Database Users

[Q] Newbie questions about W8

Hello everyone,
I hope with your knowledge of the system you will be able to help me with some of my questions.
I would like to make sure that I know what I am doing before swapping to a new system.
Here we go than...
1. I am currently using Netflix and Hulu services via VPN (and Windows 7 + Chrome), will I be able to use them with Windows 8 without any problems?
2. I understand that there is no option to side load apps for the Modern Interface other than from MS Store... is there any way to go round it? Reason for this question is connected to Q1. If I would want to use Netflix/Hulu app instead of browser will I be able to get it? (I suspect that there will be a market geolocalization thing... as it is with WP. In iOS or Android it is not a big problem though...
3. I got my original Windows Vista HP (32b) in my desk, purchased as an OEM... should I install it on my PC before buying an upgrade to WIn 8 Pro? What other options than "upgrade W8Pro" will there be for ppl. to purchase new system...
4. If I get a tablet/hybrid to replace iPad with more versatile device (x86 architecture) will I have to get 2 browsers...2 mail clients, etc... in order to be able to work in both modes desktop/modern? Considering that such a device will have limited disk space it seems like a problem. As far as I know modern interface is not really an interface but it is more like a second separate and quite independent system. This means that if I open Word/browser/mail in one mode and move on to continue to work in second I will have to start those app again and data between them will not be synchronised? Yes?
Like... all those program started in Modern Interface will no be visible and accessible on my task bar in desktop mode...
5. Along with changing system on my desktop and getting replacement for my iPAd I am thinking about swapping my phone. I use Lumia 710 and as much as I like the general feel of WP I hate that it is even more "closed" than iOS. Will I loose or gain functionality if I'll get Android device instead of WP8?

1, yes not a prob at all its the same as windows 7
2, I am 99% sure this will be hacked soon but you could also go for Enterprise edition or get a dev license (if you can get an edu email then you don't even need to pay)
3, not to sure myself sorry I have software assurance and so didn't look this up.
4, Windows 8 has a built in mail app (can be removed), you shouldn't think of it as 2 interfaces but more that you have some metro apps some x86 apps the desktop and the modern interface are as one. This whole hula balu about 2 diff interfaces is rubbish. Also the main browser is the one used in metro so you don't download a second one you just set it as your main one and you have both interfaces.
5, depends on what you mean by functionality, both os's have there strong and weak points it really Is down to how you use it and whatyou want from the phone.

lumpaywk said:
2, I am 99% sure this will be hacked soon but you could also go for Enterprise edition or get a dev license (if you can get an edu email then you don't even need to pay)
4, Windows 8 has a built in mail app (can be removed), you shouldn't think of it as 2 interfaces but more that you have some metro apps some x86 apps the desktop and the modern interface are as one. This whole hula balu about 2 diff interfaces is rubbish. Also the main browser is the one used in metro so you don't download a second one you just set it as your main one and you have both interfaces.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
thanks for your answer.
2. Can you give me more details about it? What is Enterprise edition and about this edu e-mail address...How does it all work...
4. Can I start desktop apps in Metro (can they be pinned?) or vice versa? IE10 is default in Metro - if I use default Metro mail app... can I change default browser to Chrome (btw: how does it work in Win8...as in Win7? Or are there any differences).
IE10... does it sync between devices like Chrome?

I install enterprise edition but I get no sound it may be the drivers but I am not sure realtek has drivers for windows 8 yet
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

galtom said:
Hi,
thanks for your answer.
2. Can you give me more details about it? What is Enterprise edition and about this edu e-mail address...How does it all work...
4. Can I start desktop apps in Metro (can they be pinned?) or vice versa? IE10 is default in Metro - if I use default Metro mail app... can I change default browser to Chrome (btw: how does it work in Win8...as in Win7? Or are there any differences).
IE10... does it sync between devices like Chrome?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2. As with other versions of Windows you get multiple versions depending on your needs budget etc. Windows 8 come in Windows RT (ARM version (does not support old style x86 software, this is for cheap tablets etc and will only be sold preinstalled)), Windows 8 (basic version), Windows 8 Pro and then Windows 8 Enterprise. Enterprise has a few extra features for big business and own of them is the ability to side load metro apps meaning a company can write custom metro software.
The thing with the edu email is that .edu is for educational institutions schools university's etc. So that MS can get students using its products they let you have a dev license free for the time your in study. All you need to do is find someone who has an email from a school college etc and sign up with there email. I used my dads he is a lecturer. With a dev license you can unlock a couple of devices.
4. There is no 2 separate things here metro and desktop are NOT 2 diff working spaces. Try to think of the start screen as the same thing as the start menu from the old windows except instead of just a list it fills the screen. You can put any app software etc on this screen the same as you could before with the start menu. Older software does have ugly icon squares but there is a thread here with software to make your own metro style icons. The one thing to note though is that you can only open metro apps on 1 monitor ie you cant pin your mail app to one screen and then open cut the rope on another. This is not true for the desktop. Metro apps also open in there own sandbox environment, this means they can not interact with anything outside of themselves, they can share info etc but they cant change anything and so on.

lumpaywk said:
2. As with other versions of Windows you get multiple versions depending on your needs budget etc. [...]
4. There is no 2 separate things here metro and desktop are NOT 2 diff working spaces. [...].
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2. Ok.. I guess I'll have to wait and see what is out there and for how much.
Are you sure that with dev licence I will be able to use US Store/UK Store/etc... as I please?
4. Do I read you correctly (I do work with 2 screens) that I will not be able to have Chrome (I believe it does not support Metro yet) on both screens (to get data and to write in the second). One would thought that I should be able to have any combination of software/apps I want on both screens - Metro x Metro; Desktop x Metro; Metro x Desktop; Desktop x Desktop.
Truly strange and quite disturbing...
New questions :
Are there apps for Metro from Hulu, Netflix, BBC (iPlayer)?
Will they be OK to use with VPN tunnelling or I will have to use browser any way...
Will Hulu work on tablet/hybrid with x86 Windows 8 or will it say I am using mobile device (as it is with iOS/Android) and will not work in its Free version.

galtom said:
2. Ok.. I guess I'll have to wait and see what is out there and for how much.
Are you sure that with dev licence I will be able to use US Store/UK Store/etc... as I please?
4. Do I read you correctly (I do work with 2 screens) that I will not be able to have Chrome (I believe it does not support Metro yet) on both screens (to get data and to write in the second). One would thought that I should be able to have any combination of software/apps I want on both screens - Metro x Metro; Desktop x Metro; Metro x Desktop; Desktop x Desktop.
Truly strange and quite disturbing...
New questions :
Are there apps for Metro from Hulu, Netflix, BBC (iPlayer)?
Will they be OK to use with VPN tunnelling or I will have to use browser any way...
Will Hulu work on tablet/hybrid with x86 Windows 8 or will it say I am using mobile device (as it is with iOS/Android) and will not work in its Free version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chrome does now support Metro you just have to have it set as your default browser. The 2 screens is only Metro style apps so yes you cant have 2 metro style chromes but you can still open as many desktop/old style chromes as you want just as you did in windows 7. With dual screen one screen will always display its half of the desktop the metro start screen only goes onto 1 monitor. It is that one monitor that metro apps will run. It is a huge blunder in my opinion but what can you do.
If you are running a desktop pc esp with multi monitors then you wont notice to much diff in looks and feel. You will notice a huge jump in speed though but a loss of transparent windows . It is also worth putting a start link on the taskbar as sometimes getting the corner between screens is tricky (well not tricky but faster if you have a bigger target), just google "show start.exe".
As for the marketplace from diff country that I don't think would be possible I thought you where talking about side loading apps. You may be able to with the use of vpn but I cant confirm this.

Ok, thanks for the info.
I guess the best would be to simply try Win8 before I buy it.
3 (new) questions than:
What is the latest ver. of Win 8 I should download?
I do not own any VM software - is there (an easy) way to test Win* under Win7 (I dont mind that system will not be as fast, etc... but I would be able to see how it works...)
If I would have to make a proper install of Win8 on my PC... how hard will it be to go back to my current Win7?
As I keep 90% of ma data either in the cloud or on a on a different partitions on my drives formatting C: is not a problem... but I have read that once Win 8 is installed Win7 does not want to format this drive and install itself on it.... true?

galtom said:
Ok, thanks for the info.
I guess the best would be to simply try Win8 before I buy it.
3 (new) questions than:
What is the latest ver. of Win 8 I should download?
I do not own any VM software - is there (an easy) way to test Win* under Win7 (I dont mind that system will not be as fast, etc... but I would be able to see how it works...)
If I would have to make a proper install of Win8 on my PC... how hard will it be to go back to my current Win7?
As I keep 90% of ma data either in the cloud or on a on a different partitions on my drives formatting C: is not a problem... but I have read that once Win 8 is installed Win7 does not want to format this drive and install itself on it.... true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet is to use a diff hard drive that way you can dual boot into windows 7 and windows 8 then when your done unplug the hard drive test you can boot into 7 still then format. This is the best way though I have heard of issues going back I have never had any, you boot to a disk then format the drive when you install 7 so I don't see how it could be, maybe they are trying to keep there files etc ie downgrade instead of a new install.
you can get a 90 day trial of rtm (the final build as it will be sold) here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx But note you will need to uninstall it and reinstall if you want to keep using windows 8 after the 90 days.

Last thing,
I plan to install Win8 (today) on my external 160GB disk.
It will be connected to my PC via e-Sata... any advice before I proceed?
I dont want to put it on disk where is my current Win7 as I need it daily to work... so this should work... right? (motherboard is old; Abit Ab9Pro)

If this hasn't already been answered, I use tor for Netflix and it doesn't work will on windows 8. I can load the home but then it goes back to the UK version. It works fine on 7.
X10man
Sent from my U20i using xda premium

x10man said:
If this hasn't already been answered, I use tor for Netflix and it doesn't work will on windows 8. I can load the home but then it goes back to the UK version. It works fine on 7.
X10man
Sent from my U20i using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I got bit confused...
Where do you use it (UK or USA)?
You try to access Netflix via VPN and Metro app or browser?

I'm in the UK and I use tor to access the US version with desktop chrome and proxy switchy to act as a Tor button.
X10man
Sent from my U20i using xda premium

Perhaps it is a TOR (and selected exit node) problem...
Try this 3h trial of VPN (free) and see if it is working - http://www.hideipvpn.com/freetrial/
Do you use Chrome under desktop or Modern UI mode?

Can you recommend a good (free) set of video codecs? I cant play mkv at the moment

Who finds uninstalling an application weird on Windows 8

So you're in Metro, sry Modern UI, right-click on a program and it brings up various options all in the modern UI style, however once you select uninstall, it takes you back to the old style of Windows to do the dirty work. I am the only one to find this strange?

Doesn't happen on RTM. Everything stays in Metro.

Whattt?
If you uninstall a Windows Store (Metro) app, it uninstalls immediately from the Start screen.
If you uninstall a desktop app, it will switch to the desktop and uninstall like any other desktop app always did.
If your Metro apps are kicking you to the desktop to uninstall, then that's just not correct. lol

prjkthack said:
Whattt?
If you uninstall a Windows Store (Metro) app, it uninstalls immediately from the Start screen.
If you uninstall a desktop app, it will switch to the desktop and uninstall like any other desktop app always did.
If your Metro apps are kicking you to the desktop to uninstall, then that's just not correct. lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm talking about a desktop app, but viewed from the Metro screen, it just seems strange the OS switches interfaces, surely all the required functionality could be performed in Metro, it doesn't lead to a consistent user experience, IMO.

Turbotab said:
I'm talking about a desktop app, but viewed from the Metro screen, it just seems strange the OS switches interfaces, surely all the required functionality could be performed in Metro, it doesn't lead to a consistent user experience, IMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no choice. Uninstallers are often custom executables which need to do a whole bunch of stuff, exclusive for each installation.
Uninstallers are tailor-made by app developers.

Turbotab said:
I'm talking about a desktop app, but viewed from the Metro screen, it just seems strange the OS switches interfaces, surely all the required functionality could be performed in Metro, it doesn't lead to a consistent user experience, IMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, it is totally consistent.
I would expect that an app that runs on the desktop will also perform its uninstallation on the desktop. After all, desktop apps are not installed the same way as a Metro app, so it certainly would not uninstall using the Metro-method. A desktop app can be installed in numerous ways, using the various installation processes and applications available for many of year.
I expect that a Metro app would uninstall within the Metro interface.

I hate this idea (and its MS fault for explaining it all badly) that the start menu is a new interface and thus separate from the desktop. Its just a new start screen it fills the screen instead of being a small clumsy list. Metro Apps run side by side with the desktop its not 2 separate things and I think this is why there is so much confusion. People seem to think you either work in one or the other when you still work the same as you always have just with an added layer of functionality. This means that using the old style uninstaller is no more strange then the hole of control panel still being in the "old" style. I love that it gives you a direct link not only to Programs and Features but also has the specific app highlighted.

lumpaywk said:
I hate this idea (and its MS fault for explaining it all badly) that the start menu is a new interface and thus separate from the desktop. Its just a new start screen it fills the screen instead of being a small clumsy list. Metro Apps run side by side with the desktop its not 2 separate things and I think this is why there is so much confusion. People seem to think you either work in one or the other when you still work the same as you always have just with an added layer of functionality. This means that using the old style uninstaller is no more strange then the hole of control panel still being in the "old" style. I love that it gives you a direct link not only to Programs and Features but also has the specific app highlighted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MS are to blame but a sizable portion of the blame lies with people who feel the need to spread FUD and those willing to believe that FUD without confirming it for themselves. And as this very website as seen for its self, those individuals that feel the need to make crap up and slag off win 8 / wp8 are often android users, not always, and im not generalising, but from my experience Linux based platform users (desktop and mobile) tend to be the most anti- everything-to-do-with-MS people I have ever had the miss fortune in talking to.
in saying that, I whole heartedly agree with you that MS has done almost nothing to combat that

[OT] What Legacy Apps Do You Use?

This was part of a discussion I had with a friend lately. I argued that windows 8/RT desktop environment looked fug-ugly compared to WP8/ModernUI and that it needed a MAJOR overhaul. Because TBH windows still looks generally the same now, as it did 10-15 years ago & is only really optimised for displays that are 13-24". But the thing is I see windows going to larger displays (HTPC's and Living Room PC's) and smaller ones (Handsize tablets) and windows on these displays just doesn't function nice.
However, my friend argues that they couldn't change the entire UI/UX of the desktop environment because too much legacy stuff will look out of place and be confusing. I understand this may be the case in a business environment where loads of a wide range of diverse and unique tailored software is used BUT I don't think it's a problem for the average home PC user.
The way I see it is that most people only use a couple of different applications on their home PC/laptop and I'm pretty sure it's only a handful of applications would need updating to the new UI for consumers to not have headaches.
So I was wondering, what do you actually run on a day-to-day basis?
Here's mine.
DAILY:
Chrome
VLC
Office
Adobe Reader
Dropbox* (Doesn't have a UI :laugh: )
That's mine! If MS came up with a much more unified ModernUI inspired desktop, I would only need 5 developers to update their app to the same style and I'd be happy.

All the major web browsers (everything from IE to Opera), not that web browser developers have been respecting their platforms' UI conventions for the last few years anyhow.
Office (mostly Word, OneNote, and Outlook).
Pidgin.
Steam (not that its terribly respectful of UI conventions either).
Windows Explorer (obviously built-in, but the TIFKAM "replacements" are crap unless you have reallllly fat fingers and no mouse).
Various terminal apps (cmd, powershell, bash, etc.).
Visual Studio.
A bunch of others that aren't "every day" but are needed for my job and such, although they rarely get run on my home system.
A bunch of full-screen games, but I suppose those don't count.

On my Acer W510, I've installed:
Chrome - works better than IE with AirDroid for connecting w/my Android phone
iTunes - still use my 7 y/o iPod in my car
Zune - can download 10 drm-free songs monthly on the grandfathered Zune pass subscription
Dropbox
Google Drive
Skydrive - can't upload folders w/the Win store app
Office
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I use dropbox,quake 3,vlc,microsoft office,evernote,pidgin,winamp and WinRAR

Here's what I use normally:
WinSCP
PuTTY
Hyper-V
A few Hyper-V terminals
Pandora One Desktop App
NetBalancer
Mumble
Opera
Firefox
Chrome
Steam
Deluge Manager
Task Manager
Visual Studio 2012 (and various related tools, such as windbg or remote debuggers)
Skype (Desktop Skype, Metro Skype has issues)
X-Chat (Hexchat)
WinRAR
VLC
Xming
Netbeans
Of all of these, the only ones I could see realistically being reproduced in Metro are:
Opera
Firefox
Chrome
Steam
Skype (Well, it is, but I can't get the Metro Skype to stay connected for any length of time)
Mumble
Pandora
X-Chat (Any decent IRC client would do, but there weren't any last I looked)
PuTTY (It could be ported, though I think it would work far better as a window)
VLC
Xming

netham45 said:
Of all of these, the only ones I could see realistically being reproduced in Metro are:
Opera
Firefox
Chrome
Steam
Skype (Well, it is, but I can't get the Metro Skype to stay connected for any length of time)
Mumble
Pandora
X-Chat (Any decent IRC client would do, but there weren't any last I looked)
PuTTY (It could be ported, though I think it would work far better as a window)
VLC
Xming
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chrome already has (a really poor, is just the desktop browser without any options) Metro browser, Firefox has a beta version that looks and acts like an Android app. Gabe Newell is ****ting his pants over Windows 8 because it cuts him out of game sales completely: the Windows Store is already Steam. I don't know what Mumble is. There is already a third-party Pandora client that is excellent. There are already multiple IRC clients for Windows Metro. A TTY app needs to be Windowed? You really believe that? I run PuTTY on my eMate, let's be real here. VLC is begging for money so that they can decide how and when they want to make a VLC for Metro. I have already moved to MPC-HC and CCCP. I think you will see something like XBMC for Metro before any of the others because it is more portable in terms of being self-contained and not needing to hose down the system with files and registry entries to operate correctly.

dragon_76 said:
Chrome already has (a really poor, is just the desktop browser without any options) Metro browser, Firefox has a beta version that looks and acts like an Android app. Gabe Newell is ****ting his pants over Windows 8 because it cuts him out of game sales completely: the Windows Store is already Steam. I don't know what Mumble is. There is already a third-party Pandora client that is excellent. There are already multiple IRC clients for Windows Metro. A TTY app needs to be Windowed? You really believe that? I run PuTTY on my eMate, let's be real here. VLC is begging for money so that they can decide how and when they want to make a VLC for Metro. I have already moved to MPC-HC and CCCP. I think you will see something like XBMC for Metro before any of the others because it is more portable in terms of being self-contained and not needing to hose down the system with files and registry entries to operate correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gabe Newell is going crazy because of competition. The Store is not replacing Steam, the games in it are at a different level (mobile casual games) than the desktop games from Steam.

scaryshark said:
The way I see it is that most people only use a couple of different applications on their home PC/laptop and I'm pretty sure it's only a handful of applications would need updating to the new UI for consumers to not have headaches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I'm sure there are a lot of people who don't use their PC's for much beyond e-mail and the web, I think you're vastly underestimating the number of people who DO use more than just a handful of basic applications.
On a typical day, I use:
At least 3 to 4 programs from the Adobe Master Collection, and I need frequent access to all but maybe 3.
Several 3D programs including LightWave 3D and Luxology Modo.
SmartFTP
Virtualbox
Tight VNC client
All the major web browsers
Several small utilities like notepad++, Media Player Classic, etc.
That's my biggest criticism of the new UI - it pretty much assumes no one does anything productive with their computers. If Microsoft truly thought it was the future, why isn't Office fully Metro complaint? Because a touch UI is simply not an efficient way to control applications with ANY degree of complexity.

I appreciate this thread, as I am considering what I really do with my legacy apps that I can't do on rt. I use office, and adobe, but really on a day to day basis that is really it. Office 2013 works with metro ui, so I wonder just how beneficial legacy apps, other than games that are desktop, are going to be in the future. I have the Sammy Ativ smartpc 500t btw. I love it, but really dig the look and design of the surface. RT made me go with the intel run tablet, and I know the surface pro is coming out, but a bit pricey. Anyway, as I say, the two main legacy apps I use are office and adobe.

dragon_76 said:
Chrome already has (a really poor, is just the desktop browser without any options) Metro browser, Firefox has a beta version that looks and acts like an Android app. Gabe Newell is ****ting his pants over Windows 8 because it cuts him out of game sales completely: the Windows Store is already Steam. I don't know what Mumble is. There is already a third-party Pandora client that is excellent. There are already multiple IRC clients for Windows Metro. A TTY app needs to be Windowed? You really believe that? I run PuTTY on my eMate, let's be real here. VLC is begging for money so that they can decide how and when they want to make a VLC for Metro. I have already moved to MPC-HC and CCCP. I think you will see something like XBMC for Metro before any of the others because it is more portable in terms of being self-contained and not needing to hose down the system with files and registry entries to operate correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I posted those on that list regardless if they were ported or not to Metro.
Steam is better than Windows 8's games purely because of the already-established userbase/games
Mumble is a VoIP solution geared towards gaming
The third-party Pandora client, while decent, still has some standby issues on Windows RT. I'm hoping the official client (if/when it comes out) will have these solved.
Yes, I believe an SSH client is better off windowed. It's nice to be able to have a web browser and multiple SSH clients open on one screen. Also, there's no need to be condescending over a matter of preference.
VLC is looking for aid to help pay off the development costs for a totally-free app they produce, I don't think it's unreasonable for them to ask. MPC-HC requires codec packs (such as CCCP), whereas VLC has their codec packs bundled in, making an easier all-in-one install. I do agree that XBMC is a likely candidate for being ported first.

Spectredroid said:
Office 2013 works with metro ui
...
Anyway, as I say, the two main legacy apps I use are office and adobe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless I'm mistaken (which I could be), Office 2013 does not work in metro - it's run from the RT desktop ui, so it's not really a "metro" application.
And when you say you use Adobe, what do you mean by that? It could refer to anything from Adobe Acrobat reader to Photoshop, After Effects and the rest of their graphic applications.
If you just use Acrobat Reader, there probably is, or will shortly be, a fully metro compliant reader, so that wouldn't be a problem. But if you use one of Adobe's graphics programs, there isn't, and I can't see there ever being, Metro and/or RT versions. First, the ARM architecture just doesn't offer the performance needed for the type of work Adobe's applications were designed to do. And second, the Metro/touch ui just doesn't facilitate the on-screen information density needed for the amount and intracasy of the tools.
Adobe may make "Touch" apps for Metro/RT similar to Photoshop Touch on iOS, but that's extremely limited in features and capabilities.
So if you need to use any of Adobe's main graphics programs, there's your decision right there - RT is out. If you just need to view PDFs, aside from the previously mentioned Office, then RT is a viable option.

[Q] Modern UI & 2 screens

Hi,
I can have two different desktop app on my two screens but not modern ui apps.
WHY?
Is there a way to change it? Or is it due to res. (1280 x 1024) of one of my screens and I will have no issue if I get a higher res. one?

You should be able to show different Modern apps on each screen... you can drag apps between screens, use the keyboard shortcuts (CTRL+WIN+Arrow keys, if I recall correctly), or open Start on different screens and the app you pick will launch there.
12x10 is too low for snapping apps the side of a screen, but is enough to display an app.

GoodDayToDie said:
You should be able to show different Modern apps on each screen... you can drag apps between screens, use the keyboard shortcuts (CTRL+WIN+Arrow keys, if I recall correctly), or open Start on different screens and the app you pick will launch there.
12x10 is too low for snapping apps the side of a screen, but is enough to display an app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, this doesn't seem to be programmed in.
Essentially you designated one monitor as the "modernUI monitor". You can't have an app running on the left and have the start menu on the right- the app on the left just minimizes as soon as you press start. Very annoying- it means you cannot multitask in the metro environment with multiple monitors. I love the idea of apps but this needs to be fixed... as is I can't even launch programs without killing the app I'm using. If I want to watch netflix on one monitor and work on the other, I can't use the netflix app because I'll stop the video every time I try to start a program.

link68759 said:
No, this doesn't seem to be programmed in.
[...] Very annoying- it means you cannot multitask in the metro environment with multiple monitors. I love the idea of apps but this needs to be fixed...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point (and problem) exactly!
Inconsistencies are killing Windows 8 . Small, annoying things like that are why people are saying this system is bad. Essentialy, it is not.. it is just inconsistent .

I asked some people in the dev group and their answer was
"We are aware of this issue and are looking into it. We were not able to implement this in v1 of Windows 8, however we cannot comment, yet, on up and coming updates at this time."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Talderon said:
I asked some people in the dev group and their answer was
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since it looks like you are in touch with ppl. "who can" ask them (nicely) about these as well (if you can):
- why IE can not (in both modes) use the same resources to act as 1 browser not 2 (or at least if they plan to offer sync between them) - just as Chrome is doing it today. This duality on W8 is killing IE 10 for me (for you as well?)
- since I do not have 2 W8 there is no way for me to check this but I doubt it is working like this - is IE 10 synchronizing between devices?
If I will finish my work on desktop and fire up laptop/hybrid with W8 will I get instantly the same tabs/pages/history/passwords/etc?
- sync of system between devices - I do not mean sync of desktop mode here that is impossible but since Modern UI has always access to all the same software resources will it sync all setting and programs (and their settings) I already have on ma PC once I get second device? (I show some triggers about sync in settings/setup - don't know if they are working)
- W8 should allow for designating 1 local (lan NAS) folder for sync between devices (but with offline access) so files on NAS are also synced on W8 device - this
- Mail - as IE it should use the same resources - W8 Mail & Live Mail should be 1 program with just 2 interfaces - not two separate programs - it is CRAZY!!!
- I have put Modern UI program on 1 side of my screen (size 2/3 or 3/4) on this smaller strip I wanted to have Skype window (strip as well) in desktop mode - not possible - as it tries to show overview of whole desktop (like 1 screen, part of it covered with IE10 rest is desktop skype or other communicator)
I only got W8 for about week now son nothing more bugs me so far

Windows Blue/9 - Features

After seeing the leaked build of Windows Blue at http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/24/4...creenshots-leak-smaller-live-tiles-options-ui, it got me thinking about what I'd like to see. A video I saw had some good ideas but I know that us XDA members can do better. Said video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdqUsTAWSnY
Personally, I would like to see:
A better default e-mail app
Ability to boot straight into the desktop
More gestures
More optimization
Even faster boot times
What features would you like to see in the next version of Windows?

faster boot times is just greedy as it is my windows 8 machine booting off of an HDD side by side with a mates more powerful win 7 machine booting from SSD, my machine reaches desktop about a second after his does, and I have to go through a boot select screen and click a tile on the start screen.
Blue isn't 9.
Mail app we need yeah. I would add the music and video apps while your at it.
I dont own a touchscreen so gesture wise I dont care.
Booting straight to desktop would be nice I guess, I really dont care as I actually like the new start screen but some people of course ask for that feature anyway.
What I want to see:
Improved music and video apps, frankly, they suck. Music wise I now use "I love music" which isnt too bad but is a little rough around the edges, certainly better than default though
improved mail app (as you already said)
ability to resize the split between sideloaded metro apps
being able to run my desktop on one monitor and metro on another
my running desktop applications should be listed in the running applications sidebar on the left of the screen, that only seems to show metro applications
in the store app being able to list applications from certain developers (for example being able to look at the angry birds space entry and being able to click rovio to show all rovio apps).
While they are at it with releasing windows blue. XNA replacement please

SixSixSevenSeven said:
faster boot times is...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is always something faster regarding boot times. There are some Chrome books which boot in 8 seconds compared to my laptops 14. The ability to split metro apps has already been added if you check the link about the leak from the Verge. All your suggestions are very good, hopefully at least a few of then will be in Blue
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Reboot times are a total red herring. It's a waste of Microsoft's time to put a bunch of people to work shaving off another second or two. Why are people rebooting anyhow?? I never do except for updates. Sleep is faster to enter, faster to return from, doesn't require re-launching my apps, uses only trivial power, and is supported on all hardware I've seen this decade (although I did, about four years ago, encounter an NVidia driver whose preferred form of "screwing up your PC..." install process was to break sleep mode, which I fixed by rolling it back).
Now, if they want to make it so that reboots are needed less often, I'm all for that. More user-mode drivers, and/or modernize the kernel-mode driver stack to reduce how often KMDs require reboots (already much better than XP and below, but still too high). Make Windows Update better about not requiring reboot; I'm willing to close a program or even restart the desktop Explorer session (which takes moments) to avoid rebooting the whole machine.
Fix the <REDACTED> Start search. I don't understand why they took one of the best UI features of Vista, preserved it in Win7, and messed it up in Win8, but the whole segregation of "Apps", "Settings", and "Files" needs to stop, now! Launching programs is one of the very few core requirements of an OS, and the last two versions of Win8 were better at it than Win8 is (specifically, they required fewer clicks and showed more useful info at a glance). That's a travesty.
Metro apps and multi-monitor were already discussed. Instead of reiterating those, I'd like to see more capable Metro apps. Currently, they're locked down to nigh-uselessness from a get-stuff-done perspective. Consequently, I barely ever use them... but that's not good for the ecosystem, because it means that I (and people like myself) have much less incentive to develop them, too. One critical feature: the ability to launch other programs without the target being expressly designed for it.
As a Surface RT owner: remove the stupid prohibition against third-party desktop apps. Make it a hard-to-find setting if you must, but let me unlock it without needing kernel-mode hackery.
As a Surface RT owner: give me drivers! The USB port is already useful, but it could be a lot more useful.
As a Surface RT owner: add support for the low-power standby core of the Tegra 3. Battery life is good already but could be better.
Integrate something like OblyTile into the Start screen. Default desktop-app tiles are ugly.
Worth asking for: multiple (virtual) desktops? I mean, it's "just another app" now, right? I hate that in 2013 I still need to use third-party utiltiies to get this feature that all other common desktop environments have.
Please don't kill off the SUA (Subsustem for Unix Applications)! At the very least, open-source it when you drop official support, so the community can introduce some long-overdue fixes. But seriously, that thing is useful. Cygwin is a nasty hack by comparison.
A virtualization environment that supports high-end graphics would be nice. There's a lot of games that run like crap on NT6 but don't run on virtual XP machines using any of Microsoft's virtualization environments. That directly contributes to the market share of third-party virtualization software. MS used to be good at this VM thing for uses other than servers...
Lots more, but this post is long enough as is. That covers most of the gripes I have at least once a week using this OS.

Most of these are from the viewpoint of an RT user, unless noted.
Critical:
Allow unsigned desktop apps
Allow third-party Metro apps (sideloading)
An alarm clock on RT
Allow metro apps to run backgrounded without requiring them to be pinned to the lock screen
WinRT lacks some major features in the API set (from what I've experienced, lack of client-side cert support for SSL, lack of decent background capabilities, and lack of VPN, though they claim to be fixing the last one)
Go back to the idea that developers create the platform and stop trying to mimic Apple by closing the ecosystem down
Desired:
Allow a hotzone for corners, instead of just a hotspot (x86, mostly)
Better mail app
Allow start screen wallpaper customization without tedious hacks
Allow fine grained tuning of which settings are synced between computers (I don't want the same wallpaper on my tablet and desktop, for example, so I have to turn off syncing all customization settings)
Open up the ARM DDK
Documentation on what features are lacking/missing on ARM Vs. x86.

The current sideloading situation works fine for me, though I agree with the rest of those. I might care more if I found Metro less useless in general.

Hmm, my Lenovo Twist cold boots in about 3 seconds. Doesn't get much better than that.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app

It really doesn't, actually. The default "shut down" behavior on Win8 is to reboot the machine, and then enter hibernation right before showing the login screen. This is one of the lowest-RAM-usage points in the operation of a PC, so both entering and leaving hibernation here is extremely fast. When you "cold boot" your system, all that is happening is the power-on self test (which is very fast on modern hardware), followed by the OS resuming from the minimal hibernation image (which could easily take three seconds or possibly less with an SSD but not a ton of RAM). Bam, you're at the login prompt in what seems like no time at all!
If you want to do a true cold boot, you'll need to either disable hibernation boot (one of the easiest ways to do this is to disable hibernation entirely using "powercfg /h off", probably must be run as Admin) or you'll need to remove power while the system is running (as in, remove the power cord and remove or drain the battery without allowing it to enter sleep or hibernate). You can get an idea of the true bootup time just by rebooting the machine, but a machine built for Win8 probably won't show you the point where the "shutdown" portion switches off with the "bootup" portion; using EFI, that whole thing can be hidden.

Wouldn't electricity bills go through the roof if all 5 PC's in my household were on hibernate 24/7 365?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app

mmmcfc said:
Wouldn't electricity bills go through the roof if all 5 PC's in my household were on hibernate 24/7 365?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They're off when they're in hibernate. Hibernate saves the state to disk then completely powers off the computer. You could literally unplug it for 5 years and it would still have the state.

Yep, hibernate's entire point is that it uses no power. However, maybe you meant sleep instead, also known as suspend-to-RAM and which does use a trickle of power. It's a small trickle, though; a PC in Sleep mode draws less than five watts (and most draw only one or two). Five PCs in sleep mode, assuming they're big, beefy, and incredibly inefficient, plus have every kind of wake-on-event (wake-on-LAN, wake-on-click, wake-on-timer, etc.) option enabled, will draw about 25W - non-trivial but less than half what a typical incadescent light bulb draws. Realistically, it would be closer to 5W, especially if some of them are laptops (which only use a portion of a watt).
Depending on the percentage of time that the PC is on anyhow and how efficient its sleep mode is, you may actually be wasting power by taking the time to turn it off, then on again (requiring restarting its programs) all the time. Entering and exiting sleep is effectively instant.

I for one would love to see custom backgrounds on the Start screen, as well as Google Talk support in the Messaging app. One of the main reasons I still have to keep a GMail tab open on Chrome, so I can receive IMs.
Also I would be pleased if they returned Google Calendar syncing after the updates a few days ago. I was very annoyed when all my Calendar events disappeared, but seems to have gotten better since I worked around that with the subscriptions feature in Outlook.
More functionality in the Metro/Modern part of the OS would also be good, but I have already seen that happening with the recent leaks.
Edit: And I also would love to see Aero Glass with Blur come back in the Desktop. Although there are a few hacks to get it working, most do not have similar functionality to Windows 8 or are buggy. The only good one imo doesn't support 32 bit.

How come my windows phone syncs with google fine. Yet windows doesnt.
Google have more sync options than EAS and contrary to MS's claim EAS is still active until june or july.
All they have done is made the mail and people apps worse not better.
Anyway. Supposedly in the blue leak IE11 now has stubs for WebGL support. If this is true then windows blue presumably has OpenGL support, possible for store apps too. OpenGL, even if it is just the ES subset, on RT has been an often demanded feature.
So many android and iOS apps are written with OpenGLES, if microsoft wanted an app rich store then it really would have made sense to support OpenGLES to allow porting of iOS and android apps to windows without having to be rewritten for DirectX11 (not a simple task in many cases).

Oh, overall they made Mail a lot better... but it pisses me off that for people who already had a working Google EAS connection, they went and disabled it. I'm holding off on updating my other devices for now. As for "more sync options than EAS", this is technically true (and the new version of Mail offers to set them up for you), but the others are not as well integrated (one protocol to provide contacts, email, calendars, and security policies).
WebGL support I'm actually kind of skeptical of; the web is a very hostile environment and video drivers are a frightening combination of high-value targets and shaky security. I'm concerned about the attack surface exposed by enabling WebGL. However, it's true that OpenGL, even just OGLES, would be a huge boon to the platform. Windows and DirectX may still rule the roost for PC games, but even there their lead is eroding. In the mobile space, OpenGL has left DirectX in the dirt.