Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview

Mini review:

Initial impressions are pretty good.
  • The sync to live.com account is eerie. Especially if you format & forget that its switched on. Took me a couple of seconds to work out why everything is already configured.
  • Loving the theme on the Desktop side - It has a clean feel to it. Better than Aero. The Metro side is kinda meh.
  • Metro weather app and finance app is nice.
  • Power user menu is useful.
  • Task manager is 10x better than on Win 7.

Negatives:
  • Serious disconnects between the two sides. e.g. Select Internet Explorer in Metro then switch to desktop. The taskbar shows IE as not being active. Similarly the music app doesn't appear to be connected to WMP.
  • Major googling campaign to get it installed. MBR disks don't like 3TB disks. Convert them to GPT and then you can't install windows on it unless you have a UEFI mobo. Windows doesn't actually *tell* you these things. It just greys out options & refuses to install. Or gives error messages like 0x80300024. Not sure how people with weaker Google Fu are going to get around that.
  • The Show Desktop button *only* works in Desktop mode, not Metro. That small detail is frustrating the hell out of me atm.
  • Few customization option on the Metro side. Short of the background colour & shuffling around the tiles there isn't much that can be done.
  • Couldn't quite get the hang of IE in Metro mode. Seems to require some type of swiping motion. Meh. Chrome ftw.
  • The charms thing on the right is kinda not useful for anything. Except shutdown is hidden there.
  • Metro apps show up in a 2nd taskbar type thing that is on the left side of the screen i.e. vertical. They should integrate the two taskbars since the perform essentially the same function.
  • My GFX isn't supported yet. Its running w/ some kinda of engineering sample type WDDM 1.1 driver.

Would have been better without the Metro crap, but on the whole not bad so far. The non-Metro portion are definitely better than on Win 7.

teraside said:
You said it. Even my support request uptop is looked over by spam :(
Click to expand...
Check the SHA1 hash of your download. See also GPT/UEFI issue I mentioned above.
 
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B@rrels said:
Arthur vs rwenzori:p
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Not at all! I understand totally where Rwenzori comes from. I even agree with much of what he says. MS is bad at explaining. Always has been.

Among my many faults is graphoverbosity. Apols to everyone if that comes across as a lecture - that's absolutely awful. Sorry guys!
 
Park@82 said:
haha I'm enjoying it. Keep it up :D.

@tera does it boot in safe mode? (assuming safemode still exists)
Click to expand...

Hi Park@82. It isn't installed yet.
I insert the disc, it displays the Winodws Logo, the circular ring starts running after a while then it switches over to a screen for less than a second to say Something went wrong and it is restarting my system.

I have 2 partitions on my system, one created specifically for Windows 8, so I'm not sure whether I can install Windows 8 from my Windows 7 install?

Thanks for any help.
 
teraside said:
Hi Park@82. It isn't installed yet.
I insert the disc, it displays the Winodws Logo, the circular ring starts running after a while then it switches over to a screen for less than a second to say Something went wrong and it is restarting my system.

I have 2 partitions on my system, one created specifically for Windows 8, so I'm not sure whether I can install Windows 8 from my Windows 7 install?

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

Hey dude, I'm no expert but would suggest you check that your download isn't broken:

Make sure the Sha 1 hash corresponds to the one listed here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso
I think you can use this utill to view yours: http://download.cnet.com/MD5-SHA-1-Checksum-Utility/3000-2092_4-10911445.html

For fear of breaking my win7 install I would rather install it on a separate drive. No need to waste a DVD AFAIK you can load the ISO onto a memory stick. Last time I checked, the Win7 USB tool worked for Win8 (beta) as well: http://download.cnet.com/Windows-7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool/3000-18513_4-10972600.html

I would rater boot into the install than trying to run it from win7...

PS: I never got around to install it myself so cant help with much else.
 
Thanks guys. According to Parka and Havok my Sha1 Hash is not the same as the download.

What gives? I'm downloading the ISO with Orbit Downloader?
 
teraside said:
Thanks guys. According to Parka and Havok my Sha1 Hash is not the same as the download.

What gives? I'm downloading the ISO with Orbit Downloader?
Click to expand...
Could it be that you downloaded an older version or the beta not the release preview?
Arthur said:
Confirmed this works. I used the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool to prep a bootable flash drive and installed from that.
Click to expand...
Thanks, good to know.
 
Park@82 said:
Could it be that you downloaded an older version or the beta not the release preview?

Thanks, good to know.
Click to expand...

No I'm downloading the Release Preview. I just spent two hours again downloading it and the Hashes aren't the same again. What gives, seriously. I downloaded it now from WAGE and it's the same crap.
 
Windows 8.... the "ugly side" revealed. Well depends on how you view adds

7041.adidas.png


I’m happy to be writing this from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Aside from the spectacular location, I always enjoy the opportunity to meet and share ideas with the best and the brightest in our business. This year, we are also excited to be giving our advertising and publishing partners a sneak peek at the rich advertising solutions we’re creating for Windows 8 apps.

When developing Windows 8, Microsoft reimagined it with a focus on the consumer experience. We are creating opportunities for ads within Windows 8 apps in the same way – by putting people at the center of the experience. Over the last six months, I have spent a fair amount of time talking about our Windows 8 Advertising SDK and the potential of Windows 8 to deliver rich, brand-safe ad experiences that will add value to consumers and increase engagement opportunities for marketers – check out my Microsoft Advertising blog posts from December last year and March this year. Today, we are one step closer to helping brands tell engaging stories to their customers in meaningful ways with beautiful ads in Windows 8 apps.

Microsoft Advertising is also taking a new approach in how we develop advertising experiences on Windows 8. True to our belief in fostering growth in the ecosystem, we’re partnering with some great creative agencies to ideate and visualize beautiful display experiences across a multitude of marketer goals for the Windows 8 apps ecosystem.

Our creative agency partners include AKQA, Big Spaceship, Razorfish, Team Detroit, UM and Y&R. All six will be lending us their creative minds and expertise as we co-develop early advertising concepts. With these partners, we will look to create a new standard for what ads within Windows 8 apps can and will be, as well as ensure that experiences will be engaging for consumers and effective for marketers and publishers. My colleague Stephen Kim, whose group is working directly with our agency co-development partners, has more to share here and will have additional updates in the coming months.
Click to expand...

See link for more info & previews: http://community.microsoftadvertisi...06/19/windows-8-aia-concepts-cannes-2012.aspx
 
teraside said:
The 3rd ISO didn't work either :( sad...
Click to expand...
I downloaded from the link I posted earlier with Free Download Manager.
I can confirm the following:

MD5 Checksum: 5901DB43F3B3FA155D65F523F76D5D88
SHA-1 Checksum: D76AD96773615E8C504F63564AF749469CFCCD57
Generated by MD5 & SHA-1 Checksum Utility @ http://raylin.wordpress.com/downloads/md5-sha-1-checksum-utility

If you are using the same link and you are getting different results, your download must be broken.
 
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