The NEW Metro Interface

[Manny Ramirez]

I installed OD in Windows 8 Release Preview. I got this weird feeling that for some reason this is going to be a Windows Vista part two series. Although, the installation process was pretty much the same. The Tile -as called by Microsoft" showed with a very tiny icon of OD in the Start screen. When I double-clicked it, OD opened in what it looks like Windows 7 interface but without a Star button or Taskbar. There were no crashes or delay opening the application. As far as I understand, this is because OD is in compatibility mode.
Switching back and forth between different interfaces is going to be fun for most people. I am sure that Microsoft has a long road ahead in order to make sure that people don't get turned off by this new interface. We have been used to the Start buttons, Task bar, Mouse, etc for so many years and now we have to get used to touch screens and gestures to control any devices. I guess that where we are heading, but don't throw your mouse away yet. There are hidden place in your screen where your mouse will magically show menus and options It took me a while figuring out how to close an application. LOL I do understand Microsoft vision with this version of Windows. I guess that as with previous version, we will all have to deal with it or do we ?

Question. What is OD doing to be more like a metro application? I guess that it may be to early to tell but Microsoft is putting a lot efforts on this new interface. Are there any new initiative or way in which OD will work in the Metro in the future ?

[Justin Shafer]

Yeah... I threw it on vmware and just said.. they expect us to like this??? REALLY?????? Its going to bite them in the but.. I wrote that on their facebook and MS lovers were just like, use Metro...

That is not going to be fun to walk people through... Tossing the start button is the biggest mistake they have made since... since... DoubleSpace Drive Compression.

[drtech]

I don't like it at all

[kdna]

Metro and Windows 8 sucks. Sticking with Windows 7. Microsoft messed up on this one big time.

[Hersheydmd]

I bypass the whole Metro interface and go right into the DESKTOP.
I found instructions on how to create shortcuts for shutting down, logging off, and restarting the computer, which I put on my DESKTOP.
%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe /s to shutdown, /l to log off, /r to restart
So, basically, it's like working in Windows 7.

The only big problem is that it is sooooooooo sloooooooooow. Two identical computers on my Front Desk. One XP Pro, the other Windows 8. Both Optiplex 760's, Duo Core, with 3 GB of RAM. Click on anything in XP and it responds instantaneously. Click on the same thing in Win 8 and there is a significant lag. Anyone else experience this or have a solution?
I tried all the suggestions I could find. Defragmented, cleaned up hard drive with CCleaner, removed all non-essentials from Startup, changed Advanced System Properties Performance Options from "Best appearance" to "Best performance". Still terribly slow.

[drtech]

I found quite the opposite, actually windows 8 runs Faster than Windows 7...now both 7 & 8 will need more power and RAM than XP, but I have a couple of core 2 duo's that run windows 7 fine. I have not and don't plan on upgrading them to 8 though to test...

[Hersheydmd]

I found quite the opposite, actually windows 8 runs Faster than Windows 7...now both 7 & 8 will need more power and RAM than XP, but I have a couple of core 2 duo's that run windows 7 fine. I have not and don't plan on upgrading them to 8 though to test...

I wish I could say the same. Don't know where my bottleneck is.

[Rickliftig]

Rob - I found a real bottleneck with Windows Defender.it will check each file for virus activity as it is opened. Once that was shut off, the system was much faster(there is a check box)

There are actuall several things I like about Windows 8. The Find utility is excellent when compared with anynpast version. It is very fast and seems to handle memory a little better; its dual monitor functions are much better than before. But this is really an OS made for a tablet and touchscreen. It will be really interesting to see the service pack 1 tweak. And at least the OS is stable.

Rick

[Hersheydmd]

Thanks Rick,
I'll try turning off Windows Defender. If that works I'll install Kaspersky or AVG. I have Kaspersky on all my other machines.

[Rickliftig]

So Rob-
Today the system has been running perfectly. Slick as goose poop. I wish I knew what I did. Defender is back on (not easy to get rid of) and the event viewer is clean.

Well, computers are still easier than dentistry.

RIck

[teethdood]

For those with Win 8 that want the Start menu (along with the Shutdown icons), install Classic Shell from classicshell.net
I also configured the windows key to switch between metro and desktop.

Personally I think MS botched win 8 with its 2 different User Interfaces. Metro would've worked much better as a Live Desktop (remember win ME with its ability to display live url links, etc. as the background)

[irfan]

No desire to "upgrade" ... tested it on the laptop for a few months and never ever felt the tiles were useful. only ran it in desktop mode. Also the battery management kept killing my battery in hibernate... i thought it was a defective battery so i got a new one and the same issue... back to win7 and battery is back to working perfectly.

[stjames70]

Strange, Win8, despite its quirky visual interface, is amazingly fast on our virtualized computers. And these are 2009 iMacs running VMWare Fusion. Empirically, I can say it's faster than WinXP Pro and Win7. Win8 was designed to work with limited hardware resources so I would make sure you started with a clean install so that you would not deal with any past garbage that could slow your systems down. Now, I will admit, we have about 12 workstations, and it is these workstations which have Win8 installed. My computer which has the main OD database is still running XP Pro because of the quirky Metro interface, but I am getting used to it. I cloned all the programs on our main server to another computer running Win8 and I have not seen any issues. After a few more weeks, when I feel comfortable, the main server will be blessed with Win8. I think if you have Win7 and you are happy with it, then stick with it. We had Win7 licenses which were never implemented in our XPpro machines because they became slow like molasses. We jumped straight into Win8 and now the machines are faster than WinXP. So, yeah, I think Win8 is great since we will be able to extend the life of our hardware for quite a few more years. Also, that thing about WinXP losing support in less than a year and counting......

[Hersheydmd]

I'm converted.
I hated Win 8 at first. It was slow as molasses. Didn't shut down properly, didn't boot up properly.
I reinstalled it three times. The final time I went into system settings on boot up and changed all the settings to default. Then I reinstalled Win 8 and accepted all the default settings it provided. Now it is as fast and as stable as can be. I still miss the START menu and maybe I'll install Classic Shell from classicshell.net, but I am getting used to everything else about it.