Windows 8 Release Preview Discussion

[McKay]

Damn..... Oh well, here goes nothing!

[Dashel]

That's unfortunate to hear theyarecoming, I was kinda hoping multi-monitor enhancement was MS's olive branch for working 'around' Metro Start.

[Roger H. Veteran]

Running now on IE10 and Win8. Feeling nice so far. Definitely they tweaked up some stuff which was expected still but they did a good job :)

[efjay]

That's unfortunate to hear theyarecoming, I was kinda hoping multi-monitor enhancements was MS's olive branch for working 'around' Metro Start.

Actually that sounds at odds with what MS announced in their blog post about multi monitor support. Maybe the new features arent fully implemented yet.

[+Elі Subscriber²]

Is upgrading from Windows 7 Supported? I feel tempted, just to see how it runs on my SSD, downloading it now.

[Argi]

Is upgrading from Windows 7 Supported? I feel tempted, just to see how it runs on my SSD, downloading it now.

Yes. Download the installer and it will walk you through everything.

[Dot Matrix]

This is cool! Now you can change the DPI settings on a specific part of the GUI:

[.Neo]

I honestly don't know what to do with Metro in combination with my 27-inch screen @ 2560 x 1440. It's just one big waste of screen estate. The amount of empty space filled by a single solid color everywhere is just staggering and all the white just hurts my eyes. Is there any way to actually make use of screen space my iMac offers? And by that I don't mean increasing everything in size so it fills for the sake of filling.

[umneycreep]

So far chrome not installing on this. This is slick and fast though!

[Ice_Blue]

So far chrome not installing on this. This is slick and fast though!

Chrome installed just fine here, Seems to run a bit more smoothly also.

[Damian]

Just tried that and didn't work. I tried the Consumer Preview install ISO and that works fine. SO yeah, this sucks.

The first time I downloaded the Release Preview from the Release Preview page and started the install it showed the vista boot screen when booting and then showed the same screen as you have. (can you confirm this?)

I re-downloaded the ISO and now it shows a black boot screen named 'Windows'. This time it goes directly to 'Enter the product key' window.

I downloaded both ISO's from the same page. :s

[edit] I'm installing this in vmware fusion.

[Darrian]

Could not upgrade from the CP, but I expected that. Prob won't be able to upgrade from this to RTM, either. No big deal. One of the first things I discovered (ok, hunted for, but thankfully it was easy to find) was changing the font on my icons. I can change the size now, if not the face. About ****ing time! Thanks Microsoft! Ok, back to reinstalling all my programs now.

[JOHW]

Liking the RP so far.

Is there a way to set the bottom right edge to "Show Desktop" on both monitors in a multi-monito setup?

[Dot Matrix]

Also the Ribbon on Windows Live Essentials has been flattened on Windows 8:

[Ice_Blue]

The built-in (wddm) driver gave the same W.E.I. as the latest driver from Nvidia.

(GeForce 8400GS)

[Colin McGregor]

runs smooth on my laptop. Only issue I have is the scroll up and down bar on the right of my touchpad doesn't scroll. Tapping the pad does click though so that's a plus.

[Argi]

I honestly don't know what to do with Metro in combination with my 27-inch screen @ 2560 x 1440. It's just one big waste of screen estate. The amount of empty space filled by a single solid color everywhere is just staggering and all the white just hurts my eyes. Is there any way to actually make use of screen space my iMac offers? And by that I don't mean increasing everything in size so it fills for the sake of filling.

1) You're not going to be sitting on settings for most of your time

2) Is that the metro IE? What happens if you use the desktop one or another browser? I imagine the behaviour would be the same as Windows 7 - if you get all that spacing in Win 8 you'd also get it everywhere else.

[SkyDX]

I can't even install it in VirtualBox, the first time it crapped out with KERNEL_DATA_IN_PAGE_FAULT and now it gets stuck at "Copying Windows Files: 0%" :pinch:

[psyko_x]

I honestly don't know what to do with Metro in combination with my 27-inch screen @ 2560 x 1440. It's just one big waste of screen estate. The amount of empty space filled by a single solid color everywhere is just staggering and all the white just hurts my eyes. Is there any way to actually make use of screen space my iMac offers? And by that I don't mean increasing everything in size so it fills for the sake of filling.

You can turn up the DPI and make everything larger. Even if you ran linux or Mac OS, they'd be no better by default. At that resolution, you're always going to have lots of empty space. Also, I can't imagine you're noticing empty space around webpages just today....many modern webpages are designed with a fixed width. It's not Metro or an OS or browser issue. That's how websites are designed.

[.Neo]

1) You're not going to be sitting on settings for most of your time

Obviously it was just an example?.

2) Is that the metro IE? What happens if you use the desktop one or another browser? I imagine the behaviour would be the same as Windows 7 - if you get all that spacing in Win 8 you'd also get it everywhere else.

Hence the reason why I never use full-screen or maximize windows. Beyond very specific apps there's just practically no need to on a screen this size. However Metro doesn't seem to offer me a way to spread two apps or more evenly over the screen or am I missing something?

You can turn up the DPI and make everything larger.

Did you read the "And by that I don't mean increasing everything in size so it fills for the sake of filling" part of my post? I can see everything just fine at regular DPI settings. I want to be able to fill all the wasted space with other content as what would be achieved by opening multiple windows on the desktop.

[theyarecomingforyou]

When you move your mouse to the Start corner and move away you can actually click on the image that pops-up now, though it disappears if you move too far away from the corner. I would have thought it would make more sense to display the image until you move your mouse outside its bounds, as if you go to click the middle it disappears.

The most annoying change is that the All Apps button (as show here) - which is still hidden behind a right-click - has now been moved to the far right of the screen. It makes absolutely no sense. You have to click the bottom left to trigger the Start screen, right-click and then drag your mouse all the way over to the right of your screen to click the button and then all the way back to the left to select a program. Honestly, Microsoft has actually managed to make the usability worse - it's as if they're trying to annoy users.

[PsYcHoKiLLa]

This is cool! Now you can change the DPI settings on a specific part of the GUI:

That's been available in windows for years. I'm sure it was even in Windows 95, certainly in XP..

[Argi]

Obviously it was just an example?.

It was a silly example. Most apps have the panoramic horizontal scrolling, settings obviously doesn't.

Hence the reason why I never use full-screen or maximize windows. Beyond very specific apps there's just practically no need to on a screen this size. However Metro doesn't seem to offer me a way to spread two apps or more evenly over the screen or am I missing something?

I believe if you goto the open apps side bar (top left corner then down), you can drag a different metro app to either side of the screen to split between them (like aero snap).

[.Neo]

I'll try to make it as easy as possible: How do I achieve the below with Metro apps? And before you go on saying "You don't browse the internet while watching a movie in Windows Media Player", you can pretend the latter is something like Word and Windows Explorer something like Excel.

[.Neo]

It was a silly example. Most apps have the panoramic horizontal scrolling, settings obviously doesn't.

Are you trying to be difficult for the sake of being difficult? It doesn't really matter what Metro app I open, they all don't really utilize the space my screen has to offer.

I believe if you goto the open apps side bar (top left corner then down), you can drag a different metro app to either side of the screen to split between them (like aero snap).

Yeah I know about that, but the second app only takes up like 1/6 of the screen. It won't allow me give each app about 50% of the screen.