Changes in Windows 8 Release Preview

For those who have already tried it, please feel free to comment in this thread the changes you have found compared to Consumer Preview.

Thank you.

kmint said:

For those who have already tried it, please feel free to comment in this thread the changes you have found compared to Consumer Preview.

Thank you.

Click to expand...

The release preview is much faster and more responsive. Metro works so well in this release. That back/forth buttons in Windows Explorer are more like the buttons in Internet Explorer 9 and Internet Explorer 10.

The metro apps, specifically Music, Mail, and Photos are definitely improved! I'm giving the Music app a kick around and it's pretty decent, it's more like a Zune-lite than anything, but VASTLY better than before!

Installation of the Release Preview has got to be the most smoothest installation of Windows I've ever done in my life. Period. It installed fast, and everything literally worked right off the bat, as usual. I guess at the DP stage, I signed on with a Microsoft account, and I signed into it with the RP, and everything synced over, it was shocking. My facebook, my Calendar, my email, and even my Desktop wallpaper and window color synced over!

Metro IE 10 has been improved, you click on the URL bar and your favorites appear ABOVE it, not like the black screen it was before with the CP.

Pulling up the Charms bar feels much faster than before.

It is definitely faster than the CP! Everything just feels like hot oil, it's so fluid and fast, WOW!

There are much more colorization options in the initial setup, where it gives you little tacks of tiles with the screen color and accent color, my concerns about personalization of the Start Screen has dissipated some.

Live tiles on some of the apps are better improved.

The Desktop remains fairly the same as the CP. Microsoft wasn't kidding around when they said the RTM will literally be the final build with the final changes! There are some cosmetic changes, such as the mouse pointer doesn't have a drop shadow, there are a couple new pointers to replace the Aero "working" mouse pointer. The Ribbon is flat, and looks actually decent, but it's not final of course. Some of the old Aero UI bits, like the progress bar, is a solid green now. But you can tell the Aero in Windows 8 is like a defunct ship now...

Overall though, it's mainly the Start Screen and the metro UI that have seen good refinements to them, but some work is still needed. The Desktop isn't final in this one, but there are cosmetic changes that definitely show change. Windows 8 is shaping out to be very different and a far cry from the Developer Preview. The metro aspect works greatly better than the CP, though there are some bugs to be worked out again.

Excellent information. Thanks a lot.

Downloading.

Ok installed and tested a bit.

As described, Aero is dying and personally I don't like it. The windows look kind of Linux (old, boring...). All elements are now flattened or most of them. No life. I hope someone releases a bring-full-aero-back patch.

My experience is that installation was the same as CP in every sense. Also startup. Taking as long as CP or as W7.

I don't notice any other change to the ones described by posters above.

Not a big deal this upgrade to me.

The Release Preview is a step up with metro, but yeah, the Desktop feels weird now. Methinks RTM will be the version to judge, truly, Windows 8 and its hybridization.

Two things that others mentioned. RP definitely feels snappier now, more like DP was. CP was a BIG step back in responsiveness. The other is that I actually LIKE some of of the new Metro apps! Big improvement there too.
As for the "flat" windows, I didn't really even notice them. Looking at them now, I can see the difference but I used RP for several hours and never noticed that they had changed. Whatever they did, it was pretty subtle to me.

New this time for me when I logged in with my windows live id I got a text asking my to confirm adding the pc to my account and the page it asked me to go to listed all the previous windows 8 pcs I activated.

Also it still doesn't seem to pick up my time zone preference. I have to go and change it from pacific to eastern. At least the pacific time was correct this time and I only had to change the time zone. before it would be set to pacific but the time would be eastern

Also now when you adjust the screen brightness a little icon pops up in the upper left corner showing you the percentage in a vertical bar