Poll: Windows 8 Experience (How do you like it?)

By Steven P.
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Veteran

deck

Posted
Posted

Are you sure you used the Release Preview and not the consumer preview ?

because I can have metro on one pof my screen and do my desktop or any other desktop app on the other as much as I want.

To clarify, as I may have gotten my names confused, I used the Consumer Preview and the RTM. I could not have Metro run exclusively on one monitor. Whenever I used an app on my desktop monitor, Metro would disappear and the desktop would appear on the second monitor.

Grand Master

Frogboy Administrators

Posted
  • Administrators
Posted

I wonder how many people who said "awesome" about installation were doing it on a clean machine versus an upgrade of an existing Windows 7 partition. The experience I had in both cases was night and day.

Veteran

deck

Posted
Posted

I wonder how many people who said "awesome" about installation were doing it on a clean machine versus an upgrade of an existing Windows 7 partition. The experience I had in both cases was night and day.

My upgrade process was quite good. I started the install and 30 minutes later it was done... maybe sooner. Installing RTM fresh took a little longer.

Veteran

deck

Posted
Posted

I also want to point out that at first I was very pro Win8. I argued with Windows, Linux and Mac friends about the merits of Win8 for 2 months even though I was having doubts after the first few weeks. I gave this system a good try and ran it exclusively.

Neowinian

Stoic Joker

Posted
Posted

I wonder how many people who said "awesome" about installation were doing it on a clean machine versus an upgrade of an existing Windows 7 partition. The experience I had in both cases was night and day.

Which is somewhat irrelevant as the same could be said of Win7/Vista/XP/... Upgrades always take longer, especially of one has many large/complex applications installed. My upgrade from Vista to 7 took 8 hours. Clean loading Vista on the same machine only took about an hour.

The Win8 install is indeed quite fast.

Grand Master

PGHammer

Posted
Posted

Which is somewhat irrelevant as the same could be said of Win7/Vista/XP/... Upgrades always take longer, especially of one has many large/complex applications installed. My upgrade from Vista to 7 took 8 hours. Clean loading Vista on the same machine only took about an hour.

The Win8 install is indeed quite fast.

What was your source and what was your destination?

We already know the preferred destination for an OS install (any OS install) is an SSD - however, sources for the install vary as much as users themselves. In all my installs (bare-metal and otherwise), I've found that the best bare-metal install to a hard drive is from a thumb drive (4GB or larger).

Okay - why *larger* than 4 GB?

Simple - I chose a larger thumb drive so I can add things like motherboard drivers, utilities, etc. to the thumb drive (since slipstreaming is a non-starter at present).

Also, there is little price difference between 4GB and 8GB thumb drives - especially when you buy more than one.

Contributor

CAP-Team

Posted
Posted

My desktop PC had a clean install of Win8 RTM, no problems, runs like a charm.

My laptop was upgraded from Win7 Ultimate to Win8Pro, A new account and my own account worked just fine, but my wife's account didn't. Couldn't start the Store app. Not even with a new profile.

Then I did a fresh install and then it worked just fine.

Collaborator

contextfree

Posted
Posted

To clarify, as I may have gotten my names confused, I used the Consumer Preview and the RTM. I could not have Metro run exclusively on one monitor. Whenever I used an app on my desktop monitor, Metro would disappear and the desktop would appear on the second monitor.

The reason for this is that the Start screen is not really a "Metro mode", it's basically just a different UI for the Start menu. As such, it works like the Start menu always has - click anywhere outside the Start menu in Windows 7, or press the Windows key a second time, and it goes away. Click anywhere outside the Start screen in Windows 8 (i.e. on a different monitor), or press the Windows key a second time, and it goes away. Windows 8 hasn't actually changed anything in this regard, it's just the same as before - except Start now looks a lot different of course ...

Grand Master

Calum Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
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5, 5, 4.

The installation and compatibility were awesome. The features are brilliant, and the operating system is great overall, but I just wish there was no need for the old Desktop mode. As there's still need for that and the transition between "Desktop" and "Metro" isn't as good as it can be, I went for option number 4 on the last question. Further, one contributing factor to me going for option 4 was the lack of toast notifications (especially for Facebook Notifications) and auto-refresh of What's New in the People app. I was pretty devastated that those features weren't included, especially because I'd like to dock the app to the side to stay updated on my Facebook News Feed and OS X has toast Facebook notifications :/

  • 3 weeks later...
Grand Master

Yorak

Posted
Posted

5, 4, 1.

The installation was seamless. Everything worked fine out of the box including video and wireless. Almost all of the programs I use on a regular basis were working just fine. A few tossed out an error message or two saying it would not be compatible, but they worked fine anyways. I only had an issue with HIPS on ESET NOD32 (and I think that eventually got fixed) and some other obscure program. The features are doing nothing for me. Metro just does not fit in with my work flow. Sure, after using it for over a month I got used to it. However, there is nothing in Metro that I like. If we are going to have applications open there, why only a few? I would rather have all or nothing. It is very sloppy and out of place. I want nothing to do with the apps that come pre-installed. I will never use them. As I believe I have said on another thread, the search function just is not as powerful as it was on Windows 7. I do not like having the search broken down in three different categories. I know what I am looking for 100% of the time so I would rather just type in a portion of it, hit enter and go.

So while other people had issues with the default themes and the loss of Aero in window borders, I did not have a problem with that. I do? find that I am more efficient in my work on Windows 7. I finally re-installed it today, and it feels good to be home. To be honest, I think the only thing I will miss is the new Task Manager in Windows 8. The performance tweaks are nice, but if you hardly noticeable (unless you are using some seriously aging hardware). In the end, use what makes you the most comfortable. That is what I will be doing. Not because I was afraid of change (I gave it over a month, that is plenty of time), but because it better suits me.

Collaborator

JetFixxxer

Posted
Posted

I pretty much like everything except the Metro APPS. I don't find myself using them at all and I dislike with a passion that you have no control over the settings in the APPS. For example Solitaire I don't like the timer or keeping score. I would like to be able to right click on the app and choose the settings or be able to log out and sign in with another account.

Grand Master

zhangm Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted

I pretty much like everything except the Metro APPS. I don't find myself using them at all and I dislike with a passion that you have no control over the settings in the APPS. For example Solitaire I don't like the timer or keeping score. I would like to be able to right click on the app and choose the settings or be able to log out and sign in with another account.

Timer can be turned off under Settings: Win + C, Settings, Timer.

Mentor

grayscale

Posted
Posted

I pretty much like everything except the Metro APPS. I don't find myself using them at all and I dislike with a passion that you have no control over the settings in the APPS. For example Solitaire I don't like the timer or keeping score. I would like to be able to right click on the app and choose the settings or be able to log out and sign in with another account.

The settings option is universal on all apps and reside on the Charms bar.

Experienced

Tech085

Posted
Posted

5, 4, 4... It's okay but there could be improvement., and like the ATI Graphics Driver for Windows 8 is in Beta and there are bugs with firefox with it for right now., and some other things that could be improve with Windows 8.

Grand Master

Denis W. Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Rated four to all. I posted my thoughts in another thread.

Beside Alt+F4 how do you close an app?

Background apps can be closed by middle clicking on the tiles in the left-edge switcher, just as you can middle click on desktop window thumbnails and browser tabs.

Collaborator

JetFixxxer

Posted
Posted

- Drag the upper edge down

Thanks.

Rated four to all. I posted my thoughts in another thread.

Background apps can be closed by middle clicking on the tiles in the left-edge switcher, just as you can middle click on desktop window thumbnails and browser tabs.

Aaaah.

I either ALT+F4 them or closed them by right clicking on the left-edge switcher and selecting close..

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