Windows 8 Consumer Preview Installed on Eee PC Netbook

My old ASUS Eee 1000HEB PC had been running the Windows 8 Developer Preview and I decided to see if I could “upgrade” it to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview via the web installer. I had previously performed some hacks to fix the problem of only 1000 x 600 screen resolution in order to get Metro Apps to work. I used an Intel video driver that I downloaded from Samsung:

http://bit.ly/aaM1Tt

I also used a registry hack on the Developer Preview:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ialm\Device0]
“Display1_DownScalingEnabled”=hex:01,00,00,00

The above gave me full functionality but a slightly skewed screen resolution. Nevertheless, the EeePC happily, albeit slowly, ran the W8 Developer Preview.

I decided to try the web installer from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download

The installer told me my devices were ok and I was able to get completely through setup using the Express route. Note that I did have a failure and a roll back when I tried the Customized route. Not sure why, but the end result was that I was able to install the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 on my old and dusty ASUS EeePC for testing purposes. After Windows 8 came up for the first time, I immediately installed the video drivers, then ran the reg file (not sure if this is actually needed, but…). Then I rebooted, and then changed the desktop screen resolution to 1152 x 864 which gave me full Metro functionality including apps. Images below illustrate this success story:

 

 

Windows 8 Interface Looks Slick,but Where is Multimedia Functionality?

Yesterday Microsoft finally pulled back the curtain just a little to give the world a peek at the touch interface for Windows V.Next.

https://www.youtube.com/v/BHrcz7zcm_8?version=3

The “Start” Screen is “swipable” and apparently every app on your system will appear as a tile. I like this concept a lot (and hope that there is an easy way to search for apps if there are hundred’s installed to avoid scrolling through an ungainly number of pages (thinking of my iPad…). The “snap” feature appears to allow two apps to switch focus (but only two) which is cool for a tablet interface, but I am not sure if that works for me on a desktop/laptop used for mainstream work with multiple apps open all the time. I guess we will find out in time. But for a tablet format, I vote YES.

 

In some ways, the interface reminds me of Windows Media Center. But speaking of WMC, while this first demo touched on Pictures and Videos, I didn’t see any TV functionality in the screens that quickly scrolled by in the presentation. There are a lot of missing pieces, and I hope Microsoft reveals info soon.