What's so great about Windows 8?

[enjay]

Okay, so I've just installed Windows 8 and Office 2013. First impressions are "wow, that's ugly" but I'll get used to that I'm sure. I guess the question now is, what are the great things in Windows 8 which will make me want to deploy this across the rest of our site (and should I even bother considering that before we have Server 2012?)?

 

Let's keep this thread to Windows 8, I've started another one for Office 2013...

Edited February 14, 2013 by enjay

[SYNACK]

Better self repair, faster logon and startup, more secure network file transfer. Less memory usage and lower resource usage - about 2 degrees C on average with a Acer w501P. Less service packs/fixes, integrated AV, better UI for file operations - pause individual network file transfers in progress.

[LeMarchand]

What @SYNACK said, plus it was available at launch at much lower prices than W7.

[Little-Miss]

If we could have everything @SYNACK just said, but in a Windows 7 shell (no hacks), i'd be happy!

[Michael]

I agree with Little-Miss. If you remove Metro, Windows 8 is pretty much an updated/optimised Windows 7. Maybe in Win 8 SP1 they'll allow admins to switch Metro off via GPO once they've realised practically no-one's deploying it in business or education!

[jamesfed]

I agree with Little-Miss. If you remove Metro, Windows 8 is pretty much an updated/optimised Windows 7. Maybe in Win 8 SP1 they'll allow admins to switch Metro off via GPO once they've realised practically no-one's deploying it in business or education!

 

The one day I open the blind on our sun facing window and whats the first thing I see...a formation of pigs flying!

[Michael]

The one day I open the blind on our sun facing window and whats the first thing I see...a formation of pigs flying!

 

Well I suspect some MS people must read these forums! Microsoft did eventually admit Vista was pretty bad, but admittedly it took quite a bit of time.

 

I would like to hear Microsoft's official position on why they think Metro is suited for desktop and notebook users, when it's blatantly obvious it was designed for a touch screen interface. They obviously know that the majority of devices out there are not currently touchscreen, so why force everyone to use it? It seems a really odd decision in my opinion and one I am sure many Beta testers must have pointed out.

[SYNACK]

I think that may have to wait till 9, Balmer has taken the 'all or nothing', 'our way or the highway' lead from his country and is just forging ahead while completely disregarding what anyone else is saying. Going slightly off topic, Office 2013 licencing ties it to a single machine forever, not cool.

[FN-GM]

Im using it now.

 

I do like the British English language.

It images quicker than Windows 7 (with SCCM anyway)

I like Metro

Performance seems better.

 

Server 2012 has lots of new things I like

[jamesfed]

I would like to hear Microsoft's official position on why they think Metro is suited for desktop and notebook users, when it's blatantly obvious it was designed for a touch screen interface. They obviously know that the majority of devices out there are not currently touchscreen, so why force everyone to use it? It seems a really odd decision in my opinion and one I am sure many Beta testers must have pointed out.

 

In all honesty I've been using Win 8 on both my desktop and notebook PC (neither with a touch screen) for quite some time now with no issues - more often than not I press the start button on my PC at work expecting the start screen only to get the piddly little start menu appear.

 

Anyhow a discussion for another thread!

[Michael]

@SYNACK - I was unaware of that for Office 2013. Is that the case for volume license users also? What happens when you upgrade all your workstations?

 

I think I'll just wait for Windows 9 and by the sounds of things it won't be too far away if Microsoft adopt a 12 month release schedule.

 

Back on topic though there are some advantages to Win 8, but I think there are more disadvantages. For example training of staff, software compatibility and hardware compatibility too. Various users have said Win 8 doesn't play well with netbooks' lower resolutions by default.

[LosOjos]

It seems a really odd decision in my opinion and one I am sure many Beta testers must have pointed out.

 

We did, repeatedly. No notice was taken. This is why I'm sure rather than Metro going away, the traditional desktop will. Windows 9 may well be completely Metro. they're already calling any program not designed for Metro "legacy applications." The future does not look good for Windows [unless of course you want Metro]

[SYNACK]

@SYNACK - I was unaware of that for Office 2013. Is that the case for volume license users also? What happens when you upgrade all your workstations?

 

I think I'll just wait for Windows 9 and by the sounds of things it won't be too far away if Microsoft adopt a 12 month release schedule.

 

Back on topic though there are some advantages to Win 8, but I think there are more disadvantages. For example training of staff, software compatibility and hardware compatibility too. Various users have said Win 8 doesn't play well with netbooks' lower resolutions by default.

 

Just retail I think:

Does your copy of Office 2013 die with your computer?

Retail copies of Office 2013 are tied to a single computer forever | Geek Pick | Geek.com

 

8 is good for touchscreens and alright with a bit of adjustment for other platforms but I do think they can do better, it is just rubbish for manageability WRT metro.

[Michael]

It talks about Retail and OEM, so hopefully as you say, this should exclude Volume license agreements. I still think Microsoft are approaching it the wrong way. They should sell more 'family' editions to be installed on up to 5 computers. I've even heard it on the radio that Office 365 itself is for up to 5 users on any device. This makes a lot more sense.

 

As for managing Metro via GPO, I've not had the pleasure as yet. It's probably just as bad as being unable to manage Libraries introduce with Win 7. There are some good GPOs but still lacking some really good GPOs.

Edited February 14, 2013 by Michael

[enjay]

They should sell more 'family' editions to be installed on up to 5 computers. I've even heard it on the radio that Office 365 itself is for up to 5 users on any device. This makes a lot more sense.

I think that is the only sensible way to manage access to online services - I use 4 different personal devices (plus my office computer), and I'm sure there are plenty of people with more than that.

[SYNACK]

I think that is the only sensible way to manage access to online services - I use 4 different personal devices (plus my office computer), and I'm sure there are plenty of people with more than that.

 

I think this is actually a way to force people onto the subscription model of 365 by removing many of the benefits of local software using the license agreement.

 

Re the OT; this is kind of a benefit of W8, it ties into cloud services nicely... conversely it also pushes you into the cloud like the Office 2013 stuff from above.

[sted]

It talks about Retail and OEM, so hopefully as you say, this should exclude Volume license agreements. I still think Microsoft are approaching it the wrong way. They should sell more 'family' editions to be installed on up to 5 computers. I've even heard it on the radio that Office 365 itself is for up to 5 users on any device. This makes a lot more sense.

 

As for managing Metro via GPO, I've not had the pleasure as yet. It's probably just as bad as being unable to manage Libraries introduce with Win 7. There are some good GPOs but still lacking some really good GPOs.

managing metro via gpo ahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!! you cant really you can disable store but thats about it and forget managing apps. best features boot time and hyperv but i do lile metro pn standalones it just is a pita in managed environments

[localzuk]

Windows 8 has better IO performance all round, be it disk access, network access or RAM access. So that's a boon - it'd help speed up machines.

 

However, I couldn't deploy it simply because I don't feel that the Modern UI stuff is manageable enough.

[SYNACK]

Windows 8 has better IO performance all round, be it disk access, network access or RAM access. So that's a boon - it'd help speed up machines.

 

However, I couldn't deploy it simply because I don't feel that the Modern UI stuff is manageable enough.

 

Likewise, works great in the little test deployments with one or two users (especially with efi boot) but would be completely unmanageable on a large scale. Apparently 9 is just around the corner though and their entire customer base telling them that it is not manageable in a network environment they may be getting it through their heads.

[Jamo]

I am keeping my fingers crossed that one day applications such as SIMS will peel themselves away from big players like Microsoft and get involved in OpenSource solutions like OpenOffice/LibreOffice. I do like MS Office 2010, but I REALLY dislike this idea of my documents in the cloud. I like to be in control of where things are not fling them on to the internet.

 

Also I live in Dorset/Somerset, the internet connection here isn't always the best, it would be incredibly frustrating if my documents suddenly became inaccessible! As for 4G? I only have the one lonely, very slow, G on my phone when I'm at home

 

Yep agree W8 should have been Windows 7 plus optimizations, the EFI boot and general speed of 8 are annoyingly good. The interface, though, is similar to the kiddy toys I'm looking at in Mothercare at the moment.

[Simcfc73]

They should make a Windows 8 personal and a windows 8 business... w8 business would have lots of switches to turn things on and off and allow us to lock stuff down to stop people messing.... kinda like xp but with the performance gains.

 

I was asked to sort a kids laptops out with w8 on, I know its my first foray into it but it was a right royal pain, I am sure with practise I would get used to it but just getting to the proxy settings was a pain... and I had to remove skype cos it didn't work.

[DrCheese]

However, I couldn't deploy it simply because I don't feel that the Modern UI stuff is manageable enough.

 

It's really not. You can't customise it network wide like you can the start menu. As best I can tell it ignores redirected start menu settings (o.O) & if you want to make a change to the layout, you can only do that via changing the default user profile... which is fine but users who already have a profile created on X machine will get the old layout unless you kill it off.

 

Honestly, if I deployed 8 I'd buy a site license of Start8 & deploy that. It has GPO support so it'll essentially be Windows 8 with the 7 start menu. All the benefits of 8 with none of the downsides.

[sted]

redirected start menus are fine they just end up in all all apps it randomly pins stuff. best solution so far for me is enable all user start menu for users but permission change stuff you dont want them accessing then network progs on redirected menu. not pretty and forget organising icons but it works.

 

i doubt ms will make it more business friendly they are betting the farm on byod imo

[DrCheese]

ah ok, To be honest tho I didn't spend much time trying to fix our policies to work with it. Out of the box tho all our student accounts gave me was the IE Button!

 

As for making it business friendly, I think they will. Vista was just as messed up from a business POV when it was released, but 7 was tons better. I just wish MS had learnt this lesson!

[sted]

ah ok, To be honest tho I didn't spend much time trying to fix our policies to work with it. Out of the box tho all our student accounts gave me was the IE Button!

 

As for making it business friendly, I think they will. Vista was just as messed up from a business POV when it was released, but 7 was tons better. I just wish MS had learnt this lesson!

they havnt or there would be gpos to control libraries in win7 to start with how useful would it be to assign a shared drive as a second my docs