Windows 8 Demo From CES 2012

Well AFAIK the metro screen is supposed to be the new start button which places a maximized window (metro) on top of the desktop to obscure it. Sounds like MS may be trying to force people with metro, but there's still plenty of time for things to change. I can not think why the metro screen can not just be incorporated into the classic start button of the desktop or as a separate button on the taskbar, for instance maybe classic Start button on the far left and Metro start button on the far right of the desktop taskbar, preferably configurable and be able to enable either or both. Best of both worlds.

Thanks for the update and link but personally I'll wait until after the official beta is released as there does not seem to be much of a compelling reason to rush and try it.

Some nice improvements to some of the native applications such as taskmanger but IMHO functionally overall it seems to target touch and low performance systems. So far W7 still outperforms W8 on my system, perhaps W8 is being a little too frugal with the resources, good for the lower performance devices but not so great the for higher performance systems. YMMV

 

But where can we download it?

 

I realized that I was trying to reply to you in the other win 8 thread.

It's hard to equally compare 8 vs. 7 performance wise yet due to the extra beta and debugging code that are usually in beta os versions.

About the start screen/buttons: it all depends on how well the metro style apps get adopted by developers. if things don't turn out how Microsoft hopes and users end up having to swap between the start screen and the desktop all the time, then I could see how that could get annoying.

Having two buttons might sound reasonable from a power user standpoint but it would create chaos for the average person. They'd be hopeless. Imagine explainng to the proverbial grandma which one to use and when. The "switch to metro" button within the classic vista/7 menu might work but I think the point they're trying to make is that the start menu doesn't get used that often in 7. Most people pin their frequently used applications onto the taskbar and many whittle down the menu when they do open it to launch an app with "start search."

If the rumors of the taskbar being persistent across the entire device no matter which ui are true then it could potentially make the issue irreverent.


A good middle ground would be being able to pull up the green menu sidebar from the classic desktop when one hits the windows key, then allowing you to type to search the start screen right from there. You'd have no jarring switches between UI's yet quick access to the programs you want, and a way to jump to the full Start Screen if desired.

Also keep in mind that the Consumer Preview will apparently have proper mouse/trackpad support on the Start Screen (although I'm able to scroll with my trackpad's vertical scroll area right now so idk what's up with that...) so hopefully things will go better for traditional PC users.

The consumer preview isn't out yet.

 

the idea is to never leave metro except if you really have to (wich is right now all the time, as there are no metro apps out yet). and yes, metro is great on a desktop and laptop, too. obviously it's even better on a tablet made for it, but it's still great for all other formfactors.

 

Ok thank you booboo12 but there isn't a date already communicated about it

 

end of february. what's the event again? they're readying it currently. yes, nothing official. but lots of half-official stuff (marketplace will be available by then for devs and testers, for example, and that will only work with the next version, namely, the beta).

 

Some fair points.

I did at one time try using the 2 together, desktop and metro but it just didn't seem right.



Hopefully your right about the performance issues.

 

Interesting one....but when I used a milestone before on my PC I was not able to do so.... maybe not the same I installed

 

Bing prepares for the Windows Consumer Preview, betta fish lands on homepage

It looks like Bing is preparing for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, becuase they have launched their new Windows 8 bing homepage, just for the consumer preview! Obviously the Consumer Preview isn't available yet, but that hasn't stopped Microsoft from getting things ready early!



Bing has setup a special Bing page for the Windows Consumer Preview when it is released later this month, the page can be accessed here.
http://www.bing.com/?win8start=1

The homepage confirmes that the Windows 8 beta will in-fact be called the Consumer Preview, which many rumours have been suggesting for weeks already.
Microsoft is almost ready to launch the Windows Consumer Preview, with recent reports suggesting that Microsoft is almost finished with their voting.

Get ready - Windows 8 Consumer Preview - YouTube

 

nothing "seems right" as there's nothing there yet. i love their naming: Developer Preview. it's there for developers to experience THEIR work, and actually DO their work. Consumer Preview should "feel right" for you, then.

but if you have some imagination on what the developer preview allows you to see about the future product, you wouldn't care about the details that don't fit, and instead explore what it'll mean in the future.

but to understand that best, it is worth trying it out on a tablet designed for it. it totally blew my mind. i got my tablet recently (samsung series 7 slate, gorgeous). i already used win8 for quite a while. the fazit after already loving win8?
tablet had win7 on it and it felt great on the device (yes, indeed. win7, on a tablet, and it feels great).
win8 felt great on everything i had (with the imagination of having useful apps in metro)
but win8 on that tablet. it totally knocked me out of my socks. it's a typical 1+1 > 2 situation. everything instantly makes sense. once you've been there, you don't care about desktop anymore, you don't care about it seeming "non-fitting".

once you've focused on mainly-metro, desktop is just another metro app to you. could be a remote desktop connection, it just feels like that. kinda like a virtual machine you run and sometimes have to use.

design wise, i think they'll blend them together at the very end (RC), and not a second before it. typically, the desktop design changes always came last in the development cycle of windows.

 

Well, as they explain, the advantage here is that you get a more comprehensive full-screen result for your search compared to to the limited real estate in the Windows 7 start menu.


From the article:

"In Windows 8, we expect people will be acquiring and installing more apps than ever before. Had we continued using the Windows 7 Start menu search interface to search for a Control Panel item, you would always see app or program results before Control Panel results, displacing many Control Panel items from being the first match. This and other constraints on the existing design required us to develop a new approach—this is especially true as we consider the increasing use of larger monitors or higher DPI screens where longer menus become even more difficult to use and navigate. In Windows 7, the total number of results that could be shown in the Start menu was limited."

Designing search for the Start screen - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

Just look at is as a return to Windows 95-type Expanding Start Menu of Doom.

The reason is that the Start Menu is a modal launcher, meaning once you open it you need to finish using it or your changes are lost (it closes). Making that full screen eliminates some of your context, but honestly if you need what's on your screen to remind you why you opened the Start Menu 500 milliseconds ago, you have deeper problems.

 

and if you have that much deeper problem, you can quickly peek by dragging it from the left to see your desktop again.

but yes. if you have that low of an attentionspan... SQUIRREL!!!