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[ksdixon]

Ribbon Disabler v2 (works in Release Preview)
http://www.eightforums.com/customization/5949-ribbon-disabler-v2-windows-8-cp.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxQCKz91qEs
"YES! YES! YES! YES!" - Daniel Bryan.
This removes the ribbon and reverts the menu back to Windows 7 style.

For me this means: Empty Recycle Bin button, and view icons drop-down list are put back onto the toolbar where they used-to-be, not tucked-away in a ribbon layer which has to be expanded and then un-expanded whenever those buttons are needed. I'm sure there are other reasons that people perfer Win7's explorer layout, but those are my top two.

 

[Windu]

i like the ribbon.

 

[jediyoshi]

They believe gabe is their god.... not surprising he came out against win8 because if its successful it hurts steam.

It's almost as if the internet is speaking in some sort of gleaming generality and not talking in literals for once.

 

[brotkasten]

Ribbon Disabler v2 (works in Release Preview)
http://www.eightforums.com/customization/5949-ribbon-disabler-v2-windows-8-cp.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxQCKz91qEs
"YES! YES! YES! YES!" - Daniel Bryan.
This removes the ribbon and reverts the menu back to Windows 7 style.

For me this means: Empty Recycle Bin button, and view icons drop-down list are put back onto the toolbar where they used-to-be, not tucked-away in a ribbon layer which has to be expanded and then un-expanded whenever those buttons are needed. I'm sure there are other reasons that people perfer Win7's explorer layout, but those are my top two.

The toolbar is going to look great with the new flat Metro-style UI on the desktop.

 

[antiquegamer]

I don't get this W8 hate. It is a much better OS than W7 (which is great). Lots of improvements. It's painful to go back...

I have been using it for few months and there are a few things I still getting use to but overall yeah, I do like it better than 7.

Once you adjust to the Start screen and treating it like a launcher it works wonderful. I have my Start menu organize and pin all the app both desktop and metro along with all the frequently use web site. With web-app becoming more and more common, I think Windows 8 is great for launching web base application.

 

[brotkasten]

The official eBay app looks good.

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/ebay/8f1ff8dc-5a36-4b51-9832-85208db8a483

And more Metro desktop concepts:

http://myownfriend.deviantart.com/gallery/38115780

 

[ksdixon]

And more Metro desktop concepts:

http://myownfriend.deviantart.com/gallery/38115780

Soo upset to see these are only fan concepts. I love how the explorer.exe left navigation pane looks here. I haven't got a RTM picture in front of me to immediately compare, but from memory this does the job a lot clearer and makes things immediately identifiable when we talk about splitting the navigation pane from the content pane whilst keeping everything white still. I also like how it has no icons down the left side.

I would love to see more people's explorer mockups/concepts please.

 

[Parl]

Just tested it in my new SSD and after the POST ends, it just takes 8 seconds to boot

Should get faster after a bit like mine did. I'm have no SSD and only a X3 455 CPU and mine boots up faster than that, I'm sure. I have disabled lots of services though.

 

[ksdixon]

The toolbar is going to look great with the new flat Metro-style UI on the desktop.

Do you mean the Ribbon toolbar will look good, or was that sarcasm directed towards the Win7 toolbar I've edited back-in using Ribbon Disabler? I don't doubt the ribbon toolbar will look nicer with the RTM skin/UI, I just find it a matter of productivity/efficiency, and by disabling ribbon I get a few more frequently-used buttons back out onto the UI where I know they should be, rather than tucked-away in the ribbon.

 

[ksdixon]

I've got an old junky laptop which used to be Windows Vista, which is now Win8 RP. On a cold boot from ShutDown with only one or two programs set to start with startup, it takes 15-16 seconds to go from pressing the power button to loading Windows, bypassing the Metro Start Screen and landing me on the Desktop. Not perfect, but it's better than I ever expected from the old laptop back when it was on Vista.

 

[Walshicus]

I've got an old junky laptop which used to be Windows Vista, which is now Win8 RP. On a cold boot from ShutDown with only one or two programs set to start with startup, it takes 15-16 seconds to go from pressing the power button to loading Windows, bypassing the Metro Start Screen and landing me on the Desktop. Not perfect, but it's better than I ever expected from the old laptop back when it was on Vista.

Did this to my father's laptop which had been clogged up with crapware over the years. So much faster for him now.

Does the Release Preview still have a bug where you Win 7 machines can't access shared files from it? That's about the only thing stopping me trying Win 8 on my desktop.

 

[JaggedSac]

Due to sheer laziness, I just got around to installing the Release Preview. Most of these Preview Apps are just god awful. I don't think they could have made a worse Music app. The People app just looks like a jumbled mess. They just look so shoddy. I made these same complaints about them during the CP, and they did make some changes since then, but they still are garbage. Hopefully they did not want to show what they really look like so competition would not steal ideas, but who am I kidding.

Not sure if there is a solution for this but, I hate scrolling the mouse wheel to scroll horizontally and then the panel my mouse goes over has vertically scrolling content that then takes my mouse scrolling input, so the horizontal movement stops and I am now scrolling through the vertical content. Just annoying and not a good experience. Just let me do a click and drag to scroll horizontally if I want to.

OS feels very light though which is great. And the desktop is there, better than ever if I want it.

 

[brotkasten]

Liveside leaked new screenshots of the SkyDrive and Messenger web app.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the new interface is clean and intuitive, and is especially designed for touch-based devices in mind. Consistent with what’ve we’ve seen with Hotmail before, the contextual menu has been moved to a slim bar up the top, whilst navigation elements, including the search box, are placed on the left, thus maximizing the screen real estate for your content.

In terms of UI, based on a quick glance at the screenshots we’ve noticed the following changes:

• You can now select files and folders in thumbnail view. Before this you could only select files and folders and perform actions on them in details view.
• SkyDrive now shows thumbnail previews of Office documents.
• Windows Live Groups is now part of SkyDrive. Visiting http://groups.live.com will redirect you to SkyDrive.com’s Group page (as shown in screenshots below).
• SkyDrive options, such as managing storage, people tagging, and Office document formats, can now be found in one place. Previously all of these options are scattered across Windows Live options and SkyDrive.
• Changing the UI language, as well as leaving feedbacks for SkyDrive, can now be performed without leaving the page.
• The new SkyDrive logo, as well as the new Office 2013 icons, are now used across the website. Even the IE Pinned Sites (shown above) now shows the new logos and icons.

We also expect that Excel Forms (Surveys), as well as the ability to embed Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, to be enabled in the new SkyDrive release. Of course, what we have described here only relate to the UI changes that we were able to observe from these screenshots. We expect there will be additional new under-the-hood features and enhancements that are not shown in these screenshots.

http://www.liveside.net/2012/07/25/exclusive-screenshots-of-upcoming-metro-style-skydrive-leaked/

http://www.liveside.net/2012/07/26/...senger-experience-and-you-can-try-it-out-now/

 

[show me your skeleton]

that recycle bin looks hideous. i think that's the one mockup i've seen that has something i know microsoft will better.

 

[PG2G]

I kind of wish they could have found a way to make a Windows 7/IE9-like jump lists available in Metro. Would have been a nice solution for jumping to a specific point in an app without having to take up a bunch of extra real estate on your start screen.

 

[jagowar]

Skydrive does look much better.... hopefully hotmail gets its makeover at the same time. Would be curious if they actually take the animated ads out (since they kinda go against the metro design).

 

[Anton Sugar]

Nut butter, eh?

 

[beje]

Should get faster after a bit like mine did. I'm have no SSD and only a X3 455 CPU and mine boots up faster than that, I'm sure. I have disabled lots of services though.

My PC is already a little bit "old": C2D E8400 OC'd to 3.6GHz, 4GB DDR2 and only SATA2 so I guess it's better than nothing and I surely could get a lot more juice out of the SSD with a modern rig but I'm not really in the mood or the need to upgrade mobo+CPU+RAM when my current setup handles everything I throw at it in medium or high. I love how programs open almost instantly though

 

[JaggedSac]

Nut butter, eh?

I noticed that as well, lol.

 

[yankeehater]

I just tried to install the windows 8 preview 64 bit version, and it goes through the whole process says that it finished and then restarts my computer, but when it restarted it just sat on a black screen with the word windows on it. It forced it to restart and then an error came up saying windows 8 could not be installed and it went back to windows 7. Does anyone know what I can do to install it?

 

[TheContact]

Windows 8 is going to suck for regular PCs. I tried the demo and it's so completely designed for Tablets that it makes me wonder why they just don't use a separate, but compatible OSs

 

[SCHUEY F1]

I like it on my desktop and laptop a lot. Once you get used to it (doesn't take long imo) it's fine.

 

[Jzero]

I just tried to install the windows 8 preview 64 bit version, and it goes through the whole process says that it finished and then restarts my computer, but when it restarted it just sat on a black screen with the word windows on it. It forced it to restart and then an error came up saying windows 8 could not be installed and it went back to windows 7. Does anyone know what I can do to install it?

Well you have to wait for it to set up.

 

[beje]

Update about the SSD installation: it's insanely fast now after a couple boots. In the "Windows 8" splash that appears after the POST, the spinning indicator doesn't even have time to appear before the log-in screen kicks in.

 

[soul creator]

Windows 8 is going to suck for regular PCs. I tried the demo and it's so completely designed for Tablets that it makes me wonder why they just don't use a separate, but compatible OSs

I've found out that a "separate, but compatible OS" is available by pressing the Windows key + D

 

[CaptainABAB]

I have been using the Release Preview as my primary OS for a week now. A big improvement over the Consumer Preview in terms of File Explorer and other areas (multi-monitor support, etc.)

I still find the lack of features in the default Metro apps to be lacking. No zoom in the PDF reader? No logging in the IM client? etc. OneNote MX is nice, though.

Can't wait to install the RTM version.


Visual Studio 2012 RC on the other hand ... HATE the new black/gray icons everywhere. I still don't understand the rational behind this move.

 

[Mr_Zombie]

No zoom in the PDF reader?

Ctrl + scroll works as zoom in many apps (start screen included) and it also works in the Reader.

 

[Ran rp]

Can anyone help me out? I'm trying to install and dual boot Win8 but the Release Preview Upgrade Assistance keeps getting an internet connection error and the Windows7 USB DVD tool won't accept the Win8 Release Preview .ISO.

 

[MaximumFlipFlop]

Is this worth testing out? Or should I just wait until full release?

 

[Eusis]

Is this worth testing out? Or should I just wait until full release?

I think that depends on your computer situation. If you have one without multiple partitions I wouldn't, but if you have an old laptop laying around or something I'd definitely try it, especially if it's running slow.

 

[brotkasten]

Is this worth testing out? Or should I just wait until full release?

The RTM is going to be available in October and comes with a different looking desktop. I wouldn't bother with the RP anymore. At least not with a full installation. Play with it in a virtual machine to get a feel for it and then forget about it, until the RTM is out.

 

[CaptainABAB]

Can anyone help me out? I'm trying to install and dual boot Win8 but the Release Preview Upgrade Assistance keeps getting an internet connection error and the Windows7 USB DVD tool won't accept the Win8 Release Preview .ISO.

Which USB DVD tool are you referring to? The Microsoft Store one that creates a bootable USB based on an ISO?

If so, if the ISO is for a 64-bit OS you have to run the tool on a 64-bit version of Windows.

 

[Ran rp]

Which USB DVD tool are you referring to? The Microsoft Store one that creates a bootable USB based on an ISO?

If so, if the ISO is for a 64-bit OS you have to run the tool on a 64-bit version of Windows.

I am. Everything I'm using here is 64-bit, but I just noticed that my .ISO is 2GB in Windows Explorer when the download tab in Chrome says that it should be 3.3GB, so maybe it didn't download completely? I'll try to download it again but this is the third time already, and I have plenty of disk space so I'm not sure what's going on.

 

[beje]

I am. Everything I'm using here is 64-bit, but I just noticed that my .ISO is 2GB in Windows Explorer when the download tab in Chrome says that it should be 3.3GB, so maybe it didn't download completely? I'll try to download it again but this is the third time already, and I have plenty of disk space so I'm not sure what's going on.

Yup, busted download. Use a download manager instead of the browser.

 

[Azih]

Yup, busted download. Use a download manager instead of the browser.

What's a good download manager?

 

[beje]

What's a good download manager?

JDownloader is the standard stuff right now, but I guess there are thousands of options.

 

[Ran rp]

Yup, busted download. Use a download manager instead of the browser.

Yup, it was a bad download. Thanks!

 

[Ran rp]

How do I install this so that I can dual boot Win7 and Win8? I haven't had seen any option to do that, just this install button.

 

[beje]

How do I install this so that I can dual boot Win7 and Win8? I haven't had seen any option to do that, just this install button.

That way, you're going to "upgrade" your Win7 installation. Go back and choose the Advanced or Something Else or whatever it's called option, resize your partitions so can make space for a new one of at least 25GB and chose to install in that new partition so you'll be able to dual-boot.

Edit: seeing how you've taken a screencap of it, I guess you're running the setup inside your current Windows 7 installation. Don't do that, reboot your PC from the DVD or USB drive you made from the ISO. Refer to your mobo instruction booklet, but you usually have to press "Del" several times while your PC is booting and showing the POST/BIOS and once in there, go to the "Boot" section and set the priority so the USB or DVD goes before your main HDD to be sure it's going to work.

 

[Ran rp]

These are my options from when I start the setup:

Edit: Just saw your reply. Alright I'll do that then.

 

[Ran rp]

Okay I got it to boot into the Win8 installation. But I don't see an advanced option. I selected my language and everything on the first screen and the next screen just says "Install" and "Repair your computer"

 

[metsallica]

It's after install. Press on.

 

[Ran rp]

It's after install. Press on.

I did that and am at the screen with all the partitions but my external HDD isn't detected. Right now I have my laptop with its internal HDD, an 8GB card with the setup files on it, and my external 500GB HDD. I didn't put the Win8 setup files on the large HDD because I couldn't the Windows USB boot program to recognize it. The setup program can see the 500GB HDD when looking for a driver but it doesn't show up on the partition list. Do I have to create a partition before going througuh the process?

 

[jagowar]

Just an FYI for those that got in on the xbox update.... the "play to" functionality is there and working. Was able to play an mp3 off my music app on the xbox (even pulled in the background artist images) and even played video off my skydrive through the photos app (since the video app has not yet gotten the skydrive update).

 

[msv]

I did that and am at the screen with all the partitions but my external HDD isn't detected. Right now I have my laptop with its internal HDD, an 8GB card with the setup files on it, and my external 500GB HDD. I didn't put the Win8 setup files on the large HDD because I couldn't the Windows USB boot program to recognize it. The setup program can see the 500GB HDD when looking for a driver but it doesn't show up on the partition list. Do I have to create a partition before going througuh the process?

The external HDD is on USB? If so, then it won't install on there. You can install a windows install on it from inside Win7 though, with WindowsToGo. It requires a bit of work and know-how though (and then it still might give you headaches, as it did with me).

http://arstechnica.com/business/201...-create-a-bootable-windows-8-usb-thumb-drive/

Just make absolutely sure you have the right drive when calling it in CMD. The drive letters are mixed up if you run it in administrative mode. It'll assign drive letters to your system reserved partitions, and you do not want to mess with those (trust me, i know, ugh).

 

[beje]

I did that and am at the screen with all the partitions but my external HDD isn't detected. Right now I have my laptop with its internal HDD, an 8GB card with the setup files on it, and my external 500GB HDD. I didn't put the Win8 setup files on the large HDD because I couldn't the Windows USB boot program to recognize it. The setup program can see the 500GB HDD when looking for a driver but it doesn't show up on the partition list. Do I have to create a partition before going througuh the process?

Sorry to say this, but if you really can't troubleshoot yourself on something as basic admin-wise as understanding, resizing and managing partitions in order to dual-boot, I think you really shouldn't be testing this kind of stuff outside of maybe a virtual machine until you read a bit about it.

 

[Ran rp]

The external HDD is on USB? If so, then it won't install on there. You can install a windows install on it from inside Win7 though, with WindowsToGo. It requires a bit of work and know-how though (and then it still might give you headaches, as it did with me).

http://arstechnica.com/business/201...-create-a-bootable-windows-8-usb-thumb-drive/

Just make absolutely sure you have the right drive when calling it in CMD. The drive letters are mixed up if you run it in administrative mode. It'll assign drive letters to your system reserved partitions, and you do not want to mess with those (trust me, i know, ugh).

Yeah, USB. But I probably shouldn't mess with this.

Sorry to say this, but if you really can't troubleshoot yourself on something as basic admin-wise as understanding, resizing and managing partitions in order to dual-boot, I think you really shouldn't be testing this kind of stuff outside of maybe a virtual machine until you read a bit about it.

I guess I'll just wait until release then since I wouldn't be able to install it on my USB HDD this way anyway. But thanks for the help everyone.

 

[Windu]

Remind me not to go to the gaming side ever again.

 

[Somnid]

Remind me not to go to the gaming side ever again.

I remember when Tony (Amazon Gamer) was giving away free Steam redeemable codes from Amazon in the Steam thread and got crucified. Valve threads are like the Apple threads of Gaming Side.

 

[royalan]

Remind me not to go to the gaming side ever again.

Yeah, a lot don't seem to grasp the premise of what Windows 8 is. Namely, mostly an update of Windows 7.