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Windows 8 Release Preview ... I give up!
DJGM
Posts: 3,934 Forum Member
✭✭✭
This is a long post ... you might want to make yourself a brew first!
Well ... I'm still on the Consumer Preview, as it seems to be a hell of lot more stable than the Release Preview.
I had an installation of the Release Preview, on a separate partition, which was installed clean, and I'd been
in the process of recreating my existing setup from the Consumer Preview, using Windows Easy Transfer,
and reinstalling all of my programs. The trouble is, everytime I had got a few minutes into doing anything,
the whole thing just locks up and becomes totally unresponsive. The mouse cursor still moves around,
but nothing is clickable at all, meaning I have to force a hard reboot via the reset button.
I thought, "OK, not too much hassle really while the Consumer Preview still works OK." I'll go back to that.
Tuesday ... I decided to do a fresh re-install of the Release Preview. I reformatted the partition the previously
unstable installation was on, inserted the USB pen drive upon which I had created a bootable Windows 8
setup drive, as it's faster to install Windows from that, rather than from a DVD.
About 30 or so minutes later, I came back to the PC, went through the "first time setup wizard", and was
presented with the default Metro Start screen as I'd expected. I switched to the Network section of the
standard Control Panel and set up the network connection to get on the internet.
Then I thought, "While I'm here, I'll have a quick look at the XBox Live Games app on the Start screen."
I fired it up, logged in to my XBox Live account, had a quick look around for a few minutes, looked at
some of my Achievements in GTA IV and Saints Row: The Third, then decided to return to Desktop,
so I can make a start on recreating my setup from the Consumer Preview.
Unfortunately, Windows 8 Release Preview had other ideas. I clicked and dragged the XBox app out of
the way so that it'd close. Well, it certainly closed, but then left me with a screen with a rather plain
dark blue background, and a static busy cursor. The damn thing had locked up ... again!
This, ladies and gents, is a fresh clean install of Windows 8 Release Preview, with NO extras installed.
Windows 8 Release Preview, is the official release candidate build, therefore NOT classed as a beta,
and it seems more unstable than the Windows 8 Developer Preview, especially if it decides to just
fall over and die within less than ten minutes of use, and with NO third party apps installed!
Fast forward from Tuesday evening, to late last night . . .
So, I had decided to give the Release Preview one last chance. I reformatted the partition again, downloaded
a fresh copy of the Release Preview ISO from the official download page. The previous copy of the ISO
that I'd downloaded was from my Microsoft Technet Professional Downloads subscription.
(Both ISO files from either source are essentially the same except for their file names.)
I created a new bootable installation from the new ISO file on a different USB pen drive than I'd used before,
in case the earlier copy of the ISO and/or the previous USB pen drive had a combined problem that was
causing the Release Preview to freeze up so soon after installation. Although, when anything like that
ever happens, the installer stops part way through the process with an "install failed" error.
Generally, I'd expect that to happen if the ISO file was from an unauthorised source such as a torrent site.
So, I set about running the installation from the bootable USB, created from the freshly downloaded ISO.
I restarted the computer, booted up from the USB, and followed the usual prompts on the setup wizard.
The usual suspects ... select language/keyboard, enter product key, accept the license agreement,
reduce heat, and leave to simmer for approximately 20-30 minutes ... time for a brew!
25 minutes later, the install is done, and the "first time setup wizard" is again ready for my attention.
So far so good. After following the prompts and answering its questions, the garish coloured Metro
tiles of the Windows 8 Start screen appear. OK, now to get to work methinks. I wonder how far it
might let me proceed this time? Could everything be OK now? I've used a new ISO, installed it
from a different USB pen drive than before. Surely there's no reason for it to lock up?
I then set about running the Windows Easy Transfer program, to transfer the settings and stuff it has
managed to grab from the Consumer Preview setup. This is going to take a while, so I'll go catch up
on last Thursday's edition of The Late Show that I hadn't seen yet. Yeah, that's right ... Letterman!
45 minutes later, I come back to the PC ... and the transfer has completed ... sort of. I still have to
reinstall all my programs. Oh well, here goes. This could take a while ... but I'm sort of used to it!
No wait, Windows Easy Transfer wants me to reboot the computer. OK, not a problem.
I install Classic Shell to reinstate the missing Start button and a proper Start menu. Not a problem.
I install QTTabbar, to add tabs to Windows 8 Explorer. Not a problem. Windows Explorer now has
a feature they should've added ages ago without the need for a 3rd party add-on. (Now, Microsoft,
why can't you add tabs to Explorer, instead of that stupid, bloated, cluttered Ribbon thing?!?)
I install SeaMonkey. Not a problem. I install Firefox. Not a problem. I then run MozBackup to put
the backed up browser profiles into place. Not a problem. Looks as though it's all going to plan.
I install the Adobe Flash Player plugin. Not a problem. (I'd rather not TBH, but it's a necessary evil.)
I decide to come here to post a progress report. I load up SeaMonkey, click the relevant bookmark
to bring up this site, and I'm just in the process of logging in, and BOOM ... everything locks up!
It's at this point, the air in my room turns bluer than the default colour of the Windows XP taskbar!
The cursor is still movable, but it's stuck on the pointy link hand, not the regular arrow pointer.
I can't win. Despite running a clean install no less than 3 times, and using different install media
on my latest attempt, it still seems utterly unstable to the point that it's completely unusable.
Yet the Consumer Preview (which is still a BETA) works perfectly fine. Not a problem!
Even Windows ME was more stable than the Windows 8 Release Preview seems to be.
Well ... I'm still on the Consumer Preview, as it seems to be a hell of lot more stable than the Release Preview.
I had an installation of the Release Preview, on a separate partition, which was installed clean, and I'd been
in the process of recreating my existing setup from the Consumer Preview, using Windows Easy Transfer,
and reinstalling all of my programs. The trouble is, everytime I had got a few minutes into doing anything,
the whole thing just locks up and becomes totally unresponsive. The mouse cursor still moves around,
but nothing is clickable at all, meaning I have to force a hard reboot via the reset button.
I thought, "OK, not too much hassle really while the Consumer Preview still works OK." I'll go back to that.
Tuesday ... I decided to do a fresh re-install of the Release Preview. I reformatted the partition the previously
unstable installation was on, inserted the USB pen drive upon which I had created a bootable Windows 8
setup drive, as it's faster to install Windows from that, rather than from a DVD.
About 30 or so minutes later, I came back to the PC, went through the "first time setup wizard", and was
presented with the default Metro Start screen as I'd expected. I switched to the Network section of the
standard Control Panel and set up the network connection to get on the internet.
Then I thought, "While I'm here, I'll have a quick look at the XBox Live Games app on the Start screen."
I fired it up, logged in to my XBox Live account, had a quick look around for a few minutes, looked at
some of my Achievements in GTA IV and Saints Row: The Third, then decided to return to Desktop,
so I can make a start on recreating my setup from the Consumer Preview.
Unfortunately, Windows 8 Release Preview had other ideas. I clicked and dragged the XBox app out of
the way so that it'd close. Well, it certainly closed, but then left me with a screen with a rather plain
dark blue background, and a static busy cursor. The damn thing had locked up ... again!
This, ladies and gents, is a fresh clean install of Windows 8 Release Preview, with NO extras installed.
Windows 8 Release Preview, is the official release candidate build, therefore NOT classed as a beta,
and it seems more unstable than the Windows 8 Developer Preview, especially if it decides to just
fall over and die within less than ten minutes of use, and with NO third party apps installed!
Fast forward from Tuesday evening, to late last night . . .
So, I had decided to give the Release Preview one last chance. I reformatted the partition again, downloaded
a fresh copy of the Release Preview ISO from the official download page. The previous copy of the ISO
that I'd downloaded was from my Microsoft Technet Professional Downloads subscription.
(Both ISO files from either source are essentially the same except for their file names.)
I created a new bootable installation from the new ISO file on a different USB pen drive than I'd used before,
in case the earlier copy of the ISO and/or the previous USB pen drive had a combined problem that was
causing the Release Preview to freeze up so soon after installation. Although, when anything like that
ever happens, the installer stops part way through the process with an "install failed" error.
Generally, I'd expect that to happen if the ISO file was from an unauthorised source such as a torrent site.
So, I set about running the installation from the bootable USB, created from the freshly downloaded ISO.
I restarted the computer, booted up from the USB, and followed the usual prompts on the setup wizard.
The usual suspects ... select language/keyboard, enter product key, accept the license agreement,
reduce heat, and leave to simmer for approximately 20-30 minutes ... time for a brew!
25 minutes later, the install is done, and the "first time setup wizard" is again ready for my attention.
So far so good. After following the prompts and answering its questions, the garish coloured Metro
tiles of the Windows 8 Start screen appear. OK, now to get to work methinks. I wonder how far it
might let me proceed this time? Could everything be OK now? I've used a new ISO, installed it
from a different USB pen drive than before. Surely there's no reason for it to lock up?
I then set about running the Windows Easy Transfer program, to transfer the settings and stuff it has
managed to grab from the Consumer Preview setup. This is going to take a while, so I'll go catch up
on last Thursday's edition of The Late Show that I hadn't seen yet. Yeah, that's right ... Letterman!
45 minutes later, I come back to the PC ... and the transfer has completed ... sort of. I still have to
reinstall all my programs. Oh well, here goes. This could take a while ... but I'm sort of used to it!
No wait, Windows Easy Transfer wants me to reboot the computer. OK, not a problem.
I install Classic Shell to reinstate the missing Start button and a proper Start menu. Not a problem.
I install QTTabbar, to add tabs to Windows 8 Explorer. Not a problem. Windows Explorer now has
a feature they should've added ages ago without the need for a 3rd party add-on. (Now, Microsoft,
why can't you add tabs to Explorer, instead of that stupid, bloated, cluttered Ribbon thing?!?)
I install SeaMonkey. Not a problem. I install Firefox. Not a problem. I then run MozBackup to put
the backed up browser profiles into place. Not a problem. Looks as though it's all going to plan.
I install the Adobe Flash Player plugin. Not a problem. (I'd rather not TBH, but it's a necessary evil.)
I decide to come here to post a progress report. I load up SeaMonkey, click the relevant bookmark
to bring up this site, and I'm just in the process of logging in, and BOOM ... everything locks up!
It's at this point, the air in my room turns bluer than the default colour of the Windows XP taskbar!
The cursor is still movable, but it's stuck on the pointy link hand, not the regular arrow pointer.
I can't win. Despite running a clean install no less than 3 times, and using different install media
on my latest attempt, it still seems utterly unstable to the point that it's completely unusable.
Yet the Consumer Preview (which is still a BETA) works perfectly fine. Not a problem!
Even Windows ME was more stable than the Windows 8 Release Preview seems to be.
0
Comments
Sounds like you have some kind of driver or other issue. Also you are installing utilities that modify the OS a fair bit with start menu and explorer shell. Your start menu hack may be being used with code that is being removed by Microsoft. For RTM, no software will be able to "reinstate" the start menu, third-party software will need to recreate it in its entirety.
In any case, RP has been rock solid for me. When it expires, I will probably leave this laptop on Windows 7. I would save Windows 8 for new hardware, especially hardware that has a touchscreen and also preferably a multitouch trackpad.
Classic Shell doesn't modify the OS a fair bit. It's merely an add-on that restores the Start Orb and menu.
It isn't really a hack as such. The underlying code the built-in Start menu from XP/Vista/7 relies upon,
and has been removed by Microsoft in Windows 8 is not required by Classic Shell.
As far as Classic Shell goes that doesn't matter, since it doesn't rely on the old Start menu code that has
been removed by Microsoft. It's a completely new implementation that really does recreate the classic
standard Start menus from Windows 9x/NT/XP/VIsta/7 and is highly customisable.
It's very likely Classic Shell should work as well as expected when Windows 8 is finalised later this year.
Even if it isn't fully compatible with W8RTM, it won't take the devs long to put out an updated version.
I gave up on it.
It may be good on touch screens but it was a joke on the laptop. Family hated it too. Windows 7 is a great OS for laptops and desktops. Metro doesn't cut it with a mouse. You are zooming around the screen and all over the place just to bring up options.
I'm working with MS to setup some functionality of the new server 2012 including the use of Windows 8.
I'm not sold on the new user interface and feel windows 7 is the way to go right now.
Windows key and C is your friend for the charm bar! I love that name....
Thanks for sharing your experience
I gave up too
It's hard work with a mouse and you seem to be clicking and zooming all over the place to find what you want.
I daresay practice makes perfect but with W7 a click or two and you're there.
The solution was to completely turn off hibernation as advised on some Windows forums. This fixed it and I was able to shut down properly.
Just press the power button on your PC and that will shut it down.
Some files are fine, but I find a Music folder can't be accessed from Windows 8 at all, and in 7 I have to keep taking ownership of the subfolders to access it, where all was fine before I installed 8.
Mind you, I seem to recall having similar problems when I dual-booted Windows 7 RC and XP.
Two versions of Windows seem to have trouble negotiating ownership and access to mutual files, whereas you seem to be able to have any number of versions of Linux on the same PC without issue?