Windows 8

I installed the first two preview copies that MS put out.

I am completely unimpressed with the Metro interface on a desktop. I feel that it is a UI step or two backwards for a desktop. Time will tell if it takes off or not.

I brought the company I work for into Win 7 for every computer about 2 years ago. We will not be changing OSes again for the foreseeable future. While I could use Win 8 if I had to, my normal computer users would revolt if they were forced to switch to it. You should have seen the learning curve they had with just the ribbon.
 
Not sure what you mean. The metro interface?

yes, probably. I hear its easily changeable - its basically another variant of Aero?

. You should have seen the learning curve they had with just the ribbon.

The ribbon is pretty good once you get used to it - but everything became misplaced. But that's more Office 2010 not W8 wouldn't you say? I hear the Office 2013 won't use the ribbon by default.
 
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Just ignore it for now and don't rush with the upgrade. Wait to see what happens with SP1, it usually polishes everything critical.

IIRC on Tom's Hardware site they've tested about 10 popular games on win7 and win8, there was practically no difference in performance. So why would a gamer switch to win8? Unless you're using a touchscreen monitor on daily basis… ;)

Another thing that is worth knowing is that the patching already had two hiccups where the system started to behave irrational (PMS?). Honestly, I don't remember any problems with updates on my win7, although perhaps I've forgotten if those happened. Now just imagine playing Skyrim on win8 and not knowing if there is a problem with the game or win8 is to blame for an issue.
 
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I'm actually liking windows 8, but i'm also running it with several of stardocks programs (start 8, fences, Windows fx 5) so I boot directly to the desktop and have my start menu back.

I haven't even used the metro interface in a long time. So I guess it's not much like windows 8 anyway.

As far as vanilla Windows 8 the most annoying things are:

- the constant switching from the metro to the desktop

- the metro browser and desktop browsers are not synced so anything you do in one will not register in the other. (ie. if you add a favorite to one it wont show up in the other.)

-when playing videos or music it keeps wanting to send me to the metro video and music app. (there must be a setting to change the default player but I haven't found it yet but admittedly I haven't looked very hard)

- the xbox integration. when I play a video it has actually asked if I want to watch on my xbox. Like I want to launch it on my pc and then run up and watch it on my xbox which died for the second time with the 3 rings about a year ago.

- Also if you go to games, under windows games it will list games like fruit ninja and pinball, yet under xbox games it has stuff like hitman and halo 4. What a joke.

- the metro interface is a mess it puts everything you install on there even stuff like registration programs, 3d vision photo view from nvidia drivers, basically everything you install will go on there and you will spend a lot of time deleting the stuff or trying to sift through it to get to the programs you want to run.

-and metro is just plain ugly even after you delete everything you don't want. With little to no ability to customize it.

On the plus side,

-It is pretty quick to navigate if you take the time to learn the keyboard shortcuts.

-It's nice to have the apps but I find I don't use them anyway. If I want to use an app I pull out my Ipad.

- It's had no trouble running any games I've thrown at it. Had a couple issues setting up my raid, sli and triple monitors but it was pretty minor.

-Some say it boots much faster. I haven't noticed but I've been using an ssd for some time now.

-It was only $40 when I picked it up.

-It's been technically sound.

If your happy with windows 7 there is no need to go to windows 8, but if you are going to you might as well pick it up now before the price hikes.
 
I upgraded my desktop to Win8 yesterday (or rather I made a win8 partition, I may install Win7 on another partition as well). I tested it a bit on one of the release candidates in a virtual box. Using it the main machine is a bit different. A few observations so far:

1) It is fast. Boot time was noticably quicker than Win7, same with opening programs, especially the Windows8 Apps that come built in which are near instant. To be fair, I have not reloaded all my normal stuff I have running (like utorrent, AVG, etc.) in the background, but I think even with the extra time on that, its going to be noticably quicker than 7 was.

2) I like the start screen. I never really used the start menu myself, preferrring to set up stacks using 7 Stacks. I need to work on the customization of the start screen though and see if it can replace the stacks I used before.

3) I don't like that the start screen disappears when I open a regular program. I have dual screens and I would like to have the windows for programs open on the right screen (which they do), but keep the start screen open on the left since it updates email, rss feeds, etc. in real time there. This may just be a setting issue

4) I like how it easily integerated my my gmail and google calendar into the win8 apps, however it is obvious that each computer profile is really designed for a single user. My wife uses my desktop on occasion and while I don't care if she sees that stuff, but if she wants to see her own stuff, I'm going to have to set her up her own user account/profile. Not a big deal, but just means one more step whenever someone wants to use the computer.

5) I liked how if you use a slideshow as a background the different screens have different background. Pretty minor, but something that always annoyed me before.

6) Took me a moment to figure out how to shut down Win8Apps (like mail). Going back to the start screen was easy, but the apps just hang out open in the background. Unless I missed it, you can't shut them down from within, you have to go to the left menu bar that shows all the open apps and right click and close them individually. Additionally, they don't show up on your standard menu bar like regular apps do, which is annoying to have some apps in one place, but not another.

7) The menu bar repeats itself over the two screens. This is both good and bad. It's good because when a Win8 app is open, while it doesn't show on the main monitor, it does show on the right. It's bad because it doesn't duplicate the system tray for some reason, just the program icons. And since the Win8 Apps fill the whole screen, you can't see anything, which annoys me. Particularly not being able to see the time. This again may simply be a settings issue

If I decide the start screen isn't for me, I can always do what this guy did:

Installed ClassicShell as StartIsBack is still in beta. Computer boots to the desktop, bypassing Metro. Start button is back. I even put the classic Win7 wallpaper back on.

So I basically have Windows 7 again, but with:

1. Faster boot and application times.
2. Native ISO and VHD support
3. Native USB3 support
4. Access to Windows apps (if I ever desire to use them)
5. Sandboxed instances of IE10
6. Much improved Task Manager
7. True copy/paste and cut/paste times
8. Taskbars on all 3 of my monitors, different wallpapers on different monitors

Apparently security is even better, as the Win8 code makes it much more difficult to access the NT kernel for exploits.

I guess this seems more like Windows 7 SP2 to me, rather than Windows 8.

Probably not enough for the average user to upgrade, but I'll probably do that if I decide I can't customize the start screen the way I like it.
 
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The thing about windows 8...

Its 1 better.

The clue is in the name:

Windows 7
Windows 8

If you look at the number after the word windows it reveals how powerful the windows is.

Because it is true that 7+1=8 we can safely assume its 1 more powerful. Possibly in the form of megabytes.

I'd upgrade NOW
 
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errrr.... following your way of thinking: Dragon Age 2 has to be 1 better than DA:O and Gothic 4 must be 3 better than Gothic 1?
 
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