Windows 8

How decent is Windows Defender in Windows 8 to help protect against viruses and spyware?

 

It's a fallback thing if your AV expires or have no AV. Don't rely on it.

 

Dont know if its been mentioned but this looks like a nice launch bar and maybe even an improvement over the standard start menu:

http://www.truelaunchbar.com/

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pc-industry-hopes-windows-8-will-take-on-apple-2012-06-08

Lol .. Apple has nothing to worry about if we go by the Release Preview! It's so horribly inconsistent, use metro to open control panel in desktop? Manually find WMP instead of using that awful Music "App", mounting the VMWare tools iso only to get a prompt to "tap here to change options for auto play". It doesn't know if I have a touch screen?

If MS releases a Platform Update for 7 with the ribbon, 8 theme and a few speed improvements, I'd be satisfied with 7 for a very long time Too bad it has a low probability of happening

 

OK after playing around a bit with launchers in 8, I think I hit gold.

XLaunchpad works like a dream. In fact I think I'll even use it on 7 as well. You can have several desktops and scoll icons thru them as well as other nice config options. You can even dedicate a separate desktop as a 'virtual' start button if you will.

Seriously, the arguments about metro and the start button are null and void as far as I'm concerned. So many workarounds that I've even found something which, to me, is even better than 7's traditional layout.

vid on xlaunchpad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2O4QWWFsY8

 

Problem is that MS is removing or has removed most of the code which enables start menu alternatives to work. Let's see what the RTM looks like.

 

Thats what they say but looks its nothing more than a rumor. Many alternatives still work including the most popular one Classic Shell.

 

All is fine if micosoft includes start menu and if they don't they are going to fail on this release.

 

And the roumers state that the legacy code that allows this is being ripped out.

In other news, Win8 preorders are far below what they were for win7. Shocking?

 

We shouldn't have to rely on workarounds though. There's also always the risk that new updates/service packs make the workarounds invalid.

It feels bad to really hope for Windows 8's flop, but I also know that's the only chance we have of Microsoft not taking the concept further in Windows 9

 

With all the complaints about Win8, I've got a question.... How many on this forum actually remember the Progman UI?

Windows8 pre-orders should be far below what they were for Win7 at this point. MS hasn't authorized anyone to take pre-orders yet....

 

Think he was being sarcastic, rather than there being any figures.

Yxskaft, shouldn't feel bad for wanting it to fail if you think its going in the wrong direction, i should feel bad though as i want it to be a success so i can just poke some annoyed people with a stick, and i'm not even that much of a fan, i just know that i always adapt to software and this will be no different.

 

Windows8 will have lower figures than Win7 due to adoption by businesses....which should be fairly low as a lot of businesses started migrating to Win7 over the last year and aren't going "upgrade" again until Win9 at the earliest.

You have no reason to feel bad for wanting it to be a success just to "poke some annoyed people with a stick". Look at the reality here. How many jobs may potentially be at stake here? This is a major platform release. Failure could very easily cost people jobs....and with an unstable "global economy", jobloss is bad all around.

People claim MS is trying to "force" Metro on everyone....but the fact is that MS isn't forcing anything on anyone. Upgrading is an option. Would MS prefer we all choose that option? Of course...what major software company wouldn't? But, the fact still remains that it's purely optional. If you don't like the UI, stay with Win7. Problem solved. However, it's pretty sad to wish failure on a company (or their product) just because you don't like the changes they've made to the product. Their research shows that use of the Start menu has diminished and have chosen to remove it for that reason. Software can't evolve if the devs continually do the same thing....and from the standpoint of user experience, Windows has changed very little in the last 11 years....

 

I tried windows 8 on my main PC yesterday since i was reinstalling 7 anyway. It boots much slower then 7 for me, Strange. It didn't last an hour before uninstalling it tho. Even with Classic Shell installed it was far to annoying to use.

 

http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti..._further_behind_Windows_7_in_pre_launch_stats

 

You can take that article with a grain of salt. Net Applications has been proven largely inaccurate in the past. It's impossible to get an accurate count of users, based on web browsing as not everyone testing Win8, uses it to browse the web. I have Win8 running in a VM with no network access myself.

Oh yeah...and this:

According to other sources, MS has already announced RTM for early August and public launch for October.

 

What advantages does W8 have over W7? I don't see any reason to get W8. W7 is great!

 

It's faster and has some improvements in the desktop UI like the new task manager and the ribbon is now in Explorer as well. Metro is controversial, to put it lightly.

 

Aero is, from a coding standpoint, inefficient and bloated. Metro, is actually a forward for MS. It's code is actually efficient....

 

While the code is efficient it is a step backwards in terms of use.