thing I can say is that one can get used to Metro, and probably use it about as good as Win7 after an initial training period. But that's damning with faint praise, obviously, because what's the point of having to get trained up on a system if the new one isn't markedly better than the old one? And that's my biggest beef. Metro isn't any better. It's just different.

The tinfoil-hat cynic in me says that Metro is being rolled out simply as a long-term strategy to get MS's application store off the ground. MS sees Apple making money hand over fist in their "my-way-or-the-highway" sandbox approach to selling applications, and they want the same thing. Metro is just a step towards a software dystopia where the only applications one can install on their Windows machine are those that have been approved and sold by Ballmer's dark minions. Any software that hasn't jumped through the hoops of getting approved for the MS application store will be declared verboten for use on Windows.

[flip-mode]

I just installed in Virtualbox with no issues. My thoughts:

• Metro is very different, but I kinda like it. I really like the tiles much better than traditional shortcut icons.
• Folks that like to keep a bunch of files and slop all over their desktop will not like this.
• Ctrl+Tab opens up the extended program list - that's not hard.
• Win+D shows the good old desktop - that's easy too.
• Not having a start menu will take getting used to. Once I find out where everything is it will be fine.
• I like the thought of finally evolving past the Start menu. Honestly, I like Metro better, but folks that hate using key combos will probably be annoyed.
• I like the refinements made to Windows Explorer and the ribbon interface serves Windows Explorer functions well.
• Since someone asked earlier: Ctrl+Alt+Del to find the shutdown options
• Task manager is a definite improvement.
• I'm nervous about "the cloud" and letting MS or any other company wrap itself so tightly around all my info.

Overall I'm fairly interested in this new OS and it seems like I'd be fine with having it as my primary OS. Metro doesn't bother me at all and I really think it's pretty slick and even not hard or bothersome at all to work with on the desktop. Microsoft seems to finally be innovating and I think that's great. It might face an uphill battle getting traction with businesses, but I hope I'm wrong about that - there are no productivity killing changes here.

[flip-mode]

Woah has anyone tried grabbing the top of the screen when an application is maximized and pulling down? What's that about? I need to read through a "what's new".

Edit: just checked out the "what's new" through the Windows 8 help and now I'm really starting to like this OS. I've never called Windows "fun" before. Windows 8 is fun. Me want.