Windows 8 - What do you think?

Just spent the last hour or so testing the backup and restore options in VBox.

1. The win 7 style backup and restore work as before with no problems, both image and files. I haven't tried System Recovery yet.
2. The Windows history is very easy to use compared to recovering files in Win 7 and the hourly backup is great.
3. Restoring the system and reset to factory need the installation disk. I wonder how that will work with OEM versions.
4. The new boot recovery menu is very user friendly, even the ominously named "Advanced Options".

For those of us who are Macrium fans. Macrium Free backup and restore works as expected.
 
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Hmm. It's beginning to grow on me (wash your mouth out), just a bit. I still think the Metro UI is clunky and ugly on a desktop and some of the Apps need some work (IE included). There also needs to be a better separation of the two interfaces but it has some good features. I can see me spending most of my time in the "Win 7" environment with an occasional flick into Metro for social needs provided the right Apps are developed. :shock:
 
I can't see why people are so upset about the metro menu. It doesn't decrease productivity for me at all.
I agree, it need's a lot more customisation and I would like it to be less "locked down" but using it to pin all my apps including my favourite few at the start works well for me. I can see the big shock change that people might feel but surely it's the next logical step. The old windows interface is getting a bit stale to me.
 
I really love it. First Windows to capture my attention...I hope Microsoft Train Simulator can run on it...:grin:
 
I'm liking it. Takes a bit to get used to but on multple monitors I finally get built-in multiple task bar support. :)

I, also, kinda like the OS selection screen:

photo.jpg
 
Oh dear there is no escaping Metro. If you open a link or HTML file from the desktop it opens the Metro version of IE.
 
I set Fx as default. Works fine.

EDIT: Never mind, I guess I hadn't tried it from the desktop until now.

You're right! :)
 
Got it, just right click on a desktop URL and select "Open with":


ScreenShot00007.jpg

Then browse to the app of your choice. :)

ScreenShot00006.jpg


Just like old times. :D

ScreenShot00008.jpg
 
I've only been using the developer preview since yesterday, but I am already loving the overall Windows 8 experience.

And even though I am on a desktop with your standard 4:3 monitor, I still find the Metro UI extremely intuitive and interesting. A simple scroll of my scroll wheel quickly moves me around in the Metro UI, and finding apps to run is even faster than on Windows 7. Just hit Windows key, type in app, press ENTER and bam...app opens! :D

Windows 7 was a 10/10 in my books, and so far Windows 8 is a huge 10/10 as well. I still really can't wait for the full release.
 
I'm using it on my laptop. The start icon looks weird. They should make it transparent, move it to the middle bottom of the screen.
 
So, I've been running this for a couple of days now, and I have to say, I really like it. I wish they'd released it with a little more functionality (Live apps, for starters!). At first, I was like many of you, wondering what MS was thinking using the Metro UI for desktops? But then, after some customization (move this, remove that, etc.), I've begun to see some of the power in it. The live content in the widgets is great, and can only get better as time moves on. My only regret is that I went from dual monitors to a single large monitor recently. I think the Metro UI is more suited to a dual monitor setup. You could have your live content on one screen, and your browsing, word processing, whatever on the other.

What a lot of people seem to be missing is the fact that MS may actually get the desktop, laptop, game console, phone, home theater setup, etc. talking and looking similar enough that we won't care whether we're on our laptop or our Xbox. It will all be the same. That's innovation at it's finest.
 
I think it's rather awesome, it's not a Metro Monster though. I find it new and quite interesting to use, albeit it is kind of a learning curve since it literally took me two days of use to finally figure out the new Metro interface and how to shutdown without going everywhere. Seriously, I was trying to shutdown and I was freaking out because I couldn't get to the little power icon in the Lock Screen without being logged back in! :eek:

But yeah, there is the fact that Metro seems to dominate more, I'd prefer logging into the Desktop than the Start Screen, but that might just be the catalyst for people to use it. I for one, don't want to become the person that still uses a Start Menu that looks like it's from Windows 2000. I'd rather progress with right now than the past. The nagger to that is since it's a developer build, Start Screen context menu integration isn't there. Pinning things to the Start Menu doesn't equal a pin on the Start Screen. Oh! Windows Search needs to be more efficientized for Desktops. That is annoying to hit Win+F to search and then click on what header for it to search in. Gee willakers!

Boot times are freaking amazing! That one video off the Building Windows 8 blog from Microsoft showing boot time on a laptop, I honestly thought that was SSD boot, not hard drive. I'm really thinking that since this is the Developer Preview and not the public beta that Microsoft might already had finished, we might see that stellar boot time on hard drives! I'm so freaking excited!! :party: I enjoy the shutdown and restart process. I welcome it.

The thing is though, how the in the heck are we supposed to hot-swap hard drives? Since Windows 8 using kernel hibernation, the problem occurs just like when you overclock your system and resume Windows 7 from hibernate; the system doesn't recognize it. The only solution to that is restarting. Although that doesn't take long, but still, that kind of slows things down some.

I don't know if I will end up not installing Kasperky 2012 on 8 since it already comes with STD protection installed. That really needs to be tested. But part of me thinks I should since I do a lot of scanning of foreign drives for cooties.
 
The whole shuffle through open windows and apps by clicking and/or dragging them from the left of the screen is quite cool and intutive.
 
I'm going to spam one more time. :nerd:

Honestly, I think the best way to describe the Metro Interface is best put this way: Windows Classic interface met Windows Aero interface and had relations with one another and their illicit lovechild was named Metro.
 
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