Downloadable 'trial' version with product key. Seems initially to be not much different from 7 but mouse into the corners.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso
If anyone wants to try this it might be worth installing onto a blank, formatted HD and removing the main one to protect the present copy of windows.
I think we did have a thread on it ages ago, but might as well make this the official one now. I'd like to try to see what the explorer improvements are like on it but don't really have a spare PC I can use to play around on.
Install virtual box, and create a virtual PC :)
That's what I did, and I've had a play, this is what I thought:
Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.
Quote from: XEntity on March 08, 2012, 18:23:21 PM
Install virtual box, and create a virtual PC :)
That's what I did, and I've had a play, this is what I thought:
Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.
W7 vista ?
Rather different to Vista, although it certainly is a lot more complex than it could be. That's mostly caused because it's intended to be for multi-platform use.
There's a video explaining some of the 'features' in Win8, although the Microshaft employee in it looks like he's had a rod fixed to his back from the way he's positioned. Might have even had it shoved up his ass and into his skull :dunno:
It seems that rather than click the close box you grab the app and drag it to the bottom of the screen to close, possibly even more obscure than hitting the red X.
Are you all trying it with regular explorer or are you playing with the new interface? I'll be turning the new one off right away.
The new interface is the start menu? Not sure you can disable it TBH (W7 Vista sounds about right, it'll probably be more reliable though)
Windows 8 - Windows for touch screens (good luck if you don't have one!)
I've read a lot of criticism along the lines of you can't make a tablet optimised OS and a Desktop tablet and they need to choose, yet everything I have seen of it suggests it works fine. Although I'm not entirely convinced with the desktop experience, I'm impressed with the tablet experience.
This seems to explains it very well, only 8 minutes of your time you will never get back. Skip to 3.35 to get to straight to non touch interface. They've borrowed a trick from OSX Corner Gestures, which I personally use a lot.
Yeah I don't like it, I hate trying to drag stuff across my screen using a touch pad, it's not one movement to get from one side of the screen to the other it's multiple, unless you have a massive touch pad, I expect it will be better with a mouse but using it just feels klunky, and TBH I don't think I want "apps" on my laptop, I want programs!
Looking forward to trying it. I have a 3M touch screen I got for free from a neighbour who saved it from a skip, don't really use it nowerdays as it's not natural lifting my hand up to touch the screen, so i'm wondering how my older tech works with the new OS :)
That said nothing can beat XP for the interface/arsedness factor. It was perfectly balanced and the most important thing it had immediate network settings access with a simple right click of the systray icon. :)
Quote from: M3ta7h3ad on March 09, 2012, 00:17:15 AM
That said nothing can beat XP for the interface/arsedness factor. It was perfectly balanced and the most important thing it had immediate network settings access with a simple right click of the systray icon. :)
I agree, windows 7 just made everything more difficult to find and do (apart from search), windows 8 has made this worse!
Quote from: XEntity on March 09, 2012, 00:28:09 AMI agree, windows 7 just made everything more difficult to find and do (apart from search), windows 8 has made this worse!
but... you can make windows 7 look/interface just like XP ?
I always do it.... switch profile to windows classic mode, and then turn off all the extras / adjust for best performance (no matter the spec of the pc)
there should be an option to default everything like this for work/office machines.... where productivity outweighs pretty every time
Yep, that was my point here with Windows 8, you can switch off all this fancy social/touchscreen desktop crap that casual PC users will love and productive users will hate and revert to 'classic' mode, but you'll still get all the new kernal improvements like the staggered multiple file copies with pause/resume.
Quote from: Cypher on March 08, 2012, 23:55:21 PM
That's Mister Stiffy...
Quote from: XEntity on March 09, 2012, 00:16:11 AM
and TBH I don't think I want "apps" on my laptop, I want programs!
Strange, you already use apps every day. Perhaps you need a :tinhat:...
Balls... they've made Explorer bloody office. :|
need: address bar
Rest: bunch o' crap.
I use corner gestures on my laptop and ubuntu, for example a gesture to the top right brings clickable miniatures of all open windows (sized to fit )
Quote from: Cypher on March 08, 2012, 23:55:21 PM
I've read a lot of criticism along the lines of you can't make a tablet optimised OS and a Desktop tablet and they need to choose, yet everything I have seen of it suggests it works fine. Although I'm not entirely convinced with the desktop experience, I'm impressed with the tablet experience.
This seems to explains it very well, only 8 minutes of your time you will never get back. Skip to 3.35 to get to straight to non touch interface. They've borrowed a trick from OSX Corner Gestures, which I personally use a lot.
res
Quote from: Cypher on March 08, 2012, 23:55:21 PM
I've read a lot of criticism along the lines of you can't make a tablet optimised OS and a Desktop tablet and they need to choose, yet everything I have seen of it suggests it works fine. Although I'm not entirely convinced with the desktop experience, I'm impressed with the tablet experience.
Quote from: knighty on March 09, 2012, 00:48:12 AM
Quote from: XEntity on March 09, 2012, 00:28:09 AMI agree, windows 7 just made everything more difficult to find and do (apart from search), windows 8 has made this worse!
but... you can make windows 7 look/interface just like XP ?
Does that apply to the networking and sharing centre too? It takes about a dozen clicks to get through to the adapter icon, in XP it was 2!
Quote from: Serious on March 09, 2012, 01:18:24 AM
Quote from: XEntity on March 09, 2012, 00:16:11 AM
and TBH I don't think I want "apps" on my laptop, I want programs!
Strange, you already use apps every day. Perhaps you need a :tinhat:...
My point here is that there is a very clear destinction in windows 8 between "apps" and programs, they even appear in different task bars and different navigation styles, there should be no differentiation, the whole thing just feels bolted on, not part of the initial design.
Let's be honest what they have come up with, someone could have developed as a standalone program over a couple of weeks!
This is worth a read:
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2012/03/08/getting-around-in-windows-8.aspx?sf3435465=1 (http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2012/03/08/getting-around-in-windows-8.aspx?sf3435465=1)
Right click the start menu and you get an unattractive nerd menu, which gives you direct access to things like networking!
An improvement on W7.... Shame everythign just feels half arsed and bolted on... Like the shutdown command!
I'll be avoiding Windows 8 Based on the previous experience of:
Odd numbered windows releases - Good
Even numbered windows releases - Bad.
Win 1 = terrible
Win 2 = bad
Win 3 = good
Win 95 = OK
Win 98 = good
>Win 98 SE = No point in me trying as I had 98.
>Win ME = Never tried, no DOS mode made this about as welcome as a concrete block dropped on my head.
XP = good
Vista = bad
Win 7 = good
There were a couple of other variants of course. for me it would have gone better with Win 3.1 -> Win 95 -> win 98 -> XP -> Win 7
Numbering is difficult, do you include Win XP as 6? if so then Vista doesn't have a number. If it's 5 then what about 95/98?
Win 7 is 7 as it's based on the NT kernel which is at version 7
2000 - 5
Xp - 5.1
2003 - 6
7 - 7
Windows 3.1 was because it was based on MSDOS 3.1
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
Quote from: XEntity on March 10, 2012, 17:12:47 PM
This is worth a read:
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2012/03/08/getting-around-in-windows-8.aspx?sf3435465=1 (http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2012/03/08/getting-around-in-windows-8.aspx?sf3435465=1)
Right click the start menu and you get an unattractive nerd menu, which gives you direct access to things like networking!
An improvement on W7.... Shame everythign just feels half arsed and bolted on... Like the shutdown command!
Yeah but the home screen can tell you your appointments, your mail and things that have happened while you've been away from your computer.
... guessing microsoft is getting computers confused with portable devices and they don't expect you to turn it off anymore.
"this has incredible battery life"
"it's plugged in"
"wow, whats that? I just can't believe it's been on for 10 straight days"
"it's plugged in."
"sorry what? I'm just distracted by my thoughts... With battery life like that noone need ever turn off their machines."
*deskface*.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
Yep, it's probably going to be great for tablets but it's not as good so far for desktop. Grabbing the top of the app, right at the top of the screen and pulling down to the bottom isn't as quick as hitting the X button. I will often just right click on the program's tab on the taskbar and select Close from there, which works even if the app is in the background.
Other thing is I quite often have several windows open at once and use the task bar to switch, unconventionally mine is on the right side of a wide screen 24" monitor which makes this easy. If I need to switch between full screen then I use Alt + Tab.
It also seems to limit the access rather than enhance, I can have as many as 3 or 4 apps visible, including the calculator, email, Word Processor and media player. Win 8 simply limits the access to them, one or two at a time isn't good enough.
It might be different but I don't think it's better, at least not for those who know their way around windows.
Like I said before, dragging windows around with a track pad is a real PITA, using a mouse is much easier, but I don't want to use a mouse with my LAPtop..
It might be better with a mouse that supports multi touch, if they include those gestures (my trackpad isn't multitouch compatible!), but lets be honest you get someone new to using a computer the whole thing isn't as intuative.
Quote from: M3ta7h3ad on March 10, 2012, 23:25:03 PM
Yeah but the home screen can tell you your appointments, your mail and things that have happened while you've been away from your computer.
Regarding new emails from the home screen, that's been part of windows since Vista I think.. granted there is more you can do on 8...
The new tiles would be a very good addition to the desktop as widgets on windows 7..
Quote from: Serious on March 10, 2012, 22:39:18 PM
Win 98 = good
>Win 98 SE = No point in me trying as I had 98.
Window 98SE was a noticable improvement on windows 98 IMHO it just seemed to run more stable and liked USB much more!
I don't think I'm going to bother with 8 TBH, 7 is reliable and I think it's the best yet, despite some of the niggles I have with it, Win8 I thinks just going to spend most of it's time annoying me, a bit like ribbon on office, I try to use it but everything takes much longer, and there are certainly some improvements, but the interface is crap! I run UBit menu which gives me the old school menu under another ribbon, which makes things much easier to find! I don't know anyone who likes the new interface.
I'm not going to start a whole Mac / PC dedbate, but I just get the feeling that Apple try and make things easier an intuative for users, as where Microsoft try to bolt on as many features and settings as possible, with multiple different types of interfaces rather than a similar experience no matter what you are using. I must add I'm a hardcore windows user but can see that some of the things that Apple are doing have the right focus for their users, windows seems to be trying to please lots of different types of user, but mastering none of them...
I just hope that there are going to be significant changes before the final release.
I think MS are losing the path on this one. It used to be all about functionality. The fact that they now have sh*t called 'charms' lends me to believe they've tried to directly inject Steve Jobs ashes into the bloodstream some of the executives in a vague hope that it will instill some level of ingenuity and genius, but what we're ending up with is Frankenstein's monster.
You guys need to not look at the scare stuff and look into things properly. The ribbon for example will be off by default in a coming release. Nothing will stop you using windows 7 style in windows 8 etc either.
Not saying this will be good or bad but read a lot of comments here which are not true in terms of how windows 8 works from what I have used and seen and read and a number of issues, covered addressed, going to be changed etc out of what MS have said:
http://www.tested.com/quick-look-at-the-windows-8-consumer-preview/47-792/
You can see MS saying all about windows 8, asking for feedback and making changes... http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/
I am not sure about no start button and how that launches the metro UI. I never hit start any more, only to launch apps anyway. But people have already modded windows to have the start and no Metro and people asking MS to give the option for hard core users which they are likely going to do before launch anyway for the office market.
If they release a Basic/Home version that is just Windows 7 with the basic Explorer improvements and all the new Metro garbage off by default I'll be sold.
TBH I wish they would finally ditch the whole version model.
Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on March 12, 2012, 01:04:19 AM
If they release a Basic/Home version that is just Windows 7 with the basic Explorer improvements and all the new Metro garbage off by default I'll be sold.
Maybe not for the home but I bet the business version will be.