Windows 8.1 Preview

Agree completely... 8.1 changes nothing (of importance).....

 

perhaps so, for people who use Vista and up.

but XP is getting pretty long in the tooth and quite a few people will need to change it at some point.

 

Yeah, I can't imagine using XP any more... after 7, it just seems so archaic.

 

Nothing wrong with the classic desktop. Microsoft should look at why Windows XP still remains popular a decade after its debut.

 

I'd rather run Win 2000 if I had to live in the past... XP never really thrilled me much at all. Win2k was great....

 

Hi,

Um when is 8.1 going to be released? And how will it be available? If it would be available for free through the usual Win Update how much download would that be? Would it cause any major overhaul to the settings that a user has made after the update?

 

It would be available for free for Win8 users.
I think it would be available through Windows Store. And windows store is being overhauled as part of Win8.1

update: below links should clarify about 8.1 and its update procedures...

http://www.zdnet.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-windows-8-1-preview-faq-7000017849/
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview?ocid=blprev_pr_wom

edit: added more info..

 

8.1 is like having a charging bear headed for you and you forgot your 30/30 shells so you stick in a few 22 caliper ones that wont work to begin with. Worthless attempt and bear eats you, err Microsoft.

 

Ah thanks.

 

it should be released at the end of August.

 

What could be the download size of the update to Win 8.1 from App Store from within Win 8?

 

I've had a bit of "fun" during 8.1 preview install, on a clean/formatted drive. The system would BSOD (or "sad face'd") after "Configuring Devices" (or similar) completed, error WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR. After a few retries it turns out that 8.1 doesn't like when you turn off your modem/router during install. The modem was plugged in (via LAN), but turned off during setup (as I wanted to make sure it doesn't force me to create an online account). After turning it on, the system didn't BSOD during setup. Out of interest, I turned the modem off again during "Customize settings" (once the install passed the previously problematic "Configuring Devices" phase) and I was immediately greeted with a sad face/BSOD.

Now that I've managed to get it up and running I'm wondering why I'm giving Win 8 another go...
Can someone explain why can't Process Hacker autostart on boot with run as Admin configured for its executable? The situation is:
I'm on an admin acc. with UAC turned "off" (i.e slider completely down). Process Hacker was set to autostart during install (tried running the installer as admin just in case), after reboot it starts as limited elevation and as a result it doesn't have some features available ("Disk" tab, "Network history" tray icon etc.). Then I've set the main PH exe to run as admin, rebooted, but now PH doesn't start at all even though the autostart entry is still there. I have to start it manually as admin, after which it works correctly (all features available). This was also a problem on previous Win 8. Can someone shed some light on this, regardless of application in question (it's probably reproducible with other apps)?

 

The main problem is apart from a confusing, crappy and non-intuitive interface, Windows 8x suffers from not having a compelling killer app that makes people want to buy it.

I see people sticking with XP and 7 for the same reason Linux users stick with KDE, Cinnamon and MATE. The classic desktop is far from dead yet!

 

Still the same ol' nonsense that was in previous Win 8 final... why does this popup if I'm an admin (with UAC off)? Why do I have to set permissions manually in the security tab?

 

Microsoft mandates Windows 8.1 upgrade
http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...indows_8.1_upgrade?taxonomyId=89&pageNumber=1

 

Well, I pretty much consider 8.1 to be SP1 for Windows 8 anyway, so this isn't really different from how they handled previous versions.

 

I've been reminded that you can't actually turn off UAC completely in Win8 (it slipped my mind), due to the fact Metro apps require it. So, setting the UAC slider all the way down doesn't actually turn it off (even though it would seem so based on the description). The workaround for the above issue is to set a scheduled task to run PH with maximum privileges on boot, instead of setting the executable to run as admin and having an autorun reg key.
All of the regular desktop apps will run as limited elevation even though I'm on an Admin account and have UAC "off, but not actually off":

...which is completely opposite of what someone would expect on a Admin account. And all of that confusion because metro apps, which I never use mind you, force a "feature" because of which you have less control over regular desktop mode.

 

I wonder how driver support will be affected. If AMD/Intel/nVIDIA refuse to update a driver you are stuck having to buy new hardware.

 

Huh? I still have an analog monitor from the Windows 98 days. It still runs like a champ under Windows 7!

 

And I have dual ATi 3870s in my laptop that work fine with Windows 7. The "legacy" drivers for Windows 8 cause freezes and BSODs and I bet Windows 8.1 won't even have drivers. Meanwhile nVIDIA still supports my old 8800 GTX with new drivers for all OSes. So the laptop stays on Windows 7. I can do 8 with some fighting to get older Windows 7 drivers on but was still getting freezes when running Firefox. 8.1 may not be an option of any kind. I will not buy new hardware because a vendor wants to force me to. This forced point release system for Windows will give the vendors too much control over forcing new hardware.

 

I'm with you on that

 

I don't see what that has to do with driver support. Support for old hardware is excellent under Windows 8 - I've had no issues when installing Windows 8 on laptops which came with Vista installed.

 

When is a Windows update not an update? When it's an upgrade

Microsoft labels Windows 8.1 an 'update,' not an 'upgrade,' to avoid deferring revenue

http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...ows_update_not_an_update_When_it_s_an_upgrade