Windows 8 released for consumer testing

You can upgrade from Win7 or do a clean install.
The upgrade analyses all your apps and tells you which need to be uninstalled (eg Microsoft Security Essentials - no longer needed), and which are fine.
 
got it running, in virtual box on my laptop, then want to add it on the Dell ST tablet,
wonder whats the symbolism of the fish? it seems a strange logo for a new groundbreaking OS...

quite nice to have hotmail and skydrive integrated

gotta get used to the new look though... now where's that user manual?....
 
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Elimentals said:
Well Microsoft is going to use this as a gauge to see what people want to change. Also expect it to phone home big time and tell Redmond what people are doing and how they doing it.
Click to expand...

When you install it, there's an entire page asking what it's allowed to phone home with. There's on option greyed out and forced on. If you don't like it, don't install it. There's no secret phoning home, it's all disclosed during install. You'll disclose more information if you log into Google from your browser.
 
Wow, when was Win7 released again? Fortunately our small network's OS has not cost us a cent in the past decade. Wonder how much M$ will be making of the "got to have's" this time round.:D
 
Been running the developer preview for the last couple of months. Pretty impressed so far - no crashes, a little slow but then it is running on a Dell D420 (U2500 1.2 GHz) with 1.5 Gig RAM.

Be nice to see if performance improves with this version.
 
Some minor quirks I picked up so far.

1: If you dual boot Linux & Windows 8 it will F up your Grub, and you will need to fix it.
2: Most of the features requires you to log into Windows using your Windows Live account(Will probably change with Business use as I can not see this working in the enterprise environment)
3: Simply shutting down the PC becomes a schlep as you have to log out then shutdown(Might be a faster way but have not found it yet)

Other than that I must admit it seems decent. Will need to get a hang of the task switching, and so on. Oh and as expected my USB Wifi does not work anymore hope the OEM come out with drivers soon. Joke is I just bought it as the old one I had stopped working in Vista with no support for Vista or Win 7, yet both still functions in Linux from clean installs.

Oh and it starts up damn fast, now that is something I like.
 
Elimentals said:
2: Most of the features requires you to log into Windows using your Windows Live account(Will probably change with Business use as I can not see this working in the enterprise environment)
Click to expand...

The "cloud mode" is just the default mode; If you go to settings, you can click "Switch to local account" to get oldskool non-cloud behaviour.

Elimentals said:
3: Simply shutting down the PC becomes a schlep as you have to log out then shutdown(Might be a faster way but have not found it yet)
Click to expand...

I just use the power button. Set to power down by default, but you can also make it sleep from control panel -> power options

My main quirk is that on multi-monitors, the metro UI takes over one entire screen - all they need to do is expose the taskbar on that screen and it'd be perfect. I only use the metro UI as a launcher, but would probably use it more if I could keep a fullscreen metro app open on a secondary monitor and still see what other desktop apps are running there. There's some really nice Metro apps bundled with the OS.
 
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elvis_presley said:
The "cloud mode" is just the default mode; If you go to settings, you can click "Switch to local account" to get oldskool non-cloud behaviour.
Click to expand...

I log in Old School, but almost everything wants me to log in using my Windows Live account. Yes I know you can switch but its almost like its "forcing" you to use live just so you dont switch all the time to get all the features. Also early days so its just a quirk its not like it makes/break the system its just a pain to do it.(Extra steps)

As for the power button, I am aware of that its just that my dam PC stands in such a way that I have to get up and walk around the desk to do so. Again its just extra steps.

I like the fact that you can now tell the ribbon to bugger off in explorer, it was one thing that irritated the crap out of me in dev preview.
 
damn! installed it on Dell Lattitude ST tablet... wow! its a HUGE difference over Win7... the touch screen is sooo much better, and fast!
but... lots of drivers short :-( among others is networking (LAN and wifi, only OK with bluetooth), video card (although the screen looks fine), onboard 3G modem, etc, so cant even go check for update on internet.
so ... let go and explore the net from laptop to see IF i can get drivers for this thing... would love to play around with the tablet and this new Windows that sofar seems to work so much better than it was on 7... but thesedays without internet connection u are pretty screwed :-)

strange that win8 had no problem with drivers on the new Dell Lattitude 4520 laptop.... maybe the LAN connection to internet was pretty basic, so it could go and get whatever else it needed

weird that Win7 drivers don't work....
 
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The Win7 drivers should work, surely? I installed on an ancient Asus W5F and everything works fine - LAN, BT, webcam, wifi. And yes, it feels nippier than Win7, which was a huge improvement over the standard XP.

Though in my own view Vista wasn't nearly as bad as its reputation, Win7 was a great tidy-up, fast and stable. And Win8 seems even better, and we're still months from RTM. This is really very promising.

Seeing the progression from Vista to Win7 and now W8CP, Microsoft seems to be getting its act together.
 
Elimentals said:
3: Simply shutting down the PC becomes a schlep as you have to log out then shutdown(Might be a faster way but have not found it yet)
Click to expand...

Create new bat files on your desktop that runs the following:
shutdown /s /t 0 <- this will shutdown the pc
shutdown /r /t 0 <- this will reboot the pc

You should be able to add these batch files to your start page(not sure its a menu anymore!)
 
Well I have found the place to shutdown your pc without pressing the power button.

In the start bar window, move your mouse pointer to the right bottem corner. A side window will pop up that also gives settings of that window.
 
Just wanna point out, that if you do the upgrade from the application that downloads from the website. It does not break your grub. Have not tried with the iso yet, but elimentals seems to suggest that it does break grub.

Edit: On a different computer with the install, it did break grub. A little inconsistent there :(
 
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