Recommended Posts

Yes, but with Windows Phone, it's not always on screen creating clutter. When I want to check my signal, the indicator is only a swipe away. I don't need every single control, icon, or indicator on screen at once.

Thanks god I don't use Windows Phone then. What you call "clutter" I call basic info.

well, it would be good if the status rectangle (time+network+battery) would appear for a few seconds in case network got disconnected (something WP7 does in it's own way).

but still, if you have bad signal, what can you do about it? sometimes apps have troubles with connection even when you do have max signal, so I think it's not that relevant.

Knowing the signal and battery status is very important. Less is not always better.

If you have bad signal you can wait for a better one, knowing that now you can do whatever you wanted to do.

MS is simplifying everything to whom, exactly? Babies, I think.

Your past two replies have next to nothing to do with what I'm saying. It's like me asking "What time is it?" and you replying with "The color of the sky is blue". Anyway, Vice rephrased what I'm referring to:

The funny thing is that him full screening Neowin on his 22" is the same as me running it in a window on 25% of my total screen real estate. I don't think people will ever understand or care about others experience with Metro. This is the first Windows release where one size doesn't fit all, it only really caters to single small screen owners. Those of us with Dual or Triple displays or a single high resolution display would be better served by Windows 7, Linux or OS X.

I don't think they will ever ever add multi-screen capability to Metro. I mean why should they, Tablets don't have two screens. There isn't a single app I use that would benefit from Metro which begs the question, why can't I turn it off? That is the only "feature" I want.

Thanks god I don't use Windows Phone then. What you call "clutter" I call basic info.

Knowing the signal and battery status is very important. Less is not always better.

If you have bad signal you can wait for a better one, knowing that now you can do whatever you wanted to do.

MS is simplifying everything to whom, exactly? Babies, I think.

Geez, you make it sound having to do a simple swipe is such a task.

The funny thing is that him full screening Neowin on his 22" is the same as me running it in a window on 25% of my total screen real estate. I don't think people will ever understand or care about others experience with Metro. This is the first Windows release where one size doesn't fit all, it only really caters to single small screen owners. Those of us with Dual or Triple displays or a single high resolution display would be better served by Windows 7, Linux or OS X.

I don't think they will ever ever add multi-screen capability to Metro. I mean why should they, Tablets don't have two screens. There isn't a single app I use that would benefit from Metro which begs the question, why can't I turn it off? That is the only "feature" I want.

Microsoft has no idea of what they're doing. First, the Market would not accept non-Metro Apps. Now they say they will...

You can't disable Metro because this way nobody would use it on a desktop and Metro would become Windows Media Center: useless replicated crap, but beautiful. Thus the Market would become useless if nobody has to care about Metro.

See the mess MS has put itself? Someone has to stop Steve Ballmer while it is time (unfortunately, I think it is too late now).

Not sure if anyone else noticed but, the current rumor mill from canouna over at that Winunleaked forum is that Windows 8 could RTM by end of July. Now, while I may find that somewhat unbelievable, another thing that I did notice when I installed the Release Preview a few hours ago was - by scrolling to the end of the EULA statement - the tagline for the document version, and was somewhat surprised to see:

EULAID:Win_RC_3_PS_R_en-us

That's RC3 for those not in the know, and even though this is just a document, Microsoft has never gone past RC3 aka Release Candidate 3 stage for an operating system release. The last time they did 3 full Release Candidates was Windows XP iirc. So...

If Windows 8 Release Preview is Release Candidate 3, we're almost home people.

This tends to lend a lot of credibility to the canouna statement about RTM coming as early as the end of July, maybe a bit sooner. From RC3 to RTM it's typically 1-2 months so, let's hope this all pans out accordingly. Microsoft appears to have Windows 8 on a very fast track indeed, especially considering there was no "advance warning" officially about this Release Preview coming out except the "early June" rumors - they never offiically said it, and that little booboo on the blog yesterday well, that could have been part of the plan all along. ;)

July is the typical RTM time frame.

+1 for Power on the charm bar below Settings. I still don't understand why the shut down options needs to be 3 or 4 mouse clicks deep.

There's power options all over. I've written this countless times, but shutting off isn't as important as it once was. But if you want to continue shutting down, ALT-F4 on the desktop still works, and Windows 8 by default, configures your PC's hardware power button to turn the machine off as well. I, personally, have my button configured to put my machines to sleep.

I don't think they will ever ever add multi-screen capability to Metro. I mean why should they, Tablets don't have two screens. There isn't a single app I use that would benefit from Metro which begs the question, why can't I turn it off? That is the only "feature" I want.

Realistically there's not much of a reason to "upgrade" to Windows 8 if you're disabling Metro. Unless you're a real sucker for the Windows Explorer Ribbon and new theme.

I really want to install this, My want to stay in front of the OS versions is urging, But I know how much I'm not a fan of the Start screen and I know I'll end up putting Windows 7 back on after a couple of days :(

If you wanted, you could unpin/uninstall all the Metro apps, and just pin what would normally be in the Windows 7 start menu, i.e. Documents, Computer, Control Panel, etc.

Anyway, my only issue so far is with the new bootloader. It won't let me boot back into Windows 7, at least right away. When I click my 7 install, the computer reboots first, THEN boots into 7. Got pretty annoying so I had to put the older Vista/7 bootloader back.

Anyway, my only issue so far is with the new bootloader. It won't let me boot back into Windows 7, at least right away. When I click my 7 install, the computer reboots first, THEN boots into 7. Got pretty annoying so I had to put the older Vista/7 bootloader back.

EasyBCD will fix any Bootloader issues. Free for personal use too.

http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

There's power options all over. I've written this countless times, but shutting off isn't as important as it once was. But if you want to continue shutting down, ALT-F4 on the desktop still works, and Windows 8 by default, configures your PC's hardware power button to turn the machine off as well. I, personally, have my button configured to put my machines to sleep.

That's what I have been doing is ALT-F4 to shut down but it would be mighty convenient to have the options a couple levels higher.

How long do i have to keep using this before i can say i don't like and don't think its very good....

..... why is there no search option in the Store??

There is sorta, search for the app in the start screen and click on Store on the right side to search in the store

..... why is there no search option in the Store??

Hit the charm bar on the right and you can search the store, but I agree, there should be a search bar in the top right. It needs something a bit more obvious than having to resort to the global search in the charm.

Hit the charm bar on the right and you can search the store, but I agree, there should be a search bar in the top right. It needs something a bit more obvious than having to resort to the global search in the charm.

oh yeah i remember i asked that in the last release and forgot, shows how intuitive that is,... also if you've searched for something before you go into the store it keeps the history and looks like you are still searching your start screen

what exactly has changed in this compared to the last release, someone please tell me? (ok its a bit faster, but after that...)

oh yeah i remember i asked that in the last release and forgot, shows how intuitive that is,...

if you get used to it, then it's better than rely on independent search bars on each every app. and it works in context, if you're running Store, then by default search results you get are for Store.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • @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 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.
    • 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 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
      274
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      75
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      71
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      68
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!