Mystery Manor Adventure Forum

Windows 8 released the Consumer's Preview last week, so I downloaded and installed it this weekend on a spare 500 GB hard drive. I was just able to get internet access today, so I haven't had enough time to really get into it enough to form an opinion one way or the other. But my initial reaction is fairly positive.

My first impression is that this OS is FASSSST! And this is a hard drive that is running on the same 3 year-old hardware that my Windows 7 is. Of course, I've been using my XP computer for a couple of days as my Window 7 drive is at the PC Dr. for a couple of days. XP is a complete slug compared to Windows 7 and Windows 8 is several degrees faster than Windows 7, so I'm definitely impressed with that.

I think I actually like the Metro interface, but I sure don't know my way around yet. Luckily in the Consumer Preview, they also have the familiar desktop environment, so that helps a lot. But, I've been trying to keep myself in the Metro app to help learn how to find things. Once I learned a couple of tricks, it started getting easier.

Of course, I had to try a couple of games! I installed The Book of Unwritten Tales and Morrowind and both played flawlessly. Then I downloaded a Big Fish Game. Everything downloaded and installed just fine, but the activation seems to not work. I'm going to have to look in the Firewall and see if there's something there.

fun fun!

I'm just having fun with it right now. I download a couple of free apps and am listening to jazz on the Slacker Personal Radio app while I read right now.

I tried downloading a simple game from Big Fish - a Dora the Explorer that my 5 year-old granddaughter loves - and it activated and plays just fine. Then I tried another one - Dying for Daylight - and it won't play. I might try downloading one and installing it in My Documents and see if that works.

Well of course the main thing isn't its apparent speed (which is largely a function of what it chooses to pre-load and how much RAM you have available) but its compatibility with our games. Have you checked out its compatibility mode to compare with games that required compatibility mode in Windows 7? Did Microsoft include compatibility mode in the preview version?

Personally I'm still using XP for games because my computer is old, so I don't have your experience with Windows 7 and games. Besides, the only way I could test Windows 8 right now would be by running it inside a VM, and that wouldn't really be a fair test for gaming.

Not the main thing for sure, but definitely important - at least to me. If you go into Task Manager, you will find far fewer services running in the background for one thing. But the entire architecture of this OS is a complete departure from the previous ones. I'm running it on a computer I built 3 years ago and comparing it to running a pristine Windows 7 installation on the same hardware. It's still amazingly fast. I had to use my XP computer for several days and although I dearly my XP and will always have an XP computer even after they stop support for it in a couple of years, it is so painful to go back to how slow and primitive it is. XP is over 10 years old and is definitely showing its age.

I don't know if you ever checked my Windows 7 and Games thread over at Gameboomers, but we were quite pleasantly surprised by how well our older games played on that OS. Windows 7 and Games

Although this release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview is the earliest of Betas and is not a fully developed OS by any means, I did have to try a couple of games - of course! So a new one - BOUT - and an older one - Morrowind - installed and played just fine. I have had mixed results with Big Fish Games. Dora the Explorer and Drawn The Painted Tower downloaded, installed, activated and played just fine. However, Charlaine Harris, Dying for Daylight and Midnight Mysteries, The Salem Witch Trials downloaded, installed and activated, but will not launch. I tried uninstalling Dying for Daylight and installing in My Documents instead of X86 Program files, but it still won't launch.

There are plenty of driver and hardware issues to be worked out too, but my impressions continue to be more positive the more I use it. I think I actually LIKE the Metro interface for desktop and mouse... I sincerely doubt I'll ever have a touch screen or pay out the wazoo for a Windows tablet. How this all translates to business is going to be an entirely different story.

Ahh yes, but for someone like me, whose still living in the stone age where operating systems are concern, XP is still the same as it's always been, with the exception of a few upgrades along the way (to I.E and Windows Media Player). Your perception of XP is just different because you're use to using these newer iterations.



The way I understand it, the "pre-fetch" feature tries to anticipate what apps you use, based on what you've used in the past, and it's always good, for a gaming computer, to streamline the OS as much as possible (disabling un-necessary start-up items and services) and doing frequent maintenance.

Drac, when you talk about "how much faster" the new OSs are compared to XP, what specific tasks are you referring to? Launching a program? installing a program? If the former, the aforementioned pre-fetch feature might be what you're seeing. From what I've read, it's a good feature unless you throw it a curve ball, then things tend to take longer than they should. A lot of people disable it for that reason. However, everything I read about it was referring to Vista, which is turning out to be a later form of Windows ME, in that it's Microsoft's first failed attempt to create a new cutting edge operating system.



You said it's a "consumer preview"? I'm sure that will change in the full version.

You're exactly right, Robert. My perception of XP is definitely related to having moved on to Windows 7 two and a half years ago. And I am referring to all of the above - launching, installing, etc. - as far as the newer OS's being faster. Of course, there are other hardware considerations that probably enter into the equation.

Yes, they insist on calling it a "consumer preview." But, I'm sorry - it's the earliest of early Betas by any other name! And I think you're right about that all changing when the OS is finally in release form. Although my son who works in the IT department for a big marketing company in St. Louis says what they're hearing there is that it won't change all that much. We'll see.

The great hue and cry from the masses is the ubiquitous Start button is gone. I'm not sure where I stand on that... it was aggravating to start with, but I'm finding that on the Metro side I really don't miss it as the Start screen has simply replaced the Start button. I was prepared to dislike Metro, but am grudgingly starting to like it even with a keyboard and mouse. It helped that Ed Bott with ZDnet has some great articles on personalizing it so it does what you need it to. Plus, his last little tutorial showed how to get rid of the ugly look of the default Metro screen. I will probably never have a touch screen or an expensive Windows tablet, so keyboard and mouse is important to me. Lots to learn and figure out, but the jury is definitely still out on this new OS.

One plus is that so far gaming seems to work really well.

Wow, from the sound of it, there's been a major overhaul of the desktop. This "Metro" sounds like it's designed for a touch screen. I'm gonna have to go find some screenshots.

BTW, it's good to hear from you!!

And by the way, it's also good to hear from you also Robert - Don't be a stranger!

Is this the screen that it boots to, Drac? Boring





Thanks, Rosa



Are you running XP on your old computer or the same computer that you run 7 on? If the former, no wonder it's faster.

Exactly right, Robert! But not just boring, not just ugly, but "oogly!" Read more here... The Metro Hater's Guide to Customizing Windows 8 CP

I tried running my XP in the same box as Windows 7, but it just never got along with the motherboard. It ran, but not well. So, I built a new computer to house it. It's got a Core 2 Duo (can't remember which one, but not the E8400 I put in the Windows 7 computer) CPU and 4 GB of Ram just like the Windows 7 computer. I don't know how much difference IDE makes over SATA II. All I can say is it's just clunky compared to Windows 7, even taking into account there are other factors involved.

But, my XP is still my good old standby! I am selling my 1992 Ford Escort GT and even though it's old and not pretty anymore, I'm going to be sorry to see that good old standby go. Although I embrace the new stuff, I still like my old stuff.

The only reason I'm not on Win 7 is two words.....console games, and my nephew has the box I installed it on (Win7). My only computer these days is this seven-year-old Dell Dimension 4700. It's got 2GB RAM and an HD4670 video card, so it'll easily handle any adventure game I might want to play, and many older action games, as long as it's not too much of a system hog for the ancient P4 2.8Ghz CPU. About the only things I use a computer for these days is web browsing/shopping and the occasional free music download (cough, cough.."Ares" )

If I ever get back into making gameplay vids I'll be wanting Win 7 (or maybe 8, depending on what the jury decides) and a boatload of RAM for editing....which means another build, but this time it'll be an HTPC.

EDIT Oh, and thanks for that "Metro Haters" link. That just might come in handy

Did you catch my thread about the build I did with my grandson? That was quite possibly the most fun and satisfying build I've done so far. It took a 6-pack and a burnt offering to the computer gods to get past the motherboard boot-looping, but I got it done!

Christmas Computer

Nope, I missed that thread. What was the deal....a defective board or a problem with the BIOS?

Anyway, it sure sounds like you've been bitten by the bug.

To be honest, I have no freakin' idea what the issue was. It's not uncommon with these Z68 boards, but it's usually after someone overclocks or uses an underpowered power supply. This was a Core i7 2600, not a 2600K, so no overclocking and the power supply was an 800 watt Cooler Master 80+Gold Silent Pro, so neither one of those was the issue. We went with using the 60 GB SSD as a cache drive using the ISRT on this board and that seemed to be when we ran into trouble with boot looping. I was ready to RMA the board, but decided I wasn't going to give up until I had to because the grandson was SO disappointed. I think it was all software related as when we first enabled the ISRT, everything was working perfectly after several reboots when installing drivers etc. Then first one drive would drop out and I'd get it enabled, then the other drive would drop out. Flashed the BIOS several times too. Finally, the last time I got both drives enabled and reinstalled the OS for the 3rd time, it all held. It's been running pretty much non-stop since December 26th, so I'm hoping it continues to do so.

I get the biggest kick out of the kid, because he brags to everyone about how he and I built this computer and all his friends are so amazed.

Yeah, and you enabled me in getting bitten!