Windows 8...all about likes and dislikes

• Installed easy and recognized all of my hardware with no problems,low on resource consumption.  
• I like native ISO mounting, the restyled Task Manager, and picture passwords.
• I like metro UI. It’s very different from Win7 in how it uses the screen. It takes a while to get used to. After you do, WOW.  
• Downloaded and installed the 3.6 GB 64 bit version and am pleasantly surprised with how stable it is.
• Installed on and old (3 years) Lenovo laptop amd 2 core with 3 GB ram that I usually use for messing about with Linux Mint. 
• Have installed Firefox etc, Win 7/Vista Samsung laser printer drivers work and PaintShopPro 9.1 does as well. (I know, old fashioned or what but I like that program. does everything I need). 
• Definitely runs faster than Win 7 at the moment apart from the disappointingly longish boot time. At the moment nothing to dislike

• I like the styling – especially the lock screen. The multitasking looks spectacular, and I'm amazed that the system requirements are actually lower than Windows 7. 
• I'm really surprised that it is lighter on resources than 7. I also like the coding aspects (running HTML5 apps on the desktop).
• The MetroUI is fab. Blows Ubuntu Unity out of contention. And it’s damn sexier than Lion.

• “The thing that I dislike about windows 8 is the starting & shutting down screen. It looks so plain with solid colours only.” “metro UI ,pc is pc not a tablet or smart phone.”
• “This is a Tablet or Cell Phone OS. Certainly not useful for PC users. I miss my Search box and it took me a while to figure out how to shut down my PC from Windows. I do not like the new Control Panel, but it is good to see that we can access the old style one. I think I will pass on 8 and wait for 9. This could be just another Vista type of OS.
• I don't like the style since I've seen on Windows Phone. But one operating system for all devices is a good idea.” “change my OS again? My old XP was fine (handling with care). More than 7 years without several problems (I'm an experienced user, not an end user). Vista was a disaster (bye bye more than 200$ upgrading my OS). 7 is like a charm (but 200$ more to upgrade my system). Why I should to change again after 2 years if 7 works pretty well for me? I tried W8 but… Why my face is near the clock on the task bar? I made something like this through a folder shortcut, nothing new here! 2 different desktops? Maybe this will OK on a table or phone but not fr PCs. If I want DesktopFX (and useful desktop instead the w8 headache) then I chose Ubuntu and not need to pay nothing to get an useful OS (also installed on my notebook since v5.10 and updated each 6 months without problems!). I'm not a Mac user but Lion is $29 only!!!

• Do not like the new GUI! WIN 7 seems cleaner to me. “I like: style, low memory when in execution, and UI (User Interface) for desktops.
• I dislike: the Metro, and think that the systems would be separated, one to desktop and other for Metro and Windows Phone.” Being that I recently purchased a touch screen PC I am excited about 8 being optimized for touch.  
• “Are the people @ Microsoft out of their mind? They go asking people around to help them designing and further developing a brand new OS then collect the profits themselves. while others had been sweating their **** working for them!!!”

• The new user interface is geared for tablet computers, and for tablet computers it is probably very good. But on my desktop PC I want my familiar desktop. If they can give this as a setting in windows 8, Great! else when windows 7 gets outdated I will very possibly go to Mac.

• I’m not keen on the whole metro concept (at the moment) other than that I see no reason to upgrade from seven. I will need some convincing considering the state of our country [UK] when it comes to spending money. My attitude now is, If it is not broke why replace it. 

Finally...


I think most computers are still using Vista/XP ... some have just become proud owners of Windows 7 and most people will stay away from buying/upgrading to Windows 8.Even i have installed Windows 8 Developers Preview.I would suggest Microsoft should work on it for at least two years and present us another masterpiece just like Windows 7 .... Windows 8 may turn up to be something like Windows Vista.Microsoft should understand.....MONEY DOES NOT GROW ON TREES...and people can wait for Windows 9 or 10...It's no sense changing your OS every year.

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Install Windows 8 As a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox

Ready for more ?

Windows 8 Developer Preview requires a clean install. If you don’t want to wipe your computer or install Windows 8 on a separate partition or drive, you should consider installing Windows 8 as a Virtual Machine (VM.)

To run Windows 8 Developer Preview as a virtual machine, I recommend using VirtualBox as your host.

So How to ?
Install Virtual Box & Set up Windows 8 VM
Install Windows 8 in Virtual Box
Requirements
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Windows 8 Developer Preview ISO file (32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows Live ID (for best testing experience, sign up here if you don’t have one)
Internet Connection (for best testing experience)

Besides that, also make sure that your computer has the Virtualization Technology (VT-x/AMD-V) activated in the BIOS. Proceed to the installation if you are ready with everything.
Install VirtualBox & Set up Windows 8 VM

Step 1:
 Download VirtualBox and install it.

Open VirtualBox and click New.

Go through the wizard to create a new Virtual Machine. Below screenshot shows the parameter used for the virtual machine. Do note that the minimum requirement of RAM for  Windows 8 is 1GB for 32-bit and 2GB for 64-bit.








Now Virtual Machine is ready.
Step 2:

Once the virtual machine is ready, click Settings and start modifying the settings in order to install Windows 8 Developer Preview. All the screenshot below shows the settings that I used during the setup.

System

Storage

This part might be tricky. By default, the VDI file generated will be mounted as a SATA HDD. However, if it is treated as a SATA HDD, Windows 8 will not be able to initiate the installation and BSOD (A very cute one) occurs. So the workaround is to mount the VDI file under the IDE controller, this way Windows 8 Developer Preview install perfectly.

Also under Storage, mount the ISO file containing Windows 8 Developer Preview that you just downloaded.

Once everything is set, start installing Windows 8! The installation process is pretty much similar to the one in Windows 7, so nothing much to cover there. When Windows 8 started up, you will need to enter your Windows Live ID and password.

It is worth noting that the guest addition for VirtualBox doesn’t work in Windows 8, therefore the resolution of the virtual machine is limited.

Other famous Virtual Machine software such as VMWare and Windows Virtual PC are not able to install Windows 8 Developer Preview at the moment. So if you are really interested to try it out, follow our guide to install it, and let us know your opinion on Windows 8.

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Windows 8 Features

We don’t know much about Windows 8 features yet, but we know what Microsoft is working on.

However, I have researched all features that Microsoft is currently working on. Of course we don’t know if Microsoft will indeed add those features to the final build of Windows 8 in 2011/2012.

Windows 8 Features: Highest Chance For Implementation



New Filesystem
App Store / Windows 8 Apps
Kinect Rapid Login-In
Will Run on ARM (CONFIRMED)
Cloud support
3D Desktop
Reset To Factory Default


Windows 8 Features: High Chance For Implementation

Windows 8 Features with a good chance for integration / or already confirmed features:

History Vault
DSFR (New Storage technology:Distributed File System Replication storage file system) = Faster File Access
Support for one way replication
Cluster Support
Dramatic performance improvements
Hibernate/Resume Integration API, which will be used in Windows 8 replacing Windows Vista’s Xpress compression engine.
PatchGuard Improvement = More Secure x64 Environment
New user interface framework = More beautiful Windows 8 Interface
Improved Download Experience
Improved Remote Desktop Client and Protocol
More Windows 8 features haven’t been revealed yet. Overall, I would say that Microsoft is working on some big things. A new file system, enhanced security and a new GUI sound really good so far, what else should they be working on?

Although there are many features that are really useful, there are also features that are totally useless. I hope they focus on the important features and not on the Hibernation and Download features :P

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Windows 8 Metro

Metro is much more than just a user interface. It’s a new experience. A new Windows 8 way of life… All right, I’m going to stop now.

UI elements aside, Metro is about immersive applications. Users will pretty much need to forget all they know about traditional Windows desktop programs. They’ll all still be there if they’re needed, but there are new apps in town. Metro apps. Steve knows all about it:

The challenge with the discussion of Metro style was definitely due to the ordering of our blog posts. We were not sure whether to speak abstractly at first or concretely. Given that nearly 6 million people viewed the video demonstration of the Windows 8 user experience (a rather in-depth demo) we felt that people already had the context for the user experience. That probably wasn’t a good assumption on our part. We also know that even with that much background, until you can touch the software it is going to be difficult to develop a complete picture. Many products look better or worse until you can use them. I’m fairly certain that in this case we have a lot of upside.

In many of the comments, people primarily focused on Metro as what I would say are the graphical elements of the user interface—it was Metro v. Aero. We’ve seen a clear turn where Aero is the past and Metro is the future. And with that a strong desire for the existing Windows experience to take on a new look or a Metro redesign. These comments are usually focused on style and looking “old” or “new.” Generally, those details of the visual styling come later in the engineering process, but we wrongly assumed that this was known. Stating that, we could have short-circuited this concern.

A lot of this discussion will depend ultimately on what Metro comes to mean for folks. As we looked at Metro style for Windows 8, as we talked about in an earlier post, we see much more than a more monochrome set of visuals and fewer controls (when there are fewer commands). We see a new platform, a reimagining of Windows. For Windows 8, Metro style means a new type of app—an app that learns from and improves upon the current (and most popular) platform. This is a lot of what we’ll talk about at BUILD. If you watchVideo #1 you can see Metro style apps at work. At BUILD we’ll talk about the attributes of those apps, and the tools and languages you can use to create those apps. What we’ve said is that there is a very deep platform that provides for a rich opportunity for apps of all types—from media to social to games to productivity. We don’t see any limits to where this will go.

The other part of this dialogue is about the desktop. The desktop is many things to many people. To some it is literally the place where the important documents are stored (the most important folder). To some it is the Explorer window for managing files (it is an app to some). To some it is a metaphor or even Windows itself (toolbars/ribbons, menus, MDI/SDI, etc.). To some, their view of the desktop is an app they run “all the time” and they experience Windows only through File Open or maybe the Start menu (for example, people who for the most part use Outlook or Word, or Photoshop, or AutoCAD, or a line of business app). The desktop might even be relatively invisible to someone who does a lot of web browsing.

The unique element of Windows has always been the “open market” approach to interface. We embraced how people used and adapted the Windows APIs to bring unique experiences to market. Within any context there really isn’t a single “desktop” experience. Certainly some have been critical in the past that “Aero” did not achieve a uniformity or consistency, even within Windows.

We said the desktop is like an app in Windows 8—you can use it or not, as much or as little as you want. Some have said “it feels jarring” to go to the desktop. My perspective is that it is no more or less jarring that switching between any other apps if you embrace diversity or experiences that are built for a specific task or purpose. Today’s websites (and mobile apps) do not strive for consistency across disparate properties or apps, and the shell of a browser does little to prevent a jarring effect as you switch tabs (or apps). We’ve long embraced apps that have palettes or toolbars, full screen / windowed / MDI, built-in controls or custom controls. The mechanisms to implement this variety are part of the desktop heritage. Some wish for more uniformity or policing. As a member of the team that built our early Windows tools, I know we tried. Even in the most homogeneous platform, developers will strive to differentiate and build their user experiences for specific purposes and experiences will diverge from commonality  Commonality was an answer to complexity in another era–today we are surrounded by digital experiences of all different types and we readily adapt (just as people adapted to a wide variety of print formats or video formats as these technologies improved from their first generations).  The answer today is whether the design works in the context for which it was intended.

That diversity allows us to say with confidence that going from Metro style to the desktop will be harmonious—as harmonious as switching apps or sites is today. It will take orchestration at the top level to make moving seamless—that’s why you see things like switching between apps, snapping apps, or even using ALT+TAB between apps, and the desktop itself, all mechanisms that just work. The animations will work. Copy / Paste will work. Even bridging between “legacy” control panel applets will work.

There’s a lot more to this topic, as I said. I wanted to touch on some of the feedback and play back some of what has occurred to me and other folks on the team as we read through the dialogue. I think we need to do more in terms of showing the product and maybe we erred on the side of too much transparency too soon, but we’re on board and moving forward. BUILD is just a few days away.

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Windows 8 New File System

What is Microsoft working on? What changes can we expect in Windows 8? I suppose every Windows 8 fan is asking those questions nowadays. There aren’t many news, but there are some hints here and there!

If you compare the performance of filesystems of the major operating systems, you will quickly realize that Windows 7 is not doing very well:

The core engine of Windows 8 will have security and performance improvements.

For the upcoming version of Windows, new critical features are being worked on including cluster support and support for one way replication. The core engine is also being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements.

Windows 8 New File System Not Confirmed Yet

Microsoft is working on a new file system, an improved DSFR (Distributed File System Replication (DFSR) storage file system), according to ZDNet.

Although Microsoft is hiring people to work on DFSR (the new filesystem) codenamewindows.com reported that the new file system has not been confirmed yet:

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Get Windows 8

  As expected, Microsoft is using its Build developer conference to distribute a pre-beta, developer preview version of Windows 8 (for x86 PCs only; the hardware to run the ARM version on isn't finished yet).

“We re imagined Windows,” says Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft. Steven recently unveiled the touch-first user interface of Windows 8, along with a whole host of other new features. 

Windows 8 is Microsoft's combined desktop, laptop and tablet operating system, designed to go from 10-inch touch-only tablets to big screens in your living room, from ultra-portable notebooks to massive gaming systems and business desktops.

Windows 8 also features gestures to put two apps on screen side by side, and the traditional Windows desktop for when you need richer apps like the ones we've been using in Windows for years.

It's got the Windows Phone 7 Metro-style touch interface of live tiles, the Metro programming model for building web apps and native apps that run full screen and share information.

On my left and right are some screenshots.....Windows 8 can be downloaded from MSDN.To know more you can download the WINDOWS 8 GUIDE.

System Requirements

Windows Developer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows Vista and Windows 7:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
• Taking advantage of touch input requires a screen that supports multi-touch
• To run Metro style Apps, you need a screen resolution of 1024 X 768 or greater

So what are you waiting for click Download button straight away.

or click here for x86

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