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Microsoft Announces Revamped Windows 8 Editions

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the can stick win8 metro sh_t where the sun don´t shine... i would not even use a free copy of that crap on my desktop.

i stick to win7 64 bit until they come to sense....
 
How does Microsoft expect Metro to succeed on desktops/laptops when it failed so completely on mobile phones? It was made for mobile phones, it's been available for 18 months now, and it barely reached 1.4% usage share. Even Zune did better than that. Now they expect people to use Metro on desktops, with no touch capability, broken multi-monitor usability and users have to pay for it as well?

What could possibly go wrong?

(Cue Microsoft's PR bots downvoting comments to hide them)
 
It is as if they listened to me lol. The whole 6-7 versions of win 7 was just ridiculous and confused people. A standard, and then a business/network friendly version is all you really need, and then the ARM version is simply a necessity for a different platform (glad there is only 1 arm version though).

For business tablet environment they had better add domain features for the ARM version. I am not sure businesses will want to pay extra for the x86 tablets just to add them to a network.
 
[citation][nom]CaedenV[/nom] I am not sure businesses will want to pay extra for the x86 tablets just to add them to a network.[/citation]

I think they need to add "device encryption" to the x86 options as well...... You will want to encrypt those tablets as they tend to disappear.
 
They need to put the start button back... I was really looking forward to windows 8, but I downloaded it onto my PC, and I really don't like it anymore. Probably stick with windows 7.

As for the different editions, It seems like each of the 3 editions lacks something the others have, shouldn't they have an ultimate editions with everything?
 
I'm using the rc now, I think like the rest of sane people I will wait until SP2 of Windows 9 to switch, only upgrade to odd number windows.
 
The new editions make much more sense now.
1 - Basic
2 - Ultimate
3 - Office/Professional
If they rename them like that I assure them millions dollars profit and less confused buyers
 
[citation][nom]killerclick[/nom]How does Microsoft expect Metro to succeed on desktops/laptops when it failed so completely on mobile phones? It was made for mobile phones, it's been available for 18 months now, and it barely reached 1.4% usage share. Even Zune did better than that. Now they expect people to use Metro on desktops, with no touch capability, broken multi-monitor usability and users have to pay for it as well?

What could possibly go wrong?

(Cue Microsoft's PR bots downvoting comments to hide them)[/citation]

This is exactly what I said the other day.
 
“Windows 8 Pro” also comes with an available Windows Media Center add-on.

WMC will only be available on the Pro version of Win 8? Really? WMC doesn't really seem like a "Pro" feature...

A quick search on Google reveals it's even likely to be a non-free add-on. Really? I have to pay for a Pro version of Win 8 to get WMC, and then I don't even get it without paying even more? Really Microsoft? If you want to kill off WMC, why don't you just do it already?

I will avoid Win 8 for as long as possible.
 
[citation][nom]killerclick[/nom]How does Microsoft expect Metro to succeed on desktops/laptops when it failed so completely on mobile phones? It was made for mobile phones, it's been available for 18 months now, and it barely reached 1.4% usage share. Even Zune did better than that. Now they expect people to use Metro on desktops, with no touch capability, broken multi-monitor usability and users have to pay for it as well?What could possibly go wrong?(Cue Microsoft's PR bots downvoting comments to hide them)[/citation]

I'm not a M$ PR bot and I downvoted you. You obviously have never tried a WP7 smart phone if you think that they are every bit as great as the mid/high end Androids and iPhones are. Metro doesn't need to succeed, only Windows 8 does for M$ to make money. Metro is not a difficult thing to remove or work around and really, the improvements made in W8 over W7 are worth spending about ten minutes of my time after installing W8 to tweak it's UI with some freeware.

W8 is faster, uses less memory, has much improved wireless connectivity time, reduced power usage on my laptop and increased it's battery life, has improved features such as a much better Task manager, and more. There are many different ways to get rid of or simply work around Metro and so many of them are quick, easy, and painless to implement.

[citation][nom]upgrade_1977[/nom]They need to put the start button back... I was really looking forward to windows 8, but I downloaded it onto my PC, and I really don't like it anymore. Probably stick with windows 7. As for the different editions, It seems like each of the 3 editions lacks something the others have, shouldn't they have an ultimate editions with everything?[/citation]

You can get the start button and menu back yourself. Should M$ have removed it? I don't think so. However, I think that with whining about Metro, enough is enough. It is not as bad as most people claim, although I do prefer the desktop. Instead of complaining about it at every opportunity, I did something about it on my machines. Also, the W8 Pro edition is supposed to have everything that the Vista/W7 Ultimate and Vista/W7 Pro editions we are used to have, so no, it doesn't need another version for that. We got by without an ultimate version with XP and the others for so long, we don't need something to have such a superficial name. Just by implementing it's features into the Pro version we reduce the confusion/annoyance and get rid of an ego boosting name. I think that it is a win-win scenario there, so long as this W8 Pro isn't missing anything.

Looking at the list provided in this article, the W8 Pro isn't missing anything besides built in M$ office and device encryption.

I still do not understand why people are so fixated with Metro. If you don't like it, then don't use it. You don't need to use it if you don't want to. Upgrading to W8 does not mean that you must use Metro. This is supposed to be a site for mostly enthusiasts and otherwise tech heads. Truly, you people should be ashamed to call yourselves enthusiasts, geeks, etc. if you can't even spend a few minutes (not even 15 minutes) to do a quick, easy, and free fix to your problem. This laziness astounds me. I can understand the annoyance factor, but that is all that it is. Here. I'll even make it easy for you. Just go to softpedia.com and download ViStart and ViOrb. Install both programs. Congratulations, you now have a start menu with a start button.

Those of you who actually care to do more can disable Metro instead of just getting a start menu. I've used MUIT, aka Metro UI Tweaker (also downloaded from softpedia.com. That site is great) do disable Metro completely instead of just working around it.

Oh, but go ahead, downvote the guy who just told you exactly how to fix your problems in very easy, fast, and completely free ways if you want to. It's not like I actually just helped you all fix the one and only semi-legitimate complaint besides the almost decade old WMC not being included for free.

Oh wait...
 
For some of the other comments - I shouldn't need free (or pay) ware to "fix" windows and restore features that work perfectly well on a desktop.

Moving WMC into Pro is simply another bad idea - and worse at the "Pay extra for it." (Which I already see spin saying "Oh, it's a good thing, really!" ... no.)
 
[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]I'm not a M$ PR bot and I downvoted you. You obviously have never tried a WP7 smart phone if you think that they are every bit as great as the mid/high end Androids and iPhones are. Metro doesn't need to succeed, only Windows 8 does for M$ to make money. Metro is not a difficult thing to remove or work around and really, the improvements made in W8 over W7 are worth spending about ten minutes of my time after installing W8 to tweak it's UI with some freeware.W8 is faster, uses less memory, has much improved wireless connectivity time, reduced power usage on my laptop and increased it's battery life, has improved features such as a much better Task manager, and more. There are many different ways to get rid of or simply work around Metro and so many of them are quick, easy, and painless to implement.
You can get the start button and menu back yourself. Should M$ have removed it? I don't think so. However, I think that with whining about Metro, enough is enough. It is not as bad as most people claim, although I do prefer the desktop. Instead of complaining about it at every opportunity, I did something about it on my machines. Also, the W8 Pro edition is supposed to have everything that the Vista/W7 Ultimate and Vista/W7 Pro editions we are used to have, so no, it doesn't need another version for that. We got by without an ultimate version with XP and the others for so long, we don't need something to have such a superficial name. Just by implementing it's features into the Pro version we reduce the confusion/annoyance and get rid of an ego boosting name. I think that it is a win-win scenario there, so long as this W8 Pro isn't missing anything.Looking at the list provided in this article, the W8 Pro isn't missing anything besides built in M$ office and device encryption.I still do not understand why people are so fixated with Metro. If you don't like it, then don't use it. You don't need to use it if you don't want to. Upgrading to W8 does not mean that you must use Metro. This is supposed to be a site for mostly enthusiasts and otherwise tech heads. Truly, you people should be ashamed to call yourselves enthusiasts, geeks, etc. if you can't even spend a few minutes (not even 15 minutes) to do a quick, easy, and free fix to your problem. This laziness astounds me. I can understand the annoyance factor, but that is all that it is. Here. I'll even make it easy for you. Just go to softpedia.com and download ViStart and ViOrb. Install both programs. Congratulations, you now have a start menu with a start button.Those of you who actually care to do more can disable Metro instead of just getting a start menu. I've used MUIT, aka Metro UI Tweaker (also downloaded from softpedia.com. That site is great) do disable Metro completely instead of just working around it.Oh, but go ahead, downvote the guy who just told you exactly how to fix your problems in very easy, fast, and completely free ways if you want to. It's not like I actually just helped you all fix the one and only semi-legitimate complaint.Oh wait...[/citation]
I can agree with you to an extent. True, Metro has recieved much more backlash than it deserves partially due to the fact that humans hate change (Like the eyecandy involved when we changed from 2000 to XP and XP to Vista). Yet Microsoft should really consider making Metro the only UI without downloading freeware. It does cut productivity and I am not exploding all my rage into this single comment because Metro is a useful UI, but not useful for desktops. If Microsoft wanted a Tablet OS then no one is going to stop them by making one but taking their flagship product for all modern computers and turning it into a tablet-friendly OS does not make a good OS on all platforms.

Aside from which, the main reason I think everyone complains for a Start Menu even though there are third-party fixes is the fact that they want an organic and original Button. I honestly can't see any other reason why people would complain besides being just plain lazy.
 


No, you shouldn't. However, M$ disagreed. That is grounds for minor complaints. However, it is not a good reason to keep on whining about this for months. This whining is probably going to keep going indefinitely. If there was no free and easy way to solve this, then I could condone the whining, to an extent. However, there are plenty of free and easy ways to solve this problem, so anything more than an occasional complaint is going too far.

Although, like I said, WMC is outdated and such, I can see it being a valid complaint (and the only one at that). However, it's functionality will be replaced with other programs. Even if it doesn't get replaced, then you simply keep W7. Most machines that use WMC don't need to be high end machines and you can jsut keep them until they break. If you have a high nd machine that you want to upgrade/replace, but it is also used for streaming and such through WMC, then just get a cheap HTPC or something. you could get something that would do that job for under $200. For example, just get an old P4/PD or Pentium-Dual Core based computer, throw in a Radeon 6450, and it's good to go.

Sure, now that is something worth complaining about if you use WMC, perhaps even at every possible occasion. However, the whining about Metro has gotten way out of hand and it's not even a big deal. I don't use WMC for my HTPC. I just plugged my fifty something inch LCD TV into an old computer of mine that I hadn't used for years and it was fine. Some people might want better graphics than my GMA 950 in order to play Blu-Ray smoother than I can and maybe even do 3D 1080p, but a cheap 6450 solves that. What does WMC do that something else can't? For example, I use VLC. It's free and it works on all versions of Windows (I think that even the current version might work on Win 2K) made within at least the last decade. It also doesn't need codecs and such like many of the other media players do.
 


ViOrb lets you use any picture as the start button without the cursor over it, with the cursor over it, and with the start menu open (all three can be different), so an original start button is not a problem, except for the lazy. Yeah, I dislike Metro and disabled it after playing around with it for a while. It was like using my Samsung Transform (Android version 2.2.2, I think the phone is at least two years old and Sprint chose to not update it), except worse. Basically, no easy way to close Metro programs, the UI seemed slower and less intuitive than my Droid, and it was full of crap that I had no intention of using. So, I uninstalled the crap and disabled Metro. At least my Droid didn't come with much crap on it.

Yes, Metro seemed like it would be a lot better for tablets/phones (which is in fact, where it started out, but we probably all knew that). In fact, I liked the implementation of it on the WP7 phones better than on the X86 computers. Even with a touch screen on my computers, I don't think that it would be an optimal UI.

There are other programs besides just the two Vi programs that also do similar and somewhat different things. There are many other start menu creation/alteration/etc. programs with many different features. There are even complete UIs that can be used to replace the standard desktop UIs on Windows. So much of it is free, why not take a look?
 
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