Introducing Windows 8 Consumer Preview

[KSoD]

Maybe I am set in my ways, but if an OS, any OS, makes me have to approve each and every action I take than I will not use it. I circumvented this by using the hidden admin account in Vista and Win7 but the Win8 Preview took that away by making the admin account local only. If/when I find a way to set this up the way i want it I may give it another shot, but not until then.

Open up Run. Type in secpol.msc and let that Windows Open. Go under Local Policies>Security Options. User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompts>Set to Elevate without Prompting. Problem solved.

Same steps I have listed in the Admin Rights topic for Vista/Win7 as well.

 

[Trotter]

Open up Run. Type in secpol.msc and let that Windows Open. Go under Local Policies>Security Options. User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompts>Set to Elevate without Prompting. Problem solved.

Same steps I have listed in the Admin Rights topic for Vista/Win7 as well.

That worked a treat, mate. Many thanks.

Now... would you happen to know how to add this Win8 to my current Win7 homegroup?

 

[KSoD]

Let me test that out here with my setup and get back to you. I honestly have never touched Homegroup before cause the wife was always running XP. Now that she has Win7 I should be able to connect the 2 and get them working together. Give me some time and I will try and see if I can answer you.

Alright the easiest way I found, go into the Settings>More Settings of Windows 8 (Lower right corner, hover for a second and click the gear. The click the More PC Settings Link) There under Homegroup have Win8 Create the homegroup and while you have that open have your Win7 machines join that homegroup using the password displayed on screen. Sadly I think Win7 only gives you the password once and no way to retrieve it after it is setup. At least with this, you can see the password at any time and select what you want to share.

They stole the off button!!
I can't see where to shut it down


Edit: found it.
Ctrl/Alt/Del brings to to where you can shut it down.
reminds me of windows 98

Hover over the lower right corner of the screen, right next to the clock. The area in Win7 that allowed you to see the desktop or bring it up if you were in other apps. That will bring up the menu that has the Settings button. It looks like a gear. From there click on the gear then click on the power icon. That is the shut down button. It will save you from having to use Ctrl+Alt+Del when you want to restart.

Any way to set the system to start upto the desktop instead of the stupid metro?

Add the Desktop to the Startup Folder. The folder is located here:

C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Have to show hidden files of course. The easiest way I found was to open Explorer, navigate to the Startup Folder. There drag and drop the icon from the Favorites section on the left. This will cause the icon to move completely, just drag and drop it back to favorites and it will create the shortcut back in your favorites as well as leave it in the Startup area. This will allow you to Startup directly to the desktop and bypass Metro completely. I am unsure if there is an easier way, I just found this to be the easiest way for me to get the desired results.

 

[Trotter]

Let me test that out here with my setup and get back to you. I honestly have never touched Homegroup before cause the wife was always running XP. Now that she has Win7 I should be able to connect the 2 and get them working together. Give me some time and I will try and see if I can answer you.

Alright the easiest way I found, go into the Settings>More Settings of Windows 8 (Lower right corner, hover for a second and click the gear. The click the More PC Settings Link) There under Homegroup have Win8 Create the homegroup and while you have that open have your Win7 machines join that homegroup using the password displayed on screen. Sadly I think Win7 only gives you the password once and no way to retrieve it after it is setup. At least with this, you can see the password at any time and select what you want to share.

Accessing the Homegroup password in Win7 is simple enough (type "homegroup" in at Start, go to Homegroup, click "View or print the homegroup password"). What sucks is that you can only be in one Homegroup at a time... and every computer in my house depends on mine for all our media. It appears that Win8 can only make a Homegroup but can't join one for now.

 

[KSoD]

Accessing the Homegroup password in Win7 is simple enough (type "homegroup" in at Start, go to Homegroup, click "View or print the homegroup password"). What sucks is that you can only be in one Homegroup at a time... and every computer in my house depends on mine for all our media. It appears that Win8 can only make a Homegroup but can't join one for now.

Interesting. After digging a bit more and trying it out directly from within Explorer, it does seem that the ability to join a HomeGroup is disabled. Not sure if you tried it that way or just via the new Metro CP. But what I found was from going in to Explorer, clicking Homegroup. From there I clicked the HomeGroup label at the top and seen that the option to Join a HomeGroup was disabled. Maybe that wont be for you since this is the only HomeGroup I have is the one I created.

Another interesting find. If you go back to the Standard Editor within the forum general settings and want to use Metro IE, then the Enter (Return) key will function as expected. I guess this should be expected as it is stated clearly by Microsoft that no addons will be able to function with Metro IE and they are going strictly with HTML5 formatting with the browser. That means such things as the WYSIWYG Editor will not work properly causing you to not be able to enter spaces or new lines. I switched back and now just have to remember that I have to put in my BBCode when adding Links or Images. Not a big deal really, in fact will force me to remember to make the links stand out more. So it will be a plus all around.

 

[Trotter]

I came across a few articles with quite a few usable tips and tricks for Win8.

Windows 8 Tricks, Tips and Shortcuts - TechSpot Guides

Windows 8: 20 Tips and Tricks

How to add start menu toolbar on taskbar in windows 8

 

[beedubaya]

Fact: I had a customer come in today asking about Win8CP, mostly questions concerining Metro. They will be moving to Ubuntu, or Apple if they can't fully disable Metro to allow for traditional desktop use.

Fact: Microsoft might still have a good OS in the end.

Fact: Microsoft needs to stop trying to shove a ****ing tablet interface down customers throats, otherwise they will loose market share quickly.

Fact: One entire school system will be moving to a different OS over the next two years to get away from Microsoft as they are still on XP and hoped Win8 would be the "XP" of this era, not another Win2000.

I will support Win8, but only because I have customers that WILL use it, but, now that Win8 is also a tablet OS, I will have to probably pick up a few tablets and experiment with them... Boy this is gonna be an interesting decade for operating systems and techs wanting to rip their brains out.

100% agree with this post. Microsoft MUST allow Metro to be disabled or they will have basically committed company suicide. I don't understand why Microsoft, and to some extent Apple think that desktop and laptop users want their fully functional computers to behave like a mobile device. Metro is the dumbest thing in the world on a 30" HD LCD.

If there is no option to disable Metro, its Ubuntu for me.

 

[Trotter]

100% agree with this post. Microsoft MUST allow Metro to be disabled or they will have basically committed company suicide. I don't understand why Microsoft, and to some extent Apple think that desktop and laptop users want their fully functional computers to behave like a mobile device. Metro is the dumbest thing in the world on a 30" HD LCD.

If there is no option to disable Metro, its Ubuntu for me.

Here's a trick for that:
"Here's a fun one. Fire up Windows Explorer and navigate over to your Windows directory. Do a search for "shows desktop," and copy the shortcut that you find into the following location: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. By doing so, you'll ensure that Windows 8 always boots to the "Classic Desktop" instead of its Metro UI."

It's from the Gizmodo link I posted above.

 

[KSoD]

Here's a trick for that:
"Here's a fun one. Fire up Windows Explorer and navigate over to your Windows directory. Do a search for "shows desktop," and copy the shortcut that you find into the following location: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. By doing so, you'll ensure that Windows 8 always boots to the "Classic Desktop" instead of its Metro UI."

It's from the Gizmodo link I posted above.

Read my post from a couple days ago. I have an edit in there that says the exact same thing. I quoted c0rr0sive and gave these exact instruction to him. It is right after your HomeGroup query.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Anyone tried Windows Server 8 out yet as a desktop OS? I'm wondering if this will be like the the Vista/Server08 situation where the sever version of the os was a better choice for power users.