Windows 8 Consumer Preview

[Steve S]

<<...I have two of the devices under the N-trig DueSense(R) Digitizers that have the yellow "has issues"...>>

c: Note that in the release notes, N-trig states that these yellow alerts are OK...

Also, N-trig is aware that these drivers have some issues. Apparently, it has to do with issues with Win8.

[cmergel]

<<...I have two of the devices under the N-trig DueSense(R) Digitizers that have the yellow "has issues"...>>

c: Note that in the release notes, N-trig states that these yellow alerts are OK...

Also, N-trig is aware that these drivers have some issues. Apparently, it has to do with issues with Win8.

Steve, I did read the documentation and did note that the yellow alerts are ok, but if you read Bronsky post, it looks like he was able to get passed that by using a roll back method. However, after I installed these drivers, the roll back button is grayed out on each of the devices. I am asking him the process that he did to get to that point.

[thadwald]

Steve, I did read the documentation and did note that the yellow alerts are ok, but if you read Bronsky post, it looks like he was able to get passed that by using a roll back method. However, after I installed these drivers, the roll back button is grayed out on each of the devices. I am asking him the process that he did to get to that point.

I'm wondering the same thing myself. But my real question is if it improves touch responsiveness. Mine is completely unusable with the N-trig drivers installed; scrolling becomes jerky, typing becomes frustrating, and I can hardly ever tap-click anything on the first try.

With the default drivers in place, touch works remarkably well, albeit without multitouch.

[Bronsky]

Never having used the rollback function, I just downloaded and ran it and it seemed to uninstall the W8 driver. I lost all touch function at that point so I shut down the slate and let it start again. Once it rebooted, I used a USB keyboard to get to W8 and loaded the W8 N-Trig driver and you can see the results above. Touch is still iffy but better than before. I'm not sure I used the roll back correctly but it seems to have worked.

[rcsolomon]

My upgrade to W8 on my new HP Slate 500 went smoothly, and I have good wifi connectivity. But the touch input was so poor that I could not exit the calendar program. Had to close down the machine. N-trip released a beta driver for Windows 8 which I just installed, and the touch screen now works. Great! I can now move between apps and between the metro and desktop screens. But Home button does not work, as noted by others.

The apps are another matter: mostly junk especially when compared to apps for the iPad. For example, the metro mail app won't let me add my regular mail account (at cox.com) and is limited to Exchange, gmail (which works fine) and hotmail. The weather map's default is Seattle; I added my home town, but in metro view, it remains stuck on Seattle and will not display my local weather. The map app can't find my location (my home). But OTOH, Kindle, the calendar and IE 10 work from Metro.

If Windows 8 tablets are going to be competitive, Microsoft simply has to vet the apps it sells or gives away to make sure they work.

[excalibur1814]

@rcsolomon: This is a consumer 'preview' of Windows 8.... 'preview' being the important word.

[Steve S]

<<...but if you read Bronsky post, it looks like he was able to get passed that...>>

...My point is, it's probably not worth your time. To repeat excaliber1814, "...This is a consumer 'preview' of Windows 8.... 'preview' being the important word..."

N-trig is aware that the touch experience with its Win8 drivers isn't great, but I don't know if they are going to try to do anything about it between now and the summer...

[Bronsky]

The weather map's default is Seattle; I added my home town, but in metro view, it remains stuck on Seattle and will not display my local weather.

This may be due to a setting being defaulted to "off" in PC Settings. My Slate had the same problem until I went into PC Settings and let W8 display my location. Once I did that, it was able to display the weather in my area. Anyway, the weather in Seattle is easy to display ... Rain ... Rain ... Rain.

...My point is, it's probably not worth your time. To repeat excaliber1814, "...This is a consumer 'preview' of Windows 8.... 'preview' being the important word..."

N-trig is aware that the touch experience with its Win8 drivers isn't great, but I don't know if they are going to try to do anything about it between now and the summer...

I think that is largely true for most users. I play around with W8 for a bit in the evening when I'm watching TV (more like listening to TV and futzing around with the slate) and revert back to W7 when I go to work in the morning. Yes, this is a Consumer preview, but by playing with it, I'm starting to figure out how to make it work better. Hopefully, I'll be fairly conversent with it by the time the final version is released in October. With the number of updates they have already provided, I think that Microsoft will keep improving the program throughout the summer. Ideally, I will be able to stop switching back to W7 eventially when I go to work. There are things I really like about W8. I find the Metro a really intuitive way to organize my programs and important internet sites.

[Bronsky]

New version in June. Windows 8 Release Preview coming in June - Liliputing Hopefully, W8 is greatly improved. I still use W7 for work. W8 is more of a toy due to its issues. I still haven't been able to get SetFSB to run on W8. It will run in shareware mode but will not recognize my key. I emailed AboSan and we exchanged a few emails but nothing yet. It looks like, if the key issue could be resolved, it would run on W8.

[racerjim]

That's good news. I'm still sticking with W8, but only using the old desktop, and only using the stylus for touch input. Hopefully Metro will be more functional in the release preview. And hopefully the "summer" update of the nTrig drivers mentioned above is early summer, not late......