Windows 8 Blue Leaks

[MuffCabbage]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/24/4...creenshots-leak-smaller-live-tiles-options-ui

http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-blue-leaks

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KAxXX0m-P_0

1. 50/50 Snap view (Possibly just any snapped proportion you want)
2. Several snapped apps at once (Seen 7 so far)
3. Metro file manager
4. More desktop settings in metro
5. Charms upgraded a bit
6. Smaller and bigger Live Tile options
7. Drag multiple live tiles at once
8. Resize multiple live tiles at once
9. More customization colors for start screen
10. New apps
11. SkyDrive more baked in
12. Synced tabs in IE11

Overall it looks like all changes for the better, especially for Windows RT which could possibly drop the desktop by Windows 9??

 

[MRU]

I actually like some of the features of windows 8 (even if Apple wont support my MacPro 3.1 with it) but I'll wait for the official update. ..

 

[MuffCabbage]

I actually like some of the features of windows 8 (even if Apple wont support my MacPro 3.1 with it) but I'll wait for the official update. ..

Gunna wait for Blue before jumping on Windows 8 you're saying? Sounds like a good idea if you are getting new hardware for it or expect the upgrade to cost money.

I'd bet that the Blue update is free for Windows 8 users.

 

[MRU]

Gunna wait for Blue before jumping on Windows 8 you're saying? Sounds like a good idea if you are getting new hardware for it or expect the upgrade to cost money.

I'd bet that the Blue update is free for Windows 8 users.

Nah I'm already running it. Had access to windows 8 from its earliest previews to current as I have a technet and msdn subscription. But I'll wait for the 'blue' update to filter down from official channels before updating my Bootcamp installation.

Oh and just for those folks who are going to download the leak, I believe at the moment its the 32bit version only.

 

[MuffCabbage]

Nah I'm already running it. Had access to windows 8 from its earliest previews to current as I have a technet and msdn subscription. But I'll wait for the 'blue' update to filter down from official channels before updating my Bootcamp installation.

Oh and just for those folks who are going to download the leak, I believe at the moment its the 32bit version only.

Yeah. It still looked glitchy in the video so def dont replace anything important.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KAxXX0m-P_0

 

[spinedoc77]

Microsoft just doesn't get it with the Metro start screen, it's awful. The main reason is it gives you no way to organize your apps/programs, well you can group them but you are still left with literally hundreds of programs all strewn across a single sliding screen, that's terrible. If I routinely have lets say 300 apps/programs installed, each of those programs will give me at least 2 or 3 entries and some like MS Office give me closer to 10 entries, so if you have 300 programs you can realistically have 1000+ entries on your Metro start screen, yeah I don't think the grouping option will help much. Most of you know my love for MS, but this just makes no sense.

What makes no sense as well is if they carry over this put everything on the start screen mentality to IE11 Metro version where you "pin" websites and once again have a sliding page of what can be thousands of websites just strewn about.

The solution is dead simple, just allow folders for organization in the Metro start screen and IE10/11 pinning site. Really this is one of my very very few gripes with Win8, although personally I think they should have "touchified" the desktop and never bothered with Metro, but I could have accepted Metro if it had any degree of common sense behind it.

 

[Cod3rror]

I had hoped they'd radically change the Metro ****. But nope, they're just reshaping it a bit.

 

[daneoni]

-What about being able to adjust system volume independently of Ringer volume.
-Does is still shut off data as soon as you turn off the screen?
-Has the notification system been improved?

 

[MRU]

-What about being able to adjust system volume independently of Ringer volume.
-Does is still shut off data as soon as you turn off the screen?
-Has the notification system been improved?

This thread is regarding windows 8 leak....

This is not windows phone 8 which your post implies ;-) Sometimes you wonder do people even read the opening post

 

[Michael Goff]

I find it funny that people are acting like the changes in this build are... the last.

This is a leak of something that isn't likely even beta.

 

[rocknblogger]

Microsoft just doesn't get it with the Metro start screen, it's awful. The main reason is it gives you no way to organize your apps/programs, well you can group them but you are still left with literally hundreds of programs all strewn across a single sliding screen, that's terrible. If I routinely have lets say 300 apps/programs installed, each of those programs will give me at least 2 or 3 entries and some like MS Office give me closer to 10 entries, so if you have 300 programs you can realistically have 1000+ entries on your Metro start screen, yeah I don't think the grouping option will help much. Most of you know my love for MS, but this just makes no sense.

What makes no sense as well is if they carry over this put everything on the start screen mentality to IE11 Metro version where you "pin" websites and once again have a sliding page of what can be thousands of websites just strewn about.

The solution is dead simple, just allow folders for organization in the Metro start screen and IE10/11 pinning site. Really this is one of my very very few gripes with Win8, although personally I think they should have "touchified" the desktop and never bothered with Metro, but I could have accepted Metro if it had any degree of common sense behind it.

You know you can remove the extra tiles that certain programs install, right? You can make the metro menu as minimal as you want.

 

[spinedoc77]

This thread is regarding windows 8 leak....

This is not windows phone 8 which your post implies ;-) Sometimes you wonder do people even read the opening post

Actually there IS an issue of data being shut off on windows tablets when the screen is off. I agree with you, it DOES pay to read carefully. =)

 

[daneoni]

This thread is regarding windows 8 leak....

This is not windows phone 8 which your post implies ;-) Sometimes you wonder do people even read the opening post

Oops. So why is this thread here instead of the Windows, Linux & Others sub-forum. I read the original post. Lots of resizing tiles...resizing tiles is also a thing on Windows Phone 8.

 

[spinedoc77]

You know you can remove the extra tiles that certain programs install, right? You can make the metro menu as minimal as you want.

But why would you want to remove shortcuts to important functions? In the old windows style you would go into programs and a particular program would have a subfolder with everything that program installed.

You have to understand that in Windows 8 the Metro start screen IS the only place to access apps and programs, there is no start button anymore. Of course to us more tech minded users we know we can reinstall the start button, which is the first thing I did, but for the millions of users who just use windows out of the box it forebodes a terrible experience. Let me just slide over past hundreds of tiles to find the exact tile I'm looking for, ugh.

Metro is supposed to be the future, but it just feels so handicapped for the sake of being simple. Even iOS and Android have folders. I'm certainly not advocating iOS or Android over windows as you are talking about 2 "toy" OS' versus a real OS, I just always wonder why MS tries to hard to replicate simplicity but how it could get "simple" so wrong.

 

[MRU]

Oops. So why is this thread here instead of the Windows, Linux & Others sub-forum. I read the original post. Lots of resizing tiles...resizing tiles is also a thing on Windows Phone 8.

Actually there IS an issue of data being shut off on windows tablets when the screen is off. I agree with you, it DOES pay to read carefully. =)

Yeah this thread really should be in the Windows forum section tbh to avoid further confusion.

 

[MuffCabbage]

Yeah this thread really should be in the Windows forum section tbh to avoid further confusion.

Windows is now an alternative to iOS as far as I see

 

[spinedoc77]

Windows is now an alternative to iOS as far as I see

I agree. We have windows tablets now which compete with iOS and Android so this forum is definitely relevant to the discussion of alternatives to iOS and iOS devices. Windows Blue will be updating all the windows 8 tablets which have and will be released. Even the video showing the leaked OS shows it on a touchscreen tablet.

 

[Dr McKay]

You have to understand that in Windows 8 the Metro start screen IS the only place to access apps and programs

What do you mean the only way?

Theres the Apps List.

Or Search

there is no start button anymore.

Actually there are 2 Start Buttons to choose from, either press Win + C or drag your mouse over to the top right, there we go, a button marked 'Start'.

Or if you drag your mouse over to where the start button used to be, it still takes you to the start screen.

 

[MuffCabbage]

What do you mean the only way?

Theres the Apps List.

Or Search

Actually there are 2 Start Buttons to choose from, either press Win + C or drag your mouse over to the top right, there we go, a button marked 'Start'.

Or if you drag your mouse over to where the start button used to be, it still takes you to the start screen.

Now the app list just requires a swipe up on the start screen to access it

 

[spinedoc77]

What do you mean the only way?

Theres the Apps List.

Or Search

Actually there are 2 Start Buttons to choose from, either press Win + C or drag your mouse over to the top right, there we go, a button marked 'Start'.

Or if you drag your mouse over to where the start button used to be, it still takes you to the start screen.

Those start buttons are really besides the point. The right side charms menu start button points to the Metro start screen so that's a moot point, I forget if the other one points to Metro or to the classic start menu as I've disabled it. My point of the Metro start screen being inane still applies, it's still just a slipshod bunch of tiles pointing to every single subfolder or any installed app or program which means if you have a lot of program you can be sliding through hundreds if not thousands of tiles.

The app page is just the metro start screen with smaller icons. It looks like exactly the same thing as the start page, it's the same scroll thru hundreds of tiles, just that they are smaller and in list form so maybe a bit easier. There are still no folder options. It's as if MS themselves said wow the Metro start screen make is VERY tough to find a program, so maybe we need to add this app screen with smaller icons, very redundant and unnecessary.

It's really not much of an issue to me because I've installed a 3rd party start button which emulates the start button in Win7 so I get to have my cake and eat it too. It just concerns me as a big MS fan that they are having trouble understanding something so basic about organization. It may not be an issue for some who only install 5 or 10 programs, but try to imaging installing even 100 programs each with 3-10 subfolders/subprograms all laid out in the Metro start screen and how difficult it is to find something in that paradigm.

 

[Dr McKay]

Those start buttons are really besides the point. The right side charms menu start button points to the Metro start screen so that's a moot point, I forget if the other one points to Metro or to the classic start menu as I've disabled it. My point of the Metro start screen being inane still applies, it's still just a slipshod bunch of tiles pointing to every single subfolder or any installed app or program which means if you have a lot of program you can be sliding through hundreds if not thousands of tiles.

The app page is just the metro start screen with smaller icons. It looks like exactly the same thing as the start page, it's the same scroll thru hundreds of tiles, just that they are smaller and in list form so maybe a bit easier. There are still no folder options. It's as if MS themselves said wow the Metro start screen make is VERY tough to find a program, so maybe we need to add this app screen with smaller icons, very redundant and unnecessary.

It's really not much of an issue to me because I've installed a 3rd party start button which emulates the start button in Win7 so I get to have my cake and eat it too. It just concerns me as a big MS fan that they are having trouble understanding something so basic about organization. It may not be an issue for some who only install 5 or 10 programs, but try to imaging installing even 100 programs each with 3-10 subfolders/subprograms all laid out in the Metro start screen and how difficult it is to find something in that paradigm.

What do you mean "besides the point"? You said "There is no Start Button". There is, it just moved. And the App List isn't the Start Screen, it's an alphabetized list of your apps. They are 2 different things. Me personally I havent changed how I use Windows much, before in Windows 7 I never pinned any apps to my Start Menu because there simply wasnt enough space to be useful. Now on the Start Screen I have categories of pinned apps and I love it. Any apps that don't get used regularly I just search for, which is what I did in Vista and 7, I searched for apps in the Start Menu.

The Screen will get even better with time. I remember the staunch opposition to the Start Menu when it first got introduced into Windows, self proclaimed "Power Users" claimed they wouldn't be as efficient or be able to work unless they got their program launcher back. Or whatever it used to be called.

People bitched about the new XP Style Start menu and rushed to switch it back to Classic, people bitched about Vistas new Start menu style and changed it back, same for 7. I've been hearing these same old stories about "Microsoft doesn't know what they're doing with Windows" with every change they make. I know everyone I know has immediately said "I dont like it" to the Start Screen, but once I sat them down and talked them through it, how they could customize where apps were, organize them into categories, showed them they've lost 0 functionality, and have actually gained it they admitted "This is rather nice".

 

[spinedoc77]

What do you mean "besides the point"? You said "There is no Start Button". There is, it just moved. And the App List isn't the Start Screen, it's an alphabetized list of your apps. They are 2 different things. Me personally I havent changed how I use Windows much, before in Windows 7 I never pinned any apps to my Start Menu because there simply wasnt enough space to be useful. Now on the Start Screen I have categories of pinned apps and I love it. Any apps that don't get used regularly I just search for, which is what I did in Vista and 7, I searched for apps in the Start Menu.

The Screen will get even better with time. I remember the staunch opposition to the Start Menu when it first got introduced into Windows, self proclaimed "Power Users" claimed they wouldn't be as efficient or be able to work unless they got their program launcher back. Or whatever it used to be called.

People bitched about the new XP Style Start menu and rushed to switch it back to Classic, people bitched about Vistas new Start menu style and changed it back, same for 7. I've been hearing these same old stories about "Microsoft doesn't know what they're doing with Windows" with every change they make. I know everyone I know has immediately said "I dont like it" to the Start Screen, but once I sat them down and talked them through it, how they could customize where apps were, organize them into categories, showed them they've lost 0 functionality, and have actually gained it they admitted "This is rather nice".

There is no classic start menu, obviously there is a start button, but its still besides MY point which has nothing to do with a start button. As for the app screen once again you are playing semantics, its still just a list of programs the same as the start screen but with smaller icons and alphabetized.

I'm sure the start screen will improve, but I'm complaining about it today, not tomorrow. I appreciate that it works for you, but i just can't see sliding through hundreds of apps trying to find the one i need. For me I would lose a LOT of functionality if I used the start screen, that's why reinstalled a classic start menu.

The only thing I'm arguing for is to have folders on the start screen and in IE, that's it and they would become so much more functional.

 

[Dr McKay]

There is no classic start menu, obviously there is a start button, but its still besides MY point which has nothing to do with a start button. As for the app screen once again you are playing semantics, its still just a list of programs the same as the start screen but with smaller icons and alphabetized.

I'm sure the start screen will improve, but I'm complaining about it today, not tomorrow. I appreciate that it works for you, but i just can't see sliding through hundreds of apps trying to find the one i need. For me I would lose a LOT of functionality if I used the start screen, that's why reinstalled a classic start menu.

The only thing I'm arguing for is to have folders on the start screen and in IE, that's it and they would become so much more functional.

So your point of "There is no start button" had nothing to do with a Start Button?

 

[spinedoc77]

So your point of "There is no start button" had nothing to do with a Start Button?

My point was there is no classic start menu, understanding what I meant certainly doesn't require a rocket science degree, or does it?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Does anyone actually use Snaps? Synced tabs in IE11 isn't much to talk about. The live tiles aren't used much either at least from what I see from friends/family who have Windows 8 and use it daily. The resizing options isn't much to talk about either. Customization options is just meh. All of these new "features" tells me that Microsoft doesn't understand why Windows 8 is doing worse than Vista. Windows 8 is still sucky to use without a touchscreen. It's highly inefficient. The Start menu concept works on phones/tablets with limited screen real estate and "large" input size like fingers. But for better or worse, people tend to use mouse and keyboard on laptop/desktop. And the huge shift in input size/methods is why you can't have a single UI for very different inputs.