Got my full Windows 8 tonight from my Microsoft subscription. I've just installed it on the laptop so far and its working very well. They've tidied up some of the funnies from the public release candidate, but the Metro interface is taking a little getting used to. Its basically Windows 7 with a new front end. I'll let you know how I get on with it as I know there are a few of you who were considering it.
Thanks, Ben. Let us know how you get on with it. I've registered with Microsoft for the £15 upgrade offer on new machines but I don't intend replacing W7 until it gets the all clear on the various P3D forums!
Is the metro interface optional? Can you choose a classic (i.e. W7 ) front end for a non-touchy/feely screen?
Hi Chaps, Metro (or whatever its going to be called) is not optional. Its a complete rewrite of that part of the OS and it definitely is going to take a lot of getting used to. Nothing is where you would expect it to be. I'm using it on a laptop, so non touch screen.
So far I'm getting there with it. I like the new mail program, but strangely you can still download and install the latest version of live mail too? I've no idea why. IE 10 is much the same as IE9 when in desktop mode, but on the home screen, its the same as it is on the windows phone handsets, i.e. nothing on the screen other than an address bar that auto hides. In some ways this is quite nice as it give you the whole screen for the site you're viewing, there is nothing at all in view other than the web page. No scroll bars, back / forward buttons / address bar, nothing. When you move the mouse to the right hand side of the screen a back arrow appears, which if clicked on does the same as the back button used to. Move the mouse over to the RHS and the up / down scroll bar appears.
I'm currently backing up my main PC that runs FS and I'll blat that later tonight and see what happens.
TSR2 wrote:I'm currently backing up my main PC that runs FS and I'll blat that later tonight and see what happens.
Bloody hell! Respect, man!
A quick question (before the thread is swamped by Luddites bemoaning the loss of Windows 95 ) : does it involve a complete reinstall or does it install easily over W7?
Honest answer is I don't know. I never do inplace upgrades on an OS.
I'm getting the impression the best way forward with Windows 8 might be to try it on a non critical laptop first, actually, the right approach might be to stick with Win7 unless you have a burning desire to upgrade. It really is a very very different beast, under the covers its the same (more or less) as Win 7, but you can't get the covers off.
An example might be you want to open notepad. In the old world (if you hadn't used it recently) You'd click on start, accessories, notepad... or better still just type notepad into the search and press enter.
Now you have to go to the home screen, move the mouse to the top right and one of the hidden menus will appear from the RHS, click on the magnifying glass type in "notepad" and click on the tile. Unless there is a shortcut on the desktop (which is not the same as having a shortcut on the home screen). There will probably be easier ways to do these things, but as yet I haven found them. If you think of the home screen as a giant start menu, you can pin shortcuts (tiles)to it, or unpin them. Some tiles actually display information, i.e. the live tile for mail will show you the number of unread messages etc, the weather tile will display the weather info (not dissimilar to the old gadgets (did anyone ever use them?)
) front end for a non-touchy/feely screen?
Has there been a more recent version??? 
