Running Windows 8 on local virtual machine

by Dmitry Kirsanov 21. September 2011 11:06

Just to repeat what I’ve said in my Twitter recently – now you have the ability to run Windows 8 Developer Preview on your VMWare Workstation. One week ago VMWare released Workstation 8.0, which doesn’t crash and indeed works quite well with Windows 8. Microsoft Virtual PC, as well as earlier versions of VMWare, still crashes.

After installation, you may notice that Start menu is changed by what is called Metro. If you prefer the “old” style Windows 7 menu, you can switch to that by switching one setting in Registry Editor.

In case you are using mouse, rightclick the taskbar, choose Task Manager, go to File and choose New Task. Now type regedit and click OK.

In Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
There will be setting named RPEnabled. Doubleclick it and change it’s value from 1 to 0.

Now enjoy your start menu.

Sneak Peek into Windows 8 GUI

by Dmitry Kirsanov 14. September 2011 17:29

Just wanted to show the most interesting part for system administrators about changes in most frequently used functionality. Task Manager and file copy / delete operations. As you may see, Task Manager became much more functional and file operations more ordered.

Although the ribbon in Explorer is not shown, it is here and definitely adds to user experience, but can be removed… When it doesn’t :)

Windows 8 GUI sneak peek, switch to Full Screen for better view.

Windows 8 Developer Preview revealed

by Dmitry Kirsanov 14. September 2011 15:00

This night MIcrosoft opened the prototype of their brand new OS and this build was named “Developer Preview”. Aimed mainly at software developers, it has a copy of not yet released Visual Studio 11, using which you can create software for that same Windows 8.

The only downside of this release is that you couldn’t install it on either VMWare workstation or Windows Virtual PC – it could only be installed on either physical or Hyper-V machine. I installed it on both.

First fascinating things about new OS is drastic change in user experience. I don’t even mean the new Metro and effects, but also much reworked file copying routine and Task Manager. The latter became as useful as it never been.

Although scheduled release date is not yet revealed, and most likely will be somewhere in Autumn of 2012, chances are you can grab a copy of ISOs at MSDN.