Windows 8!

[Alaric]

Anybody here download the developer preview? I'm going to resurrect an old XP machine and load the 32 bit version on it. I have a spare HDD so I'll just make it a dual boot. It's going to be my daughter's computer (mostly) so it should be a fun learning experience for both of us. Eventually I'll get around to loading the 64 bit on my backup HDD. I already have an .ISO disc for each version and I'll dig the old computer out of storage tomorrow. I'm not a huge fan of Micro$oft , but a free OS to play with could be fun since I haven't worked up the nerve yet to dive into Linux.

[Hdale85]

Might have to check it out.

[Alaric]

It's here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

[Industrial]

I have it installed dual Boot Win7/Win8 so far i really HATE windows 8. Its more of a downgrade in my eyes, unless you want your pc more like a smartphone.

[Alaric]

Ooooh. That ain't good. I haven't dug into it yet. I just realized my daughter's computer is so old it won't boot from a DVD because it's a CD drive! "Silly Daddy..."

[PewterTA]

You can easily remove the Metro interface by renaming c:\windows\system32\sxshs.dll (or might be shsxs.dll). That will disable it and give you back full "normal" windows.



I like it, the 8 second boot (from hitting the power button) on a HP 8540p laptop is really nice.

[Alaric]

8 second boot? Nice! I was all happy with the W7 improvement over XP and Vista. I just loaded XP Pro for my daughter's primary OS and I forgot how sloooowwww it is before massive tweaking.

[aarsoe]

The 8 seconds is a resume from suspension, not a cold boot. even resume from hibernation will take longer than that.

[impala454]

According to this article, Windows 8 is doing a hibernation on the kernel, even on a shutdown, which results in the faster booting. But different from the full hibernation, it's not copying all the open program memory. The gory details are in the article. Makes sense to me. I may have to give this a shot on my other comp.

[PewterTA]

It's following the same thing Apple has done with the iOS... the kernal does not shutdown and need reloaded everytime you boot the computer.

It's nice and quick... I think in the long run it'll be a welcome upgrade, but it's not going to be an XP - Win7 type of a change.

I just hope everyone is correct that they will give the option to use Metro or not. Shouldn't force people to use it when 90% of the people currently don't have touch capable machines.

[Industrial]

It's following the same thing Apple has done with the iOS... the kernal does not shutdown and need reloaded everytime you boot the computer.

It's nice and quick... I think in the long run it'll be a welcome upgrade, but it's not going to be an XP - Win7 type of a change.

I just hope everyone is correct that they will give the option to use Metro or not. Shouldn't force people to use it when 90% of the people currently don't have touch capable machines.

This I agree with! If its like a nice update to Win7 then I'm up for it. I hated the metro.

[impala454]

I'm having trouble installing it. Tried the USB install as directed but it won't complete. And the dang DVD drive in that comp is messed up.

[Alaric]

I had problems with the 32 bit download. Haven't been able to get it to boot yet. I haven't tried the 64 bit as of today.

[impala454]

Tried redownloading it, still will not finish the install. I wonder if it doesn't like the linux/win7 dual boot setup or something.

I did notice that when it asks "would you like to update setup files from the internet to make it a smoother install?", ever since then, my win7 install now complains about not being genuine (which it's not, but still). So I hesitate to try it on my main machine. Maybe when 8 comes out and has been proven I'll actually buy it for once :P

[Alaric]

PMd you about your win7 complaints.

[Alaric]

I wonder if Win8 can take full advantage of AMD's 6 core CPUs? I've been looking at (ok , wishing I could afford) the Phenom II x6 1100T as a potential upgrade for when W8 arrives. That's as new as I can go without a new mobo. If I won't get any real advantage from the extra 2 cores , the x4 980 is $30 cheaper.

[Hdale85]

Windows 7 uses all 6 cores?

[impala454]

Yeah Windows 7 certainly takes advantage of multiple cores, no matter how many you have. 8 will definitely be the same way.

It looks like the 32 bit version is actually installing. I tried every other way and no dice. x64 + dev tools via USB, x64 w/o dev tools via DVD and USB, and now 32 bit via DVD, and it seems to be installing correctly finally.

[Alaric]

Cool! I have a virtual drive installed (can't boot from it , though) so I may try to install from that and see what happens.
I didn't know if 7 or 8 would use 6 (or more) cores , but it surely utilizes 4! It also seems able to delegate to individual cores. When I run multiple apps or tasks cpu-z shows different levels of activity for all 4 cores , to the point of minor temp differences for short periods of time. Now I have to decide if I'll really use those extra 2 cores to full advantage or if I should just save the money and overclock a 980!

[Alaric]

Just tried 32 bit and was told to try the other disc with 64 bit. That was a little unsettling , as it was sitting on top of the tower!

[Alaric]

I was going to just put it in a new folder on my HDD but it seems to want to take over my Win7 install. Hmmmmm. More as it develops.
Tip#1 If you're running a 1st gen Phenom OC'd , your Win8 install will hang.
ops:

[impala454]

So finally got it installed (the 32 bit was the only one I could get to work). A few quick notes:

-The 8 second boot up is correct. From an unplugged state to completely booted is 8-9 seconds (counting from the end of the POST).

-THE UP BUTTON IS BACK!!!!! This was one of my biggest beefs from XP -> 7 was that stupid friggin up button was missing. I never would use the back/forward buttons on the explorer UI, just that one, and 7 did not have it (I actually ended up finding a program that would add it haha). 8 does add the ribbon style interface as per MS Office 2007+, but it is collapsible. A+ on the explorer UI.

-So one thing I didn't realize was that the "metro" UI is actually the start menu replacement. I'm a little undecided on it so far. I am running it on my living room media PC so having it on the TV looks pretty nice.

-The task manager is a vast improvement. Each process has its CPU time, memory, and even network usage. Very nice.

-Automatic driver installation. So I noticed it actually went out and downloaded the Intellitype and Intellipoint software automatically (it was an option during the install to auto download drivers and stuff). Not sure how I feel about this yet but it did seem pretty nice.

more to come...

[Alaric]

Question for you , Chuck: Is this going to make my Win7 install irretrieveable? I wanted to play a little , but I don't have a spare HDD at the moment. My second drive has a backup image on it. I have a repair disc , as well as install disc for Win7 , but hadn't planned on a weekend of having to use them to recover my PC!
Win8 seems bound and determined to upgrade Win7 and won't accept a seperate place on my HDD. I have 575 GB of room for it , it just insists on the Win7 spot.

[impala454]

Not real sure, I just did a clean install.

[Alaric]

I booted from the CD and tried to get it to play nice on the same HDD but no-go. It wants to upgrade or reformat the whole drive and take over. Looks like my daughter's PC becomes the only tester in the house. It looks promising , and what I saw looks pretty fast , but I'm not ready to risk my whole OS install on my only computer just yet. I'll see if it will "upgrade" XP but I beleve it will do what 7 does-Resistance Is Futile!-and insist on a clean install. After getting hers up and running , I have doubts as to whether her hardware is up to it , though. http://www.compuvest.com/Desc.jsp?iid=1625322

[Alaric]

I'm copying it to a NTFS formatted USB flash for the install. I forgot the test mule doesn't have a DVD drive. It was probably a nice rig in 1999! But it has an extra HDD for installation so what the heck!

Oops. Have to find at least 1 GB of SDRAM for it to work. Back to the drawing board

[Alaric]

Next of many Oops. It seems to have screwed up formatting the HDD. It's only a 13 GB drive , but it took all of it for the install. I'll try formatting the drive from W7 , then booting from the DVD and so on. I'm assuming it uses NTFS , LOL.

[Alaric]

You can easily remove the Metro interface by renaming c:\windows\system32\sxshs.dll (or might be shsxs.dll). That will disable it and give you back full "normal" windows.



I like it, the 8 second boot (from hitting the power button) on a HP 8540p laptop is really nice.

Good to know. I'll try this on my current install first. That way if I screw it up it won't matter. :T

[Chris D]

I'm interested to read how this goes for you guys, with your thoughts of Win 8.

[Alaric]

So far Win 8 is working faster than 7 for me , but it's still a clean install and a lot of programs I have in 7 don't work in 8. I'll see how it does when I squeeze the 7 GB of programs I have in there. A little unstable at first , but the update from MS fixed that. IE 10 seems to rip Firefox a new one in speed-based performance comparisons , but it's resource usage is almost the same. I was really hoping for speed and mileage from it , but I may be too optimistic there. I suppose I'm going to have to upgrade my RAM as 4 GB isn't enough in the 21st century (!). I was hoping to snag a Phenom II X4 980 from newegg instead , but 3700 MHz won't help if my memory is the bottleneck.
So far though , Win 8 seems to be a winner.

[Alaric]

Found the perfect cure for too many OS and not enough computers/HDDs! VMWare's virtual computers. I'm running a virtual mavhine with Vista 32 bit , one with FreeBSD , and Win 8 is next. With 750 GBs on one HDD and enough processor and RAM to run a couple full Windows machines at the same time this should be fun.

[impala454]

Yeah virtual machines sure make it nice to try new stuff out. I have an XP virtual machine I use to download and try any new piece of software to decide if I like it enough for the real machine. VirtualBox is a great free alternative to VMWare if anyone wants to check it out.

[Hdale85]

Ok, anyone figure out how to disable this stupid signed driver check? I tried one method but it didn't work. The driver for my touch screen is unsigned and it's blocking it from running....

[Alaric]

I had to use a command line prompt. I'll poke around and see if I can locate the command I used.

[Alaric]

http://www.windows8update.com/2011/11/10/disabling-driver-enforcement-in-windows-7-and-8/

This looks easier than what I went through.

[Hdale85]

Hmm...manually signing each driver? I tried a command line thing but it didn't work.

[Hdale85]

Ugh....maybe I'll just put Windows 7 on here instead....lol

[Alaric]

Yeah , I think I did it for each driver I was loading.It was for a VMWare issue I was having.

[Hdale85]

Well Windows 7 has the same issue apparently lol.

[Alaric]

Ubuntu? lol

[Hdale85]

I was pointed to a digitally signed driver

[Alaric]

Cool! Other than this issue , how is 8 working for your project? Any other issues?

[Hdale85]

Well I installed 7 when I mentioned it lol, but I may put 8 back on it.

[Alaric]

Now that we're "settling in" someplace I will be getting back into W8. Last few weeks have been hectic , to say the least. Later today I'll be taking my computer apart for cleaning and reloading a couple hard drives. Lots of dust out here. I may rename my tower "Tombstone" lol.

[Alaric]

Disabling the Metro interface

It's pretty easy. Open regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer
In the right pane double-click the RPEnabled key and change the value from 1 to 0. Then just log off and log back on and voila! Classic Windows desktop. :T
The Beta was released this morning so I downloaded it. My developer preview went to replace Vista on my wife's laptop after a HDD failure. When I updated the install I got a product key for it , which will tie it to that computer , so I got a Beta for my desktop. It wants to replace Windows 7 and I want it on a seperate HDD so I probably won't get to it for a few days. If I have to I'll pull the Win 7 drive , install 8 on the other one , and set the BIOS up for a dual boot configuration. If MS follows past release history , 8 will be the filler until the next good OS. They seem to make every other one a turkey , so I don't want to wipe my Win 7 completely.
Anybody else still working with Windows 8? Any new discoveries or tweaks to share?