Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Last negative post from me today, but this is what anandtech.com has to say:

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. What’s more, getting a touchscreen for a desktop or laptop isn’t actually something I’m clamoring for. Does using a 24” or 30” touchscreen on my desktop sound enjoyable? Not at all, and a 15” laptop touchscreen wouldn’t be much better. Maybe it would help me build up a bit of arm strength, but that’s about the only upside. Add on fingerprints—a personal pet peeve that smartphones and tablets still suffer from—and I’m more than happy to stick with the “boring” old Start Menu. That’s just my initial impression of course; anyone else have similar—or different—feelings after playing around with the Win8 CP?
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5619/windows-8-consumer-preview-a-quick-look-at-battery-life
 
While agree that the missing start menu is a bit of a change , there is nothing preventing you from installing a third party app like rocketdock and adding/creating shortcuts to your most used start menu options.
 
I thought metro was over all, pretty simple. I just dont know how to customize the colors of the shortcuts :/

Other than that... it was pretty easy to use. Luckily I have experience with Ubuntu Unity, and I feel the systems are similar in ways.
 
Zyraz said:
While agree that the missing start menu is a bit of a change , there is nothing preventing you from installing a third party app like rocketdock and adding/creating shortcuts to your most used start menu options.
Click to expand...

Why?, you may as well pin applications to your "start bar", same effect.


ghoti said:
I thought metro was over all, pretty simple. I just dont know how to customize the colors of the shortcuts :/

Other than that... it was pretty easy to use. Luckily I have experience with Ubuntu Unity, and I feel the systems are similar in ways.
Click to expand...

I am getting the same feeling, it probably explains some of my negative feelings about it overall. Its the whole type to run, unity search, applications pinned to a bar experience. Look I think Metro on a touch interface kicks both iOS and Android ass, it just doesnt work for me as a desktop UI.

Maybe its just my Age sowing, seeing that started using PC's back in the old c:\ days and have 17 years of the now familiar win7/kde desktop interface behind me.
 
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am I the only one who gets this error on virtualbox after booting off ISO? Don't seem to find much help online:

Windows Recovery Environment

Your PC needs to be repeaired

The operating system couldn't be loaded because the system registry file is missing or contains errors.

File: \windows\system32\config\system
Error code: 0xc00000098

You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. if you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your system administrator or PC manufacturer.

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for alternate boot options
 
betty85 said:
am I the only one who gets this error on virtualbox after booting off ISO? Don't seem to find much help online:

Windows Recovery Environment

Your PC needs to be repeaired

The operating system couldn't be loaded because the system registry file is missing or contains errors.

File: \windows\system32\config\system
Error code: 0xc00000098

You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. if you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your system administrator or PC manufacturer.

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for alternate boot options
Click to expand...

checksum the iso, bet you your images is corrupt.
 
betty85 said:
am I the only one who gets this error on virtualbox after booting off ISO? Don't seem to find much help online:

Windows Recovery Environment

Your PC needs to be repeaired

The operating system couldn't be loaded because the system registry file is missing or contains errors.

File: \windows\system32\config\system
Error code: 0xc00000098

You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. if you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your system administrator or PC manufacturer.

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for alternate boot options
Click to expand...

Me think it will be a while before virtual PC's will be compatible with Windows8 I tried VMware and Windows Virtual PC but guess they need updates first.
 
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wily me said:
Me think it will be a while before virtual PC's will be compatible with Windows8 I tried VMware and Widows Virtual PC but guess they need updates first.
Click to expand...

well I was reading a post on howtogeek I think it was yesterday of them installing it in virtualbox - seems like they run it fine
 
CeeBee said:
me also looking forward to get it... hopefully MS in SA will host a download site too.
Got a Dell Lattitude ST Windows 7 tablet I wanna try it out on... should be a better touch & tablet OS than Win7
The developers preview looked good, a little low on apps, no driver issues.... hopefully Win8 should cover all current Win7 stuff

in theory... if it comes out on 29th... we in ZA should be able to get it a few hours before the US hogs, about 10hours or so? :-)
Click to expand...

How are you finding your ST Tablet. I am thinking of ordering but not sure whether to get this or Samsung Series 7 Slate but I cant it locally and there is no 3g version.
 
I can't believe that with all the money that these devs' get paid at MS that Metro UI is the best **** they can come up with.
Glad to see I'm not the only one that HATES it.

And if Metro is the future of Windows on a Desktop, I'll be saying goodbye to my old friend.
 
So in short, Microsoft stole the Metro look from Android? For tablets this might work great but I am curious to see how this will work in a corporate environment - once corporate IT has removed Store, Photos, Music, Maps etc, you will be left with Windows 7 ;-)

I think the Metro UI looks nice but I did get a "shock" (I am running it on VMWare on a Mac and I assume the Mac CMD-key is the equivalent of the Windows key on PC?) when hitting the CMD/Windows-key and all of a sudden I was back to the typically "windows-nastiness" (without the Start bar).

Have not played much (and it still being a preview), but (perhaps also just a VMWare issue) - how does one close applications (such as IE - which is BTW dreadful - what - no tabs?) - on WinXP I can use CTRL+W, on Windows 8 it reopens the window.
 
hehe, posting in the right thread would help i guess.

---------

I approached this whole thing with real enthusiasm, but i must say after a few days of using it i just can't bring myself to like it. It tries to do everything but does northing well. Its a frankenOS. Its almost like microsoft woke up one morning and decided the best way to transition from a land rover to a Lamborghini is to cut each in half and weld them together down the middle seam. Eish, its a bit of a disaster tbh.

Metro just seems so wasteful on a desktop computer, and really not that pretty, which is sad considering you give up so much space to achieve the look. Sure, i suspect it might make more sense on a tablet but on the desktop it just feels so wrong. In trying to compete with tablets microsoft have really screwed up the desktop experience. Perhaps by windows 9 or 10 it will all come together, but for now i think most normal humans are going to hate it - atleast when using it on existing non touch hardware.

Booting into OSX or windows 7 just brings with it such a sense of relief, which is kinda sad when you think about it. Microsoft are a 100 billion dollar company, surely they could do better?

I predict that Apple are going to pick up a lot of new customers looking for some order and peace.
 
Boy this is absolute rubbish, they have done nothing new apart from annoy the f out of me.

It looks like windows 7 except more annoying. All that stuff they added you can widget and so on. This looks awesome for tablet but as a desktop this is total stupidity.
 
exactly what I get with vmplayer trying the 64x. going 32x there is no issues...

betty85 said:
am I the only one who gets this error on virtualbox after booting off ISO? Don't seem to find much help online:

Windows Recovery Environment

Your PC needs to be repeaired

The operating system couldn't be loaded because the system registry file is missing or contains errors.

File: \windows\system32\config\system
Error code: 0xc00000098

You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. if you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your system administrator or PC manufacturer.

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for alternate boot options
Click to expand...
 
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