Windows 8 64-bit prewiew ISO

[Jay Adgie]

Microsoft made a developer build of windows 8 today. With this build you can see whats new in windows 8, you can download the ISO from here..... http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=2788

 

[Craig Stevenson]

Both 32 & 64bit bit versions are here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516 if you prefer to download direct from MS.

 

[Alexander Rhodes]

Gimme some info, are some of the old features back? Are they getting rid of some of the new features? Whats it aimed at?

 

[Craig Stevenson]

Some vids here http://www.youtube.com/v/jV9HQu5wK1A

I'm gonna stick it on a spare HD at the weekend to give a go.

 

[Jim Cole]

Downloading now, will see if there is any reason to drop Windows 7 any time soon. Will keep you all posted.

 

[Jim Cole]

OK, I haven't dug real deep into the new OS by MS, but here is my first impression:

I am not pleased with the fact that you don't get a regular start menu anymore. They have changed it to where you start basically with a page with large, and I do mean large icons of the programs that are available to use. They don't seem to be in any real order, and I have yet to determine how to customize it to look the way I want. This is a huge detraction from what I am used to seeing.

To get to your desktop you have to click on an icon that will take you to your desktop. If you wish to launch a program, you have to click on that program's icon to get to it. From what I have experienced so far, alt-F4 doesn't end the program launched anymore.

The iso is huge. It won't fit on a standard DVD disk, you have to use a dual layer disk or blueray disk in order to burn the iso. Installation went smooth though and I was up and running in very little time after getting the right disk to burn the iso.

Will keep you all posted as I use the OS to see what other quirks there are and what features I like or don't like.

Added:
Further looking into the installation and I found that this installation removed the ability to get back into my Window7 installation. I had to actually boot from my Windows7 install disk to repair the boot loader so I would have an option to get back into Win7.

I can tell you all now this is one OS that I won't be upgrading to.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=267369 I was looking through and a guy on there has it up and running with tips and advice,

ive seen this in a few places now also, WINDOWS 8 will play xbox games, is this a wind up, would be great though

Unconfirmed reports claim that the upcoming Windows 8 operating system will allow users to play Xbox 360 games on their PCs.
According to InsiderIs sources, Xbox 360 on PC will have a subscription fee like Xbox Live, but online gaming will run on Windows Live Marketplace, meaning - at least initially - that PC users won't be able to compete against console owners.

The site suggests an additional revenue stream and the chance to extend the current generation hardware lifespan are behind the move.

Microsoft has yet to announce an official release date for Windows 8, or the full feature set for the operating system, so take this all with a large pinch of salt for now.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced plans to merge Xbox.com and Games For Windows Marketplace to create a one-stop-shop for players.

"Games For Windows Marketplace will fully transition over to Xbox.com," it said. "Now you can get all of your gaming needs in one place. It's convenient, it's concentrated, and it's a whole lot of great games."
[ Source: InsiderIs ]

 

[Jim Cole]

I suppose it would be ok for those that like the console games, but for those of us who only us PC's there is no real interest, at least for me. If I wanted to play a console game, I would get the console. I have seen in the past that any time you want to run console games on a PC you need an emulator. This just means that Microsoft is building an emulator into the new OS. The problem with emulators is that they require extra resources to be able to run the programs that are not native to the system. I would also imagine that there will be issues with the display as well. Most PC games are designed for higher resolution screens with the possible exception of the HD titles that are out there. This will result in games that don't look as good on the PC as they do on the XBOX with it's dedicated hardware and coding written specifically for the hardware involved.

 

[Craig Stevenson]

The iso is huge. It won't fit on a standard DVD disk.

There are 3 version of the .ISO, the one you have includes developer tools but the standard 32 (2.8GB) & 64bit (3.6GB) ISO's without the tools will fit on a normal DVD.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

Ive also seen somwhere the new Xbox720 will use windows 8...and be dirx11, I think there trying to join pc and xbox gamers under 1 house,,

 

[Tim Ling]

@Jim Cole: Remember this is just a developers build on Win8. The install disks will be bigger, and it won't play nice with other OS's. I read somewhere that the new tile interface will sit alongside the normal Windows interface we're used to, with the tiles working better when you use a touch screen monitor.

@Rupe Wilson: Again I've read that MS are trying to bring PC, XBox and WinPhone users closer together, so that they can all use Windows Live and play alongside each other. Win8 is supposed to have a a well written core that will run on all MS devices and all types of PC-from tablet to netbook to desktop.

It all sounds interesting, and IF ​MS can make it work we're in for a treat

 

[Jim Cole]

@Tim Ling: You are correct on the desire of MS to have their new OS on all devices from PC's to smart phones. The interface is said to work better on touch screen systems, but touch screen is a bit cumbersome and awkward for the PC for regular use. I have found that one registry key edit will get you the normal Windows start menu so you won't have to deal with the new interface unless you want to.

I will be installing Race07 on my setup and will give feedback later today on how it performs and if there were any hoops I had to go through in order to get it working properly with all my hardware. I realize that my setup isn't as complex as some of you out there though, so my report should be at least a starting point for some.

Since accessing the OS the way I want to, I am finding that it is very similar to Windows 7, though the actual windows so far are looking a bit blocky compared to the smoother and nicer look of Windows Vista and 7. The only hardware I have left to get setup are my joystick and wheel, so things are looking pretty good so far.

I do have to say one thing so far though. File transfer isn't that great in this build. I copied 6.2Gig of information from a 5400RPM IDE drive to a 7200RPM SATA drive and it took an hour to complete. I then copied the same information from SATA to SATA identical drives and it took almost the same amount of time. It appears that the SATA drivers are not handled all that well at the moment. There was even an instance where I just did a simple sort by command to sort the folder by type instead of name and that took over 20 minutes. I ended up rebooting my PC in order for it to refresh the file list.

 

[Craig Stevenson]

Well I have to say after playing with it for a couple of hours that I really don't like it, very confusing, it took me 20 mins to find out how to turn off or reboot. I opened "Apps" but couldn't see any way of closing them again. Trying to find normal programs like Calculator and notepad is just far too complicated, what the hell has "Search" got to do with opening Notepad, it just doesn't make sense.

I had one suprise in that nVidia seems to think I'm running Linux (see pic)

Care to share the magic registry key Jim?

 

[Jim Cole]

Bear in mind that according to what I have been told, this is just a pre-beta, in other words, an Alpha release of the OS. You are right though that it is very confusing, but you can disable the metro interface by changing 1 key in the registry. The Metro interface is designed more for the PC's that have touch screen capabilities and from what I have been told, it is pretty powerful.

Moving the mouse to the lower right corner should allow you to do things in metro like log off so you can shut down. Also, according to what I have been told the apps that you put aside to open other apps are only suspended and supposedly their resources are released as much as possible. I expect this is to make things appear to be a lot faster for the apps you use the most. You won't actually be starting the apps up again, but waking them from a virtual sleep mode on the app. The same goes for the computer itself. From what I have been told, the system doesn't actually get shut down all the way when you tell it to shut down, but goes into hibernation until you hit the power button again.

This information may not be entirely accurate, but I am going off of what I have been told by some people that have been using it for a while. I disabled the Metro interface as soon as I found out how to do that.

On the upside, so far my software is working pretty good in Windows 8, though I haven't seen any real improvement for performance and my Windows 7 is just as reliable so far. As noted above though, the file transfer is still sluggish.