Gaming Who's Still Using Windows8 Priview Build?

[Centrix]

I uninstalled the preview build a few days after actually using it only because I could figure out why Aion nor WOW would run on it, I mean its seemed stable enough of a release! any hoot just wondering if any one is still using this awesome OS?

 

[loco365]

Well, perhaps you need to update your graphics drivers to work with Windows 7. I had to do that to get Minecraft running. And yes, I do use it. I might even set back my BIOS so I can use it for as long as I want.

 

[celcodioc]

There's a reason it's called a "developer preview". It's for developers so they can add Metro support to their programs, not regular users who want to use it as their primary OS.
I do have a virtual machine of it, but I haven't touched it since the week the preview was released.

 

[exangel]

I uninstalled the preview build a few days after actually using it only because I could figure out why Aion nor WOW would run on it, I mean its seemed stable enough of a release! any hoot just wondering if any one is still using this awesome OS?

You play Aion and WoW? What Aion server/faction? O.o

on topic: I uninstalled it from my laptop after 1 week after I became frustrated with the lack of administrator/control panel access. I'm not really a developer so it wasn't as useful as Win7 alone. And I already have an SSD in it, so the boot speed increase was only an improvement of a few seconds.

 

[Magsor]

I hate windows vista and seven. I loved XP and now I love 8.
Its not a big change over from other windows but I am addicted to the new start menu let me explain:
Metro is only a GUI for your start menu you can customise it the way you want. Your old start menu is still there so your job is to spam the hell of it with shortcuts that way eveything goes thru the start menu you are literally navigating thru your start menu. I think they copied that from unity on ubuntu(lololollololololol) but its better with the good ol windows.

Oh and as far as stability goes; its even more stable than XP was and only a few software have problems really a minority.

 

[celcodioc]

I hate windows vista and seven. I loved XP and now I love 8.
Its not a big change over from other windows but I am addicted to the new start menu let me explain:
Metro is only a GUI for your start menu you can customise it the way you want. Your old start menu is still there so your job is to spam the hell of it with shortcuts that way eveything goes thru the start menu you are literally navigating thru your start menu. I think they copied that from unity on ubuntu(lololollololololol) but its better with the good ol windows.

Oh and as far as stability goes; its even more stable than XP was and only a few software have problems really a minority.

Incorrect, it's a design language originally intended for mobile phones, and then added to Windows 8. I think it works fairly well with phones and tablets, but it -- at least in my opinion -- looks bad on a regular computer.
Apparently Windows 8 will include two versions of Internet Explorer on Windows 8, one for Metro and one for regular desktops. The Metro version does not have support for Flash, which is a big downside.
The Metro GUI doesn't work that well if you don't have a touch monitor, but most people just have a regular monitor and a mouse. Touch monitors are very uncommon.

But then again, this is my opinion.

Oh, and I lol'd when the dude in the first Windows 8 build video said that typing something requires you to "reach all the way to the keyboard". Isn't the monitor usually farther away? ^^

 

[Magsor]

You are partly right celcodioj. The part where I compared the start menu with unity is more important. I don't use the GUI much everything is done from the keyboard naturally but still within the start menu thats where Windows 8 really shine.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Ehh, one of the worse OSes I've ever used. Hate Metro, it just ruins it for PCs.

 

[Centrix]

I uninstalled the preview build a few days after actually using it only because I could figure out why Aion nor WOW would run on it, I mean its seemed stable enough of a release! any hoot just wondering if any one is still using this awesome OS?

You play Aion and WoW? What Aion server/faction? O.o

on topic: I uninstalled it from my laptop after 1 week after I became frustrated with the lack of administrator/control panel access. I'm not really a developer so it wasn't as useful as Win7 alone. And I already have an SSD in it, so the boot speed increase was only an improvement of a few seconds.

Well I play Infinite Aion...since they strive to make it as accurate as the offical one and I don't see to much that different

 

[Mazor]

Its not a big change over from other windows

Uh, if anything it's a ridiculously huge change. It makes 2000, XP, Vista and 7 all seem like the same OS.

With Windows 8, Microsoft is starting to move away from the Windows API. The Windows API is the programming interface Windows programs (barring a few internals) is either written directly in or, in the case of applications written in higher level languages such as Java, interacting with. That includes all parts of your OS that you're directly exposed to and every Windows application you've ever used.

WinRT, the new programming model introduced in Windows 8, is certainly a "big change" if there ever was one. How well applications written in WinRT are received is going to directly determine the experience of every user and many non-users (who won't be able to run any WinRT applications and therefor might not be able to use new popular software) of Windows 8.

 

[sweenish]

I hate windows vista and seven. I loved XP and now I love 8.
Its not a big change over from other windows but I am addicted to the new start menu let me explain:
Metro is only a GUI for your start menu you can customise it the way you want. Your old start menu is still there so your job is to spam the hell of it with shortcuts that way eveything goes thru the start menu you are literally navigating thru your start menu. I think they copied that from unity on ubuntu(lololollololololol) but its better with the good ol windows.

Oh and as far as stability goes; its even more stable than XP was and only a few software have problems really a minority.

Incorrect, it's a design language originally intended for mobile phones, and then added to Windows 8. I think it works fairly well with phones and tablets, but it -- at least in my opinion -- looks bad on a regular computer.
Apparently Windows 8 will include two versions of Internet Explorer on Windows 8, one for Metro and one for regular desktops. The Metro version does not have support for Flash, which is a big downside.
The Metro GUI doesn't work that well if you don't have a touch monitor, but most people just have a regular monitor and a mouse. Touch monitors are very uncommon.

But then again, this is my opinion.

Oh, and I lol'd when the dude in the first Windows 8 build video said that typing something requires you to "reach all the way to the keyboard". Isn't the monitor usually farther away? ^^

no, metro is not a language. metro apps are written in java, c#, c, c++, or whatever language the developer prefers. although i've heard that they are more conducive to java and c#. metro has an developer tools, which is very different from a language. developers have the preview build to write things FOR metro, not IN metro.

i would also like to add that the new start menu is only weird because they changed a bunch of the shortcuts. if you know what you want to launch, just start typing. search pops up automatically, and it's fast. i have it in a vm, and while some of the transitions are sluggish, the OS itself isn't too bad at all.

 

[Mazor]

no, metro is not a language.

Yes, it is.

metro apps are written in java, c#, c, c++, or whatever language the developer prefers. although i've heard that they are more conducive to java and c#.

No, there is no support for writing metro apps in Java. It's also not a choice of "whatever language the developer prefers", there currently exists programming interfaces "only" for C, C++, any .NET language and JavaScript.

Microsoft have certainly never been more "conducive" to Java in any context. The reason is simple: They've been promoting their own managed code platform, .NET, instead. This means you're completely wrong about Java, but pretty much right on C# as Microsoft have indeed been promoting the fuck out of C# and .NET as the best way to develop Windows apps. You should however have made your sentence past tense as this is now changing.

 

[sweenish]

edit: redacted.

i'm not super knowledgeable on this topic.

however, a design language is different from an actual programming language.

 

[epicCreations.or]

however, a design language is different from an actual programming language.

No one ever said they were the same thing.

ONTOPIC, I've used it for quite a while but the break between the Desktop UI and Metro was too great at the moment to justify still using it.

 

[Deleted-236924]

I just thought of something: What if the final release of Windows 8 had an option between Metro and the original Start menu?

 

[exangel]

I just thought of something: What if the final release of Windows 8 had an option between Metro and the original Start menu?

I imagine a possibility is that if they're intending on shoving Metro down everyone's throat, then that option will be for Professional/Ultimate editions only.


edit: was missing an important key conjunction "if"

 

[Mazor]

I just thought of something: What if the final release of Windows 8 had an option between Metro and the original Start menu?

I just thought of something: What if the final release of Windows 8 had an option between Metro and the original Start menu?

I imagine a possibility is that if they're intending on shoving Metro down everyone's throat, then that option will be for Professional/Ultimate editions only.


edit: was missing an important key conjunction "if"

Eh, right now it's just a matter of setting the registry value at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer to 0 so it's not like the functionality is absent in any way. Everything points to that there'll be an easily accessible setting for it.

 

[exangel]

Eh, right now it's just a matter of setting the registry value at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer to 0 so it's not like the functionality is absent in any way. Everything points to that there'll be an easily accessible setting for it.

I don't see how a Developer Preview is supposed to indicate the differences between release versions of a product that isn't due till like, Q3 of 2012.

There were some things I discovered I couldn't change between Windows 7 Home Premium and Pro/Ult versions even with registry editing because it was handled by Group Policy Editor (an administrative function non-existent in Home) - so I'd expect a watered-down start menu if they make it an accessible choice for starter/home versions. This is just inherent to the theme of making people pay more for more functionality and control which they have always done.

As things are, registry editing to change a major interface option is not an accessible choice.
Even if everyone is capable of making a registry edit, most people will need a step-by-step guide or a third-party tool to do such a thing.

 

[Mazor]

Eh, right now it's just a matter of setting the registry value at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer to 0 so it's not like the functionality is absent in any way. Everything points to that there'll be an easily accessible setting for it.

I don't see how a Developer Preview is supposed to indicate the differences between release versions of a product that isn't due till like, Q3 of 2012.

There were some things I discovered I couldn't change between Windows 7 Home Premium and Pro/Ult versions even with registry editing because it was handled by Group Policy Editor (an administrative function non-existent in Home) - so I'd expect a watered-down start menu if they make it an accessible choice for starter/home versions. This is just inherent to the theme of making people pay more for more functionality and control which they have always done.

Well, perhaps you'll see after reading my explanation or, if you'd prefer a smaller wall of text, reading some news articles on the subject. I'll be collectively refering to the taskbar and start menu and everything related as "the start menu" in this post.

With Windows 8 and the move to WinRT, Microsoft could have just gone "oh hey, we're instantly dropping the Windows API, from now on it's WinRT only and you'll all have to deal with it". However, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, Microsoft usually doesn't make such compatability-breaking decisions, no, what Microsoft usually does is that they carry on legacy from their previous operating systems into their new ones. This specific case is no exception, Windows 8 will have full backwards-compatability with the Windows API and thus be able to run non-WinRT (aka what most would simply but somewhat incorrectly refer to as non-Metro) applications. What this means is that all the functionality required by the start menu is in the operating system at the level where it's relatively a matter of just a few extra lines of code in the codebase to have the old start menu in the OS.

As I mentioned above, Microsoft have stated that Windows 8 will be backwards compatible with the Windows API. Having made such a statement, it's unthinkable beyond ridiculousness that they would later go on to add something like "oh wait, actually Professional/Ultimate is the only (/are the only) editions that are going to have the backwards compatibility we've been talking about. You guys buying home won't actually be able to run any of the Windows applications written pre-2011."

If you're now thinking that what I've said so far doesn't mean or in any way indicate anything about the start menu being or not being in Windows 8, let me clarify. Here is a comparison of the editions of Windows 7 showing their differences. The actual technical reason (which of course is there for economical reasons) that some functionality is unavailable in the cheaper range of the editions is that the underlying parts of the OS is either written in a different way or completely absent in those editions. The Group Policy Editor you mentioned being absent in Home is a good example of this; it's not there because group policies and all the code related to them is simply not part of the OS.

That's the difference, in our case with the start menu, the underlying functionality actually is there to it's fullest. And even if it may seem to you, as a non-programmer, that this knowledge is very obscure and that Microsoft thus could still "get away" with not making the start menu available below the Professional edition, let me tell you that it's clear as crystal to every single person who has ever done any kind of native Windows development. More importantly, there's no reason for them to "get away" with not putting those extra few lines of code in the codebase (AKA not removing them as they're already there). See, they get to do their favorite thing, carrying on legacy, and they get to do this without any other to-be-restricted parts of the OS being exposed.

Adding to all this, despite your general impression that it's inherent of Microsoft to make people pay more for more functionality, they've never actually omitted any functionality in any way even vaguely similar in kind to a fundamental UI element such as the old start menu only being present in the Professional/Ultimate edition of the OS. You can find some arguably related differences between the Starter and Home Basic (and by a very long stretch between the Home Basic and Home Premium) editions of Windows Vista and 7, but there's no differences of the kind at all between Proffesional and Home (Premium) in any version of Windows.

As things are, registry editing to change a major interface option is not an accessible choice.
Even if everyone is capable of making a registry edit, most people will need a step-by-step guide or a third-party tool to do such a thing.

This is very true. Interestingly, I actually found out about the existence of the setting in an article about such a third party tool.

Whether Windows 8 actually will include a start menu or not below Professional/Ultimate in the end will be interesting to see. As stated in my previous post, I do indeed find that everything I've seen said and shown so far regarding Windows 8 and previous Windows versions points towards it.

Edit: Typos etc.

 

[exangel]

Mazor, your thorough rebuttal of my statements makes it seem as though I believed that they WILL shove Metro down everyone's throat, which is not what I meant. The way I phrased my original comment was cynicism.

I do expect that there will be some extra functionality control (of UI features, and likely, of the Start Menu and Windows Explorer navigation) for Pro/Ult versions.

edit: I also didn't try very hard to sort out what I was thinking in my previous post. I don't want to argue. You're right, and my last post is messed up but since you addressed it so thoroughly I'm not going to touch it.