[craig5320]

Many of you are up and running with preview builds of Windows 8, so here's your place to checkout the latest developments and get help on all things Win 8!

Enjoy

[Jac]

I have been running Windows 8 since release.

Seems decent enough. The Metro UI is all but pointless on a desktop IMO. I do like the UI refresh - square edges > rounded edges at least until we have proper 'retina' style displays. The only thing that narks me a little at the mo is the fact that Punkbuster will not work (no 2142 for me) but remembering my experiences beta testing Windows 7 I don't expect that issue to be addressed until RTM. If anyone has managed to get PB working under the Developer Preview let me know.

Looking forward to the 1st beta. Hopefully we'll see the Metro UI become optional.

[Takaharu]

Will Windows 8 look like it's designed for tablets on RTM or can you turn that off and make it look like an actual PC operating system at install?

[Veridian3]

Originally Posted by Jac

I have been running Windows 8 since release.

Jac has a time machine!!!!

[Judas]

yay... finally

[Veridian3]

Originally Posted by Judas

yay... finally

I know, i'm excited about time travel too.

[Dyre Straits]

I've got both the developer's and the 'english' iso versions downloaded.

I'm a bit turned off by the comments I've read about the new UI. So, can the Desktop be changed to look more "PC-y" than "tablet-y"?

And, just how stable does the release seem to be?

I'll likely tinker with it after clearing up a hard drive so as not to mess up my current W-7.

[Jac]

There is a simple registry tweak that makes the OS practically Windows 7 with square edges. Although there is s slight bug with Windows Explorer not refreshing Explorer windows or cataloging their contents properly, this could be related to that registry mod.

As for other stability it all seems good, maybe even slightly more optimised than Windows 7. I can play Crysis 2 with no problems but apparently GFWL doesn't work properly.

[Dyre Straits]

For better or for worse, I'm writing this after installing the W-8 Dev's Preview. We'll see how it goes for a while.

[Neshi]

wow, a whole new windows for square edges.. I think I'll pass

[Dyre Straits]

That didn't last very long. LOL!

EDIT: After getting it installed and doing a little checking around, it prompted for drivers for my mouse. Then, when I clicked to let it install the drivers, there was an error. Eventually, there were 9 items in the Windows Updates to be considered. I opted to do the updates and....after several minutes of seeing a "preparing to install..." message, it came up with another error saying that 8 of the updates failed to install.

THEN, the system prompted me to restart the computer to correct the errors. That was from the Activity Center. When I clicked on the option to Restart it told me that I did not have permission to restart this computer.

Should I continue this story? There's definitely MORE.

[Judas]

o.O

that sounds like a totally bizarre or bad install of windows 8 or something.

[Tyrsonswood]

When I clicked on the option to Restart it told me that I did not have permission to restart this computer.

Should I continue this story? There's definitely MORE.

Yes!...... Yes you should!

[Dyre Straits]

Earlier this evening...or last night...I went ahead and formatted that HDD again and installed W-8 DPV fresh. This time, I allowed it to first check for all the updates via Windows Update...there were 12 to begin with. Those installed without any hitch this time around.

Then I installed the CCC 11.10 Preview3 drivers, the RealTek HD Audio drivers, and it also did the Intellimouse drivers install successfully this time.

BUT, it seems that W-8 has a very hard time dealing with all my connected displays. I have 1 x DP Adapter > DVI; 2 x DVI (all connected to three identical ViewSonic 24-in LCD panels and then 1 x HDMI > 32-in HDTV. When rebooting it tends to want to use my HDMI connected TV during boot. Then, when it goes into Windows, I get black screens with no way to input. IF, however, I unplug the DP-connected display at the USB plug, I have a chance to actually get to the login screen OR to the task screen.

This works until I go and connect my other HDDs. Once I do that, it seems that W-8 doesn't want to go into Windows at all. It just hangs at the black screens.

So, from my viewpoint, it needs a LOT of work before it's ready for prime time.

[CJLMTLCA]

I don't know what that is, I've never seen that before. I don't know what that means the PC ran into a problem? What does that mean? To end the install? Fuck it! I'll install it LIVE! Fucking thing sucks!

[Dyre Straits]

Originally Posted by CJLMTLCA

I don't know what that is, I've never seen that before. I don't know what that means the PC ran into a problem? What does that mean? To end the install? Fuck it! I'll install it LIVE! Fucking thing sucks!

HAL INITIALIZATION FAILED...

That's the error.

Here's a link for troubleshooting it....

Bug Check 0x5C: HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

[Jac]

That's the new BSOD.

I've been lucky then so it seems, I haven't had any serious issues yet.

[Judas]

the only issue i ever have had... and it's pretty minor... is when shuting down windows 8...

hit the power button.. walk away.... look back and see a read memory error which stops the computer from shutting down UNTIL i click the "ok" button and then it finishes shutting down

don't know how often I've left the store and come back with the machine still sitting there running waiting for me to click ok and to shutdown.

[CJLMTLCA]

I was paraphrasing a certain news anchor on a certain news channel as a joke, so thanks anyways but i wasn't in the dark about the new BSOD.
Apparently W8 doesn't work in VPC so...

...I pulled out my spare SSD and installed the 64bit version for real. Install time was about the same as 7, 2 reboots, the settings portion was kind of cool, let's you turn things on or off prior to getting in the OS.

I like the new Task Manager. The Smart Screen seems interesting if you are really paranoid. It took long at one point when i clicked an exe, i guess it had to look up the info on the file.

I managed to install chipset, gpu, audio, nic, and dx, but tv tuner drivers wouldn't install.

Was surprised to see many tiles on my start screen. It was like preloaded crap on a laptop. Nothing a little spring cleaning won't fix, just funny to see all that on a fresh install.

I had the Start screen on monitor 1 and the Desktop on monitor 2. 2 different IE depending which screen you launch from. How do you tell what programs are running from the start screen?

Have to use it some more. Felt weird having a tablet side and a desktop side in one OS but the transitions were nice and smooth. Can't wait to see the final product, but i might not be replacing 7 so fast. Might be nice to play around with on a laptop and i'll definitely consider a W8 tablet.

[Dyre Straits]

After getting this installed and trying it for a little while, I have no real enthusiasm for it. Maybe once I use my new Android cellphone a bit more, I'll see a way to better appreciate what MS is doing. As it stands now, I really prefer to have a DESKTOP OS when I'm at the PC and not feel like it's a giant Smartphone I'm using.

[mkk]

You mean everyone doesn't have 24" touch screens already?



Maybe those who just modded Skyrim's interface can do something for Windows 8 as well.

[Dyre Straits]

When is the next public update due to be released?

And, is anyone using W-8 on a day-to-day basis, yet?

[mkk]

The so called Consumer Preview (kindof an open beta except they're not really looking for user input) is to be released at the very end of this month.

I'm suspecting that I'll be running it from then on, as was pretty much the case with Windows 7 back in the day. Despite all the interface angst there is new stuff under the hood after all.

[Dyre Straits]

I do have the latest Beta downloaded and burned to a disc. But, before I attempt to install this, I do have a totally separate/formatted HDD on which to put it. However, before I do that, is it necessary to disconnect all the other HDDs in order to not mess up the MBR? I want to still be able to boot back into W-7 at will...BUT, not via some multi-OS menu in BIOS.

Just wanting to play it safe, I guess.

[Liqourice]

Just go into BIOS and change the boot order for the disks so the second one comes first. Or, install GRUB and you can configure that to do it for you, then you can easily boot from both harddrives without changing any settings manually.

I did this on my old rig when I was testing Win7. Grub is a really nifty boot loader.

To play it safe. Just change the boot order, install Win8 on the second drive, switch back the boot order, install Grub and then configure the bootmenu and you should be fine.

[Dyre Straits]

What I'm concerned about is this: When I decided to test Windows 7, I did put the beta on a separate HDD but with my other HDDs connected. When the W-7 Beta was being installed, it detected my XP Pro OS on another HDD. After that, whenever I would boot the computer, I'd get a prompt asking which OS I wanted to boot to. I want to avoid that altogether.

I ended up disconnecting all the other drives and putting W-7 on an isolated drive and then doing a Repair on the XP drive with it also connected later as a single drive.

What this accomplished was allowing me to select the boot drive in BIOS without having to go through it every single time I rebooted the PC. I just don't want to have to be greeted by that menu at every reboot.

[Liqourice]

Well, you can always install a boot selector like Grub on a USB stick that you just disconnect when you don't need to boot into the secondary.

As far as I know there is no other way you can do it without changing boot order in bios each time.

[Tipstaff]

Found a couple tools you guys might be interested in. Both tools bring back the start menu for Windows 8. One is from StarDock called "Start8" which is done more with Windows 8 in mind. The other people might remember from a while back is from LeeSoft called "ViStart" which is supposedly Windows 8 compatible. The latter one will, again supposedly, bring back the traditional menu.