Playing with Windows8 ConsumerPreview

I decided to give it a shot.
Here is the machine I am using: http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/sec.asp?c…;report=Summary
Even for those of you who don't like PCPitstop Overdrive, you can see that this is a strong and well equipped machine.

Windows8 64bit installed smoothly and without any attended needs.

As to the Metro GUI, I'm not completely lost, but am very awkward and still just expetrimenting/exploring.

I'll probably be slower than most enthusiasts, as I expand my familiarity with this Windows8

So far, I've encountered one problem, which is that I had to revert to Yahoo Classic email, while I figure out how to configure "Advanced Yahoo mail"
Oh well. No big loss.

I anticipate installing Windows8 32bit on an older single core Pentium 4 machine, to see how it runs, particularly because Windows8 appears to claim decent functionality on lower resource systems.

What has your experience been to date?

confusing.. must admit i only gave it a very very short test in a vm mainly to see what it looked like a couple of months back, but that was the biggest impression i can remember now from the test, how confusing it was to navigate around. i really need to re-install it and spend more time trying to use it, to get a better understanding of it, but i keep putting it off, actually just downloaded both the 32bit and 64 bit versions again a couple of days ago, so need to get my backside in gear and do some more testing.

You know that a "clean install" is always considered superior to an upgrade from prior OS. Well… My brain has been "upgraded" from crayons, to Remington Manual, to Corona Electric, to dedicated word-processor, to Apple IIe with Lotus 123, to Tandy 286, to IBM with DOS 1.0, 1.1, 3.0, Win95, Win98, Win2000, WinXP, Win Vista, Win7….. and now Metro. No doubt my brain needs a Registry Scan, clean and defrag.

i was trying to figure out how to log into safe mode..
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/…ws-8-safe-mode/
i can see this os is going to be fun when it comes time to help people with their problems.

and now i've played with it for another 5 minutes, i remember why i did such a quick test last time around…

adding the desktop toolbar to the taskbar helped a bit..

but….

i hate it..


even if i get 100% familiar with using it, i don't think i'll ever really like it.

I'm thinking of all the nice things that can be said for Windows8 Metro I'm thinking… Be patient… I'm thinking… Has a nicely styled Pin-Ball game.

only set it up with a local account so can't test a lot of things but solitaire works ok.. never tested the pinball because it's running in a vm so no 3d graphics driver installed at moment. oh! and weather is informative.

Just reading some hands-on reviews were enough to scare me half to death Welcome to the beginnings of the post-desktop world? Seems to be where it's all heading with W8, which is really designed for Microsoft's yet to be released tablet … cloud, tablets, fancy phones, interactive screens, the hand swipe, the fingers pinch etc. God help computer gamers W7 has been a fairly good experience with much improved security but it lost XP's excellent Movie Maker and inbuilt Outlook which are both now a separate download with Windows Essentials. I didn't think much of Live Mail and the new Movie Maker is hopeless (a movie maker with no time-lines?). Microsoft's obsession with 'simplification' has had some down sides. And no Start Menu in W8 (?). I still think XP, that lasted a good 10yrs (and still going strong for the moment), historically speaking, will turn out to be Microsoft's greatest ever success story. Sure it had some faults, but so too does W7 (not remembering window size or placement is an annoying and notable one). Will big business wait for a stable W8 or move to W7 (proven OK) if still on XP? It's a fine decision deadline with the end of XP support fast approaching. Office workers with tablets and W8 maybe? Cheers, Lee