win 8 must boot into metro first, before you can start normal windows session?

Temmu · Aug 9, 2012

greets!

well, that's what i heard.
you have to boot win 8 into metro, and from that, start a normal, usable windows session.

is that true?

thanks!

cluberti · Aug 9, 2012

Yes, you must boot into the Windows 8 interface, even if it's only for a moment (there are ways around this with startup programs, but even those can't entirely bypass it.

Laxer · Aug 9, 2012

I wonder if they will address this?

They have already sent out copies to OEMs haven't they?

If that's the case we may just be stuck...

I for one am going to stick with W7 unless magically 8 has something 7 can no longer offer... (I jumped from XP->7 for more RAM support and DX11)

usasma · Aug 10, 2012

I bypassed the Metro stuff by creating a shortcut to "Sleep" on the Taskbar on the Desktop
Then when I resume from Sleep it goes directly to the Desktop.
It seems much more stable in sleep than Win7 was - I've only had to reboot once since mid-June when resuming from sleep had problems.

It's already been released to OEM's, and will be given to MSDN/TechNet around 15 August - with GA (General Availability) being 26 October.

Win8 has a lot of new and improved stuff from Win7 - but nothing earth shattering.

The biggest change is as you've stated - you can't get by the Metro stuff.
This was possible in the Developer Preview - but sometime after that Microsoft tightened up the code preventing that.

Lack of a Start Menu is a bit disturbing, but it's fairly easy to get around. The biggest PITA is finding a way to launch your apps that you don't use all that often - and the Search function on the Metro interface works fairly well for that.

Don't forget the charmed Admin corner (I have no idea what it's actually called). It's accessed by right clicking on the lower left corner of the screen and it gives you a lot of shortcuts to commonly used Admin functions (to include a "Run as admin" Command Prompt).

I switched to Win8 in June, shortly after the Release Preview came out and have adapted to it fairly well.
My primary reason for the switch was so that I'd be familiar with it when it came out - and we had to start helping OP's with it.

I figure that Win7 will hang around longer than Vista, but not much longer (and less than XP). This is because of 2 things: the increasing trend by some users to replace PC's with "smart" devices; and the "One OS to rule them all, one OS to bind them." approach that's making Windows look like Windows Phone.

zigzag3143 · Aug 10, 2012

Win 8 has some major improvements but like any change there are a few things that arent to my liking. I have been running win 8 only since February and by now I sometimes have to force myself to remember it is win 8 not win 7. I want to stay current and have gone as far as using metro, and other things to understand them so I can help others fix them.

Cookieman · Aug 10, 2012

From what I heard somewhere there are programs to bypass booting to metro first but M$ are putting a stop to this, how true that is I do not know. I myself have been using Windows 8 on and off (partly dual booting with 7, and partly 8 solo) since the release of Windows Developer Preview and have jumped to the Consumer Preview and now to Release Preview. My reasoning for this was the same as John's - "so that I'd be familiar with it when it came out - and we had to start helping OP's with it."

To be honest, I cant see what the fuss is to boot direct to desktop when all it takes is a quick click on the metro tile.

AceInfinity · Aug 10, 2012

I'm sure there are ways around it, but I think the boot into Metro is an integrated security feature for the Activation process, in which Microsoft requires now direct activation from them? Not too sure, I'll be doing more testing on Windows 8 by August 15th to see what may really be going on with that. Perhaps they forced it so that the legitimate check happens before the Windows session starts to load into the user account, instead of on a system internal timer interval after the login session has already started?

This requires crackers to look into different methodologies for bypassing activation i'm sure if this is what I think it is.

cluberti · Aug 12, 2012

No, boot to the new UI is there because starting programs from the desktop (remember, the new UI is the start menu) isn't exactly easy anymore. As to fixing it, there's nothing to fix - you boot to the new start screen and you start your programs from there (whether they be desktop or otherwise). It's not that hard to get used to, honestly.

A Guy · Aug 12, 2012

Microsoft definitely wants you to see the new UI. Even if just for a few seconds. they want users to use it and get used to it. It is what they are pushing. For better or worse. A Guy

AceInfinity · Aug 12, 2012

cluberti said:
No, boot to the new UI is there because starting programs from the desktop (remember, the new UI is the start menu) isn't exactly easy anymore. As to fixing it, there's nothing to fix - you boot to the new start screen and you start your programs from there (whether they be desktop or otherwise). It's not that hard to get used to, honestly.

That doesn't at all mean it's impossible to "fix" though. Having a fair bit of programming knowledge I can tell you this with 100% confidence that there's ways to do it. Heck, you might even see it happen in the near future.

Anthony N · Sep 19, 2012

I'm not against Windows 8, but I only played with it on my netbook. I'm back to windows 7.

Maybe I'll dual boot it. I do like Windows 8's speed in boot and general eye candy. Things are "dumbed down" more so written in English for the task manager and general control panel tasks.

I'm not so sure how games will take to the new desktop UI but it was confusing to get used to the click-less start menu.

All-in-all I'll stick to 7 until I somehow get forced to switch either by newegg discontinuing the sales on 7, or microsoft marks my copy of windows invalid, like it did to me when I attempted to run XP back in '09

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win 8 must boot into metro first, before you can start normal windows session?

Temmu

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win 8 must boot into metro first, before you can start normal windows session?

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