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Windows 8 disaster? More broken than you might think?

Interesting morning here at KitGuru central. While we do know several people who have managed to download and install Windows 8, many of us had not given it any thought yet – waiting instead for something closer to a Release Candidate. But, this morning, we thought “What the hell” and clicked on an invitation from Microsoft. Not good.
We had spent a while with our fingers in iced water, while the KitGuru keyboard engineering team went to work with air canisters and cotton buds. At the same time, Zardon was in maintenance mode and we had a team of shoulder/neck specialists on standby – should the need for back rubs become overpowering.
The reason for ‘special preparations' being taken was simple.
We'd expected to be banging out a huge article on Windows 8 and let you know what we thought about it.
However, trying to install it on an Intel Core i7 980 machine with GeForce graphics proved problematic – despite the fact that this same rig has been purring along with Windows 7 for the best part of a year – with no issues.
This was the extent of our initial ‘Windows 8 user experience' testing:-
Oh dear.
We clicked on the ‘Help' feature and were presented with what can only be described as ‘a page of marketing b*ll*cks'. For example, checking to see if we have the 1GHz processor necessary for such an advanced operating system.
Let's just stress that we were only looking at the ‘Average user experience of the Windows 8 trial'. It could still be the greatest operating system ever launched. But this is a poor start.
We'll revisit this topic when (a) we've stopped laughing and (b) we've managed to get an answer from Microsoft.
KitGuru says: When Microsoft did a pre-release with Windows 7, it installed first time on every machine we tried it on. So far, with Windows 8, it has refused to install on any of the machines we have tried it on. Given that Microsoft is now in the same market as Apple when it comes to operating systems, we pity the fool who tries to run their life with this version of Windows 8. We have personal numbers for Microsoft engineers – so will do a little digging and let you know what we find. Is ours an isolated experience?
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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18 comments

  1. Well this is weird, i’ve managed to install both developer and customer previews on virtual machines…maybe it doesn’t want to ruin your good computer :))))

  2. I’ve installed Win8 on an laptop of a friend of mine, and it works fine there (after i’ve spent hours to install the stuff my friend needed and configuring the system).

    To be blunt: i’ll definitely won’t buy and absolutely not recommend Win ME… oooops… i meant Win 8!

    The UI is the worst i’ve ever seen. you have to go to the lower left corner, then to the right side, then you want to use the favourites (right side again) but the options pop out before you can click, for other things you have to go to the top, etc…
    Now do that on an 32″ all the time and it will drive you nuts!

    Usability? Something M$ forgot when they ‘designed’ that UI. Personally i’ll stick with my Win 7 Ultimate. Maybe Win 9 will be an OS i’ll consider buying.

  3. The “CPU isn’t compatible” / Error code 0x0000005D message is caused by NX (No eXecute) or XD (eXecute Disabled) not being enabled in your BIOS, either because the default option is disabled or because a BIOS update disabled it – a common issue on Asus motherboards like the Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen. 3.

    Btw, please write better headlines next time! This one is shockingly bad. Ever heard of Betteridge’s Law of Headlines?

  4. Well it just goes to show how terible ms code is, if it cant detect the cpu ident properly in the os code they wrote for windows 7!

    I installed windows 8, its total crap. Wish i got that message on mine, would have saved me a fortnight of pain.

  5. I wont be buying this its made for a tablet. Desktop system is an afterthought.

    Its all so microsoft can take on apple ipad.

    We all know that will go tits up for them. Like windows 8.

  6. Under-clock the cpu below 3GHZ did the trick for me

  7. We’re going to have a chat with Microsoft on Wednesday (sorry, the UK has shut to celebrate the rule of a single monarch for 60 years). But, in the meantime, we ran it past 10 regular PC users over the past few days and none of them knew. The point here is that Microsoft is no longer fighting against something like an Asus EeePC version of Linux. It needs to fend off Apple. This will be fun.

  8. Christopher W. Fisher

    i was on windows 8 CP and had that same error when installing windows 8 RP, from what i read on the answers forums they made quite a few changes to the kernel code responsible for detecting the cpu information at the RP level, which is a bit interesting, other OS designers do not introduce such major kernel configuration changes in such a late stage in developing a release of an OS.

  9. I like the tile interface.
    Windows 8 look is very bold beautiful and fluid.
    im so happy for codename:Windows 8 and i think Windows 95 was a big deal for users and developers alike.
    Overall, this release feels smoother, faster, snappier, and more stable.
    with this your luck can be perfect.
    now with touch you can have all your requirements plus even more.

    and dont forget mark as anwser

  10. They should fire Balmer and hire a more competent clown.

  11. I have experimented with 8 extensively. On a laptop, it is good news, bad news. As delivered, it requires extensive setup for a customer. I have added Windows 7 games. I also have created a directory that contains the things that were in the Window 7 Start menu/Accessories, including CMD, magnifier, and the snipping tool. I was going to reinstall the actual Windows 7 start menu but decided this was less invasive, The only thing I have been unable to do is shut the OS down from the desktop. I W I L L do that this weekend. They need at least one major change: an option at logon to choose the desktop,aka, the PC used for non touchscreens, or the Start screen, for touchscreens. There are a dozen minor things that blow my mind such as Network and Sharing does not show the network! That is beyond dumb.

  12. To be quite frank, this shouts at as being PEBKAC and nothing else.

  13. The release version of Windows 8 requires a processor that has the NX execute disable bit, but the pre-release version didn’t. this means your slightly older pentium processors simply can’t run windows 8. Surprise!

  14. Which is kind o odd since I’ve insallled Windows 8.1 successfully on an old Extensa 5620 and 8.0 on my standard system which is an E8400 based system.

  15. I have install it on my old AMD Athlon 5000+ OC up to 3.2ghz and works like a charm…Long live AMD…