Looks like the Windows 8 Release Preview is coming tomorrow 05/31/2012

A day earlier than previously reported, woot! I'm hoping they fixed the bugs that prevented me from using Win 8 CP full time. Hope Nvidia drops some new drivers to go with it as well. Well, is everyone excited? :)
 
Not a lot of love for Windows 8 around here, I've been using the CP full time on four machines, got most of my issues squared away finally with Intel drivers that came out last month. NVidia has had Windows 8 drivers out since the CP came out in February for everything except the 600 though the Windows 7 drivers should probably work.

The more I use Windows 8 and things get resolved the more I like it. It just does every damn thing and I guess that's why some people don't like it because they use their computers only with keyboards and mice. But it's just a cool OS to have running on my x220t.

Microsoft and OEMs need to do everything to get as many good Windows 8 convertible and hybrid devices out as they can. It's this form factor that will sell Windows 8 because it really then becomes the best of both worlds. I'm saving my money for the first good Inv Bridge detachable keyboard hybrid with a Wacom digitizer. Basically my dream device.
 
heatlesssun said:
Microsoft and OEMs need to do everything to get as many good Windows 8 convertible and hybrid devices out as they can. It's this form factor that will sell Windows 8 because it really then becomes the best of both worlds. I'm saving my money for the first good Inv Bridge detachable keyboard hybrid with a Wacom digitizer. Basically my dream device.
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The OS will push the hardware. But, lack of hardware will just frustrate consumers. This is the #1 thing that has to happen. The hardware has to be out there. It can't just be the upgrades that push Win8. That's not going to happen for a lot of people. They'll stick with Windows 7. Mouse/Keyboard works, and it works well, but most of the people I talk to don't like it.

Can't wait for RP. Hopefully it does come out today. :D
 
I expect 8 to increase the amount of touch screen notebooks and desktops that are shipped, but touchscreen is not going to be on all PC's. Many people buy cheap computers that will not have touch, and these people are going to be very frustrated and turned off by 8 due to the way you navigate the OS with a mouse.
 
Ur_Mom said:
The OS will push the hardware. But, lack of hardware will just frustrate consumers. This is the #1 thing that has to happen. The hardware has to be out there. It can't just be the upgrades that push Win8. That's not going to happen for a lot of people. They'll stick with Windows 7. Mouse/Keyboard works, and it works well, but most of the people I talk to don't like it.

Can't wait for RP. Hopefully it does come out today. :D
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I believe that Microsoft and Intel get the hardware aspect of Windows 8. Intel just said there are over 100 ultrabook Windows 8 designs with at least 10 convertible/hybrid laptop designs in the pipeline.

Windows 8 takes on a very different flavor on these devices. If Windows 8 had been the OS powering convertible tablets when they came out ten years ago with today's hardware, we may very well have never heard of the iPad or Android tablets. Windows 8 is definitely very slick on my Lenovo x220t convertible tablet.
 
heatlesssun said:
I believe that Microsoft and Intel get the hardware aspect of Windows 8. Intel just said there are over 100 ultrabook Windows 8 designs with at least 10 convertible/hybrid laptop designs in the pipeline.

Windows 8 takes on a very different flavor on these devices. If Windows 8 had been the OS powering convertible tablets when they came out ten years ago with today's hardware, we may very well have never heard of the iPad or Android tablets. Windows 8 is definitely very slick on my Lenovo x220t convertible tablet.
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Agreed. I've used it on an iPad with Splashtop (only tablet I have that can "run" it), using gestures and stuff. Works great. It's near perfect on a tablet.

Desktop with mouse/kb is good, but not as perfect as a tablet.

Laptop with a touchpad - I don't like it. I've tried, I just don't.
 
WTF?!? :confused:

If you upgrade from Windows 7 you can keep your Programs, Settings, User Accounts and Files, but if you upgrade from the Windows 8 Consumer Preview everything is trashed and you have to dig around in Windows.old to salvage what you can from the wreck? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/faq

Microsoft is really trying the dedication of the early adopters.

I may get the bits today, but I may not get around to installing it until this weekend.
 
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Eman D. Rahym said:
WTF?!? :confused:

If you upgrade from Windows 7 you can keep your Programs, Settings, User Accounts and Files, but if you upgrade from the Windows 8 Consumer Preview everything is trashed and you have to dig around in Windows.old to salvage what you can from the wreck? Microsoft is really trying the dedication of the early adopters.

I may get the bits today, but I may not get around to installing it until this weekend.
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Really? It's not early adopters. It's beta. You don't want beta code mixing with other code. They aren't fully tested and released products ready for production. When you buy Windows 8 final, there will be an upgrade option, but not from beta. You don't want that. You want everything to be fully tested with no beta (possibly bad or buggy) code anywhere in the release.
 
Eman D. Rahym said:
WTF?!? :confused:

If you upgrade from Windows 7 you can keep your Programs, Settings, User Accounts and Files, but if you upgrade from the Windows 8 Consumer Preview everything is trashed and you have to dig around in Windows.old to salvage what you can from the wreck? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/faq

Microsoft is really trying the dedication of the early adopters.

I may get the bits today, but I may not get around to installing it until this weekend.
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Its a beta. You (should) know what you were getting into.

Don't blame MS because you used a beta.

To be honest, I'd be surprised if this version would have a seamless transition to release.

Ur_Mom said:
Agreed. I've used it on an iPad with Splashtop (only tablet I have that can "run" it), using gestures and stuff. Works great. It's near perfect on a tablet.

Desktop with mouse/kb is good, but not as perfect as a tablet.

Laptop with a touchpad - I don't like it. I've tried, I just don't.
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I'm hoping they address touchpads with the RC like they did desktops in the CP.

ssnyder28 said:
Nice I'm gonna switch all my pc's to windows 8. Is it any good?
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I like it. You may not.

Don't switch everything over at this point though. If there is a bug in it that's problematic, you're not going to have a stable machine.

I would put release versions of W8 on my main machine until either the first service pack or after ~ a year.

Let everyone else be the guinea pigs. I'll sit back and reap the rewards of patience. :)
 
LOL!

I guess you've got a point. :D Still, it is going to make me sit and think for a bit, as well as doing some foundation work before I actually get around to install the Release Preview.

Is this why they call it the bleeding edge? ;)
 
BigJayDogg3 said:
I'm hoping they address touchpads with the RC like they did desktops in the CP.
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Hopefully, this means I'm right. Or at the very least MS recognizes touchpad support is lackluster.

Engadget said:
Touchpad guidelines
By the time Windows 8 launches, most touchpads will be optimized to support all the native Win8 gestures -- swiping to expose the Charm bar, etc. Behind the scenes, Microsoft is still engaged in quite a bit of back-and-forth with trackpad makers like Synaptics, and we've yet to see a final product, but for now we know this much: touchpads will be subject to guidelines, at least if they're to support Windows 8 gestures (and why on earth wouldn't they?). In particular, these rules will dictate how sensitive a touchpad should be, and how small it can get before it becomes too cramped to comfortably pull off gestures. Alas, though, this feature wasn't enabled on our test machine (a new Samsung Series 9), so we didn't get to try this out.
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[Click for source.]
 
wonderfield said:
It's fine. Unless there's a feature in Windows 8 you find particularly compelling, though, it's probably not worth the time and effort.
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Sure, there's really never a reason to upgrade unless you want or need something from the upgrade. However, there's quite a bit more to Windows 8 than just Metro. One thing that does get overlooked and is quite a big deal, Windows 8 should be faster and more battery efficient than Windows 7 on the same hardware, significantly so on the battery side if you can find Metro apps for that serve your purposes. Windows 8 is as much about power efficiency and mobility as it is about touch.

While one can argue that Windows 8 doesn't work well on a desktop, Windows even today runs on more laptops than desktops and laptop users are going to see more benefit than the Internet crowd is letting them know right now.
 
I'm going to give it a try after doing an image of my Win7 install.
I'm curious how seamless the transfer from Win7 is or isn't.
I remember using the XP preview (and multitudes of non-public releases) and they were perfectly transitioned over to the retail version of XP.
Vista was the exact opposite. Upgrading from the preview made a mess of my install.
 
MrGuvernment said:
So they just renamed OS raid.....is what it sounds like with a fancy name...
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It's more like the Storage Pools from Windows Home Server, if I understand it correctly. You can choose what you want to be redundant, and it doesn't have to be every folder and file...
 
EnderW said:
anyone installed the Server 2012 RC?
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It's going in a VM tonight. Just to play around with so I can upgrade as soon as it's released. I'm on 2008R2 right now, but Server 2012 looks like a solid upgrade. Might as well get proficient in it now.
 
Haven't downloaded it yet, but saw on ars that server 2012 uses the metro interface. What a horrible idea.
 
Installing Server 2012 RC now. Was previously running the Server 8 Beta. Metro really isn't a big deal for the server GUI, because you can do everything via CLI anyway, which is what the default setting is. MS is really pushing to get people away from using the GUI on Server.
 
So there seem to be problems running it in virtual box. It might be related to the guest additions, because I am seeing various graphic artifacts. Also, the Store won't open in my VM. Unfortunately I have no free hard drives to install this sucker on :(

*EDIT* - Hmm, never mind its working. Few graphic problems still but fine for the most part.
 
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McTurkey said:
Installing Server 2012 RC now. Was previously running the Server 8 Beta. Metro really isn't a big deal for the server GUI, because you can do everything via CLI anyway, which is what the default setting is. MS is really pushing to get people away from using the GUI on Server.
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I get that part of it, but if they want to get people away from it, then move towards a core type gui, not metro. It just has no place in a server.
 
dave99 said:
I get that part of it, but if they want to get people away from it, then move towards a core type gui, not metro. It just has no place in a server.
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The default install is core/CLI only, and you have to specifically install the GUI if you want one. Makes more sense to just carry over Metro than to go about designing a different GUI just for Server.
 
And it would appear that something was changed between Beta and RC regarding the implementation of Storage Spaces.. mirrored volumes are fine, but parity ones aren't recognized. Brilliant move, Microsoft...
 
McTurkey said:
And it would appear that something was changed between Beta and RC regarding the implementation of Storage Spaces.. mirrored volumes are fine, but parity ones aren't recognized. Brilliant move, Microsoft...
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this is on Server 2012?
you can't create parity volumes?
 
I got the release preview up and running on an unneeded partition I forgot I had. I haven't really had a chance to "move in" to the new partition yet. I'd forgotten what a clean Windows 8 install was like. Now that I'm back to square one, only this time without the thrill of discovery, I can see how folks could get pissed at Windows 8.

A fresh install of Windows 8 is very different from anything Microsoft has ever done before. It's not only unfamiliar, it's downright alien. Paradoxically, the more hard core the Windows user, the bigger the shock upon being dropped into Windows 8. Microsoft has tidied up and now you can't find anything! Add in the new Metro paradigm and Windows 8 is not merely frustrating, it's hostile and rage inducing.

However, the first hour or so is by far the worst. Folks who give up on it in that time have only seen it at its most foreign. As you install more and more things into it, the desktop becomes more and more familiar and you spend less and less time in the Metro environment. Let's face it, while Metro has tremendous upside potential, at present potential pretty much is all it has. I've not really had a chance to play with the RP Metro apps, but the CP apps were less than inspiring. Certainly we've yet to see a Metro "killer app." On the other hand, the Windows 8 desktop works very well indeed. After an evening or so of settling in and "arranging the furniture" then you're back to a solid Windows work space and need only visit Metro when the mood strikes you, if at all.

So, for you Windows 8 haters out there, I feel your pain. However, I have to say that while Windows 8 is disconcerting at first, with a little effort to set up the desktop to a way you are familiar with that initial, overwhelming Metro presence quickly fades into the background and you are left with a smooth, streamlined and very modern desktop experience to work in.

Windows 8's bark is far worse than its bite. Putting the time in to teach that big ol' puppy to heel is well worth the effort. You'll have a loyal friend for years to come.
 
EnderW said:
this is on Server 2012?
you can't create parity volumes?
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It's not that you can't create them - it's that it does not seem to properly import existing ones, saying only that they are corrupt. The repair function starts, shows 0%, and then stops.

Actually, I tried creating a new one in the existing storage pool, and it gave me an error as well. I realize that this is beta/RC and that bugs and glitches will happen, but honestly something this fundamental and basic should have been 100% working long before now. It definitely does not give me much desire to recommend that anyone ever use this functionality.
 
Here's a stupid question...other than hitting the windows key, is there an easy way to close apps or navigate in and out of things only using the mouse?
 
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