Stream-of-Consciousness: Windows 8 Release Preview

[buzzy]

All of Buzzy's Windows 8 entries: LJ | DW

I finally managed to get the Windows 8 Release Preview installed. I'm typing this on Semagic while running Windows 8, but Semagic keeps giving me errors that lead me to believe that the file virtualization feature of User Account Control is not working properly. Semagic is based on an ancient version of the Microsoft Foundation Classes, which is probably why it doesn't work right. Anyway, they changed various graphical elements. The fish motif for booting Windows 8 is gone and replaced with something that simply says "Windows". The cursors are slightly modified, and all the various controls (combo boxes, check boxes, text boxes, buttons, etc.) are all flat. The scroll bars look like they're bringing the Metro look (i.e., everything should be huge) over to the desktop. The little arrows at the top and bottom are more than twice the size they were in Windows 7. A lot of the icons are different, such as the Windows Update icon just being a rectangle with wannabe recycling arrows. (The EULA doesn't allow me to show you what that looks like, even though anyone could get the Release Preview and install it themselves.) The first thing I did was uninstall a bunch of the apps that came with it. Many of the apps that come with the Release Preview didn't come with the Consumer Preview and vice versa. After that, I used IE to download Firefox. In the Consumer Preview, when programs would try to become the default viewer for something (e.g., default web browser), it would tell the program that everything happened as it should even though nothing changed. If you wanted to change the default viewer, you'd have to go into the Set Default Programs area of the Control Panel. While you can still do this, the Release Preview shows a little box will pop up as soon as a program attempts to become the default. Clicking on the box will allow you to confirm the changes, which is a lot better than the previous behavior. Speaking of changes that are better than the previous behavior, if you delete an empty folder, it no longer asks you for confirmation. On many occasions, I've accidentally created new folders, but then had to say "Yes, I'm sure I want to delete the empty 'New Folder'." I had mentioned in my last Windows 8 entry that the .NET Framework 3.5/3.0/2.0 is not installed by default. If you try to turn it on and your computer is hooked to a Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server to save bandwidth, it will fail. To install, your only choices are to change your group policy, install it by downloading the giant installation, then turn it on again or run a command line program and install it from the installation DVD. When I changed the group policy and tried, I got the same error, no matter how many times I restarted, so I guess the command line is the only choice that is guaranteed to work. Speaking of WSUS, I thought I could get all my updates through my WSUS server, but this version of Windows 8 does not report itself to the server as Windows 8 Release Preview, but instead as Windows XP Professional x64. That might explain why it never has updates. I still have the strange problem where icons have chunks missing or covered in black. I have a new problem where the ClearType feature causes letters to look weird. The best way I can explain the weirdness is the top half of some letters is shifted one pixel to the right of the bottom half. It took me a while to realize that the installation set my time zone to Pacific, changed my clock one hour back, and didn't tell me. I glanced at the clock and realized that there was no way it was that early, then I remembered that Microsoft assumes everyone is in the same time zone as Redmond. Anyway, like in the Consumer Preview, the memory usage is a little lower. This could just be because I haven't installed a whole lot of software. Speaking of installing software, I had to turn off the SmartScreen filter because it seems to not like homebrew applications. (I discussed this in my first Windows 8 entry. DW/LJ) Another thing to disable is in the Task Scheduler under Microsoft\Windows\Task Scheduler. The "Regular Maintenance" will run daily at 3 A.M. If the computer isn't on at that time, it will run the next time the computer starts, which makes things slow. Back on the Consumer Preview, there was a time when I couldn't run any programs until it finished. When I connected to my network initially, I accidentally made it a public network instead of a home/work network. This is because the question I was asked wasn't whether it was public or home/work; it asked if I wanted to share files. Since I didn't, I said don't share files. Unlike Windows 7, where you could manage your networks, there is no such ability on 8. When I told it to forget the network and reconnected, it asked me again, but no matter what I did, it still said it was a public network. I found a workaround for this problem: go to the Metro settings (move the mouse to the upper right corner, then down, click "Settings", then "Change PC Setings") and click HomeGroup on the list on the left side. It should tell you that you can't use HomeGroup on public networks to protect your files. Click the button in there and it'll ask the same question you get when you connect to a network for the first time, only this time, it will actually change the setting. You also can't have a network icon appear in the Network and Sharing Center, so it looks fairly empty. There is no distinguishing between home and work networks, which are both "Private".

I really don't like the Start screen. I find myself coming up with ways to avoid it entirely, such as pinning programs to the taskbar and using the Windows key+R to bring up the Run window. I've been trying to like it, but I just can't. They fixed the problems with the Weather app (it used to just show a gray screen instead of the default location). It's nice looking at the weather for places that are cooler than where I'm at. (Here: Predicted high of 107°F/42°C, low of 81°F/27°C; Melbourne, Australia has a predicted high of 53°F/11°C and a low of 45°F/7°C.) The Internet Explorer app that was available in the Consumer Preview is gone. Now clicking "Internet Explorer" in the Start Screen will load the desktop version. There's a new Sports app, but it only has major leagues, so there's nothing below the NHL for me to look at. I got rid of it. "Flicking" apps is useless on my resolution, since even the minimum size for an app is huge and consists of lots of wasted space. ("Flicking" is the term they use for having an app on one side of your screen and a regular desktop program or another app on the other side.) It probably would work better on my 1600x1200 monitor. I guess the same goes for the Start Screen. I have only eleven pinned programs (i.e., programs that show up when you show the Start Screen), and their icons take up nearly half the screen. Because of all the wasted space, I can't really use the flicking of apps. That's too bad, because at least the Weather app has the ability to show more locations than the Weather gadget, but the gadget takes up so little space that it can be visible all the time.

I don't feel particularly enthusiastic about going back into Windows 8. I liked the release candidates of Windows 7 and XP, but it seems 8 is about as exciting as Vista and Me.