Author Topic: Windows 8 Consumer Beta!  (Read 3342 times)

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Offline Minimum

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Windows 8 Consumer Beta!
« on: March 01, 2012, 01:53:04 AM »
As I'm sure you people have heard Microsoft released the Windows 8 Consumer Beta today.  If you haven't, well now you know.

What are your thoughts on it?  Do you want to know anything about it?  I'm currently running the server version so if you have any questions or want pics just ask me.

So far for me it is a bittersweet experience.  I like all of the new features and I love how easy it is to get the server edition to run games.  All I had to do was install the nVidia drivers and I was good to go.  What infuriates me is the new start menu.  I just simply hate it.  They tried to optimize it for tablets and it just doesn't play well on a PC.  The Vista/7 start menu was a lot more productive on a PC environment.  I think you can switch back to the original start menu but I haven't seen that option yet.

Below are the download links for the two versions.  If you're willing to try it out I would suggest going with the regular Windows 8 Beta.  While Server 8 Beta is easy to use most of you probably won't put the extra features to test.

Windows 8 Beta Download

Windows Server 8 Beta Datacenter Download

Here are some pictures I have taken so far of Windows Server 8 Beta Datacenter:

Fresh Install


New Task Manager


Steam Installed and trying out Terraria


New Start Menu, UGH.


Fancy File Transfer Graph

Offline mikethor007

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Beta!
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2012, 01:58:31 AM »
I think you can switch back to the original start menu but I haven't seen that option yet.
From what i know of it, you actually can not go back to the old start menu. It is gone. Poof. Even the start button took a dive.

What I think you can do is go back to using the desktop instead of the Start Screen (new implementation of the start menu).
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Offline JDog2pt0

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Beta!
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2012, 06:56:26 AM »
I will be skipping Win8 as long as possible and here's why. The current trend is mobile devices, and the problem is that everyone seems to focus on that now, instead of the traditional desktop experience. They seem to forget that PC's still exist. The Windows tile interface is useless to PC users. Ubuntu is going the same path. Unity sucks and HUD is bullexcrement. Here soon I will be switching to Mint. It's sucks, and I'm not going to encourage it.

For clarification I use Win7 on my desktop, and Ubuntu on my laptop (my main computer)

Offline Minimum

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Beta!
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2012, 09:06:23 AM »
I just love how the server edition feels.  The regular edition is your typical bloated Windows OS according to the screenshots and comments I've seen.  The server edition is very stripped down and barebones.  It's like comparing a typical car to a race car.  In a typical car you've got all of these extra gismos and luxuries that weigh down the car.  In addition to performance parts in racing cars you have none of that.  If I do get Windows 8 it will have to be one of the server editions.  Everything just feels right.

From what i know of it, you actually can not go back to the old start menu. It is gone. Poof. Even the start button took a dive.

What I think you can do is go back to using the desktop instead of the Start Screen (new implementation of the start menu).

I'm still stuck with the Win8 start button so that sadly may be true.  Luckily I found that the search feature is still implemented, so not all is lost.

Another neat thing I found is that the audio options goes up to 32bit, 192000hz now.  I'm not sure if that would even make an audible difference provided you had the equipment that could actually take advantage of that but it is still nice nevertheless.

I will be skipping Win8 as long as possible and here's why. The current trend is mobile devices, and the problem is that everyone seems to focus on that now, instead of the traditional desktop experience. They seem to forget that PC's still exist. The Windows tile interface is useless to PC users. Ubuntu is going the same path. Unity sucks and HUD is bullexcrement. Here soon I will be switching to Mint. It's sucks, and I'm not going to encourage it.

For clarification I use Win7 on my desktop, and Ubuntu on my laptop (my main computer)

I feel the same way.  If I can't get Win8 for extremely cheap or free via Dreamspark I'll just stick with Vista until Win9 rolls around.  While I like a lot of the features of Win8 they don't justify a $200 or even $100 price tag.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2012, 09:19:29 AM by Minimum »

Offline killer rin

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Beta!
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2012, 01:30:58 PM »
The Windows 8 Consumer Beta actually works surprisingly well...Plus on the upside, I found some new key-combinations on the neogaf thread that has made the experience better.

..For example, Rightclick on the start menu and it brings up a list of what you normally would use the start menu for in Win.7

Offline mikethor007

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Beta!
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2012, 03:50:12 PM »
Luckily I found that the search feature is still implemented, so not all is lost.
Actually, searching is their focus now, instead of having a humongous list of icons. So it should well damn work. :D The only different thing is that the search results take up the whole screen.
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Offline killer rin

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Beta!
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2012, 02:15:25 AM »
...I think I may have gotten too use to Windows 8... I switched back to 7 to do some Programming, only to find that a few of the apps I have been using non-stop are no longer available to me :(
...Well they are, but much much slower

Offline mikethor007

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Beta!
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2012, 10:19:40 PM »
Dammit! No way to disable Metro in the CP version. Microsoft deliberately removed the registry key that allowed us to turn it off.
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Offline Foxdonut

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Beta!
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2012, 11:18:11 PM »
Yeah Probably going to end up skipping Win8 unless I can have a start bar of some kind.