Windows 8 developer preview version available

[Turbinator]

If you are like me and can not wait to try the new Windows 8, here is our chance:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

 

[Izack]

Meh. I just got 7 last month...this is much too soon.

 

[ghostrunner01]

I am already downloading it! I will install it to a new partition so I can keep windows 7.

 

[statisticsnerd]

I've been using 7 for the past several months and don't see any major improvement over XP. It starts up a little faster, but that's about it. Of course that could just be because I formatted over my old system and started fresh.

The additional eye candy doesn't really do anything for me and the little things like changing "My Computer" to "Computer" and changing "My Documents" to "Documents" are silly and unnecessary.

I've also noticed that the new version of Internet Explorer does not have the traditional drop-down menu bar. It took me several minutes to find simple things like the "history" folder and how to save pages. The new version of Microsoft Office is the same way. They rearrange everything for no reason.

I still have XP and Microsoft Office 2003 on one of our computers and it is a stable machine that does EVERYTHING I need it to. Why fix something that isn't broke?

 

[Pablo49]

The additional eye candy doesn't really do anything for me and the little things like changing "My Computer" to "Computer" and changing "My Documents" to "Documents" are silly and unnecessary.\

Nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking? It's quite silly and unnecessary to point out semantics, too.

I quite like 7. I particularly LOVE the taskbar, and the star menu is very nice, but are more efficient than previous versions.

The "why you change things that aren't broken" thing is a bit annoying. A Model T works, but you'd rather have a modern car. The goal is to make things more efficient. It's just unfortunate Microsoft think efficient means big fancy menus and/or being like OSX.

Win8 interests me not at all. The ribbon is a terrible UI. I also don't think xbox live should be included with the operating system. It should be a separate, optional download. Anti-competitive etc. Also teh star menu sounds completely terrible, but I haven't actually ran the dev build yet, so I am not completely sure.

I am already downloading it! I will install it to a new partition so I can keep windows 7.

This isn't a build you would even begin to think about using as your primary OS. (Thought I would throw that out there in case someone decides to install this over their current OS.)

 

[Turbinator]

For me there are many smart little improvements in Windows 7 over XP, and together they add up to quite a noticeable difference. There is absolutely positively no reason to even mention XP any more.

 

[Alexw95]

can you still run all programs or is this strictly a beta using the programs it came with?

 

[Ark]

I'm still happy with XP. Vista was a complete wreck, and 7/8 are continuing the Apple trend toward fancy UIs but neutered capability. The mere fact that 8 is designed to run on a tablet puts me off, tablet operating systems are so Fischer-Pricey with their design that if you don't like the way it works, you're just told "Shut up and deal with it." I can't see getting real work, modding, or serious gaming done on a tablet-designed OS.

I can't shake the feeling that 10 years from now serious businesses and universities will still be using XP or 7 because newer operating systems keep offering less capability and more flashy visuals. Microsoft is just following Apple's lead and catering to the large slice of the population that likes shiny things but doesn't know RAM from an HDD.

 

[Scav]

Even Apple's FTP handling is somewhat neutered out of the box. It's one of the few cases in Snow Leopard/Lion where you need a third party utility to 'put' anything anywhere.

They don't have any problems with the average user 'get'ting anything, of course.

 

[Zachstar]

I'm still happy with XP. Vista was a complete wreck, and 7/8 are continuing the Apple trend toward fancy UIs but neutered capability. The mere fact that 8 is designed to run on a tablet puts me off, tablet operating systems are so Fischer-Pricey with their design that if you don't like the way it works, you're just told "Shut up and deal with it." I can't see getting real work, modding, or serious gaming done on a tablet-designed OS.

I can't shake the feeling that 10 years from now serious businesses and universities will still be using XP or 7 because newer operating systems keep offering less capability and more flashy visuals. Microsoft is just following Apple's lead and catering to the large slice of the population that likes shiny things but doesn't know RAM from an HDD.

I take it you have not been keeping up with 8's development. Such as better file management systems with real use. Also all the "fancy stuff" is completely optional.

This isn't windows vista. They have long learned that listening to the community and keeping things fast and basic for the power users is the way to go.

 

[Ark]

I take it you have not been keeping up with 8's development. Such as better file management systems with real use. Also all the "fancy stuff" is completely optional. They have said it time and again and yet people STILL believe the tablet interface is replacing windows explorer.

This isn't windows vista. They have long learned that listening to the community and keeping things fast and basic for the power users is the way to go.

I remain skeptical, but I get that sooner or later I'll at least have to get 7. The newer versions of DirectX pretty much banish XP users from gaming.

Is there at least an option in there to run EVERY program as administrator by default? You know, the first troubleshooting option in every problem everyone has in 7?

 

[Hielor]

I can't shake the feeling that 10 years from now serious businesses and universities will still be using XP or 7 because newer operating systems keep offering less capability and more flashy visuals. Microsoft is just following Apple's lead and catering to the large slice of the population that likes shiny things but doesn't know RAM from an HDD.

Can you give me a specific example of how 7 has "less capability" than XP?

My favorite feature in Win8 is the availability of spellchecking throughout the system...although I might be somewhat biased :lol: On that note, if anyone happens to run across any issues in that feature let me know :tiphat:

Full disclosure (which I apparently should've been giving more often :blush: I work for Microsoft...

---------- Post added at 22:25 ---------- Previous post was at 22:24 ----------

Is there at least an option in there to run EVERY program as administrator by default? You know, the first troubleshooting option in every problem everyone has in 7?

You can run programs as administrator all you want, and you can disable UAC (which basically has the same effect), but "running as administrator by default" would be an absolutely terrible idea, security-wise, for obvious reasons.

 

[Turbinator]

Speaking of fast, a fresh copy of Windows 7 starts up using 480 MB of RAM and Windows 8 uses 220 MB of RAM.

can you still run all programs or is this strictly a beta using the programs it came with?

You can use it like a normal copy of windows. This version is mean for developer to get familiar with how Windows 8 works, and for them to preview their software on a working copy of Windows 8. This means you can run anything you want on it. Orbiter 2010 works great.

 

[Zachstar]

Videos are also showing almost absurdly fast boot times.

Now most likely it wont stay that fast. But this great trend towards fast boot times gets a thumbs up from me!

 

[Ark]

You can run programs as administrator all you want, and you can disable UAC (which basically has the same effect), but "running as administrator by default" would be an absolutely terrible idea, security-wise, for obvious reasons.

That's one of the things that kind of bugs me about all versions of windows: The barrage of prompts I have to click through just to run something. Have they got any better at figuring out the difference between a user trying to install Malwarebytes and a user trying to install their umpteenth toolbar? It's one of those lowest-common-user-denominator design decisions that assumes everyone is totally ignorant, and probably won't stop the stupid ones from doing stupid things anyway. I'm smart enough to run scans on possibly questionable files before running them, I don't need to answer "Are you sure? Are you really sure? Are you REALLY, REALLY sure?" first.

Or maybe I'm just stupid and can't figure out how to turn it off.

I will give Microsoft credit for finally getting rid of the idiot paperclip, though. :lol:

 

[Scav]

I don't need to answer "Are you sure? Are you really sure? Are you REALLY, REALLY sure?" first.

One thing you've got to understand . . . when it comes to Microsoft, they account for roughly 90% of the global market share when it comes to computing. That's most of the world's population full of general neobarbs whom are only too happy to click on something just to get rid of it.

 

[Ark]

One thing you've got to understand . . . when it comes to Microsoft, they account for roughly 90% of the global market share when it comes to computing. That's most of the world's population full of general neobarbs whom are only too happy to click on something just to get rid of it.

Like I said, engineered to the lowest common denominator. I just wish Windows would come with an "advanced mode" switch :lol:. I only fear Windows becoming something like IOS or many versions of Android where you have to deal with rooting and flashing roms just to unlock full ownership and access to your own hardware.

I suspect that share of global computing is the reason for that "Macs don't get viruses" myth. If you're using Malware to troll stupid people for money, why waste your time writing it for 10% of computers that aren't use for banking, R&D, or any non-Hollywood business purposes at all?

 

[Turbinator]

 

[Keatah]

The additional eye candy doesn't really do anything for me and the little things like changing "My Computer" to "Computer" and changing "My Documents" to "Documents" are silly and unnecessary.

The new version of Microsoft Office is the same way. They rearrange everything for no reason.

I still have XP and Microsoft Office 2003 on one of our computers and it is a stable machine that does EVERYTHING I need it to. Why fix something that isn't broke?

Same here. I still use XP and Office 2003 for all my current computing needs.

Nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking? It's quite silly and unnecessary to point out semantics, too.

I quite like 7. I particularly LOVE the taskbar, and the star menu is very nice, but are more efficient than previous versions.

The "why you change things that aren't broken" thing is a bit annoying. A Model T works, but you'd rather have a modern car. The goal is to make things more efficient. It's just unfortunate Microsoft think efficient means big fancy menus and/or being like OSX.

Win8 interests me not at all. The ribbon is a terrible UI. I also don't think xbox live should be included with the operating system. It should be a separate, optional download. Anti-competitive etc. Also teh star menu sounds completely terrible, but I haven't actually ran the dev build yet, so I am not completely sure.

This isn't a build you would even begin to think about using as your primary OS. (Thought I would throw that out there in case someone decides to install this over their current OS.)

When working with o/s conventions and layouts semantics are HUGE portions of the experience. I prefer programs that are not overly complex. CS5 is about as far as I go as an example of complexity. Also, I like to push files around myself. I don't like the o/s taking on the task of organizing things for me.

I'm still happy with XP. Vista was a complete wreck, and 7/8 are continuing the Apple trend toward fancy UIs but neutered capability. The mere fact that 8 is designed to run on a tablet puts me off, tablet operating systems are so Fischer-Pricey with their design that if you don't like the way it works, you're just told "Shut up and deal with it." I can't see getting real work, modding, or serious gaming done on a tablet-designed OS.

I can't shake the feeling that 10 years from now serious businesses and universities will still be using XP or 7 because newer operating systems keep offering less capability and more flashy visuals. Microsoft is just following Apple's lead and catering to the large slice of the population that likes shiny things but doesn't know RAM from an HDD.

Very well said. Once Windows 7 stabilizes and they get the bugs worked out I may eventually upgrade to that in order to make better use of modern hardware. But to upgrade just to upgrade? I don't think so.

Os'es and computers are simply tools. You upgrade and change them when they no longer do the job required of them. If you can sharpen a blade here and there or grease-up a power tool to maintain performance, then great!

There is little need to change things because there is a different color or shape or something.

 

[agentgonzo]

Why fix something that isn't broke?

So why are you using a computer rather than an Abacus?