Microsoft Windows 8 – Information from Windows Secrets

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Introduction

At the December 19, 2012 general meeting of the Boca Raton Computer Society, Richard Miller (Director, Special Interest Group moderator, and Past President) presented “Windows 8: An Introduction”.

Richard’s introduction to Windows 8, was very informative, but the next morning I received my weekly newsletter from Windows Secrets.

Windows Secrets

I subscribe to the paid version of the Windows Secrets Newsletter, which has an article entitled “Eight simple steps for setting up Windows 8” in its paid content which is very informative also in the paid content.

However, for those who do not subscribe to the paid content, there are several good articles in the free subscription I think should be of interest to anyone thinking about moving up to this new operating system:

Step by step: How to safely test-drive Win8

In this article Fred Langa describes how to run the Windows 8 Consumer Preview using Oracle’s VirtualBox on a Windows 7 PC.

This article breaks the setup process into three major steps: installing an Oracle VirtualBox VPC on a Windows 7 system, setting up a new VPC within VirtualBox, and tweaking and tuning the setup to run Windows 8 Consumer Preview. When you’re done, you’ll be able to start exploring the new operating system with almost zero risk to your current setup. (Any change to a Windows system includes some risk. Make sure your PC is fully backed up before taking these steps.)

Win8 Boot guide: Your first hour with the new OS

In this article Woody Leonhard gives a run through of some Windows 8 basics. Make sure to read the assumptions and warnings from Woody in the first section before going through anything else.

This one-hour orientation takes into account all three major Windows 8 input methods: touch screen (which might work on your machine), keyboard (a very big help, even if it isn’t literally required), and mouse/single-point trackpad. If you have a multitouch trackpad, and its driver is working correctly — by no means a foregone conclusion — the trackpad should behave much like a touch screen.

 Conclusion

I have subscribed to the paid version of Windows Secrets Newsletter for years, and will continue to do so, as I always find great information, from people I have learned to trust, in each issue.

Even if you only sign up for the free subscription, you will be getting valuable information regarding all things Microsoft.

Question

Have you already tried out Windows 8?

If so, what do you think about it? If not, why not, and will you in the near future?

Retired, grandfather, blogger, participating in creative writing prompt blogs, and love to read.