official Windows 8 Consumer Preview Discussion

[Dot Matrix]

I think Microsoft are too dumb to understand how a mouse works. You see, a mouse has very high precision. It's designed to accomplish a-lot with a few simple clicks. If I'm used to accomplishing a-lot like this, I'd have to be some kind of idiot to accept a bunch of swipey gestures and giant icons for doing basic tasks. And if I wanted to do everything with a keyboard, I'd be on Unix.

Precision isn't what it used to be. Windows was still an OS that has alot of small elements, but with today's high-res screens, those small elements have become even smaller. Which creates a problem. They have begun to upscale the OS to accomodate higher resolutions, and with that, the mouse has lost a little meaning. It doesn't need to be as precise as it was back in the Windows 9x/XP days when low-res CRT screens ruled the landscape.

[hagjohn]

Not bad. Of course, a lot of area's need to be worked on but I think the only big issues for me so far are:

1) Getting metro back up on the screen. That little area to click on, is a bit small. Put an icon there or something. Using a VM, so it may be screen size issue.

2) All Apps (left mouse click on metro desktop) - Make the icon show up near where your mouse is, so you can click on it.

[ilovetech]

can someone please help me in running weather app? it says app not available in your market

[Muhammad Farrukh]

It isn't available in my area too.

We'll have to wait for the update

[Zain Adeel]

yea. And im not running CP again.

Please PM me anybody when MS releases an update for Messenger app to actually see whos online who isnt.

And add feed filter to the people app and we get a few other important apps which are not there ATM.

Windows 8 is all about the Apps. Apps will make or break it. Right now. Apps are broken.

[Wyn6]

The Windows 7 start menu search seemed to search documents and everything. When I search using the Windows 8 start screen, it only lists apps. Is that by design or should it be listing more?

Disregard my earlier post. The files, which include documents, don't show up as icons. But, when you select files and begin to type, it will start showing a list of files that start with the letters you type.

So, click Search on the Charm Bar and select files and start typing OR, if you start typing either ON the Start Screen or AFTER selecting search, items will appear below the search box for Apps, Settings, and Files with a number beside each indicating how many items contain the keywords you're typing.

Also, as others have posted keyboard shortcuts Win+F = files, Win+Q = Apps, Win+I = Settings. Also, just typing on the Start Screen will bring up the Search function.

[umneycreep]

So i tested the windows 8 CP as soon as it dropped yesterday. Used it all day trying different things but i was wondering if someone has an idea of why my metro apps just crash back to the desktop now, they worked fine most of the day. I have rebooted, tried switching to a local account, checked updates... not sure what to do. Obviously i can refresh/reset my pc and it's not a big deal at all, just a test machine, but just wondering if i'm missing something simple?

[mak123]

wait...... :rolleyes:

[nyolc8]

Yesterday my lower right screen corner worked like the top right corner, so it shows charmbar. Today lower corner works as in win7, so all windows become transparent (charmbar dissappears immediately too)

[Glen]

One cool thing I just noticed... I set my background to use the Nature theme that comes installed with the CP, and it shows different backgrounds on each of my displays. In Windows 7, it would show the same picture, and if you had different resolutions, it would have a border on one of the displays. This is a nice improvement in the new OS.

FYI: Windows 7 themes work in the Win8 CP. Just click the "Get more themes online" link in your display Personalization settings.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Yesterday my lower right screen corner worked like the top right corner, so it shows charmbar. Today lower corner works as in win7, so all windows become transparent (charmbar dissappears immediately too)

It kind of has dual functionality here.

Once it disappears, if you move the mouse upwards, it re-appears

[Quillz]

Is there any way to move multiple tiles at once on the Start screen? Or have a group of tiles alphabatized? I really hate having to move everything one by one.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

I don't think that you can move more than one at a time. :(

Though, grouping would be nice

[Wyn6]

yea. And im not running CP again.

Please PM me anybody when MS releases an update for Messenger app to actually see whos online who isnt.

And add feed filter to the people app and we get a few other important apps which are not there ATM.

Windows 8 is all about the Apps. Apps will make or break it. Right now. Apps are broken.

All I can say is, look at the top of each app. It says APP PREVIEW. Obviously, many of these apps aren't finished. Steven Sinofosky said as much at MWC yesterday. He said don't rate the apps, just check 'em out and see the direction they're going. So, agreed. I'm certain these apps will operate more like their mobile counterparts soon enough.

FYI, in the People app you can see who is online to chat with via Messenger or Facebook. There's a green bar on the left of their pic.

[Zain Adeel]

Is there any way to move multiple tiles at once on the Start screen? Or have a group of tiles alphabatized? I really hate having to move everything one by one.

yes you can.. Make those tiles into a group. Give it a name. And then when u zoom out You can drag the whole group to where ever you want :)

This perticular feature works flawlessly. i hope MS paid little attention to the quality of their apps.

[nw2001]

in some of the screenshots you could see metro with longer columns of apps per screen, how do you adjust this?

[Quillz]

I don't think that you can move more than one at a time. :(

Though, grouping would be nice

Ugh, so they're making it as crippled as Launchpad, then.

I like to keep my apps organized by name, so it's really annoying having to move everything one by one. I wish I could just right-click on a group and have "Sort by ->" options like what you go in the old Start menu.

[Wyn6]

Is there any way to move multiple tiles at once on the Start screen? Or have a group of tiles alphabatized? I really hate having to move everything one by one.

Yes. Zoom out by either holding ctrl and using the scroll wheel on the mouse or dragging the mouse to the lower corner of the Start Screen where you see the Magnifying glass and click that. You will get the Semantic view. At this point you can grab a group and drag it. Also, you can right click to select the group and name/rename using the button in the lower left that pops up.

Hope that helps,

[Quillz]

Yes. Zoom out by either holding ctrl and using the scroll wheel on the mouse or dragging the mouse to the lower corner of the Start Screen where you see the Magnifying glass and click that. You will get the Semantic view. At this point you can grab a group and drag it. Also, you can right click to select the group and name/rename using the button in the lower left that pops up.

Hope that helps,

I know about those options, that's not what I'm talking about. I want to be able to select multiple tiles at once and move them around, or be able to simply re-organize an entire group's tiles in one click, like with the old Start menu when you could "Arrange" icons.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Ugh, so they're making it as crippled as Launchpad, then.

I like to keep my apps organized by name, so it's really annoying having to move everything one by one. I wish I could just right-click on a group and have "Sort by ->" options like what you go in the old Start menu.

Well, not entirely.

You can create a separation between two apps, gather some apps on either side, that is, make a group, zoom out by clicking in bottom right, and then you can move them.

Not when you are zoomed in, viewing in default mode.

[Wyn6]

Yesterday my lower right screen corner worked like the top right corner, so it shows charmbar. Today lower corner works as in win7, so all windows become transparent (charmbar dissappears immediately too)

When on the desktop, the lower right corner still has the Aero Peek function. You can see the transparent bar if you stay on it. You can even click on it to go to the desktop. But, moving over to the right corner as far as you go, brings up Charms.

[Vice]

All right, WCN... a challenge.

Give me a series of task which you deemed "intuitive and easy to find" in Windows 7 and I'll do them using what I've learned and see how long it takes to do in Windows 8 by comparison.

And, so that you know I'm being honest I'll post the steps here. Sound good?

I don't need to play these games with you. It isn't about steps it's about intuitiveness, it is about a GUI that is useless. The old Start Menu worked fine there was no need to take something that used up 1/16th of my screen real estate and make it take up 100%

Some of us don't want live tiles we want a start menu. Microsoft would do good to give us what we want, not what they want us to have. Seriously I'm not going to buy Windows 8 because of this. And I'm pretty sure a lot of other people won't either if the poll on Neowin is anything to go by where 50% of respondents rated it 3 or lower out of 10. There is a huge lack of confidence in this release.

[Zain Adeel]

All I can say is, look at the top of each app. It says APP PREVIEW. Obviously, many of these apps aren't finished. Steven Sinofosky said as much at MWC yesterday. He said don't rate the apps, just check 'em out and see the direction they're going. So, agreed. I'm certain these apps will operate more like their mobile counterparts soon enough.

FYI, in the People app you can see who is online to chat with via Messenger or Facebook. There's a green bar on the left of their pic.

yea.. i know about that... but u have to look at the contacts to see whose online.

And yes i totally know that. We are not supposed to rate the apps. My problem is that Metro needs apps. Good apps to actually show how powerful it can be. What hurry were they in to release the CP when they havent even tuned the native apps? Even IE10 Immersive is buggy. And thats not an app with app preview written over it.

They shouldve polished the OS alot more before releasing a CP. I am also surprised many big names dont have any demo apps out on the CP. They need app support to win the market. Its just 6 more months to completion. And i think they have a long way to go. LONG WAY.. before this becomes a WIN product. Right now i am not happy with it. my WP7 apps are more productive than the CP apps. Even mail app.

[efjay]

can someone please help me in running weather app? it says app not available in your market

Have you tried Accuweather or the other weather (forgot the name) app in the Store?

[Guest]

Well my personal lowdown is that I'll probably try to stick to Windows 8 despite disliking it for many reasons. I won't however be installing this on my parents computer at any point. To use Metro at a decent pace, you need to use many keyboard shortcuts and I really can't see them taking this on board at all. They don't so much as use ctrl-f4 at the moment. The UI has in a way taken a step back as far as visual usability goes on desktops. Too much stuff is hidden.