To be fair, you can usually get that "factory fresh" feel by disabling all the crap that boots on startup in MSconfig, and re-enabling only the stuff that you actually use.

I hadn't seen the Zbox before, but some of Zotac's mini boards have been quite impressive spec-wise. Though I have to say: Plug computing is an even neater form factor.

Soluto is a nice little piece of software which aims to help you keep your boot as fast as possible. I shaved about 20 or 30 seconds off my boot time with it.

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

Really? I mean XP and 7 from experience can get to the desktop in 30 seconds or less.

It looks like the way it's been changed to startup is kind of a sleep mode as standard. It saves the kernel session on the local disk drive so it hasn't got to load up as much crap on startup.

SSD's don't save that much time on loading.

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1 > 3 > 2 >> 4

The point is that it will be able to boot significantly faster than it would without hibernating the kernel session. Windows 7 still boots in about 30-40 seconds for me on a magnetic hard drive, and I've been running this build since it came out. Assuming Windows 8 boots faster to start with, and factor in the kernel hibernation then eight seconds on an SSD sounds perfectly achievable.

EDIT: After reading an earlier blog entry, it also looks like this super mega fast boot is only to the new, lighter Metro interface. The traditional desktop doesn't load unless you set it to boot to that, or load it from Metro.

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I play games and mumble over them: http://www.youtube.com/user/Mogster2013

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If they do another cheap pre-order price for this like they did for Windows 7 then I'd definitely pick this up. The Metro UI for tablet pc's does look very nice.

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Want!

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Windows 8 Developer Preview available for everyone to download:
Link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

May give this a try over the weekend.

Wow. The iPad convinced me that I don't want a tablet, but that might convince me otherwise.

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It will be awesome as long as we change IE from being the default browser...

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Lego Grand Theft Auto... You KNOW you would buy it.

Downloading it now!

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Prime Directives : Prosecute those who steal memes from other forums.

To be fair IE 9 on my WP7 is pretty good. its stupidly fast much much faster then any of the browsers my friends use on there mobiles. Saying that ill probably just use chrome on win 8

Also downloading the preview as i speak.

Im loving my touchpad but once these Win8 tablets are out ill be buying one and ill happly spend a decent amount on it as it will take over from my laptop

I was playing around with the dev build at work today. As ever I'll need to use it for day to day stuff to get a real feel for it, but I like it so far. I do however think that more needs to be done to unify the desktop and metro interfaces. I think the intention is clearly for people to spend as little time there as possible, especially home users, but it still feels a little jarring to move between the two.

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I play games and mumble over them: http://www.youtube.com/user/Mogster2013

Not impressed at the moment. It looks like Windows 7 with a fancy but pointless front end. Yes, I realise it's very early.

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Prime Directives : Prosecute those who steal memes from other forums.

I think they'll skin it a little better. The Metro UI works for home use but it would do my strawberry floating head in to code / create art assets in it.

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Yeah that's the thing. For all their brilliance, tablets just don't strike me as 'proper' computers yet. Great for browsing, music, video and stuff but I couldn't imagine someone seriously installing Visual Studio on it and using it as a development machine. Same goes for running graphics programs, sequencers, etc.

Most tablet apps just seem like sophisticated toys to me.

Sent from my Wahl 700 Series using Tapatalk.

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www.samgwilliam.com

That front end is the "real" Windows 8 though. It certainly looks like the intention is more brand new interface with a legacy desktop chucked in.

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I play games and mumble over them: http://www.youtube.com/user/Mogster2013

Looks like Windows 8 won't be Flash compatible. Curious how people feel about that.
http://www.cultofmac.com/113919/just-li ... ort-flash/

That's just the Metro version of IE10. If you go to the classic desktop, the regular IE10 is there, with all your plugin.

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Looks like they're pulling a bit of a stealth Apple. Tablet users won't suffer the super awesome Flash battery drain (unless they load up the desktop version of some reason), while desktop users have a choice. It'll be curious to see if other Metro browsers end up doing the same thing.

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I play games and mumble over them: http://www.youtube.com/user/Mogster2013