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Windows 8 / RT |OT|

M

Mr_Zombie

Member
surly said:
Windows 8 has built in refresh and reset features.

Reset = the equivalent of formatting the PC and doing a fresh install of Windows 8, so you lose everything but are back to a nice fresh install.

Refresh = resets Windows 8 so it's like a fresh install, but it keeps your personal data and Metro apps.

So if your folks mess up the PC you have a couple of options there you could use, rather than doing the traditional boot from install CD - format - fresh install.

Also, I installed Windows 8 Pro on a laptop using the upgrade version and then I used an install CD I'd made to boot from, format the drive, the reinstall Windows 8 Pro again and it worked fine. I think it just checks to see if there's a qualifying version of Windows on the drive already, and if Windows 8 is already on there, that counts - it worked for me anyway.

Another, better option (IMO) is to get the laptop set up for your parents exactly how they want it, with all software installed, settings tweaked etc., then create an image of the drive using the free version of Macrium Reflect. If something goes drastically wrong you can use that image to go back to the exact state the laptop was in when the image was made. In fact, you can create a custom refresh image in Windows 8 itself to do that if you like.

You have several options anyway!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I forgot about the Refresh/Reset function.
About the image, every time I reinstall a system (whether it's on my laptop, or on my parents' PC) I think about doing a system image, but each time I forget about it. Maybe this time I will finally do this. :p
 
Z

Zabka

Member
Anastacio said:
Probably not the right thread but at least it's Windows.

I bought a 24" monitor yesterday and set it up and my Windows XP were in full screen, now I got Vista on it and the screen isn't filled out. Instead it have black bars all around the screen.

How can I get it to fill the whole screen?

On the monitor itself I can choose Full and Aspect but nothing changes and its the same when I change the resolution. =/
Click to expand...

Sounds like your card is trying to compensate for overscan. Is it an AMD?
 
G

Gala

Member
Got Windows 8 Pro today. Is it normal that the reset feature is really slow? After 4 hours it's only at 31%
 
P

Pachimari

Member
Zabka said:
Sounds like your card is trying to compensate for overscan. Is it an AMD?
Click to expand...
These are my computers specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro P
DDR3 1066MHz 1024MB PC3-8500 (x4)
Asus P5E3
Samsung 1TB Spinpoint SataII/3
Inno3D GeForce 9600GT I-CHILL
Asus DVD-Burner 20x Sata BLAC
Antec Solo Quiet Mini Tower

What can I do? :(

It were full-screen on my 42" tv and full-screen with XP on that monitor I bought yesterday. On that same monitor it now doesn't stretch across the whole screen. I'm running a VGA (or DVI?) > HDMI cable.
 
M

Mr_Zombie

Member
Gala said:
Got Windows 8 Pro today. Is it normal that the reset feature is really slow? After 4 hours it's only at 31%
Click to expand...

Are you upgrading your current system? If so, all your files (IIRC from Windows, User and probably Program Files folders) are being moved to another folder. That may take time, but I don't think it should take that long (although it probably depends on how much stuff you have on your disk).
 
S

surly

Banned
Mr_Zombie said:
Thanks, I forgot about the Refresh/Reset function.
About the image, every time I reinstall a system (whether it's on my laptop, or on my parents' PC) I think about doing a system image, but each time I forget about it. Maybe this time I will finally do this. :p
Click to expand...
With Windows 7 I used the built-in imaging feature to image my SSD. It took maybe 15-20 minutes. I used it twice to restore my PC - the first time it worked fine, but the second time it didn't work properly and I ended up having to do a fresh install anyway.

The old Windows 7 imaging feature is still present in Windows 8, but I decided to give Macrium Reflect a go. It's pretty awesome and the free version is good enough if you just want to create/restore images. As the built-in imaging takes 15-20 minutes, I would usually create a new image once a month after installing the latest Windows updates, but with Macrium Reflect it takes 4 minutes to image my SSD so it's pretty convenient for creating a new image whenever I feel like it.
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Speaking of reset and refresh has anyone bought a new windows 8 pc recently and used the reset feature to get rid of crapware? I assume it would work, that is what i plan on doing when i get a new pc.
 
S

surly

Banned
Windu said:
Speaking of reset and refresh has anyone bought a new windows 8 pc recently and used the reset feature to get rid of crapware? I assume it would work, that is what i plan on doing when i get a new pc.
Click to expand...
I haven't tried it, but from what I've read it should work.

Once you've done that (or at any point), you can create a custom refresh image at any time by opening a command prompt with admin rights, then typing the following commands: -

mkdir C:\RefreshImage
recimg -CreateImage C:\RefreshImage

The above commands will create a custom refresh image in the C:\RefreshImage directory and set it as the default image to use if/when you next use the refresh option.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
Is there a way to make Window borders translucent like in Windows 7. It kind of buggs me that the taskbar is translucent but window borders are not.
 
D

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
Ok so the latest update has made my start screen all glitchy and freezy. Going to have to roll back.
 
M

Mr_Zombie

Member
TheExodu5 said:
Is there a way to make Window borders translucent like in Windows 7. It kind of buggs me that the taskbar is translucent but window borders are not.
Click to expand...

I wonder why did they even make the taskbar translucent. It wasn't like that in any of the preview versions and it really doesn't fit to the solid colors seen everywhere else in the UI.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Mr_Zombie said:
I wonder why did they even make the taskbar translucent. It wasn't like that in any of the preview versions and it really doesn't fit to the solid colors seen everywhere else in the UI.
Click to expand...

It was for me in the preview version.. but maybe I enabled it.

I guess we can think of it like the taskbar is "background" like the desktop wallpaper, while all windows are "foreground" and thus a solid color?

:p
 
P

PSGames

Junior Member
Windu said:
Speaking of reset and refresh has anyone bought a new windows 8 pc recently and used the reset feature to get rid of crapware? I assume it would work, that is what i plan on doing when i get a new pc.
Click to expand...

Yep. I've used this to get rid of Samsung bloatware on the 500t.
 
L

Lynn616

Member
Steam Hardware & Software Survey: November 2012

e8MUv.png


Almost 5%.
 
Z

Zzoram

Member
I hope Microsoft updates their antivirus so it's no longer dead last for detecting and resolving new viruses.

A good AV software built into Windows 8 is in their benefit, even if it would piss off Norton.
 
P

Pachimari

Member
I just looked at the Windows 8 Assistant as I'm considreing upgrading to W8. It says I need a resolution at least at 1300x768 or something for me to be able to set apps in place on the Metro interface. How can I reach that resolutionn? Do I need a new card? Or screen or maybe cable?

I'm going VGA>HDMI.
 
S

SteveWD40

Member
Anastacio said:
I just looked at the Windows 8 Assistant as I'm considreing upgrading to W8. It says I need a resolution at least at 1300x768 or something for me to be able to set apps in place on the Metro interface. How can I reach that resolutionn? Do I need a new card? Or screen or maybe cable?

I'm going VGA>HDMI.
Click to expand...

Win 8 needs a resolution of 1366x768, which is standard on most laptops these days. Are you on a laptop or desktop? I think you need a new screen.
 
P

Pachimari

Member
SteveWD40 said:
Win 8 needs a resolution of 1366x768, which is standard on most laptops these days. Are you on a laptop or desktop? I think you need a new screen.
Click to expand...

I'm on a desktop and I just bought a new 24" screen yesterday.

I will just keep Vista or upgrade to W7 but why can't I make Windows fill out my whole scren? I also had an earlier Vista installed on my desktop and it covered my whole screen until I installed a new Vista and now it doesn't fill up the whole screen.

This is my screen:
Elgiganten.dk (Acer)

It says in the specifications, that the maximum resolution is 1920 x 1080.
 
E

EekTheKat

Member
With touch in IE10, on certain websites you can tap the menu to bring up the sub-menu, but as soon as you lift your finger off of the menu the entire thing closes, making it impossible to click on anything in the dropdown.

This appears to be related to something with how the sites are coded regarding mouseover and how Windows 8 touch works.

Windows 8 touch seems to be emulating a mouse, so it sort of makes sense that on a website as soon as you move your finger off of the dropdown menu the mouseover event will cause the menu to immediately collapse.

This is a minor annoyance, as most sites can still be navigated without using dropdown menus, but it does look pretty bad when you can't easily navigate a certain Windows 8 OEM hardware vendor's homepage that has these dropdown menus properly on a Windows 8 touch device.
 
K

Kill Your Masters

Member
I'm considering the switch but I need some info regarding displays.

How does W8 handle dual displays? I want to use my TV as "extender" and I don't really like the "Extend" feature of W7, so I always duplicate the display, but then I must run W7 on 720p resolution on both the TV and Laptop because that's the highest resolution that both devices support.

Is W8 any different (better) or the same?
 
S

SteveWD40

Member
Anastacio said:
I'm on a desktop and I just bought a new 24" screen yesterday.

I will just keep Vista or upgrade to W7 but why can't I make Windows fill out my whole scren? I also had an earlier Vista installed on my desktop and it covered my whole screen until I installed a new Vista and now it doesn't fill up the whole screen.

This is my screen:
Elgiganten.dk (Acer)

It says in the specifications, that the maximum resolution is 1920 x 1080.
Click to expand...

Ok... so you have the screen res, why would the upgrade assistant flag that as an issue?

Is your desktop running at a low res on the screen? In your display settings what are you outputting at?
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
Mr_Zombie said:
I wonder why did they even make the taskbar translucent. It wasn't like that in any of the preview versions and it really doesn't fit to the solid colors seen everywhere else in the UI.
Click to expand...

It really sucks for me, since I always liked having dark translucent taskbars.:

desktop_august2012.png
Click to expand...

Now I'm stuck with a bright taskar and window borders, which just look off to me.
 
P

Pachimari

Member
SteveWD40 said:
Ok... so you have the screen res, why would the upgrade assistant flag that as an issue?

Is your desktop running at a low res on the screen? In your display settings what are you outputting at?
Click to expand...

I'm outputting at 1280 x 1024.

But I'm gonna try go with a VGA>VGA cable now.
 
P

Pachimari

Member
I installed 122 updates from Windows Update and that seemed to have fixed my screen. Guess I can go upgrade to Windows 8 on my aging old desktop. :)
 
I

Iadien

Guarantee I'm going to screw up this post? Yeah.
I just finished upgrading from Windows 7, and the installation went so smoothly. Everything works great, most settings were saved, etc. Good stuff.
 
I

Iadien

Guarantee I'm going to screw up this post? Yeah.
Anastacio said:
What about programs? If I have Office 2007, Dreamweaver, Photoshop and the likes, will it all work with Windows 8?
Click to expand...

I would think so, I know Office 2010 worked just fine afterward for me. I only had 1 program that was incompatible, but that was because the program was outdated.
 
P

Pachimari

Member
Iadien said:
I would think so, I know Office 2010 worked just fine afterward for me. I only had 1 program that was incompatible, but that was because the program was outdated.
Click to expand...

Okay, thanks. :)

I'm just afraid to take the step to W8, with what if the programs don't work. Though I guess it should run smoother than Vista?
 
S

StudioTan

Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
Hellraizer said:
I'm considering the switch but I need some info regarding displays.

How does W8 handle dual displays? I want to use my TV as "extender" and I don't really like the "Extend" feature of W7, so I always duplicate the display, but then I must run W7 on 720p resolution on both the TV and Laptop because that's the highest resolution that both devices support.

Is W8 any different (better) or the same?
Click to expand...

What is it about the extend feature you don't like?

I can tell you that Windows 8 works better with dual displays in that you can access the Start screen on any monitor, you have independent control of your desktop backgrounds and taskbar functions are more intelligent.

In Windows 8 you bring up the Start screen by moving your mouse to the lower left corner and you bring up the Charms bar by bringing your mouse to the upper or lower right corners. This functions the same on any monitor which means that whether you're on your main screen or second screen you can always access the Start screen and if you're launching a Metro app it will open on the screen you launched it on, as opposed to the last screen it was open on.

You can have different desktop wallpapers on each monitor or extend a wallpaper across all displays.

The taskbar can now be duplicated on all monitors so that all your pinned programs show up on each monitor, or you can set it to only show programs running on that monitor on your taskbar.
 
I

infinityBCRT

Member
TheExodu5 said:
It really sucks for me, since I always liked having dark translucent taskbars.:



Now I'm stuck with a bright taskar and window borders, which just look off to me.
Click to expand...

I've been dabbling with Windows 8 since the first preview but seriously started using it after RTM, and it took me a while but now I have come around to liking the Windows 8 UI style. It was jarring at first, but one of the things I really like about Windows 8 is that it matches your window/taskbar colour with your wallpaper (and the way it picks the colour seems to be really good-- it doesn't seem to be taking the average, but instead find one of the major colours in your wallpaper and uses that for the UI theme).

When you have rotating wallpapers its just neat to have the UI color also rotate with the wallpaper,
 
P

Pachimari

Member
Alright, I think I'll upgrade.

It plays nice with a Nokia Lumia 800, so that I can edit word and excel documents and save them in SkyDrive?
Also, is Windows 8 horrible for Photoshop, Dreamweaver and such? A buddy of mine is trying to convince me of how horrible W8 is..
 
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