SubJeff on 27/10/2012 at 19:55

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Got this today and been playing with it a bit and here are my first impressions.

Everything seems compatible, Steam, Chrome, even the Planetside 2 beta. No probs on that front so far.

Good:

- Seems a little faster than Win7.
- The Mail app is pretty nice on a big screen. I do have 2x27inch 16:9 screens so ymmv, but having my MS, Gmail and work email (IMAP) all in one place is working out fine. I like the 3 columns - mailboxes, email list and actual email.
- Calendar app. It's synced with my Google calendar and works well on a large screen.

Bad:
- App store navigation. It's rubbish. A balls up. The riff raff who designed this deserve a damned good thrashing at the very least. You cannot scroll left or right with the mouse, there is no mouse grab and you cannot use the mousewheel. Doubtless you'll swipe your finger on a touchscreen so why can't they think?
- Start screen customisation. This needs to be more customisable. It could easily replace the normal desktop it were more tweakable, especially since there is an app list on the left that is activated by a mouse gesture - something people will be (getting) used to on smartphones and tablets.
- No multiple Google calendars. Boo. Perhaps I haven't found out how to do it but it would be really nice.
- The app list seems to only be an app list. Why not other programs?


Conclusion:
- Some nice ideas, but doesn't seem to go far enough. Or if it does it's not obvious enough.

Al_B on 28/10/2012 at 09:34

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I've installed this on our media centre PC that for the last few years has been running Vista and is controlled mainly via a keyboard which has a "nipple" style mouse control.

Although I'm still waiting for the media center product key (available for free at the moment (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs) from here) I've had a play with the rest of it. So far it seems very nice for this computer's role. Some of the apps (tune in radio, netflix, youtube) are much more suited for a TV interface and smoother than using the internet browser equivalents. It also seems slicker than Vista on the same hardware but that might be psychological. Biggest problems are closing apps (it would be nice to be able to press "back" to exit as you can do in android apps) and it would be good if you could easily see on the start screen which apps are open.

However, I'm dreading having to use this on my work PC. I just can't see how it will be more efficient to find regular programs and explaining over the phone how to reach areas of the control panel is going to take some getting used to. It's certainly one of the biggest user interface shifts from previous versions and I can't see it causing anything other than general confusion and disruption.

bikerdude on 28/10/2012 at 10:54

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Morning chaps

I too have just bought Win8 (because it was so cheap, why not etc)

The fix for the start menu problem is free and very simple, its called "(http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/) Classic shell" which I have been using for years on Win7 and has been Win8 compatible since version 3.6.0. I've been using it as I prefer the classic windows menu over the idiotic starmenu MS forced upon us and now no menu at all in 8. Classic shell is highly customizable and even has options for windows explorer and Internet explorer. And lastly it has a tickbox to "DISABLE" metro(what ever the f*** MS are calling it now) on startup!
http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/images/screenshot.png

I have other fixes and workarounds for various other things MS has changed and will post them in due course. I wont be installing win8 untill my gfx card turns up.

Renzatic on 28/10/2012 at 11:03

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Move down to the bottom left corner where the new start button lives, right click, and...

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3018396/power_user_menu.jpg

...bam! Sweet power user options. All in once place.



I can't answer the first question, unfortunately. I'd suggest reading the Ars Technica review and walkthrough to see if you like it.

The second? For me, it's about the easiest Windows upgrade I've ever been through. I downloaded the launcher, fired it up, bought a key from inside of it, set a couple of options, waited about 45 minutes for it to install, set my theme colors and user accounts, then I was on my new desktop. Honestly, I don't think I made more than 8 clicks the entire time. Unless you want to reset your partitions or anything, there's no reason not to start the install from your desktop.

Unfortunately, I was upgrading from the release preview, so I wasn't able to keep anything but my /user folder. That said, jumping from Vista on supposedly allows you to keep everything intact without any problems whatsoever. I haven't read any complaints about it screwing anyone over yet, anyway.

Though to be on the safe side, I would suggest making an image of your drive, then cleaning your caches and wiping out anything unnecessary beforehand. It might seem like overkill, but you can never be too cautious when jumping to a new OS.

Renzatic on 28/10/2012 at 11:17

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While I'm not gonna knock anyone for doing it, I don't understand this need some people have to bring back the old start menu. It's not like the new fullscreen one makes any real changes to the basic formula. Well, besides getting rid of nested menus...

...but I hate nested menus. :mad:

The start screen is the exact same thing, only fullscreen, better organized, and able to display more information than just icons and shortcuts. (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3018396/motherfucking_paisley_fish.jpg) Also motherfucking paisley fish.