Jump to content

Windows 8 Developer Preview download available


Mr Snrub

Recommended Posts

Consumers buy more tablets and iPads than PCs now, and they're still in their infancy - once they become more mature (and an OS like this is sure to help that along), I'm guessing developers will end up needing to learn how to use the new UI, or stick with unsupported software.

This is ok, but I'M DESKTOP USER, NO TABLET USER!!!!. I DON'T WANT IT ON MY DESKTOP, because I have NO benefit from the new UI, ONLY DISADVANTAGES. For tablets with touch hardware (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371581%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) the new UI can be enabled by default, but NOT for home users on desktops.

Why is this always so complicated to implement options in MS tools? Also the useless ribbon in the Explorer uses too much space. Only 10% used the command bar and most users have 768 pixels, so MS wasted the valuably vertical space. Option to disable it? No! Well done! I hope you can see my sarcasm.

The look of the Win7 Explorer + the removed functions from Vistas Explorer and TABS would be nice to have in Windows 8. Those are required improvements, not this teletubby UI.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


First, be calm - this is a developer preview, not a full build. It's in tablet form now, probably because the kinds of things OEMs and developers will need to focus on will be tablet-style hardware and the new Metro UI for applets (desktop PCs and apps are, as expected, kind of mature at this point in history ;) ). From all we've heard so far, defaulting to the desktop app will be possible, and we've not heard definitively on the start menu being totally gone or not (it's possible either way). Rant on the blog, but considering it's not even a beta yet, I wouldn't get too worked up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is ok, but I'M DESKTOP USER, NO TABLET USER!!!!. I DON'T WANT IT ON MY DESKTOP, because I have NO benefit from the new UI, ONLY DISADVANTAGES. For tablets with touch hardware (http://msdn.microsof...v=vs.85%29.aspx) the new UI can be enabled by default, but NOT for home users on desktops.
Conversely, a consistent interface is a big bonus for developers (and ultimately users) - they can be device-agnostic and get a predictable user experience (if you've ever tried web development you understand the pain of trying to get a standard look across machines with different resolutions, aspects, browsers, etc.).

I would assume there'll be a method to disable Metro, or at least have the classic desktop experience as the default, but it's early days yet.

(I was kind of surprised myself to see the Server had the Metro interface out of the box too.)

Why is this always so complicated to implement options in MS tools? Also the useless ribbon in the Explorer uses too much space. Only 10% used the command bar and most users have 768 pixels, so MS wasted the valuably vertical space. Option to disable it? No! Well done! I hope you can see my sarcasm.
The ribbons have auto-hide if the space is an issue - and "swiping" bars/charms in with Windows 8 is a more practical method of getting access to uncommonly-used icons, instead of having them pop-up unexpectedly with a mouseover.

The user experience & interface evolves and adapts to demands - from the DOS prompt up to MS-DOS 6.22, Program Manager in Windows 3.x, various 3rd party "docks" for Windows 3.x (I used HP's Dashboard in the early 90's), the Start menu appearance with Windows 95 and its subsequent reinventions in XP (which at the time was also dubbed "Teletubby UI" ;)), Vista and 7.

Software does, on occasion, require reinvention, or we'd all still be using command-line OS's (and consider running DOSKEY.COM a hack), editing documents with vi or EDIT.COM.

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone wants to install their DevPreview in audit mode... :)

ProductKey is the install key from the DVD.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="windowsPE">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<UserData>
<ProductKey>
<Key>6RH4V-HNTWC-JQKG8-RFR3R-36498</Key>
<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
</ProductKey>
<AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
</UserData>
<ImageInstall>
<OSImage>
<InstallTo>
<DiskID>0</DiskID>
<PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
</InstallTo>
<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
</OSImage>
</ImageInstall>
<DiskConfiguration>
<Disk wcm:action="add">
<ModifyPartitions>
<ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
<Active>true</Active>
<Extend>true</Extend>
<Format>NTFS</Format>
<Label>System</Label>
<Letter>C</Letter>
<Order>1</Order>
<PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
</ModifyPartition>
</ModifyPartitions>
<DiskID>0</DiskID>
<WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
<CreatePartitions>
<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
<Order>1</Order>
<Size>20480</Size>
<Extend>false</Extend>
<Type>Primary</Type>
</CreatePartition>
</CreatePartitions>
</Disk>
<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
</DiskConfiguration>
</component>
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<SetupUILanguage>
<UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage>
</SetupUILanguage>
<InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
<SystemLocale>en-us</SystemLocale>
<UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage>
<UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
</component>
</settings>
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Reseal>
<Mode>Audit</Mode>
</Reseal>
</component>
</settings>
<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:d:/sources/install_windows vista business.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the new startscreen is a disaster :realmad::no: I never had such an bad UX :puke::thumbdown I have to search several minutes to do the simplest basics. Hopefully we can select which startmenu we want to use on desktop systems. On touch based tablets it may be really cool but it sucks completely with Mouse and keyboard. :crazy::crazy::crazy:

It also runs with VMWare Workstation 8. I have no issues with VirtualBox.

I agree, it looks like they are trying to compete with Apple and instead of creating two different OS platforms, one for tablets and one for desktops, they are trying to cram everything into one. Mark my words if / when Windows 8 flops because of this, the next gen OS will have two different platforms.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

My 2 cents:

  • the new explorer UI is somewhat nicer, and so are the improved copy dialogs (especially for those who of us who move many large files around all the time)
  • task manager isn't quite process explorer but it's nicer
  • hyper-v brings a better VM environment to the desktop. Although I will keep vmware instead, in part due to using vsphere/vcenter and workstation at work.
  • mounting ISOs and VHDs is nice to have but it's too basic

Metro is beyond awful though.

Edit:

editing documents with vi or EDIT.COM

Pfft, edit.com! Edlin is where it's at... Ok, not. That was truly horrific (although I've seen worse), especially compared to qedit!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I am not nuts about the start screen, but I do strongly agree with your last two statements I like the idea of having hyper v! and I really like the fact that you can mount vhds and iso. I like to move back and forth between the real system and the VMs. Another thing I like is how at times explorer is like MS Office I use office a lot so it feels familiar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hyper-V sucks. The guest perf is terrible and a lot of users can't use it because of the SLAT requirement if they use Intel CPUs becasue only the Intel i Core CPUs support it. Also the mouse pointer lags extremely. There is still no WDDM guest driver. They use the software rendering driver from Windows 8. VMWare Player 4 wins on the desktop!!!!

VHD and ISO mounting is bad, because you can specifiy a fixed driver letter and there is no automount feature. Some software require a reboot and next drive is gone and install fails. Explroer sucks completely because of vertical space wasting. The ribbons is too large. Look at the blog entry and you can see that most users have 768 or 800 vertical pixels. so the ribbons waste to much space and the QAT only allows 6 commands to be added :(

I'll skip "Windows Telebubby" completely. This large compromise of mixing Desktop and tablet UI into 1 Windows is terrible to use. I now installed Ubuntu 11.10 and played a bit with it. I like it much better compared to the new Teletubby Windows. I'll only use the new tools (ADK, WPT) with Vista Sp2 and Win7 Images.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have noticed that drag-n-drop into a command prompt (to insert the path) does not work in W8. A search revealed this did not work in Vista. Has it reverted or is there a work around? Thanks and Enjoy, John.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...