Can supermodel Heidi Klum save Windows 8? Not so fast

This year's MTV European Music Awards had everything: slinky supermodel presenter Heidi Klum, swathes of preposterous pop stars, and, er, an enormous Windows 8-powered video wall. Keen to suck up any excess stardust, Microsoft provided the screen to show what was happening backstage. The operating system’s appearance at the …

[Lee Dowling]

Personally

Just received my "official" Windows 8 physical CD from MS that I ordered as part of their £14.99 upgrade plan for Windows 7 computers. Needless to say, in the month it took to arrive (luckily they *do* give ISO downloads, but a lot of people on that offer must have had to wait a month to get an install disk that they didn't know how to use, methinks) Windows 8 Pro itself hasn't managed to work its way out of a VM and onto my actual computer.

In fact, in anything, it's probably sleeping quietly inside the confines of its quarantine, waiting for the day that it sees light. Bear in mind that on the machine I installed the VM, it's a brand-new Windows 7 machine and the first I've personally had running that OS (I've trialled it and tested it and done lots of work with it, but never on my own personal machine which has been XP for YEARS). It would have been a cinch to ditch the fresh Windows 7 Home Premium install and then put Windows 8 on and skip Windows 7 entirely.

The Windows XP -> Windows 7 migration? Pretty smooth, given that it's still on there and I haven't needed to exorcise it yet and the computer gets 16 hours of use a day for everything from work to games. Sure, I needed to polish it up a bit and plug some holes with freeware and its far from perfect but it's certainly usable without major hindrances.

But Windows 8? I spent a day getting a "Active Directory Users & Computers" icon on my menu - so much bad software installation and dead-end error codes that it was unbelievable. Got there in the end (apparently it's my fault for installing from a VM network share, using en_GB as the system language, and wanting to disable automatic updates and Windows Search, which are obviously the FIRST things you look at when the install program for RSAT just crashes with random hex codes that mention none of the above).

I could never get the file management windows to be vaguely productive for me and I'd get more done using a third-party shell than I would windows explorer now.

If it wasn't for the fact that it was only £14.99 and that gives me "8 Pro" which I can use to manage networks if it comes to it, and I can keep it snoozing inside a VM until I actually *need* it (which is likely to be very infrequently), I wouldn't have touched it. The same tricks applied to 7 don't apply to 8 and there's some things that you simply cannot do and I couldn't get it to the point where I could actual feel productive using it. Even the "Server Manager" junk I'm dreading having to use, and when I do, I'm likely to use VMWare's "Unity" feature so that I get the Windows 8 Pro windows from the VM overlaid into my Windows 7 desktop as if they are native apps.

Seriously - I have a "free" upgrade any time I like, I'm fresh off of XP and thus mentally prepared to put in the legwork to get to a productive desktop, I have the software installed, properly licensed, an "edition" upgrade to give me more features, even a free Media Centre key for it (not that I'll use that feature for anything except the DVD codecs), entirely compatible hardware, and still I can't justify actually *USING* Windows 8 over Windows 7 (or even over XP).

And still I haven't figured out how to lose the Language menu on the taskbar (which is required because I *have* to have the en_US language pack for the RSAT tools to work), or the "Touch Keyboard", both of which come back after a reboot no matter what options or registry entries you tweak. It's just like a bad, untested Windows 7 service pack that no-one wants to touch - it's exactly like installing Gnome 3 on top of your perfectly-working system - the underneath is the same but the interface is just too horrendous to use even if it comes "for free".

Windows 7 gets used 16 hours a day by someone who stuck with XP up until this October (quite glad I left it that late, because without the existence of all the freeware and tweaks I want to do to it, I wouldn't have touched it).

Windows 8 gets used once a month to do a Windows update on it, from inside the Windows 7 VM host.

You could offer a free Heidi Klum blue movie with every copy, and still you'd have problems shifting it.

[qwarty]

Re: Personally

If you really feel so worried about taking the plunge you could install 8 on a separate disk partition. Similar situation, I didn't have the time to fiddle around with VM experiments just crossed fingers and did the update. No problems with any software I use so counts as 100% success so far but I don't use RSAT at the moment so good to have the heads up if your problems aren't just VM related.

[Lee Dowling]

Re: Personally

The problems aren't VM-related - they are just Windows 8 no matter what hardware/flavour you have. You have to download an "msu" file. Those won't install from a network share (even a mapped network drive) but WON'T tell you why (error out with junk or just die quietly). Copy to C:\, they work. You can't install RSAT without en_US language packs installed (they now tell you this on the relevant MS KB article in TINY writing in a huge block of text). If you try, no errors, no install, it just dies silently. To start to install the language pack you need to have Windows Search enabled (or the language window shows languages but no language packs - again, no error or any useful information, just a blank window and no way to progress). To actually complete the install, you need Automatic Updates turned on and working (again, no errors or useful information). Then it will install, silently, into the Windows Features option under the Programs & Features dialog in control panel and you can enable it to get the menus come up.

Pretty sure that in Windows XP they were "just there" on the appropriate versions of Windows and didn't even need a separate install, let alone one so convoluted. That's also not the only convoluted and horrendously undocumented problem that I've had with Windows 8 but it's certainly one of the easiest to explain and worst example.

And dual-booting went out with the Ark (I am not going to reboot to get into an OS to do one thing and then have to reboot again to get back to how I was). VM's install quicker, snapshot easier, migrate between machines, work just as fast (if you have VT extensions on your processor and enough RAM) and are more flexible and can be migrated to disk if you ever decide to keep them. So glad I VM'd Windows 8, whereas Windows 7 would have slipped onto my disk eventually if I'd bothered to VM that first, without any help.

[bluest.one]

Re: Personally

>... it's exactly like installing Gnome 3 on top of your perfectly-working system - the underneath is the same but the interface is just too horrendous to use even if it comes "for free".

That perfectly sums up my feelings on Windows 8 (as a win7 user).

[RichMcc]

It doesn’t matter how many celebs you pay to endorse it.. windows 8 doesn’t work as a desktop OS, metro gets in the way, and doesn’t work as a tablet OS, and the surface is useless as a tablet and a laptop. Put it in the bin with ME and Vista, and try harder next time...

[Captain Save-a-ho]

If she was included in your purchase

That's the only way to get guys to buy Windows 8.

[TRT]

Re: If she was included in your purchase

lovely jubblies.

[Nuke]

They are Obviously thinking Big ....

First stop Chippenham.

[Chris Gray 1]

On TV too

I may have the details worng, but...

I think I saw a Surface on the show "Mentalist". And, Window 8 screens on "Hawaii Five-O". It was all just props of course, not actually doing anything. Looked strange to me, but then I'm a Linux guy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Seal must have seen the writing on the wall.

"Windows 8 is going to flop," he said to her. "The future is obviously Linux and Android".

"No, I love the active tiles," she said.

...

Fast forward...fanboi divorce.

[Anonymous Coward]

> No, I love the active tiles," she said.

Hah! No synergies with Ms Klum - nothing flat or square about her ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Tell me I'm stupid but

I have yet to read anything that tells me why I would want to upgrade from windows 7 to windows 8 - what does it give me that I want and can't do now?

No, I don't want to install it and play about with it until I like it, I want a reason to want to install it.

I suppose if Heidi Klum comes to explain it to me personally, I'll be listening

[Anons anon]

Is it just me, or is there a certain stench of desperation over Microsofts attempts to flog their Windows 8?!? Lord knows they seemed insecure about it before, but all those celeb ads lately only make them look insecure AND desperate...

[W. Anderson]

If computer users purchase or "like" Microsoft Windows 8 devices because of endorsement from supermodel/actress Heidi klum, the public is more brain dead and stupid than one could imagine.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been very much amused..

.. by what they have been doing in the train station in Zürich.

The train station has a big hall which is used for all sorts of events, and the last 2 times I had to go through it had a massive Win 8 promotion stand. One of the games they play is .. wait for it .. pong.

Now, OK, choosing a 1970's game to demo a supposedly *cough* modern *cough* OS is one thing, but the funniest thing was nobody could control it properly with the finger-on-screen interface. I and quite a few other people watched this with some amusement - playing a game with a screen resolution of maybe 320x200 and not having a fine control to play it takes some doing.

What's more, a colleague of mine came in 2 days later into the office and regaled me with *exactly* the same observations - and he's technical, but no computer expert.

Somehow I have a feeling that the campaign here is not going to give much ROI..

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing can save Win 8

Heidi can't save Win 8 nor can anyone or anything else. Maybe what goes around is finally coming around?

BTW, I always though Heidi was over rated. She's attractive but even when prancing around in lingerie she's just average IMO.

[Anonymous Coward]

If it needs that amount of promotion by celebs

......jeez it must be baaaaaad

[moonface]

supermodels, preposterous pop stars and celebrities

Lets's face it. This group of somebodies have failed for decades to 'Save the world' and to alleviate world hunger. Does anybody really believe that they can save Windows 8!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's completely shite

I tried to use it for 3 months as my primary OS. Whenever I needed to work I ended up rebooting into windows 7. I can't add much more to what's already been said.

I ain't gonna use it.

[Khaptain]

On second thoughts

What's the betting that a certain Mr Sinofsky won't be added to list of celebrities desired for marketing w8.......