Windows 8 consumer preview

Thought I would start a thread for those of us testing/playing with Windows 8 consumer preview is out (I skipped the developers preview).

Edit: Thought I'd add what I'm running it on.
MacBook Pro 13" i5 w/8gb of ram OSX 10.7.3
Virtualbox 4.1.8 (where I'm running Win

I gave the vm 2gb of RAM and 1 30gb HDD

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joshmadakor

veritas_libertas wrote: »

The new Start button, I hate it... LOL

I disabled this immediately. I really really hate it too

pitviper

joshmadakor wrote: »

I disabled this immediately. I really really hate it too

I didn't think this was an option in the new consumer preview?

rwmidl

Believe it is (from everything I've read).

What is kind of funny to me, I've read reviews on various sites and (the writers) seem to give it good reviews. But if you look at comments/here, people don't appear to be liking it? Are writers liking it because they may have a touchscreen to test it on? I don't know anyone who has a touchscreen computer (iPad/Kindle yes but not a computer). I'm starting to wonder if these "reviews" are a bit biased/flawed?

demonfurbie

rwmidl wrote: »

Believe it is (from everything I've read).

What is kind of funny to me, I've read reviews on various sites and (the writers) seem to give it good reviews. But if you look at comments/here, people don't appear to be liking it? Are writers liking it because they may have a touchscreen to test it on? I don't know anyone who has a touchscreen computer (iPad/Kindle yes but not a computer). I'm starting to wonder if these "reviews" are a bit biased/flawed?

ya dont say ... biased from a MICROSOFT product... never

i wonder if those people also wrote good things about windows me and vista

Asif Dasl

I have to say I think it's great - it's more like an iPhone/iPad layout which will give you plenty of free useful apps when it's fully launched... I hated the developer preview but I think this consumer preview is great...

I didn't like the new start menu at first because I was running it in VMware 8 so when the mouse would go in to the bottom left, it went in to my Windows 7 start menu and the Windows 8 start menu wouldn't come up easily - cue frustration - but when I went full screen, it totally rocks. I love the new start menu.

I think it even uses less resources than Windows 7 and I put 'Windows 8 To Go' on to my external USB drive and have shown it fully booted with all of my desktop to several people on completely different machines and it works really well. It didn't boot on a few admittedly, but I think it's a great way to put all of your utilities and antivirus on to it and then boot it for diagnostics on a machine that needs to be fixed. If it doesn't work, I've got my BartPE USB drive anyways...

It definitely needs some tweaks here and there - it's early days, there is still 6 to 9 months to go I think - I tried PPTP VPN and that isn't working for me, but I'm sure that will be fixed soon. Shutdown/Restart needs to be more accessible too...

There will be more details in CeBIT in a few days time, so looking forward to that. Still have to check the Server side of things, might do that this week at some stage.

kriscamaro68

SteveLord wrote: »

What can it possibly do with multiple monitors that is new?

It has a taskbar on both screens when in the regular desktop. You can call up the start screen while the other monitor can be used for something else so you can have metro in one and resuler desktop in the other screen. I thought that metro would suck but once its used in multi-mon it rocks. There is more I am sure but I am in the middle of an import project so thats what I can think of off the top of my head. If you have more than 1 monitor try it and you will see what I mean.

SteveLord

I dunno. Every even numbered Windows release has been rough or plain sucked. (95, ME, Vista.) History tells us this is next. $:\$

Everyone

Played around with it a bit... for those having trouble installing it on VMWare, read my guide here: How-To: Install Windows 8 Consumer Preview on VMWare Workstation 8 | Fix the Exchange!

Seems a bit better than the Developer Preview, and it should, there'd be a problem if it wasn't. :P

I'm much more interested in playing around with Windows Server 8, but I keep getting a corrupt download with the download manager for it. I've downloaded that 3+ GB ISO about 6 times now and it has been corrupt every time. Meant to go back and try again without using the download manager, but haven't had time.

I agree that it is better with multiple monitors. I still want to try it on a touch scree (i.e. tablet). I'm sure I'll get the chance to do that within the next few months (yay new job!).

SteveLord

Everyone wrote: »

I still want to try it on a touch scree (i.e. tablet). I'm sure I'll get the chance to do that within the next few months (yay new job!).

I haven't come across someone other than myself that has. It is nothing to write home about. Still needs work and/or proper driver support.

jmritenour

I really don't like it. I've had my hands on every previous version of Windows at some pre-release stage or another, and I've always been able to find *something* I liked about them. But not here. I don't like the UI, it feels like it's trying to shoehorn a phone/tablet interface onto my laptop.

And what's with all the Xbox crap all over the place?

Chivalry1

I have been reviewing Windows 8 over the last 3 days; and I must say that I am impressed. I must admit I was a little perturbed at the fact of no start menu. But trust me after a while you realize that you really don't need it. For a home user this is exactly whats needed. People need simplicity and I think Microsoft is getting back to the basics with the release of Windows 7 and now with the new Windows 8.

For the 'Enterprise' ,or whatever name they will provide, I think it will require a little more features. Overall I am enjoying my experience. Windows 8 gets the 'Siskel & Ebert' 2 thumbs up!!

it_consultant

I got my first taste yesterday when I loaded Windows 8 directly on a spare laptop. I second Chivalry1's comments, you don't really need the start menu. You can get to your old favorites like "run" easy enough and launching a program through universal search is very nice. I will have to see the performance numbers to determine whether or not I will upgrade my daily worker (Windows 7) but for the majority of buyers, I highly doubt this will turn Windows users to Macs. In fact, it will probably rescue MS in the consumer market. Provided it doesn't crash or screw up too often, the fact that it is stoooopid easy to use for most peoples' needs is a good thing.

What MS is trying to get to is a common codebase for both tablet/mobile and desktop computing. Something Apple and Google have failed to achieve. The profitability of running the same software suite on all devices is huge.

tpatt100

rwmidl wrote: »

Believe it is (from everything I've read).

What is kind of funny to me, I've read reviews on various sites and (the writers) seem to give it good reviews. But if you look at comments/here, people don't appear to be liking it? Are writers liking it because they may have a touchscreen to test it on? I don't know anyone who has a touchscreen computer (iPad/Kindle yes but not a computer). I'm starting to wonder if these "reviews" are a bit biased/flawed?

I think reviewers can review a product from a viewpoint of the average consumer where as techies have a "my way or the highway" opinon.

From all the negative opinions from the comments section of tech sites I go to, I think this will be a pretty successful product for the rest of the consumer market which is the majority of consumers.

Touch screen phones and tablets are changing the preferred interface and desktops will follow.

ally_uk

haha I just showed a colleague a video of the beta preview he has never seen Windows 8 before his intial thoughts posted below.

looking at metro

" Wtf is that s**te turn it off "

" Microsoft got it right windows 7 if you havent switched to Linux nows the time "

Lol made me chuckle

TechZilla

I do not like the "Windows Phone" GUI. It will take a long time to get use to. I do not see many Enterprises jumping on this. Maybe just for their tablets? I believe Windows 7 will be around for a long long time.

vanquish23

How much is Windows 8 going to be? $1500 for basic, $1800 for Advanced, $2500 for "Ultimate?" Windows sucks again.

Asif Dasl

vanquish23 wrote: »

How much is Windows 8 going to be? $1500 for basic, $1800 for Advanced, $2500 for "Ultimate?" Windows sucks again.

I think this is a policy to force consumers to buy a new machine than buy a retail package... Anyway, you'd be better buying a TechNet subscription and using that for your copy of Windows than buying a retail copy - not that an average consumer thinks like that...

tpatt100

They were hinting back before Vista launched getting rid of retail Window sales because their primary upgrades was when a customer bought a new machine anyways.

RobertKaucher

I think the real problem is we are getting a confused edition that has consumer and enterprise features jumbled together.

For a touch enabled, consumer computer I think the Metro UI will do fine. For a system where you actually need to do something other than FaceBook and Netflix, we are going to need something like fences, more space on the task bar, and metro disabled.

Personally found Win 8 more performant on my laptop than Win 7. It booted faster and resumed faster (SSD).

ally_uk

Whynot just have two versions? Home and Enterprise simples