Windows 8 Release Preview

I had to reinstall my main work laptop OS in a semi-emergency last night ... all my real work is through RDP/RDS, and it was the fastest way to get up and running again.  The longest part was downloading and transferring it to USB.  After that it felt like 5 minutes, in total, before I was able browse the web and get the RDS package and connect to my work VM.  Beautiful!

• You still cannot have two Messenger accounts at the same time for messaging.  This makes things very annoying because my Messenger account it my old Live Id (this one), and my Windows 8 Live Id is new ... very frustrating considering we can add other services like Facebook.  Now I wonder what to do about it.

Overall things seem much better than the CP and I don't miss the Start button anymore. There's still a lot of confusion within apps ... inconsistencies and missing features that will hopefully be addressed.  I'll try to comment on some specifics later, but for now let's stick to the overall experience.  My biggest complaint is the Messenger thing and working without a scroll wheel.

Oh, and I guess the next complaint is that IE10 RP doesn't work for authoring Channel9 Coffeehouse posts.   What happened to all the points?   

I'm not typing it again. 

With all the missing points it looks much more negative. 

With all the missing points it looks much more negative. 

Let's throw some double posts out there too just to make IE10 RP and I both look stupid.  Or is this a C9 bug?

To me on desktops or larger screened laptops Metro style apps are just fancy gadgets that live off the left side of my screen. I like having them because they are isolated and suspended when not running, so I can use lots of them without impacting the system (or even cluttering the taskbar). I just grab one from the switcher or the start screen, check something or do something simple, and then click in the upper left corner to go back to the desktop. It's a bit like I might have a phone next to me while using a PC and check mail on it sometimes, but there are some advantages such as being able to use your keyboard to enter text, being able to click on a link and have it open in the desktop, etc. However for integrating into any more involved workflow I would stick to desktop apps.

It's annoying that most of the defaults are initially set to Metro style apps. I don't think that is what most people will want on non-tablet/netbook PCs.

Mouse scroll wheel should work in apps....if not then they weren't built properly...

I find the scrollwheel support flaky at best. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Even with the built in apps. Seems like you need to give the right area focus before it'll work, which you do by clicking some invisible area after which nothing apparently changes, but suddenly the scrollable control will have focus.

Wondering what your other points were but this

You still cannot have two Messenger accounts at the same time for messaging.  This makes things very annoying because my Messenger account it my old Live Id (this one), and my Windows 8 Live Id is new ... very frustrating considering we can add other services like Facebook.  Now I wonder what to do about it.

Still frustrates the hell out of me. I still have to install Messenger on W8, which is annoying since that's only on the desktop (meaning no notifications when you're in metro) while the messaging application pops up a nice message both in Metro apps and on the desktop. Just let me add a second messenger account, and it would be perfect.

So... is Win8 a New Coke ?

44 minutes ago, elmer wrote

So... is Win8 a New Coke ?

No, it's a Cherry Coke.

By the way, double posts are mostly caused because of the lack of feedback from the submit button (in my experience, but I have cotton on now).

Love the upgrade option for MediaCenter!

It even plays all the things I had to install codec packs for!

Sound is much better!

Epic win!

Let's see how extender support is.

@Bas: fwiw, the new notifications are actually available for use by desktop apps as well, they have to be  coded for it though. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh802768.aspx