Ok, so you know when people brag about being on the bleeding edge of technology? Well Outsource House is on the edge that you get when you cut yourself and it hasn’t even started bleeding yet!
Windows 8 is the new thing. It has been released as a developer preview. So this is not even Beta yet. We have loaded it and are using it as the main software on our development and admin computers. Brave? Nope, well yes, but it is quite stable.
So this is the spec of my computer that I am currently writing this article on.
This is reduced by my hard drive, which only scored a 5.9.
Now the first things that I noticed is that to Install Windows 7 takes about 25 mins from a DVD. While Windows 8 took just 15 minutes from a USB memory stick.
I then logged in via my Live Account and then I was in, in about 2 minutes. We were concerned that certain of our weirder programs would not work. But the only program that I have found that worked in Windows 7 and didn’t in Windows 8 is the PDF preview in Outlook 2010.
So getting back to first impressions, when we got to the lock screen it looked like all the other articles that I have read. So of course I needed to unique, so I changed it once I had logged in.
Change lock Screen in Windows 8.
Firstly on the Metro Screen click on the control Panel.
Then click on Personalize.
So now, my lock screen looks like this.
If anyone has an idea on how to Screen Capture the lock screen, please comment below, as I can’t figure it out.
Ok, so then I started and downloaded some of my normal programs, I did find that to download was slightly slower than Windows 7, if you have found that too, what are the parts that slow you down?
So firstly I like Google Chrome much more than the other browsers, so I downloaded that with IE, MY GOODNESS! that took a while. Anyway it finally downloaded and then I set it as default. So then I wanted to sync Google Chrome so I entered all my details and said sync please. That took about 30 minutes then, I gave up. So restarted the computer (very fast) and then tried again. It then went through perfectly.
I then installed Office 2010. The full install completed in about 6 minutes. Very impressive.
So then because our company uses Google Apps, I was concerned about using Google Apps Sync on Windows 8, but that downloaded with out a problem and logged into my Google Account and synced my email, calendar and contacts without problems.
Then, I clicked a link in my Outlook 2010, and Windows freaked me out, it opened the link in the Metro version of IE. So, I Googled, to find out why and there was no info. And then I decided to push random buttons until I could fix it.
Change default browser in Windows 8
Google Chrome is apparently the default browser in Windows 8, but if you click the link in Outlook or I suppose any other link, then it opens in the Metro version of Internet Explorer 10.
So this is how you change it, this is very stange, but it might be changed when the real version of Windows 8 comes out. Open the IE 10 on the desktop Interface.
Then press the cog and then Internet Options.
Then, choose the programs tab, and then “Set Programs”.
Then, click “Set your default Programs”.
Then this screen pops up.
Click on the browser that you want to be the default, and then click the “Choose defaults for this program” button.
Then click the select all tick box and accept, this should solve your problems.
Ok, so that solved a bit of a frustration for me. Then I installed Dreamweaver and Photoshop, very fast, and runs beautifully.
Now, when my computer starts, I want to have certain programs start when I start my computer, in Windows 7 that was easy, just drag a shortcut into the startup folder. This is how you do that in Windows 8.
Startup Folder in Windows 8
Firstly you need to open the run command or Windows Explorer, and paste this into the run or Explorer: shell:startup
This should bring you to this place.
Now, just place your shortcut into this folder, just like Windows 7.
So now I wanted to open some of these programs that I have installed, now there is now real way to click on the start menu as the button just takes you to the Metro screen. So on the Metro screen you can see all the programs that you have installed at the very right hand side.
Does this make sense? Well not really, but maybe Microsoft has a good idea why this is cool, but I don’t understand, you can obviuously pin the apps to the taskbar, but this is not my favourite thing to do.
If you want you can drag the icon to the left, so that it in the main part of the Metro Screen, what I would like is that you can have folders in the metro screen, so that you can arrange say all the Office Programs into an Office Folder, or a Social Folder, or a Games Folder. This needs to be in Beta version of Windows 8.
How to find things in Windows 8 that were easy to find in Windows 7.
I hope that that heading makes sense, here are some very important things that maybe you can’t find in Windows 8.
Control Panel
Open up Explorer using WIN+E and you will see Control Panel at the top.
Uninstall a Program
You can get into the control panel as above, and then you can remove the program like Windows 7.
Or, the simpler way is to open explorer and Click on the link at the top of windows explorer.
System Properties in Windows 8
There is no start menu and therefore no My Computer on that start menu. So how do you right click to get system properties? I have found 2 simple ways.
1. Right click on computer in explorer.
2. Or in Explorer at the top you will see this.
Do you do searches on computers and you don’t want a history of that?
So, you want to delete the searches that you do on Windows 8? Well very easy, under the search tab, just click the “Clear search history” link.
Conclusion
I have been using Windows 8 as my primary computer for 1 week. So far it has been perfect, not one freezing, no restarting, no blue screen of death. I am not going to suggest just anyone uses this version of Windows just yet, but if you are feeling brave, or maybe just very curious, I would suggest it.
I hope that this helps you. If you have any questions, please pop a comment below.
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