I did the unthinkable... I installed Windows 8...

[KrisZ]

... and I like it! Crazy I know!

Yesterday I installed dual boot for Windows 8. I got my hands on Enterprise Edition, 90 day trial version.
The installation went without a hitch. I just mounted the ISO in Daemon Tools and hit Install button.

I did not have too much time to play with it, but it is very fast on my 5 year old machine ([email protected], 4 gig RAM) and it boots a lot faster than Windows 7 or Vista.

What I like so far:
- As mentioned above, the speed and responsiveness of the system.
I opened up a bunch of things and apps just to see how it would handle it and everything was nice and smooth. The animations and fancy screen transitions were still very fast and had no jerkiness to them.
- The search function, although unintuitive at first, is actually pretty good. If you are in the start menu, the search looks at everything on your computer, but if you open up an app, it will automatically search within that app and you can always choose where to search at any time.
- The general look and feel of the system is just fantastic and highly refined. Apps look nice and clean and are easily arranged on the screen. The metro interface, although different, is highly customizable and the tiles can give the user instant info to things like weather, stocks, news feeds, sports etc. without a single click of the mouse. Similar to Widgets in Android system.
- My wife tried it and she likes it as well. She never saw Windows 8 before and I never helped her out, but she was able to navigate the new interface quite easily. She easily figured out how to flip between apps, despite lack of Minimize Button or the taskbar. She's not a computer person and based on that I think the transition might be easier than the experts predict.

Things that may be annoying, at least at first:
- Some apps run in Metro interface, while others run in Desktop interface. It's pretty weird, since you are always taken to the Metro screen and you would expect for things to be run from there all the time.
- Desktop interface is separate from Metro interface. If you open up IE window in metro and another one in Desktop, those are two separate IE windows running. This could be particularly annoying when looking for instruction on the internet because you will have to flip between interfaces. A work around would be to just stay within Desktop interface.

One more thing I noticed that is pretty weird. I allocated a 20GB partition for this. After the installation I had about 5GB of free space left. When I had a bunch of things running both in Metro and Desktop I noticed that my 20GB partition was running out of room. I had about 700MB left, while my RAM usage was only 1.8GB out of 4.

Discuss.

 

[Azeem]

I like mine so far as u mentioned it's definitely faster than Win. 7 and internet applications are faster,to me, as well.It took up to 32 GB of my HD space.But mine is Windows 8 Pro.Good choice,enjoy.

 

[rjundi]

Have you done real work on it?

My first glance it seems nice for the typical internet user and maybe office. But running business apps it seems like a mess for user experience.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
Have you done real work on it?

My first glance it seems nice for the typical internet user and maybe office. But running business apps it seems like a mess for user experience.


I haven't played with it too much, but I'm not much of a mouser anyway. I've seen that i can launch any program by hitting the windows key and typing in the name in the search bar ... which is what I do on Windows 7.

 

[94astro]

You can customize Windows 8 any way you want, be it for business or pleasure, just work with it & get to know it.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
Have you done real work on it?


I had maybe an hour and a half to play with it, so the answer is no.


Originally Posted By: 94astro
You can customize Windows 8 any way you want, be it for business or pleasure, just work with it & get to know it.


That is what I think as well. Most complaints revolve around the Metro interface because it's different and people don't know it.
I'm treating this with an open mind to see how I like it in the next 90 days. That should be plenty of play time to form my opinion about the system based on my experiences. The only thing I have to do is bump my partition to around 100GB so that Windows 8 can be my main operating system for the next 90 days.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: rjundi

My first glance it seems nice for the typical internet user and maybe office. But running business apps it seems like a mess for user experience.


Windows 8 is a mess on all usability fronts. I could write a very long post about how bad it is for usability but there are many such posts out there. Metro is not that good for day to day usage - it eats up screen real estate and is confusing and over the top "in your face". The design language is horrible.

Then again Windows Vista and 7 were bad for usability too with the transparency and other [censored] that made things hard to use.

And it's not "it's different so it's bad". I'vd adapted to OS X and Linux/KDE just fine. And both are light years ahead of the mess that is Windows 8. Inertia is the only thing that keeps MS and Windows afload and they are running out of that quickly.

 

[azjake]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: rjundi

My first glance it seems nice for the typical internet user and maybe office. But running business apps it seems like a mess for user experience.


Windows 8 is a mess on all usability fronts. I could write a very long post about how bad it is for usability but there are many such posts out there. Metro is not that good for day to day usage - it eats up screen real estate and is confusing and over the top "in your face". The design language is horrible.

Then again Windows Vista and 7 were bad for usability too with the transparency and other [censored] that made things hard to use.

And it's not "it's different so it's bad". I'vd adapted to OS X and Linux/KDE just fine. And both are light years ahead of the mess that is Windows 8. Inertia is the only thing that keeps MS and Windows afload and they are running out of that quickly.

Back in late February I ordered a new desktop PC from Dell and ordered Windows 7 specifically instead of 8. Took a couple of extra days to build vs pulling a Windows 8 off the shelf, but it was worth it. Going from XP there is enough adjustments to make with 7, let alone 8, although overall I'm pleased with the system.

Only real problem is since 2010 MS has had a problem getting Windows Media Player to work on Windows 7. Server errors when trying to play media, does nothing when you click it, etc.

If you do a Google search there are numerous complaints on this and a lot of shotgun approaches to the fix from the MS people. Try this method, and if that doesn't work try method 2 and so on until they say well if none of these work try re-installing. Of course the danger in doing that (since they don't have a clue what the problem is) is not only will it not fix the problem, but some other Windows software related to playing media will stop working.

For now I use QuickTime and Real Player (both free) for both audio and video files along with Windows Movie Maker which does work. My machine will easily support 8 and maybe as MS improves it and the interface (ie more user friendly), I will upgrade.

 

[BearZDefect]

OT: In the aero styles of Vista and Windows 7 the visual distinction between the active window and the inactive windows was so slight. I found this ridiculous.

 

[stephen9666]

I Just bought a new laptop that came with Windows 8 (I'm actually using it right now).

I'm getting used to it, but there are times when I keep getting thrown to the metro screen and I don't know what caused it. Sometimes, a program in the metro portion (like the built in PDF reader) will somehow get opened, and every few minutes I'll do something to get thrown to the metro screen and that active program. I also can't figure out how to close those apps in the metro screen without opening the task manager and forcing them to close.

I've only had my laptop a few days, but there's still a learning curve for me. I'll admit it's fast, but there are definitely things I don't like about it.

 

[bepperb]

I went through the entire 90 day trial and I'm back to Ubuntu. The Metro interface is a mess. The apps that take advantage of the tiles are great. The other 99.9% that don't result in Metro just being a bloated splash screen in the way of the desktop. Other "different" but not "better" features and moved items are annoying.

At work we have zero interest from clients on running Windows 8. It's the next Vista/ME, based on customer feedback.

 

[Rolla07]

I have to say I dont like it either. Microsoft has a knack for making easy things more complicated because its fancier. I like to get on my computer and get things done.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666
. I also can't figure out how to close those apps in the metro screen without opening the task manager and forcing them to close.


Move your mouse to the top of the screen, the arrow will change to a hand pinter. Left click and drag the window down to the bottom of the screen. That will close the program.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Originally Posted By: stephen9666
. I also can't figure out how to close those apps in the metro screen without opening the task manager and forcing them to close.


Move your mouse to the top of the screen, the arrow will change to a hand pinter. Left click and drag the window down to the bottom of the screen. That will close the program.


That was my gripe when I tried it out, they got rid of the "X" box to close a program. I bought a laptop with W8 on there and took it back the next day, I just could not get used to it. The Metro interface is pure junk, too much going on. I like a simple layout, not little windows constantly changing and moving around.

 

[stephen9666]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Originally Posted By: stephen9666
. I also can't figure out how to close those apps in the metro screen without opening the task manager and forcing them to close.


Move your mouse to the top of the screen, the arrow will change to a hand pinter. Left click and drag the window down to the bottom of the screen. That will close the program.


Thanks for the info, but that part I know. I should have been more clear that the problem I've had a couple times isn't solved by doing that.

The issue I've had a couple times is with the Reader app or photo viewer app. It opens, for some reason, then every few minutes I'll do something that causes the screen to go to the Reader app and I can't seem to close it using the method you outlined. I have to force the Reader program to close using the task manager, or it will just keep redirecting me to it every minute or so for some reason.

I'll give it some time until I figure everything out on it.

 

[azjake]

Regarding metro vs desktop in Windows 7. I use FireFox, but when my system arrived it had IE9 and I dumbly decided to download IE10. A freakin disaster. Websites requiring flash for pics and videos didn't display them. Lots of Google searching MS support sites and finally found a solution that worked. Had to put IE10 into desktop mode (Metro was the default) and change a couple of security settings and now pics and videos are fine. I've stayed with FF as my default browser for, among other reasons, it worked fine from the get go. Whose to say MS might release a new version of IE or a major update to IE10 and it will stop working properly again.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666
I'm getting used to it, but there are times when I keep getting thrown to the metro screen and I don't know what caused it. Sometimes, a program in the metro portion (like the built in PDF reader) will somehow get opened, and every few minutes I'll do something to get thrown to the metro screen and that active program. I also can't figure out how to close those apps in the metro screen without opening the task manager and forcing them to close.


This is the biggest failure in my opinion. There's no continuity between the Metro interface and the Classic interface. Sometimes you get tossed into the other one with no way to return unless you go through a series of mouse clicks. Even core Windows apps like the file explorer shoot back to Classic instead of opening in Metro. It's a real kludge.

The saving grace is there are aftermarket solutions. I installed Classic Shell on the W8 computer I had to set up at work. And it works fine. And those with W8 know that the performance is fantastic. It's very responsive, very quick to boot and shut down. The fact that you have to use an aftermarket software to make an OS usable is laughable, but I think they'll fix it. Even if that means simply adding an option to the OS to disable Metro.

 

[BearZDefect]

Is it possible when using dual monitors to have Windows 8 always show the Classic interface on one monitor and Metro on the other? In other words, have both interfaces but each monitor stays consistent.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666

The issue I've had a couple times is with the Reader app or photo viewer app. It opens, for some reason, then every few minutes I'll do something that causes the screen to go to the Reader app and I can't seem to close it using the method you outlined. I have to force the Reader program to close using the task manager, or it will just keep redirecting me to it every minute or so for some reason.

I'll give it some time until I figure everything out on it.


Go to PC settings - General - App Switching and turn Off "When I swipe in from the left edge..."
This should get rid of your sudden app switching.

 

[azjake]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
I have to say I dont like it either. Microsoft has a knack for making easy things more complicated because its fancier. I like to get on my computer and get things done.

Know what you mean. You ask Microsoft what time it is and before they answer they have to take you through the steps to build a watch.