EDIT: That's was the x64 version. I tried x86 now, and the good news is that VMWare doesn't crash. The bad news is that the installer still doesn't crash (it gives a curious kind of BSOD with a smily face on it and the error "HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED".

If MS designed Win8 to load the Hyper-V as part of the boot-up sequence for the OOBE setup wizard, that's rather stupid. In fact, I'd be surprised if it's loaded by default, because at least on Server 2008 enabling it has some pretty big performance implications for the host OS.

6 minutes ago,Sven Groot wrote

You've never been able to run a virtualization product inside a virtual machine, I don't think Hyper-V changes that.

1 minute ago,magicalclick wrote

Still downloading. Going to completely overwrite my laptop. I have super clean backup already, so, it is fast to recover my laptop if I want to restore it. But, my odds are, I will use the new VS on Win8 all the way.

You're one brave puppy.

Currently my system has three internal disks: an SSD with Win7 on it, a 2TB HDD for data, and a 1TB HDD for screen captures. The 1TB disk is out, because I don't want anything on it. The 2TB drive is currently in one partition, so if I want to use it for dual boot I'd have to repartition it. Either I have to move about 800GB of data off it and back on, or I shrink the partition and create a new one at the end. That would work, but it does mean I'm installing Windows 8 on the slowest part of the disk (near the end).

Alternatively, I have an old 500GB drive that I removed from the machine due to its tendency to vibrate on occasion. I could put that one back in (assuming I have enough SATA power cables left) and install Win8 on that.

Either way, it's going to be a step back from using the SSD as the boot drive, which is hardly an optimal solution. I also don't like dual booting for evaluation because I tend to end up using the old OS because that already has all my apps and settings.

What was MS thinking releasing a technical preview OS and not making it compatible with virtual machines? Don't they realize that that's how us techies evaluate stuff nowadays?

EDIT: I tried it Windows Virtual PC 7 (with the x86 edition, obviously) and got the same HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED error.

14 minutes ago,Sven Groot wrote

I really don't like the idea of overwriting my main Win7 installation before giving it a try elsewhere. That leaves me with two options.

*snip*

Boot from VHD?

Guess it only works on Samsung slates

Windows cannot install required files. The file does not exist. Make surea ll files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070003

Borked download methinks.

27 minutes ago,PerfectPhase wrote

*snip*

Boot from VHD?

That's an interesting notion. I'd have to figure out how to actually do that before I can, however (and it'll have to be after I get home; this laptop is a bit diskspace-challenged having only an SSD drive).

EDIT: Except, of course I can't create the VHD using virtual PC. If I boot the Windows 8 setup from a DVD or USB stick, is there anyway I can get it to install to a VHD?

EDIT2: This appears to be possible with Win7, I'll have to try it with Win8. I will report back tonight after I've tried it.

im going to blow out my work laptop for win 8, its going to be awsome [maybe not my main machine just yet though]

remember guys that this is pre beta stuff, you'll probably be able to run on VMs with later builds, and people will probbaly find a win hack to do it now as well

Interestingly, your Windows Live credentials are managed by the OS. When I clicked, the "sign in" link on this site, I was automatically logged in.

One thing that's going to keep freaking me out until I get used to this interface is not having the regular start menu.

what happens if you fo into the taskbar options where the startmenu settings used to be? whats in there now?

Going to try my (newer) laptop and I have an older laptop that I can go straight to hardware. It is my Linux dev box, but I have a solid tested backup.

guess im gonna finally go 64 we shall see

Edit: Like Stinomus said above, when you are creating the virtual machine make sure to set it to Windows 7, rather than Windows Other as I did originally.

http://serverfault.com/questions/2952/boot-and-install-windows-from-a-usb-thumb-drive

Although, I am in 256 color mode and can't find the settings! Oh well, that's for tomorrow.

1 hour ago,ankur1234 wrote

works great with virtualbox.  Now still need to learn the tricks.  where is notepad, where is the run command, etc.  Do not install Office 2010 it will hand the machine and now you will have to troubleshoot.  I am still trying networking works great.  Could not find the command prompt but manually browsed to the c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe and got to the command prompt.  It actually runs some apps which were written in 1995-96 to work only on DOS.

In the keynote, they showed that just typing 'cmd' from the Metro screen takes you to search and finds cmd.exe on the disk. Probably the same for notepad.

Herbie

It seems very hard to use without a touch screen, though.  I haven't yet worked out how to close any of the programs I open because they are all full screen - I guess I'm missing a Menu hardware button.  I've resorted to killing each one with Task Manager (via Ctrl+Alt+Del) and then using Task Manager's App History tab to start some of the others - I've lost the Metro Home screen somewhere!  Oh, wait, if I click on the blank screen I get after killing an app it reappears!

Some of the sample apps also seem to use 100% CPU (the graphics-intensive ones in particular) and that brings the VM to a stuttering halt.

That Start screen is going to get some getting used to, though.  Every time you hit Start the whole desktop disappears to be replaced by the Start screen...

Clean install, dual boot with Windows 7.

Figuring out now how to do C++ stuff with Visual Studio 11

That start menu is already bothering me. What's the equivalent of start, right-click computer, manage in this system? Or start followed by any of the libraries? I use those a lot. It's going to take a lot of time to get used to it. The whole immersive experience is also still pretty buggy, but that's to be expected at this point.

Heck, even logging off is complicated. You need to open the start screen, click your user tile on the opposite side of the screen, and then pick log off. Okay, so ctrl-alt-del works too but this is fairly stupid.

What Windows is lacking now is a non-intrusive way to start applications that aren't pinned to the task bar, or to do searches. Having to switch to this start screen, hiding everything else, just to start notepad is insane. And where's my list of frequent apps? I use that a lot as well.

It also seems that if you create an account using a Windows Live account it automatically means you need to log in with the password for the Windows Live account (unless you create a PIN) which is a very long and complicated password in my case (because I hardly ever need to type it). Not very nice.

I also think the whole concept of "immersive apps" is flawed on the desktop. I want games and movies to be immersive, not apps! I don't run anything fullscreen. There's lots of stuff I don't even run maximized. This whole "one thing at a time" (or maybe two if you snap one to the side or something) just doesn't strike me as useful on the desktop, but by removing the old start screen it's forcing me in that UI every time I want to launch something.

The other changes they've made on the desktop side of things are pretty nice, such as the multi-monitor taskbar, the new task manager, I even quite like explorer with the ribbon. But this immersive stuff has not left a good first impression. I just don't see why I would want it on the desktop. I want a way to use Windows without ever having to see a full screen immersive app, ever.

1 minute ago,Sven Groot wrote

That start menu is already bothering me. What's the equivalent of start, right-click computer, manage in this system? 

Right-click on "Computer" from the new ginormous "Start Menu". A context menu slides up from the bottom. Click "Advanced". Select "Manage".

6 minutes ago,cbae wrote

*snip*

Right-click on "Computer" from the new ginormous "Start Menu". A context menu slides up from the bottom. Click "Advanced". Select "Manage".

Well, at least it's in there. But like everything else, it seems like I'm zigzagging all over the place to get there.

I just rebooted into Win7, and here's how I had to reboot: bring mouse to the bottom left of the screen (hover over start button), click settings, bring mouse to the bottom right of the screen, click power, click restart!

And that's not the only place where I feel this happens. This left/right thing might not be much of a problem if you're using touch, but for a mouse user it feels like this is "Windows 8: because you're constantly making figure 8s with your mouse to get at stuff".

EDIT: I'm liking the system wide spell-check, by the way. It even has a Dutch dictionary (unexpected considering not even the English version of Office comes with Dutch proofing tools without having to buy the Dutch language pack).

8 minutes ago,Sven Groot wrote

*snip*

I just rebooted into Win7, and here's how I had to reboot: bring mouse to the bottom left of the screen (hover over start button), click settings, bring mouse to the bottom right of the screen, click power, click restart!

*snip*

I think Microsoft went overboard in this crusade to show the tech world "we understand touch". They forgot that while we have two hands for touch gestures, we still have only one mouse cursor. They may need to add dual mouse support.