Windows 8....urgh

[markwilfan]

Only issues we have are our ESx VC client doesn't like it. Impero sometimes goes squiffy in it and restarting the service crashes all open programs Lol also our sccm client seems to do something to the wmi provider service resulting in high CPU. I actually quite like it though but will not be deploying it to desktops unless I'm told to

[russdev]

Hi Mark

 

If you want I will get one of support guys to give you a call it sounds like a problem related to a bug we squashed last week.

 

Russell

[markwilfan]

Might just do that Russell. It wasn't a moan by the way Impero rocks my world. It's only the techs using win8 and we have been happy to workaround until the next update.

[markwilfan]

@russdev I'll put a ticket in. We are doing a 120 PC shuffle this half term so will add my mobile as I will be afk for a while Edited February 11, 2013 by markwilfan
mistyped name

[Quackers]

Have those who like Windows 8 have they tried it on a 10" netbook and then ran a Metro app? It just dont work.

 

What happened to the nice 'Glass' theme?, now everything looks like Windows 3.0 graphics

 

Its just borked in so many ways.

[markwilfan]

I use it on my school Dell 11z. Works fine. Win 8 has made me use the keyboard more... to open word, smash win key, type word, smash return.... jobs done

[sted]

Have those who like Windows 8 have they tried it on a 10" netbook and then ran a Metro app? It just dont work.

 

thats why the minimum requirements specify a screen res of 1024x768 min as thats the lowest metro apps work at mst netbooks iirc are 1024x600 or similar so dont meet requirements

[Quackers]

thats why the minimum requirements specify a screen res of 1024x768 min as thats the lowest metro apps work at mst netbooks iirc are 1024x600 or similar so dont meet requirements

 

Thats my point, Windows 8 is not been thought out well, Windows XP, Vista and 7 all work on netbooks fine, 8?, Microsoft know full well how many netbooks are out there, we have hundreds of them, get rid of Metro and put the start menu back and 8 would work fine on a netbook or even had a classic mode for using it on equipment like netbooks.

[sted]

Thats my point, Windows 8 is not been thought out well, Windows XP, Vista and 7 all work on netbooks fine, 8?, Microsoft know full well how many netbooks are out there, we have hundreds of them, get rid of Metro and put the start menu back and 8 would work fine on a netbook or even had a classic mode for using it on equipment like netbooks.

 

but netbooks are all but dead as new pcs and ms id guess are betting on people who have them just leaving them as they are (how many consumers evey upgrade windows?) and as ive said with win8 ms expect everyone to adopt byod rather than schools etc owning nd locking down pcs or they would of released tools to manage the start screen properly and allow apps to be installed for all users

[LeMarchand]

Have those who like Windows 8 have they tried it on a 10" netbook and then ran a Metro app? It just dont work.

 

I'm running it on an Advent 4211 (rebadged Wind) and they don't work without a registry hack that I find a bit kludgy. On the other hand, I'm struggling to remember which app I needed that led me to the hack!

[SYNACK]

Have those who like Windows 8 have they tried it on a 10" netbook and then ran a Metro app? It just dont work.

 

What happened to the nice 'Glass' theme?, now everything looks like Windows 3.0 graphics

 

Its just borked in so many ways.

 

XP was rubbish on netbooks too, remember those dialogue boxes that you needed to hide the start bar or use the GPU zoom out to actually use. This is the same kind of kludge that is needed to get metro working with the GPU scaling registry key.

 

I seem to remember that the big moan when moving to Vista/7 was that it was too pretty and lots of people wanted to go back to the Windows 2000 style that had been forced for a decacde. At least 8 had given up the BS and dropped 3D all together, even 3.1 had 'buttonised' buttons and borders for that progressed. That trend has been going mad with chromed over, brushed aluminium, reflected bouncing madness where there is much more decoration than content. Really, brushed aluminium .

 

There is some special effects left in there like transparency and blending but it is going the other way making the content more important than the light show. I still like the transparency and desktop windows effects of 7 but flashing it up more for the next version could have just looked tacky, bouncing cubes and jumping icons of distraction. They wonder why people are distracted so easily, it could have been so much worse if they had just gone ape with their effects budget.

[Gatt]

There is still some transparency on the taskbar(s) so its not all gone, and to be fair, as much as Aero Glass was nice and shiny and new, it was a resource hog and at worst a battery killer.

 

Metro apps are a tad annoying if you connect via RDP and don't have the needed resolution or colour depth - as is trying to get the start screen on anything less than the RDP version bundled with Windows 8 or 2012 - the sooner they update it for Win7 / 2008 R2 the better!

[Arthur]

XP was rubbish on netbooks too, remember those dialog boxes that you needed to hide the start bar or use the GPU zoom out to actually use.

As is Windows 7. On a typical 1024x600 netbook LCD, once you have accounted for the taskbar (40 pixels), the window chrome of apps (53 pixels for the address and title bar in IE9) and scroll bars (15 pixels horizontally and vertically), you are left with a practically unusable resolution of 1009x492. It's like viewing the Internet through a letterbox!

[CyberNerd]

even IE has a full screen mode.

[Arthur]

even IE has a full screen mode.

It does, but you would still have the dialog box issue described by SYNACK.

[zag]

I finally gave in an installed Windows 8 on my home file server, its actually usable after a number of tweaks

 

Start 8 - Black theme

Desktop Gadgets - Most Wanted Windows Desktop Gadgets - Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista

Shutdown, disk and clock gadgets installed

Turned UAC off but this means I can't install any metro apps. No loss there

Good thing was it recognized my 7 year old 3ware RAID card out of the box and is all 64bit.

Start up time is also improved which is nice

 

 

Since its a file server, I don't use it very often but I must say Windows 8 is finally bearable with the tweaks and gadgets

[RabbieBurns]

yea im using StartisBack on my desktop and laptop, along with the gadget packs, and its great for an every day device. (both are non touch)

[zag]

So its been 6 months since release, what do people think now...?

 

I've had a chance to play with it and I love the new copy dialogue and task manager and enhanced start up speed.

 

Sadly the Metro interface is a huge DISADVANTAGE, and ruins an otherwise nice... if small update to the OS.

 

Reading around the internet this really is going to be one of those releases that most people laugh at in the future. Good luck next time Microsoft!

Edited April 16, 2013 by zag

[featured_spectre]

I like the metro, even on a laptop. Remove everything you dont need, put what you do need, nice, simple, job done. OS is also very smooth to use.

[sted]

as above i love the new copy with pause and all copies in 1 window and the task manager. I even like "not metro" as ms are right on my home system i load a grand total of 12 of so programs reguallaly so why not hide the guff i use once in a blue moon? It is far from perfect my 2 biggest gripes are how it manages going between metro and desktop and say you click a link in email that opens up ie when you close ie instead of going back to email it goes to start screen which to me is silly

[nab]

What @SYNACK said. Don't get me wrong, there are some good little touches in 8. But I just feel they've tried too hard to squish a tablet and PC OS into one.

 

I dont think they've tried hard enough

MS never seem to get it quite right. I like that they try to appeal to the ipad market whilst trying to keep the business users happy too. I'm just not convinced they've got close enough to whatever that should actually be yet. I think its a step in the right direction though. Even if W8 ends up being another Vista, who cares? W7 came after that and it was brilliant. I got high hopes for whatever follows W8... For now I'll be sticking with W7 for laptop and Android for Samsungs Note 10.1.

[CyberNerd]

Different ZDNet authors have countering opinions as to whether anyone can save windows at all:

 

Microsoft's Windows 8 Plan B(lue): Bring back the Start button, boot to desktop | ZDNet

 

Windows: It's over | ZDNet

[RabbieBurns]

Im not sure how much the Windows demographic install base is split between consumer (home users) and enterprise (schools, business, etc) but I can see that it may be possible that the home consumer, who might buy a new home computer every 7-12 years* may this time round (is 7 - 12 years a generation?) be heading for the much more advertised consumer based devises such as ipads and non x86 tablets.

 

* based on the current lifetime of xp and the amount of xp computers I still know in homes currently (<100 so not a global figure)

 

However with most international enterpise so heavily invested with windows, be it xp or 7, i dont see them all dumping windows because windows 8 has a bit of a new UI.

 

Granted the 'metro' interface, and charms, etc are not ideal on a non-touch device, but as mentioned may times in all the windows 8 threads, add in a windows 7 style start menu, and windows 8 is basically a faster, and more feature rich windows.

 

IMO the only thing that MS have messed up with is forcing the metro interface on non-touch devices. Add an option like the 3rd party tools provide to bring back the start menu, and windows 8.1 or blue or pink or whatever they call it will be great.

 

Edited April 16, 2013 by RabbieBurns

[ZeroHour]

I really don't understand why people hate w8 start menu so much, it works mostly very well and for most I suspect really it consumes a very small percentage of their or my on-screen time to not matter much anyway.

Is a new start menu really a huge disadvantage? how so? do you now find your whole OS experience ruined by only one aspect, the aspect used for short times to usually run programs?

MS won't be killing off legacy apps/desktop mode anytime soon. If anything based on MS's history of legacy support desktop mode apps will be around for a long time yet so does the whole metro app thing really matter much? I have found some useful apps and I do like live tiles showing snips of information when I am actually about to run a program. Metro wont replace my legacy apps but over time I may use more as the platform matures, the point is I don't have to only use metro apps (RT aside).

Touch is not dependant on the app being metro either so the new api in windows 8 mean desktop apps can implement touch as well.

[LeMarchand]

I still don't grasp the fuss over Metro/Modern. Maybe it's the way I use my machine, but I rarely see the start screen (though when I do, it's more attractive than the old version in my eyes) Mind you, I don't load huge amounts of software on. I have started to group the list and have found a way to get portable apps to show there (I try to keep as much as possible portable for easier transfer to a new device). As for the touch only argument: I have a touch screen, but tend not to use it when the keyboard is attached.

 

I do agree that this may be the latest "Vista", but I didn't think Vista was that bad on capable hardware.