I installed Windows 8 Release Preview on my laptop and it's really cool. The Metro interface is taking a bit of getting used to. The hardest part, believe it or not, was figuring out how to shut down the computer. From an interface standpoint, however, it's actually pretty nice.
It boots up about the same speed (quicker?) than Windows 7 did but is a more secure OS than its predecessors.
I might not have upgraded to a release preview but I was monkeying with my laptop last week and, in the process of trying to get a driver to work the way I wanted, I changed some file permissions on a driver. One of the security mechanisms built into Windows 7 was a TrustedInstaller group and I think that when I changed the permissions (in order to delete a driver file), it made my Windows invalid. Now, one way around that is to do an in-place upgrade where you re-install Windows on top of itself. The only problem is that Windows 7 Pro did not support this. I could still use the computer but I wouldn't be able to get any Windows Updates. It was a problem I could have lived with for a month until Windows 8 was released but I decided to upgrade to the Windows 8 release preview because it will be upgradeable to the full version when released.
Upgrading was "easy". I say that because, once I actually got the upgrade to work, all my programs and settings were easily migrated to the new OS. The one trick was actually getting the upgrade to take. Now before you Mac guys get all smug, let me remind you that when the Mac OS when from 9 to X, whole programs didn't work and the only way to use some favorites was to buy whole new sets of programs. 'Nuff said.
Anyway, the first upgrade attempt failed after going through the whole process and I got a "Page Error in Non-paged Area error". Nice thing was that, once it failed, it completely restored the system to the pre-upgrade condition. Bad thing was that it took an hour to get to this point. I did a bit of research and determined it might be my Norton Security software so I uninstalled that. An hour later, same problem. I did a bit more research and determined that it was Rapport Trusteer that was causing the error and the upgrade went through.
Anyway, very slick OS. I'm actually more than likely going to move to Windows 8 tablets away from iPad in the future simply because I need my tablet or "take with me device" the ability to have full Office productivity. Microsoft is late to the game in the tablet era but they've also had the shackles taken off of them from their antitrust problems in the past and I wouldn't be surprised to see them surprise a lot of people in the future to become a major consumer brand as they were in the past.
It boots up about the same speed (quicker?) than Windows 7 did but is a more secure OS than its predecessors.
I might not have upgraded to a release preview but I was monkeying with my laptop last week and, in the process of trying to get a driver to work the way I wanted, I changed some file permissions on a driver. One of the security mechanisms built into Windows 7 was a TrustedInstaller group and I think that when I changed the permissions (in order to delete a driver file), it made my Windows invalid. Now, one way around that is to do an in-place upgrade where you re-install Windows on top of itself. The only problem is that Windows 7 Pro did not support this. I could still use the computer but I wouldn't be able to get any Windows Updates. It was a problem I could have lived with for a month until Windows 8 was released but I decided to upgrade to the Windows 8 release preview because it will be upgradeable to the full version when released.
Upgrading was "easy". I say that because, once I actually got the upgrade to work, all my programs and settings were easily migrated to the new OS. The one trick was actually getting the upgrade to take. Now before you Mac guys get all smug, let me remind you that when the Mac OS when from 9 to X, whole programs didn't work and the only way to use some favorites was to buy whole new sets of programs. 'Nuff said.
Anyway, the first upgrade attempt failed after going through the whole process and I got a "Page Error in Non-paged Area error". Nice thing was that, once it failed, it completely restored the system to the pre-upgrade condition. Bad thing was that it took an hour to get to this point. I did a bit of research and determined it might be my Norton Security software so I uninstalled that. An hour later, same problem. I did a bit more research and determined that it was Rapport Trusteer that was causing the error and the upgrade went through.
Anyway, very slick OS. I'm actually more than likely going to move to Windows 8 tablets away from iPad in the future simply because I need my tablet or "take with me device" the ability to have full Office productivity. Microsoft is late to the game in the tablet era but they've also had the shackles taken off of them from their antitrust problems in the past and I wouldn't be surprised to see them surprise a lot of people in the future to become a major consumer brand as they were in the past.