Those of you already using W8 (pref. gamers)

I have acquired a full product key and install of W8 Pro from a work access sort of thing (it's 100% legit), but I have hesitated on activating my copy of it on my notebook because when playing around with it, it doesn't feel like a PC anymore. I'm just curious if there is anybody out there currently running W8 and playing games and having any issues with it. I figured that since it hasn't hit retail release yet, there wouldn't be any compatibility updates for games like Diablo and my library of Steam games.

 

Funny thing is some GFWL gaves get broken who would of thought main issue I found when testing

 

games play just fine with my AMD C-50

 

I dove in feet first and formatted my SSD and did a fresh install of W8 and am about done setting up all of my old program files. My only regret was not backing up my iTunes library so now I have to go back and fix all of my meticulously maintained ID tags on my music library (oops...).

So far I have only 2 gripes that I can't figure out -
1) On the mail "app" that's built into W8, it only syncs mail in folders for the past 2 weeks, I'd rather it showed everything. This doesn't matter a whole lot since I am using Outlook anyway, but the built in mail app looks nice and it would be nice to have full functionality
2) The Videos "app" that's built into W8 keeps showing my video library on the left part of it, but it doesn't update the files (ie: I had some shows on there that got moved around folders within my videos library, and now they're just dead links with the preview photo of the video on there, even when I open up all of my videos)

 

BTW - I'm absolutely loving W8, and I would consider myself one of the most reluctant to accept the new Metro UI, but after forcing myself to learn how it works, it is actually very intuitive. I just had to accept the fact that Metro was just some spawn of the start menu and desktop

 

I've been running Windows 8 for over a month on my primary work machine. The only metro thing I use on it is the start menu, with nearly all the metro apps taken out. The desktop OS part feels nicer than Windows 7, noticeably faster.

The Windows-X shortcut is your best friend, it makes up for not having a start menu, I actually miss it in Windows 7.

 

I was tempted to remove all of the metro apps (aside from weather and calendar I guess, since my phone syncs all of my calendar appointments with my exchange calendar), but I want to give all of the features of W8 a chance. I have a TV that allows network media server play, so using the W8 video app allows me easier access to my movies and shows so I can just right click to push stream them to my TV, instead of fumbling around a bunch of folders through my TV's menus.

Are you using an AV? I was using Avast before, but wasn't sure it would be optimized for W8 yet.

 

I'm using MSE for AV, and I have no complaints whatsoever.

One reason why I removed all the metro apps is because apparently they refuse to use the system proxy settings so they can't connect to the internet at my work. Also that leaves more space for Program icons.

 

I tried installing MSE and it told me that my copy of windows has an upgraded version of Windows Defender so it was unnecessary to install MSE.

I didn't have any issues with any Steam games aside for one game that was GFWL compatible, but my Batman Arkham City GFWL game on Steam was running just fine. I guess it's only certain GFWL games that need patches.

 

For Part 1, open the mail app, hover over the lower right corner and select Settings, under Accounts, for each Account you should see an option for "Download email from" and select the time period you would like.

 

The updated version of Windows Defender includes the MSE engine. It's pretty nice not to need additional AV (however, if you prefer a different AV solution, Defender will defer to whatever you install).

 

Gaming fine on server 2012.

 

Come to think of it, yes, I don't have to install MSE separately on that machine.

 

Awesome! I didn't realize the side bar settings menu was for the application you had open. I guess I just gotta keep thinking "tablet" when it comes to how to navigate the GUI of this OS.