Windows 8 through Technet

Discussion in 'Software' started by ade1982, Aug 8, 2012.

  1. Kitkatninja
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Kitkatninja aka me, myself & I Moderator

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    On our volume licensing service center, we only have access to the Windows 8 Enterprise Preview, on my Technet subscription I have Windows 8 and Windows 8 Enterprise. But if I have to use a key to active it, I'd rather wait until it's available under volume licensing to build and test...
     
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  2. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Really? Thats a pain in the a$$ . Liked being able to install Windows 7 and test a few things without activating.
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
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  3. BB88

    BB88 Kilobyte Poster Gold Member

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    I have a whole load available on my VLSC, downloading Windows 8 Professional x64 as I type!

    w8.png
    I actually prefer entering the Product Key during installation, bloody annoying being reminded to activate Windows after deploying 300+ machines and being asking for a Product Key! :oops:
     
    Certifications: CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, MCSA: Office 365,, 70-410, 70-680
    WIP: CompTIA: Security+
  4. jvanassen

    jvanassen Kilobyte Poster

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    My boss installed it onto a laptop at work today and we had a brief look at it. Not guna knock it till ive tried it but it looks really strange with no start menu anymore and having to go into that start screen whenever you need to open a new program. Can see it being quality on a tablet but am very skeptical of it for a desktop at the moment.
     
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  5. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Yeah, seems to be the common concern just now - so I'm installing it onto my desktop at home just to be sure! :)
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
    WIP: Microsoft Certs
  6. BB88

    BB88 Kilobyte Poster Gold Member

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    Are you going through a VM, or full blown all out?
     
    Certifications: CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, MCSA: Office 365,, 70-410, 70-680
    WIP: CompTIA: Security+
  7. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    All out - and will stick a VM on my Hyper-V server later to test on a domain environment.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Ok, so now I have a triple boot PC with XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

    First change – boot menu has changed (graphical)

    Got asked about 100000 times to sign up for a Microsoft account but just created a local account and got logged on.

    All my hardware was picked up after running Windows update which was a bonus as I’m running an older Dell Optixplex.

    Looks all good but decided to put in a music CD and then I was dumped back into a Windows 7 desktop with no start button and I can’t access Windows media player directly from the new Windows 8 interface without going back to “desktop”

    Will take some time to get used to this I think! : )
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
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  8. Haze

    Haze Nibble Poster

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    Trying an upgrade from 7 Enterprise to 8 Enterprise against my better judgement, system image at the ready just in case.

    To be honest even though it might well be 'ME' again, we're going to have to get used to it, you can bet some companies will end up buying systems with it and the last thing I want is to be clueless about 8. Wasn't as horrified as I thought by the consumer preview I've been running on a VM for a while now.

    Oh by the way if anybody really misses the start menu, install this which adds a Windows 7-style start menu to 8. I've tested it and it works fine, just be careful about what you click 'agree' to in the installation as there's a couple of bloatware additions to decline: Start Menu, Windows 7 Start Menu
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2012
    Certifications: MCSA (Windows 7), MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Support Technician (Windows 7), MCTS: Windows 7 & Office 2010 Deployment, Level 3 Diploma in ICT Professional Competence, Level 3 Certificate in ICT Systems and Principles, Advanced Level Apprenticeship for IT Professionals
    WIP: MCSA: Server 2012
  9. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

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    No offense but I wouldn't install anything from that website ;).

    So, I've been using it as a primary OS for couple of days and I have to say I kind of like it for personal use. I've been pinning all applications to taskbar since Windows 7 so for me the lack of start menu is not as annoying as it is for others (so I heard). There is also desktop on which you can place other icons. In reality I was using start menu on Windows 7 for: search (rarely), Run... (often), 4-6 often used applications (often), odd application which didn't make it to the start menu initial page (rarely), access to control panel (rarely) and network settings (often).

    My initial reaction was: "I hate it" but after I put some effort in making it work for me I realised that I don't actually need the start menu. Admittedly I had to learn few shortcuts but it's not a biggie. So from my list of tasks I now:
    - Don't use search, because the whole charms panel seems hard to use on multi-monitor setup.
    - Start applications from a pinned taskbar icon or desktop shortcut.
    - Go into start menu to run odd application now and then (not really different than navigating 3 levels down the tree of old start menu)
    - Access all needed configuration options by Win+I.

    It looks to me like Windows 8 is friendlier to use and harder to support/configure. It doesn't bother me since it's been a while since I deployed anything manually anyway and I presume that all automation mechanisms are still in place.

    I currently go into Metro/Modern UI only if I want to but for the first 2 days I was clicking start out of a habit.

    I also had few issues with the fact that even when you shut-down properly it goes into some sort of hibernation. Haven't got round to looking into it yet but after it came back from hibernation neither mouse or keyboard was working (so like it's always been with hibernation - broken). Because of that the only way I could restart it was to press the power button which was hibernating the PC again. So I ended up switching it off completely while it was running to force a clean boot. Ugly!

    I like how you can mount ISO's by right clicking them.

    So overall I'm pretty pleased but I wouldn't consider it in a business environment at all. Not yet.
     
    WIP: Uhmm... not sure
  10. ade1982

    ade1982 Megabyte Poster

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    The two versions of IE grates on me a lot. One with plugins, one without. Madness.
     
  11. BB88

    BB88 Kilobyte Poster Gold Member

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    Isn't that like Internet Explorer and Internet Explorer (No Add-Ons) which they already have on previous versions? I wouldn't know as I haven't tested Windows 8 too much.
     
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    WIP: CompTIA: Security+
  12. jvanassen

    jvanassen Kilobyte Poster

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    I also think this is a brilliant idea, no more installing annoying little programs to mount ISO's
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2012
    Certifications: CompTIA A+, Network+, CCENT
    WIP: ICND2 200-101
  13. ade1982

    ade1982 Megabyte Poster

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    Yeah, sort of. But one is embedded into the desktop, and the other one you launch as an app.
     
  14. Haze

    Haze Nibble Poster

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    Certifications: MCSA (Windows 7), MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Support Technician (Windows 7), MCTS: Windows 7 & Office 2010 Deployment, Level 3 Diploma in ICT Professional Competence, Level 3 Certificate in ICT Systems and Principles, Advanced Level Apprenticeship for IT Professionals
    WIP: MCSA: Server 2012

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