Windows 8 on Sager/Clevo

For anyone interested, Windows 8 dev is being released tonight at 8pm PST. I plan on loading it on to my P150HM on a dual boot, so it should be interesting. I got to use Win8 last summer interning at Microsoft, but it looks to have come a long way.

Note: Win8 is touch first, but it will still work just fine on our non-touch models as it still takes keyboard/mouse input. Metro just may not be the best desktop for you if you're not touchscreen.

Resellers/anyone with more knowledge: Will there be initial issues running Win8 due to proprietary drivers? I know Win7 basically has no working drivers out of the box for my P150HM

Windows 8 developer preview: when and where to download -- Engadget

Mods: Feel free to move this if it's against the rules for this section.

 

Yes this should be interesting. You could always set it up as an alternate boot OS and try it out. Of course there will be some hardware that may not work correctly.
_

 

As of now, I'm downloading.

The files are up!



Enjoy!

 

Ryan, we look forward to your findings on your P150HM!
_

 

I'm too scared to clean install right away..

I'll probably just VM it for now..

 

I'm installing it alongside my Windows 7 partition right now (dual boot). I should have impressions and screenshots up shortly

 

I'm just installing it to a secondary hard drive..

Excited!

 

<STRIKE>Those who want to do non-destructive native boot and have Win 7 Ultimate, use the Bootable VHD method.</STRIKE>

Apparently doesn't work with this build, seems to be incompatible with 7's bootloader.

 

Ah wow thats a really good find! +1Rep

 

Tried this,

doesn't work for this version.

I'm not really sure why, but it gives an error when I choose Win 8 Dev in the boot menu.

 

Just noticed this, I had assumed it'd work since it worked flawlessly with older builds.

It appears the Win 7 bootloader doesn't handle the loader files from this build of 8 properly.

 

Running the Windows 8 x64 preview on my Clevo P170HMx now.
(Intel Core i7 2720QM | AMD Radeon HD 6970m | 8gb ram)

Installed it as my only OS on my Intel SSD 510 120gb and it "feels" faster than Windows 7 SP1.



But one thing i discovered is that it shows my HD 6970m as a engineer sample?
Is this a error on Microsofts side or does this mean i can unlock it to HD 6990m awesomeness?

 

Installed Windows 8 alongside my Windows 7 partition on my W150HR, and it works flawlessly. One thing I like is that if you boot from cold shutdown, it gives you a GUI boot menu, which is a little nicer looking than a command line one.

Metro UI is garbage on a mouse/touchpad and keyboard. Desktop experience was great though, and everything felt a lot snappier than windows 7 does. Right clicking in particular was something I noticed had been improved a lot.

Only thing I'm confused about is Virtualization. Running a 2720QM, and CPUZ lists VT-x, but the windows task manager lists virtualization as Disabled. Not sure what's going on there.

 

I have 8102 set up in a hybrid boot with my main operating system.

Seems worlds apart from 7989, feels very "complete".

I hate the start menu though.

 

Ran it myself yesterday via Virtualbox. Didn't like it. The start menu is gone. Looking at all your installed programs is gone. In order to do something simple, like start a command line, you have to search through an app store (as cmd.exe is an "app" now). It takes me a lot longer to do things on Windows 8 vs. Windows 7. Some things are so buried in the new fancy Metro shell that I still can't find them (for instance, I still can't find the button to shut down the computer. I can only log off. Makes sense for tablets, makes no sense for computers). Even Internet Explorer got a lot more complicated: there's no X button to close it. You have to swipe (or alt+tab) back to the Metro just to get out of IE (I quickly installed Chrome). dUnless I get a tablet in the future (which I won't) or if Windows 8 lets me use the traditional start menu in future builds, I'm sticking with windows 7.

 

Hit Win+D when in metro, you'll drop to the normal desktop with all the normal desktopy things.

 

I get that, but what I really miss is the start menu. For me, Metro just "gets in the way" of the desktop. It seems like if I want to do anything that isn't hip (like get access to the useful bits of the Control Panel, uninstall a program, or run a command line), 8 just shoots me back to the desktop anyway. Without quick shortcuts to folders in my userspace (Documents, Pictures, etc), a combo run/search box, context menus for recently used programs (I realize Metro does this, automatically create horridly large boxes for often used programs, but I like to do Start -> Chrome -> arrow -> Bookmark, or Start -> Steam -> arrow -> recently played game. 8 makes me go Start -> Metro -> search in the app store, or search the "Apps" domain -> find program -> launch it -> navigate to wanted thing in program), a shortcut to the Control Panel and User administration, and an easy way to sleep/shut down, a lot of things I do in windows 7 take a few more (less intuitive) steps in windows 8.

There are things I do like, such as the vastly improved explorer features. But it's almost as if Metro tries to supersede explorer (i.e. you can search via explorer or search via the easier to get to but slightly less useful Metro search, you can run programs via explorer or run them in a more hip way via Metro). The user experience is a little jarring. I'd love all the Windows 8 core improvements without the Metro stuff getting in the way.

 

I just couldn't adjust to the Metro,

I would have liked it on a touch-input netbook or tablet, but definitely not on a powerful laptop like this..

 

Win 8 seems to be catered to touch tablet platforms :r but there is a desktop version right? You guys mentioned they changed the start menu, how is that like? Any other notable differences?

 

Installed it on a 7652 without any problems. I really like it, but until I get a computer with a touch screen I will keep it in desktop mode. Not sure why people are in a tizzy over the new tablet style overlay. Click the desktop icon or Windows+D to revert to old school.

 

Please tell us more on how all the hardware is working in your P170HM. Thanks.
_

 

The P150HM works great. It actually finds the webcam, USB 3.0, chipset, etc and installs them without needing the disk. The only thing it didn't find by default was the ethernet. The newest Nvidia drivers for Win7 installed just fine.

That said, it would be nicer if it was a touchscreen. Win8 just works best with it (like on my fiance's x220t, where it's absolutely fantastic)

 

I've found a registry hack people have used to disable the Metro UI for good. It has the unfortunate side effect of also disabling all the nice new explorer and task manager features, but in the comments some have stated that there's even a way to get around that.

If anybody wants to install windows 8 alongside windows 7 (in a dual boot way), lifehacker published an excellent guide on setting it up. If I can bother enough to do that myself I'll let everybody know how the hardware works.

 

Most of my hardware was working "out of the box" with Windows 8, so at first boot i was greeted by a nice 1920x1080 login screen.
Only drivers i needed to install afterwards was the JMicron stuff.
Even the USB 3.0 drivers was not needed.

But some games did not work like Borderlands, who failed to start.
Since i need that for my Borderlands Let's Play series with ViciousXUSMC, i downgraded to Windows 7.
(Also Minecraft made it bluescreen when you exit.)

 

anyone know how to get the wifi working on my p151hm1 from malibal? I am using this as my only OS so I need help. And it IS confirmed that the newest drivers from nvidia for the 560m work fine?

 

Stock WiFi or Intel? Intel WiFi is detected out of the box without any extra work. The stock may require you to run the Win7/Vista drivers that shipped with the machine. Also, the newest Nvidia WHQL and beta drivers do seem to install fine. (again, the Win7 versions work fine there)

 

The stock wifi. I have no wifi right now. It isn't working. Where would I find the driver for the stock wifi in the comptuer? I put in the disc with drivers that shipped with the computer but it wouldnt work. It said this OS isnt supported.

 

May I ask, what Wifi card do you have installed? Thanks.
_

 

I have the internal stock wifi card.

EDIT: Sorry i thought that question was directed towards me haha.

 

There may not be driver support for the stock wifi at this point then. If you're dual booting, I'd go back to Win7 until Win8 is out of alpha (that's what this release is at the moment- a public alpha).

EDIT: You can try running the drivers in compatibility mode for Windows 7, which may help. Open the disk > right click the driver, properties > compatibility. You'll have to navigate the disk for the actual wireless driver rather than running the autorun prompt. This may or may not help though, as the drivers can still do an OS check.

 

I did that and everything installed but still no wifi. Microsoft should be ashamed that they released such a buggy dev beta.

 

Oh well...I just knew there would be issues as there always is when these development releases happen...
_

 

The intels work fine with wifi..

Everything seemed to work out of the box for me, and windows update caught all the drivers for me.

The metro UI threw me off, though.

 

whats the best way to make a partition to dual boot windoows 7 and 8

 

Windows+R and run diskmgmt.msc

and then right click C drive and use shrink disc to free a partition.

Then insert the bootable USB win8 and install.

Voila!

 

I posted a link to a good guide on page 3.

 

Others have covered this, but this point bears repeating:

Windows 8 is in a developer release Alpha state. If may or may not work correctly out of the box with all hardware. There may not even be drivers for everything right now (though it sounds like it's working ok for most). This is not yet even a public Beta, let alone release software. Basically, try at your own risk!

That said, if you don't want to dual boot, I'd recommend going with Virtualbox or VMware Player and creating a virtual image. (Both are free to use). That way you can get a chance to try it out without doing anything to the machine.

VirtualBox

If you do dual boot and decide you want your hard drive space back, do the following:

1) Boot into Windows 7
2) Right click my computer, manage, disk management
3) Delete the Win8 partition
4) Extend Win7 to take that partition back
5) Put in your Win7 disk and boot to it
6) Choose "repair your computer"
7) Run startup repair and reboot

This will fix your MBR (master boot record) so that you don't have a Win8 error screen.

 

A note on VMs... VMWare Workstation 7 and Virtual PC do not work for any flavor of the Win8 Preview. I have not tested it, but it has been reported VMWare Player will not work either.

I do know Oracle's Virtual Box will work and there are reports VMWare Workstation 8 will do just fine.

Just an FYI.

 

An alternative to solely dual booting and solely virtualizing is to install Windows 8 to a fixed VHD. Then you can use VirtualBox to run it from within Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, and you can boot directly into Windows 8 as though it's a native operating system.

The drawbacks are that VHD booting only works with Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 and hibernation won't work, as far as I know.

 

VMWare Workstation 8 does work.

 

Hmm, just discovered that on my Clevo W150HR, Win8's drivers don't work for my Ethernet adapter. I just use my Killer 1103 wireless card, so didn't notice at first.

 

Really?! You are kidding right? This isn't a public release yet, its only a dev release meant for developers to test and provide feedback. When win7 made it to beta phase there were still a couple of minor issues with that too. These alphas and betas aren't meant for everyone out there to install and use as their main OS. If it doesn't work for you use the reporting methods to inform MS and help in the testing, don't complain that they released an unfinished product when its not intended to be a finished product.

 

^^^^Yes of course there is a lot of work for Microsoft to do yet with this new release. When public betas come out it will be more ready...
_

 

The stock RTL8188CE wifi works fine in 8, you just need to install the latest driver from Realtek, grab it from the driver thread in my sig.

 

Install the ethernet driver in compatibility mode win 7, the jmicron driver works fine in 8 but the installer app doesn't recognize it by default.

 

Sorry for late reply but i have the Intel 6300 card.

 

How is everyone doing now with this OS?
_

 

Deleted in one day

But yeah, I never could get adjusted to the metro, especially as I use the windows orb all the time and leave my desktop clean...

But it did have all the drivers right out of the box..

 

I have no incentive whatsoever to "upgrade" for years yet. But it is interesting to read about. I just hope microsoft gets a little more original with their names. Don't particularly want a windows 9, 10, etc.