Windows 8 Beta (Consumer Preview) now available to download for x86 and x64

Forums › Microsoft Windows › Windows 8 Beta (Consumer Preview) now available to download for x86 and x64

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#589035 1-Mar-2012 19:16

Lias: No windows classic, or ability to disable metro and force traditional start menu is a dealbreaker for me, and I'd imagine virtually every Enterprise IT department in existence. 5 minutes of using Metro left me wanting to ask Al Qaeda to target Redmond.

Waste of a download and resource to create that VM.

I'm agreeing here.

My desktop is organised chaos, with docs, programs, shortcuts, remote links, images, weblinks arranged in an entirely personal layout to suit my workflow and usage.

Metro just doesn't allow the same amount of information to be displayed on a single screen. although, I do need to use it more to see if I can get used to it.

nathan

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#589057 1-Mar-2012 20:20

surfisup1000:
Lias: No windows classic, or ability to disable metro and force traditional start menu is a dealbreaker for me, and I'd imagine virtually every Enterprise IT department in existence. 5 minutes of using Metro left me wanting to ask Al Qaeda to target Redmond.

Waste of a download and resource to create that VM.

I'm agreeing here.

My desktop is organised chaos, with docs, programs, shortcuts, remote links, images, weblinks arranged in an entirely personal layout to suit my workflow and usage.

Metro just doesn't allow the same amount of information to be displayed on a single screen. although, I do need to use it more to see if I can get used to it.

Really curious to know more about your comment: "Metro just doesn't allow the same amount of information to be displayed on a single screen"There is an incredible amount of info on the metro start screen, more than the legacy start menu ever had.

Yes the new Metro start screen is a big departure from 20 years of Windows, but seriously give it a try and see how it works out for you, use it for more than 5 mins :)

Cheers
Nathan

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#589061 1-Mar-2012 20:30

nathan:
Dratsab: Have had to crash my laptop twice now because its system resources get completely used up - 100% memory and CPU. Not sure if it's VMware or Windows 8, either way I've given up on my laptop.

More success on my touchsmart but don't like the way a "fullscreen" implementation of VMware is actually only half a screen of the O/S with a MASSIVE black border around it. I notice VMware is also hogging a massive chunk of both memory and CPU resource, which leads me to think trying to run one than one virtual machine with software would be a waste of time. Any suggestions for usable virtual machine software?

Back on topic...not sure if I'm keen on the metro interface for a desktop. This is probably down to many years of using a mouse so I'm game to give it some time.

everyone installing with Oracle Virtualbox and VMWare player:

I'd recommend you install with BootVHD instead of installing into a virtualisation layer

you'll get much better performance, direct access to the hardware, still won't affect your current OS install, if you want delete Win8, you can just delete the VHD file off your file system and boom its gone

if you need BootVHD guidance I can whip up a quick blog post

Nice support Nathan, I'm sure a lot of interested parties would appreciate a blog post especiallAsia it will give a better feel for the capabilities with a improved install

Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

Dratsab

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#589064 1-Mar-2012 20:41

+1 - thanks.

I was just about to post a tear-my-hair-out rant. VMware is sucking the absolute life out of this machine and, I'm sure, Windows 8 as well. Opening Media Center took 4 minutes. It was another 32 minutes after clicking on the "Custom" install button before a message popped up saying a custom install couldn't be done.

Lias

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#589067 1-Mar-2012 20:48

nathan:

Really curious to know more about your comment: "Metro just doesn't allow the same amount of information to be displayed on a single screen"There is an incredible amount of info on the metro start screen, more than the legacy start menu ever had.

Yes the new Metro start screen is a big departure from 20 years of Windows, but seriously give it a try and see how it works out for you, use it for more than 5 mins :)

Cheers
Nathan

I did.. I forced myself to go back and try it again.. I really truly hated it, and none of the other engineers at work who looked were impressed via the "over my shoulder" experience. Noone else could even be bothered firing it up in a VM after seeing me play with it. It might excite the Apple fanboi club, but this product does not appeal to myself, my work colleagues, or any of the other MS certified engineers I know who've looked at it. I like Microsoft, my career is based around your products, I'm an MCITP (and a bunch of other letters), and my considered professional opinion is that this interface is not going to gain acceptance in the enterprise, or amongst home power users. Feedback from the coalface for you.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

nathan

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#589072 1-Mar-2012 21:02

Lias:
nathan:

Really curious to know more about your comment: "Metro just doesn't allow the same amount of information to be displayed on a single screen"There is an incredible amount of info on the metro start screen, more than the legacy start menu ever had.

Yes the new Metro start screen is a big departure from 20 years of Windows, but seriously give it a try and see how it works out for you, use it for more than 5 mins :)

Cheers
Nathan

I did.. I forced myself to go back and try it again.. I really truly hated it, and none of the other engineers at work who looked were impressed via the "over my shoulder" experience. Noone else could even be bothered firing it up in a VM after seeing me play with it. It might excite the Apple fanboi club, but this product does not appeal to myself, my work colleagues, or any of the other MS certified engineers I know who've looked at it. I like Microsoft, my career is based around your products, I'm an MCITP (and a bunch of other letters), and my considered professional opinion is that this interface is not going to gain acceptance in the enterprise, or amongst home power users. Feedback from the coalface for you.

hey thanks for your feedback, appreciate it

It would be great to have some specific examples of things you truely hated about it please?

Is finding stuff in the start menu slower?
Is it more clicks now to load your apps etc?

Thanks again

Cheers
Nathan

JamesL

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#589076 1-Mar-2012 21:08

I think there should be two streams of Windows 8, or at least the ability to revert back to classic.

One for tablets/touch which is what metro is clearly designed for and another for corporate/people who want a minimalist desktop with a simple start menu and task bar

Take Apple for example, although they're adding more of iOS into OSX at least they're not forcing you to use the OS like a touch device by removing classic features

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dontpanic42

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#589078 1-Mar-2012 21:13

defnz: I think there should be two streams of Windows 8, or at least the ability to revert back to classic.

One for tablets/touch which is what metro is clearly designed for and another for corporate/people who want a minimalist desktop with a simple start menu and task bar

Take Apple for example, although they're adding more of iOS into OSX at least they're not forcing you to use the OS like a touch device by removing classic features

++++++1
QFT!!

Lias

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#589079 1-Mar-2012 21:23

nathan:

hey thanks for your feedback, appreciate it

It would be great to have some specific examples of things you truely hated about it please?

Is finding stuff in the start menu slower?
Is it more clicks now to load your apps etc?

Thanks again

Cheers
Nathan

Personally, I don't like the look and feel of the Metro UI, it feels like a gadget, not a computer. I don't like the live integration. I don't like the inability to disable the Metro UI, and return to Windows Classic & Start Menu via a user friendly interface. I don't like the concept of merging phone/tablet/desktop OS. Compatible yes, the same no.

From a "supporting users" perspective, most end users are majorly change phobic. My partner is a good example. She took months to feel comfortable with the changes from W2K ui to XP UI, and again from XP to Aero and those changes are minimal. I've supported literally hundreds of users who found the transition thru Offixe XP -> 03 -> 07 > 10 to be confusing and scary and horrible. If you change the look of a button, let alone the placement of it, it confuses them. We're not talking IT people here, we're talking tutors, accountants, managers, students, scientists. In my experience the vast majority of them want things to go faster, and do more stuff, without anything else changing. A huge change like this, without the ability for IT departments to turn it off and give them "the old way" is not going to get their end user buy in.

My 2 cents at any rate.

Lias

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#589080 1-Mar-2012 21:25

defnz: I think there should be two streams of Windows 8, or at least the ability to revert back to classic.

One for tablets/touch which is what metro is clearly designed for and another for corporate/people who want a minimalist desktop with a simple start menu and task bar

THIS..

Make a kick arse Ipad killing OS for phone/tablet by all means, but don't make the mistake of thinking that PC users want that same OS.

freitasm

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#589089 1-Mar-2012 21:54

Dratsab: Have had to crash my laptop twice now because its system resources get completely used up - 100% memory and CPU. Not sure if it's VMware or Windows 8, either way I've given up on my laptop.

I am running VMWare player and the performance is almost the same as native on my laptop.

Make sure hardware virtualisation is supported and enabled. Check with this utility.

gzt

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#589090 1-Mar-2012 22:03

How long does the platform preview last? eg; 30 days, longer?

th3r3turn

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#589099 1-Mar-2012 22:19

gzt: How long does the platform preview last? eg; 30 days, longer?

2013

Ropenuts

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#589105 1-Mar-2012 22:30

Im no power user or anything like that, I only use my pc for browsing the web and simple stuff like that. I also own a windows phone and I gotta say I love Windows 8 so far! feels so modern and new. For a majorly casual user like myself this has major appeal I feel.

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#589125 1-Mar-2012 23:43

Well I have now tried on 3 computers, and I can't get the damn thing to boot. The SHA-1 matches, and I tried from USB and DVD gets to the exact same place after you pick your partition and your language and throws a generic error about not being able to find the files. Sounds like a media issue, but I don't think it is.

1 HP SFF 8200, 1 Dell SFF about a year old and VMWARE Player.

Tried installing from the iSO, USB and DVD.

Again the SHA1 Matches! Very weird.

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