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Windows 8 Developer Preview now available to download


Alessandro17
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http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

 

http://allthingsd.com/20110913/live-micros...nce-in-anaheim/

 

I am downloading it now. I am a long time advocate of a totally new Microsoft OS. Let's see how Windows 8 fulfills expectations like mine and, no doubt, of many other people.

 

Be careful when installing Windows 8 if you have a dual boot hackintosh. It totally trashed my chameleon setup even though I installed it on a separate hard drive. It took over booting from Chameleon and Windows 7. Luckily I had OS on an external hard drive that was not affected by the install. I can boot OS off of that but I haven't figured out how to get my original system drive to boot chameleon. I think it has something to do with active partitions. You've been warned!

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Be careful when installing Windows 8 if you have a dual boot hackintosh.

 

Thanks. I considered that, but I am not too worried, as I am soon going to upgrade my hackintosh desktop to a Core i7 970 configuration and I have to reinstall everything anyway. My important data is in my MacBook Pro.

Nothing went wrong anyway, maybe because I use EasyBCD.

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I am disappointed so far. Why should we get rid of the traditional desktop altogether?

The changes I was hoping for were "under the hood".

Same mistake as Linux, totally different graphical interface.

At least Lion is basically still the old OS X desktop, with a few minor changes that I find improvements, generally speaking (some fine tuning is needed, IMO).

 

I have just read this

 

Which leaves me with a question: what is going to happen to large, professional applications? (the kind of applications which cost several thousand quids, and are often developed specifically for certain business).

I can't imagine my car mechanic or my pharmacist working with the Metro interface.

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I can't imagine my car mechanic or my pharmacist working with the Metro interface.

no, they are working with XP and that is basically all they will ever need.

 

didn't microsoft tell us that this would actuall be what seven is all about. with all those versions so that everyone would just ge what he needs. that went well didn't it. but at the end of the day all this terminal like approaches that just enable the mechanic to find the right spare and order it while putting the price on the invoice, they don't really need to have a big capable OS underneath. the I can do everything approach is rally only needed on the classic poweruser desktop. I hope that microsoft will come up with something good at the end to push all OS from all developers forward. because after my first euphoria over 7 went away I realised it only felt good because vista was so bad but that does not make it good.

 

 

I don't really know

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no, they are working with XP and that is basically all they will ever need.

 

Exactly. But why shouldn't there be a more modern OS for them? And the kind of car mechanic programs I had in mind were more the diagnostic ones, which are very complex.

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I am disappointed so far. Why should we get rid of the traditional desktop altogether?

The changes I was hoping for were "under the hood".

Same mistake as Linux, totally different graphical interface.

At least Lion is basically still the old OS X desktop, with a few minor changes that I find improvements, generally speaking (some fine tuning is needed, IMO).

 

I have just read this

 

Which leaves me with a question: what is going to happen to large, professional applications? (the kind of applications which cost several thousand quids, and are often developed specifically for certain business).

I can't imagine my car mechanic or my pharmacist working with the Metro interface.

 

Its only an early developer's preview. There is a desktop. You just have to find it.

 

But point well taken. I really don't see where they are going with this. Get ready for big consumer and business backlash unless they make the desktop more like the Windows 7 desktop. They may end up with people hanging on to Windows 7 and just skipping 8 if they don't improve this DP considerably. Shutting down was cumbersome. You really have to hunt for the shut down menu.

 

This tablet thing is overblown. I bought the high end touchpad for $150. That's all I would pay for a tablet. Tablets can't do a lot of things a desktop can do. They are coming out with ergonomics studies showing worker productivity goes up considerably with more monitors on a desktop and computer manufacturers are pushing these small screen gizmos. Do they not read the research I get? Tablets are toys. When I need to get work done I need a good solid MS PC. Even Mac won't do for MS Office stuff.

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There is more than 1 start menu available in this developer preview, there's the Metro UI, and then there's the classic and windows 7 styles.

Step 1: Open Run dialog (use Windows + R), type regedit.exe and then hit Enter key to launch Registry Editor.

 

Step 2: In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer

 

Step 3: In the right pane, double-click on the entry named RPEnabled and change its value from 1 to 0 to enable the good old Start menu back in Windows 8. If that doesnt look good try changing value to 2.

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  • 5 months later...

ok guys the whole point is developers preview is for app designers etc who would like to develop apps for windows 8 and its more or less for the touch screen enabled devices than desktop.i guess there will be a seperate version for desktop and also there would be an option to disable metro ui in the future i believe. i have been using it in virtualbox i can clearly see they have made large improvements revamping almost everything..the new task manager for example is amazing and also the lock screen if any of are interested let me know i can share some screenshots :))

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Why?

It is just Windoze. Do you really care?

Isn't that why you are here, so you can get away from Windoze?

 

May I direct your attention to the numerous threads on dual and tribooting? If I have to work on a complex spread sheet a word processing document and a presentation for work no one can convince me that anything is as good as a Win 7 desktop with a quad core processor, plenty of ram, multiple 24 inch displays, and a SSD running Office 2007 or Office 2010. Besides your choice of monitor(s) all of that can be had for a fraction of the price of a Mac and it will run rock solid. No kernel panics or BSOD.

 

Furthermore as has been stated numerous times Mac is moving more and more to mobile and iOS. I still don't have a good word processing, presentation, or spreadsheet solution on OS X Lion and they are now focusing on turning Lion into iOS. Talk about the wrong move. I am a novice but I like the latest version of Final Cut Pro X. I also like some web development tools on the OS X. But for my day job there is no way I can do without MS Office on Win 7. If Cupertino could just get MS Office to run smoothly and with 100% compatibility on OS X they could start making serious inroads. As it stands all they have is fan boys and dual boot hackintoshers. I don't know of anyone in the business world that has forsaken MS 100% for OS X.

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No kernel panics or BSOD.

 

I'll leave the rest to somebody else but, no BSODs in Windows? It is like saying, no salt in the sea. Windows 7 has become stable for me only after almost 3 years of updates. Previously BSODs were a daily occurrence on all my PCs. OTOH kernel panics on my real Mac are unknown. And even my hacks have always been very stable. It is just a matter of buying the right hardware.

 

Another thing. Is OS X "moving more and more to mobile and iOS"? It doesn't look that way to me, it looks that even Mountain Lion is going to be a a perfectly usable "desktop" OS. It simply has a few more features.

Can you say the same of Windows 8? Are you going to use Windows 8 for your "work on a complex spread sheet"?

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I know I'm not, so far it looks like a touch screen interface bolted on to Windows 7. I don't need that. Let's see how it looks like when they actually release it.

 

FWIW Windows 7 has been running perfectly on my P5Q-E since when they were giving it away for free for people to try, I have to agree with H2000 up there, I haven't had as smooth a Windows experience since XP SP1-2 on my 1400 MHz Pentium III back in the day. I really haven't had any BSODs here, unless I've been experimenting with things and provoking them myself. Well...maybe one or two, I really don't remember.

 

The Gigabyte EP43 board in my wife's PC had some weird issues with 7 though but all of that went away like magic once I replaced the Pentium 4 631 with a Pentium Dual Core E2140.

 

I'm not here "to get away from Windows", my Hackintosh is for fun, I like to hang out in OS X but I'm not actually using it for anything important, I just enjoy messing with it and learning about it. I do all my audio stuff on Windows and of course there's gaming where OS X kind of falls behind. On the other hand, as opposed to Hack2000 up there, I happen to enjoy using MS Office on OS X and do stuff that involves simple image manipulation and writing.

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I'm not here "to get away from Windows", my Hackintosh is for fun, I like to hang out in OS X but I'm not actually using it for anything important, I just enjoy messing with it and learning about it.

 

And that is the way it should be, that is the very reason why this forum exists. If you are serious about using OS X, you should buy a Mac. That is what I eventually did. I can do almost everything in OS X. There are 3 or 4 apps I use that don't have a satisfactory OS X equivalent. That is why I have a PC and Parallels. Else I'd just use Boot Camp.

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Funny you say that GV because I haven't used Windows in years since I've joined the hackintosh scene back in 10.5 days. All my 5 hard drives I have in my rig are all OS X journaled formatted and I use it as my daily and only home machine which I do my coding from Xcode to presentations in the Office suite for Mac (which I find perfectly usable for my needs). I have nothing against Windows at all but I've just grown so accustomed to OS X that I began going further than just hackintsohing with it to making apps for OS X and iOS. Had it not been for OS X and hackintoshing, I wouldn't have my job being a programmer right now as I would know nothing about Obj-C. Running on a ep-43-ud3l mobo with an aged q8200 cpu, my rig is pulling along quite fine for the last few years although I'm looking for an overhaul once Ivy Bridge chips float into consumer hands.

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Yes it's funny how OS X makes an aging PC feel "fresh" isn't it. I'm three generations behind at least on mobo and CPU but every time I fire up Lion or even Snow Leopard everything is so nice and smooth and I feel like I'm on the bleeding edge. As long as it works and does what it's supposed to, it doesn't really matter much what's under the hood when the user experience is so pleasant.

I used to be arrogant about Macs, every time I sat at one I would immediately go look at the specs and think to myself, this is trash, PCs are way ahead, this hardware is obsolete, it can't do this, it can't do that. But I understand now that a Mac ages differently than a PC. Deliberately keeping the focus away from the Mac as a gaming platform was a smart move, "Macs are for professionals", they be like "what are you doing, games are dirty, this is a Mac PRO and your PC is a toy, now put that Halo CD away, besides that game was made by Microsoft, eeeww".

 

Gaming is what pushes PC sales and the PC arms race. Making users not care that much about gaming makes a Mac stay "modern" right up until Apple cuts support for it.
Funny thing is that I feel this applies to a Hackintosh as well. I would not hesitate to recommend older hardware for a Hackintosh, something reliable with P45/43/35 + ICH9/10 chipset and a nice Core 2 Quad or Duo. It could still be as fast or faster than any consumer Mac.

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I would not hesitate to recommend older hardware for a Hackintosh, something reliable with P45/43/35 + ICH9/10 chipset and a nice Core 2 Quad or Duo. It could still be as fast or faster than any consumer Mac.

 

Yes, but not older than that, please :)

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Wow, that's a funky looking case, NZXT right?

I'm not into colored leds but I like the shape and the panel on top with USB etc.

 

I give in...here's mine.

Gringo's Hack.jpg

I love my Chieftec case, it's got a solid feel to it, it's friggen enormous and very heavy. Please excuse the messy cabling :angel:

There's an X-Fi Titanium, a 1GB GTX 460 and 2x2GB Kingston Hyper-x DDR2 running at 1066 MHz in there. Mobo is a P5Q-E, P45+ICH10R.

The CPU is a Core 2 Duo E8500 A/E0 that I should be overclocking, apparently these can get to 4GHz on air without breaking a sweat. I never did because I prefer silence to the extra speed. The monster Zalman fan has manual speed control and usually runs at the slowest RPM. I've got two case fans in there, the other one is behind the drives, blowing inwards. Even with the door off there's no noise.

The hard drive with the PATA > SATA adapter is my Lion installation, still waiting for my new 1TB drive to arrive from the US, but I got impatient and dug out the old 250 GB Maxtor.

The gray cable at the bottom that goes from the motherboard to the back of the case is a bracket with USB and firewire ports that came with the motherboard.

The door stays off currently because of the PATA-SATA adapter, I know I could leave the drive at the bottom of the case but I don't like to do that.

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