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You Can't Bypass the UI Formerly Known As Metro On Windows 8

colinneagle writes with this excerpt from Network World: "The final build of Windows 8 has already leaked to torrent sites, which is giving the propellerheads a chance to dig through the code. One revelation will probably not sit well with enterprise customers: you can't bypass the don't-call-it-Metro UI. Normally, you have to boot Windows 8 and when the tiled desktop UI (formerly known as Metro) came up, you had to click on one of the boxes to launch Explorer. Prior builds of Windows 8 allowed the user to create a shortcut so you bypass Metro and go straight to the Explorer desktop. Rafael Rivera, co-author of the forthcoming Windows 8 Secrets, confirmed to Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet that Microsoft does indeed block the boot bypass routine from prior builds. He also believes that Microsoft has blocked the ability for administrators to use Group Policy to allow users to bypass the tiled startup screen. There had been hope that Microsoft would at least relent and let corporate users have a bypass, if only for compatibility's sake."

12 of 444 comments (clear)

  1. MOD PARENT DOWN by rsmith-mac · · Score: 5, Informative

    As someone who actually has a copy of Windows 8, TFA and TFS are correct and the OP is wrong. Microsoft has removed the previous methods of booting straight to the desktop.

  2. Re:the thing that confuses me by SternisheFan · · Score: 4, Informative

    It never was "Metro", it seems. I found this article... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/10/metro_is_modern_ui_now/ Also found this, a bit off topic, but get ready for £the "Surface2"... http://m.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/microsoft-is-already-working-on-surface-2-tablets-1091358

  3. Re:Prediction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    I don't have AC postings. I hate people replying to AC postings.

    AC postings itself are easily blocked from view, but replies to them requires me to open them if I want to read the context (usually I just skip the entire thread, but it takes up valuable screen space).

    Ignoring AC's starts by ignoring AC's.

    In other words... "dammit ACs never post anything of value that's worth reading ... except for all those times that they do. Shit, why won't the whole world help me pretend this never ever happens?!"

    Fucking people, not doing exactly what you'd like them to do with their own personal preferences. The nerve!

    By the way your sig is hilariously ironic. ACs contributing useful posts at least once in a while is a "shade of gray" you don't seem to recognize. Maybe a logged-in user will reply to this and quote it so you can see the hypocrisy. Would that interfere with your cozy black-and-white world of "AC bad, pseudonym good"?

  4. Re:microsoft fanbois will still buy it by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah. After all, we were forced to go to Vista because support for XP was discontinued. Oh, wait. That's not what happened at all.

  5. Re:I understand the choice, but I disagree by bluescrn · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apple have been making some fairly bad decisions with OSX recently. Not quite on the scale of Win8, but they're trying to make it more like iOS, before turning OSX into a similarly locked-down code-signed App Store client.

  6. Re:Really Pisses Me Off by Guppy06 · · Score: 1, Informative

    I recently tried installing it on my netbook with a resolution of 1024x600 (the typical netbok resolution)

    The official system requirements for both 7 and Vista call for at least 768 horizontal lines. The last version of Windows intended for such low resolutions is XP, and the last version of Office is 2003.

    This isn't news.

  7. Re:microsoft fanbois will still buy it by Golddess · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you hate the UI changes in Windows Vista, which Windows 7 kept, and you don't like Metro, then you are kind of screwed.

    Not really, you can tweak 7 to make it look almost the same as XP.

    --
    "I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
  8. Re:no way UEFI lock down will come soon by MaxiCat_42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    What makes you think that businesses buy PCs with an OS loaded. A large enterprise would just load their volume-key enabled image of their current Windows build for that hardware. If the current standard is XP - that's what users get.

    Phil.

  9. Re:no way UEFI lock down will come soon by oakgrove · · Score: 5, Informative

    Windows Server 2012, aka Windows 8 sans Metro

    Unless you specifically use Server Core mode, Windows 8 comes default with the Metro interface.

    --
    The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
  10. Re:no way UEFI lock down will come soon by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Informative

    Let Hairy help ya pal, what you do is run SIW and then bypass the OEMs and get the drivers directly for the hardware from the chip makers. Frankly ALL laptop support is piss poor, you're lucky if you get even a single update for the drivers, but since all the parts are bog standard its easy enough to just bypass.

    Another good source is Driverpacks, they have virtually every major hardware driver for Win 7 and their drivers aren't as "picky" as the OEMs. Slap them on a stick or DVD and let it run, when its done you have a fully functional system.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  11. Re:Tweak-tool by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Informative

    Its called classic shell and you're welcome. When the PC gets ya down just make sure old Hairy is around.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  12. Re:That's fine because I plan to bypass... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Informative

    Except Apple doesn't actually make a lot of money selling apps (and books etc) through the store. If you look at their financial statements, their profit mostly comes from hardware. App store is, for the most part, there to help them sell more of said hardware.

    Hence, Surface.