The Windows 8 Thread: Impressions, news, random thoughts.

I love that the start screen is a separate environment and for a very specific reason. I can have Youtube open fullscreen in the chrome app, not sure about the specific youtube app, and pause the video and then do whatever on my desktop on my other screen without causing the video to exit fullscreen. This makes playing through a playlist easier because I can pause the video and do whatever on my second screen without fullscreen closing and forcing the relevant page to load for that video.

That is possible with desktop Chrome and other browsers, as well - Flash received out-of-focus fullscreen functionality in an upgrade a while ago.
 
Upgrade Assistant still thinks I'm in Canada.. Won't let me put my actual address to checkout :(
 
The only gripe I have so far is my trackpad hasn't been sensing right. like sideways scrolling, it will sometimes reverse my function. Also, even though I have click and drag turned off, it still will hold something I've tapped on.
 
Re: The Windows 8 Thread: Impressions, news, random thoughts.

The only gripe I have so far is my trackpad hasn't been sensing right. like sideways scrolling, it will sometimes reverse my function. Also, even though I have click and drag turned off, it still will hold something I've tapped on.

What machine are you running it on? You should check to see if your pc maker has updated trackpad drivers for your system. If they dont, and you have a synaptics trackpad, you can grab drivers directly from them.
 
Samsung Series 3

Yes, I actually downloaded the special tool that gets all the right drivers from Samsung.
 
As much as I complain about some of the stupid decisions, a couple of touch-friendly games (that run well on a low-power system) go a long way in improving the entertainment value of my tablet :)

If this OS is a hybrid between Android/iOS and Windows 7, that's fine by me. I just see no reason to install it on my desktop.
 
So I've been shaking down Windows 8 with my friend, we both are finding it a great operating system. The Start screen and subsequent app system has been tested thoroughly and given a thumbs up. Really don't understand anyone saying anything bad at this point, I really have to dig and nitpick to say anything bad about it. I wish that aero was still available for things like the menus that appear at the edges of the screen and that there was quicker access to the shut down options.
 
Couldn't agree more with your post. And assuming you are on an empty desktop (which you probably are when you are about to shut down) just hit Alt + F4 and enter. Shut down.

You can still do that...
 
Impressions? It sucks big time.

The whole "desktop is an app" situation is just a step towards killing the desktop and moving to a touch only OS which really is very bad for the PC. Also, it's another step towards the demise of independent developers. Thanks for going Apple Microsoft.

Everything in the new Metro interface makes me scroll side ways and I'm sorry, the scroll button on my mouse goes up and down and not sideways for a reason, stop treating my PC as if it's a tablet tnx ok.

Everything inside the new interface is completely uncontrollable and you have to give in to MS's way. You want it taped to one side? Sure, we'll tell you how big it will be and how it will look. You want to close an open app? (app, I can't believe I'm now using that word to describe software on my PC... YUCK) work for it baby, an X button is not necessary in the world of 64GB RAM. Sorry, I have 4 you idiots. You want to stick a shortcut in there? No, you can't. FU Microsoft.

In conclusion, if the gaming industry takes the smallest step in Linux's way I'm gonna be waiting over there with a big smile all over my face. Right now I'm a captive of MS and their friggin DX.
 
Impressions? It sucks big time.

The whole "desktop is an app" situation is just a step towards killing the desktop and moving to a touch only OS which really is very bad for the PC. Also, it's another step towards the demise of independent developers. Thanks for going Apple Microsoft.

Everything in the new Metro interface makes me scroll side ways and I'm sorry, the scroll button on my mouse goes up and down and not sideways for a reason, stop treating my PC as if it's a tablet tnx ok.

Everything inside the new interface is completely uncontrollable and you have to give in to MS's way. You want it taped to one side? Sure, we'll tell you how big it will be and how it will look. You want to close an open app? (app, I can't believe I'm now using that word to describe software on my PC... YUCK) work for it baby, an X button is not necessary in the world of 64GB RAM. Sorry, I have 4 you idiots. You want to stick a shortcut in there? No, you can't. FU Microsoft.

In conclusion, if the gaming industry takes the smallest step in Linux's way I'm gonna be waiting over there with a big smile all over my face. Right now I'm a captive of MS and their friggin DX.

How is it a demise of the independent developer, particularly the beginner? Not hating or being a smartass at all, i'm genuinely curious? You can list your app in the Windows Store for only 49 bucks for a dev account. That not only gains you a listing, but detailed analytics about how your app's faring in the store, testing tools to ensure your app works correctly on day 1, and tools to help you market and maintain your app. Windows store might make apps more discoverable since it's not only indexed by search engines like any developer's website, but you're instantly in front of one of the largest audiences in the app game.

Have a Non-Metro app? You can still take advantage of listing it in the store.

Today's PC screens are wider than they are tall. 99% of the time for a lot of people it's wasted space. Why not take advantage of this space somehow?

I do wish I could make snapped metro apps adjustable in terms of screen width they take up...i'd love to split two metro apps evenly down the screen for example.

They're trying to make it simple for non-power users. Free RAM is wasted RAM and Windows intelligently closes suspended metro apps when needed, to maintain performance. When apps are suspended, they behave similarly to apps on Windows Phone and iOS: if something is needed to run in the background..for example a audio track, the track keeps playing through a multitasking service while the rest of the app is suspended:

Building Windows 8 said:
The benefit of being able to suspend apps is that you get really fast switching between them without negatively impacting the battery life or performance of your system. This is altogether different than traditional desktop apps, where we are all used to optimizing our workflow for those apps that take a long time to launch.There are two cases, in general, where we won?t suspend an app if it is not doing background activity. First, if you have not yet launched the app in your current logged-in session, then you?ll have to tap the app?s tile to launch it. The second case is more interesting. The system may remove an app from the suspended state and terminate the app if the system starts to run low on memory. Memory is a finite resource and we want the apps you are using most frequently to be ready for you instantly. If you have not used an app in a while and the operating system needs more memory, it terminates one of your suspended apps. This should happen relatively infrequently because the memory manager will take your suspended apps and save them to disk (which generally has more capacity than physical memory). When you switch back to these apps, they will be ready instantly. However, there will be cases where the system does have to terminate a suspended app. This typically occurs when there are multiple users logged into one PC, or when you are using a bunch of memory-intensive apps.


The operating system takes several things into account when it decides which apps to terminate, such as when the app was last used, and how much memory it is taking up. The important thing to underscore is that even though there may be several suspended apps in the background taking up memory, there is no negative performance or battery life impact to your PC. In fact, you do not need to manage or close apps directly at all. This is a common approach being used across computing devices now and represents a modern view of operating system design.

You can close an app by right clicking the app in the Switcher and clicking "close", or by flicking the app off the screen with your mouse or finger.

While everyone says Windows 8's a disaster, it's coming mainly from power users (or "set up" demos w/out proof of impartiality...the "Grandma struggling to use Windows 8" comes to mind) but average people seem to warm to it: http://www.zdnet.com/what-do-normal-people-think-of-new-windows-8-pcs-7000006863/

Should you take Bott's ranking of the HSN review data with a grain of salt. Of course. Everyone has their biases + the "Home Shopping" model makes it easier to explain and demo features and information than it would be at say...a busy Best Buy store on a Saturday. But if you read the actual reviews, and these are from people who buy a computer off of TV...definetly not power users, they seem pretty satisfied with the OS despite the learning curve.

I've said many times that I think the OS isn't perfect, there's some stumbles, but I honestly don't think it's as doom and gloom as everyone suggests. This happens with nearly every major "paradigm-shift" Windows release. When 95 came out people were still trying to use Program Manager. When XP came out people were desperately changing the theme to classic and reverting the Start Menu to classic as well. Vista? The release was filled with FUD and bitching...i'll admit it was a tad bloated but worked fine on my machine + the new underpinnings represent the underpinnings of Windows likely well into the future.
 
Reading the ads in todays home electronics advertising leaflet (for a business where everyone is in the red they sure like their leaflets) I note that if you buy a new computer you can now pay more money and upgrade the stock Windows 8 installation to Windows 7.
 
Server 2012 is awful...
 
Server 2012 is awful...

Are you using it as a server or as a desktop OS (with desktop experience installed)? Just curious as I'm doing the latter because my school's cheap. :)
 
Are you using it as a server or as a desktop OS (with desktop experience installed)? Just curious as I'm doing the latter because my school's cheap. :)

As a server.

I installed it inside a VM on my dedicated box, as well as a couple of my company's servers are on it.
 
In conclusion, if the gaming industry takes the smallest step in Linux's way I'm gonna be waiting over there with a big smile all over my face. Right now I'm a captive of MS and their friggin DX.

Already done, Steam is on Linux. ID has had Linux releases since at least Quake.
 
Installed Win8 on my PC two days ago. Its starting to feel like a dumb-downed version of something.

The Metro-thingie is starting to get very annoying, its just slows down anything I try to do.
 
+ my Topgear season folders are all in the wrong order because you can manually order them around. This is really driving me crazy!
 
Installed Win8 on my PC two days ago. Its starting to feel like a dumb-downed version of something.

The Metro-thingie is starting to get very annoying, its just slows down anything I try to do.

Err, wat? I use Windows 8 as I use Windows 7. If anything I'm slightly faster when using the start menu, which tbh, is the only piece of Metro I see. I do much appreciate the improved lockscreen though.

+ my Topgear season folders are all in the wrong order because you can manually order them around. This is really driving me crazy!

Lolwut? Explorer works exactly the same as in Windows 95/98/98SE/ME/NT4.x/2000/XP/Vista/7. It just looks a bit different, just like it has every time its changed: ME/XP and Vista/7 were visual updates, just like the Win8 visual update. Yes, I have used all of these versions of Windows.
 
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