official Windows 8 Consumer Preview Discussion

[Ci7]

Haha.. The DVD burnt before light went out! I had already prepared the system. In exactly 1 hrs time I'll install it :p yea

lucky you! , still waiting for my data allowance to reset

while downloading sloooowly 2.3GB to go :( hopefully it rest midnight so i can start installing at the morning

[+Zlip792 MVC]

At 28% currently.. :cry: :cry:

[devHead]

What exactly does the old start menu do that the new start screen doesn't

In both you can pin your most used applications. With the new start screen you can see more applications at once and they can convey information.

In both you can search for the application you want qucikly and easily

In both you can view a large list of all of your installed applications. With the new start screen you can see more on your screen at once.

Are there jumplists for the shortcuts on the start screen like the ones on the Win7 start menu? If so, that's awesome. but that is a functionality I use with Word and Excel and Access pinned to my start menu and having pinned documents and frequent documents in the slide out menu for each. I've gotten so used to that. if the same exists or something similar with such shortcuts on the start screen, then no problem at all!

[Ci7]

You are only allowed to blindly praise it, not be negative.

let throw you in concentration camp in North korea mars

how dear you to not praise kim jong-un windows 8 enough! :p

:rofl:

[Lucas]

I just installed it as main OS, used it for about 3 hours and I just felt like it wasn't what I expected, I thought it was going to be a bit more fluid but actually wanting to multi task is a pain changing back and forth intro Metro UI and out of it and doing so by putting your mouse at the bottom/top corner of your screen... pain in the ass if you ask me.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I just installed it as main OS, used it for about 3 hours and I just felt like it wasn't what I expected, I thought it was going to be a bit more fluid but actually wanting to multi task is a pain changing back and forth intro Metro UI and out of it and doing so by putting your mouse at the bottom/top corner of your screen... pain in the ass if you ask me.

So how far off was my Joke about the Metro 1 day time laps?

[wongogue]

I'm kinda surprised, why anyone hasn't mentioned Top-left corner yet.

Click to quickly cycle apps.

Slide over to open new WP7-like task-switcher.

[Sulphy]

installation hangs for me.... on my asrock Z68 extreme 7 gen 3 motherboard.... gets stuck on the black screen with the fish... nothing else happens...! wonder wots going on..! UEFI bios.... logiteck G19kb goes dark.... and nothing else happens.... ARGH!!!!

[Amarok]

Because that is the direction computing is heading. When you hear of ipad applications reaching over a billion downloads, that is a market that cant be ignored. The good thing about Windows 8 is, you get access to that market while allowing legacy programs to continue ot work. Its a change, and sometimes change is not easy but its one that is coming and Microsoft has to be there.

Entirely different subsection of computing. Tablets are not for most people who work with computers and never will be simply because of the limitations inherent to them being tablets. Casual/amateur computer users can get away with having just a tablet or smartphone for their computer usage, but professionals, power users, and gamers all need more than any tablet can offer, much more. For Microsoft (or any software company) to think that a tablet OS is good enough for a traditional desktop/laptop (Which will be around forever mostly for professional use despite what tablet-huggers seem to want to believe.) is actually kind of insulting.

Before anyone points out that people didn't like Vista/7's interface changes at first .. This is entirely different. That was a difficulty in getting used to something new, in that case the something new was better and more efficient. In this case the new "features" are so much less efficient. Heh. It's not April 1st yet MS? I, and I can only assume, most other professionals, will be sticking with Win7 and hoping that MS gets their act together for the next version of Windows after 8.

[Subhadip]

I just installed it as main OS, used it for about 3 hours and I just felt like it wasn't what I expected, I thought it was going to be a bit more fluid but actually wanting to multi task is a pain changing back and forth intro Metro UI and out of it and doing so by putting your mouse at the bottom/top corner of your screen... pain in the ass if you ask me.

Or you could just use the Win key. There's a whole bunch of shortcuts if you don't like the mouse - http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-consumer-preview-windows-key-keyboard-shortcuts-142358.

[Zain Adeel]

10 minutes to go.. I'm so sleep. I have to get up at 8 n its 1am.. I hope this installs fast

[PGHammer]

A huge start screen taking over your entire desktop is stupid. It covers up all your running programs and is a huge waste of space. On a tablet it makes sense, on a desktop it does not. I do not want or need a 22" 1920x1080 start menu with giant tiles.

The StartScreen does not replace the desktop - the desktop is completely separate (the same was true in the Developer Preview). The StartScreen replaced the Start menu.

Other than the lack of a Start menu (and that the button itself is hidden), the desktop (now a separate application) is unchanged.

The Taskbar is unchanged. The TaskTray is improved in terms of functionality - however, it looks mostly the same as it does in Windows 7.

Hover your mouse in the lower left to unhide the shortcut to the StartScreen. Right-click the same corner to get a QuickTask menu (which, other than application shortcuts, not only includes all the functionality of the old Start menu, includes features it lacked, such as Computer and Disk Management, even two Command Prompt tasks - one for those that require elevated (Administrator) privileges. (This is new - it was not in the Developer Preview.)

It is official - Windows 7 has been fired from my desktop - it will NOT be going back on.

[Mystic Mungis]

Does anyone else think the boot screen is a little fishy?

[Pikey]

That is one ugly fish!!

Seems to take an age to boot up too ...

[Brandon Live Veteran]

How does one run multiple Metro apps side by side? I can't seem to figure it out.

A few ways. I'll assume you're asking about mouse?

Option 1) Put your mouse in the upper-left corner, you'll see a preview of the last app you were in. Click and drag to position it where you want.

Option 2) Put your mouse at the top of the screen, then click and drag down a little. The app will zoom out a bit and you can drag it to either side to snap it to either side, just like Aero Snap in win7. Then you can go to Start and launch another app in the "main" area.

Option 3) Put your mouse in the upper-left or lower-left corner then move it along the left edge. You don't have to do this slowly, you can actually do it quite fast. This will show a list of your most recently used apps. You can click and drag one to put it wherever you want it on the screen (i.e. snapped to either side or in the middle).

You can actually combine these pretty easily... For example, grab the top of the current app and snap it to the right side. Then grab the previous app from the upper-left corner, or any app from that recently used list, and put it in the other spot.

You can also use context menus on those apps (including the one you see just by throwing your mouse to the upper left).

[DigitalE]

Is Media Center included this time?

[Ci7]

find it rather funny how they remove mail , contact , ...etc from windows 7 for faster updates or something (Windows live)

to go around and integrate everything and kitchen sink into Windows 8 (and forget about it)

[Aaron Olive]

27 inches of bland, i could have sworn the tiles were bigger in the dev preview.

[.Neo]

A few ways. I'll assume you're asking about mouse?

Option 1) Put your mouse in the upper-left corner, you'll see a preview of the last app you were in. Click and drag to position it where you want.

Option 2) Put your mouse at the top of the screen, then click and drag down a little. The app will zoom out a bit and you can drag it to either side to snap it to either side, just like Aero Snap in win7. Then you can go to Start and launch another app in the "main" area.

Option 3) Put your mouse in the upper-left or lower-left corner then move it along the left edge. You don't have to do this slowly, you can actually do it quite fast. This will show a list of your most recently used apps. You can click and drag one to put it wherever you want it on the screen (i.e. snapped to either side or in the middle).

You can actually combine these pretty easily... For example, grab the top of the current app and snap it to the right side. Then grab the previous app from the upper-left corner, or any app from that recently used list, and put it in the other spot.

You can also use context menus on those apps (including the one you see just by throwing your mouse to the upper left).

Yeah, people here already said that. Apparently there's no way to put more than two screens/apps side-by-side?

[Vice]

No go .. removed the floppy device from the image but still same error. I'm on VMWare 8.0.2 build 591240 .. are you using the same version?

I've not upgraded my VMWare Workstation yet, I'm on 8.0.1 build-528992 I'm using the 64-bit version of Windows 8. I have the Intel-VT enabled too.

[Eric Veteran]

...I'm not hearing a lot of positive feedback from you guys...

Stop reading posts from the same 4-5 people and it clears up bunches. :/

[Got3n]

Installed it on my Motion J3500 and it works pretty well, battery life is about an 75 minutes at full brightness. Touch screen is responsive and applications seem to work very well. some apps obviously have bugs but the overall use was delightful.

[Subhadip]

Killa, It may look bland now, but just watch it populate over the months as more apps are released with live tiles integration. Don't forget you can pin things other than apps - like People and websites as well.

[ady199]

The only problem I'm having, is that my MAC OS VM image will not start - I get the following error message (worked fine in Windows 7)

The memory set for the VM is 2048MB

Any thoughts??

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Screen rotation is slow again. :/ It was instant in the Developer Preview, now it is only slightly faster than it was in Windows 7. Developer Preview could rotate the screen without making it blink, this can't do that.

What hardware/ display driver?