Windows 8.1 Preview

Yes you can, when you're equally as tenacious to get to the bottom of these elementary issues and finally narrow the field between real fixes or workarounds until MS patchworks them.

Windows freelance customizers are perhaps some of the best rippers when it comes to stopping at nothing to better dress up the GUI. It just takes time & patience while they drive down to those annoying nags and come up with better alternatives then MS development does. lol

Another new glitch is surfaced btw. Windows 8 desktop doesn't immediately refresh when moving files and such. Delete a file or folder and it goes off the desktop but doesn't show up in the recycle bin visually unless you first right click and select refresh from your context menu. Another wasted time of productivity.

See what i mean about windows 8 and the stupid little elementary glitches? And they (MS) are a multinational multibillion dollar enterprise

 

I admire your perseverance. I look after about ten Win8. Nothing wrong with any of them. I couldn't work with a system like yours.

 

That's just some of the negative side of windows 8 so far. On the more encouraging aspects it's general system wide security is been greatly improved. Add virtualization, a sandboxie and combo of an AV with a good HIPS and it's game over for malware interruptions anymore. Patchguard is proving tuff as nails, secure boot also is beneficial.

Third party customized apps with breathtaking 3D effects abound and compared to metro make that sorry screen look better suited for grade schoolers, Metro UI definitely does not belong in a real business environment AS IS let alone consumer personal pc's.

 

I guess that's one area where we differ. I don't use any of these apart from Windows Defender.

 

It's a habit hard to break that stems from hardening XP. Although Windows 8 now has pretty strong improvement in protecting it from malware intrusion, (windows defender here too fully updated), it doesn't hurt to have contingencies in place for the future.

Being a well seasoned imaging person maybe it's a common practice for your machine management to simply drop in an image at the first sign of trouble.

 

EASTER,

Correct. That's been my approach. If I can't fix a minor annoyance in five minutes I restore yesterday's image.

I'm waiting for the Win 8.1 ISO to be released and I'll install it on one of my test systems. I have little idea what to expect.

 

Just wanted to verify that this was correct. I failed to spot it yesterday because it is not always visible. It only shows when you are moving the mouse, then it disappears. Better than nothing, but I have yet to find a keyboard shortcut to get there.

 

1. Nope, still flat square look.
2. Nope, still nothing but black text regardless of windows color.
3. Nope, but tabs are not likely something they will ever do since people have been asking since the '90s.

 

tnx for the heads-up Jack.

i really wished they change things a little.
the lack of customizations is maddening in Windows 8.

well, at least, you can easily install new mouse cursors.
so that's at least that.

 

Can't backup my system partition anymore. The option is gone. Another innovation...

 

Perhaps I missed the answer to this question, but I have looked for it...

Is W8.1 going to be a free update for licensed users of W8.0?

 

Windowblinds for Windows 8 has been released if you want to spend the money and can find any themes your like. Not an incredible option but an option none the less. Of course the Windows 8.1 version won't be out until after the final release of Windows 8.1.

 

Thank you Ron...

A friend of mine bought a Samsung laptop with W8.0 a few weeks ago and she has been having a very difficult time adapting to the new Metro desktop (after years of using Vista/7)!

Yesterday, I suggested she spend $3 to buy Startisback, but now I'm wondering if W8.1 brings back Windows 'classic' start orb and menu (and therefore tell her to hold-off buying Startisback)?

Wendi

 

wow!
that's good news. tnx Jack!

sure took them a long time though...

might be just the thing to make me want to load 8.1 and give that a try.
----
has anyone tried yet to cleanup the Windows Updates with the Windows Updates Cleanup tool?
if yes, how long did it take?

hopefully, they got that fixed...
----
look at the screenie of WindowsBlinds for Win 8:
http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/images/config_win8metro.jpg

oh wow! that sure looks gorgeous!

 

Interesting..
Windows 8.1: High-performance behaviour monitoring for Defender

Alcyon, this might be reason you were not able to backup. I might be completely wrong. Perhaps it will return in final version..

Moontan, I will check and see how much time it would take for update routine to run once after i am in home.

 

well, hopefully the Windows Updates Cleanup tool doesn't eat your hard drive!

 

I did download Win 8.1 iso. Installed it only to find out if would not allow local accounts. I had to use MS account. If that doesn't tell me something I don't know what does.

I want to use it. I want to like it, but it's like a catfish with spines. It keeps poking me. MS is steering the boat in a direction that's really turning me off.

 

i'm really not too crazy either about this Cloud integration stuff.
though Microsoft is not the only guilty party when it comes to this.
Ubuntu is loaded with that stuff.

 

Heard local accounts will be in final release....need to wait and see..

 

They'd better be or I'm finished with windows lol.

 

I installed the ISO to a test Win8 partition.

I've had a quick look and haven't noticed much difference. Metro is similar to how I've been using it, perhaps a little improved and I do like Metro anyway.

Windows Explorer is slightly different.

You can still use a Local Account although you have to use a Hotmail account to complete the install.

 

Thanks for the feedback

 

allright,

i'm downloading it, because i'm a sucker for this stuff. lol
and because i want to try WindowsBlinds on it.

i noticed there is a product key on the download page.
i hope i just can enter my own Win 8 product key in there.

anyway, we'll see.