Keirgarth Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 I have just installed the developer preview version of Windows 8 and have a couple of things to convey to all of you. First off and most important in my opinion is what happens during the install process. If you have a second hard drive and are thinking that you can install Windows 8 and dual boot so you can check things out, think again. Windows 8 did not allow me to choose an OS to boot to once I had the install completed. I had to boot from my Windows 7 DVD and choose the repair option to be able to get back into my normal OS of Windows 7. This alone is reason enough to avoid this OS. Secondly, the start menu is no longer there. Instead of the start menu, the system boots into a web page that doesn't have any navigation features to speak of other than icons on the page. These icons reflect standard options you would see in the start menu as well as programs that are installed. The icons are huge. Some are pretty, some are ugly but they are all way too large for my taste and I use a 1680 X 1050 desktop setting. Things that are missing are simple things that are necessary for me most of the time. For instance, there is no options here to turn the system off, restart, or even log off the system. Common tasks like Windows Update seem to not be able to be accessed from here. To be honest, I am not even sure where I would go in Windows 8 to access Windows Update. You can get to the control panel you are used to, but only after jumping through a couple of hoops. There is a control panel icon in this start menu screen you see, and that takes you to a similar view with common tasks on the left with results on the right. I clicked on Windows Update and it showed the settings for it, but I was unable to change these settings from here. The way to get to the normal control panel is through a link at the bottom that says more options or more settings, can't remember the exact wording. I realize this is a developer release and not ready for prime time, but if this is any indication of what is to come, then I for one will refuse to spend my money on this new OS. I like my system to be intuitive as well as functional and I feel that MS has gone overboard with the way they set up the OS this time. Gone are the easy days. And in case some of you may think that I may just not know much about computers, I have a long background in working on computers as well as troubleshooting and installing windows in many different environments. I have been a partner in a computer store and the lead networking technician for the store. I have worked with large companies doing tech work, one such company was UPS. So if I am having second thoughts about how well this is going to go over, I am pretty sure the average user is going to freak out and not be able to get things done very easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboUK Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 From what I've seen so far it does look like one to avoid, anyway Windows 7 is rock solid and supported until 2015 so 8 will have to be pretty special for me to take a chance on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyYou Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 I am still running XP..... I don't have any desire to upgrade. I have played with the newer versions of windows, and they do not offer anything beyond what I have now, and in fact, they REMOVE features that I want. (directsound anyone?) I won't *upgrade* until I have no other choice. Side Note: How does Microsoft define an "upgrade"? Replacing software that doesn't work, with software that doesn't work, in a different way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthmoor Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 The law of Windows upgrades states: For every version of Windows that works, there exists an opposite version of Windows that does not. Windows 95: BadWindows 98: GoodWindows ME: BadWindows XP: GoodWindows Vista: BadWindows 7: Good Therefore one would fully expect: Windows 8: Bad. The logical conclusion then is to wait for Windows 9. This doesn't quite hold for the corporate side since Windows 2000 was good, which gave way to XP, and both 3.1 and NT were bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyYou Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 The law of Windows upgrades states: For every version of Windows that works, there exists an opposite version of Windows that does not. Windows 95: BadWindows 98: GoodWindows ME: BadWindows XP: GoodWindows Vista: BadWindows 7: Good Therefore one would fully expect: Windows 8: Bad. The logical conclusion then is to wait for Windows 9. This doesn't quite hold for the corporate side since Windows 2000 was good, which gave way to XP, and both 3.1 and NT were bad. That is very true. :D I like the way you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keirgarth Posted September 15, 2011 Author Share Posted September 15, 2011 For the time that they existed, I would have to argue that Windows NT was actually good if you were using it for business. For gaming, it was bad though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cancausecancer Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 I have just installed the developer preview version of Windows 8 and have a couple of things to convey to all of you. How is it speed wise? How much memory does the OS take up after booting (how much mem do u have installed too). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor. Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Xbox 360 games on Windows 8 ohh yeaaa :teehee: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keirgarth Posted September 15, 2011 Author Share Posted September 15, 2011 Speed wise I haven't tested it as I was really disappointed with what I had seen and stopped looking. I did try the 64bit version btw and have a total of 5gigs of ram installed. Obviously there are a lot of utilities that I couldn't attempt to try due to them being for my specific OS and not for Windows 8 such as my keyboard utils. (I use a G15 keyboard) Finding the resource monitor showed that I was using about 22% of my memory, so that is slightly less than my normal for Win7, but again I was unable to install some things that would have used the memory. The install took 18.6gig's of space and also setup a reserved partition during the install which was 349Mb in size of which it used 236Mb. The reserved partition houses the boot info, system volume info and a couple of other folders that are hidden and system flagged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonger Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 From what I've seen so far it does look like one to avoid, anyway Windows 7 is rock solid and supported until 2015 so 8 will have to be pretty special for me to take a chance on it.somehow they get around this by making Win8 the only OS you can get on a new system (just wait, it'll happen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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