Cheap Windows 8

[VectraMan]

There are some nice kernel improvements, however the face is so ugly not even 10 pints would help...

I blame Sinofsky - he should have been fired on the spot when he proposed Ribbon bulltulip

I really like the new ribbon interface for Explorer. And the new task manager is good too. It's only the lack of start button that spoils the desktop mode, which okay you can work around but you shouldn't really have to. And I don't like the flat look; what was wrong with Aero?

If I was buying a new PC tomorrow it would be a difficult choice. I wonder if there's a way of making it boot into desktop so you never have to see Metro?

[d000hg]

From looking at RC's etc. I got the impression it basically was W7 with a tablet-y UI.

In the sense that W7 and Vista are the same, yes. If they'd released W8 looking like W7, it would probably have got a great reception from IT types.

[d000hg]

I really like the new ribbon interface for Explorer. And the new task manager is good too. It's only the lack of start button that spoils the desktop mode, which okay you can work around but you shouldn't really have to. And I don't like the flat look; what was wrong with Aero?

If I was buying a new PC tomorrow it would be a difficult choice. I wonder if there's a way of making it boot into desktop so you never have to see Metro?

There are 3rd-party addons for this. I thought I'd hate the flat UI but in actuality, I barely noticed. Perhaps there's something to be said for a GUI that you don't notice.

[Cliphead]

I'm really trying to like it but...

I can go straight to the desktop and installed a freebie start button which works well. Even as a VM it boots quickly and is definitley faster, I thought something was wrong as it looked flat and then realised that's how it's meant to look.

As for the Metro thing try installing Skype through the 'store' and tell me it looks and works better than the desktop version which I installed as well. The Metro interface and apps on a large monitor just looks wrong and is of no use to me at all so I don't use it at all.

Will I put Win8 on a new PC? No, not as it stands there's just nothing new to offer me that Win7 does very well.

[d000hg]

Will I put Win8 on a new PC? No, not as it stands there's just nothing new to offer me that Win7 does very well.

I'd probably take it if it came on a new PC. I have suspicions that the tiles might be handy when you just boot in to use a few frequent apps briefly, but I would simply run in desktop and forget about that in reality I think.

[Cliphead]

I'd probably take it if it came on a new PC. I have suspicions that the tiles might be handy when you just boot in to use a few frequent apps briefly, but I would simply run in desktop and forget about that in reality I think.

Yeah my thoughts, desktop only.

Got all the latest updates an hour ago when I fired it up but it Defender shows definitions out of date so for the past hour has been downloading successfully, does a scan then tells me definitions are out of date, rinse and repeat five times so far.

[Sysman]

As for the Metro thing try installing Skype through the 'store' and tell me it looks and works better than the desktop version which I installed as well. The Metro interface and apps on a large monitor just looks wrong and is of no use to me at all so I don't use it at all.

Using Classic Shell here.

The first time I opened a PDF it went to the Metro PDF version which sits there like a dumb thing with no hints as to how you zoom in or whatever. Same feeling here. It not only looks wrong on a wide screen but when I have a reference manual or tutorial PDF open I usually want a couple more windows open so that I can bash in commands and see results.

Somewhat infuriatingly the first time I opened a PDF it popped up a message saying I had another app for that, but I didn't catch it in time and it disappeared. I then had a bit of a fight to persuade the thing to open PDFs in my desktop PDF reader (somewhere via right click and Open in Explorer)

Yes, much faster in a VM than the pox that was Win7 Home Premium preinstalled OEM version. I dunno what kind of devilry the OEM performed on that, but it was never as a fast as a clean install of Ultimate, even on the original hardware it came on.

[Sysman]

Got all the latest updates an hour ago when I fired it up but it Defender shows definitions out of date so for the past hour has been downloading successfully, does a scan then tells me definitions are out of date, rinse and repeat five times so far.

I didn't have that problem when I first installed it, but to get rid of the incessant prompts about updates being available I even went as a far as allowing Windows Update to do its thing automatically ( there's a problem waiting to happen). No joy there either, because Defender updates are coming at the rate of two a day at the moment. The auto update will catch one of them but the second one will trigger another alert. The daft thing is that if I follow the advice in the alert and open up Windows Update, it says there's nowt available; telling it to check again brings the next Defender one down.

[Durbs]

I've finally upgraded all my PC's/Laptops now after using it as a working platform in a VM for a while.

I actually like it now. When people say there is no start button, there is, took me a while to realise it but the Metro button in the bottom left IS the start button and works just the same really - what can't it do that the old start button couldn't? On my PC's here, the transition to Metro on my machines is as quick as the old start menu popping up.

What originally annoyed me was I am in the habit of using the run box to open stuff, e.g. hit start, type 'not', hit return if I want to open up Notepad for example.

When I first started using 8 I was cursing as I could no longer do this and was resorting to such crude things as creating shortcuts until I worked out its exactly the same, hit Metro button, type 'not', voila! Same as!

Mainly liking the speed though, shutdown especially is impressive, I hit shutdown on my i7 machine here and boom, it practically explodes into not-on-ness.

[mos]

I'm aware that MS have been doing cracking deals on upgrading new PCs to W8, and down-load only copies of W8 for older PCs, but what's the story here exactly?

Just got a new laptop with Windows 8. Its bloody awful, do not you think?