[TechNet] Windows Server 2012 "8" Release Candidate available for Download. - Page 3

I know what I'm downloading when I get home

I installed in Vm last night at least the client release candidate. Worked pretty well. I'm not a fan of trying to use a mouse in metro.

This is my biggest grief with Microsoft forcing the Metro UI on their server platform.

Metro is EXTREMELY easy to use with a mouse.

There is no difference between metro and the start button with the exception of one being full screen.

It is even faster to get to programs and apps in metro. took at least 4 clicks in the start menu and 2 in metro.

start menu: Start >all programs>find program>expand the folder> click the program. Minimum of 4 clicks.

Metro: Click "start"> open the program. 2 clicks.

After using 8 as a daily driver for the past few days i have grown to like metro greatly.

Metro gui

Microsoft .. you could of done alot better , you have the ability to change computing history and you give us a new task manager ? Could of made a whole new OS with new possibilities , this is just a rebuild of windows 7 with a prettier paint job .

Have you downloaded and tried Windows 8 at all?

The start menu can hold very nearly as many programs as the start screen in metro, and they require less mouse movement to reach.

Even for the rarely used stuff (beyond the 20+ things you can pin to the start menu + several more on the task bar) still takes less mouse movement to reach when it's not full screen.

So i have move my hand a 1/2" instead of 1/4" on a high DPI mouse. (A little under exaggerated but you get my point i'm sure)

Its not that bad.

Its absolutely a great stable OS.

For me it's an annoyance.

Same can be said for pretty much every properly configured, NT based, incarnation of Windows going back 15+ years.

Basic usability and virtually perfect stability should be a given. There needs to be more than this to justify a potentially expensive and time consuming upgrade, in my opinion.

Here is a list of the small improvements made outside of metro.

Built-in Anti-virus
Faster bootup speeds (10 second bootup time even on magnetic hardrives)
Improved Task Manager
Improved Explorer UI (Uses Ribbon now)
Built in Flash support & updated through Windows Update
Improved Check Disk functionality
UEFI support
Support for mounting images
Hyper-V in the client OS
Improved multi-monitor support (Taskbar can span both monitors and you can use one background image that spans both monitors)
3D Support
IE10 now does silent updates
Automatic syncing of user options such as, wallpapers, desktop backgrounds user prefrences, bookmarks, browser history etc.
Improved copy and paste UI and functionality.
Improved backup support, now works a lot like time machine on OS X
Reset & Refresh, this means you can reformat your computer without and DVD or disc, you can also customize it so it Resets your computer to a certain point, so let's say for example you uninstall all of the bloatware from your laptop, you can then go into the command line and make your current state, the place where it will reformat to. If you do that, you can keep all of your documents and videos too if you use the Refresh option.
Windows to Go -Basically this lets you run Windows 8 off of a flash drive, it's in Windows 8 enterprise only though.
Networking support has been improved, it connects a lot faster now.
USB 3.0 support by default (I believe you have to download special drivers in Windows 7)
Bluetooth Low energy support
NFC support, while largely unnoticed today, Laptops in the future could have NFC "pads" that make it easier for you to transfer data between other devices like phones and tablets.

If that is not enough reason to upgrade then i don't know what is.

There are many more than just the ones i listed as well.

The multiple Monitor support is absolutely awesome as well. love it.