In-Depth with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview
by Andrew Cunningham, Ryan Smith, Kristian Vättö & Jarred Walton on March 9, 2012 10:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Microsoft
- Operating Systems
- Windows
- Windows 8
Windows Recovery Environment
The Windows Recovery Environment, or WinRE, has actually been around for awhile. It was first introduced in Windows Vista as a basic boot environment from which users could run tools like System Restore, Startup Repair, and the Command Prompt, and it could also restore a complete OS image created by Windows Backup.
This menu remained basically unchanged in Windows 7, but in Windows 8 it picks up Metro styling and also replaces the text-based menu that appears when you press F8 at Windows startup, one of the last bastions of the Windows 9x/NT era to make it into 2012 relatively unchanged.
The new graphical menu presents all of the same options as the old WinRE, as well as access to the new Refresh and Reset functionality—the main difference is that options for booting into Safe Mode are buried in the Advanced Options rather than coming up right when you press F8. When you choose a function like System Restore, the desktop-style tools included in Windows Vista and Windows 7 will pop up and walk you the rest of the way through the process. Most of the troubleshooting options require you to input the name and password for an administrator on the computer, to prevent tampering.
There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but the Metro styling is functional and attractive. See the screenshot gallery below for more.
Secure Boot and UEFI Support
After Metro, this is probably one of Windows 8's more misunderstood features, so let's try to break it down and demystify it: UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a replacement for the legacy BIOS found in most PCs. UEFI support has been around in the 64-bit versions of Windows since Vista, but it has only recently started to see wider adoption in PCs. In addition to being more modern and flexible than BIOS, UEFI supports a feature called Secure Boot, which can compare signatures in drivers, OS loaders, and other things against security certificates stored in firmware to verify that your computer is using a known safe bootloader rather than a malware bootloader. On both ARM and x64 computers certified for Windows 8, Secure Boot will be enabled by default to prevent these potential exploits. Note that this is an extremely brief overview of the functionality—you can read more on the Building Windows 8 blog if you’re interested.
Now, the problem people have with this new feature is that it can potentially be used to block any non-Windows bootloader from functioning, including those used in operating systems like Linux. By default, this is true, but you’ve got an out: in all x86-based Windows systems that ship with Windows 8, you should be able to add and remove security certificates from UEFI as needed (thus adding certificates that Linux needs to be recognized as a trusted operating system) or disabling secure boot entirely (making the Windows 8 PC act more or less like most Windows 7 PCs do now).
This will be slightly different for Windows on ARM—WOA systems will also support UEFI and thus the Secure Boot feature, but users won’t be allowed to add certificates or disable the feature, and OEMs will be disallowed from shipping updates or tools that unlock the bootloader (as some Android tablet makers have been known to do). You might not like this behavior, but the fact remains that this is how the vast majority of ARM devices work today. Linux advocates act as though Microsoft has taken something away in disallowing third-party OSes on WOA devices, when in fact they’re disabling nothing that hasn’t already been disabled on most competing tablets.
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imaheadcase - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
Its windows ME upgrade to win 7. Nothing but GUI changes that will effect anyone.Looks like win 8 is just a way to merge the OS to all devices besides Desktop. Seems more a dev helper OS than a consumer helper OS.
B3an - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
*face palm*You didn't even read the article did you.
Just counting the desktop changes alone, Win 8 has far more changes than 7 did from Vista.
DrApop - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
Well, I better go buy me a copy of windows 7 before the stop selling it. The last thing I want to do is slap this ugly windows 8 UI system on my computer!Everyone seems to be acting like this is such an innovation from microsoft, putting the same OS on phone, tablet, and now desk top. Does anyone remember Windows CE on a PDA?
Anyway, some of you love the UI, while I and others do not. We shall see how it goes when it goes on the desktop. All I know is that Microsoft had better start training up a huge slew of CS personnel because they are going have a whole bunch of people calling their CS support line when the win 8 users are unable to find anything on their computer. It is going to be a really mess for about 6-12 months. But I'm sure MS will charge for CS so that will be another revenue stream for them.
TEAMSWITCHER - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
Given the immense negative feedback there is simply no way Microsoft can afford to launch Windows 8. They have made a massive tactical error - by tying the Metro interface to the classic Windows desktop they have assured it's failure. Desktop users don't want it - and with all the negative feedback - tablet shoppers won't either. Why should they?I really expected more from Microsoft. They have done so many good things in Windows 7. How could they possibly want to mess with that success? Is the iPad so threatening? I don't understand how they could let this happen.
londiste - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
> Windows 8 adds new class drivers for things like USB 3.0 controllers, printers, motion sensors,wait... what - motion sensors?
did you happen to try using kinect at any stage of playing around with w8?
:)
Andrew.a.cunningham - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
I don't have one, unfortunately. :-)The motion sensors the article refers to are things like accelerometers and gyrometers - mostly hardware you'll find in tablets.
Scali - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
"Linux advocates act as though Microsoft has taken something away in disallowing third-party OSes on WOA devices, when in fact they’re disabling nothing that hasn’t already been disabled on most competing tablets."Nice to see someone telling it like it is for a change.
mcnabney - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
It looks like backup functionality is only supported for DVDs and local drives in Premium. If you want to backup your system across a home network it looks like you have to upgrade to Professional. I guess MS needs more cash from people who are clever enough to make sure backups aren't stored ON THE COMPUTER NEEDING THE BACKUP.Tried the preview. Hated Metro. My multimonitor setup looks retarded with Metro running. Also had some compatibility issues relating to Steam/games. I'm pretty happy with Win7 and am unlikely to spend a bunch of money upgrading my numerous computers for marginal at best gains.
Andrew.a.cunningham - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
Yeah, that's how it is in Windows 7, which seriously limits the feature's usefulness. We're still waiting to see how the Windows 8 product editions break down, and what features are present/excluded from each version.IlllI - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
windows 7 will be the last version they ever use. the learning curve to windows 8 is too steep and i can't keep trying to teach them, especially with their memory not being as good as it once was.