• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Windows 8 / RT |OT|

M

MCD

Junior Member
Oooh

So it's up to the devs? Never knew that. Thanks dejay.

Man, I love exploring this thing. And for Metro haters: adding a Desktop toolbar on the taskbar is IMO better than the hacking the Start button. Like seriously, with all my desktop apps pinned + desktop toolbar on the taskbar, this is pretty much a beastly Windows 7.
 
D

deleted

Member
secretanchitman said:
i bought an upgrade key, and was able to use it on a retail disc just fine. when i finally got into the desktop, the trick that lets you activate a windows 7 upgrade key using a retail disc actually works on windows 8 as well. surprising to say the least.

what i mean by trick is method #2 in paul thurotts guide. its pretty common but he shows pictures and step-by-step instructions on how to do it. takes less than a few minutes to do.

the only issue i had with windows 8 is that when i was typing in slmgr /rearm, it would say i had insufficient privileges to run the command, so i had to go into windows explorer (sorry, "file explorer" now), search for cmd.exe, right click it and "run as administrator" (didnt know if this was possible using the new start menu so i just went into file explorer instead). i ran slmgr /rearm and it worked for me. restarted, and voila, activated copy of windows 8 pro using my upgrade key!

for the record, i used the key on a windows 8 pro vm in vmware fusion 5 using my 15" macbook pro. had no problems whatsoever.
Click to expand...

claviertekky said:
Even though it says upgrade, several GAFers including myself have successfully used it as a clean install.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll pass the word.
 
C

chickdigger802

Banned
Damn you sentelic, where are my win8 trackpad drivers :(

Just learned that apparently asus ditched them for synaptics and elan nearly right away with their zenbooks.

Maybe I should give asus a call, any of y'all have any experience with support from them?
 
D

dejay

Banned
MCD said:
Oooh

So it's up to the devs? Never knew that. Thanks dejay.
Click to expand...

It's mandated by MS that all metro apps have three states - it's up to the devs to make all of those states usable and meaningful. "Your app must support a snapped layout. In landscape orientation, your app’s functions must be fully accessible when the app’s display size is 1024 x 768. Your app must remain functional when the customer snaps and unsnaps the app."

Some design guidelines - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/library/windows/apps/hh465371.aspx

As you can imagine, it would be hard enough with different screen sizes and aspect ratios to create a nice looking interface with just three states - imagine the difficulty with more. I love my Galaxy Note 2, which has split screen multitasking, but it soon becomes a mess to use in a lot of circumstances because you're trying to shoehorn an app into an aspect ratio it's not designed for.

LannisterSlayer said:
my install is stuck at 90 percent. what do i do?
Click to expand...

Leave it fifteen minutes and reset it - chances are it will continue from where it left off*

*dejay accepts no liability for any loss or bereavement.
 
derExperte

derExperte

Member
Alucrid said:
So to get this on my laptop and desktop I'll need to buy two right? I could've sworn with my OEM version of Vista I installed it on two computers with the same key though.
Click to expand...

I know people who installed W7 on every PC in their household with only one key. It's not allowed of course and nothing else than piracy but it works.
 
W

Wazzim

Banned
chickdigger802 said:
Damn you sentelic, where are my win8 trackpad drivers :(

Just learned that apparently asus ditched them for synaptics and elan nearly right away with their zenbooks.

Maybe I should give asus a call, any of y'all have any experience with support from them?
Click to expand...

I use Asus Smart Gesture.
 
M

Medalion

Banned
Ok I'm back

Successfully upgraded from Win 7 Professional to Win 8 Pro on my Macbook Pro 2011 no problems so far

As far as I can tell... the main win 8 UI interface is the home screen but I often end up back in a pseudo Win 7 desktop save for some new apps

Dunno if this was really worth all the hub bub but it's not bad, I'll probably get used to it

For the time being, my main desktop PC is still win 7 home premium

Like having best of both worlds
 
C

clav

Member
endresults said:
Windows 8 just fucked up my internet somehow. I can still ping, so DNS is working, but I can't use web browsers or the metro apps. Shit sucks.
Click to expand...

Did you upgrade from an installation that has Norton/Mcafee security software? If you uninstalled it in the past and didn't use the downloadable removal tool, there are traces that can mess with your Internet connection.
 
L

Link Man

Banned
So, any problems with upgrading from Win7 to Win8 but keeping all apps/settings/files? Thinking that I might want to upgrade my desktop before Jan 31.
 
M

mike23

Member
Installed it Friday morning, liking it so far.

The good:
Storage spaces are nice, I have it striping 3 drives in my desktop and it gave a nice speed boost. Not sure how it works with the redundancy options, but I have redundancy elsewhere and I don't need it for these drives.

Somehow, it increased the speed and quality of the connection to my NAS withs cifs/smb, which is awesome.

Feels faster, boots faster.


The bad:

It doesn't connect to my wifi correctly on boot. I think it tries to connect through my ethernet connection which dead ends at my NAS and ignores the wifi connections.

Spotify doesn't work at all. Freezes when I try to play a song. This is more Spotify's fault.

The charm in the top left corner blocks my mouse from moving to my left monitor. Consequently, when I try to move my cursor over to the other screen to double click something, the cursor gets stuck on the corner of the first screen. Double clicking on the top left corner of a program closes it. I've closed chrome probably 5-10 times this way. Super annoying. If I have a metro app open, it ends up switching to that.

If anyone knows how to stop the blocking without disabling the charms, let me know please.
 
E

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
I absolutely love the National Film Board of Canada's app.

iY4wFQDd9qBuR.png
Click to expand...
 
Y

yn-neko hates a cat

Banned
Oh man, MS wasn't joking when they said windows 8 is optimized to hell! I copied a folder of 96 file to clipboard from a DVD drive (right-click -> copy) in explorer but there was something installing so I didn't want to paste the 768 MB of file. The install finished about 10 minutes later and when I went to past the files on to my SSD, it took three seconds with the first two seconds just being windows looking at my DVD drive.

I suspect it copied the files to memory as the installs were happening and only read the DVD again to insure nothing changed.
 
D

dejay

Banned
The google app is quite good. Pretty much got everything in there in one neat package - even a browser. Going into gmail after using metro mail looked a bit jarring.
 
I

itsgreen

Member
Just installed and kind of baffled by the speed, it really is noticeable for me...

Also the steps made since the first beta/preview are awesome. Really glad I made the jump in...
 
D

dejay

Banned
MCD said:
Yeah, but as dejay explained some apps can have a bigger screen state than the one shown in my screenshot.

Depends on the dev.
Click to expand...

No, I said there are 3 states and ALL apps must be able to show each of those states. If you have two apps snapped on screen together, you can drag the divider left or right to make one bigger and one smaller.
 
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?
Medalion said:
Ok I'm back

Successfully upgraded from Win 7 Professional to Win 8 Pro on my Macbook Pro 2011 no problems so far

As far as I can tell... the main win 8 UI interface is the home screen but I often end up back in a pseudo Win 7 desktop save for some new apps

Dunno if this was really worth all the hub bub but it's not bad, I'll probably get used to it

For the time being, my main desktop PC is still win 7 home premium

Like having best of both worlds
Click to expand...

No, that's one of the main misconceptions. The whole purpose of the OS to allow it be useful on a variety of form factors. On a desktop PC you're going to be using the desktop most of the time unless you're doing very very simple stuff like just checking mail. On a desktop Metro is more of a launcher although there are some cool apps that are useful and fun to use on a desktop.

On a tablet you're more likely to stick with Metro because those apps work better for that form factor.

With laptops both environments can be useful depending on what you're doing.

And of course you really see the versatility of the OS when you have a hybrid device. On my tablet I'm using mostly Metro when on the couch but when I sit down at my desk I use the keyboard and plug in a mouse and it's a computer again.
 
D

dreamer3kx

Member
derFeef said:
Hm? Too much MS in a MS OS? That's really weird!
Or too you mean the similarities now?
Click to expand...

Yes too much ms, I love W7 but W8 shoves hotmail, 360 and other MS apps in my face from the get go, they never did this with other OS's, I just dont like it, not a big deal if someone doesnt like the OS.
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
dreamer3kx said:
Yes too much ms, I love W7 but W8 shoves hotmail, 360 and other MS apps in my face from the get go, they never did this with other OS's, I just dont like it, not a big deal if someone doesnt like the OS.
Click to expand...
you can uninstall all of that stuff fyi
DoctorWho said:
So is there a link to any image sets for Oblytile?

I'd like to find Steam, Origin and Guild Wars 2 tile replacements.
Click to expand...
googles

OOooooo awesome
 
T

The Albatross

Member
Has anybody else had this problem:

CdFy2.png
Click to expand...

Basically, my computer is not useable because Windows, for whatever reason, cannot send me the confirmation email to my email address. Can't use Store, can't use Email, can't use music, can't launch anything without this confirmation email ... And it's been 24 hours and I still haven't received it. Hitting "resend email" gives me that error.

There is nothing online about this from what I can tell.

If I go in and try to "use a different email address," it brings me to a WIndows Live screen in my browser which does not have that email address listed... It logs me into a Hotmail address that is NOT the address listed in Windows 8. And then it prompts me to change that address... and it never reflects in Windows 8. So on a whim I just changed it, and I think that it probably changed my X-Box Live email ... and any other accounts I've used to sign up for. And it still did not fix my problem with Windows 8.

THis is seriously the most ghetto shit OS I've ever used because of this trash, and I was really ready to jump on board W8. And of course absolutely no documentation or help for this online anywhere.
 
E

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
dreamer3kx said:
Yes too much ms, I love W7 but W8 shoves hotmail, 360 and other MS apps in my face from the get go, they never did this with other OS's, I just dont like it, not a big deal if someone doesnt like the OS.
Click to expand...
Unpin it? Seems like a pretty minor complaint. I mean, I'm not flipping the bird at Ubuntu Cloud or anything when I run Linux.
 
C

Cj70

Member
Just discovered Flip Ahead on IE10

Why's that not on by default? It's pretty cool. Don't need to hunt for "next page" anymore
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
The Albatross said:
Has anybody else had this problem:



Basically, my computer is not useable because Windows, for whatever reason, cannot send me the confirmation email to my email address. Can't use Store, can't use Email, can't use music, can't launch anything without this confirmation email ... And it's been 24 hours and I still haven't received it. Hitting "resend email" gives me that error.

There is nothing online about this from what I can tell.

If I go in and try to "use a different email address," it brings me to a WIndows Live screen in my browser which does not have that email address listed... It logs me into a Hotmail address that is NOT the address listed in Windows 8. And then it prompts me to change that address... and it never reflects in Windows 8. So on a whim I just changed it, and I think that it probably changed my X-Box Live email ... and any other accounts I've used to sign up for. And it still did not fix my problem with Windows 8.

THis is seriously the most ghetto shit OS I've used in a while because of this trash, and I was really ready to jump on board W8.
Click to expand...
I have no idea what you are talking about. but your Microsoft account is @ account.live.com so try going there or something.
 
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?
The Albatross said:
Has anybody else had this problem:
Click to expand...

I've never had that screen nor have they ever had to send me anything to verify any email address. I used my Xbox account as my login and everything just worked. I use the same email from my Windows phone account so all my payment info was there for apps etc.
 
A

Alucrid

Banned
Is there no way to make the color of your theme transparent? On my Windows 8 preview there was a checkbox, nothing on this version though.
 
G

gcubed

Member
so, some help here on my media. I have all of my media on my NAS. I did the trick with the using the shortcut to get it into my library and when i go into my library folders it shows up but none of my media shows up in the Metro apps
 
M

MCD

Junior Member
dejay said:
No, I said there are 3 states and ALL apps must be able to show each of those states. If you have two apps snapped on screen together, you can drag the divider left or right to make one bigger and one smaller.
Click to expand...

Welp, as you can see from the screen I posted, shit is barely useable.

The Albatross said:
Has anybody else had this problem:



Basically, my computer is not useable because Windows, for whatever reason, cannot send me the confirmation email to my email address. Can't use Store, can't use Email, can't use music, can't launch anything without this confirmation email ... And it's been 24 hours and I still haven't received it. Hitting "resend email" gives me that error.

There is nothing online about this from what I can tell.

If I go in and try to "use a different email address," it brings me to a WIndows Live screen in my browser which does not have that email address listed... It logs me into a Hotmail address that is NOT the address listed in Windows 8. And then it prompts me to change that address... and it never reflects in Windows 8. So on a whim I just changed it, and I think that it probably changed my X-Box Live email ... and any other accounts I've used to sign up for. And it still did not fix my problem with Windows 8.

THis is seriously the most ghetto shit OS I've ever used because of this trash, and I was really ready to jump on board W8. And of course absolutely no documentation or help for this online anywhere.
Click to expand...

As Windu said, try to go there and confirm by Phone (SMS).
 
S

strata8

Member
dejay said:
Authors of metro apps have to create three versions of the interface - full, 2/3 and 1/3. Having infinitely adjustable sizes would break the design and make creating apps more difficult. I guess they could (and probably should) have specified a 1/2 size as well.
Click to expand...
Actually, that's not exactly correct. Metro apps have to support a minimum resolution of 1024x768 and a snapped state with a fixed width of 320px. When an app is snapped on a 1366x768 screen, the resolution of the main app is exactly 1024x768.
 
T

The Albatross

Member
When I first setup my account it asked me for my email address, so naturally, I provided my gmail address because.. well.. that's my email address. If Windows 8 only works with live.com, hotmail.com, or outlook.com email addresses, then that's pretty stupid. I feel like it's one thing for a console to require you to use a certain email address
 
M

Medalion

Banned
The Albatross said:
When I first setup my account it asked me for my email address, so naturally, I provided my gmail address because.. well.. that's my email address. If Windows 8 only works with live.com, hotmail.com, or outlook.com email addresses, then that's pretty stupid. I feel like it's one thing for a console to require you to use a certain email address
Click to expand...

You can use Windows 8 without a microsoft email, but it's required to sync the microsoft centric apps and services
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Microsoft rolls out Windows 24H2 update
2
75
5K
winjer replied
Windows 11’s new gamepad keyboard lets you type with an Xbox controller
4
466
Magic Carpet replied
Microsoft Build will detail ‘next generation’ of Windows on Arm and new AI features
2 3
100
8K
StereoVsn replied
[The Verge] Microsoft is now in a handheld gaming PC race
2
79
6K
MisterXDTV replied
Microsoft says it’s starting to test ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11
2
65
4K
Badlucktroll replied
Top Bottom