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Windows Infinity

I tried the developer preview when it first became available, and again a few days ago. It was pretty crappy, but it had a lot of time to improve. So hopefully it has.

I find changing user interfaces to be really interesting, so I like that Microsoft is doing this. Yay, popcorn.

The second link links to the different .isos, whereas the first doesn't?
 
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This is the worst version of Windows 8 I have used, and the worst user interface I have used.

Want to switch programs? Take the cursor to the top left corner, despite no sign this is what should happen. A thumbnail of one other window appears, with a black border. If that is the window you want, you click on it... Right? No, as it will disappear. You must click on the black border around it. Is that not the window you want? There are very narrow markings on the left side of the screen indicating other windows exist. Move the cursor down, being careful not to move more than a few mm off the black border, down to the other markings and the other window thumbnails appear. You are now free to click on the thumbnails anywhere.

Or alt+tab.

But the mouse interface shouldn't be this bad.

The narrow window and wider window tiling doesn't seem to work.

And Solitaire doesn't let me drag cards and is absurdly unresponsive!

Now, it's a pre-release version, with all that means. I use a lot of pre-release operating systems and other software. But it looks like they are going in the wrong direction from where they were in the developer preview.
 
Alan said:
...snip...

Now, it's a pre-release version, with all that means. I use a lot of pre-release operating systems and other software. But it looks like they are going in the wrong direction from where they were in the developer preview.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of your criticisms but I disagree with your conclusion, I think it is heading in the right direction!

One of the changes that I think would massively improve the interface for mouse users would be to allow a grab of the start screen (left button down over a blank area and hold and then drag) rather than having to use the horizontal scroll bar on the start screen (and other screens where it appears).

I can't really comment on the responsiveness as I'm running it in windowed virtual box but it doesn't seem terrible even without full hardware acceleration and the like.
 
The "wrong direction" was mainly in terms of the way to switch between applications being worse than earlier versions of Windows 8 where you drag from the left or right side of the screen. That's a problem if you've got a few different things open, but the current way is worse. At least the other one was more publicised, unless I've missed something.

I doubt the final version would have that switching interface, as the problem and how to fix it should be obvious. I think it's absurd that they exist in the 'consumer preview', though. Maybe it's going in the right direction (or a right direction), but it's worse at this point in the path.

Also, is it just me or can't you have one window next to the other in the metro interface, one narrow and one wide? Has that been taken out? [EDIT: I notice it hasn't, and you have to drag those thumbnails I referred to to get this]

EDIT: The slowness of solitaire was just on my 2gb RAM laptop, but it runs well on my newer one. But for a laptop I bought three years ago to
not be able to run SOLITAIRE reasonably is strange.
 
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Some of us have no desire to have an interface that merges with our non-existent smart phone, non-existent tablet and non-existent portable device. :)


I assume that this Win 8 is sort of a Millenium Edition.
At home I am keeping XP until the stop supporting it, mainly because I am not sure about the student licenses on MSDN.
 
I agree with David. I do not look forward to a user interface optimized for touchy-feely devices but a load of crap on my real computer. Windows 7 is bad enough, so I run XP.

David: How will we get XP on our next machine?

~~ Paul
 
We started playing with a Win8 VM at work today and I managed to BSOD it while attempting to enter my password (I know it's just a preview, but that doesn't fill me with confidence). The new BSOD says, and I quote:
Code: 
:( 
Your computer ran into a problem and needs to restart.
I took a screenshot before it restarted and passed it around. One coworker has now decided to swear of Windows forever.
 
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elbe said:
We started playing with a Win8 VM at work today and I managed to BSOD it while attempting to enter my password (I know it's just a preview, but that doesn't fill me with confidence). The new BSOD says, and I quote:
Code: 
:( 
Your computer ran into a problem and needs to restart.
I took a screenshot before it restarted and passed it around. One coworker has now decided to swear of Windows forever.
Click to expand...

Over a BSOD in a pre-release version? That is silly.
 
Solitaire said:
I understand it comes with a helper AI called, "Durandal."

Download ISO

What's the difference between these two links?

And has anyone tried it?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, downloading it now. I'll give it a test toast and then share my thoughts on it. Hopefully one cn minimize the tablety feel.
 
I installed it a while ago and I wasn't impressed. The Metro UI is awkward to use on a desktop and the main OS is almost exactly the same as W7 (which i'm not a huge fan of) except they completely screwed up the Start button, I actually had to use Google to work out how to shut the damn thing down.

Whether or not they have changed those for this release i'm not sure, and I can't be bothered to install it again to find out.
 
The new UI is well thought out and I'm sure works great. On a tablet or a touch enabled laptop.

On a classic mouse and keyboard workstation the full screen start page makes much less sense and the full screen apps make zero sense. I have a 24" display and don't like the idea of switching from desktop to a full screen app just to write an e-mail or to play next song in a playlist. And what about multiple display setups?

I think we'll see either an option added for windowing the Metro apps or, more probably, a "professional edition" for corporate customers, stripped of the Metro UI entirely.
 
I am trying Windows 8 Consumer Preview, right now. In an effort to simplify everything, nothing is intuitive, anymore! I can't believe how STUPID this is!! Gosh!! You'd think the brain-bank at Microsoft would be smarter than this.
 
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