The Official Windows 8 User Thread

[Rhonda the Sly]

Did MS change the font rendering in Windows 8 as well? (presumably for tablet and performance reasons) I spent some time with Metro today and shocked to learn how bad text looks.

Internet Explorer and Modern applications don't use ClearType to render text.

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20120303/cleartype-takes-a-back-seat-for-windows-8-metro/

 

[lopri]

Interesting. Thank you for the link, Rhonda.

Another thing that I noticed (this time a plus), Windows 8 supports 4K video (H.264, MP4 container) thumbnails natively in explorer windows. In Windows 7 I simply get large icons for these files.

Is there a way to have thumbnails for 4K videos in Windows 7 (at least for H.264/MP4), without installing a 3rd party app?

 

[lopri]

I haven't noticed any differences.

Seriously?

Win 7

Win 8

 

[hclarkjr]

looks like aero will be coming back to windows 8 after all http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-may-get-aero-glass-back-via-modder

 

[hhhd1]

The amount of hacks/mods/tools to get windows 8 working as the previous version of windows is getting ridiculous

The fun thing is when someone is doing allot of mods, and then do a windows update resulting in some sort of incompatibility, in worst case making the computer not working and/or crashing. (in case of those mods modify or replace a system dll file)

 

[dagamer34]

I just wish I could be using RTM right now, but since my computer is hosting Media Center right now, I have to wait for GA. =/

 

[Cerb]

Seriously?

Win 7

Win 8

Which one of those have you calibrated Cleartype in? One of them is way off, and needs it, assuming they are being viewed on similar monitors. The Win 7 shot looks worse to me, but both look like crap (FYI, I'm using a BGR monitor)

 

[ViRGE]

Seriously?

Win 7

http://i.imgur.com/yYbqk.png

Win 8

http://i.imgur.com/mOz2N.png

At least with Firefox everything looks identical. I don't use IE so I couldn't really comment on that.

looks like aero will be coming back to windows 8 after all http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-may-get-aero-glass-back-via-modder

It'll be interesting to see how he's pulling this off, but most likely he's modifying core OS files. That's always a great way to earn yourself a broken OS come the next Patch Tuesday.:|

 

[lopri]

Well, the way I first learned about this font rendering was while I was toying around Metro apps - Weather, News, Sports, Trending, etc.

The text was pretty bad in metro apps. To make things worse, a lot of metro apps eventually redirect you to Internet Explorer. (e.g. MSN News, Bing search, etc.) That's how I noticed something is not right.

As for ClearType tuning, I do it on every Windows OS to my taste. But according to Rhonda the Sly's link, ClearType has no bearings on Metro or IE, so that's pretty much explains it, it seems. So basically this is another Metro (and IE) thing, and doens't affect other "legacy" applications.

P.S. According to Rhonda's link, MS expects higher DPI/PPI displays to become popular in near future, thus negating the necessity of better (existing) font rendering. I wonder how that holds true on desktop considering Metro UI and contents (linked to IE) look pretty bad on my 30" (2560x1600) display, which already has pretty high DPI/PPI for a destop monitor.

 

[lopri]

Anyway, I like the thumbnail view (which also allows preview) for 4K video clips in Windows 8 very much. Does anyone else experience the same?

 

[Cerb]

As for ClearType tuning, I do it on every Windows OS to my taste. But according to Rhonda the Sly's link, ClearType has no bearings on Metro or IE, so that's pretty much explains it, it seems. So basically this is another Metro (and IE) thing, and doens't affect other "legacy" applications.

That's just stupid, though.

High DPI displays will allow ClearType to not obviously suck so much compared to what other OSes have, but we'll need DPIs far higher than we have now (300-350) to alleviate the need for subpixel AA, unless LED displays have an optic for each pixel that merges RGB, and that such high-DPI LED displays very quickly replace LCDs (2 years or 20, neither I nor MS know).

Subpixel AA isn't just an answer to low DPI, but to the offsets of R, G, and B in displays.

 

[Doh!]

Font rendering for metro stinks big time on my laptop with 1366x768 resolution (13.3 display). Especially the fonts used for the charms bar and PC Settings page where big font sizes are used, the lack of cleartype is extremely noticeable.

 

[lopri]

Maybe MS thinks 32" panels with 3840x2160 pixels will arrive early next year for ~$400?

What I hear from Korea is the opposite. (Those who're eyeing on Catleaps may not have much time on deals.. )

 

[hclarkjr]

question, i downloaded a couple game apps that were not free, where do they download too so that i can back them up in case i need to format sometime in the future?

 

[Cerb]

Maybe MS thinks 32" panels with 3840x2160 pixels will arrive early next year for ~$400?

$400? I know very few people who'd pay that much for a monitor, today. Most buy the cheapest from a known brand name for the size they want, usually <$150. Of those who'd pay more, they generally want a 120Hz, not more size or resolution.

 

[lopri]

looks like aero will be coming back to windows 8 after all http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-may-get-aero-glass-back-via-modder

Personally I am not a big fan of Aero, but instead I kind of like border-less windows of OS X and Ubuntu. I was sure MS would copy it someday.. someday...

 

[Dominato3r]

question, i downloaded a couple game apps that were not free, where do they download too so that i can back them up in case i need to format sometime in the future?

Try doing a search for the app through explorer

 

[ViRGE]

question, i downloaded a couple game apps that were not free, where do they download too so that i can back them up in case i need to format sometime in the future?

Good question. They're located under \Program Files\WindowsApps\ which is not normally user-accessible. But you should be able to back them up with enough tinkering.

Do keep in mind though that since Metro apps are all tied to the Windows Store, you can always redownload them for free. Furthermore I suspect you'll need a new authentication ticket if you were to ever format and need to restore them.

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

question, i downloaded a couple game apps that were not free, where do they download too so that i can back them up in case i need to format sometime in the future?

"C:\Program Files\WindowsApps", I believe.

I'm not sure how well just copying the files works as a mechanism for backing the apps upp though. Good luck.

P.S. According to Rhonda's link, MS expects higher DPI/PPI displays to become popular in near future, thus negating the necessity of better (existing) font rendering. I wonder how that holds true on desktop considering Metro UI and contents (linked to IE) look pretty bad on my 30" (2560x1600) display, which already has pretty high DPI/PPI for a destop monitor.

That's only 100DPI, not so much higher than the standard ~96.

 

[hclarkjr]

Good question. They're located under \Program Files\WindowsApps\ which is not normally user-accessible. But you should be able to back them up with enough tinkering.

Do keep in mind though that since Metro apps are all tied to the Windows Store, you can always redownload them for free. Furthermore I suspect you'll need a new authentication ticket if you were to ever format and need to restore them.

thanx, i kept the email receipt that had some contact information with it. i am going to email them and ask this same question.

 

[Dominato3r]

Anyone else having an issue with the Network Map not showing up in Network and Sharing Center?

It was an awesome way to quickly install drivers for networked hardware without going through a homegroup

 

[wpcoe]

I installed the RTM free Enterprise evaluation version today to test (in a dual-boot configuration with my trusty Win7 Home Premium.) I was surprised -- and pleased -- to see that the Win8 installation was less than 10GB after I resized the page file and turned hibernation off. It was only 9.7GB.

And, now with a few utilies plus Opera, Corel X3 Suite and Adobe PS6 installed, it's still only 12.2GB.

Although this is subjective, it "feels" faster. It definitely boots up faster, but it also seems that dialog boxes open and close faster. I installed it on an old 1st generation SSD, a 64GB Kingston SNV425, which is not as fast as the 128GB Intel 520 where I have Win8 installed.

I changed the setting in gpedit.msc to turn off the lock screen, so now the main irritation is to click past the "Metro" start screen to get to the desktop. Once I'm at the desktop, the main drawback of course is the lack of the Start orb, but I was happy to find that if I press the Windows key and type "photoshop", the Metro start screen *does* show PS6 which is installed on the desktop. I had feared the Metro start screen search would only search Metro apps.

So, I'm finding Win8 not to be quite so atrocious as I initially feared. It's just missing the Start button and the Aero interface -- I find the solid colored window borders/title bar to be too "retro" and less refined looking.

I'm still looking for a clock app for the Metro screen that displays the time in its tile! There are two free clock apps in the app store, but one only displays the time when you open the app full screen and the other app does, well, absolutely nothing. You'd think MS would include a time-displaying app as standard, no?

 

[hclarkjr]

nice little tool to set different colors for your taskbar and windows borders http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-set-different-colors-for-taskbar-window-borders-in-windows-8/
i tried it and it does work

 

[lopri]

You could also make changes in registry. With thin borders windows look much tolerable. (Why did MS remove that option from Display control panel?)

http://www.askvg.com/registry-tweak-to-decrease-window-border-size-and-padding-in-windows-8/

 

[Chiropteran]

Long shot, but anyone have dell xps 14 laptop? I rarely use this machine, decided to throw a copy of windows 8 on it, and the install actually fails and errors out. I don't think there is a problem with the machine, it runs 7 just fine, but even after multiple tries it fails on windows 8 installation every time.