Desktop Review

[Trapper]

On a Core2Quad Q6600 with 8GB RAM - 80GB SSD, 3TB on USB 3 external drives.

 

It's awful. It's actually slower on my PC than Windows 7. The new start screen even with dual monitors, one being touch is irritating. Having your old jump list icons on your desktop feels like going back to Windows 2000 again.

 

Gave it a day, now downloading Win 7 from VLSC again.

 

Tried it on a tablet and SMART Board and it's fine. For a desktop/laptop power user - nope.

[SYNACK]

I wonder if they have done their usual trick, the beta and RC even with all the debugging switched on are lightning fast then the release is magicly slow in comparison. This happened with Vista and 7 for me on certain types of hardware.

[Arthur]

On a Core2Quad Q6600 with 8GB RAM - 80GB SSD, 3TB on USB 3 external drives.

Graphics card plus latest drivers? A lot of Windows 8's UI is hardware accelerated so the GPU is quite important.

 

You could probably have found out what the cause of the slowness was with the Windows Performance Recorder and Analyser.

[Theblacksheep]

Its both faster and smoother on the machines we've tested on.

[gshaw]

Same for me, on my x100e which only has a single core AMD Neo it flies and the UI feels smoother than the preview relases

[Trapper]

Changed my mind a bit. The Start Screen takes longer to organise, but when you do it works well.

I've been using it a bit more and I'm getting to like it. Including the Win+X shortcut which brings up power user tools.

 

Sadly installed on my XPS at work and it cocked it up completely - rebooted with the LCD panel off, on, off, on etc. Not sure why.

 

On my home desktop it has problems with a USB 3 RAID hard drive from Buffalo during some power ons, and my internal Yukon gig NIC. The Windows driver will only run at 10meg, whilst the offical Yukon driver has to be force set to 1000mbps, but you have to do this each boot (from auto-set, no network, to 1000mbps, disable adapter, back on). That has surprised me. Such a glitch is a beta problem, not release code.

[Theblacksheep]

I've been using Windows8 a while now, its on my main pc at work (dual screen HP i5), on colleagues PCs, several old laptops and in several VMs. Personally I feel the "doesn't work on the desktop" is a particularly lazy argument, Windows 8 works just fine on the desktop, it just doesn't work the way you are used to.

 

A good standard start menu just needs setting up right, as Trapper has also discovered. Get the useful non metro apps pinned and you've replicated most of the useful aspects of the start menu. You really dont need every metro app listed just like you dont need every item on the start menu listed on the new front page, if you have, trim it! Less frequently used applications can be accessed via a right click (windowskey+z) or a shortcut to a more detailed directory if needed can be created.

 

The windows+x or right click over start area on desktop allows some great power menu options that are often quicker to access with less clicks than the old start menu system (admin cmd being the most useful).

 

I have a substantial amount pinned to the taskbar and find myself less frequently coming out of the desktop view.

 

Windows+TAB actually has a use rather than being flashy version of ALT+TAB. Use it to scroll through the running mui screens, including start menu. you can also right click on the shortcuts to mui screens to close or load them split 70/30 to the screen.

 

WindowsKey and D = Desktop

WindowsKey and . = snap mui split

WindowsKey and PRTSC = dump and screenshot jpeg in pictures.

 

Making IE always boot into desktop mode by settings/programs helps consistent IE use to desktop retaining the nice mui icon.

 

I modded the reg to reduce the border padding to 0 as I do with 7.

 

With multi monitors you can set a start menu default monitor by opening the start menu from the bottom left of screen and left click (rather than windows key). The windows key will open the start menu on whatever screen the default is.

 

Power tools windows 8 app on xda devs is useful.

 

To me its faster, it pretty smooth on some of the older laptops too. The NEW start menu isnt that much different to the old, sure you cant see whats going on elsewhere on the screen, but I dont think I've ever been selecting something from the start menu and thought I need to see if a file progress bar has changed without actually completing the start menu action. The old start menu took your focus and attention. The new start menu actually gives a bit of flexibility and freedom to the layout, which is a good thing. The old useful links removed from the default mui can be recreated, 'recent' stuff apart.

 

It wont be everyones cup of tea. The leap from office 2003 to 2007 is great when you're used to the more efficient layout in the later versions. The up and coming Windows8 tablets will be the first time many normal users will come across Windows8, when they are used to interacting with Windows8 on their consumer devices, it wont be such a leap for the Windows 8 desktop PC at work it appears right now.

 

I have no problems in using it as a desktop OS apart from some of the software compatibility, which will be addressed in time.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Theblacksheep

[Trapper]

Oh! I like that change start screen monitor. I've been trying to figure out how to do that. I'd rather have it on my secondary monitor, so it doesn't disturb what I'm working on.

 

Perhaps Balmer isn't a complete idiot.

 

I also like the Metro Mail app, much more functional at home that having Outlook open for work emails all day.