Windows 8 A View into Windows8

[Drew]

I ran the DP from mid-September 2011. Messed w/ it sporadically. Since 29/2/12 have been solidly w/ Windows8. To little time to learn it, personalise it. I'm running dual-boot w/ Windows7, both x64. The Start is of little concern... I boot to the Desktop... have customized start but visit it rately. The lack of old start menu & windows orb is meaningless. Navigating Win8 is smooth, easy, convenient & quick. Moussing, rather than Touch, goes just fine. There are some ok Features, particularly like Ribbon in Windows Explorer windows, what is in FILE & that access to Event viewer, cmd, cmd as Admin, is all over the place. Search is very cool, especially typing to open real estate on Start to search. I will say, emphatically, Keyboard shortcuts & Quick Launch make life w/ Windows8 much nicer than otherwise.

As for performance, it is stunning!! RAM usage is low. CPU usage is low. Speed & snappiness impressive. So far, I have hit not snags or glitches, except for once the screen saver got stuck. I have discovered any software or hardware issues. No 'installation' of any devices was needed, Windows8 took care of everything all by itself w/ immediacy @ the onset. It does do some neat & helpful things. I'll end this diatribe by using some unexpected adjectives... I have been using various Windows OSs for a long time. I'm actually in IT & have worked on many machines & done many installs. I beta-tested Vista & Windows7... they were not as refined, @ the beginning of the Betas as Windows8 Beta is. The APPs are another story...seem noticeably unfinished. The install time on Windows8 is the fastest I've ever seen @ about 10-15 mins. But, back to the adjectives... the point was, after other OSs to compare & in mind, Windows8 just has this calm, relaxed, quiet, happy feel about it. You are welcome to try to figure out what I mean... techno jargon doesn't express it.

Because of all of the above & more, I find Windows8 fun, enjoyable & technically impressive. How it will be received is hard to say. The design goal were ominous & probably have been achieved. The compatibility base is huge. The resource requirements are tiny, resource usage is low. The under-the-covers Features for enterprise are outstanding. It's the most secure & fastest booting OS, ever. I either see extreme balking or marked excitement. Getting End Users past the learning curve will be the challenge. Once you found a comfort zone, some understanding, a degree of competency, it is/can be a very pleasant, pleasing & interesting experience. It is different but, @ least, equally dynamic.

Drew

 

[Medico]

I have hit some snags with my WLM recovering and duplicating storage folders and causing a mess, twice now, so I will stick with Win 7 for checking my mail for now. I had both pointing to the same folders and found it started having hiccups. I guess I will just check mail less often and switch back when I do.

I like to use the most advanced editor in these forums and because of the Enter button snafu, find I have to switch to the Standard Editor to get the Enter button to actually work when moving to a new paragraph. This is a problem reported in and carried forward from Win 8 DP. I had hoped it would have been fixed. Many others have said they have the same problem.

When typing along, my cursor will suddenly jump backward to another section of the paragraph I am working on. You can imagine the mess that creates. Especially if you do not catch it quickly. This might be related to the Enter button but I suspect not because it happens in the Standard Editor as well.

Yes I realize these are little quirks and this is after all a beta, but the last 2 were happening and were reported in Win 8 DP and were not addressed. That is dissappointing. I will continue to work in Win 8 CP for much of my time for the reason Drew has alluded to above. My hope is that MS will start fixing some of these small irritations along with fixing what they see as the big things like the Metro apps only partly done.

 

[davehc]

I am not a natural typist, and have similar probs, Ted. I have a lazy tendency not to read too closely, what I have typed. When I follow up a post, I often find, because of these quirks, that I have words, and even lines, of gibbersish. I have adopted the habit now of writing first in notepad or similar and then pasting.
I feel the ribbon is a little too overendowed, for use in explorer, but, nevertheless, I opted to use "STDU explorer" in Windows 7, so that I have.
Installation. I installed both 7 and 8, with dhardware rivers, including a very old Laser printer, without my intervention. internet access was ready and waiting on arrival at the desktop, in both.
I have emphasised, before, that my testbed is a very average model stationary, dual partition boot, 4 gbs memory.
I have to confess that the performance on my 8 is a little (nothing significant) sluggish compared to 7. CVould be due to a low grade graphics card, as Windows 8 is much more graphic intensive.

These are my two resource monitors. Both are performing under exactly the same conditions. Axs you can see, nothing there of significant performance difference.

 

[Medico]

I wonder how to best report these minor problems to MS. There are some Metro apps that provide a feedback tool, but there do not seem to be similar feedback tools all over. I do not like and do not envision using the Metro IE 10 app at all. I suppose I should see if these Enter Button and typing problems occur in the Metro IE 10 app. Perhaps there is a feedback tool there. Maybe I will get a chance to do that, if I can get past my gag reflex when I start that monstrosity.

 

[Medico]

I give up. I cannot use the Metro IE 10. I cannot get LastPass to work. I cannot remember my signin info for sites. I cannot find feedback links anyway. I cannot find favorites. I cannot find ANYTHING in Metro IE 10. This must be in very early stage of build. I am surprised MS even placed it into the OS. It is terrible.

I will keep the Desktop version of IE 10, thankyou.

 

[davehc]

On the feedback, Ted. There are several MS employees, of different ranks, as well as several MVPs. They will, in many cases, use your information to post through their sources.
Meanwhile, you could try here:

Link Removed
Just a precautionary word. At some stage, should you get accepted, they will ask if they can have access to your computer.

 

[Drew]

Here's an offer...

You are welcome to pass things to me & I will submit them directly to the Windows8 Build Team. I am a MS Beta-tester & have an established direct reporting link. Would just need comments written up in a presentable form.

Drew

 

[Medico]

I will do both gentlemen. I have further work to do however. A while ago my Win 8 CP froze while sleeping and I had to do a hard power down to unfreeze. It zapped my Win 7 so that I had to recover from an Image again. I am thinking of starting my Win 8 CP installation over from scratch. Something is causing problems. Twicw now freeze ups have led to having to restore Win 7. This is not nice. I will keep you advised.

 

[davehc]

You are probably aware, ted, that there is an official Windows 8 forum, where you can also express your views.
Windows - Microsoft Answers

There is also one. more in depth, here.
Link Removed

 

[Medico]

I will bookmark both. I have been having problems because I believe my initial installation was an upgrade (I should have known better) Am downloading a new iso file to burn to DVD to start over now. Hope by end of day to be back where I was this am. Will make a new Image once I have everything where I want it again. I will then bookmark both these sites. Thanks.

 

[Trouble]

And yet another if no body has already mentioned it here Windows 8 IT Pro Category

 

[OldTimer]

Sleeping? I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, allow my OS's to go to sleep or hibernate. That's one of the first things that I disable on any install.
Both have been causing havoc for years. (when will they ever learn?)

 

[Drew]

Cool, Randy. I write there, myself. Wasn't sure it was ok to point to other forums. But, ride on! It is a good resource, also.