Windows 8.1 Coming in June

Windows Blue, the upgrade suspected for the company's new OS, is called Windows 8.1, according to ZDNet. If you're itching to update your system, The Verge reports that the update will be released in its first public preview in June as a part of the Build Developer Conference.

Read more at source:
Windows 8.1 Coming in June - IGN

 

[labeeman]

If you want an example to refute your questioning, why hasn't the VLC development team not release their WinRT app already?

Maybe they are not interested. Maybe they see it of no value, Maybe they see RT as dead in the water.

Oh really?...

VLC for the new Windows 8 User Experience ("Metro") by VideoLAN » New report about the WinRT port — Kickstarter

It already taking them 3 months to reinvent there program and they are not finished yet no wonder developers are not writing for RT.

 

[Coke Robot]

Maybe they are not interested. Maybe they see it of no value, Maybe they see RT as dead in the water.

Oh really?...

VLC for the new Windows 8 User Experience ("Metro") by VideoLAN » New report about the WinRT port — Kickstarter

Why pose a question and then later post an answer, which you already knew? You do have a very strange way of going about things.

But then, your post doesn't support your argument (that I think you're trying to pose) in any case. VLC may not be one of the Microsoft approved developers that gets advance details of software, they may not have been interested in developing for RT at the time, they may not have had the resources available, or any number of reasons.

One swallow does not a summer make

.

That's the point, you thought RT was a dead on arrival product, but even OPEN SOURCED developers that have literally nothing to gain went ahead and started developing it back in December, and a beta build has been released recently to the Kickstarter backers. Four months to get to beta on WinRT from Win32. The final product isn't expected until later this month or May. So about five months of time to get a full Win32 Desktop app to WinRT. How long will Windows 8 have been out by that time? Sevenish months.

So keep your knickers on, Windows 8 is developing further and developers are starting to pick up on Windows 8 as well....

 

[labeeman]

That's the point, you thought RT was a dead on arrival product, but even OPEN SOURCED developers that have literally nothing to gain went ahead and started developing it back in December, and a beta build has been released recently to the Kickstarter backers. Four months to get to beta on WinRT from Win32. The final product isn't expected until later this month or May. So about five months of time to get a full Win32 Desktop app to WinRT. How long will Windows 8 have been out by that time? Sevenish months.

So keep your knickers on, Windows 8 is developing further and developers are starting to pick up on Windows 8 as well....

Keep your knickers on also this story hits the nail head on why the PC and other high priced computers are dead in the water for most people.


The 'Toasterization' of personal computers

 

[Anusha]

It it comes down to people saying "How Bad Windows 8 Is" - I don't think Windows 8 is bad. I just think Metro is bad. I got no problems with the Windows 8 Desktop, I'm quite pleased with it. Heh.

Let me narrow it down further. Metro on desktops or non-touchscreen laptops is bad. Metro on tablets and laptops with touch screens is great. Desktop on tablets is bad.

 

[Coke Robot]

That's the point, you thought RT was a dead on arrival product, but even OPEN SOURCED developers that have literally nothing to gain went ahead and started developing it back in December, and a beta build has been released recently to the Kickstarter backers. Four months to get to beta on WinRT from Win32. The final product isn't expected until later this month or May. So about five months of time to get a full Win32 Desktop app to WinRT. How long will Windows 8 have been out by that time? Sevenish months.

So keep your knickers on, Windows 8 is developing further and developers are starting to pick up on Windows 8 as well....

Keep your knickers on also this story hits the nail head on why the PC and other high priced computers are dead in the water for most people.


The 'Toasterization' of personal computers

Now that article is moot because it author says chromebooks are selling well. Umm, not really. They've been out for years and don't even occupy a percentage point in the total picture of platforms.

Though the author does mention the fact that people use more web services, which is what Windows 8 can do real well...

Also, I can buy a pretty decent toaster for under 20 dollars. It isn't built like crap, but is cost effective.

There is a line between cheap and cost effective.

 

[Ray8]

The funny thing is, that the rumours abound that RT is pretty much dead in the water and even Microsoft is planning to give it away. If Microsoft wanted a device for consumption and a device for productivity, it could quite easily have kept 8 and RT separate. But I think it'll be easier to just drop RT and continue with 8.

So developers may still try and produce Windows apps, but it certainly doesn't appear to be a big deal for them at the moment. The Windows app store is still chock full of crap and/or apps that are nothing more than what is available in the desktop via IE etc. For example, why would you really need an app version of VLC, if you have the desktop version anyway.

 

[Coke Robot]

The funny thing is, that the rumours abound that RT is pretty much dead in the water and even Microsoft is planning to give it away. If Microsoft wanted a device for consumption and a device for productivity, it could quite easily have kept 8 and RT separate. But I think it'll be easier to just drop RT and continue with 8.

So developers may still try and produce Windows apps, but it certainly doesn't appear to be a big deal for them at the moment. The Windows app store is still chock full of crap and/or apps that are nothing more than what is available in the desktop via IE etc. For example, why would you really need an app version of VLC, if you have the desktop version anyway.

Do you even use Windows 8?

 

[labeeman]

How many Windows 8 devices can you carry in your pocket that is all ways connected to the net. Not many but all iphones, Android phones and Windows 8 phones (which are not selling well) that is what people are buying.

 

[Coke Robot]

How many Windows 8 devices can you carry in your pocket that is all ways connected to the net. Not many but all iphones, Android phones and Windows 8 phones (which are not selling well) that is what people are buying.

How many of those can be used to add music into said devices?

 

[labeeman]

How many Windows 8 devices can you carry in your pocket that is all ways connected to the net. Not many but all iphones, Android phones and Windows 8 phones (which are not selling well) that is what people are buying.

How many of those can be used to add music into said devices?

Have no idea as I am too hard of hearing to listen to music any more.

 

[Ray8]

The funny thing is, that the rumours abound that RT is pretty much dead in the water and even Microsoft is planning to give it away. If Microsoft wanted a device for consumption and a device for productivity, it could quite easily have kept 8 and RT separate. But I think it'll be easier to just drop RT and continue with 8.

So developers may still try and produce Windows apps, but it certainly doesn't appear to be a big deal for them at the moment. The Windows app store is still chock full of crap and/or apps that are nothing more than what is available in the desktop via IE etc. For example, why would you really need an app version of VLC, if you have the desktop version anyway.

Do you even use Windows 8?

I have a dual boot 7 and 8, and the apps are crap.

 

[Coke Robot]

How many Windows 8 devices can you carry in your pocket that is all ways connected to the net. Not many but all iphones, Android phones and Windows 8 phones (which are not selling well) that is what people are buying.

How many of those can be used to add music into said devices?

Have no idea as I am too hard of hearing to listen to music any more.

As someone who is not hard of hearing, I can tell you the answer. NONE OF THEM.

 

[Coke Robot]

The funny thing is, that the rumours abound that RT is pretty much dead in the water and even Microsoft is planning to give it away. If Microsoft wanted a device for consumption and a device for productivity, it could quite easily have kept 8 and RT separate. But I think it'll be easier to just drop RT and continue with 8.

So developers may still try and produce Windows apps, but it certainly doesn't appear to be a big deal for them at the moment. The Windows app store is still chock full of crap and/or apps that are nothing more than what is available in the desktop via IE etc. For example, why would you really need an app version of VLC, if you have the desktop version anyway.

Do you even use Windows 8?

I have a dual boot 7 and 8, and the apps are crap.

And what do you use primarily?

 

[Anusha]

For example, why would you really need an app version of VLC, if you have the desktop version anyway.

Don't forget the tablet users - please. Using desktop apps on a tablet is a horrible experience. The stock video app doesn't support MKV and FLV and many of the other non-popular formats. That's what I want VLC for. On the desktop I don't give a damn. MPC-HC does a wonderful job there. Even better than what VLC does - for me.

 

[Ray8]

I use Windows 7 primarily, because it's a lot better at the moment. Also, I'm waiting to see what Microsoft does with Windows 8 before I'm prepared to commit to it.

 

[XweAponX]

Wow, It's been a while since I looked in here hahaha. Coke Robot, I take it you are the big proponent of Windows 8 for these forums? Heh. Always love your posts man.

Like I said, I love the Windows 8 Desktop. I hate the Metro thing, loathe and despise it. But that's just me. My biggest beef, is that they took out most of the easy ways to fix a hosed Windows system. In Windows 7, there are simple tools that you can run from Safe Mode or the Boot Options menu. Or, from the install disk - If you have trouble booting, you just plop the install disk into the drive, and run the setup repair.

I've been locked out of my main Windows 8 system for 3 days. It said "Boot Volume Not Mountable." What the F?!! It would not boot and the Automatic Repair, well it simply will not run under certain conditions. I had to use my Hiren's Boot DVD to run a disk checking program, not CHKDSK, but one that checks the entire volume. And I had "Read Element Failure" on my Windows 8 Drive (I have Windows 8 and 7 as a dual boot on this machine). - I could not even get into windows 7 because the choice screen will not show unless all of the Auto Diags run properly.

Most of the Automatic Repair messages I got were to the tune of "Windows Can't Fix this" heap. Eventually, I was able to get past the Auto Repair to the Boot Choice screen, then I was able to boot to Windows 7 to run a sufficient CHKDSK.

This all used to be so easy under Windows 7, but now I know, if there is the slightest SMART error or media error on your drive, it fouls up the whole thing- And Windows 8 Auto Repair is not sophisticated enough to detect and fix these errors.

Basically, I need to move my partition to a new drive before the drive craps out totally. Now even that, I had a system for doing it. I'm not sure how to do it with Windows 8, because the boot loader is actually ON the Windows 7 drive, because it is the first disk in the system on the IDE Bus, the rest of the drives are on the SATA bus.

Anyway, I'll keep using Windows 8 - I need to know everything there is to know about repairing it, so I'm glad this is happening now and not while I am at a client's house and the system fails to load - Once I have a method of dealing with the most common ways Windows 8 can fail, then I'll feel comfortable with adding Windows 8 to the list of systems I can fix. For the time being though, I tell my clients to keep using Windows 7.

 

[Coke Robot]

For example, why would you really need an app version of VLC, if you have the desktop version anyway.

Don't forget the tablet users - please. Using desktop apps on a tablet is a horrible experience. The stock video app doesn't support MKV and FLV and many of the other non-popular formats. That's what I want VLC for. On the desktop I don't give a damn. MPC-HC does a wonderful job there. Even better than what VLC does - for me.

Let along the fact that the Desktop app of VLC is HORRID for touch, drop down menus suck simply put for touch. One would need a stylus to use that properly without frustration, or a big increase in DPI.

Bu the leaked screenshots, like two, of the VLC app look real nice. If the music part of the player has a real nice and functional design, I do believe that will be my one stop shop app for digital media. If I can figure out how to get my TV tuner working with it, I shall be glad!

 

[Coke Robot]

Wow, It's been a while since I looked in here hahaha. Coke Robot, I take it you are the big proponent of Windows 8 for these forums? Heh. Always love your posts man.

Like I said, I love the Windows 8 Desktop. I hate the Metro thing, loathe and despise it. But that's just me. My biggest beef, is that they took out most of the easy ways to fix a hosed Windows system. In Windows 7, there are simple tools that you can run from Safe Mode or the Boot Options menu. Or, from the install disk - If you have trouble booting, you just plop the install disk into the drive, and run the setup repair.

I've been locked out of my main Windows 8 system for 3 days. It said "Boot Volume Not Mountable." What the F?!! It would not boot and the Automatic Repair, well it simply will not run under certain conditions. I had to use my Hiren's Boot DVD to run a disk checking program, not CHKDSK, but one that checks the entire volume. And I had "Read Element Failure" on my Windows 8 Drive (I have Windows 8 and 7 as a dual boot on this machine). - I could not even get into windows 7 because the choice screen will not show unless all of the Auto Diags run properly.

Most of the Automatic Repair messages I got were to the tune of "Windows Can't Fix this" heap. Eventually, I was able to get past the Auto Repair to the Boot Choice screen, then I was able to boot to Windows 7 to run a sufficient CHKDSK.

This all used to be so easy under Windows 7, but now I know, if there is the slightest SMART error or media error on your drive, it fouls up the whole thing- And Windows 8 Auto Repair is not sophisticated enough to detect and fix these errors.

Basically, I need to move my partition to a new drive before the drive craps out totally. Now even that, I had a system for doing it. I'm not sure how to do it with Windows 8, because the boot loader is actually ON the Windows 7 drive, because it is the first disk in the system on the IDE Bus, the rest of the drives are on the SATA bus.

Anyway, I'll keep using Windows 8 - I need to know everything there is to know about repairing it, so I'm glad this is happening now and not while I am at a client's house and the system fails to load - Once I have a method of dealing with the most common ways Windows 8 can fail, then I'll feel comfortable with adding Windows 8 to the list of systems I can fix. For the time being though, I tell my clients to keep using Windows 7.

Thanks! I try!

Some things in Windows 8, like the Safe Mode thing, were done because on new PCs with UEFI, it would literally be impossible to do that to begin with. New PCs would have to still use the MBR style partitioning setup along with the old BIOS just in the 1 in like...150-200 chance you may ever need Safe Mode boot. That generally happens if you have a more advanced setup and/or driver issues, which on new PCs, don't really happen much. Actually, if you were to use Windows 8 with a dual boot of 7, I believe you can change the BCD file back over to the 7 style and it reverts back to the GRUB like launcher of dual boot. Or install 7 after 8, that works as well. I don't know for sure in the final RTM build, but I know that worked in most of the Preview builds.

That Boot Volume not Mountable issue kind of sucks. I've seen that happen with Windows 8 To Go an a newish PC booting off the USB drive, and I would get that error. It sucked because I was wanting to demo off To Go and Windows 8 to some people, but that didn't work until I got a laptop that is like five years old to run it. A laptop that was one year old didn't work with it... I never figured out why.... But in all honesty, Windows 8 is SSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better with hard drive issues and errors. Holy cow! I've been able to hotswap in a laptop drive to my PC, and Windows (through Action Center) says that Windows needs to restart to fix some drive issues on that particular drive. Restart, and it's fine. CHKDSK in Windows 8 was improved actually. It does show, but if Windows can't fix those issues, it's usually pretty bad. Or if Windows screws up after a run of it, then the damaged was with system files. Actually, the other day, I was watching one of my shows on my puter, and a dialog box came up saying that my G drive is failing and it gave me the option to back up the data right away from that drive to a new one. It was rather interesting.

But I should say, I haven't seen Windows 8, from Developer Preview to RTM Pro, really poop the bed. Windows 7 I've seen has. The ONLY times were I have seen issues pop up with 8 was when I was hotswapping a drive and moving files over. The hard drive I connected, its file system got TOTALLY corrupted to the point where it like reformatted itself...not a very good day AT ALL... But that was the Developer Preview and due to Hybrid Boot. Even to this day, I still restart a PC with Windows 8 and kill it before POST finishes before I do such.

 

[jimbo45]

So, Windows is going to become OSX like in its releases.. hmmm, just what I don't want to see from a technical support perspective. More variations of the OS.

Honestly, I bet Windows was supposed to be on a yearly release of a minor updated OS, then a revamped one two years after that. vista screwed the pooch REAL hard with that. Windows 8 seems to be getting it back on track.

But this is really no different than a service pack. Just has new features here and there.

Hi there
@coke robot.
I would suggest you brush up on your English -- or at least try and understand what you are actually writing.

I quote : ........"Just has new features here and there.............".

Do you have ANY understanding whatsoever of the implications of that statement. -- You could say the same difference about Windows 98 compared to Windows 7 -- It just Has New features -- !!!!!! (It's still Windows but with new features).

As I've said before you often don't seem to understand what on earth you are posting about and certainly you keep changing your mind about so many things that it's impossible to know what you DO or DON'T like.

Windows 8.1 while not a new release (such as say Windows 9.0) is positioned at a level higher than a mere service pack --- If you can cast your mind back to Windows 3.0 (the first really useable version) and then Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups as it was popularly known) you would certainly have to say that Windows 3.11 was more than a mere service pack to Windows 3.0.

@pparks1
I would have to agree with you that for a commercial enterprise you want an OS that's essentially stable and rarely needs any upgrading during its (hopefully) longish life. I can't see IT techs etc wanting to upgrade a whole slew of network computers etc every 6 months -- just NOT what the Doctor ordered.

Home consumers can upgrade OS'es at will -- however in a workplace this is often quite an exhaustive business as there is usually a whole slew of applications and hardware that have to be RIGOROUSLY tested before being released into production. You only have to look at some of the recent Bank outages in W. Europe when some software was rolled out too early -- some people were locked out of THEIR OWN MONEY for not DAYS but WEEKS.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Coke Robot]

So, Windows is going to become OSX like in its releases.. hmmm, just what I don't want to see from a technical support perspective. More variations of the OS.

Honestly, I bet Windows was supposed to be on a yearly release of a minor updated OS, then a revamped one two years after that. vista screwed the pooch REAL hard with that. Windows 8 seems to be getting it back on track.

But this is really no different than a service pack. Just has new features here and there.

Hi there
@coke robot.
I would suggest you brush up on your English -- or at least try and understand what you are actually writing.

I quote : ........"Just has new features here and there.............".

Do you have ANY understanding whatsoever of the implications of that statement. -- You could say the same difference about Windows 98 compared to Windows 7 -- It just Has New features -- !!!!!! (It's still Windows but with new features).

As I've said before you often don't seem to understand what on earth you are posting about and certainly you keep changing your mind about so many things that it's impossible to know what you DO or DON'T like.

Windows 8.1 while not a new release (such as say Windows 9.0) is positioned at a level higher than a mere service pack --- If you can cast your mind back to Windows 3.0 (the first really useable version) and then Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups as it was popularly known) you would certainly have to say that Windows 3.11 was more than a mere service pack to Windows 3.0.

@pparks1
I would have to agree with you that for a commercial enterprise you want an OS that's essentially stable and rarely needs any upgrading during its (hopefully) longish life. I can't see IT techs etc wanting to upgrade a whole slew of network computers etc every 6 months -- just NOT what the Doctor ordered.

Home consumers can upgrade OS'es at will -- however in a workplace this is often quite an exhaustive business as there is usually a whole slew of applications and hardware that have to be RIGOROUSLY tested before being released into production. You only have to look at some of the recent Bank outages in W. Europe when some software was rolled out too early -- some people were locked out of THEIR OWN MONEY for not DAYS but WEEKS.

Cheers
jimbo

I don't really know what you're talking about because I know for a fact I'm rather consistent in what I like and don't.....

I would like to see examples of how I like something and then don't or otherwise.

And that's a comparison I made, it'll be LIKE, LIKE as in a simile, a service pack, but with extras, LIKE maybe a second edition or such. No one knows if it will be distributed LIKE a service pack or otherwise.