Windows 8 - What do you think?

[severedsolo]

Heh, Fun fact: The "Classic" Windows 7 style Desktop seems to be an app in itself. If you don't have anything else open, it's possible to drag it away and just get a blank green screen. Me thinks that's probably the real desktop, and the "desktop" app (as I'm now thinking of it) is this "WIndows 7 Mode" we were hearing about.

Also... Microsoft are a bit more clever than I give them credit for. I was concerned about not being able to logon if the machine isn't online, and your Windows Live account is being used as your logon. It just asks for the last password used on the machine.

 

[sandeep]

I'm sorry guys but you're all forgetting this is pre-release software, it hasn't even gone to beta yet. You're bound to find bugs, operating system crashes and even areas of the system which don't make sense.

The start menu for the fact, I miss the view to see all the apps I use most, but I'm sure it'll change in the future. MS have around 8 Months to develop Windows 8 further and make it a better OS. 8 Months is a very long time especially when it's a priority project.

As for some problems, the lock screen, you can easily press the up arrow on your keyboard to "flick" the lock screen up.

The windows key switches you to the tile view and pressing it again will flip you back to what you were doing previously.

 

[Dave76]

Will give it a chance, as mentioned, it is a pre-beta developers release. Maybe they want the developers to come up with some apps for improvements, and their priority is evidently the metro UI.

Edit: (installed on VB - 'enter' key not working) - Fixed
Added a USB filter for the keyboard.
/Edit

Takes a bit of effort to find your way around, but has some possibilities.

They need to have the option of turning the metro UI off, and a better way to switch between the two desktops, easier way to find 'Shutdown', etc, etc.
The metro UI might be useful as a desktop full of gadgets as long as you can switch back to the standard desktop.

 

[musiclover7]

I think they should incorporate mouse gestures that allow desktop users to jump from place to place as a tablet user might.. This may help make this a bit more desktop friendly. I am not liking the direction this is going so far...

 

[Bill2]

I don't think MS will make the metro optional, without it 8 (as it is now) will have no USP. and I doubt 8 RTM will be wildly different from the DP, just about a year to go.

 

[Cookieman]

I voted 'Love It' I cant make my mind up on the metro screen, I know I shouldn't like it, but for some strange reason I do. I do agree it should be optional.

 

[DocNougat]

@severedsolo

The Start Menu Search thing still works. It's one of my favorite 7 features too. Just click start or hit the windows key and start typing.

So far I wouldn't say I'm impressed with Windows 8 but I don't flat out hate it. I'm running in on my non-touchscreen laptop and the metro interface seems clunky to operate using the touchpad mouse but I plugged in my apple mighty mouse and it was a little more manageable. My one major complaint is that since I did the upgrade install in stead of a clean install I can't seem to get my previously installed applications to mount onto metro. I would also like to see more customization of the metro window. Different color schemes and what not.

 

[DocNougat]

Built in color calibration. That's a nice addition.

 

[N30]

Metro UI doesn't work for me; it's slow and cumbersome, It may work well on tablet, but definitely not on a desktop. Takes too long to use, even with a mouse. However, renaming the shsxs.dll file to shsxs.dll.old works; it gets rid of Metro UI and keeps the Explorer toolbar intact, and gives me back the start menu as in Windows 7.

 

[DocNougat]

I also really like the socialize app. They need to add google+ support but I like the layout and color scheme

Anyone have any idea how to get ahold of the xboxlive app they showed at build. I thought it would be one of the built in apps in the developer preview.

 

[Dwarf]

I actually quite like the interface. It's going to take time to get fully accustomed to it, but in that respect it's no different to when I went from Win98 to XP to Vista and the Windows 7. It's just a learning curve, and I'm looking forward to exploring the other possibilities offered by this OS.

As a sidenote, I recommend the larger of the available downloads (WindowsDeveloperPreview-64bit-English-Developer) as the applications available on the Metro Start Page are included, amongst which are Sudoku and Copper, which should be familiar to those who have played Tinker.

In addition, a native install feels much snappier and more responsive than as a virtual machine running under VBox.

 

[DocNougat]

As a sidenote, I recommend the larger of the available downloads (WindowsDeveloperPreview-64bit-English-Developer) as the applications available on the Metro Start Page are included, amongst which are Sudoku and Copper, which should be familiar to those who have played Tinker.

Does your's have the xbox live app?

 

[musiclover7]

I think they should incorporate mouse gestures that allow desktop users to jump from place to place as a tablet user might.. This may help make this a bit more desktop friendly. I am not liking the direction this is going so far...

 

[musiclover7]

Personally, I think this is incredibly unintuitive, and after using it for a little while, I am in shock that it made it this far in the development process without someone shouting out something like, "Wait a minute guys... I just have to say before we go any further with this, that I think what we are doing here sucks!" Seriously, they need to scrap this and start again... And why are some of the common sense goodies still lacking from the OS. What Microsoft should do, is pay attention to what a lot of 3rd party apps have done over the years to make their OS better, and incorporate them into the OS. Little things. For instance, let us preview files of all types, music/pics/pdfs/videos right in explorer without having to crank open another application first... Something like that would be worth gold to windows die hards, cuz it makes sense and we will used it. Do not re-invent the wheel in a mock effort to appear all innovative and stuff. It has never been the forte of the company. Microsoft has succeeded in the past because their OS will run on just about any pile of half washed computer parts you can slap together and turn on, which is very much a solid accomplishment. This attempt to be all innovative is going to backfire like a shotgun with rock jammed half way down the barrel..



If this is the route they are gonna go, they need to up the ante and add a lot of functionality to that new start page then is already there. Here are just a few for starters.

-Include classic start in the OS as an option.
-Include some sort of running programs view on the start page and task bar, so that if you open an app from start page, you can actually close it in some fashion other than task manager.
-Give us a way to shut our computer down.
-Grant better customization options to the start page. Let us mess with the background, group apps the way we want, let developers customize the banners, etc..
- Seriously, Microsoft should just hire me so I can help them out here. They really need it. I already have a great job, but someone needs to talk some basic sense into those guys..

 

[Dwarf]

We need to remember that this is still pre-Beta software, and features that are present in this release might or might not be in the Beta release.

As regards shutting down, move the mouse to the very bottom left hand corner of the screen. The Start Menu will appear, and one of the options is Settings. Click on it, and a green panel will open up on the right of the screen. At the bottom of this panel there are several options, one of them being Power. If you click that, another menu pops up and one of the options there is Shut down.

 

[Dave76]

Need to have the ability to add shutdown to that initial start menu, one click instead of three.

 

[Airbot]

I added the shutdown, logoff, restart to the desktop context menu. Can't do it from the Metro desktop, but on regular desktop it's nice to have.

Can always Ctrl+Alt+Delete and get to the button on the bottom right too. That's a long process too though. lol

Shut Down - Add to Desktop Context Menu
Restart - Add to Desktop Context Menu
Log Off - Add to Desktop Context Menu

 

[Urthboundmisfit]

I added the shutdown, logoff, restart to the desktop contxt menu. Can't do it from the Metro desktop, but on regular desktop it's nice to have.

Can always Ctrl+Alt+Delete and get to the button on the bottom right too. That's a long process too though. lol

Shut Down - Add to Desktop Context Menu
Restart - Add to Desktop Context Menu
Log Off - Add to Desktop Context Menu

Ditto. Works for me, YMMV.

 

[Colonel Travis]

Personally, I think this is incredibly unintuitive, and after using it for a little while, I am in shock that it made it this far in the development process without someone shouting out something like, "Wait a minute guys... I just have to say before we go any further with this, that I think what we are doing here sucks!"

Amen, brother. I was looking forward to 8, even after reading all the negative comments. I thought - ah, it can't be that bad.

Oh, man. It's that bad. No way I'm using this thing without some serious overhauls, which will most likely never happen. Wonder what kind of feedback MS is getting on this crap?

 

[legacy7955]

I know that this is an early developer release BUT judging from a lot of comments here I am concerned about how easily you will be
able to use Win 8 as a dedicated desktop OS.....

I hope MS is looking at these comments because from what many of you have said I would NOT want to buy this in place of Win 7 for my desktop PC!