Windows 8

[MattW]

Most computers have a bios update setting when you turn the computer on - try mashing escape as you boot up. The last BIOS update I did required doing it at the DOS prompt.

Otherwise if you have access to another PC and the discs, you could try Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD to make the equivalent of a Windows live CD with XP.

 

[SaiSrini]

Most computers have a bios update setting when you turn the computer on - try mashing escape as you boot up. The last BIOS update I did required doing it at the DOS prompt.

Otherwise if you have access to another PC and the discs, you could try Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD to make the equivalent of a Windows live CD with XP.

Thanks. Just a few mins back, googl'd about creating a DOS bootable usb to flash BIOS, and it worked! Problem solved... cheers

 

[Skater]

Mind sharing that app? I too love the option of watching TV for free from my computer.

Pretty smart and wise tactic by Microsoft to downgrade the pricing for Windows 8 during the early stages of its release to public. By Jan 31, 2013 most of the people would have upgraded all their PC's to Windows 8. And the reviews about its speed/performance will force people to get a Windows PC for cheap which has been a rarity.

I don't know if it will work where you are but the app is called Film On TV. Try searching the store for 'television'.

 

[SaiSrini]

Windows 8 is even more amazing on my Inspiron 15R. With decent specs, Windows 8 is good but with good specs, Windows 8 is just exceptional!

I just so want to now move over to touch screen monitors. That will double the experience that I am having right now. I only have two thumbs, so double thumbs up to Windows 8!

 

[Abhas]

From my experience, YES it is better than Windows 7 when it comes to performance. The start up and shutdown are incredibly quick on my 3 year old HP Pavilion laptop. The start screen is the most responsive, and is the fastest to load. And since it has the Desktop mode, all your icons/files on the desktop can be put on the desktop thereby keeping the start screen as clutter free as possible. The Windows key on your keyboard is the switch between the start screen and the desktop screen. Press it once and it switches from desktop to start screen, and vice versa.

Windows 8 is flexible. You can completele live under the Desktop mode if you find the new UI to be hard to get used to.

Is the start screen a fancy version of the start menu, or both co-exist?

I am liking the idea that it may be faster than 7, but wary of the small issues that are present. At this point of time, my laptop and its data is way too precious for me. All my work is in there, and even if I backup, I can't imagine formatting it. (Why else would someone have 150+ icons on their desktop? )

 

[Skater]

To give you an idea Abhas, this is what my Start screen looks like.

 

[MattW]

Is the start screen a fancy version of the start menu, or both co-exist?

There's no start menu as traditionally - you can add one back with extra software, but I haven't wanted to.

I didn't format, I just upgraded from a multiple year old Windows 7 install - and after about three boots it was booting in a third the time as 7 used to, and feels faster everywhere else.

On my complaint with the metro Mail - I've found adding Gmail as an Exchange account rather than as a 'gmail' account makes it work perfectly. I do find the workflow a bit weird still, so I still use the webmail a lot, but it's better than it was.

 

[Abhas]

Okay.. I think I'm getting the hang of it. Having used a HTC Touch pro before, which was Windows 6.5, I think this is the same concept. There was the UI of HTC on the home, having shortcuts for a lot of things (pretty much everything), and if we wanted to be nerdy, there was the start button which led us into the traditional windows environment.

 

[AbhishekS]

Wow, my Bluetooth driver is working! A friend having the same Acer laptop had Bluetooth issues and so I assumed that even I would have the same issue.

Just tried using Bluetooth and it worked perfectly. So no driver related issues for me on Windows 8.

 

[SaiSrini]

There's no start menu as traditionally - you can add one back with extra software, but I haven't wanted to.

I didn't format, I just upgraded from a multiple year old Windows 7 install - and after about three boots it was booting in a third the time as 7 used to, and feels faster everywhere else.

On my complaint with the metro Mail - I've found adding Gmail as an Exchange account rather than as a 'gmail' account makes it work perfectly. I do find the workflow a bit weird still, so I still use the webmail a lot, but it's better than it was.

Yep. I don't miss the Start Menu at all. The start screen is more than enough. I don't put all the apps on my start screen. If I need to access an app that's not in the start screen, I just right click on an empty area of the start screen, and it pops up a menu at the bottom with access to "All Apps". And this "All Apps" menu also follows the same design as the start screen UI.

@Abhas: From experience, before upgrading to Windows 8, make sure you have all the BIOS updates to your specific system. If I had done it before wiping out my hard drive, I would have probably saved some time in installing back all the software that I lost due to the clean install. Its very easy to upgrade to W8 by retaining all your Windows settings, personal files and apps (software).

 

[Ahmad94]

Looks really good, but is it worth the price?

And what about the Surface tablet? Microsoft are close to being sued by Apple, with practically the same keypad and all but with a different logo

 

[SaiSrini]

Looks really good, but is it worth the price?

And what about the Surface tablet? Microsoft are close to being sued by Apple, with practically the same keypad and all but with a different logo

We have a thread for the Surface tablet. As for Windows 8, my opinion is that its more than worth the price. If they had pursued the same pricing strategy as previous versions of Windows, even then there would have been mixed opinions about whether its worth the price or not. But at 40 bucks for the upgrade and at 70 bucks for the retail DVD version, this is tremendous value.

 

[MattW]

Microsoft are close to being sued by Apple

Microsoft and Apple have a long standing cross-licensing agreement. Meaning that they work together on making non-infringing designs or share common patents, and won't sue each other.

Looks really good, but is it worth the price?

$40 for improvements to something I use every day for the next few years - certainly.

 

[SaiSrini]

I seem to be reverting back to IE after getting to Windows 8. Somehow feel my browsing experience with IE10 seems to be a lot smoother than what my experience was with Chrome (and Firefox, which I dumped long back). Have thrown out Chrome because it has been acting up wierd too often lately, and has been interrupting large file downloads.

I keep Firefox and IE on now, and switch between them depending on what I am going to do.

 

[spooony]

They say if you play a Microsoft CD backwards, you hear satanic messages. That's nothing, 'cause if you play it forwards, it installs Windows