Thinking of Getting Windows 8?

[mfilos]

To me the only OUTRAGEOUS thing with Windows 8 is the lack of "Windows XP Mode" support!
This feature was only meant for Windows 7 and whoever (like me) had an developer environment with VB6 on a this mode got the middle finger as a thank you for the upgrade.

Good thing is that Windows 8 Pro come with Hyper-V by default which you can enable on the Windows features.
Sad thing, is that despite being able to mount the .VHD of Windows XP Mode, you're find yourself getting a "Activation Required" because the Licencing model of Windows XP Mode was an OEM based licence that is no longer valid on Windows 8 nor Hyper-V supports it!!! Whatever you do, and even if you provide the Key that Microsoft gave you with this mode (you can find the key on Windows XP Mode folder on Program files) the activation DOESN'T work.

I spent MANY hours trying to figure out what I'm gonna do... and the only viable solution without having to reinstall everything from scratch in a new Hyper-V machine, and with a new licence is this...

1. Install Oracle's VirtualBox
2. Make a new VM and add the .VHD from the Windows XP Mode (in case you have a differential VHD with parent VHD the base that Windows XP Mode had, you need to merge both VHDs into one).
3. Download a file pcbios.bin (whoever is interested I can provide the link for that)
4. Install this pcbios.bin (with a cmd) to make VirtualBox immitate the licence model of Windows XP Mode...
5. Run your VM and VOILA! Everything works like a charm (well sort of). Mouse doesn't work due to MS Virtual PC's integration features that need to be removed via control panel... and then install the integration features of VirtualBox. After that everything works like before and it's really awesome as well!

Thanks MS for giving us a hard time with all these weird licencing stuff. We have original Win7 and Win8 licences, but hey... we can't use the Windows XP Mode as the new environment doesn't support it!
You give us Hyper-V but there is no way of transfering or being able to use the licencing format of the XP installation there as well!

Apart from that though... Windows 8 with Start8 and on Desktop mode, is fast and ultra responsively on my machine and I have no reason to get back on Windows 7 for the time being.

 

[AmiNeo]

The whole issue with Windows 8 is touch screen obsession. All the OS developers are concentrating on it, and forgetting that for anything serious it just isn't accurate enough compared to a mouse and keyboard. No business is going to adopt Win8.

It's also mad that M$ pulled availability of Windows 7 as soon as 8 was released. You can only find Win8 installed on any computers in stores now and you can't buy a copy of Win7 anywhere.

Mac OS isn't looking much better as Apple are developing that for iOS convergence and touch screen in mind.

It's mad.

This is crazy... Touch interface should be an option, not an incovenient necessity.

 

[chiark]

The whole issue with Windows 8 is touch screen obsession. All the OS developers are concentrating on it, and forgetting that for anything serious it just isn't accurate enough compared to a mouse and keyboard.

For doing what you do right now with a mouse and a keyboard, it's not accurate enough. That's why XP Tablet failed.

But for using apps designed for touch or touch enabled apps, it's fine. That's why Office 2013 has a touch mode you can enable... By default it's mouse and keyboard though. Horses for courses. But I think you're wrong to dismiss touch completely: it's a hugely useful input mechanism.

Touch is here to stay, but that doesn't mean mouse & keyboard are going. Microsoft can't win: we get slated for touch obsession, and we get slated for having a dual-purpose OS which as a desktop optimised for mouse and keyboard!

No business is going to adopt Win8.

Demonstrably wrong. How many examples do you want? Let's pick one from today's Register?

It's also mad that M$ pulled availability of Windows 7 as soon as 8 was released. You can only find Win8 installed on any computers in stores now and you can't buy a copy of Win7 anywhere.

Again, utterly wrong. You can buy it from retailers, amazon, the Microsoft Store! Pick any reseller: they'll sell it to you. I tried scan, dabs, amazon, ccl and when they all were selling it I got bored.

Just to put another spanner in your argument's works, Windows 8 Pro comes with downgrade rights to Windows 7 professional.

Mac OS isn't looking much better as Apple are developing that for iOS convergence and touch screen in mind.

It's not mad at all: watch kids. Already a significant number of them think that a screen is broken if it doesn't respond to touch...

Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft, though my opinions are completely my own.

 

[Harrison]

Touch only works for handheld devices. For a fixed position monitor its not practical for extended use. If it were then light pens would have taken off in the 80s.

For fast navigation of things like images it works well. Imagine trying to edit images in a metro interface touch version of Photoshop. Horrible.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Azhrei]

Demonstrably wrong. How many examples do you want? Let's pick one from today's Register?

Many business are going to skip Windows 8 entirely. I work in IT support for a large multinational company and the only reaction the name "Windows 8" gets in the office is derisive snorts and sneers. Most of our workers are still on XP with a move to Windows 7 being off in the far distance. Once we get license keys, if someone requests an installation of Windows 8, we will do that. But the vast majority are never going to see it and when the time comes to move on from 7, it's not to 8 that they'll be going.

 

[Paul_s]

Give me a Windows OS that acts/feels like NT4 and imagine the speed it could attain with today's hardware I'm being serious, I'd love to go back to a 'simple' OS that is easy to manage. Less is more.

Half the stuff on the majority of today's Operating Systems aren't even used (that goes for Apple, Microsoft et al.)

Clive Sinclair is right with 'power wasting' on today's computers/code development.

Windows 8 is a bit down on the sales... Win7 trounces it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_operating_systems