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Windows 8 Fast boot time ? Check this out...

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Carol Haynes:
Well I have downloaded the Developer's Preview.

Here's what I did:

1) Tried to install 64 bit eiditon in VMWare Workstation 7 - no dice - doesn't even start the installer, just a new blue screen that says HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAIL

2) Upgraded to VMWare Workstation 8 (I was going to do it at some point so bit the bullet).

3) Installed 64 bit edition of W8 Preview - which completed but would not install VMWare tools

4) Downloaded 32 bit version which installed and allowed VM Tools to install so I can use it in full screen mode.

I am running on an AMD Phenom II x6 core host with 16Gb of memory under Windows 7 64-bit.

The VM is allocated 4 cores and 4Gb of RAM plus a 60Gb virtual drive. After repeated boots I can't get a clean install of W8 to boot in under 26 seconds - and that is with no added software (other than in the 32 bit ISO supplied).

Granted I have only been playing with it for half an hour but I hate it (with a passion)!

1) Boot time in the video that started this thread is ridiculous. I cannot get a clean install down below 26 seconds from cold start. A VM of Windows XP I use (which has a bit of extra stuff installed and has been running fro years - it was transferred from my old computer and runs with 2Gb of RAM and 2 cores) starts in 30 seconds. So much for much improved boot time.

2) The Tile Start page seems to have absolutely no options on it except to click on the tiles (no right click or any other buttons that I can find). You don't even seem to be able to switch off directly - you have to logoff (which is very slow - I thought it had crashed) and then shutdown.

3) Clicking on a tile opens the app in full screen mode and you then have to use Alt Tab to cycle to other open apps, press the windows key to return to the Start page or move the mouse to the middle of the left hand edge of the screen and click on an app to cycle through (one app at a time). If you choose to go to the Desktop it looks very like Windows 7 BUT there is no start menu only a button that takes you back to the start page. Pressing F1 doesn't invoke a help system (but I suppose that may not be available yet). Right clicking on the Taskbar allows you to go into properties but there are no Start Menu.

4) Apps are a bit odd - there isn't much that you can do to create a document in the standard ISO so I tried using Paint Play which is a very simple painting app. Your efforts survive shutdown and restart but there doesn't seem to be any mechanism to save what you are doing. There are no menus and right click seems to only do things like hide toolbars to give more screen space.

5) The old utilities (Notepad etc.) are still there but I can't see any way to run them except by using Win R to open a run command box and typing the exe file name.

All in all the interface is entirely optimised for touch screens with little if any real support for more than one button on the mouse. It feels INCREDIBLY childish and very limiting on a desktop computer. It is EXTREMELY frustrating to be constantly sent back to an infant school desktop (it really is designed for 3-5 year olds) and with no option to restore a normal desktop environment I cannot honestly see a single business user wanting to go near this.

The other thing that strikes me is that the stupid start page will become extremely cluttered if you install lots of apps (not that there seems to be an obvious mechanism for installing anything except going via the desktop - which I had to do to install VM tools) - plus the constant flashing of all the tiles as they rotate and update content is incredibly irritating.

I showed the start page to a friend and her first comment was "it looks like a shop" - all hail the future. Personally I think it looks like a webpage in the worst excess of Flash based advertising. Maybe someone will come out with a tool to disable the animation otherwise I think it is in danger of inducing mass epilepsy!

Oh by the way - you are asked to link you user profile to a "live" account as your login. There is an option for a local user account but using an email address is already pushed for the 'benefits' of cloud based computing.

If this actually gets released and becomes dominant on home computers we can kiss goodbye to the days of anything sensible happening on desktop machines and laptops unless you move to Linux or Apple (heaven forbid).

Finally this is a an alpha preview release and it shows - it crashes and freezes constantly - even taking down VMWare itself in the process!

nudone:
So far then, living up to the Windows H8 moniker perfectly.

Renegade:
I don't think booting Windows 8 in VMware is a fair assessment of Windows 8 boot times (or any OS boot time). Sure, it's some kind of indication, but with all the other virtuosity and gooeyness of VMware underpinning it, meh... I'd like to know what it's like on bare metal for an assessment there.

Carol Haynes:
I agree VMWare should not be the benchmark BUT I did a comparison of Win8 vs. WinXP in VMWare - the Win8 being a brand new installation, the WinXP being with much lower resources allocated and at least 3 years old.

As a comparison I would say that the video everyone is cooing over doesn't seem to live up to expectations!

Boot time seems like the least of the problems to me - if MS really want to dumb down Windows to the point of idiocy I can't help feeling Linux is going to get a massive boost for corporate use provided Linux developers can get their act together and start producing something with less disparate distros and much better hardware support - it could also be the spur hardware manufacturers need to produce Linux drivers.

If Linux don't do get organised I can see MacOS taking over the corporate environment - the future for business is definitely not Windows 8 in anything like its current form. Business isn't even enthusiastic about moving from XP yet to Windows 7 (forgetting the disastrous Vista) and when they see Windows 8 (3 generations on) I think they will collectively hold up the hands in horror. Steve Balmer will hold his hands up in horror too when corporate licenses don't get renewed!

The strange thing with the Win 8 preview is that it is obviously Windows 7 with much useful stuff to desktop users stripped out and a silly childish veneer added to make it tactile for phones and tablets. Ultimately I think it is trying to be all things to all people and in then end it is likely to fail on all counts. I may be speaking prematurely but I think sales of Windows 8 to none phone/tablet users is going ot make Vista look like a huge success and within weeks of launch they will be offering a free downgrade to Windows 7 with every OEM installed edition on laptops, webbooks and desktops - just like they had to with Vista.

mahesh2k:
If they go for cloud route then i have no other choice than using win 7 for few years or switching to linux. I hate cloud based OS and storage.

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