Windows 8 RTM 90-day free trial available to all, but seriously, don’t do it | Hacker News Reader

Windows 8 RTM 90-day free trial available to all, but seriously, don’t do it

venturebeat.com

32 pointsgagan202020 comments

Tried using it in a virtual machine, but was an endlessly frustrating experience in Windows 8 (Metro) UI.

It's like going from an iPhone to a Blackberry -- you want to touch the screen, but can't.

Be prepared to be your family's help desk if they're buying a new machine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4boTbv9_nU

Hey, some of the Blackberry phones are touch-screen! Of course there's almost zero in the way of hints to distinguish one from the other except if that nubbin is absent and the screen is the only option.

Not touchscreen: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/10/blackb...

Touchscreen: http://cdn1.mos.techradar.com///classifications/Mobile%20Pho...

Both have the trackpad (RIM's replacement for the "nubbin").

If you're running under Hyper-V, Alt+Home is the same thing as pressing the start button. Otherwise it's highly impractical trying to hit the bottom left corner in a floating window.

You can also turn off all animations in Windows, which may speed up things in a VM (or on an older desktop):

Control Panel | Ease of Access | Optimize visual display | "Turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible)" = on | OK

There's also the "adjust for better performance/appearance" radio buttons that do similar stuff that might help you.

installed Win8 Pro on my Lenovo T400 and updated all drivers fully w/DriverMax.

it's a strange experience. while Win7 was smooth, on Win 8 sometimes things take longer than i'm used to and dragging windows sometimes stutters. maybe the WDDM 1.1 drivers for the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 graphics chipset are being glitchy, dunno. other hardware should not be causing the issue - running 8GB Corsair + Intel X25-M 80GB SSD.

btw, to make it usable (also win 7):

http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker

http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

> updated all drivers fully w/DriverMax.

That was a mistake. Use the default drivers and only install the stuff that's missing. On most of my systems (I installed on 3 different computers at this point), virtually everything already had drivers installed except for stuff like biometric sensors.

> it's a strange experience. while Win7 was smooth, on Win 8 sometimes things take longer

I haven't had this happen even once. Everything is much smoother and cleaner. My laptop boots in 3 seconds. Seriously.

> btw, to make it usable (also win 7):

Installing 3rd party stuff isn't necessary. Drag the desktop tile to the upper left. Anytime you're in the new metro thingie, just hit enter and you're back at the desktop (enter always launches the upper left tile).

I also made a shortcut to "shutdown /s /hybrid /t 0" and pinned that to my taskbar. One click and the computer shuts down. If you don't want to, while in desktop hit Alt + F4 and that'll show you the shutdown prompt. Much better than the charm idiocy to turn things off.

Don't forget Win + x shortcut either. Gives you access to everything you're missing from the old start menu. You can also right click in the bottom left corner to get that same menu.

Pin everything to the taskbar and you're good to go.

I've got it to the point where I almost don't notice I'm on Windows 8. Having said that ... I really don't recommend upgrading for anybody but the hardcore user ... everything has changed and for the average person, it will be frustrating as hell to learn how to do everything again.

> That was a mistake. Use the default drivers and only install the stuff that's missing. On most of my systems (I installed on 3 different computers at this point), virtually everything already had drivers installed except for stuff like biometric sensors.

for the record, i updated the drivers because it was choppy, and it didn't update anything that could have helped anyhow

> I haven't had this happen even once. Everything is much smoother and cleaner.

are you testing on a T400?

> My laptop boots in 3 seconds. Seriously.

please tell me what magical laptop even has a POST time of 3 seconds.

> Installing 3rd party stuff isn't necessary.

many people will disagree with you. Win8 did not fix practically anything that Teracopy, XYPlorer, Ultramon, Classic Shell, and 7+ taskbar tweaker can add to a desktop experience.

I dont intend to use metro on a non-touch device. period. if you think it's just a matter of getting used to it, i invite you to see how many people have come to love Unity on Ubuntu.

Laptops with UEFI don't have traditional BIOS or POSTs. Mine books in 6 seconds to a usable desktop.

Yeah, it's generally called Quick Boot, or the option to skip POST.

i thought this so i googled "UEFI laptop" since i have not seen one and it pulled up nothing definitive. sounds like there are very few on the market?

I have a Dell Vostro V131 with UEFI. I wasn't counting the POST, just the operating system boot from start to login screen.

actually most laptops that came out the past 12 months apart from the very budget models have UEFI BIOS.

I looked around with "laptop uefi support" and found that most laptops from the last 2 years have this support. Lenovos have it as a switchable option, in fact, in their BIOS. They support Legacy and UEFI at the same time.

If you want to download it, here's the download page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx

Note that you have to have a Windows Live account.

Is there a reason that they're not allowing you to upgrade it / activate it at the end of the trial? This seems like a nightmare for people who install it without reading the fine print and then lose everything they have.

Hence the warning in the original article.

Presumably, someone caught out after the 90 days could boot from a live USB and copy their data over to another device.

It's an RTM. As I understand RTM's, this means it is a reference for how Win8 will behave, but it is not the final build, and they doubtless want to ensure you only run the final build once it's released. Supporting/updating development builds is extra overhead with little payoff.

RTM is considered as 'done'. By all intents and purposes it is the 'final build', any changes from this point on are hot fixes or updates.

I have Windows 8 RTM installed in my 2010 Macbook Air. It works fine, other than the whole FULLSCREEN-FOR-EVERYTHING change that is entirely anti-gamer. I had to manually extract and install some drivers though since Apple has a check for OS==Windows7 ? Install:"Hey, User, Go Fuck Yourself."

I've been running it since yesterday as my main OS - dual booting with windows 7. seems ok. I used the Consumer Preview before so its not a new experience. I am mostly 'living' in desktop mode but I have absolutely no problem with the start menu.

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