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Windows Blue 9364 Screenshots Show Feature Enhancements

Posted by timothy on from the suspect-most-leaks-are-by-design dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As expected, a new pre-public version of Windows Blue (build 9364) has leaked online and it reveals a handful of features that are coming in the next big Microsoft Windows 8 update." Several sites have screenshots from the build; Hot Hardware says "Assuming this is all completely legitimate, the most obvious change pertains to the Metro UI, including greater flexibility in sizing Live Tiles and customizing the Start screen, particularly as the Personalize setting (among others, including Devices and Share) is now under the Settings charm. The Name Group feature for the Start menu looks a little more polished, too."

20 of 502 comments (clear)

  1. And it still looks like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Shit.

    1. Re:And it still looks like by spd_rcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I keep getting suckered into this articles just to see if the failing PC market has finally forced them to pull their heads out of their *sses and reinstate the desktop by default and the start button...

      Maybe I'd better luck wishing for some higher res displays as standard on notebooks... How is it that cell phones need 1080p displays, but for doing real work, 1366x768 is supposed to be great ?!

      --
      - tensions in our lives that are attacking our minds, unite themselves together to make our consciousness blind - op'ivy
    2. Re:And it still looks like by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Windows 2000 desktop please..

      Some of us just want to use a pc, not get entertained by dancing buttons and other crap.

      --
      _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
    3. Re:And it still looks like by jhoegl · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can get around the start menu, I can get around the interface changes, I can even deal with the "control panel" not remembering my settings (I always have to select small icons), but until they fix Windows 8 to enable the reason for Windows existance, easy interface for multi-tasking... then they can literally fuck off.

    4. Re:And it still looks like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      they can literally fuck off

      By that, do you mean that at the moment, they are capable of fucking off, but they'll lose this capability when they fix the interface?
      Hey, and now that we're on the subject anyway; what exactly is fucking off? I have trouble imagining how to have sexual intercourse with such an abstract concept named "off".

      *sigh*, the use of the word "literally", is literally not always correct! It drives me figuratively crazy!
      Maybe because liter is a metric unit?

    5. Re:And it still looks like by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ya know what pisses ME off about Metro/Win 8 way of doing things? Not only does it give you NO fucking choice in the matter but things that took one click now take 3 or more, and things that take a couple takes a shitload of submenu bullshit! Take safe mode, push F8 and there ya go, right? WRONG, now its shift PLUS F8 PLUS 3 fucking pages of extra options to get through when all you want is safe mode!

      I get the "fun" of finding drivers for a Toshiba that was "made for Win 8" therefor doesn't fricking have drivers for anything else. i tried warning the guy but he was all "How bad can it really be?"...snicker...he called me 3 weeks later saying "Take this God damned thing OFF my PC! I hate this stupid thing!" and frankly he IS the target audience, has little exp with computers and needs lots of hand holding but win Metro is laid out so damned stupid and has so much extra shit running (like the live tiles mess, which seriously sucks ass on wifi with limited bandwidth) its slowing his little Bobcat laptop to a fricking crawl. When he asked "Does Win 7 REALLY make that big of a difference?" all I had to do was hand him my Bobcat netbook and say "our chips are virtually identical, try it and see" and it didn't take him 10 minutes before he said "That's it, I've had it, make that damned Win 8 go away".

      This is NOT hyperbole, this is NOT from someone who has trouble picking up new OSes, hell I can run a half a dozen including the more esoteric Linux DEs along with Android and iOS but this...its just fucking stupid, it makes assumptions and acts like its on a damned cellphone, expects touch (which will NOT be coming to a good 95%+ of desktops and laptops because holding your arm out like that isn't pleasant and the cost is too high for large touchscreens) and frankly tries its damned best to get in your way and treat you like a moron. this is the first MSFT OS since WinME I will NOT have in my shop and if they refuse to listen to their customers and give us the option of killing this shit dead I predict MSFT will be the next RIM, a company that USED to be a big deal but only has legacy customers that are looking for the exit.

      And if on the off chance any MSFT bigwigs read this? Hi, I'm your customer, I sell and support your product and you are ROYALLY FUCKING UP if you think you can use the damned desktop to EEE your way into the cellphone market, you can't, it won't work, it would be like putting a bubble on a moped and calling it a car hoping to break into the 2 wheeler market off the backs of your car buyers. If you want to compete with Apple in mobile? Then SPIN OFF MOBILE and let them sink or swim on their own, you have hundreds of millions of customers that are either hanging onto what will soon be a two release behind OS of yours or looking at your competitors and that is NOT the way to do business. The desktop is NOT touch, will not BE touch, and nobody wants their PC to be a giant smartphone. Hell watch the video, even usability experts, you know, the people actually PAID the big bux to design UIs? Yeah even they say your design is stupid. The PC is designed for content CREATION and you are trying to push a content CONSUMPTION only design and ya know what? Not gonna work, hell Win 8 has worse numbers than fricking Vista.

      So please MSFT, just stop it, its not gonna work, you can't "pull an IE" and jam your OS into a space where nobody wants it, not like this. All you are doing now is making yourselves look like a bunch of idiots run by marketing drones...which sadly really isn't far off if you look at the output. You are NOT Apple, Redmond is NOT Cupertino, just stop it already because you are just embarrassing yourself.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    6. Re:And it still looks like by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      I can get around the start menu, I can get around the interface changes, I can even deal with the "control panel" not remembering my settings (I always have to select small icons), but until they fix Windows 8 to enable the reason for Windows existance, easy interface for multi-tasking... then they can literally fuck off.

      Dude, why would you possibly expect 'Microsoft Windows' to handle window management? And why would you want window management, and multiple monitors and stuff, when you could be squinting around your thumbs on a 10 inch tablet? Get with the Future!

      The fact that having multiple monitors is cheaper and easier than it has ever been isn't a good thing, it's a temptation designed to corrupt and destroy the weak minded. Resist, brother, and embrace the all-full-screen-all-the-time-for-fuck-knows-what-reason future!

    7. Re:And it still looks like by Entropius · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We don't, and we did.

    8. Re:And it still looks like by Kjella · · Score: 5, Informative

      No one wants a degraded experience and whoever made the spec for LCD to only use the max and use software degradation tricks to still display should be taken out in a field and shot!

      The old CRTs don't have a physical screen grid, it's just an electron beam in the back that can sweep over the screen and draw how many lines you want it to. On an LCD screen every pixel is a physical unit, they can't move or change size. "Whoever made the spec for LCD" only chose what was possible instead of the impossible. Personally I tend to blame the software if it must run in some specific resolution and games should be configurable so you can play them at high resolutions with low quality. There's no good excuse for why a game should do worse at rendering directly in high resolution instead of rendering in low resolution and then upscaling.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    9. Re:And it still looks like by Canazza · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, what should we call them then? Lexicomrades?

      --
      It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
  2. Horrible Horrible Name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The only connection people already know between Windows and Blue is the Blue Screen of Death. In fact, it took me a minute to realize this wasn't about 9364 screenshots of BSODs.

    1. Re:Horrible Horrible Name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I concur. Was imperative to read the summary, until then I was looking forward to seeing the advancements in the BSOD.

  3. Charms? Live Tiles? by ThorGod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a Win7 user, did anyone else feel completely lost reading the summary?

    --
    PS: I don't reply to ACs.
  4. Idiocracy! by DigiShaman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Christ almighty! Would someone please tell Microsoft that Windows 8 is a content consumption platform whereas the corporate world needs a multi-tasking UI. This is fucking bullshit!

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
    1. Re:Idiocracy! by Goodyob · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ah, but you can multitask now! http://pureinfotech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/snap-view-50-50-850x637.png

  5. yay for progress! by Osgeld · · Score: 5, Funny

    one of the featured screenshots being a calculator that will suck up every inch of my large desktop monitor, take that you 20 year old serial terminal in the other room and your fucking text based "windows"

  6. Refusing to give customers what we want by JDG1980 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Several sites have screenshots from the build; Hot Hardware says "Assuming this is all completely legitimate, the most obvious change pertains to the Metro UI, including greater flexibility in sizing Live Tiles and customizing the Start screen, particularly as the Personalize setting (among others, including Devices and Share) is now under the Settings charm. The Name Group feature for the Start menu looks a little more polished, too."

    They don't get it, do they? Power users and most business users don't want to tinker with the Metro UI. We want to be able to get rid of it and boot straight into the Desktop with a traditional Start Menu.

  7. How not to design a tiling window manager by knarf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can sort of see what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 8. The idea is not theirs, nor is it a new idea. It actually goes back a long, long time. When GUIs were born designers wanted to implement direct-manipulation as much as possible. The user had to be able to grab anything, drag and drop and click and whatnot it. This included the windows used by programs, if the user wanted to have that giant word processor in a 50x50 pixel window overlapped by a dozen other windows then they should be able to.

    Now that GUIs are old hat, all that direct manipulation is getting a bit long in the tooth. Shuffling windows around, organizing them 'just' so is just as inefficient as doing the same to text in a word processor. Why not leave all that repetitive work to the computer? That is what machines are for, after all? In short, Microsoft has discovered the advantages of tiling window managers.

    The sad part is that they seem to have forgotten to study the subject before designing Windows 8. All they had to do was install one of the many available existing tiling window managers on a unix of choice and give it a whir. Xmonad or dwm or any of the others do an infinitely better job of it than Windows 8 does. They work with the user, not against him/her.

    --
    --frank[at]unternet.org
  8. You're looking at it wrong. by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Funny

    My suggested Windows 8 slogan: "Nowhere to go but up!"

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  9. Linus Agrees :) by tuppe666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...but loves the hardware.

    https://plus.google.com/+LinusTorvalds/posts/dk1aiW4JjHd L "I'm still running ChromeOS on this thing, which is good enough for testing out some of my normal work habits (ie reading and writing email), but I expect to install a real distro on this soon enough. For a laptop to be useful to me, I need to not just read and write email, I need to be able to do compiles, have my own git repositories etc..
    "