Windows 8?

GreyLord said:

Uhhhmm...so you are using a pirated game?

I'm not certain you should use that as your example for legitimate software users.

You REALLY should tell MS about that..I hear they aren't too fond of pirates and hackers.

AS I said, half the programs aren't working...glad to hear someone is hacking and using a hacked system...not certain that's what I would say.

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No, on many levels. First, I am not using a pirated game or a hacked system. Second, neither of those links were of things I did. They were examples showing other people have been successful running Diablo in Win8, so that you could see my results are confirmed by other people. Third, neither of those links showed pirated games. One (not both) shows a game mod, but that's hardly the same thing by any stretch. Fourth, even if I were using a pirated game, the point still stands that Diablo is running fine on Win8, contrary to your claim that it was impossible. And fifth, why would Microsoft care if someone was pirating software from Blizzard?

The point I have been trying to make is that (IME) the backwards compatibility in Win8 has been extremely good; possibly the best of any Windows upgrade to date. Your experience that "half (actually maybe more) of the programs that were compatible with Win7 are NOT compatible with Win8" is the exact opposite myself and others, even with some of the same programs. I would like to reiterate my offer to look at screenshots of any error messages you are getting with Diablo and help you work through the issues (some details about the Win8 install will also be needed). I truly believe, based off of my own personal experience getting programs to run, that you should be able to play many old games in Windows 8. I am focusing on Diablo simply because it is the easiest for me to test and assist you with.

I do, however, take offense at your unwarranted accusations of performing illegal acts and implying that I am lying about getting programs to work.

I would have to disagree with you on compatibility.

The posting of that video DOES bring on numerous questions. The logic of piracy is as follows.

Diablo had 3 character classes, which were the Fighter, the Rogue, and the Sorcerer. It was published by Blizzard. IT had graphical distortions on Win7 that were able to be overcome by changing the color palette after starting the game. It's exe does not work with Win8 (all known issues).

The download of Diablo may work on Win8, I haven't given it a shot. I was not aware that they offered a free d/l if you bought the original Diablo, but as you did not need a key or anything to install the original, I'm not certain if there would be a way to verify that. I have not seen a d/l of Diablo itself from blizzard, but I have seen that they offer the starcraft series (but not Warcraft I or II from what I have seen, maybe its' with their origianl Diablo d/l which I also haven't seen). I suspect that they do not offer those three because of the known issues with Win7 and known issues with them not running on Win8. The games that do run, they offer.

There was an official expansion/mod for Diablo which was called HELLFIRE. The game Hellfire by Sierra DOES have a working exe. Not that this is Sierra's exe...not the Diablo exe. Hellfire came with the Monk class. It also allowed the Bard and Barbarian if you input the right command line into the game (which also means, that the Barbarian is the only Diablo class thus far in all three games in the series). Note the Video is NOT really of diablo, but of Hellfire, and as stated, Hellfire's exe currently DOES appear to work on Win8. I do not consider Hellfire as a workaround for running the original Diablo.

However, there are those who utilize this workaround to not only PIRATE hellfire, but also utilize that piracy as a workaround.

There is a certain mod you posted, which I am happy with your statements it is not you. The full mod steals the assets put out by Sierrra and incorporates them into the mod without permission. This enables those who do not get Hellfire or the expansion to be able to play with those assets.
It is possible that there are those who download the mod which is truly only a mod, but most seem to get the full mod with the illegal additions of portions which in my books makes it piracy.

Hence my statement.

We will have to disagree on the compatibility portion however, I'm just testing it out for our business, and the games are the items I think people will understand as they are more common than many of the items that I would bring up here with the programming we utilize at work.

We'll see where it goes with the next SP's for Win8, but unless compatibility improves, we aren't going to blow the budget nor the IT hours trying to get things to work which MS seems intent on blocking, especially when we can get them to run on an Apple or Mac type, or even perhaps transfer over to Ipads with a similar program for cheaper (other ideas we are exploring). It could also be the MS curse at work, where every other OS is a stinker...in which case we'll probably skip 8 and go with whatever OS comes out next.

Windows 8 *Fail* IMO

EricNoah said:

Anyone taken the plunge on Windows 8? Worth it for a desktop PC that doesn't have a touch screen?

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I work in IT and so far in my experience Windows 8 is Microsoft's biggest gaffe to date. As a tablet OS it may have what it needs, as a client OS no way.

The interface is far from intuitive. The "Apps" installation mechanism is labyrinth in execution and MS seems to completely have lost touch with what made an "alternative" to Apple.

Example: Went to play a region 1 DVD in my new Dell laptop, Cyberlink 10 (notice it is an older version because Windows 8 doesn't even ship with the newest version) won't play the DVD because it is from the incorrect region. Check settings on DVD hardware, set for correct region, try to ensure cyberlink picks this up -- nope the change region button doesn't work.

Windows 8 sits there all pretty colours with no message -- not even an unhelpful one. Nothing. Nada.

The $14.99 for the upgraded version of Cyberlink App it might work but who knows. What kind of an OS won't play an optical media out of the box? You would have to go back to Windows 95 to find one.

Now imagine what the average user thinks when they put a blueray/dvd/USB into their Win 8 machine and they get the unsolvable region conflict message with a suggestion to pony up an additional $15? I don't see that they would be inclined at all to recommend this kludge of an OS to their friends that's for sure.

Microsoft what were you thinking?!?

M

OK, I had to buy a new machine (which is why I've been quiet the last few days--wasn't that nice?)
Came with Windows8.

So I had to look up where to go to unhide the file menus to unhide the view menu to unhide the toolbars and sidebars that I use absolutely all the time. Who thought that was a good idea? (I know, they wanted tablet and "smart" phones to have maximum real-estate--let them choose to hide these things rather than make people struggle to find them!)

Had to find an updated version of PCDeCrapifier to strip out most of the useless, well, crap that comes with the system.
Naturally, just running basic installs and software updates also brought on some pop-up malware that I had to get rid of.
After 10-30 minutes, I just have to walk away from the whole thing. So it has taken me several days to get this system up to snuff, and that's with having already backed up 99% of my files and settings.

Next time, can we just update Windows XP?

sabrinathecat said:

OK, I had to buy a new machine (which is why I've been quiet the last few days--wasn't that nice?)
Came with Windows8.

So I had to look up where to go to unhide the file menus to unhide the view menu to unhide the toolbars and sidebars that I use absolutely all the time. Who thought that was a good idea? (I know, they wanted tablet and "smart" phones to have maximum real-estate--let them choose to hide these things rather than make people struggle to find them!)

Had to find an updated version of PCDeCrapifier to strip out most of the useless, well, crap that comes with the system.
Naturally, just running basic installs and software updates also brought on some pop-up malware that I had to get rid of.
After 10-30 minutes, I just have to walk away from the whole thing. So it has taken me several days to get this system up to snuff, and that's with having already backed up 99% of my files and settings.

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That's what you get for using Windows 8.

Next time, can we just update Windows XP?

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I'm pretty sure they killed that thing.

XP is end of support.

Has anyone run VMWare on a Windows 8 machine? If so, how did it go?

Homicidal_Squirrel said:

That's what you get for using Windows 8.

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Thanks for the sympathy. Not like there was much choice with the programs I'm starting to run.
Yes, XP is dead. Sad.
Just like the 4e character builder and adventure tools.
Win7 might have been an option, but is more likely to be phased out sooner--I'm hoping to keep the next computer alive for at least 5 years. Maybe longer.

sabrinathecat said:

Thanks for the sympathy. Not like there was much choice with the programs I'm starting to run.
Yes, XP is dead. Sad.
Just like the 4e character builder and adventure tools.
Win7 might have been an option, but is more likely to be phased out sooner--I'm hoping to keep the next computer alive for at least 5 years. Maybe longer.

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A while back I bought a laptop that came with Windows 8. I returned it three days later. You should have done the same.

Zombie_Babies said:

XP is end of support.

Has anyone run VMWare on a Windows 8 machine? If so, how did it go?

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I was trying to set it up at work, but didn't have the time to go through the neccessary steps. I have the Hyper-V feature enabled (For Windows Phone 8 development mostly), and you need to turn off that feature first before you can install VM Ware. (You can apparently activate it afterwards again, so you can utilize both.)



Windows 8 works nicely on my machine, but the apps can get annoying when they force you in their full-screen mode. I thought that 8.1 Update would change that, but I was misinformed or mislead by the reports on the update - all that comes later. For now, you only get some window-typical title bar in your apps you can use with your mouse. That is a help, but nothing compared to the neat stuff of a start menu with integrated tiles and apps in resizeable windows.

I have 7 on one lap top and 8 on another. I feel 8 was an un-necessary up grade, but It came auto on the new one.