Windows 8 Dev release

lehnerus2000 said:

Win7User512 said:

I used a similar method. This is the simplest I've seen to not use a virtual machine app or installing directly to your machine (as primary OS).

Mister Goodcat | Installing Windows 8 Developer Preview as bootable VHD

I think it should be able to be outside of your smaller partition. At first, I thought this was too simple to work as easy as it does.

Thanks Win7User512. :)

The article seems to use a different partition.

I'll image my operating systems and then give it a try on the weekend.

I'd Rep you, but there doesn't seem to be a button on this thread.

Yes, he does seem to use a different partition altogether. Basically all it is doing is creating a VHD file, copying the install files to it, and then setting the boot entry.

Be warned that I found booting VERY slow, especially the first few boots when it "prepares the desktop" and such. But this is probably because it is a virtualization of the OS and not the OS directly sitting on the hardware, like your primary OS does.

Also during the first few boots, it will seem unresponsive for a while. This is probably normal, considering it is a pre-beta software.


Lastly, I appreciate your attempt to rep! :) However, you can't rep in the News section (only the help sections)

What a difference running this Windows 8 on my Laptop I even think it runs better than Windows 7 no BSOD so far found all the drivers and is running real fast so far so good the VMware is not a good way to check this new build out properly so have fun and enjoy.

Win7User512 said:

I used a similar method. This is the simplest I've seen to not use a virtual machine app or installing directly to your machine (as primary OS).

Mister Goodcat | Installing Windows 8 Developer Preview as bootable VHD

I think it should be able to be outside of your smaller partition. Besides, among the last steps is to set the boot data. At first, I thought this was too simple to work as easy as it does.

I was able to install Windows 8 using that method.
I created a vhd in another partition with no problems.

It didn't preserve my old boot menu entries though.
I no longer get the option to boot XP.

Initial impressions:

• It does seem to run reasonably quickly (even though it's on a vhd).
• As I suspected, the new "user friendly" GUI requires even more mouse clicking to get anything done.
• I couldn't figure out how to change the font face and size (that option doesn't exist).
• I have no idea how to run any programs (in desktop mode) short of navigating to them using Explorer.

I guess that I'm going to have to use a giant Taskbar and pin EVERYTHING (50+ programs) to it.

Well I've had 2/3 days on 8 now and I for one love it. I've got it set up the way I want and once you get used to where things are it becomes second nature again.The initially obtrusive Metro view actually I find useful once you get rid of the useless stuff and get it organised the way you want.
Took me 4 hours today to edit all the icon files to the way I like them, but its good to know many of the tutorials people here spent a lot of time producing are relevant to 8. Up to now I've had no problems installing any programs or using any of the registry tweeks from here, with the exception of the "icon cache rebuild" bat file which doesn't seem to run right as the system stalls on restarting so had to do it manually. and the fact I too can't find a way to change font face and size, at least not smaller anyway.

All in all I like it.

Danny