For those of us lucky enough to have a MSDN or TechNet Subscription, Microsoft released Windows 8 RTM today!
So, like many, I’ve been multi-tasking to get it downloaded and installed.
I am actually writing this blog using the new Windows Essentials 2012 on Windows 8 on my Slate Tablet.
As I use my tablet as my primary computer, I’m not quite ready to just jump in and wipe it out, so I did another WindowsToGo USB installation.
See my blog for information on how to setup a WindowsToGo USB install.
I’m using an ASUS EEE EP121 Slate with 4GB RAM. My USB drive is actually the original 64GB SSD drive that came with my EP121. I recently upgraded my internal SSD to 128GB.
Being a Dynamics CRM guy, the first test I had to do was log into a couple CRM Organizations in both the Win8 UX browser and desktop browser.
LOOKS GREAT, RUNS FAST.
I will take some screen captures and write up some more specific information around Dynamics CRM and Windows 8 over the next days.
Here are my first impressions thus far on day 1:
| Positives | Negatives |
| The Win8 Mail app now supports IMAP! YEAH!!! | The App Store is not supported from WindowsToGo. While I understand the logic that this would normally be used for a hardened corporate IT OS, that will not always be the case and it should really be a switch that can be set! |
| IE gives a nice “Private Network Access” warning and prompt when you attempt to connect to a network domain. | I have not been able to get Windows Activation to work at all. Keeps throwing an error. |
| I use 2 monitors (the Slate’s, and an external). You can have different wallpaper on each monitor now! very cool. | Can not do a Manual Activation because the slui 4 UI where you pick your country, is stuck on Afghanistan and you can not change it! I do have a suspicion that this MAY also be related to WindowsToGo, but I can not confirm either way. |
| Windows 8 is SCREAMING FAST on my hardware | I needed to download multiple files from SkyDrive to local drive. When you select multiple files in SkyDrive, the Download sprite is removed. I had to download the files individually. Luckily there where only 8 files, but this was a shocker! |
| IE 10 is SCREAMING FAST on my hardware | At one point, everything that required my live id stopped working (music, Xbox, SkyDrive, etc.) Not sure why. I had to reboot after Windows Update finished with a round of updates, and it all started working again after the reboot. Weird for sure. |
| When picking a login picture, you can now select a picture directly from SkyDrive. | I have been unable to get the legacy Zune software to install. Keeps wanting to install .NET 3.5, which fails because .NET 4.0 is already installed. So apparently, Zune installer can’t see what version, if any, of .NET is installed. |
Major ouch is that my companies VPN software will not install!!!  It has a similar error. The installer can not see that .NET is installed, so it won’t install either. Of course, our IT has no ETA for when they will have an update. Unfortunately, this might be the biggest party pooper that prevents me from upgrading | |
| I’m one of the 6 people in the world that liked the Aero transparency effect. I will miss Aero. A moment of silence please… |
Of course, we will need more and more Win8 UX style apps over time, but I understand there is a great selection already in the App Store (that I can not see while running WindowsToGo)
Regardless of all the above issues, I LOVE Windows 8 a lot, especially when I’m using my Slate in touch mode.
Using the Desktop and the new Start simultaneously and back-n-forth when I’m using it in a more traditional “desktop” configuration takes a little getting used to, but much of that is just the re-programming of my old brain to know where to go for what I want to do.
I am in the camp that touch will become ubiquitous and thus a huge fan of the “touch first” design principle. I’m sure my muscle memory will catch up with the rest of me once I can spend more daily time in Win8.
Now, if I could just get my new Win Phone 8 soon too…..
Robert
- It is an honor to be of service
