News Flash! You can try Windows 8.1 WITHOUT full wipe...

[mitchellvii]

Ok plugged in my USB wireless adapter and going much better now. Don't know what's wrong with the SP built in one.

 

[tonyz3]

Ok plugged in my USB wireless adapter and going much better now. Don't know what's wrong with the SP built in one.

You seem to have all the luck....

 

[RSteinwand]

Not "luck", it's "Karma"....

I'm pretty sure every dork and geek is DL'ing right now, or at least watching the videos.

 

[mitchellvii]

Ok, up and running. IE 11 does have favorites folders although it is a bit clumsy. Browser is fast. Sweeping does not work in desktop version.

Split screen feature is very nice and fast. Also easier to close Metro apps by dragging than before.

Arranging Metro Tiles much easier but seems like no way to turn on live tiles. Am I missing something? Oops, ok NOW live tiles are working. Weird. Ok now they are off again. What is causing that?

Can show 4 rows of tiles in Settings.
Something as simple as having your desktop wallpaper on your Start Page does make the transition far less jarring. Funny.

Being able to select multiple tiles and resize or move them is nice.

The Start Button seems a little smallish to me. Also the long press menu is so basic and utilitarian looking.

Desktop feels faster. Apps launch very quickly.

Wow News Bento MUCH faster. I mean like "are you kidding me?!" faster. Awesome.

SO FAR COLOR ME IMPRESSED. THIS FEELS LIKE A WHOLE NEW MACHINE TO ME.

 

[mitchellvii]

EXTERNAL MONITOR ADJUSTMENTS:

Am trying to figure out how the hell this is supposed to work.

Wow, external monitor is trainwreck of bugs.

 

[tonyz3]

EXTERNAL MONITOR ADJUSTMENTS:

Am trying to figure out how the hell this is supposed to work.

so is the SP out of accessory status again..

 

[mitchellvii]

so is the SP out of accessory status again..

Well not until they get this external monitor mess cleaned up. If anything it is worse now.

For instance, if you drag IE between the SP and Desktop the scaling goes completely nuts and everything gets jammed off to one side. Def a BUG of epic proprotions. Also font smoothing in IE is HORRIBLE on my big monitor. I mean it is like there isn't even any font smoothing at all.

 

[tonyz3]

How many apps can you snap on the SP by itself and on the external monitor.

 

[mitchellvii]

Ok, so far Windows 8.1 is a big improvement and is about as buggy as you would expect with a beta. Although faster, IE 11 is the most buggy part IMHO. Support for external monitors is really bad, worse than it was before.

So conclusion? 8.1 makes the SP a better tablet but not a better part of a desktop system (yet).

One thing I have noticed is that all apps seems to load quite a bit faster.

*Another thing: Metro Apps now will open on my external monitor if I have it set as my primary. Didn't do that before I don't think.

 

[mitchellvii]

Firefox works quite nicely between the SP and external monitor. It is just desktop IE that is seriously whacked.

 

[mitchellvii]

Ok this is kind of cool on dual monitors. Whichever monitor you click the Start Button on, that is the monitor the Metro Start Page opens. They really need to fix their font smoothing algorithm. It's terrible. Text in IE on my big monitor looks AWFUL.

 

[ArnoldC]

I am getting error 0x8020002 1/3 of the download from the Store. I don't know why and didn't ask Microsoft, but I'm now downloading the ISO from my MSDN account to try it that way. Perhaps a better way as I can now boot Windows 8.1 from VHD and keep my Windows 8.