Windows 8 Dev build
- Thread starter deeFive
- Start date
Well, again, it depends on what you do with your computer. Here, 8GB is the minimum, but >12GB is preferred because I usually have a virtual machine or two running at the background.
I'm not sure how games are using memory these days. I suppose you can live with 4GB as the games still seem to be 32bit.
Its gonna depend on what you have running but yeah for me 8gb seems overkill (but all I do is browse web & run development software etc I dont play games)
What I mean is I start up a program eg MS visual studio (my memory in use/committed/physical memory usage go up) ok makes sense but I close it and then all go down! huh I've got over 75% memory free. I want it to totally stay in memory (like mac os seems to do) & only when memory is running low eg >80% then start paging stuff out of memory.
other questions
1. thing how to get rid of the alt-tab showing the desktop as one of the 'programs', mac os has this as well (with finder) and I hate it, I couldnt get rid of it in mac os, can I in win 8?
2. ability to customize the fonts/colors like in previous versions of windows eg different fonts/sizes for menu bar, nice wide scroll bars etc
3. I dont mind the new win 8 metro start app thing (unlike others), its certainly not perfect (and could very easily be fixed MS) but one thing I cant understand, eg I install a program like I did the other day and 20 differnt tiles show up! WTF. I want it to be like mac os 10.7+ a single tile/icon per program
4. tried out the windows app store the other day (only tried one program it crashed btw when I started it up, way to go, nice QC there) but are they taking the piss the whole store looks amateurish its far worse than the google version 1 beta google had a few years ago, MS has had this out for a year and are a multi billion dollar company what the hell are they doing
What I mean is I start up a program eg MS visual studio (my memory in use/committed/physical memory usage go up) ok makes sense but I close it and then all go down! huh I've got over 75% memory free. I want it to totally stay in memory (like mac os seems to do) & only when memory is running low eg >80% then start paging stuff out of memory.
other questions
1. thing how to get rid of the alt-tab showing the desktop as one of the 'programs', mac os has this as well (with finder) and I hate it, I couldnt get rid of it in mac os, can I in win 8?
2. ability to customize the fonts/colors like in previous versions of windows eg different fonts/sizes for menu bar, nice wide scroll bars etc
3. I dont mind the new win 8 metro start app thing (unlike others), its certainly not perfect (and could very easily be fixed MS) but one thing I cant understand, eg I install a program like I did the other day and 20 differnt tiles show up! WTF. I want it to be like mac os 10.7+ a single tile/icon per program
4. tried out the windows app store the other day (only tried one program it crashed btw when I started it up, way to go, nice QC there) but are they taking the piss the whole store looks amateurish its far worse than the google version 1 beta google had a few years ago, MS has had this out for a year and are a multi billion dollar company what the hell are they doing
Blazkowicz
Legend
I had 2GB and it was overkill, had to drop to 1GB and it was a nightmare, back to 2GB it still was a nightmare (esp. as I was using Chromium browser), then at 3GB it's just enough for web browsing, media players and playing an old game.
But somehow I can still use a 512MB or 768MB computer fine (with recent ubuntu and lxde) if Firefox stays at a couple windows of text only tabs.
But somehow I can still use a 512MB or 768MB computer fine (with recent ubuntu and lxde) if Firefox stays at a couple windows of text only tabs.
zed,
I think you are misinterpreting the memory information provided by win8's task manager.
They sort of made some.. "marketing changes". When it says 75% memory free it actually means that part of that is not used at all AND part of that is cached. I cannot blame them since this spares us of "omg 95% of my memory is full and I've only opened a browser. Win8 is crap!" lines.
For example, at my computer it shows 3,7 GB in use and 23% memory used. But, it also says 12GB are cached. Therefore the 12 GB are included in the 77% free memory.
I think you are misinterpreting the memory information provided by win8's task manager.
They sort of made some.. "marketing changes". When it says 75% memory free it actually means that part of that is not used at all AND part of that is cached. I cannot blame them since this spares us of "omg 95% of my memory is full and I've only opened a browser. Win8 is crap!" lines.
For example, at my computer it shows 3,7 GB in use and 23% memory used. But, it also says 12GB are cached. Therefore the 12 GB are included in the 77% free memory.
Blazkowicz
Legend
MS went in the direction of less customizing in each version, 8.1's Metro screen is an exception (now you can use a wallpaper?) but Windows 7 played that game already. Windows Classic was deprived of customization, which pissed me off and was a factor in me no longer using Windows. It's like Microsoft wanted to punish me for using Windows.
I think they do that kind of thing to "not dilute the brand", when Ubuntu 11.04 came out with the Unity desktop as default and people bitched about how you can't move the bar on the left, Ubuntu's CEO said it was by design and no it won't ever be changed.. 'cos every Ubuntunity desktop has to be recognizeable at first glance.
So, users have no say in the look and feel of their stuff. In Windows 7 they didn't want people to use Classic with a color scheme, because hell you might see a laptop with a Windows that looks like the 90s and they can't allow that. Here's dull Win2k gray for the corporate users and that's all.
@entity279 Im using MS process explorer
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
check down the bottom on the status bar it saiz
Physical usage XX%
also
5. this has bugged me each windows version I go left on the screen to see my windows taskbar but sometimes (not always) with some apps (eg unity) the taskbar doesnt appear (so Ive gotta alt tab to another window and then move my cursor to the left side of the screen), is there a reg key to make it always appear. If I move to the right my widget bar ALWAYS appears, so why cant the same thing happen with windows taskbar
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
check down the bottom on the status bar it saiz
Physical usage XX%
also
5. this has bugged me each windows version I go left on the screen to see my windows taskbar but sometimes (not always) with some apps (eg unity) the taskbar doesnt appear (so Ive gotta alt tab to another window and then move my cursor to the left side of the screen), is there a reg key to make it always appear. If I move to the right my widget bar ALWAYS appears, so why cant the same thing happen with windows taskbar
UniversalTruth
Veteran
It is certainly a nice thing to have as an option. Who knows why it takes them so long to realise the genius idea that it is BETTER! Hell, f@ck!
This is trying to fight with customers, a game which has only one winner and fortunately they are always on the loosers side
Blazkowicz
Legend
Not sure if it is embarrassing, but I dreamt of Windows 3.11. I was not really using the program manager and winfile, but I had the thing before me, with some nice colors and wallpaper. I thought "alright, now we'll have to use this again" and "I'll get Internet Explorer 5". A decent music player, old games and we're good to go.
Too bad I realized it was not real. I'm almost tempted to try it for real on my PC - I guess I can get SVGA graphics running, and networking by using a 3COM PCI card. Getting sound is a problem, it might require building a sound card on parallel port.. Or a PCI Ensoniq/Sound Blaster 128 might do the trick.
Things were simpler back then lol. What I don't miss is lousy multitasking - I don't miss it, because I can experience it with 2013's OS and software when Firefox chokes on a javascript.
Too bad I realized it was not real. I'm almost tempted to try it for real on my PC - I guess I can get SVGA graphics running, and networking by using a 3COM PCI card. Getting sound is a problem, it might require building a sound card on parallel port.. Or a PCI Ensoniq/Sound Blaster 128 might do the trick.
Things were simpler back then lol. What I don't miss is lousy multitasking - I don't miss it, because I can experience it with 2013's OS and software when Firefox chokes on a javascript.
I'm using Windows 8 on a lightweight touch screen laptop with an SSD drive. Developing a little app for my son for learning letters and numbers (well he already knows the numbers, but it was easy to add). My browser is Chrome, which actually does seem to know proper multi-tasking.
Suffice to say, your dream would be a nightmare to me.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Just curious if anyone here has Windows 8.1 and has tried the Miracast implementation in it?
http://withinwindows.com/within-win...acast-wireless-display-tech-and-it-works-well
I'm wondering how responsive it is and how good the quality of it is. Would be ideal if I could replace my 10 meter HDMI cable running from my HTPC/WHS machine in the other room to the TV in the living room.
Would also be interesting to easily connect my actual desktop computer to the TV as well if I wanted to do more powerful PC gaming on the TV.
Regards,
SB
http://withinwindows.com/within-win...acast-wireless-display-tech-and-it-works-well
I'm wondering how responsive it is and how good the quality of it is. Would be ideal if I could replace my 10 meter HDMI cable running from my HTPC/WHS machine in the other room to the TV in the living room.
Would also be interesting to easily connect my actual desktop computer to the TV as well if I wanted to do more powerful PC gaming on the TV.
Regards,
SB
Oh that will be great for work, finally something I can bridge lack of WiDi support in our TV's. Will have to check out some of those bridging devices once I can get 8.1 working well on my Helix. Will probably have to wait for some driver updates though.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
OMG, upgraded to Windows 8.1 and now I'm fucking annoyed. There's no @#%@%@#$%@#ing option to remove the damn start button. I DO NOT WANT IT. Grrrrr.
What a fucking load of shit...
Yes, I'm hugely annoyed.
I was all for giving people the option to have a start button, but to force everyone to have it? @#$%@#$#$@#
Regards,
SB
What a fucking load of shit...
Yes, I'm hugely annoyed.
I was all for giving people the option to have a start button, but to force everyone to have it? @#$%@#$#$@#
Regards,
SB
Silent_Buddha
Legend
That's even more annoying to have to install an app to get rid of the damn thing.
Why anyone would want a start menu icon taking away valuable taskbar space, I'll never know. That was one of the things I really liked about Win8. They just messed up by not giving people an option to have an icon taking up space.
And, of course, the first one I tried, StarIsGone (because it's lightweight), doesn't currently support taskbars on secondary monitors. /sigh.
And now I have to try to figure out if there's a way to get rid of the "Folders" section when in top level of Explorer. It won't even freaking stay collapsed by default if you navigate to the a drive and then navigate back to the top level. /sigh again. Hell, I'd be happy if I could just put it at the bottom so it doesn't get in the freaking way (I have a lot of drives/partitions).
[edit] Thankfully at least there are reg keys you can delete to remove that "Folders" section. Now if only there was a reg key to remove the start button.
Regards,
SB
Why anyone would want a start menu icon taking away valuable taskbar space, I'll never know. That was one of the things I really liked about Win8. They just messed up by not giving people an option to have an icon taking up space.
And, of course, the first one I tried, StarIsGone (because it's lightweight), doesn't currently support taskbars on secondary monitors. /sigh.
And now I have to try to figure out if there's a way to get rid of the "Folders" section when in top level of Explorer. It won't even freaking stay collapsed by default if you navigate to the a drive and then navigate back to the top level. /sigh again. Hell, I'd be happy if I could just put it at the bottom so it doesn't get in the freaking way (I have a lot of drives/partitions).
[edit] Thankfully at least there are reg keys you can delete to remove that "Folders" section. Now if only there was a reg key to remove the start button.
Regards,
SB
I transitioned to Windows 8.1. Well it is hardly better than vanilla Windows 8.
I demoed it to my wife and well, I can say that she is not sold, pretty much it is still schizophrenic.
I'm giving IE another try as I like the full screen interface (when in metro mode). It is ok though I miss all my add-on from firefox which pretty much make for an add free experience.
I just tried firefox aurora and nightly, still not there sadly.
I think that MSFT is going to suffer, I would be surprised if your average user can "get it", you can access the "standard settings" through the control panel, the modern UI setting with the charm bar on the start screen, and the setting from the charm bar is contextual...
Try to explain the difference between Apps and programs to your average user, not easy but it get worse, actually to change some setting in say, IE, or firefox nightly, you have to open it in desktop mode.
It is still lacking Apps and actually I do get why devs have few intensive to develop Apps for windows 8 which would be inaccessible to a bunch of windows7 users. Not too mention (a good point in my opinion) that MSFT is set more restriction wrt to the use of personal data by apps than say google, a good thing but it has to backslash.
Overall I think MSFT is between a rock and a hard place, more and more people I speak with (which are not geek or work in IT) are telling me that they "don't get" what MSFT is trying to do.
I demoed it to my wife and well, I can say that she is not sold, pretty much it is still schizophrenic.
I'm giving IE another try as I like the full screen interface (when in metro mode). It is ok though I miss all my add-on from firefox which pretty much make for an add free experience.
I just tried firefox aurora and nightly, still not there sadly.
I think that MSFT is going to suffer, I would be surprised if your average user can "get it", you can access the "standard settings" through the control panel, the modern UI setting with the charm bar on the start screen, and the setting from the charm bar is contextual...
Try to explain the difference between Apps and programs to your average user, not easy but it get worse, actually to change some setting in say, IE, or firefox nightly, you have to open it in desktop mode.
It is still lacking Apps and actually I do get why devs have few intensive to develop Apps for windows 8 which would be inaccessible to a bunch of windows7 users. Not too mention (a good point in my opinion) that MSFT is set more restriction wrt to the use of personal data by apps than say google, a good thing but it has to backslash.
Overall I think MSFT is between a rock and a hard place, more and more people I speak with (which are not geek or work in IT) are telling me that they "don't get" what MSFT is trying to do.
I transitioned both our Windows 8 machines to 8.1 too. I noticed that the tool I installed to allow Windows Apps to run in Windowed mode still works, which means Microsoft has still consciously chosen not to support it, which I think is dumb. I do like that the 'Start button' is there to make it easier to show the Tiled Start Menu and that it works on either screen, but I'd have preferred to have that span both of my screens. I guess that would have confused some of the Apps, but it would still be very cool - I'd be able to see everything without scrolling.
The unified search is a definite improvement as well. If I search for GIMP and I find it's not installed, at least I get an immediate link to the webpage to download it. I like the right-click context menu on the start button to give some good shortcuts to useful features.
All in all it's a step forwards, but definitely not a very convincing one. I haven't seen any major feature improvements in the SDK either for Apps - most stuff seems focussed on performance improvements. They still have a lot of ground to cover.
BUT: I do much prefer developing for Windows 8 Apps than for any other App platform so far. I'm making nice progress with the Letter Trainer that I'm writing for my son. I have a first mode that trains him all the letters very efficiently until he gets them all right, with automatic repetition of letters he doesn't know immediately yet and nice visual feedback on his progress, resume now works properly too, it scales to any display size nicely, etc. I just need some finishing touches, adding a rewarding 'completed' state, an option to reset progress, and an option to select/add different users (it's already implemented in the logic), probably re-record the samples with a good mic (I used the laptop mic to get the first version of the samples), and add support for English.
Then I think I have a good enough first version for release, and perhaps try it out at his school if the teachers agree (they're working on letters there too right now). And then something like an option to record samples yourself would be a nice feature for the next version, as well as export the test data for analysis in Excel or something like that. Or make something built in, giving an overview of all users, shared weaknesses, etc.
We'll see. It's just a simple idea, but there's still a lot of time and effort that you can put in there, and techniques to test - glad I chose something this 'simple' to start with though, all my other ideas were far more complex.
Oh and that new default background ... man, that's retro to a point well-before personal computers even existed!
The unified search is a definite improvement as well. If I search for GIMP and I find it's not installed, at least I get an immediate link to the webpage to download it. I like the right-click context menu on the start button to give some good shortcuts to useful features.
All in all it's a step forwards, but definitely not a very convincing one. I haven't seen any major feature improvements in the SDK either for Apps - most stuff seems focussed on performance improvements. They still have a lot of ground to cover.
BUT: I do much prefer developing for Windows 8 Apps than for any other App platform so far. I'm making nice progress with the Letter Trainer that I'm writing for my son. I have a first mode that trains him all the letters very efficiently until he gets them all right, with automatic repetition of letters he doesn't know immediately yet and nice visual feedback on his progress, resume now works properly too, it scales to any display size nicely, etc. I just need some finishing touches, adding a rewarding 'completed' state, an option to reset progress, and an option to select/add different users (it's already implemented in the logic), probably re-record the samples with a good mic (I used the laptop mic to get the first version of the samples), and add support for English.
Then I think I have a good enough first version for release, and perhaps try it out at his school if the teachers agree (they're working on letters there too right now). And then something like an option to record samples yourself would be a nice feature for the next version, as well as export the test data for analysis in Excel or something like that. Or make something built in, giving an overview of all users, shared weaknesses, etc.
We'll see. It's just a simple idea, but there's still a lot of time and effort that you can put in there, and techniques to test - glad I chose something this 'simple' to start with though, all my other ideas were far more complex.
Oh and that new default background ... man, that's retro to a point well-before personal computers even existed!
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