Windows 8 Developer Preview

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Microsoft has posted a pre-beta developer preview build of Windows 8 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The 32-bit version weighs in at 2.8GB, the 64-bit at 3.6GB and the 64-bit version with developer tools is 4.8GB. Thanks to everyone that sent this one in.

The Windows Developer Preview is a pre-beta version of Windows 8 for developers. These downloads include prerelease software that may change without notice. The software is provided as is, and you bear the risk of using it. It may not be stable, operate correctly or work the way the final version of the software will. It should not be used in a production environment. The features and functionality in the prerelease software may not appear in the final version. Some product features and functionality may require advanced or additional hardware, or installation of other software.
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I've been using this for a few hours now, and can say that in it's present form, it's crazy to have a touch-screen interface mixed with the traditional desktop. It's a mess, and really is not very intuitive.

I managed to get it to open a full screen IE window, and ever did figure out how to get out of it!

I'm going to keep trying it, as I really like the updated shell elements. This version also seems very fast. I hope MS do some more thinking about this Metro stuff, as it has no place on a system without touch screen control. Unless you have a need for a Fisher-Price interface.
 
I'll install it because I'm curious, but I just spent the weekend finally upgrading to Win7x64 from Vista. I've got everything just the way I want it, and I finally solved all of the bugs in the windows event logs.

Reading your comments it seems my concerns about the Win8 GUI may be valid. I guess I'll know first hand in about an hour from now. :D
 
Good luck Lith1um.

Looking forward to hear what you think. I think i'm the only one who hates this Metro theme. It's the way computers were in Windows 1 days. Just now boring flat tiles instead of boring text boxes. But at least it's fast and very fluid.
 
Swipe from the left side of the screen with your mouse, press the windows key, or escape, or alt tab, or windows tab, any of them should get you out of metro apps. The idea of the tiles is that they are live, not static, so when real apps get built it will show its strength.
 
The Metro style is an interesting idea and the thought of being able to fully customize the tiles is very cool, but only time will tell if it turns out to be that way. So far I like it but it will take some getting used to.
 
Downloaded the 64bit Non-developer version last night. Plan on making a bootable USB and isntalling on my spare IdeaPad laptop that just been collecting dust for the last few months.

I absolutely love the Metro Design on my Windows Phone. It is bar none the best touch-based UI available right now, but I'm wary about how it works with a keyboard/mouse.
 
Has anyone been able to get this turd to run in a virtual machine? Virtual PC 2007 and VMWare are a no. VirtualBox freezes. I don't have a real machine I can spare at the moment.
 
I just plugged my EP121 into a monitor, and for those of you who think that Metro gets in the way, I think it's simply a matter of being used to what you're used to. I'll admit it is a little disconcerting at first but it's no less productive. The biggest issue for me thus far is getting used to where things are, it's not quite as well laid at as it needs to be but there's a lot missing from this release.

This is going to be a HUGE hit.
 
Im debating on if I wanna do this or just wait for the actual Beta. Will this be upgraded to the actual Beta when it hits, or will a reinstall be required?
 
xxEIEIOxx said:
Has anyone been able to get this turd to run in a virtual machine? Virtual PC 2007 and VMWare are a no. VirtualBox freezes. I don't have a real machine I can spare at the moment.
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Ive read Hyper-X runs it fine.
 
xxEIEIOxx said:
Has anyone been able to get this turd to run in a virtual machine? Virtual PC 2007 and VMWare are a no. VirtualBox freezes. I don't have a real machine I can spare at the moment.
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VirtualBox should run it but for VMware you need VMware 8 which literally just came out today. It doesn't work on VMware 7 because you need ACPI 2.0 support which isn't fully supported in VMware 7. You should be able to get Win8 working in a newish version of VirtualBox assuming you have a CPU that supports VT-x or AMD-V, your 9550 does support VT-x:
http://front-slash.blogspot.com/2011/05/microsoft-windows-8-installing-build.html
 
I installed it on an old 1.8Ghz notebook I had. It was SLOW, unusable slow, but it is a pre beta so it's probably not at all optimized yet. 'NT Kernel' was using up just about 50% CPU at all times according to task manager which probably didn't help.
 
Unless you have a need for a Fisher-Price interface.
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somuchwin.png


If it's like that on a desktop PC then 2012 might actually be the year of desktop linux.
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It already is, if that's what you want, but I gotta say there's a lot of things I don't miss spending time doing in *nix of any flavor.

This is going to be a HUGE hit.
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Sure hope so, since we'll all be forced to deal with it

Why is it a pain in the ass?
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You know why. The world is not ready, that's all.
 
A PC is not a tablet. A PC is not a phone. Even most unsophisticated home users have large monitors now, and a single app running at 1920×1080 which prevents anything else from occurring on the computer is not ideal even for them – especially if they lack a touchscreen interface.

And let me tell you, holding your arm our for two hours trying to touch a monitor three feet away would quickly exhaust even Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime.

Microsoft has gone down a fundamentally clueless road here.

Fortunately, though, once I click past the Metro UI (which I am sure someone will automate at some point), I can still get to a real desktop and install Classic Shell, which brings some sanity back.

So the ability to get actual work done in Windows 8 has not yet been completely removed, though I doubt Windows 9 will stay so sane.

Windows 8 will be pretty roundly rejected by businesses in its current form, I believe, as most businesses value their employees getting real work done rather than whiz-bang features and flashy interfaces that constrain what a PC can do.

And no matter what you might have read about the “cloud” and all that buzzword-laden BS, PCs are going to be around in businesses at least for a long, long, long time to come.

Windows 8 is not really optimized to that environment at all, which might give Apple some room for inroads into the business market here if they want to take that path again.

Windows 8 attempts to do away with the strengths of PCs – multi-tasking, large monitors, tiled apps – and replace the interface with a clumsy phone interface. This is fine for a tablet or a phone, but not for a PC.

The three devices are built for fundamentally different use cases, and can’t just be lumped together like that.

Windows Vista pushed me to Linux for four years. Windows 8 might just push me right back.
 
quoderat said:
A PC is not a tablet. A PC is not a phone. Even most unsophisticated home users have large monitors now, and a single app running at 1920×1080 which prevents anything else from occurring on the computer is not ideal even for them – especially if they lack a touchscreen interface.

And let me tell you, holding your arm our for two hours trying to touch a monitor three feet away would quickly exhaust even Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime.
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This isn't at all how it works. You don't need a touch input device to use Windows 8.
 
quoderat said:
Windows 8 will be pretty roundly rejected by businesses in its current form, I believe, as most businesses value their employees getting real work done rather than whiz-bang features and flashy interfaces that constrain what a PC can do.
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On the contrary; it's actually awesome for business users. How many business users use more than 5 programs? 10 at the most? Just putting all of those on display when you start will be perfect for businesses. And if they're designed as Metro apps (and I have to imagine that the next version of Office will be), then you get live previews on that wonderfully large screen. If anything, this would be more productive for businesses, not less.
 
quoderat said:
Fortunately, though, once I click past the Metro UI (which I am sure someone will automate at some point), I can still get to a real desktop and install Classic Shell, which brings some sanity back.
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1. Open Registry Editor and go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

2. In right-side pane, change value of "RPEnabled" to 0

3. That's it. It'll bring back the old start menu in Windows 8.

PS: If you want to restore default settings, change the value to 1 again.

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-enable-...le-start-menu-in-windows-8-developer-preview/
 
in response to ntfs question:
vista was suppose to replace ntfs, it didn't.
windows 7 was going to replace ntfs, it didn't either.

then windows 8 or other "secret" os/s were declared to finally replace ntfs.

so the question is, whats the hard drive format or what possible formatting options do you have in win8?
 
niconx said:
VirtualBox should run it but for VMware you need VMware 8 which literally just came out today. It doesn't work on VMware 7 because you need ACPI 2.0 support which isn't fully supported in VMware 7. You should be able to get Win8 working in a newish version of VirtualBox assuming you have a CPU that supports VT-x or AMD-V, your 9550 does support VT-x:
http://front-slash.blogspot.com/2011/05/microsoft-windows-8-installing-build.html
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Thanks for the info. I am giving it another try on VirtualBox.
 
God did anyone watch that disastrous Developer Preview yesterday? It seriously looked like a train wreck trying to explain the new features of Windows 8. Maybe Microsoft needs to rehearse a little bit because it was constant stuttering and stammering and talking over one another. It seemed as if they just winged it out there. I felt embarrassed watching it because it looked like a horrible sitcom trying too hard to be funny. It definitely took the focus off the devices centered it on their horrid representations.
 
In order for me to adopt this, all they need are:

1) The ability to boot into the classic desktop, and

2) Explain how this will work with multi monitors and multi tasking. I don't want to run one single app on my desktop at all times, but it might be a neat tablet OS.
 
Katalysis said:
In order for me to adopt this, all they need are:

1) The ability to boot into the classic desktop, and

2) Explain how this will work with multi monitors and multi tasking. I don't want to run one single app on my desktop at all times, but it might be a neat tablet OS.
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Actually I think that Windows 8 is a very nice improvement over Windows 7 as far as multiple monitors go. Some people are getting too hung up on the new Start Screen. It's not something that you actually that's always sitting there, you go in and out of it much like you do the Start Menu today.
 
Jeesus, did they hire Mattel to do the interface? WTF !
 
heatlesssun said:
Actually I think that Windows 8 is a very nice improvement over Windows 7 as far as multiple monitors go. Some people are getting too hung up on the new Start Screen. It's not something that you actually that's always sitting there, you go in and out of it much like you do the Start Menu today.
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My issue is this: can I run an application on one monitor and another on a different one? How will it handle multitasking? I love rearranging windows on 7 because it provides a lot of efficiency, but if you can only have one application up at a time, that sucks. I don't think that will be the case, though.
 
Check out the new Task Manager :)

I had to apply the reg change. Can't hang with that new interface. Hell, I couldn't even figure out how to exit an app and ended up using the task manager to kill the process LOL
 
Katalysis said:
My issue is this: can I run an application on one monitor and another on a different one? How will it handle multitasking? I love rearranging windows on 7 because it provides a lot of efficiency, but if you can only have one application up at a time, that sucks. I don't think that will be the case, though.
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Absolutely, again people are getting hung up on the Start Screen. It does appear until you need it and then goes away, it doesn't use anymore space than the Vista/7 Start Menu.
 
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