Discussion on:

Windows 8 Cheat Sheet

check here from infoworld - he said it is a nightmare:

http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/windows-8-consumer-preview-windows-frankenstein-187749?source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2012-03-01

You are basing this on one individual's thoughts - just a day after it was released? [Sort of like if one person at a restaurant falls sick, so will everyone else at the restaurant.] Try it yourself. Vista [after the kinks were cleaned up] isn't a bad OS. But some reviewers killed it so badly in reviews that it never took off. Used it for 9 months [inmcluding 5 months after Win 7 came out] before I went to Win 7.
One comment on the boot up time. Unsure if that 8 seconds was on a HDD or a SSD. SSDs dramatically reduce time at boot up. Additionally, Microsoft is sort of cheating by hybernating the kernel on a normal shutdown [i.e. not after security updates, core software changes, etc.].
Personally, i'll start off with the "classic" Windows 7 interface and switch at one point [on my desktop].

Was a bad joke and got the reputation it deserved. They released beta software into production. Basic functions either did not work or were buggy so why would anyone give it a good review?

The public isn't paying anything for this beta; it's free. As to it working 'out of the box', the beta is not pre-installed on a consumer-purchased system; there's no box for it to work out of.

People are not obligated to install something they don't understand just because it is available and free.

Unsure if that 8 seconds was on a HDD or a SSD. SSDs dramatically reduce time at boot up. Additionally, Microsoft is sort of cheating by hybernating the kernel on a normal shutdown [i.e. not after security updates, core software changes, etc.].

I think I said that word for word somewhere else.....

it said 8 seconds was on an ultrabook, and ultrabook specs for high end are all SSD.

Most netbooks do not have the required resolution to (fully) support Win 8. Yes, it will install and run but there will be minimum functionality with the primary Metro UI interface. Netbooks typically have 1024 X 600 and Win 8 requires 1024 X 768.
Microsoft released the developers preview back in September. It should has resolved this issue before now if they had any intentions to do so.
Challenge to independent developers: A pre-load app that will simulate the 1024X768 resolution on the 1024 X 600 standard screen.

It makes you wonder if MS had their head in the sand, or own a lot of stock in hardware companies. Maybe they figure that hardly anyone uses netbooks any more.
Well, thank god there are plenty of linux flavors to choose from.

New netbooks and tablets that come with W8 preinstalled will likely have 1024 x 768 screens.

If you're talking about upgrading existing netbooks to W8, new operating systems and applications usually have higher minimum specs than their predecessors. There's nothing new about that, nor anything unique to Microsoft.

So instead of jamming a desktop OS onto a smartphone, they are going to jam a smartphone OS onto tablets, desktops, and servers. Make sense if you are part of the Microsoft "yes man" corporate culture. I installed Server 8 Beta tonight and I am not impressed. They have done away with what I have learned the last 15 years. People are not going to enjoy this. I know it's weird, I just want a consistent and stable product so I can get my work done. Thank goodness the server OS will now look like the phone and tablet OS that less than 1% of the population uses.

Windows Server 8 will not change. It will be like Server 2008 or Server 2008 R2. Microsoft isn't dumb enough to put the Metro interface on a server!

Who uses a phone or tablet as a server?

Server 2012 (as it is officially known) does feature the Modern interface sported by Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Phone. It has changed. One UI to rule them all... Shock horror. A single user experience regardless of platform. Why that's lunacy, to reduce the learning curve. Why would anyone want to do that?
To be blunt, the interface is not as terrible as many make out. Most of the ramblings and bashing come from old school techs that are afraid of change. It's a typical human trait. We can't blame them. Personally, I jumped onboard the train 18 months ago with Windows Phone and am now quite used to the new paradigm. It actually works very well when you shift your mindset.

One of the first thing I tried after I began to run windows 8 was to communicate with my EGG bank, no luck it said I must load IE8 !!

Any ideas what the licensing model will be?
One low cost fee for all your devices! I wonder.

Pull the other one; it's got bells on.

I RDP into a LOT of servers and workstations, as well as tap into them using VM consoles - there is no 'hard' edge of the screen for the mouse to stop on to get the menu to pop up. So when I'm accessing a remote computer or a VM, I have to slow down and make sure the mouse pauses in the interface response area. Without a good visual clue (like the start button!), it's sometimes a pain to figure out where to stop the mouse to get the interactive bar to pop up without rolling out of the console and missing it entirely.

Shortcuts?

Why not just make two different UIs for two different hardware interface technologies?

A registry tweak [Googlre it] allows you to switch to the Windows 7 interface if you don't like Metro.

seems like a lot of people are griping that there is no start menu, etc. BUT Metro is one big start menu with constantly updating and useable information. Plus it's actually faster to get to clicking the windows key to swap between the desktop UI and the metro UI instead of mousing clicking in the start menu.

Right now you probably have multiple windows open on multiple monitors while you work so that you can access information from several sources at once. But some of those windows could be replaced with information updating in a metro app most of the time. I could see running a "strip" of metro at all times on my desktop while working in applications within the desktop UI. NICE!

I have found Win + X to be a great new shortcut for managing.

I have Windows 8 CP 32-bit installed on a Dell GX260 with a P4, and Win + 8 works on it, but I also have Windows 8 RP 64-bit installed on a Dell GX620 with a Pentium D, and Win + 8 does not work on that system.

Has anyone else tried Win + X on Windows 8 RP? My installation of Windows 8 RP could be broken, but Microsoft is busy ripping all the good stuff out, and Win + X may not work anymore in RP.

I noticed the comment by Nick Heath that only microsoft apps would work with the new os. That sound rather early applish. They were so propriatory at that time that people didnt use apple in droves because they couldnt use anything but apple hardware and software. Now they are going to remove a lot of software from our use, again.
The other thought/comment is that i went and downloaded the 'beta' then saw the 'notice' that if you installed the beta, then chose to return to your origional os, that you would have to do a reinstall of the origional. There was no comment about running it as a second os you could choose. Be sure you want to install the beta only to find you have to reinstall your previous os and possibly all your associated programs

I don't think W8 is restricted to running Microsoft apps only. I know there will be online store similar to Apple's or Linux repositories, but I don't think it will be restricted to MS products or that you will be limited to the apps it carries. I've loaded a couple of third-party apps on my W8 test system already.

The author says there is no explanation for this magic, but actually this is not a new feature. Win 7 has this ability now as long as you are running Server 2008 on your servers. I imagine this will be the same under Win 8. If you want an explanation for how this works check the Server 2008 documentation.

This feature has not been widely publicized and is something that I think is a boon. You can teach users to use a pre-configured VPN, but its often slow and Win 7/8 witn Server 2008 makes the process itself unnecessary. I wish more businesses would get on board with this tech.

Other than this one area, the reviewer nailed everything down well. In fact, this is the best overview of the OS I've read to date!

So far, so good. I also tested the beta versions of Vista and Windows 7 and this is by far the smoothest and easiest transition. I had a smooth, glitch-free download and I really like the added security of "Bitlocker" which I didn't have in Windows 7. So far the only driver issue I had was with my HP printer, which was easily resolved by installing the driver manually with the "advanced printer setup" under "Devices and Printers."
Thanks for the "Cheat Sheet!" ~ @rcl4rk

Business is the the only one who has just barely switched to Win7; the average consumer just began going to 7 as their old equipment craps out or gets viruses that cost too much to fix. A lot of consumers are complaining that they just got 7 and now they are afraid 8 will be foisted upon them much like Vista was, and at what expense? How much will the new OS cost, and will they now have to get another new computer just to make it work, especially with touch technology, which is a big part of the sales pitch. And how about having to put your data on the cloud to get synced: alot of people still don't trust the "cloud". I am one...

.....with 1Gb RAM and the performance is fine.

The Metro interface is a bit odd, but obviously needs getting used to,

Underneath the Metro front-end, it is much the same as the other versions of NT 6 - Vista (NT v6.0) and "Windows7" (NT v6.1), but as it is actually NT v6.2 that is hardly surprising. Windows Explorer has adopted the Ribbon interface, so that takes a bit of getting used to as well. Most things are good old solid NT.

I can see the point of Metro for touch tablets and smartphones, but DEFINITELY NOT for normal desktops - waste of screen space. Some of the Metro stuff should be hidden a bit deeper under "Control Panel" type functions, but then I guess there is a desparation by MS to find something to put up front as "Apps".

I have been using the Windows 8 CP for just over a week now. I have it running on a new core I7 laptop, a core I7 Desktop as well as an 8 year old P4 Desktop PC. All three are running flawlessly. Metro is running smoothly, however, it does take a bit of getting use to. I find it easier to navigate Metro by realizing that Metro is actually the Start Menu. The Windows 8 desktop does not have an actual Start Menu button as in previous versions of Windows, but rather Metro is the Start Menu. Once you realize this It is much easier to know where you are in Metro. The only issue I had when installing Windows 8 CP is that I failed to use my Windows Live ID associated email address when installing and was unable to login after an initial reboot. As the Administrator account is locked out by default I had to use Hiren's to unlock the Administrator account and then log in as the Local Administrator, Create a new account using my Windows Live ID and then everything was fine. Microsoft needs to HIGHLIGHT that part just a LITTLE better in the Retail Release.

It would be nice if the sales outlets would be more specific about what components are in the PCs so we can determine if they are Win 8 compatible. I could do this with my current PC because of the sysinfo app. But, when all they give you is, for example, Intel graphics, that is no help at all.
While most of the PCs being offered are probably non-compatible in some way, I am not going incur huge shipping costs and restocking fees to go on a fishing trip.

Great for a phone, tablet, or kitchen pc... it's a non-starter for doing serious work with many apps

I found Windows 7 disappointing mostly because it took more clicks to do most tasks. I use my computers for work and if it takes longer for more me to accomplish things I'm not happy. For me, it's all about efficiency; XP was very efficient. Microsoft OS's have not been getting better. Here's hoping...

if they can make a OS for servers and another for desktops- why not tablets? everyone agrees that Window 8 will make a great OS for tablets - no questions. but the insistence that they have to force metro down the throats of business users - that's not acceptable!

From what I see Metro looks more like a 5 year old's story book. Even the 1st graphical DOS looked better.