Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

I've watched some youtube vids on Win8 and liked the improvements to the regular desktop UI. The Up button is back, the startup items manager is now built into the task manager, the task manager finally has different colors ala Process Explorer... neat. And since i can get a Win7 start menu on it by just changing a registry value, i think i'll give it a go on my HP DV5.

Reason: Accidental HDD upgrade... I wanted a 320GB IDE HDD for my iBook G4 to use for DJ'ing (it can't do much else, but it runs Traktor perfectly), and i got a package today, but surprise surprise: Inside was a 320GB WD Scorpio Blue... SATA. The 160GB drive in the DV5 (again a Scorpio Blue) is full, so since i've bought this 320GB drive anyway, might as well give my HP a well-earned upgrade.

I'm interested in 3 things: Audio performance, memory usage and boot times. We'll see how it fares.

[ddscentral]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

And since i can get a Win7 start menu on it by just changing a registry value, i think i'll give it a go on my HP DV5.

You can't. That hack only worked in developer preview.
M$ removed all start menu code from the RTM version.
There are some start menu apps though which try to return the start menu to Windows 8.

Some info: http://superuser.com/questions/46268...k-in-windows-8

[goodpsusearch]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

You can't. That hack only worked in developer preview.
M$ removed all start menu code from the RTM version.
There are some start menu apps though which try to return the start menu to Windows 8.

Some info: http://superuser.com/questions/46268...k-in-windows-8

Are you sure?

[shovenose]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Just use ClassicShell if you want your start menu back
And, enjoy! I'm sure you will like it.

[c_hegge]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Just turn the Aero off on windows 7, and then you have 8 with no metro.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Are you sure?

I'm sure it's possible. http://techmell.com/how-to/completel...-ui-windows-8/ Or shall i... hmm... install Mac OSX instead?

@ c_hegge: Turning off Aero in Windows 7 (selecting a basic theme) actually DECREASES performance.

[Topcat]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

I'm sure it's possible. http://techmell.com/how-to/completel...-ui-windows-8/ Or shall i... hmm... install Mac OSX instead?

windows 95 would be an upgrade from 8...... *waits for our resident fanboy*

[tom66]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Windows 8 is as much as a diaster as Unity is for Ubuntu (which I'm using right now; it's awkward but I don't have the time to reinstall.) Boo -- Bring back a Start menu, or some menu where I can easily select problems labelled by -TEXT-. I don't want to have to guess what each icon does.

[Time2Retire]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Windows 8 is as much as a diaster as Unity is for Ubuntu (which I'm using right now; it's awkward but I don't have the time to reinstall.) Boo -- Bring back a Start menu, or some menu where I can easily select problems labelled by -TEXT-. I don't want to have to guess what each icon does.

For Ubuntu, and Linux in general, you can always install a different desktop environment. In Windows this isn't an option.

I just installed Linux Mint on my Samsung QX410 laptop. Like you, I didn't like the Unity desktop and the fall back version of Gnome was very minimal. Mint uses it's own desktop called "Cinnamon", and I like it. It has much of the functionality that the older style desktop environments had.

AND, you can install it on Ubuntu too:

http://www.itworld.com/software/3071...op-ubuntu-1210

http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/04/26...-ubuntu-12-04/

[ddscentral]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Are you sure?

Yes, I have actually tried to enable the start menu by modifying a registry key
(HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer and set RPEnabled to 0) and it did NOT work.
Enabling start menu with a registry hack only worked in Windows 8 Developer Preview.

To get the start menu or Windows 7-style UI in Windows 8, you have to use third party software.

There's no way to completely disable Metro without using third party tools.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Windows 8 is as much as a diaster as Unity is for Ubuntu (which I'm using right now; it's awkward but I don't have the time to reinstall.) Boo -- Bring back a Start menu, or some menu where I can easily select problems labelled by -TEXT-. I don't want to have to guess what each icon does.

You don't have to. I actually find the new Explorer very convenient. The Up button is back, and we have a ribbon-style toolbar ala Office 2007 and up, which can be hidden, or you can keep it there all the time.

To get the start menu or Windows 7-style UI in Windows 8, you have to use third party software.

There's no way to completely disable Metro without using third party tools.

That is correct. I ended up using Stardock's Start8.

With Metro out of the way and a regular start menu in, Windows 8 is actually pretty good. It's faster than Windows 7 and uses less RAM. I think this is a first for MS - making an OS that uses less memory than the previous. The install was also pretty fast - it took just under 30 minutes. The bootscreen is fugly tho.

Drivers were not a problem - with this 3.5-year old HP Pavilion DV5, the only thing that wasn't detected was the card reader (Jmicron), and for that the Windows 7 drivers supplied by HP worked fine. I also installed the Windows 7 sound driver so that the mute icon turns red when sound is muted, but sound did work out of the box. Same goes for wireless and Bluetooth.

At startup, Windows 8 used ~600MB of RAM. Compare that to Windows 7 which used about 1.3GB. I'm going to test audio performance later on, but this article by Cakewalk shows that Win8 is a promising platform.

The major annoyances like SmartScreen filter can be disabled at setup time, and UAC is like Win7 - can be turned off first time it shows up. Windows Defender has also gained antivirus capabilities, improving on the antimalware protection it had on Win7. Not sure i'm going to use it tho, as it identifies a number of hack tools as viruses - but any other antivirus does that as well.

To sum it up, first time experience of the Windows 8 desktop is positive. I'm not going to touch the Metro interface with a 10-foot pole however.

[shovenose]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

windows 95 would be an upgrade from 8...... *waits for our resident fanboy*

Wasn't gonna post but I thought the resident fanboy should show up

[c_hegge]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

windows 95 would be an upgrade from 8

qft

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

I would still run Win98 if it were supported, but sadly, no dice. Although fans have made many improvements, it still can't use more than 1GB RAM, or use more than one CPU/core. It doesn't even install on new machines.

For now, Windows 8 with Start8 is alright with me. From a performance standpoint it's better than Win7, and the new Explorer is nice too. The only annoying thing so far is that they screwed up the font rendering in IE10 - but i don't use IE, so i could care less.

[momaka]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

At startup, Windows 8 used ~600MB of RAM. Compare that to Windows 7 which used about 1.3GB.

Compare that to 87 MEGAbytes on my P3 laptop and 95 MEGAbytes on my daily use desktop.... or a whooping 113 MEGAbytes on my gaming PC.
^ All of that in XP . I find that some of my Windows 2000 installs actually use more.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

At startup, Windows 8 used ~600MB of RAM. Compare that to Windows 7 which used about 1.3GB.

Bull, Win7 does not use 1.3GB RAM in a fresh install.
As a matter of fact I have a freshly installed Win7 SP1 system right here, only updated applied to it is IE9
It's completely stock, I have just installed a CADCAM software on it.
Right now on a fresh bootup after idling 5 minutes it is using 488MB RAM according to Task Manager

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Compare that to 87 MEGAbytes on my P3 laptop and 95 MEGAbytes on my daily use desktop.... or a whooping 113 MEGAbytes on my gaming PC.
^ All of that in XP . I find that some of my Windows 2000 installs actually use more.

Okay, my Win98 laptop uses 40 MEGAbytes or something to that extent. Heck, it would make do with just 32MB RAM.

This is hardly the point, open up a dozen tabs on any web browser and that alone takes at least 500MB. I have just expressed my opinion on the Windows 8 performance at the desktop. You can keep using 7 or XP or whatever you please. You're all going to have to switch anyway, support for XP will be dropped in 2014.

Now with Steam coming to Linux, things are going to get interesting...

[mcdaydavies]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

I hope Linux becomes more popular and supported in the near future. Microsoft has had it their own way for too long and are only creating crappy operating systems to keep the money flowing. I love win7 but still, I think Linux is the way forward if their was more support.

[lti]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Okay, my Win98 laptop uses 40 MEGAbytes or something to that extent. Heck, it would make do with just 32MB RAM.

Windows 98 uses nearly double that on my desktop computer. I have 128MB of RAM, and most of it is used by Windows. That computer originally had 32MB of RAM.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Going to give Windows 8 a try - but NO METRO, thank you.

Bull, Win7 does not use 1.3GB RAM in a fresh install.

qft I dunno if even with 3DS Max uses that much on a fresh start, lol.