Windows 8 Latest News

[the_watcher]

i can't decide if i like this ribbon-isation of explorer...i certainly like the fact that you have all these commands available & 'in your face', but i think the interface gets too cluttered..and it's very nice that you can minimize the ribbon, too. But i don't understand why most people want the 'up' button...in windows xp, all i used was the up button.nothing else. but win7's explorer, actually 'replaced' it with it's breadcrumb navigation. now i really find win7's explorer much better that xp's one.

[Hydaral]

I hope there is an option to use menus instead of that damn ribbon. It might be OK for touch screens, but do we really need a massive button and icon for every single command?

... i don't understand why most people want the 'up' button...in windows xp, all i used was the up button.nothing else. but win7's explorer, actually 'replaced' it with it's breadcrumb navigation. now i really find win7's explorer much better that xp's one.

I haven't used the Vista/7 explorer that much, but I imagine the Up button would be very useful if you know you need to, for example, go up four levels, if you didn't have the Up button you have to look at the breadcrumb for the directory you want, then click on it, visually scanning the list may take longer than just clicking Up four times, also, the breadcrumb trail may be off the "page".

[guinness]

Seems mounting of ISO files and VHD's will be standard within Windows 8. Though I think it's a little late since CDROM's will soon be a thing of the past. (Don't quote me on that though.)

Ref: http://www.ghacks.net/2011/08/30/finall ... -mounting/

[Hydaral]

Seems mounting of ISO files and VHD's will be standard within Windows 8. Though I think it's a little late since CDROM's will soon be a thing of the past. (Don't quote me on that though.)

Ref: http://www.ghacks.net/2011/08/30/finall ... -mounting/

You can make ISOs of Blu-ray discs.

[webfork]

Seems mounting of ISO files and VHD's will be standard within Windows 8. Though I think it's a little late since CDROM's will soon be a thing of the past. (Don't quote me on that though.)

I saw that article the other day and really don't see how they came to that conclusion. In terms of backup media, I can't think of anything better to use than single-sided DVDs. The media has a long shelf life, its cheap, and everything but netbooks still come with a DVD-RW. Admittedly, most users aren't going to use more than a basic online backup service like Dropbox or Wuala, but for everyone else, the idea that flash media or big hard drives can take over here seems several years away.

That said, I do hope that they don't stick around WELL after their usefulness has ended as with 3 1/2 inch disks.

[SYSTEM]

Hybrid boot makes Windows 8 boot times just amazing.

http://media.ch9.ms/ch9/d60d/520e45c1-8 ... gh_ch9.mp4

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011 ... ows-8.aspx

[SYSTEM]

It seems Windows 8 will support a new filesystem called ReFS.

http://winunleaked.tk/2011/12/good-bye- ... lcome-refs

[webfork]

> Signs are pointing to Windows 8 seeing a 2012 release. At this stage in development, ReFS could stick as a final name: it’s short, simple and easy to remember. The question now is when Microsoft will release some details on the new system. [source]

If memory serves, WinFS was touted pretty highly for Vista and then finally they had to drop it. Hopefully this one makes it to release. Not that NTFS is a bad filesystem: in its day it was one of the major reasons to update to NT. It just can't compete with current options.

[guinness]

I suspect this is a rumour that is floating around, but we'll see come the end of 2012.

[the_watcher]

According to WinRumors, it will only be available in server variants of the operating system ..
http://www.winrumors.com/microsofts-new ... rver-only/

[webfork]

According to WinRumors, it will only be available in server variants of the operating system ..
http://www.winrumors.com/microsofts-new ... rver-only/

That's a real shame, but I understand them wanting to make the transition slowly.

Reminds me a bit of how Apple was going to switch to ZFS until Oracle acquired Sun. Just looking at the wikipedia ZFS page, you can see how that have opened up some really cool options for Mac.

[the_watcher]

Reminds me a bit of how Apple was going to switch to ZFS until Oracle acquired Sun. Just looking at the wikipedia ZFS page, you can see how that have opened up some really cool options for Mac.

I don't think i understand..what cool options are you referring to?

[Hydaral]

It seems Windows 8 will support a new filesystem called ReFS.

http://winunleaked.tk/2011/12/good-bye- ... lcome-refs

Haha, yeah right. They said the same thing about Longhorn/Vista and WinFS, that was the only reason I would have considered upgrading to it. Now where is WinFS? Cancelled, that's where.

I don't know why they just don't use an existing FS and add the features they want.

[SYSTEM]

Microsoft has reacted to some of the feedback it has got.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012 ... dback.aspx

In addition, according to the rumors Windows 8 is currently set to launch in October.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/43952/w ... 012-launch

[webfork]

I don't know why they just don't use an existing FS and add the features they want.

I couldn't agree more. They used a BSD stack for their networking, why not in a filesystem? I can think of a few possible reasons:

• NTFS was a good filesystem for its time and a lot of people back then (late 90s) thought that Windows would take on and eventually beat UNIX. I think its psychically important to follow up on that with a strong technology so that Microsoft stops looking like followers behind the rest of the industry.
• My understanding is that there are MANY different versions of NTFS that "encouraged" upgrading because earlier versions would play nice with later versions. A filesystem they don't control wouldn't have that advantage.
• Metadata. Eventually this will get reverse-engineered, but initially it will keep people from knowing exactly what's going on their hard drive and may help with anti-piracy and authentication.