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View Full Version : Windows 'ate' my tablet



arthurking83
03-10-2011, 1:19pm
hey peeps! currently browsing from the gigabyte tablet running windows 8.

Win8 has been available for download for a while now, I only recently got the chance to install it to my tablet on Thursday night, and not a lot of time to play with it tho.

major problems in getting win8 to work, partly in getting the wireless adapter working, but the latest driver for the device got that sorted.
biggest issue was getting windows pre loaded apps to work, and it turns out that the screen resolution is problem.
my gigabyte screen res is maxed out to 1024x600, and the min requirement is1024x768.
found the necessary registry hack info to get it up and running, and now win 8 is working.
it's not ideal, and perfect, as the screen res makes the screen itself look unsightly, and it occasionally skips about, or crashes, depending on which apps are running or what is being done in them.
the piano app:
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works fine, but if I resize the piano keyboard to the widest setting, the app crashes. task manager is then required to restart it again.
remember that I've hacked my tablet to get it working, so this is not a windows 8 issue, but a hardware problem.

good points is that windows is far more tablet friendly now! :th3:
So far this tablet friendliness is confined to the start menu only, as once you get past this point and into the gutsier software, they're all basically the old school interface method, and hence harder to operate via a touch screen, especially on such a tiny screen(10").

here are a couple of screen shots:

Start screen
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Programs screen
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Had some trouble getting the Bt mouse to work consistently, but all seems good now.
And my Bt rollup keyboard is touchy to the point where it's more annoying now, but with these two inconspicuous devices, the set up has a very small footprint!
It's an iPad when you want it to be and then a proper laptop if this is subsequently the new plan.
I suppose it's a netbook with a touch screen.
IE 10 is a pain though!! And I haven't tried FF for comparison.
Overall, the new OS is fast, as fast to load as any non windows tablet device to load itself up and ready to operate.

Loading win 8 on a non touch screen machine really misses the point of the new os, and MS would be better off producing a dedicated tablet version instead of simply trimming down a desktop OS as a quick and easy way out.
I think at the least with this new os version, bootup will be close to instant on a modern fast pc box!


Start menu is annoyingly complicated compared to the traditional Windows way, and all the icons in the image I captured are windows defaults, save for the deleted weather app, and the added link to AP. there was no info or obvious setting to change the weather app from Anaheim.... and like I care how the weather is over there, so i deleted it. The link to AP was an obvious one ;)


In a while tho I'm going to delete Win 8 from this machine tho, and not because it's no good, but because the poor lil Gigabyte is simply not made to work with this screen setting. Text is readable but fuzzy. I'm also worried that it may cause a malfunction of some kind too.

For anyone interested in checking it out, I reckon it's worth the download quota.
You get it directly from the MS site, it's called Win8 developer preview.

Anyhow, battery is low and I'll be back on my pc in a few hours.... need to get the kiddies out for a bit.

agb
03-10-2011, 3:26pm
I see your stocks shortcut has and upward pointing arrow. That cannot be right.

arthurking83
03-10-2011, 5:42pm
I see your stocks shortcut has and upward pointing arrow. That cannot be right.

LOL! I've invested heavily in renewable energy non carbon emitting technologies :p

Nah!.. it's just one of those links that haven't been followed yet, and can't be bothered to remove them all(yet).