Windows 8

Holding down the version number is not new, C:Amie. They tried to coincide Windows Embedded CE 6.0 with Vista (NT 6), and Windows Embedded Compact 7 with Windows 7.

Oh I know that, it's just that the bigger picture clicked into my mind here, so thought I'd point it out.

One for the gamers amongst you. Game support in windows 8 http://www.gog.com/news/announcement_gogcom_now_supports_windows_8_officially

C:Amie,
Totally agree with you on the cross marketing on the WP and Win 8, you'll also see some stuff on xbox if it's not been updated already that shares the same style UI. I actually attended a meeting with a MS rep and they said out right that this was their goal....

Edited by jorel101 2012-11-28 8:08 PM

Very interesting. Do you think that it is a strategy that can ever pay off for them?

Novembers numbers are in. Of the Windows traffic:
XP = 35.27%
7 = 52.20%
Vista = 3.95%
8 = 3.49%
CE = 1.21%
2000 = 0.82%
98 = 0.63%

Of Apple:
OS X 10.8 = 32.10%
OS X 10.7 = 16.96%
OS X 10.6 = 27.49%

Apple are clearly doing something right with OS X 10.8, but Windows 8 use has stalled; here at least.

And as general interest. Browser Share:
Firefox (any): 31.61%
MSIE (any): 32.31%
Chrome (any): 22.80%
Opera (any): 7.45%
Safari (any): 5.80%

I don't remember exactly where i was at on this thread, but so far i've found nothing new for the graphics card/bios issue its low profile & don't have another micro tower to test it in, Dell says they can find no issue with the computer & i might want to get a dell recommended card (not happening).... The memory does in fact run @ 1600mhz.

On the above reply, Chris, I was reading that they might actually start making annual Windows increments like Apple does with Mac OS

Yes, I've heard the same, the so called Windows Blue is scheduled to be released in the summer as an incremental update to 8. In reality it sounds like a desire to implement the Firefox/Chrome faster development cycle in Windows.

Businesses and enterprise administrators will not be happy. What I've seen of blue is already threatening API changes over Windows 8 RTM and the need to rewrite all of your app store code to a new blue standard. Along with that if they start micro updating IE al la Firefox there will be eruptions.

Microsoft have already hiked up the price of some server volume licensing this week as a front to make Office365 look more attractive (after a 400% price increase, why wouldn't it). IE OS and "all your data are belong to us" here we come.

Does your VGA have the same problem out of all of its heads? Analog and digital?

Yes all ports vga, dvi, hdmi (my monitor has all and cards have all or at least adapters...), funny thing is you can actually hook the integrated intel graphics port to the monitor prior to boot and it will use that as if the amd card wasn't even there, no error..etc ... don't know what would happen if i had 2 monitors hooked up to each port... but none the less, makes me think it's bios issues.

Unless something has changed in recent times, the presence of a plug-in WGA was always supposed to disable the onboard. The only time I've seen both work was when there was a pin contact issue. Like I say, this could be the way of the world now though.

C:Amie,
It's great to compare Windows Phone 7 to Windows 8 Because there are similarities and differences.

WP7 did not use the WM6 UI, and many long time WM users weren't happy about it. In a way I wished it had compatibility with WM apps, possibly with a dual UI much like Windows 8. It's not like it's impossible with a larger (at the time) capacitive screen, as the HTC HD2 has shown, and the WM UI has evolved enough in its final release 6.5.3 that it's very usable without a stylus.

If WP7 did indeed have a dual UI, it would have the exact same criticism as Windows 8. Because WP7 Metro UI, like Windows 8 Modern UI, has 60% of the functionality of its predecessor.

It was a bold move by Microsoft, to abandon compatibility with all software written for PPC/WM for ARM, and along with that a lot of long time customers. However, during that situation, when WP7 was released, WM market share in the traditional smartphone market has been completely eclipsed by iPhone's penetration in the consumer market, not to mention the existing threat from Blackberry and new threat from Android (which was much improved at 2.1)*

In other words, WM was dying, and Microsoft had little to lose. WP had to succeed, and shredding the WM baggage was necessary to ensure WP was consumer friendly.

Now Windows 8 was in a totally different situation.

Windows 7 was still the dominant OS on new PCs. Abandoning compatibility with it would be crazy, unlike the WP situation. If anything that would make more people consider switching to competing systems such as Mac and Linux.

Although, if you look at Windows 8 Modern and imagine that it doesn't have Desktop UI, it is still a very functional computer. It might have 60% of the functionalities of it's predecessor, but it's not like you will be "stuck" and unable to use the system without switching to Desktop. Sure, there are many things you cannot do here that you could do on the "good old" Desktop, but those are relatively advanced functions that most users do not need to access. It would be like using a Windows Phone 7.

So here I am using the Windows 8 Modern UI almost exclusively. Only occasionally dipping into Desktop for compatibility reasons with previous software; like I said before Office is not on Modern UI yet, and WP 7.5 still needs to sync with Zune on Desktop. There are things I miss, of course, like I cannot even sort my emails. But like WP7 got several updates until settling at 7.5, I am guessing that Microsoft will update Windows 8 with new features that most users find useful or even necessary. At which point you will look back and say why did you even bother with Desktop.

There was a time when if you said you will never use DOS commands again they would think it's funny.

*If anyone followed my phone shopping thread two years ago you know I did consider a Symbian and an Android phone before finally choosing Windows Phone. At the time the Android phone I considered was the Acer Liquid E that came with Android 1.6 but upgradeable to 2.1. However the phone was so old and the upgrade was so new at the time that I never saw a display of that phone with the newer OS. Had I tried the phone with 2.1 it might have impacted my decision making. The point is that WP7 came just in time to compete before Android 2.x became widely available, which then developed into the most popular phone platform today.

I still use them every day almost Ahhh to be the exception to the rule

It comes back around to the idea that for Surface to be a success, it doesn't need the desktop mode. Surface RT doesn't have to support legacy in the first place and they can clean break from it. They can focus on the needs of the 99% nd make a good product; the problem is that they aren't because they are stuck in the legacy ideal. I've not used it personally, but I have seen reports that Office 2013 in touch mode is pretty poor... all apart from OneNote for Metro which was actually designed to be in the metro world and not to try and gel the two like XP Tablet, Vista and 7 have.

As a member of the 1% club though, I still say "meh" to it.

Most apps are gimmics - on any platform. There is very little if any true productivity in them and unlike with a real computer you lose the ability to inovate around it; it is simply one size fits all.

Re the single UI across many platforms... I think that strategy will pay off for them in the long term. If we look at iOS' influence on OSX we know that Apple was slowly going that was as well. In fact one of the main guys who helped build OSX back in the day for Apple left the company last year because he was unhappy with the direction they were going. My sister works for them and has complained about the "dumbing down" of the OS. In her mind OS 10.6 was the last good version. But the point is that convergence is coming whether we like it or not. In the mind of the people making the decisions it must in order to appeal to the masses who will only want to learn one style of using equipment. When people use an iphone as a daily device and they pick up an android device they're likely to try the same things they do on their iphone to see if it works. While the ideas mentioned earlier about the short comings of the UI may be true I think as a whole the industry will continue to move this way. I don't know if any of you have a PS3 but even the PSN store has adopted those sort of super flat icons, my thought is they're doing it for the sake of familiarity.....

This was one of the early hacks but Techrepublic have written it up here quite well. For those who want the start button itself back but wish to retain the start screen, this is the mod for you!

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/add-a-self-made-start-button-to-the-windows-8-desktop/7024?tag=nl.e101&s_cid=e101

While I like the Start screen... I do miss the Start Menu when I am in Desktop mode...

However I came up with a better solution: in one of the related articles someone mentioned the Desktop toolbar, but that requires you to pin things to the Desktop in the first place. But actually, Windows 8 still has the Start Menu folder. Simply use that as a new toolbar.

- To add new toolbar: right-click taskbar, Toolbars > New toolbar...
- In the path box, simply type in the path of the Start Menu folder: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. Click OK.
- Unlock the taskbar, move the "Programs" toolbar to the left of the tasks, and double click on the left handle (dotted area to the left of the word "Programs", this will move the tasks just to the right of the word "Programs". Lock the taskbar.

You should see a double arrow to the right of the word Programs. It's a bit small, but that's your new Start button. It has shortcuts and folders created by your installed Desktop programs.

See screenshot showing Office 2010 folder. I did not create those shortcuts manually; they are created at installation just as if it is Windows XP/Vista/7.

Edited by takwu 2012-12-21 6:02 PM






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