So I pulled down the Consumer Preview and put it on a VM on my Hyper-V server - was a good excuse to put it back online. I powered it up and got nothing but a high pitched whine...opened it up and the intake fan was caked with muck, I couldn't even turn it by hand - it was the cool LED fan, too :). Unplugged the fan, whine stopped - went to Amazon and bought two replacements (outflow fan was pretty loud too) and used the excuse to grab another 4GB of memory - it was already pretty strained hosting two DCs and my media center box...
So the parts arrived, (cleaned the box and) installed the parts, ran power and network to the closet in the new office area and powered it up. Easy job creating the new test machine (too many options for processor in Hyp-V, no?) Time to get the ISO mounted and OS installed. The way Hyp-V manages library files makes some sense, but I have a feeling I'll have ISOs littered all over the domain - download, put them somewhere off my main box, transfer them to the library share so the VMs can find them... I need a better way to organize them - media generally (in the cloud - heh, heh?) - the Windows Media Center / My Movies thing is a little long in the tooth - it takes forever to boot and catalog, when it decides to work at all...
Installing Win8 was straightforward on the VM, mount the media, tell it it's a fresh install, and play some guitar while it installs. I created an email alias so I can register it as a Microsoft ID, signed in with it - voila - Metro goodness - Played with the interface for about an hour figuring out how to go find things, bring up the widgets on the right, configure a couple of apps. Very first impressions - for power users who know what they want to do, it seems like more cognitive energy (and time) to launch apps and get to work than a traditional start menu. I thought the same thing with the Ribbon UI in Office, and I've come to an uneasy alliance there - now I know where most common things are, and I can find most of the things I want in a couple of clicks, but it takes thought away from the task at hand. I find myself falling back to keyboard shortcuts, which makes me feel like a Luddite, using 1-2-3 slash commands in Excel...
Generally though, I think I see what they were going for, putting the half-dozen things many folks want right on the home screen. Given the chance to live with it for a few days, I might even get to like it. OK, it's running, next step, join it to the domain, install some worker apps (Office, Sonar and VS to get started - my typical buildout) and use real-ish tasks and data to see what the fuss is all about.
Joining the domain was easy - type 'join a domain' and the new help/search feature points you right to the appropriate wizard...very nice. Not much in the actual wizard has changed since Win7 here, provide credentials, define an administrator account, give the machine a proper name, then re-credential (?) to actually execute the task. Reboot, and i'm prompted for my demastri domain login. Success!
Well...not so much
I log in and get dumped on the start page, and there are NO Metro apps displayed. I had done a little research (honest) and knew there may be problems with Metro apps executing properly when using a domain account, but hadn't seen this. Without these apps - all that was up was IE, Store (non-functional), and Windows Explorer - the new OS is just Win7 with a really annoying Start button.
Clearly, I just have to link my new MS ID account to the domain account, and I'm in business, right? This should be an obvious task, but there's nothing in the new help, and surprisingly little through my interface to MS doc and forums (yeah, it's Google), so that's where I am. Domain account running, unlinked to MS ID, no Metro love.
But Hyper-V server is upgraded and online, and Windows Media Center came up on both Xboxen today. Have to take solace in the little things.
I will get this running and document my feedback. Unless it becomes a huge timesink... All I know is that it better be easier for this for enterprise admins to set up or Win8 will stay in the virtual shrinkwrap for a mighty long time...
Arf? No. ARF!
