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[rohlfinator]

Right now I have Windows Vista 64-bit installed, however the €29.99 price for Windows 8 Pro has me interested. If I upgraded, where are the main areas I would see performance improvements? Would game performance improve from Vista? Or has Vista now reached the point where its performance in gaming has caught-up with Windows 7 and beyond?

I wouldn't expect to see much difference with game performance. From what I've read, 8 runs games about the same as 7, and I believe 7 ran games pretty comparably to Vista. Most of your performance gains are going to be in things like startup time, UI responsiveness, and memory management.

How is the start-up/boot time on a normal 7200rpm HDD? Would I see much difference there?

Haven't seen it in action on a desktop drive, but it boots pretty quickly from a 5400rpm laptop drive. Most of the improvements with the "fast boot" come from the hibernate feature, which runs fast on any drive.

 

[Pachimari]

Is it normal that when I launch Chrome from the Start menu, it's actually not a W8 app but it's own app?

 

[Quick]

Is it normal that when I launch Chrome from the Start menu, it's actually not a W8 app but it's own app?

Go to the settings (three lines beside the omnibox), select "Relaunch Chrome in Desktop mode".

 

[Enco]

I'm probably being a total idiot but I cannot find a Windows 8 ISO download anywhere on the Windows store.

I'm building a new PC without a disk drive so I need to mount the file to a USB stick and install it from there. Despite reading everywhere that Windows are offering 8 as an ISO download I just can't find it.

I'm in the UK if that helps.

The installer gives you the option to make an ISO or bootable USB.

 

[Alucrid]

Anyone else have the photo app stop working? Tried reinstalling but it's not recognizing any photos in the picture folder. Any other photo app alternatives to the main windows 8 one?

 

[crisdecuba]

Finally done customizing my start screen and start menu setup using Start8 and Decor8.

Here's the end result (the background is a blurred and slightly darkened version of my desktop wallpaper):

Had to come up with a tile approach that I could quickly create new tiles for as new programs are installed.

 

[Loofy]

Looks like the periodic table of elements.

 

[Jzero]

Looks like the periodic table of elements.

Exactly what was thinking lol.

 

[xJavonta]

Looks like the periodic table of elements.

Exactly what was thinking lol.

Same lol. I like it though, but I couldn't use it myself. A little too uniform for me. The blurring of your desktop's background as the start screen is a good idea though.

 

[crisdecuba]

Same lol. I like it though, but I couldn't use it myself. A little too uniform for me. The blurring of your desktop's background as the start screen is a good idea though.

Yeah, choosing the color palette and icon approach took a while. At some point in the future I may mess with different color shades, but for now I like this so much better than the ugly mishmash of stuff and colors you get with the standard Windows 8 App tile approach. The Windows 8 Apps section on the second screenshot looks so ugly to me.

 

[nan0]

I found a free alternative to Decor8. I've tried it and it works, but using a vivid wallpaper can look really ugly when the tiles don't fit colorwise.

 

[JaggedSac]

I do not care for that blurred background behind the sharp tiles and text. I would probably only have visuals at the top and bottom of screen if I were to do this.

 

[Windu]

So a game developer makes a game for windows rt (not windows 8) and complains about low sales. No shit sherlock.

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/great-big-war-game/30f26b23-aa92-4fed-9273-099de3069616

http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/07/gaming-company-derides-microsoft-rt-marketplace-/

I give this an hour before it shows up on the gaming side.

 

[Exuro]

So a game developer makes a game for windows rt (not windows 8) and complains about low sales. No shit sherlock.

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/great-big-war-game/30f26b23-aa92-4fed-9273-099de3069616

http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/07/gaming-company-derides-microsoft-rt-marketplace-/

I give this an hour before it shows up on the gaming side.

They already had a thread on this. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=503161&highlight=windows

 

[Divvy]

Why is that game RT only? I didn't realize that was even possible.

 

[Windu]

They already had a thread on this. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=503161&highlight=windows

lol

 

[Azih]

Why is that game RT only? I didn't realize that was even possible.

So it won't work on desktop within Metro?

Why?

 

[t-ramp]

I found a free alternative to Decor8. I've tried it and it works, but using a vivid wallpaper can look really ugly when the tiles don't fit colorwise.

I'm using that. Copying the desktop background to Metro is so obvious and a huge improvement, but it makes the tiles look like ass. I've made a few custom tiles with OblyTile, and will probably convert the rest soon.

 

[Jzero]

So it won't work on desktop within Metro?

Why?

Because the Windows 8 Start screen is not RT.

 

[KernelPanic]

If anyone wouldn't mind helping me out, I have a couple of questions:

Right now I have Windows Vista 64-bit installed, however the €29.99 price for Windows 8 Pro has me interested. If I upgraded, where are the main areas I would see performance improvements? Would game performance improve from Vista? Or has Vista now reached the point where its performance in gaming has caught-up with Windows 7 and beyond?

How is the start-up/boot time on a normal 7200rpm HDD? Would I see much difference there?

I was running Vista x64 and Win8 x64 is much faster on all fronts. Vista was dog slow for me even with the latest patches and all unnecessary services disabled. Mind you I have an AMD SB600 chipset which had a slow performance bug with Vista. Even with Service Packs I don't think I ever had good performance unless I disabled AHCI and even then it was much slower than it should be.

I think I gained a few FPS as well, not sure why. I thought I read that Vista didn't have full DX11 support somewhere.

Boot up/shut down time is the biggest difference. I had to wait nearly 5 minutes for my system to be usable after power up.

But the overall OS just feels lighter and overall must faster and more efficient. It's well worth spending $40 and putting up with some annoyances from Metro.

 

[rohlfinator]

Finally done customizing my start screen and start menu setup using Start8 and Decor8.

Here's the end result (the background is a blurred and slightly darkened version of my desktop wallpaper):

Had to come up with a tile approach that I could quickly create new tiles for as new programs are installed.

Looks awesome, I might have to try something like that. Does Decor8 let you set the text labels like that, or did you make all the tiles by hand?

 

[Echoplx]

Quick question, I bought the Windows 8 upgrade version and have it installed atm, I'm picking up an SSD soon and will need to reinstall Windows on it, how will that work with my license key? Will it let me reinstall like that?

 

[Kingbrave]

Found out why my computer randomly restarts, hard drive is failing. Yay for warranties!

 

[crisdecuba]

I do not care for that blurred background behind the sharp tiles and text. I would probably only have visuals at the top and bottom of screen if I were to do this.

Interesting - I don't care for the opposite (i.e. sharp visuals on top and bottom) - makes the whole thing distracting IMO. I like this setup because when you go from Desktop to this, it looks as if the background blurs and darkens to bring up this new layer of options.

 

[Quick]

I'm currently building a list of OS X apps/programs for an "OS X Apps" thread, and I'm looking into doing the same for Windows (both Modern UI apps from the Windows 8 Store, and desktop programs). I was wondering if there's interest for such a project?

I've done one for iOS apps so far.

 

[The Real Abed]

For anyone interested, Plex now has a Windows 8 app with ARM support. I'm definitely grabbing this thing.

http://elan.plexapp.com/2012/12/04/announcing-plex-for-windows-8/

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-US/app/647bfcf7-7f87-4a72-ad86-2e6274f969e3

I kinda wish that look would trickle down into the other non-Windows 8 versions. It looks nicer than the default skin on OS X. And a lot more usable than the iPad/iPhone versions.

 

[PG2G]

I'm currently building a list of OS X apps/programs for an "OS X Apps" thread, and I'm looking into doing the same for Windows (both Modern UI apps from the Windows 8 Store, and desktop programs). I was wondering if there's interest for such a project?

I've done one for iOS apps so far.

Sure, seems very useful for me. At least for Modern UI apps. I'd imagine most people are already pretty good on the desktop side of things.

 

[PG2G]

Why is that game RT only? I didn't realize that was even possible.

It is funny because there is an x86 version on Steam apparently, lol. Probably have some kind of exclusive deal.

 

[JaggedSac]

In a comment on that blog post, they said that their publisher will be putting the x86 version on the marketplace.

I kinda wish that look would trickle down into the other non-Windows 8 versions. It looks nicer than the default skin on OS X. And a lot more usable than the iPad/iPhone versions.

It looks great and the performance is great as well. Very happy that it came out so quickly after launch.

 

[surly]

I'm probably being a total idiot but I cannot find a Windows 8 ISO download anywhere on the Windows store.

I'm building a new PC without a disk drive so I need to mount the file to a USB stick and install it from there. Despite reading everywhere that Windows are offering 8 as an ISO download I just can't find it.

I'm in the UK if that helps.

Follow these steps to re-download the setup files and have the option to create an install disc or bootable USB key: -

Go here: -

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only

Click the "Install Windows 8" button. You'll be prompted to download an EXE file, so either hit Run or save it to disc and then run it. Enter in your Windows 8 product key and run through the steps. You'll eventually get to a screen where you have these 3 options: -

Install now
Install by creating media
Install later from your desktop

Choose the media option and you'll have the choice of creating a bootable USB key or creating an ISO which you can burn to disc. If you create an ISO, you can still create a bootable USB key using this tool (which was designed for Windows 7, but works fine for this task too): -

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

 

[Frustrated_me]

Ever since I linked my FB account to Windows8 I'm always online in FB chat... Anyway to turn this off, it's so annoying. And yes, I already put it in invisible mode on the messenger app - even though it reverts to online randomly.

 

[Totakeke]

Taskorami sent an email to me telling me about their recent app improvements even though I've already uninstalled their app.

I certainly wouldn't mind more developers doing this to keep me in the know, but of course, with an easy way to opt out future updates.

Actually, Microsoft should be doing these kind of stuffs for the developers instead.

 

[Pachimari]

Where can I find ALL the apps available for Windows 8? I keep seing tiles with all the free apps in the Store.

 

[MCD]

Anyone know what happened to this app?

 

[weekend_warrior]

Why does windows ask to enter your MS account every time I try and open an app? Is there a way to turn that off?

 

[daviyoung]

Why does windows ask to enter your MS account every time I try and open an app? Is there a way to turn that off?

could it be something to do with your account permissions?

 

[brandonh83]

oh what the hell. the chrome app just started opening by itself automatically, trying to open chrome from the desktop mode makes the app open instead of the window. I uninstalled chrome but that didn't fix it.

 

[daviyoung]

oh what the hell. the chrome app just started opening by itself automatically, trying to open chrome from the desktop mode makes the app open instead of the window. I uninstalled chrome but that didn't fix it.

try going through the browser choice setup again

 

[brandonh83]

try going through the browser choice setup again

Will do. Thanks.

 

[everthustodeadbeats]

Finally done customizing my start screen and start menu setup using Start8 and Decor8.

Here's the end result (the background is a blurred and slightly darkened version of my desktop wallpaper):

Had to come up with a tile approach that I could quickly create new tiles for as new programs are installed.

I really like that. Great job. That would take me forever.

 

[everthustodeadbeats]

I'm currently building a list of OS X apps/programs for an "OS X Apps" thread, and I'm looking into doing the same for Windows (both Modern UI apps from the Windows 8 Store, and desktop programs). I was wondering if there's interest for such a project?

I've done one for iOS apps so far.

Would love to see the OS X apps. I have a macbook pro and I'm certain I'm not utilizing it to its fullest.

 

[TangoAlphaLima]

Seriously, fuck Microsoft for requiring Windows 8 Pro before you can add Windows Media Center. I'm probably going to return this laptop I just bought for this very reason. No fucking way am I spending $70 to upgrade to Pro just to get WMC. I'll look for a cheap recertified or scratch & dent Windows 7 laptop.

 

[trilobyte]

Bought this for my parents for X-Mas: http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-one-23-2330-aio/pd

They never got the hang of the mouse and the standard windows desktop, but they've really taken a shine to their tablets (ipad and nook). I'm hoping Win 8 with the touch screen will be easier for them to use when they have to get on the desktop.

 

[Row]

I bought a laptop a few days ago that isn't a great fit, so I'm returning it. Problem is I can't figure out how in win 8 to reset it to its original state, anyone know?

Then again, does amazon even require that when returning laptops or do they just assume people haven't and do it on their own?

 

[Steelyuhas]

I bought a laptop a few days ago that isn't a great fit, so I'm returning it. Problem is I can't figure out how in win 8 to reset it to its original state, anyone know?

Then again, does amazon even require that when returning laptops or do they just assume people haven't and do it on their own?

Settings Charm -> Change PC settings -> General

There you will find the options to reset your PC.

 

[jsrv]

"Skype for Windows 8" = Skype Metro
Regular Skype = Skype Desktop

Is this correct, or does "Skype for Windows 8" include a Desktop version after you install it?
Do they conflict if you want to install both?

 

[NervousXtian]

Man, I'm really liking Windows 8. The more I spend with it, the less I get all the hate. Either some of the detractors enjoy staring at their desktop all day, or they just don't like change.

It's quicker, the new task manager is nice, it boots so fucking fast even w/o an SSD.

 

[StudioTan]

"Skype for Windows 8" = Skype Metro
Regular Skype = Skype Desktop

Is this correct, or does "Skype for Windows 8" include a Desktop version after you install it?
Do they conflict if you want to install both?

They're separate but I would only use one or the other.

 

[brotkasten]

"Skype for Windows 8" = Skype Metro
Regular Skype = Skype Desktop

Is this correct, or does "Skype for Windows 8" include a Desktop version after you install it?
Do they conflict if you want to install both?

Don't install the desktop and store version at the same time. It's really annoying.

 

[Lynn616]

For anyone interested, Plex now has a Windows 8 app with ARM support. I'm definitely grabbing this thing.

http://elan.plexapp.com/2012/12/04/announcing-plex-for-windows-8/

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-US/app/647bfcf7-7f87-4a72-ad86-2e6274f969e3

If you are running the server and client on the same system this app will not be able to find the server. Metro-style applications run inside isolated processes known as “AppContainers,” and by default, AppContainers are forbidden from sending network traffic to the local computer (loopback). You will need to exempt Plex for it to find a server running on the same machine.

You will need the EnableLoopback Utility to fix the problem. Can be found here.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/fiddler/arc...ble-loopback-network-isolation-exemption.aspx