Poll: Windows 8.1 Preview Experience (How do you like it?)

By Steven P.
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

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Grand Master

PGHammer

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I have a desktop themepack (the RM Studios London themepack) that I use for both desktop and Start background - they will now rotate in tandem.

Grand Master

BeerFan

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They're not bringing the Start Menu back.

 

They should.  Or at least they should add in a reasonably useful, and business-oriented replacement for it.  the Windows 8 Start Screen will simply never be useful in a business or non-entertainment setting.  Hell, given the direction they are going, I'd love to see a Windows Home and Windows Work type differentiation between OS offerings.

 

Good gawd... i shudder at the thought of teaching our mostly completely non-technical staff user base of around 1800 how to use Windows 8.  Which is why we will never deploy it.  Doesn't make any sense in a domain-based, productivity-driven, educational industry work environment.

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Grand Master

Dot Matrix

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They should.  Or at least they should add in a reasonably useful, and business-oriented replacement for it.  the Windows 8 Start Screen will simply never be useful in a business or non-entertainment setting.  Hell, given the direction they are going, I'd love to see a Windows Home and Windows Work type differentiation between OS offerings.

 

Good gawd... i shudder at the thought of teaching our mostly completely non-technical staff user base of around 1800 how to use Windows 8.  Which is why we will never deploy it.  Doesn't make any sense in a domain-based, productivity-driven, educational industry work environment.

 

They won't. Ignoring the fact that it had issues working with Windows 8 features, Microsoft has built a branding image with live tiles. Windows Phone has them, XBox has them, SkyDrive has them, Windows NOT having them would be damaging to that brand. Remember, three screens and a cloud? That's this. That's why it's not coming back.

 

"I don't, however, believe that Microsoft is going to relent on the Start screen. The new app launcher does the job well enough, and live tiles are a genuinely useful capability. The tile design is taking on an important branding role across the company (being more or less shared across phone, tablet, PC, and console), and that unification makes any backtracking very unlikely. There are plenty of third-party Start menu implementations. If the issue is truly a deal-breaker, I would suggest that you investigate one of those."

 

- http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/what-does-windows-8-1-offer-to-desktop-die-hards/

Grand Master

BeerFan

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^^ I'm not disagreeing with any of that...  you're right!  I'm just saying that the direction that they are taking is going to alienate the working world.  I realize that MS wants it to be this new paradigm for both home and office, but it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.  Unless you can get the working world away from the traditional keyboard / mouse desktop, Win8 is always going to be a step backwards, not forwards.

 

To be clear, I despise using Win 8 on a desktop.  Love it on a phone, tablet or small, touch-sensitive laptop.

Mentor

NateB1

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^^ I'm not disagreeing with any of that...  you're right!  I'm just saying that the direction that they are taking is going to alienate the working world.  I realize that MS wants it to be this new paradigm for both home and office, but it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.  Unless you can get the working world away from the traditional keyboard / mouse desktop, Win8 is always going to be a step backwards, not forwards.

 

To be clear, I despise using Win 8 on a desktop.  Love it on a phone, tablet or small, touch-sensitive laptop.

 

The "working world" has adjusted just fine to bringing iPads and iPhones - the users don't seem to have any problems using those devices.  The truth is, after a period of time, most users will be so used to dealing with Windows 8 or a similar interface, that it won't be a big deal to move to it at their office.

 

FTR, I use Windows 8 on my non-touch-screen dual 24" monitor setup and love it (don't use many Metro apps, although that may change with 8.1), and I run it on my Surface.  I work for a large, multi-national corporation, and they're moving their tens of thousands of employees to Windows 8 over the course of the coming year or so.  According to their metrics, most employees, after adjusting, like Windows 8 and are just as productive, if not more.

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

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  • Global Moderator
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@GreyWolf - In Windows 8.1, the limit is 9, 6 was in Windows 8.

 

 

That's good to know, they've planned ahead to support larger screens now.  I think 6 is fine for up to 24" screens but with a 30" 9 makes more sense.

Grand Master

Dutchie64

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Can someone confirm if dragging down to close Metro apps will keep them running in the background/Task Manager?

 

If so, this is a bit silly decision.

Closing an app doesn't mean keep it running soewhat hidden... ;-)

 

cheers.

Proficient

Buendia

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Can someone confirm if dragging down to close Metro apps will keep them running in the background/Task Manager?

 

If so, this is a bit silly decision.

Closing an app doesn't mean keep it running soewhat hidden... ;-)

 

cheers.

 

Yes, apps continue to run in the background so you need to use Task Manager to close them. Maybe they'll be closed fully in the final build of windows 8.1.

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

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My only problem is that scrolling seems to be slower throughout the whole OS. 

 

Anyone else experienced this?

 

 

Graphics drivers need to be updated, I know AMD has beta drivers out for it's cards but NVidia hasn't yet, nor Intel for it's IGP.  That's probably why it's not smooth yet.

Rookie

sevselioss

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Graphics drivers need to be updated, I know AMD has beta drivers out for it's cards but NVidia hasn't yet, nor Intel for it's IGP.  That's probably why it's not smooth yet.

 

Thanks for the reply. My problem is that I have a card from the mobility radeon 4000 series and those cards are not supported by the official amd drivers anymore. In windows 8 the stock one was working perfectly.

Grand Master

articuno1au

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Decor8 stopped working. ModernNix stopped working, UXThemePatcher causes a BlueScreen so I can't re-apply my theme. Lovely.

Well yeah O.o

Clearly things ######ing with Windows files are going to break when those Windows files change >.<

Grand Master

Anibal P

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Perhaps if you actually list the problems you faced, we could better understand this post...

 

 

Just another hater rant with an over long pre excuse

 

Dude, get on the modern OIS bandwagon or switch, Win 8 and 8.1 are the Future and no amount of internet hissy fits are changing that, so evolve and embrace change or Linux and OS X are waiting for you

Experienced

georgevella

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Installed on my Surface RT.  Noticed considerable improvement in app performance (IM+ and All About Money feel a lot snappier).  Internet Explorer looks and feels the same at the moment, but haven't used it much - still has problems with plus.google.com :( The new Reading List app looks promising.  I need to spend some more time with this until I get a good feel of it and express my judgement later, but overall looks good. 

 

One gripe I have is related to textboxes and selection.  Before, I could select text with one tap, the popup menu would appear with a second tap.  Now I have to press and hold for the popup menu to appear.  Anyone else noticed this?  

 

Also, anyone knows if it's possible to hide the start button - don't really need it considering I have a hardware button on the screen a couple of centimeters away.

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

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  • Global Moderator
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Apps should see a boost in performance from the start but once they get recompiled and updated to support 8.1 and not just 8.0 we'll see a even bigger boost in performance. 

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