Windows 8 Consumer Preview 2/29

[s.kai]

Apologies if anybody posted this before, but after complaining about the size of the tiles I realized that you can increase it under settings. Helps a lot for the 10-foot-experience.

[tommo]

What does this icon do? Is it new? Doesn't seem to do anything when you click it.

Makes me think of subtitles.

yeah its' subs...... hooray, a change

[crawfish]

Apologies if anybody posted this before, but after complaining about the size of the tiles I realized that you can increase it under settings. Helps a lot for the 10-foot-experience.

Who cares if the tiles can be blown up to 10' usefulness if what they lead do is not designed for the 10' interface?

[staknhalo]

So there is no way to have Media Center boot from the start from what I hear. Is this correct? Even if you check to boot Media Center with Windows start up, it will still boot by default to the Start screen. Also, on resume how are you supposed to log in with a remote? :/ sums up my feelings

[makryger]

So there is no way to have Media Center boot from the start from what I hear. Is this correct? Even if you check to boot Media Center with Windows start up, it will still boot by default to the Start screen. Also, on resume how are you supposed to log in with a remote? :/ sums up my feelings

Use digits as a password? Although, that doesn't change the fact that it makes the system less CE-like if you have to log in to watch tv...

[staknhalo]

How would you slide the initial display/log in screen up to enter a password from your remote?

[justinag]

Does anyone know if the lastest version of TunerSalad works in Windows 8?

I just tried it and it didnt work. when i goto about, it says v 1.0, dont know what the current version is

[Glitchy]

Hope I don't regret it (but we all know it is the future), I pulled the trigger on a HP Touch Smart today, for the "touch screen" part of W8.

HP TouchSmart 610 Quad customizable Desktop PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 quad-core processor with Turbo-Boost [up to 3.8GHz, 8MB cache]
• FREE UPGRADE to 8GB DDR3-1066MHz SODIMM [2 DIMMs] from 6GB
• 2TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
• FREE upgrade to Norton Internet Security(TM) 2012 - 15 month
• 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M
• Slot-load Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• Premium Wireless-N LAN card and Bluetooth(R )
• 6-in-1 memory card reader, 4 total USB (2.0), Beats audio [with I/O for TV Tuner option]
• TV tuner, ATSC-NTSC with PVR, remote
• Integrated sound
• HP wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse
• HDMI Game Console, HDMI input [for discrete graphics]
This product is covered by the standard HP warranty
Support for this product is provided by HP Customer Care
The HP Home & Home Office Store will accept returns or exchanges for this product up to 21 days after delivery

So far I have been unimpressed with W8, not much works well, but it is a beta, and I can see the potential.

Most tiles don't work properly, a lot is confusing. It should either be W8 and W7, not W8 with some parts of W7 on the desktop. (make up your mind MS!)

But I need a new machine and might as well bite the the bullet.

Sure I will have updates on the "touch screen" part!

Jeff

[tommo]

So there is no way to have Media Center boot from the start from what I hear. Is this correct? Even if you check to boot Media Center with Windows start up, it will still boot by default to the Start screen. Also, on resume how are you supposed to log in with a remote? :/ sums up my feelings

Use digits as a password? Although, that doesn't change the fact that it makes the system less CE-like if you have to log in to watch tv...

Media center can be set to come on at startup however it's behind the start screen.

Sure a little hack could so this out (but still annoying).

[tommo]

some apps i've tried on x64:

Working
Shark win8 codecs

MyMovies 4.03pr1

Boxee


Not Working
mcShoutcast - installs ok but error when launching inside media center

Media browser - installs but can't seem to find it ... anywhere. odd. ??

My Channel logos v2 - paid for x64version - Installs, downloads images but crashes on startup
edit - they're aware: http://mychannellogos.com/download.aspx

[cw-kid]

On a dedicated HTPC I run "control userpasswords2" to set my local user account called MCE to auto login to Windows with no password input required, this still works, however the option in the MCE settings to launch Media Center at startup is a problem now. It does launch but in the background behind the new Metromare start menu.

When resuming from S3 sleep I am presented with the Windows Login Screen, it should just resume to the desktop / 8MC. I checked in the screen saver settings (Screen Saver set to none) and the option: "On resume display logon screen" is NOT selected.

I forgot there is also a setting in Control Panel - Power Settings - Change Plan Settings - Change Advanced Power Settings - Require a password on wakeup - Set this to NO

[cw-kid]

some apps i've tried:

shark win8 codecs - fine

Blimey Shark didn't hang about getting that released.

[tommo]

was quick, guess there wasn't much to change.

Armed with a windows key and a mouse (with a big mouse icon) metro is really growing on me on a hdtv. I can surf the web on a big version of IE, PDF's, News, metro Games.

I just hope some remote control/keyboard enabled metro options become available as I prefer to use the keyboard/mouse as much as possible.

The start screen you can use the remote with to brose and enter but that's about it. When you start seeing the metro niceness you really start thinking how good this could potentially be for a 10 foot ui.

[barnabas1969]

I'm not expecting anything revolutionary in W8 WMC, just evolutionary stuff, like one-touch recording, and a better guide, that can comprehend when shows or sporting events run over.

One touch recording already works for me. Just look at something in the Guide, and press the record button once to record the show, twice to record the series (using your default series settings).

a better guide, that can comprehend when shows or sporting events run over.

7MC can already do this. It relies on the updated data being broadcast over the air, but it does work. I've had it happen on F1 races where rain has delayed the action.

Cool. I didn't know that. This is another reason to setup an OTA antenna along with my CableCARD and QAM tuners. I wonder if it would update shows in the guide that were based on the cable TV lineup?

[mark1234]

a better guide, that can comprehend when shows or sporting events run over.

7MC can already do this. It relies on the updated data being broadcast over the air, but it does work. I've had it happen on F1 races where rain has delayed the action.

Cool. I didn't know that. This is another reason to setup an OTA antenna along with my CableCARD and QAM tuners. I wonder if it would update shows in the guide that were based on the cable TV lineup?

I'm not sure but I imagine it'll only work where OTA/cable channels are merged together in the guide.

[mark1234]

Has anyone tried Win8 with English set as the language - do things get spelt correctly in 8MC now?

[zzdez]

I have DIvx/XVid playback problems with Windows 8 Media Player/Media Center.
The quality is very poor. I don’t know how to explain this in English, but in France we say’s ‘’a stair effect’’. I have not this problem on W7 MC and curiously not with Windows 8 vidéo Metro application.
I have tried with different machines, different video cards (ATI Nvidia), different codecs. Every time, I have the same quality.
Anyone has the same problem or idea on how to fix this?

[spanner]

Side by side, meaning the same partition?

I shrunk my main windows 7 partition, and installed windows 8 on a new partition. Side by side on the same drive. I really have no clue what step messed everything up, but in the end windows 7 media center would only play tv (recorded and live) if i started the application as an administrator.

-Casey

There's something funny going on with permissions in general on dual boot machines. Every time I boot into Win 7 after using Win8 the system runs a disk consistency check on all of the available partitions. Never finds any errors, but it takes quite a while for this to complete. I complained about this on TechNet and received some "me toos" but no answers, yet.

I spoke to soon when I said mine was working perfectly with a single partitioned hard drive and dual boot. Now every time i shut down win 8 it locks up on the shutdown screen and needs hard shutdown. when i next start win 7 it does a error check of the drive. looks like Its time to install win 8 on a separate hard drive

[tommo]

The current video and music apps are terrible, like alpha software, surprised they even released them in this state.

reading on another forum about the remote issue not working in all apps and not being fully supported on the start screen, apparently as the ir commands are just keyboard translations then it shouldn't be difficult for developers to add this to their metro apps.

I just see the Live TV side of things being the stumbling block now, if we can get a metro recorded tv tile i'm sure they'll be enough apps that come out that do the other photo, video, music side of things that media center does, not to mention all the other streaming apps etc that are bound to emerge in the next few months.

If metro apps etc had full remote support metro blows media center out of the water, it's being developed, it's easy to make apps for, it's going to have a massive app community behind it, the apps will work across a number of devices and in my opinion looks much better... I mean in media center we can't even have basic streaming of IP services without having to go to dodgy 3rd party apps that seldom work. With Metro it's inevitable that we will have dedicated official apps that will answer a lot of our prayers.

[saxnix]

On a dedicated HTPC I run "control userpasswords2" to set my local user account called MCE to auto login to Windows with no password input required, this still works, however the option in the MCE settings to launch Media Center at startup is a problem now. It does launch but in the background behind the new Metromare start menu.

When resuming from S3 sleep I am presented with the Windows Login Screen, it should just resume to the desktop / 8MC. I checked in the screen saver settings (Screen Saver set to none) and the option: "On resume display logon screen" is NOT selected.

I forgot there is also a setting in Control Panel - Power Settings - Change Plan Settings - Change Advanced Power Settings - Require a password on wakeup - Set this to NO

Can't for the life of me figure out where my settings are different, but on my desktop I keep getting the password screen when ever I step away for a couple of minutes (and it is driving me nuts!), yet on my laptop I don't. I recall turning off the lock screen on the desktop but can't remember where that was. Could that be the difference?

I have used netplwiz on both machines to auto login. I have "Require a password on wakeup" setting to NO.

Any advice would be great.