The Windows 8 Thread

[ZuljinRaynor]

Originally Posted by KO Gilligan

There seems to be no reason for people to switch to it otherwise - other than the fact that it is the latest thing. It's wonky, presumptuous, incompatible with the programs we love, and it has a useless learning curve (did anybody here learn "graffiti" for their palm?)

Haha, this is total bullshit.

I've been using Windows 8 since it's been out and the only issue I had was with my GPS not having drivers that work in Windows 8.

[KO Gilligan]

Originally Posted by ZuljinRaynor

Haha, this is total bullshit.

I've been using Windows 8 since it's been out and the only issue I had was with my GPS not having drivers that work in Windows 8.

Oh yea, it's BS all right...
By the way, (since you're the expert with all those older programs working so well) how's quick time working for you in Windows 8?

I like this tech support answer regarding a one year old game, and the fact that loading some games off DVD results in not having the necessary compatibility tag.
It's not an uncommon problem regarding the install disks no longer working for games.

Hi Alan,

Thank you for choosing Windows 8 and for providing us an opportunity to assist you.

You have mentioned that you are unable to play “The Book of Unwritten tales” and you don’t get even the compatibility tag in the file properties. In this case, the game might not be compatible with Windows 8, and I would suggest you to contact the game support

Did you know Radeon X-series cards seem to be completely incompatible? Seems silly that an old workhorse X1950 won't work at all....

[ZuljinRaynor]

Originally Posted by KO Gilligan

Oh yea, it's BS all right...
By the way, (since you're the expert with all those older programs working so well) how's quick time working for you in Windows 8?

What about Quicktime? I'm using an older version of Quick Time Lite and I can play .MOV files.

Originally Posted by KO Gilligan

stuff

So were you able to play everything before in Windows 7? How about XP? How about even 2000?

Your post said that Windows 8 doesn't work with programs we love. As if it was the first to not work. That's what I took offense to. Did all your previous OSs work 100% with your old software? I couldn't play MGS2 PC on Windows 7 but I could on XP. I couldn't play DOS games in Windows 2000. Hell, I can't play Starcraft or Diablo without killing Explorer.exe. I had to do the same thing in Windows 7.

[KO Gilligan]

Originally Posted by ZuljinRaynor

What about Quicktime? I'm using an older version of Quick Time Lite and I can play .MOV files.



So were you able to play everything before in Windows 7? How about XP? How about even 2000?

Your post said that Windows 8 doesn't work with programs we love. As if it was the first to not work. That's what I took offense to. Did all your previous OSs work 100% with your old software? I couldn't play MGS2 PC on Windows 7 but I could on XP. I couldn't play DOS games in Windows 2000. Hell, I can't play Starcraft or Diablo without killing Explorer.exe. I had to do the same thing in Windows 7.

Well, no offense taken, the compatability issue is to be expected... I certainly expected it to be bad. I then thought I was doing well... then I realized it's still pretty bad. It's certainly not BS - like you can take all your old favorites that worked in Win7 and if they do good in 7 they'll run in 8. That's pretty sad, because Windows 7 is absolutely current.

... and for the record - I personally didn't expect Windows 2000 to be compatible with anything in the "fun" category

We tend to base these things on our own experiences. I even said that I thought the compatibility was good. I was loading my games, and my usual productivity tools, and things went well. I don't plan on using my x1300 or x1950 cards on Windows 8, so it never came up. AMD is not going to be fixing this problem. Perhaps this is there fault, but it is a significant upset. While the Radeon X line went out of production long ago, they continue to sell them everywhere, side box compatability recommendations made mention of those cards only maybe 2 years ago... and many of us expect them to still be considered in the mainstream. I love the way the old X cards run all the new flavors of Linux.

As people are now online talking about compatability, we see that those windows programs which didn't work in Vista/7 work no better, despite MS claims of better compatability - MS is talking about compatability with the new Windows 7 stuff. Screw them, and the fact that even some new, designed for Windows 7, stuff doesn't run is ridiculous.

I have lots of older Windows games that run fine in Vista and Windows 7, that won't load, or after a long time fussing, and setting compatibility, and checking for missing .dlls you can get the game to install, but it opens the game or program, then closes it. No errors or lock-ups, usually its something vary hard to diagnose or debug, and the programs just close undramatically.

Then there's the Quick time programs. I was wondering why you say you are using a "lite" version, but also you said you've had no issues. The fact is you can get alternative quick time players to run, and perhaps even an old version from Apple. But you won't get a good full version of Quick time to work - and when I say that, I'm talking about Quick time games. It's over for all my sons favorite games in Windows 8. Those were the ones that run. Of the old Windows games that wouldn't load in Vista/7, at least the Quick time games worked great.

Then there's this veil of "support" for compatibility. Microsoft has learned that you don't need real compatability, you just need to include compatability assistant type tools, and lots of (moderated) Web support stuff to help people. This way we can all waste our time fussing and messing with a compatibility issue until we go away, and the resulting perculation of disgruntled customers will soften the blow when we take to the internet with our troublesome experiences.

[KO Gilligan]

Windows 8.1 is coming...

huh?
The ISO for a free preview should be up tomorrow
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview
There is a key on the FAQ page.

I'm guessing that they are going to leave the free ones functional for a long time, and conveniently delay the retail release. Windows 8 was a failure according to the business analysts, and they were counting on Bing revenues... It's Bing and App store oriented, and your documents save to the cloud by default.

Anyway, enjoy... rumor has it that you can more easily set it to boot to a normal desktop.

[Damien_Azreal]

So.... DX11.1's bit new feature is megatexturing. That's the big "coming soon" feature that's supposed to win people over?

Welcome to something John Carmack did back in 2007 on WinXP in DX9.
YAY for idTech5... oh, wait...

Really, first Carmack said Vista was worthless and DX10 was useless, then he said DX11 was nice, but definitely not needed...
Can't help but feel he's the guy you really need to follow on this.