Windows 8 Consumer Preview Discussion

By Roger H.
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

 Share

Recommended Posts

Enthusiast

crashguy

Posted
Posted

Sorry ignore that. i finally worked out how to do so, it was just a weird way to do it... for those, who may want to know, you need to go into the people application, then click to add a service 'connected to' in the bottom right, add a new account there, and it shows up in mail. Seems like a weird way to do it, but hopefully this is just a consumer preview thing.

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

I can't, for the life of me, figure out how I can change the microsoft account for the 'People' area, no matter where I look, I just can't find it. Does anyone have any idea where it is?

Very bottom right of the screen, tiny "Connected To" link

Enthusiast

crashguy

Posted
Posted

I can't, for the life of me, figure out how I can change the microsoft account for the 'People' area, no matter where I look, I just can't find it. Does anyone have any idea where it is?

Can you explain what you mean? down the bottom right of the People application there's a bunch of icons saying 'connected to' maybe this is what you're looking for? also if you go to the next control panel (mouse down to the bottom right, scrolling up and click settings, then 'More pc settings' at the bottom, and go to users. Maybe this could also be what you mean?

Community Regular

justmike

Posted
Posted

This may be a silly question, but can someone explain how to add a second email account to mail? i can't see an option, and it doesn't show up when you right click to bring up the action menu at the bottom. Thanks in advance :-)

I had the same problem in Metro mail. Open Metro mail then open the charm bar on the right, then settings / account / add..

Grand Master

Som

Posted
Posted

anyone else have a problem where you open a document in reader and there is no back button to open another document, am i missing something here cause i feel dumb :-(

.....

ah i found it, you have to right click and select open in the menu on the bottom right, i'm becoming a metro hater ha

Mentor

Gio Takahashi

Posted
Posted

Very bottom right of the screen, tiny "Connected To" link

Yes. Connected to "M" which is for Microsoft Account. If Iclick it, it just brings up "add to account", but no way to change the account.

Basically, what I'm saying is I used a wrong microsoft account for the messenger/people area, and I want to delete this account and use a different microsoft account.

Experienced

Am_I_Evil

Posted
Posted

Sure your RAM / HDD are ok ?

How do you know its been corrupt? Are you checking the HASH ?

tried another harddrive...checked HASH...still wrong...i wasn't checking originally but after 3 or 4 installs erroring and saying corrupt i figured i should start checking...

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

Your downloading it direct from MS servers ?

Checking HASH before burning / copying to USB ?

Suppose you could try resetting your router, bit weird so many would be corrupt - I would try a MemCheck or use the Online Web Installer version ?

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

Yes. Connected to "M" which is for Microsoft Account. If Iclick it, it just brings up "add to account", but no way to change the account.

Basically, what I'm saying is I used a wrong microsoft account for the messenger/people area, and I want to delete this account and use a different microsoft account.

Try adding a new one before it lets you remove the old ?

Enthusiast

crashguy

Posted
Posted

Yes. Connected to "M" which is for Microsoft Account. If Iclick it, it just brings up "add to account", but no way to change the account.

Basically, what I'm saying is I used a wrong microsoft account for the messenger/people area, and I want to delete this account and use a different microsoft account.

go to the next control panel (mouse down to the bottom right, scrolling up and click settings, then 'More pc settings' at the bottom, and go to users

Grand Master

PGHammer

Posted
Posted

Something that I think is new... but WordPad can now open & save Office & OpenDocument formats.

Not new in the case of Word format - WordPad has been compatible with Word documents from its inception (with Windows 9x/NT4, replacing Write); however, the ODF format support is.

Damn that is another way to do so! i feel stupid now lol

One quibble - it supports GMail, but not standard POP3 (ISP-based or equivalent) e-mail accounts, or Yahoo Mail.

However, I'm stating right off that it's a quibble - Outlook 2010 remains my primary mail client.

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted

Not new in the case of Word format - WordPad has been compatible with Word documents from its inception (with Windows 9x/NT4, replacing Write); however, the ODF format support is.

One quibble - it supports GMail, but not standard POP3 (ISP-based or equivalent) e-mail accounts, or Yahoo Mail.

However, I'm stating right off that it's a quibble - Outlook 2010 remains my primary mail client.

ODF was introduced in Windows 7. It's not new in 8.

Grand Master

ViperAFK

Posted
Posted

Major negative points:

1: With multiple monitors, it's crazy to use this stuff. I just want to pin a HTML5 app on the 2nd monitor, but it won't let me. Unless I set it as my main-taskbar, which will make everything crazy to work with :)

2: On a desktop PC with huge monitors, Metro is useless. It really is. I want to like it, but it doesn't offer me anything useful. The fullscreen apps are frustating to use on this big setup, the options what to do with the apps are very limited.

3: It might be cool to show the startscreen on the second monitor, and pin an app next to it. Then it can give you information and stuff like that, which isn't as useless as it is now. However, this is impossible in Windows 8 so far.

4: When I press escape, the HTMl5 apps will not close. You need to do all kinds of stuff with your mouse, which basicly sucks.

5: The UI is very inconsistent. When you press the WIFI icon in the right corner for example, a huge ugly bar comes up with the options to select on top of it :) Who makes this stuff? Damn..

6: It doesn't make any sense to remove the old start-menu. Desktop people will work on the desktop for like 100% of the time. The Startscreen on a desktop, as it is implented right now, is the most stupid thing Microsoft released in their entire existence. It's horrible to use on a bug monitor with your mouse and keyboard. The app-pining is confusing and just much slower to use then a normal startmenu.

Positive points:

1: Windows 8 uses much less resources

2: The boot-up time is excellent

3: Explorer is much nicer

4: Dualscreen support is better then it was in Windows 7

Conclusion:

What the hell Microsoft? For tablets, Windows 8 is a great experience, I'm sure of that. But to force this Metro startscreen with all the horrors to normal desktop-users like me, will be the biggest mistake the company ever made. I can't see that someone will actually use this Metro app-stuff on a big screen-desktop PC. 9/10 times we don't actually want a fullscreen app, it's stupid on a big monitor! The mail client for example is nice for a tablet, but come on. On a desktop, it's crap to use. It doesn't make any sense! And with a second monitor, you can't use any of these apps, which makes it even worse, because the only possible reason to use them will involve a second monitor.

Agree. There's a few nice improvements, but overall why the hell would I use this over win7 on the desktop? it doesn't bring enough to the table. I generally upgrade to every new version of windows, I upgraded to vista on release and liked it. This... I think I'll stay with win7. Its not that win8 looks BAD, its that most of the new features are useless for a desktop.

Also I do tech support and things like the invisible start button, and redundant settings dialogue's ect... is going to be a ****ing nightmare. I can't wait to deal with hopeless people trying to switch between the classic and metro screens. Have you ever tried getting some of these people to drag windows, use gestures, or keyboard shortcuts? *shudders*

Collaborator

AWilliams87

Posted
Posted

Can I just say that I have nothing agianst metro at all, in fact I think it's a great idea for Tablet and Touch interfaces. However, what I have issues with is how it seems to have unnecessarily impacted the desktop side. Doing simple tasks with the mouse is downright painful - I hate having to bring up the "charm bar" just to go into Control panel or shut my computer down. Bringing up the start screen is equally a pain - and this is before I get to the issue of the start screen itself. I get the idea, have your apps as easy to access as possible, but the start menu did a alot more than that with regards to PC settings, opening your computer (and no icon on the desktop as default, how exactly were MS hoping people would access it?) and more besides.

I read the Win8 developer blog and admit that I agreed with most of what they said about the design changes, but having tried to use it myself, I'm sorry to say that I'm really dreading Windows 8 now.

The vast majority of consumers don't use the control panel. If you need to shut your laptop down, what's wrong with using the power button?

Grand Master

djdanster

Posted
Posted

Now, who's ridiculous idea was it to limit the music, video and xbox companion to the US, Japan, France and Germany? I can't even add my own music collection into the music app!!! Bloody stupid!

  • Jan and Sadelwo
  • Like 2
Collaborator

AWilliams87

Posted
Posted

Now, who's ridiculous idea was it to limit the music, video and xbox companion to the US, Japan, France and Germany? I can't even add my own music collection into the music app!!! Bloody stupid!

Is this satire or are you serious? You know this is basically an unfinished OS right?

Grand Master

djdanster

Posted
Posted

Is this satire or are you serious? You know this is basically an unfinished OS right?

It was a serious comment. I know it's not a finished OS, but what's stopping MS from adding those apps to what is one of Microsoft's biggest markets; the UK? The Zune Marketplace is available in the UK, so why can't they offer it inside the music app? Seems a little unnecessary to me!

Proficient

DarkyDan

Posted
Posted
Why when I click on the Metro Internet Explorer tile does it open on the desktop? Shouldn't it open in Metro? Is there a way to choose it to open in Metro?
In the Dev Preview, this happened to me if I chose Firefox/Chrome as default Browser.. the IE Tile on the start screen no longer opened immersive. To fix it, make IE the default desktop browser again.
Mentor

abysal

Posted
Posted

but I can continue what I am doing on Windows 7, and not have to switch screens at all, I can have windowed apps, and gadgets on my second screen, look over boom, look back, boom. or even have it on the same screen with windowed apps and not have to even leave the program I am working on.

And unless you want to use mouse gestures to get to the next one, you are also limited to whatever app you pin to the side.

There is absolutely zero reason to go to windows 8, for me productivity drops to a crawl, can't quickly multi-task, am in the broken beaten desktop half the time anyways. May as well stay with Windows 7

Dude stop making sense, obviously Metro is the best.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • An actual cosmic "Eye of Sauron" had been looking straight at us all along

      By +Edouard · Posted

      @Sayan...I have defended you at various points as I hope you know. This headline however is utter trash...shame on you sir!
    • An actual cosmic "Eye of Sauron" had been looking straight at us all along

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      An actual cosmic "Eye of Sauron" had been looking straight at us all along by Sayan Sen Image by Kovin P. Vasquez via Pexels | Not representative An international team of researchers has solved a long-standing mystery surrounding a distant blazar known as PKS 1424+240, helping explain why it produces some of the brightest high-energy gamma rays and cosmic neutrinos ever observed despite appearing to have a relatively slow-moving jet. The findings were published on June 6 in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters. The study addresses a broader challenge in astrophysics: understanding how extreme cosmic objects accelerate particles to very high energies and produce very high-energy (VHE) photons and neutrinos. PKS 1424+240 is located billions of light-years from Earth. It has attracted attention for years because it is both a powerful source of VHE gamma rays and the brightest known neutrino-emitting blazar in the sky, according to observations by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. It is also associated with one of the strongest peaks in IceCube's nine-year neutrino sky map A blazar is a type of active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole that pulls in surrounding matter and launches jets of plasma moving close to the speed of light. What makes blazars unique is their orientation. One of their jets points almost directly toward Earth, making them appear exceptionally bright across the electromagnetic spectrum and allowing scientists to study some of the most extreme physical processes in the Universe. The scientists exclaimed it's like the 'Eye of Sauron' in deep space. Usually, the brightest gamma-ray-emitting blazars are expected to have jets that appear to move very quickly. However, radio observations of PKS 1424+240 suggested that its jet was moving much more slowly, creating a contradiction that became part of a long-running problem known as the "Doppler factor crisis." To investigate, researchers analyzed 15 years of observations from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a network of 10 radio antennas spread across the continental United States, Hawaii and St. Croix. Using a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), astronomers combine signals from widely separated radio telescopes to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope capable of revealing extremely fine details. The team combined 42 polarization-sensitive radio images collected between 2009 and 2025, creating a much deeper and more detailed view of the jet than had previously been possible. The observations were carried out as part of MOJAVE (Monitoring Of Jets in Active galactic nuclei with VLBA Experiments), a long-running program that studies the brightness, polarization and magnetic field structures of jets produced by active galaxies. The project aims to better understand how activity near supermassive black holes is linked to high-energy radiation and neutrino emission. “When we reconstructed the image, it looked absolutely stunning,” said Yuri Kovalev, lead author of the study and Principal Investigator of the European Research Council-funded MuSES project at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. “We have never seen anything quite like it — a near-perfect toroidal magnetic field with a jet, pointing straight at us.” The image revealed an unusual geometry. The researchers found that Earth lies almost directly in line with the jet, with a viewing angle of less than 0.6 degrees. In simple terms, astronomers are looking almost straight down the jet. This turned out to be the key to the mystery. Because the jet is aimed almost directly at Earth, a relativistic effect called Doppler boosting dramatically increases its apparent brightness. The study found that this effect boosts the emission by a factor of about 30 while also making the jet appear slower than it actually is. “This alignment causes a boost in brightness by a factor of 30 or more,” said Jack Livingston, a co-author at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. “At the same time, the jet appears to move slowly due to projection effects — a classic optical illusion.” The nearly head-on view also gave scientists a rare look at the jet's magnetic field. Using polarized radio signals, they detected a clear toroidal, or doughnut-shaped, magnetic field component. The observations suggest the jet carries an electric current and that its magnetic field helps launch, shape and stabilize the flow of plasma. Researchers believe this magnetic structure may also play a key role in accelerating particles to energies high enough to produce both gamma rays and neutrinos. “Solving this puzzle confirms that active galactic nuclei with supermassive black holes are not only powerful accelerators of electrons, but also of protons — the origin of the observed high-energy neutrinos,” Kovalev said. The research was conducted under the MuSES (Multi-messenger Studies of Energetic Sources) project, which investigates how active galactic nuclei accelerate particles and generate different cosmic signals, including light and neutrinos. Scientists say understanding how protons are accelerated and linked to neutrino production remains one of the major unanswered questions in astrophysics. The findings help explain why some blazars can appear to have slow jets while still producing extremely bright high-energy emissions. More broadly, the study strengthens the link between relativistic jets, magnetic fields, gamma rays and high-energy neutrinos. Researchers say the results provide new clues about how some of the Universe's most powerful natural particle accelerators work and offer important insights for multimessenger astronomy, which combines different types of cosmic signals to study extreme events in space. Source: European Research Council, EDP Sciences This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
    • What browser do you prefer to use, and why?

      By AnotherITguy · Posted

      Edge
    • Classic Outlook vs New Outlook — Which one do you prefer and why?

      By AnotherITguy · Posted

      Gotenks98 is right... Outlook (new) is absolute trash. Doesn't Mozilla have an Enterprise Version of Firebird?
    • Microsoft Weekly: Surface Laptop Ultra, Windows 11 context menus, Build 2026 recap, and more

      By TarasBuria · Posted

      Microsoft Weekly: Surface Laptop Ultra, Windows 11 context menus, Build 2026 recap, and more by Taras Buria This week's news recap is here, with Microsoft announcing the new Surface Laptop Ultra, fresh chips from NVIDIA for Windows on ARM, a no-build week, fixes for Windows 11's context menus, gaming news, reviews, and more. Quick links: Windows 10 and 11 Windows Insider Program Updates are available Reviews are in Gaming news Great deals to check Windows 11 and Windows 10 Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions. At Computex 2026, together with NVIDIA, Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, its most powerful laptop to date, powered by NVIDIA's RTX Spark processor. Details about this computer are currently scarce, as Microsoft has only revealed certain parts of its specs. So far, we know that the computer has a 15-inch mini-LED display, a rich set of ports, a powerful processor, and all-day battery life. It also comes with a new wallpaper, which you can already download here in full resolution. The Surface Laptop Studio is not the only NVIDIA-powered Surface, which Microsoft unveiled this week. At Build 2026, the company also debuted the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, an odd-shaped desktop with a 20-core NVIDIA Grace CPU and an NVIDIA Blackwell RTX GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores and fifth-generation Tensor Cores with FP4 precision, connected via the NVIDIA NVLink-C2C chip-to-chip interconnect for high performance. According to Microsoft, it can run models with up to 120 billion parameters locally without relying on cloud GPU infrastructure. These two new Surface devices are likely to cost quite a lot, and for those who need a more affordable device, Microsoft is preparing the next-gen Qualcomm-powered Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. This week, details about these two devices leaked in plenty of detail. Other announcements at Build 2026 include the following: Microsoft unveils new security tools for IT admins and developers building AI products Microsoft announces Scout, an OpenClaw-powered personal agent for enterprise customers Microsoft unveils MAI-Thinking-1 reasoning and MAI-Code-1 coding models Microsoft announced a new Windows 11 native command-line utility Microsoft unveils Majorana 2 quantum chip, accelerating commercial timeline to 2029 Microsoft believes that AI agents will eventually replace apps through Project Solara Microsoft introduces Web IQ, a Bing-powered search system built for AI agents Last week, Microsoft released a new Experimental build, which introduced a major Start menu upgrade. It now lets you toggle off specific parts of the menu without affecting other features, resize the menu, and hide additional UI elements. We published a closer look here, so if you want to know what Microsoft is cooking without enrolling in the Insider program and installing unstable builds, check it out. Speaking of new features, many users are very annoyed about the way Microsoft delivers them. Recently, a frustrated user shared their experience with gradual rollouts, and even Microsoft engineers admitted there is a flaw in the system that prevents new features from applying properly. One of those new features includes the ability to uninstall AI models in Windows 11 with a single click. Windows 11 is finally getting fixes for its slow context menus. Marcus Ash from Microsoft confirmed that the company is working on fixing Windows 11's context menus. Reworked context menus are going to be faster, simpler by default, and "configurable to what you use most." According to Marcus, Microsoft will share more details soon. Windows Insider Program Windows 11 preview builds, released last week, are now available for download as standalone ISO files. These days, Microsoft regularly pushes new images, allowing users to clean-install its recent Windows 11 preview builds faster and easier. If you want to try the latest Windows 11 features without jumping through the Windows Update hoops, get those new images here. Sadly, Microsoft did not release new Windows 11 preview builds this week. Come back next time. Updates are available This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties. Microsoft is preparing new features for Teams. Later this month, the messenger will receive a new download manager with auto-dismissing notifications, reducing clutter and making the overall experience less annoying when dealing with downloads. Mozilla released Firefox 151.0.3, a new bug-fixing update for the browser. It is a small release, which fixes problems with pasting into text fields and the oversized VPN button on the toolbar. The update is now available for all users in the Release channel. Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting: VS Code 1.123 introduces massive upgrades for persistent AI developer workflows Microsoft OneDrive is getting a simple yet much-needed feature Microsoft faces heat after quietly blocking promised Office features on Apple systems Microsoft resumes forced Copilot app installation on some Windows PCs Browser vendors pen an open letter to Microsoft, saying "enough is enough" Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week: AMD Radeon Software 26.6.1 with optimizations for F1 25: 2026 Season, World of Tanks: HEAT, and various bug fixes. Reviews are in Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week Steven Parker dropped more mini PC reviews this week. GEEKOM Air12 2026 Edition is a low-power, affordable computer with an Intel Tiger Lake Pentium Gold processor, up to 16GB of memory, and 512GB of storage, costing just $349. It is light, quiet, energy efficient, and has modern ports on the front. However, the front-facing USB Type-C is data-only, and there are some quirks with the computer's memory, so check out the full review. The AMD RX 9070 GRE has been released worldwide, and we published a benchmark review comparing this powerful graphics card to the RX 9070 XT, 7800 XT, the NVIDIA RTX 5070, and RTX 4070. It has solid, balanced performance, plenty of RAM, and low temperatures, but watch out for mediocre ray tracing performance and not the best efficiency. Also, we reviewed the Cuktech 10 Ultra, a compact, high-power charger with four ports and a big display full of various stats. This tiny charger can pull nearly 120W and spread that power according to each connected device's needs. It also comes with a high-quality 240W cable, three power modes, and retractable prongs. The best part? It is quite affordable, just make sure you have an outlet placed in the right spot to benefit from the built-in display. On the gaming side Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more. Do you remember the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Microsoft's first handheld console designed in partnership with ASUS? This week, ASUS revealed a new version of the device to celebrate twenty years of its Republic of Gamers brand. The new ROG Xbox Ally X20 features an OLED display, a transforming D-Pad, TMR sticks, and other changes. However, the chip inside the console is still the same. Forza Horizon 6 launched last month to critical acclaim, but the game will soon have a new rival made by those who used to work on Forza Horizon titles. Mike Brown from Maverick Games announced Clutch, an upcoming racing game with a story-driven campaign, deep car customization, and rich multiplayer. The game is coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 in Spring 2027. The next update for Minecraft now has a release date. This week, Mojang announced that Chaos Cubed will be available on June 16, 2026. In addition, Mojang published a teaser of the next Minecraft movie. A Minecraft Movie Squared has now been confirmed for a release somewhere in 2027. NVIDIA GeForce Now is getting 18 new games in June. Those include Jurassic World Evolution 3, Fatekeeper, GOALS, Gothic 1 Remake, NTE: Neverness to Everness, and more. If you are a Game Pass subscriber, you can also get new games soon: Persona 5 Royal, Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions, and more are coming to the service this month. Sumer Game Fest 2026 happened this week, where we saw plenty of new games, including Alien Isolation 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3, Gen Atlas from the Shadow of the Colossus creator, a new Cuphead game in 8-bit style, a new expansion for Mafia: The Old Country, and more. Finally, here are this week's Weekend PC Game Deals, full of discounts and the latest freebies from the Epic Games Store. Other gaming news includes the following: God of War Laufey announced, introducing Kratos' wife as the new protagonist Ori studio's No Rest for the Wicked 1.0 release and console plans announced Microsoft launches Godot Sample to streamline Xbox PC game development on the engine Great deals to check Every week, we cover many deals on different hardware and software. The following discounts are still available, so check them out. You might find something you want or need. Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB NVMe - $389.99 | 39% off Sonos Sub 4 - Wireless Subwoofer - $759 | 16% off Logitech MX Creative Console - $159.99 | 20% off This link will take you to other issues of the Microsoft Weekly series. You can also support Neowin by registering for a free member account or subscribing for extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      X-No-file earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • One Month Later
      pestcontrol46 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      pestcontrol46 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      JKR earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Rookie
      moog19 went up a rank
      Rookie

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      510
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      276
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      75
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      71
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      68
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!