Windows 8 / RT |OT|

So, with the 8.1 Preview, I thought I'd try to use IE Metro for a bit, primarily so I could share stuff to the new Reading List app. Turns out, they added a 'always show the address bar and tabs' option, which works well enough for desktop users.
MXselhZ.png
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So I can actually open as many windows I like in metro IE? It was a it confusing at first, but now that I understood how it works it's actually really awesome!
 
Razdek said:
Yea just downloading it now. I thought it would prompt me for an update but I had to get the update on the preview site.
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Yea, I had to download a file, run it, then it restarted and downloaded the update from the store. Took about a while lol.
 
You guys should watch some of the videos here if you missed them:

http://channel9.msdn.com/

If you're especially nerdy, Larry Osterman is basically one of the smartest guys in the world and talks about some really cool features he's working on.

Specifically one of the features that's not in the preview but will be in the final version - the ability for apps to pre-load content following a heuristic that tracks your most commonly used apps, so they load a lot faster and have things ready for you before you even launch them. It'll be discussed in more detail during a session tomorrow.
 
Razdek said:
lol really? Xbox Music was one of the first things I was going to try. Has to be better than the crappy one in 8.
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It's an improvement for sure, but still clearly early on the revamp.

They even released some info on some of the changes that are coming soon. It's sort of like half of something new and half the old app right now, clearly lots of changes still to come.

LukasTaves said:
Not tabs, windows, with that split view. You can also spam as many as you like from those (and in each window you can open as many tabs as you want too apparently) and switch between them. It's a bit confusing, but it's a really nice feature.
Click to expand...

Oh right.

Whoa, that's weird. You can fill out your task switcher with different windows of IE. That flexibility would be great for multiple large size, high resolution monitors.

--------------------------------

Is there a reason that Metro IE is seemingly way faster than in the desktop?
 
Hm, ever since I installed the update I have problems with my HDD. Almost every few minutes HDD activity reaches 100%, stays so for several seconds and for the duration of that time the entire system locks up. :/ Chkdsk only found few errors with indexing and free space, nothing crucial though.

From what I saw, I like almost all updates to the system. New fully customizable snap view is great. Not being limited to 1/3 and 2/3 really helps.

I also noticed that when you activate charms bar through right-top/right-bottom corner, icons in the charm bar aren't placed at the center anymore - instead they are placed near the bottom or top of the screen, depending on what corner you activated so you don't have to go all the way to the center of the screen. That's a nice little improvement.

brotkasten said:
Tiles now pick the background color for desktop apps the same way the taskbar picks the color for active applications, by picking the major color of the icon.
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I don't think I like that change. Some of the background colors are too saturated or clashes with program icons. I preferred when desktop apps had one standardized background.
 
Razdek said:
Anyone in Canada able to get the update? Nothing here in Calgary.
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I was able to get it on my Surface RT, but not on my desktop PC running Windows 8 Pro. I ended up downloading the .iso and upgrading. Took about 2.5 hours on the Surface, and 25 minutes or so on the desktop. Everything's running well so far.

I like setting up the start button to go straight to the apps and organize them by category as well as show desktop apps first. Pretty nice.
 
I booted into Windows 8.1 after installing just fine but after rebooting for the first time I'm getting stuck on a black screen after the betta fish but before the login screen.

Start up repair does not find anything and booting into Safe mode works fine. Which might indicate it's a driver problem or some rogue service.
I'm trying to install the AMD 8.1 drivers but they won't install in Safe mode for some dumb reason.
I have unplugged every usb peripheral and I'm going to try unplugging my secondary monitor now.
I had a ramdisk for the page file that didn't work after upgrading and I have set page file back to system managed after it prompted me.
System refresh is not an option because I don't have the install media on a disc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


edit: Finally figured it out. It was a gpu virtualization driver that was disabled but Windows 8.1 didn't like it anyway. I removed it and everything is back to normal.
 
Yup its a beta.

EDIT: have they mentioned any work on battery life improvements?

EDIT2: Has anyone tried out the miracasting capability? Preferably on a Surface Pro?
 
So now that the bing app is axed, how do we get those trending topics?

Also, yesterday there were some apps that wouldn't install, I cancelled the install from one or two of them, and now after restarting the apps that i didn't cancelled finished installing, however the ones i cancelled are showing up as installed on the store, even though they aren't and I can't install, or remove them...
 
Mr_Zombie said:
Hm, ever since I installed the update I have problems with my HDD. Almost every few minutes HDD activity reaches 100%, stays so for several seconds and for the duration of that time the entire system locks up. :/ Chkdsk only found few errors with indexing and free space, nothing crucial though.
Click to expand...

Changing power-saving options from Balanced to High performance fixed the issue. Dunno why.
 
If it happens again check task manager to see what's spamming disk usage. If you see it's SkyDrive or Defender (MsMpEng.exe) both are known issues.
 
Is there an easy way to delete a group of Metro tiles? Just installed the windows 8.1 beta and all of my pinsteam tiles are now blank. Obviously I no longer want them there.

Also: Why is everything so big :/ Font and the tiles. It's almost like it's not actually 1080P despite saying it's outputting at that.
 
IF I can install Windows 8.1 through the Preview thing:

1.) How long does the Preview last?

2.) What's the easiest way to go about this if I'm using a Linux machine?
 
Mr_Zombie said:
Just select them (right click if you're on PC) and unpin them.
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I meant in bulk, it was a few dozen icons. Of course I realized I could just uninstall the program they were part of.

I fixed the font size issue but Metro tiles are still take up much more space than they did in Windows 8. Is that just how 8.1 is? Not talking about the small, medium, or wide tiles either. I just mean they seem far too large.
 
Izick said:
Hey everybody, sorry to bother you with this question again, but does this mean I might be able to install Windows 8.1 Preview if I don't have Windows on my computer currently after all?

http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/download-and-install-windows-81-preview
Click to expand...

Izick said:
IF I can install Windows 8.1 through the Preview thing:

1.) How long does the Preview last?

2.) What's the easiest way to go about this if I'm using a Linux machine?
Click to expand...

Just get the ISO. Burn it to a DVD or put it on a flash drive, boot to it, done. 8.1 is a full OS, not just an upgrade to a previous OS.

The preview will probably last for most of the rest of the year if not early next year.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview-iso
 
Please, does anybody know? I want to install this as soon as possible.

EDIT: And dLMN8R does it all right before I ask! Thank you, friend! Hopefullt next time I post my computer will be running on Blue! I'm so excited, Windows 8 regular ran about 5x as fast and half as cool as my machine does with Linux. I like Linux, but it's just awful on this computer because of no real good drivers for it.
 
Anyone else using 8.1 having issues bringing up the Nvidia Control Panel? The Geforce Experience bit pops up with no issues but clicking on the control panel doesn't bring it up.

Also, why is photos no longer a live tile?

Edit: Not sure if I'm still having resolution issues but I notice more banding on the tiles than I did before as well.

Edit: It seems metro is too big, Xbox Games is getting cut off/badly cropped
ibxSLzZ47ACYUv.png
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dLMN8R said:
Just get the ISO. Burn it to a DVD or put it on a flash drive, boot to it, done. 8.1 is a full OS, not just an upgrade to a previous OS.

The preview will probably last for most of the rest of the year if not early next year.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview-iso
Click to expand...

Will the preview be updated (the OS itself), or it will be like the W8 preview? If the latter, will Ms do a public preview this time around as well?

Edit: Nevermind, I just realized there were 4 system updates just yesterday, that kinda answers my question :P
 
Do I need special software to make it bootable on a USB drive? Like Unetbootin for Linux distros?

EDIT: When I try to boot it from USB, it says "BOOT MGR is Missing". Any help?
 
Mr_Zombie said:
Nope. Works smoothly.
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Bizarre, can you look at my previous post and see if your xbox games is similarly cropped?

One more question, and it's something that annoys me about Windows 8 more than anything else. For Xbox music, sometimes when I return to desktop the music playing decreases in volume tenfold and I'm forced to snap it to the side. WHich would be fine if it didn't crash the computer. Is there a way to have the Metro Xbox Music app always play at full volume?
 
ricochetguro said:
Bizarre, can you look at my previous post and see if your xbox games is similarly cropped?

One more question, and it's something that annoys me about Windows 8 more than anything else. For Xbox music, sometimes when I return to desktop the music playing decreases in volume tenfold and I'm forced to snap it to the side. WHich would be fine if it didn't crash the computer. Is there a way to have the Metro Xbox Music app always play at full volume?
Click to expand...

It should always play at full volume, obviously that's a bug when it doesn't.

I've never experienced it myself.
 
LukasTaves said:
Will the preview be updated (the OS itself), or it will be like the W8 preview? If the latter, will Ms do a public preview this time around as well?

Edit: Nevermind, I just realized there were 4 system updates just yesterday, that kinda answers my question :P
Click to expand...

Yep, there will be weekly or bi-weekly updates continuously through the preview (more frequently than normal) to address compatibility problems and such. Most of the updates have links to "more information" that will tell you exactly what each fixed.
 
ricochetguro said:
One more question, and it's something that annoys me about Windows 8 more than anything else. For Xbox music, sometimes when I return to desktop the music playing decreases in volume tenfold and I'm forced to snap it to the side. WHich would be fine if it didn't crash the computer. Is there a way to have the Metro Xbox Music app always play at full volume?
Click to expand...

Same problem here, leftover from Windows 8 originally. I think it's something to do with Steam and exclusivity of the sound card or something...
 
Okay, Unetbooting isn't working.

I've managed to get a friend to allow me to use their Windows 8 PC. What's the easiest way to go about making the USB a bootable thing from there?

I have already put the .iso on their desktop and I wiped my USB clean. Where do I go from here?

EDIT: For some reason the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool isn't working

It says

"We were unable to copy your files. Please check your USB device and the selected ISO file and try again."

My 4GB USB only has 3.72 space available at max. Could that be the problem? If so, what can I do?

EDIT 2: Using a program called Rufus now.
 
Izick said:
Okay, Unetbooting isn't working.

I've managed to get a friend to allow me to use their Windows 8 PC. What's the easiest way to go about making the USB a bootable thing from there?

I have already put the .iso on their desktop and I wiped my USB clean. Where do I go from here?

EDIT: For some reason the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool isn't working

It says

"We were unable to copy your files. Please check your USB device and the selected ISO file and try again."

My 4GB USB only has 3.72 space available at max. Could that be the problem? If so, what can I do?
Click to expand...

The ISO is 3.3 GB so you have enough space (just about).

The problem with the USB tool is quite common and usually happens because the tool doesn't format the USB stick properly.

Just follow the steps here, and it should work
 
SPDIF said:
The ISO is 3.3 GB so you have enough space (just about).

The problem with the USB tool is quite common and usually happens because the tool doesn't format the USB stick properly.

Just follow the steps here, and it should work
Click to expand...

I think it's because the requirement is that the device needs to be 4GB to use the program though.

Anyway I'm using this Rufus program right now and it seems to be working okay. Hopefully I'll have Windows 8 soon enough!
 
Izick said:
Okay, Unetbooting isn't working.

I've managed to get a friend to allow me to use their Windows 8 PC. What's the easiest way to go about making the USB a bootable thing from there?

I have already put the .iso on their desktop and I wiped my USB clean. Where do I go from here?

EDIT: For some reason the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool isn't working

It says

"We were unable to copy your files. Please check your USB device and the selected ISO file and try again."

My 4GB USB only has 3.72 space available at max. Could that be the problem? If so, what can I do?
Click to expand...

When I installed the Win 8 preview I had the same problem. Neither tool would work. Someone linked me to instructions for formatting the usb stick manually and then it worked. I believe there was one step the tools simply didn't do.

I don't have the exact tutorial anymore, but I just googled "make usb stick bootable diskpart" and this was the first result: http://blogs.technet.com/b/danstolts/archive/2012/07/26/create-bootable-usb-thumb-drive-key-using-diskpart-with-windows-8-media-to-install-windows-8-release-preview-or-other-operating-system.aspx
 
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