Windows 8.1 Start button SPOTTED in the wild

jimbo45 said:

alphanumeric said:

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
From what I've seen the upcoming Windows 8.1 actually seems to be passably OK -- this is what they SHOULD have done in the beginning.

It seems that one of my biggest gripes has been fixed -- installing classical windows applications has now been cleaned up -- instead of creating a zillion and one tiles the install process puts the application into a single place which you can re-arrange quite decently.

Metro apps can also be used with multi monitors on ANY of the screens in conjunction with classical desktop apps and the windows (max 4 for metro) can be re-sized and aren't of fixed pixel size -- finally somebody at Ms must have sat behind a LARGE monitor with the original W8 and said "What a load of !!!!"

Boot to desktop directly will be popular, the start screen can be significantly customized if you want to use the start screen and the whole application search is improved (although I don't find too much wrong with the search in the current W8).

When it becomes available (either via leak or officially) I think quite a lot of the people who HATE W8 now might change their mind a little.

BTW there are SIGNIFICANT changes from the latest leaked build (build 9385) in the REAL preview version. Ms is keeping the preview away from the wild with security that makes Fort Knox seem like a Womens Institute sunday afternoon tea party.

Waiting to see -- but from what I've seen so far in preview demos etc Ms is moving in the right direction (finally).

Haven't yet seen the preview out in the wild yet - but give it time. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Can you open Metro on more than one monitor at a time? IE, more than one instance running at a time? If that is true that would be great?

Hi there
apparently you will be able to run 4 metro apps with re-sizeable screens on multiple monitors and switch them around -- and what is good is to have the DESKTOP application running concurrently as well.

Now I can't verify this as I haven't got the latest W8 version to hand (got the leaked 9385 build which has a few improvements) but all the "Noise" coming out of Redmond seems to indicate that what I've said above is true.

We'll see in around 2 - 3 weeks when the official preview is opened up --remember also that changes can still happen (and probably will) between the Preview and the final release later on this year.

I'm now finally beginning to get a little bit excited with W8 (about time -- but even big corporations eventually learn).

Cheers
jimbo

That sounds encouraging. The one screen only full screen only restriction with Metro was a big turn off for me. If that does pan out I may give 8 another go on my main desktop that has dual monitors. I've got a spare monitor that I can plug into my laptop for a look see anyway.

My ASUS laptop came with Windows and as you noted the bloatware slowed it down. I replaced the stock hard drive with an SSD and did a clean install of 8. Nice and fast now.
lol, I hear you about the touch pad gestures. I get the charms bar popping up when I don't want it. I blame that more on the ASUS Smart Gesture driver than I do on Windows 8. There are one or two of those gestures I'm going to disable.