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Old 28th September 2012, 10:58   #31
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

After being on Win 8 for over a month, Win 8 being my primary desktop in lab, 99.9% of the time I am in desktop mode. I have pinned most commonly used apps (remote desktop, control panel, notepad, calculator, command prompt & chrome) to taskbar and hence don't miss the start menu. While I miss the 'Search' box in start menu, Win-Q does the same. Good that they have retained Win-R, Win-E.

So far I haven't found any need to use Metro/Modern UI.
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Old 28th September 2012, 11:26   #32
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Parthasarathig View Post
Also after installing windows 8, the boot time of my win7 has drastically increased even though I've installed them on separate partitions.

Has anyone else also noticed this?
------------------------------------------------------

Overall love the look and feel of Microsoft's new OS and hopefully waiting for the release of Surface tabs. Any idea on the release dates?
The boot time of Windows & has increased because you are running them on the same physical hard disk. I have dual boot but both OS'es are installed on separate hard disks and the boot time has not changed for Windows 7

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Originally Posted by msdivy View Post
So far I haven't found any need to use Metro/Modern UI.
That's because you are a developer and we still don't have the UI apps for developers yet.

For my kind of usage, I find I am shuttling between both with usage being 50% each. I only go into the desktop mode for MS Office and other legacy apps.

Planning to replace the installed MS Office with their online version. Once that happens, I will not need the desktop at all.

So how much you use the desktop is currently being dictated by your PC usage patterns which I'm sure are different for everybody.

Oh and I have this version installed on my Acer Iconia W500 tab and it is just superb to work with. On the tab I do not use the desktop at all.

Last edited by vikram_d : 28th September 2012 at 11:28.
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Old 29th September 2012, 01:12   #33
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

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Originally Posted by vikram_d View Post
Oh and I have this version installed on my Acer Iconia W500 tab and it is just superb to work with. On the tab I do not use the desktop at all.
Wow. How did you get a windows 8 tab so early? I thought they were supposed to be launched alongwith windows 8 release.

Sir, I've fallen in love with windows 8. Do tablets also get a desktop mode or only the Metro UI mode?

I discovered scrolling sideways is easy with the mouse wheel. Lots of smart features discovered everyday. Oh and I love the live tiles. I wish a facebook app was available with live updates. (oops my bad - I realised now that the people tile is the fb newsfeed.)

Also few queries.
1. Google chrome seems to have two different versions, when accessed from Desktop mode and another version when accessed from the Start screen.

2.I'm not able to set the newsfeed to India for News and Sports tiles and even the finance tile shows US markets. How can this be changed to the Indian markets?

3. I'm not able to find a mail app. I've the messaging app but cannot configure gmail accounts with it. Can you help me out with this? I basically want a live tile displaying any new mails received.

4. Also can we create separate tiles for each contact - so that we can get newsfeed live tile of the specific people - something similar to what we have on the lumia.

Thanks in advance

Last edited by Parthasarathig : 29th September 2012 at 01:17.
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Old 29th September 2012, 01:53   #34
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Also one more query - forgot about it earlier. My shutdown time is horrible. It takes upto ten minutes and sometimes even more for the windows 8 to switch off completely. Any cure for this ailment?: (
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Old 29th September 2012, 16:00   #35
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Parthasarathig View Post
Wow. How did you get a windows 8 tab so early? I thought they were supposed to be launched alongwith windows 8 release.

Sir, I've fallen in love with windows 8. Do tablets also get a desktop mode or only the Metro UI mode?

I discovered scrolling sideways is easy with the mouse wheel. Lots of smart features discovered everyday. Oh and I love the live tiles. I wish a facebook app was available with live updates. (oops my bad - I realised now that the people tile is the fb newsfeed.)

Also few queries.
1. Google chrome seems to have two different versions, when accessed from Desktop mode and another version when accessed from the Start screen.

2.I'm not able to set the newsfeed to India for News and Sports tiles and even the finance tile shows US markets. How can this be changed to the Indian markets?

3. I'm not able to find a mail app. I've the messaging app but cannot configure gmail accounts with it. Can you help me out with this? I basically want a live tile displaying any new mails received.

4. Also can we create separate tiles for each contact - so that we can get newsfeed live tile of the specific people - something similar to what we have on the lumia.

Thanks in advance
Answers to your questions in the order that you asked them.

The Acer Iconia W500 is a Windows 7 based tablet with an Acer developed GUI to make it finger friendly. It is not a Windows 8 tablet, but it runs Windows 8 without any hang ups at all.

http://www.acer.co.in/ac/en/IN/conte...s/iconia-tab-w

Yes tablets also get the desktop mode. The desktop mode is an integral part of the OS.

I don't use Google Chrome, so I have no idea.

To get India specific news open the News app and then press Win+ C to bring up the 'charms' bar. Over here click the Settings icon. In the settings menu, select 'Options'. From here you can select the country.

Repeat the above steps for Sports and Finance apps.

My install had a mail app by default. Strange that yours did not. Do you have the Calendar app? Since you have the People app, you must also have the Mail app as they are a part of a common bundle of apps. Go to the store and check if there are any updates to these apps. I had to update the Mail, Calendar, People and Messaging app bundle before I could use them.

I have Gmail configured in the Mail app and it works fine.

Yes you can Pin people to the home screen from the People App. Open the contact in the People app and right click anywhere and you should see a 'Pin to Start' option.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Parthasarathig View Post
Also one more query - forgot about it earlier. My shutdown time is horrible. It takes upto ten minutes and sometimes even more for the windows 8 to switch off completely. Any cure for this ailment?: (
Is your system dual booting? That might be causing problems with shutdown. My system shuts down within a minute or so.

Edit: My system has dual boot with Windows 7 and Windows 8 both installed on separate hard disks.

Edit 2: I installed Chrome but right now it is only installing the desktop version. But it looks like there will be 2 different flavours of Chrome for Windows 8, one for the desktop and the other for the metro/modern UI. Even Firefox is developing something along these lines.

Last edited by vikram_d : 29th September 2012 at 16:23.
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Old 29th September 2012, 17:24   #36
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by vikram_d View Post
Answers to your questions in the order that you asked them.
The Acer Iconia W500 is a Windows 7 based tablet with an Acer developed GUI to make it finger friendly. It is not a Windows 8 tablet, but it runs Windows 8 without any hang ups at all.
What do you feel the prices of windows 8 tablets will be? Hope to see Asus bringing out something like it did with the transformer prime for android.

Quote:
Yes tablets also get the desktop mode. The desktop mode is an integral part of the OS.
In case of tablets, via desktop mode, will we be able to install applications like - Photoshop, VLC etc ? I mean can I continue work on the tablets just as on my desktop? Or will tablets have limited applications?

Quote:
To get India specific news open the News app and then press Win+ C to bring up the 'charms' bar. Over here click the Settings icon. In the settings menu, select 'Options'. From here you can select the country.
Wow did that. Now it feels great to read my news on a 15inch screen with the Metro UI. Im loving this windows 8.

Specially the live tiles with the tickers showing the various stocks prices and what a view this is. Forgive me if I sound like a child, but I'm really amazed at how beautiful this windows 8 is. Metro UI feels great to use in a desktop screen configuration

Repeat the above steps for Sports and Finance apps.

Quote:
My install had a mail app by default. Strange that yours did not. Do you have the Calendar app? Since you have the People app, you must also have the Mail app as they are a part of a common bundle of apps.
i uninstalled the messenger and people app and resinstalled the entire bundle. Finally got the Mail tile too. Now I'm trying to configure Gmail.

Is there any way to have GTalk like chat app?


Quote:
Yes you can Pin people to the home screen from the People App. Open the contact in the People app and right click anywhere and you should see a 'Pin to Start' option.
Tried and this works too.

Btw on the tablet for the right click action, do you need to press and hold the object (like on the phone) or is there some other action?

If its like the phone option, then that should really be great.

Thanks once again for your help
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Old 25th October 2012, 17:50   #37
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Parthasarathig View Post
In case of tablets, via desktop mode, will we be able to install applications like - Photoshop, VLC etc ?
There are 2 tablet editions, ARM based Win8 RT and x86 based Win8 Pro. RT doesn't have desktop mode while Pro has it. So x86 application should be supported.

Win8 launch is tomorrow. While home users might like the new UI, enterprises will find no benefit, since desktop mode is just Win7 without aero.
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Old 28th October 2012, 00:53   #38
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

So I just downloaded and installed Windows 8 after making a disk image of my boot drive just in case something screws up.

The install went off without a hitch. There are some incompatibilities with my legacy programmes and a few drivers need to be updated. Oh well, the small wrinkles will be ironed out tomorrow after I explore this new OS.
So far so good - there's a lot of eye candy.
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Old 28th October 2012, 08:46   #39
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

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Originally Posted by im_srini View Post
With page-file, Windows 8 booting up from a SSD in 8.0 seconds.
My Win7 on SSD with page file boots in 12 seconds (from end of bios screen to login screen).

Yesterday, Microsoft had displayed Win 8 laptops at Forum mall. Got a chance to try the touch laptop. If using mouse is difficult, then laptop touch screen is even more difficult. It requires a different skill to get the list of Windows running. Also in all the laptops, they didn't have the mouse. Using the laptop touch pad was horrible experience. SO instance, how do you scroll in the start screen using touch pad?

That leaves for me to try the tablet. I believe tablet would work perfect since Win8 is designed specifically for that.
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Old 28th October 2012, 09:36   #40
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

^^ You can try out Win8 on my Acer tab if you want. :-)
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Old 28th October 2012, 09:49   #41
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

I'm too thinking of upgrading to Win 8, from Win 7 Ultimate. After googling around these are the options I managed to find:
1) Pay around INR 2000 and download a 2GB file for installation
2)Pay around INR 3500 and get a DVD

I was thinking If I download the OS paying 2000 bucks and if ever I've to re install it how would I do that? Would I have to download it again? If that's the case buying the DVD would be better, right? Could someone please help me.
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Old 28th October 2012, 10:48   #42
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

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Originally Posted by neerajpv87 View Post
I'm too thinking of upgrading to Win 8, from Win 7 Ultimate. After googling around these are the options I managed to find:
1) Pay around INR 2000 and download a 2GB file for installation
2)Pay around INR 3500 and get a DVD

I was thinking If I download the OS paying 2000 bucks and if ever I've to re install it how would I do that? Would I have to download it again? If that's the case buying the DVD would be better, right? Could someone please help me.

You will need to download a stub from MS India site to purchase the upgrade. The stub programme will evaluate your PC and then provide you with a report based on which it will suggest corrective actions, if required.

It will also suggest the correct version of Win8. If you choose to purchase it, the programme will walk you through the process and download the appropriate x86 or x64 version. Once the files are downloaded you will be offered an in-place upgrade or to burn the image to a USB drive or DVD for upgrade at a later time. Purchasing a DVD is optional (I ordered one). The DVD or a USB drive with the ISO image can be used to boot the PC and perform a clean install.

Do keep in mind that the upgrade to Win8 requires a currently installed version of Windows - XP, Vista or 7.

Windows 8 UI takes some time getting used to - much the way I got used to the transitions from Win3.1 to Win95, more than 17 years ago in 1995. But I believe it will pay off as the interface though confusing at first will bridge the PC-tablet divide eventually.
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Old 28th October 2012, 11:52   #43
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

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Originally Posted by R2D2 View Post
You will need to download a stub from MS India site to purchase the upgrade. The stub programme will evaluate your PC and then provide you with a report based on which it will suggest corrective actions, if required.

It will also suggest the correct version of Win8. If you choose to purchase it, the programme will walk you through the process and download the appropriate x86 or x64 version. Once the files are downloaded you will be offered an in-place upgrade or to burn the image to a USB drive or DVD for upgrade at a later time. Purchasing a DVD is optional (I ordered one). The DVD or a USB drive with the ISO image can be used to boot the PC and perform a clean install.
So I guess after downloading one have the option to install directly from the file or burn to a DVD and then install. So is there a need for someone to buy the DVD directly from MS? A normal download and burn to DVD shall suffice, right?

Last edited by neerajpv87 : 28th October 2012 at 12:15.
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Old 28th October 2012, 12:32   #44
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

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Originally Posted by neerajpv87 View Post
So is there a need for someone to buy the DVD directly from MS? A normal download and burn to DVD shall suffice, right?
That's right. Buying a DVD is not required. As mentioned below, you can burn the ISO image to a DVD (or USB drive) after the download is complete. The stub programme will walk you thru the process.
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Old 28th October 2012, 12:43   #45
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Re: Windows 8 anyone ?

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Originally Posted by neerajpv87 View Post
1) Pay around INR 2000 and download a 2GB file for installation
2)Pay around INR 3500 and get a DVD
If you bought your windows laptop or desktop recently, you can upgrade to Win 8 Pro for just INR 699. Check this, you will get a promo code via mail, which can be used while making the payment: https://www.windowsupgradeoffer.com/
PS: Anybody can get the promo code by giving the right date

@vikram_d, thanks for the offer. Let me check.
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