[Oerg866]

Changing startup options is now much easier and it tells you how big of a difference these programs make. I like.

[Master Emerald]

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It's MUCH faster for a lot of things. Try dragging a window across the screen - it has to constantly redraw the window when you do it (on old versions of Windows or on worse hardware, this is why you only see a dotted outline when you drag a window - old hardware couldn't redraw windows fast enough). On DWM it has the window stored in memory which means huge performance improvements on even basic tasks like that.

But that is valid for Luna and Vista basic too, isn't it?

Also, even with transparency off, DWM noticeably gets about 10% of your GPU processing power, not as much as I expected, though! And yeah the other reskins are basically the same as Windows Classic. I think they could have made a version of the classic skin using DWM on 8!

This post has been edited by Master Emerald: 08 August 2012 - 05:37 PM

[Guess Who]

Master Emerald, on 08 August 2012 - 05:27 PM, said:

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It's MUCH faster for a lot of things. Try dragging a window across the screen - it has to constantly redraw the window when you do it (on old versions of Windows or on worse hardware, this is why you only see a dotted outline when you drag a window - old hardware couldn't redraw windows fast enough). On DWM it has the window stored in memory which means huge performance improvements on even basic tasks like that.

But that is valid for Luna and Vista basic too, isn't it?

No, they use the old window management. Just like Windows Classic but with a different look.

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Also, even with transparency off, DWM noticeably gets about 10% of your GPU processing power, not as much as I expected, though! And yeah the other reskins are basically the same as Windows Classic. I think they could have made a version of the classic skin using DWM on 8!

The minimum FPS in that benchmark is slightly higher without Aero, but you'll notice the maximum and average are almost identical. See also the Crysis benchmark from the same thread that shows all numbers as being damn near identical, Aero or not.

[DustArma]

Nevermind that Aero disables itself whenever you go into a fullscreen game.

[Master Emerald]

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No, they use the old window management. Just like Windows Classic but with a different look.

That was what I was questioning, that Luna and Basic are the same as Classic xD.

[HighFrictionZone]

Right so. I tried Windows 8. Honestly and truly I did. But there were - and still are - problems that have to be sorted out in the next couple months before I would even consider it.

Primarily: No matter how hard I tried, I could not get it to recognize my audio device. No sound is a no go: half of what I do on the computer involves hearing things. But, I suppose that once Windows 8 hits release, that area might be shored up.

Second: Microsoft account. I was all gung-ho about signing into my computer using my Microsoft account which was previously called a Windows Live account which was previously called my Xbox Live account. But the interface for signing in using said account is BROKEN, constantly redirecting to the "Create an Account" interface. Again, I suspect this could be fixed before release, but it does throw some doubt on the developer's abilities.

Third, and this is the actual deal breaker for me - I can buy new sound cards and I don't have to link my PC account to a Microsoft accout. But that metro start screen.... It just. I'm fine with the tiles. I don't mind the dumb interface. But god help you if you have more than one screen-full of data. Scroll through it using mouse wheel right? WRONG. Well I can click and drag on an empty space- you know, to simulate touch and swipe, right? INCORRECT. I am forced to use the scroll bar on the bottom. NEVERMIND THE FACT THAT HORIZONTAL SCROLLING IS THE DUMBEST IDEA EVER. I get that the vast majority of users have monitors wider than they are tall. But, you know, that means you're fighting the learned behavior that websites and everything else scrolls vertically. And besides, most scroll wheels are vertical in nature - not horizontal. Although, what with the scroll wheel not working for the start screen, that probably didn't occur to them.







AS A SIDE NOTE: There are commands which can be employed to edit the BCD store to permit persons on Windows 7 to boot from a VHD. The system supports it - and has since Vista - there just wasn't an interface for it.

[Oerg866]

Another user who doesn|t know what the "desktop"button is for. Also, Windows 7 64 bit audio drivers WILL WORK.

[Covarr]

I can put up with having to click the desktop button. I can put up with horizontal scrolling. The biggest problem with Modern Sonic UI is that it does not have folders. Yeah, you can set up dividers, but when everything adds an icon called "uninstall" it becomes a real pain to figure out what's what.

[Skaarg]

My biggest issue with that start screen is how it adds EVERYTHING to it. It was okay before if a program had 5-8 items in the start menu because they were hidden in a folder. With Windows 8 you get all of them cluttering up your start screen. Then you have to remove each item, and re-organize to your liking. It reminds me of the Vita home screen where it has potential, but it can just become a clusterfuck of nonsense very easily.

[Skaarg]

Sorry for the double post, but I thought some might find this interesting.



http://forums.mydigi...r-for-Windows-8

So apparently this person is making it so the Windows 7 explorer.exe will run on Windows 8. So with this Metro is completely gone, you have the new Windows Explorer with ribbon (eh I like it), and you get all the performance/start-up enhancements brought on by Windows 8. It's still a bit buggy as obvious from the description in the thread, but it will obviously make some people like myself very happy if it gets completed.

[Oerg866]

DUDE! :D classicshell update got released today =P

To hell with those win7 explorer hacks btw.

This post has been edited by Oerg866: 18 August 2012 - 11:12 AM

[Meat Miracle]

Here's another replacement. Can't verify if it's real or not, though.
http://lee-soft.com/vistart/

[Covarr]

ViStart is real. Kinda buggy, but real.

[Morph]

Yeah, it is. That's from the same guy who made ViOrb, which gives you a Vista/7 style start button on other Windows operating systems (with customizable image). It works, but the last time I ever bothered using it (which was when I still used XP), it felt slow... and a little bit glitchy.

[HighFrictionZone]

Oerg866, on 14 August 2012 - 02:07 PM, said:

Another user who doesn|t know what the "desktop"button is for. Also, Windows 7 64 bit audio drivers WILL WORK.

If you had paid attention, my complaint wasn't that I couldn't deal with the start screen, or that the audio wasn't working: I can live with tiles. Sound support will only get better as time goes on.

The problem is that the tiled "start screen formerly known as metro" did not support using a mouse wheel to scroll through content. Which makes sense: the scroll wheel is vertical and the content scrolls horizontal. Except that doesn't make sense because who the fuck sets it up for horizontal scrolling? The entire crux of my complaint was that when there is too much content for one screen, visually navigating to the rest of the content takes too long. I suppose that I could just search for it, except then those live tiles do absolutely fuck all and I'm right back to doing exactly what I'm doing with Windows 7 except they made a pointless change to the interface.


And yes, I am more than aware of what the desktop button does. I am just saying that I made a serious legitimate attempt to use the operating system AS THE DESIGNERS INTENDED and discovered that the product has actually regressed from a usability standpoint: a shame because I honestly and truly do think that there is some merit to the idea of having live tiles.




On a different note: Currently dual-booting Xubuntu and Windows 7, in preparation for when Steam hits Linux and I can start moving to a Linux only. Now if only GOG.com could support linux so I wouldn't have to run games in WINE, I'd be set.