For those that are still not sure about Windows 8

[gregrocker]

I'm excited that apparently 8's Startup Repair will adjust to new hardware. Yesterday when I imaged 8 from my desktop to a partition on my travel laptop, it didn't require the normal Acronis Universal Restore or Paragon Adaptive Restore to be run on it to remove drivers, SID, HID. Startup Repair made the adjustments itself, something never done by WinRE before.

However adding Win8 using EasyBCD will install the 7-style Dual Boot Menu and changed the 8 Fish loading screen to Vista uglomation. Had to move Active flag/System boot files to 8, then edit bcd and run full bootrec commands to get the Win8-style start animation and Dual Boot menu. It was a learning experience documented at Win8 forums.

 

[whs]

Rich, you are on the wrong tab. Go to the 'Acceleration' (last) tab.

 

[Ztruker]

Can't, it's greyed out, not selectable.

 

[whs]

Can't, it's greyed out, not selectable.

Do you have something running in vBox whilst you are looking ??

 

[AddRAM]

I just installed the 64 Bit version, once I figure out how to navigate around it will be a better experience. No start button for starters, but I`ll figure it out. Is there any way to show the desktop all the time ?

 

[whs]

Is there any way to show the desktop all the time

Short answer is no. And you need the start menu at times like you need it in Win7 too.

 

[Ztruker]

No, nothing else running in Vbox.

This has to be a limitation between Windows 8 and Vbox. I've read a few threads on WIn 8 in Vbox and all say to turn on Virtualization, so that has to be the problem. I'll post in the Vbox forum and see what they say.

 

[jimbo45]

That's cool enough I may have to install VirtualBox again just to try it out.

I'm very disappointed with XP Mode, it takes forever to boot, so maybe XP and Win 8 under VirtualBox is the way to go.

Hi there
XP MODE could have been OK -- but really for the people who actually NEED to continue to use XP a "proper" XP VM installation is the only way or even a dedicated older XP machine.

The idea was fine but the implementation was abominable.

W8 on the two FREE Virtual platforms - VBOX or VMWARE VMPLAYER works absolutely fine (and fast too).

Current releases of both softwares (VMWARE and ORACLE's VBOX ) have fixed outstanding problems AFAIK.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Sbrideau]

I will probably not be getting Win8 until I get a computer with a touchscreen. Which means I'll probably be on Windows 7 for another good while.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Thanks for the guide!

 

[whs]

No, nothing else running in Vbox.

This has to be a limitation between Windows 8 and Vbox. I've read a few threads on WIn 8 in Vbox and all say to turn on Virtualization, so that has to be the problem. I'll post in the Vbox forum and see what they say.

I think you are right. I just tried to run Win8 with Virtualization off - no deal. It ran into the repair console.

 

[Ztruker]

Bummer. I'll reinstall it to a spare partition if I can think of a reason to do so.

Right now I disliked it so much I don't want to install it. I was just interested in seeing it run under Vbox.

Thanks for the help.

 

[whs]

I know Rich. vBox is the best deal. I had it in double boot on one of my laptops - what a disaster. Booting into Win7 then took 10 times as long. It had to go thru the BIOS twice. Booting into Win8 was a little better but still slow. I am used to 12 - 15 second boot times because I have SSDs on all my systems. But even the SSD did not seem to help (on an i7 system).

In vBox, Win8 boots in 8 seconds and my Win7 system is not being disturbed. I only notice a longer shutdown time. But that only happens sometimes. Who knows what that is. I wanted to track it but was too lazy to do it.

One other option you have is to install it on an external eSata drive. I think you have a laptop. Get a PCI-e Express card for eSata (they cost less than $20) and an external eSata enclosure (also less than $20). Stick a bare bone HDD into there. Then take your laptop HDD out and install on the eSata HDD. Then you switch the boot order with the BIOS. If I had an Express slot on my laptop, that's what I would do. But Toshiba was to cheap to provide it. The Sony lappy that I returned had an eSata port, but that is water under the bridge.

 

[carwiz]

I'm running Windows 8 in a VBox VM in Windows 7. About all I dislike about it is the lack of video drivers and no USB 3.0 support. I haven't tried connecting a printer. The only one I have is networked with a XP machine and a Windows 7 machine. No sense complicating matters but neither VBox or Win8 could find it. It looks like VBox doesn't support networked printers or USB 3.0. You have to load the Additions to get USB 2.0.

 

[Ztruker]

Not a laptop, it's an Dell Precision 370 Intel P4 3.4Ghz, single core, dual thread, 4GB ram. Runs Win 7 beautifully but no Virtualization in BIOS.

I'll just sit on the sidelines and kibbitz with Win 8 for now.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions though. I really do appreciate it.

 

[whs]

Here is a pretty good one for desktops: Newegg.com - Rosewill RC-210 Silicon Image Internal SATA / External eSATA Low Profile Ready PCI Controller Card

Would be ashame if you could not participate in all the excitement.

PS: I am still trying to figure out how to run it from a 16 or 32GB USB stick. That would be the easiest. Made already one attempt. But that did not work.

 

[lehnerus2000]

VHD?

Does W7 Pro (64 bit) support VHD operations?
If so, have you tried a VHD, Ztruker?

I have W7 Ultimate (64 bit) and that's how I'm running W8.

 

[whs]

The CP is an Ultimate edition. So chances are it will work. Shawn made a nice tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2953-virtual-hard-drive-vhd-file-create-start-boot.html

 

[wanchoo]

Normally I am all praises for Microsoft all the time. But it is my honest opinion that in releasing Windows 8 Microsoft is just being unnaturally profit conscious.

My Windows 7 Pro is version 6.1.7601 and the OS is about 4 to 5 years old. Now in Windows 8, Microsoft is releasing version 6.2 (possibly 6.2.223793 but not sure). If they had wanted they could have released all the extra enhancements of Windows 8 as a SP2 to Windows 7. The reason in making a new release when users are just about settling down to windows 7 should be clear to one and all.

I shall wait for Windows version 7.0 (dubbed Windows 9 perhaps) and maybe install it too, if I am alive when it is released.

 

[Ztruker]

VHD requires Virtualization.