Windows 8 Consumer Preview

I see that some people are having trouble using Metro (which is normal), so I highly recommend watching this video, it contains the essential funcionality you need to know:

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Demo | The Windows Blog | Channel 9

Also, does anyone know how to enable Metro Snap on low-resolution screens? The old Developer Preview registry trick doesn't work.

 

For those who might want to give W8 a try in Virtual Box - here's a quick guide

Configuring a Windows 8 Virtual Machine - TechSpot Guides

and here's a Virtual Box W8 forum for more info & tips

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=44577&start=150

There is an VB option to install "Guest Additions" & "Graphics Addition" both should be installed in W8 safe mode.

Which I haven't done yet.

As for handwtitting recognition I read in an MS blog that it is meant to be better than prev vers. However I think my pen is being recognised as a mouse & not as a pen. The only handwritting recognition I tried was in the journal after lasoing & converting to text, which seemed to work well.

I actually found using the mousepad worked better than a pen, like bringing up the rhs side bar, I think I need an app to configure the pen buttons! I'll see if d/l any w7 fujitsu drivers/apps will help.

So far 4 me, using VB is good for getting a look around W8, or one step further after watching a demo(eg the one above). Under VB, some apps are clearly too slow eg pinball & solitare ...so I'll need a bit more tweaking yet.

 

i am no apple fanboy by a longshot. but this is where win8 will fail. there is a rather steep learning curve even for those that are familiar with windows.

there is virtually no learning curve with an iPad. they literally give them to first graders now.

i played with the beta all day yesterday. it was a rather frustrating experience and i love windows. i know this is a beta but wow. when win7 went to beta it might as well have been a RTM because i used it on all of my machines from day one of the beta.

this is defintiely not ready for prime time.

 

I prepared the Win2Go flash drive & it works on my laptop.
Have you tried this on your Slate?

 

there's a huge learning curve but once you get over it, it's a very cool OS. Yes, I was definitely lost with the new desktop. But now I've replaced old habits with new ones. Just like I feel a little lost when I go back to a Windows XP machine because I'm so used to Vista/7. I remember a time when Windows came with a tutorial on how to use a mouse.

 

Yeah, Windows 8 will force a lot of people to upgrade their hardware. I can imagine PC makers being very happy with Windows 8 as many people stopped buying computers because the current ones worked fine. The only market really driving the PC makers forward had been the video game industry as games push a PC harder than any other consumer application.

I'm playing around with it on my ancient HP TX2000 and it's surprisingly good on this old resistive screen. But the OS recognizes the difference between stylus and finger and doesn't like you do finger stuff with the stylus. I think my brother is screwed with his Lenovo.

I got my Vista video driver for my Nvidia graphics to work (that's how old my PC is) but it's flaky. I've since gone back to the default Microsoft VGA driver in its ugly 1024x768 stretched resolution on my 1280x800 LCD. You're going to need at least DX10 hardware to have reliable performance under Win8. using old drivers only go so far.

Plus, to be a Win8 tablet, you need at least 5 points of touch (Win8 supports up to 100 points of touch). My TX2000 doesn't even have 2 points of touch so I can't do any of the 2-finger motions. And there's no Start button on the bezel of the TX2000 which I'm sure is going to be included on all Win8 tablets.

 

that's because iOS is just an extension of a PC desktop littered with icons. and as you get more and more programs, your desktop gets more cluttered.

but even that could use some updating. like why can't you change positions of the icons by moving them? why do you have to hold it down to get to "jiggle" mode in order to reorder things?

that said, iOS is the most polished of the simple GUIs out there. Android is a mess. I have a Kindle Fire which is too slow but functional for what it's intended for, it's tiny, and it was cheap. I also have the HP Touchpad that dualboots WebOS and Gingerbread. Luckily, I got it for less than $150 and it completely outperforms the Kindle Fire (but it's bulky). I have an iPad 2 (Wifi only, black). And I can't wait to get a Windows 8 convertible tablet for real PC work.

iOS and Android apps are neat. They do a lot of things for very cheap. But they're pretty limited.


On a side note, I was using the Xbox Companion app! That was a very cool way to control your Xbox! Like having a big 12.1" remote control.

 

Sure there is a learning curve with the iPad! It's the same as Windows 8. People have to learn how to use Metro, the same way the had to learn how to use the iPad, and the same way they had to learn how to use Windows 95.

Familiarity is the problem here. People have been using the same old interface for 15 years, it's not like an iPad which is something new. I experienced that problem, I kept going to the desktop to do things, and I was really starting to hate Metro.

I struggled a bit, not because I couldn't use Metro, but simply because I was trying to use Windows 8 like I was still using the old Windows.

Once I started to explore I realized that I'm using a whole new Windows, not a simple "skin". That's when I started clicking and taking my mouse pointer everywhere. I messed around for a bit, searched that video to know if there was something I was missing (like some gestures on the iPad that people take a while to learn), and things became absolutely natural in no time.

Believe me, give it a shot and you'll see that Metro really is an improvement.

 

Unfortunately, it is not about the new interface. This isn't really new either, if you ever played with Media Center on a Windows machine that is what metro seems to be like but except the tiles are not just video and music files.

My issue is much more basic than that; how do you get text into the device. I write mostly with a pen. I have a book I am in process of writing and it is almost entirely written with a pen in the XP, then Vista, then Win 7 TIP. Win 8 says, "nope, no more, time to learn how to use the touch typing keyboard."

My response is, "nope, I'll wait..." And guess what? There are several Android projects working on getting the TIP on Android tablets, and N-trig is sponsoring one of the efforts. If Windows decides it will not do it then maybe I will end up Android on the next purchase!

 

Dan- I'm writing this post using the Tip in Windows 8, you just need to switch to it from the keyboard, lower right hand corner, it allows you to switch between keyboard, split keyboard and Tip.