Windows 8 Launch Discussion

Andy-Pandy

Anyone having problems switching off their computer from windows 8? Mine wont, anybody have any idea what I can do?

Fysh

Andy-Pandy wrote: »

Anyone having problems switching off their computer from windows 8? Mine wont, anybody have any idea what I can do?

When you go to the menu to shut down do you get any response?

Try opening a command prompt as administrator and using "shutdown /s" as the command - that should force a shutdown and throw up a prompt saying that Windows will shut down in less than a minute.

Overheal

ctrl alt del pulls up power options also

28064212

Overheal wrote: »

ctrl alt del pulls up power options also

It's still far more annoying than previous versions. In the last few days, I've installed Windows 8, and done all the updates and software installs that it involves, and all the restarts that comes with it. In previous versions, shutdown was WindowsKey, Right, Enter. Or press Right twice for the menu. In Windows 8, it's Ctrl+Alt+Del (a two-handed keyboard move (no jokes please)), then you have to switch to the mouse. Or WindowsKey+C, ArrowKeys, then the mouse again. It takes way longer, and is much less intuitive.

The other annoyance is Windows Update. The app version sucks, and there's no easy way to get to the desktop version of it.

Having said that, I do like the Live Tiles and the quick find on the Start screen. Just have no idea why they decided to make some things much harder

Overheal

Win + W; "Optional Updates". On a default install, "Optional" will also pull it right up (where if you installed a bunch of crap like iTunes etc. in Windows 7 searching for "Update" made Apple software Update more default than windows update. ugh)

At this point, I've found 3 very handy powerful search-related shortcuts:

Win+W : search Within Settings
Win+F : search within files
Win+Q : launch search charm (Defaults to Apps)

Or as I've found with my techs who are too lazy even for all that, Win+R vomits up the Run panel where you can run all manner of wizardry, their favorite being recoverydrive.

28064212

Overheal wrote: »

Win + W; "Optional Updates".

At this point, I've found 3 very handy powerful search-related shortcuts:

Win+W : search Within Settings
Win+F : search within files
Win+Q : launch search charm (Defaults to Apps)

Better. Still counter-intuitive though. And frankly, any move towards expecting users to have decent knowledge of keyboard shortcuts when many of them still don't know about Ctrl+C is a poor design choice

Overheal

28064212 wrote: »

Better. Still counter-intuitive though. And frankly, any move towards expecting users to have decent knowledge of keyboard shortcuts when many of them still don't know about Ctrl+C is a poor design choice

With the onscreen keyboard now when you press Ctrl it puts contextual text on every shortcut key available (copy+paste+etc)

Either way people who havent learned Ctrl+C at this point aren't terribly miffed about extra clicks anyway

Aquos76

Anyone else having issues with the mouse pad no longer scrolling up or down or down or left to right after upgrading

Overheal

Aquos76 wrote: »

Anyone else having issues with the mouse pad no longer scrolling up or down or down or left to right after upgrading

download the driver again (commonly its Synaptics)

Aquos76

Overheal wrote: »

download the driver again (commonly its Synaptics)

Tried that, no joy, however I did manage to download the Alps Touchpad driver and thankfully that sorted me out,

I got it from here

RUCKING FETARD

Non-Legit Windows Users can Legally Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro at Offer Price

Allyall

Anyone having problems running portable applications?
I have a load of portable stuff, and i have just noticed that none of them will run on my Windows 8 PC...
I think it was after an update, as i was able to runone intially, then it just stopped working. I didn't think too much of it, and today i realised none of them will work (Well, none of the ones i've tried.)

Just wondering if anyone has the same problem, and if creating a batch file with temp folder will work?

(Going to try that now.)

EDIT. Nope. Didn't work for me.

sentient_6

Having a tiny issue i was hoping to put out there. I bought a new laptop with 8 on it. A bit after putting firefox on it images starting not loading probably. Clearing the cache sorts it but not long after it would starting happening again. Thinking it was a firefox problem i said i'd try chrome. It happens with chrome as well but seems to take longer. Again clearing the cache sorts it. Anyone know whats the story?

Overheal

Suprised this wasn't grabbed by Linux users,

Windows 8 machines (new OEM PCs) are Windows 8 Certified. Part of this means they incorporate a UEFI Secure-Boot system that stops unsigned software from running during the boot sequence. Great way to stop rootkit and bootloading viruses, yes, but also prevents linux from being installed on a Windows 8 Certified machine. In most cases, going into UEFI and disabling secure-boot will solve this issue, but since not all motherboards are going to support that on/off ability, that may pose a problem. Currently, microsoft hasn't issued an appropriately signed pre-boot loader to Linux foundation or anyone else for that matter. Not as of yet, anyway.

http://www.zdnet.com/linux-foundation-uefi-secure-boot-key-for-windows-8-pcs-delays-explained-7000007841/

Apparently this story has been doing rounds for the last year but died down over vague objections it wouldn't happen. Probably only a matter of time but still they would want to be getting on that.

Fysh

Overheal wrote: »

Suprised this wasn't grabbed by Linux users,

Windows 8 machines (new OEM PCs) are Windows 8 Certified. Part of this means they incorporate a UEFI Secure-Boot system that stops unsigned software from running during the boot sequence. Great way to stop rootkit and bootloading viruses, yes, but also prevents linux from being installed on a Windows 8 Certified machine. In most cases, going into UEFI and disabling secure-boot will solve this issue, but since not all motherboards are going to support that on/off ability, that may pose a problem. Currently, microsoft hasn't issued an appropriately signed pre-boot loader to Linux foundation or anyone else for that matter. Not as of yet, anyway.

http://www.zdnet.com/linux-foundation-uefi-secure-boot-key-for-windows-8-pcs-delays-explained-7000007841/

Apparently this story has been doing rounds for the last year but died down over vague objections it wouldn't happen. Probably only a matter of time but still they would want to be getting on that.

This is one of the biggest single "OH YOU MASSIVE BELLENDS" issue I've had with Microsoft in years. It's so obviously at least partially a "try to kill linux amongst consumers" move (because you should be able to achieve the same goal by merely locking down the ability for anything other than a signed Windows process within the OS making changes to the Windows bootloader, but still allowing it to be invoked by eg GRUB). The security justifications are nonsense, but unfortunately it'll take some sort of argument involving OEMs before anything changes...

Overheal

Overheal wrote: »

Suprised this wasn't grabbed by Linux users,

Windows 8 machines (new OEM PCs) are Windows 8 Certified. Part of this means they incorporate a UEFI Secure-Boot system that stops unsigned software from running during the boot sequence. Great way to stop rootkit and bootloading viruses, yes, but also prevents linux from being installed on a Windows 8 Certified machine. In most cases, going into UEFI and disabling secure-boot will solve this issue, but since not all motherboards are going to support that on/off ability, that may pose a problem. Currently, microsoft hasn't issued an appropriately signed pre-boot loader to Linux foundation or anyone else for that matter. Not as of yet, anyway.

http://www.zdnet.com/linux-foundation-uefi-secure-boot-key-for-windows-8-pcs-delays-explained-7000007841/

Apparently this story has been doing rounds for the last year but died down over vague objections it wouldn't happen. Probably only a matter of time but still they would want to be getting on that.

I was under the impression that Microsoft specified that Secure Boot must be able to be turned off in UEFI setup on x64 machines.

Capt'n Midnight

There are open source solutions, the trivial is a one off payment of $99 to Verisign by each vendor. Yeah it sucks but it adds another layer of security. Fedora choose this route as it's quicker than herding cats

The biggest impact this will probably have is on users who want to dual boot with an earlier version of windows or hackintoshes



http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/linus-torvalds-on-windows-8-uefi-and-fedora/11187

The fly in the soup is that by default only Windows 8 will run on these systems, so no Linux, no BSD, heck, no Windows XP for that matter. Fedora Linux, Red Hat's community distribution, has found a way: sign up with Microsoft, via Verisign to make their own Windows 8 system compatible UEFI secure boot key. A lot of Linux people hate this compromise. Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux, has another take: "I'm certainly not a huge UEFI fan, but at the same time I see why you might want to have signed bootup etc. And if it's only $99 to get a key for Fedora, I don't see what the huge deal is."

http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/12368.html

An alternative was producing some sort of overall Linux key. It turns out that this is also difficult, since it would mean finding an entity who was willing to take responsibility for managing signing or key distribution. That means having the ability to keep the root key absolutely secure and perform adequate validation of people asking for signing. That's expensive. Like millions of dollars expensive. It would also take a lot of time to set up, and that's not really time we had. And, finally, nobody was jumping at the opportunity to volunteer. So no generic Linux key.

The last option wasn't hugely attractive, but is probably the least worst. Microsoft will be offering signing services through their sysdev portal. It's not entirely free (there's a one-off $99 fee to gain access edit: The $99 goes to Verisign, not Microsoft - further edit: once paid you can sign as many binaries as you want), but it's cheaper than any realistic alternative would have been. It ensures compatibility with as wide a range of hardware as possible and it avoids Fedora having any special privileges over other Linux distributions. If there are better options then we haven't found them. So, in all probability, this is the approach we'll take. Our first stage bootloader will be signed with a Microsoft key.

Overheal

Something else I thought of also is Dell is I think back up again selling OEM Linux machines. Other OEMs may follow suit.

AlmightyCushion

For non ARM systems, the OEM has to give the option to disable it so it's not a big deal.

Overheal

Migrate files
Nuke C
Install Windows 8
Remove Disc
Restore Files
Install Catalyst
Install Webroot
Install Office
Run Updates
Reboot
Tuck disc away in software drawer
Login Screen
Keyboard and Mouse don't work
KB2756872 causing USB devices to not load properly
Sigh
Get disc again
Run system restore
Undo updates
Undo Office Install
Undo Catalyst Install
Undo Webroot Install
make coffee
tell boards about it
System login screen
keyboard is back yay

Several hours in and - as I expected - the world hasn't ended, I've been using the desktop 95% of the time, and the second worst tragedy to befall me today was having to re-cache a bunch of game files for Steam.

Patsy fyre

Since upgrading to Windows 8 the scoll on my keypad is not working.
Anyone any ideas?

Aquos76

Patsy fyre wrote: »

Since upgrading to Windows 8 the scoll on my keypad is not working.
Anyone any ideas?

Join the club, I've tried every bloody driver out there, still no joy, I did have some luck with the Alps driver from the HP website, my laptop is a dell by the way, that worked for me, until the touchpad just stopped on me altogether, took me ages to get the touchpad working again however I haven't been able to get my scrolling back.

BostonB

I used the Dell Vista drivers on mine. You have match 32/64 bit obviously.

Overheal

To be clear: two finger scrolling is also unavailable? Bearing in mind, windows 8 inverted the scrolling direction, like Mac, to better match the feel of sliding paper.

Got my first Windows 8 OEM machine in today - a HP 4545s laptop. In my job we normally do clean installs on new machines we get before providing them to clients (to be sure that all the crapware is gone) but I noticed that Windows 8 machines don't have COA stickers anymore. The key is embedded into the MSDM table in the UEFI.

It'll be good because it will solve the problem of unreadable COAs (even though early XP keys never had this problem) but I'm sure that the real reason for this is to finally enforce the "OEM dies with the motherboard" policy. So if your motherboard dies, you're shelling out for a new Windows licence too.