Complicating Matters

I've been experimenting with solid state drives (SSD) as boot drives on Debian systems and things have gone well there. Of course I have a lot more control in mounting different devices at different points in these Unix-like file system than I have had in the past with Windows, so I can put the heavy-write file systems like /var onto a hard disk drive (HDD) and keep the mostly read-only points of the file system on SSD. Boot times are great and hopefully the lifetime is extended by limiting writes.

I have ordered two drives to use when installing Windows 8. I am complicating matters, but what I want is to have SSD system drive with the more static Windows and Program Files contents and a HDD for the more dynamic User and ProgramData.

For the SSD I was torn between the much higher price and lower performance of the Intel chipset SSD, like the 320 series, and the higher performing but purportedly more fail prone sandforce based controllers. After reading a lot of reviews of people having problems and satisfaction across all manufactures and product lines, I went with the Crucial 128 GB SATA III M4. Hopefully that's enough space and it doesn't die anytime soon.

For the HDD I knew I wanted speed more than terabytes of storage. The Western Digital VelociRaptor 250 GB 10,000 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 32 MB cache drive seemed to fit the bill.

Now I was faced with the challenge of splitting Windows across two drives. The last time I tried this on an XP system it was such a pain that I never wanted to revisit it because "relocating My Documents" is not what I am after. I want all of the Users data on the other drive. Perhaps I should have used a hybrid drive or something fancy like the Apple Fusion Drive to avoid the issue. On the other hand, the way I chose allows me to control what data is where.

After some research I found two possible solutions to my dilemma. The first and most linked solution uses an answer file with the System Preparation Tool. The second option uses directory junctions to create a very Unix-like state. This seems much simpler but the first solution appears to be vetted.

Preparing to Commit

Now we've got a tech support system reference system setup, but as I noted in the opening post, we still want a development system. My Vista system needs to upgrade at least to Windows 7 since WinQual became SysDev and a new Product Mapping Tool that requires Windows 7, so it is a candidate.

The current drives are full of years of accumulated bits, and not all of it can be blamed on any pack-rat like tendencies I may have. Despite compacting and freeing what I could of old service releases, the Windows folder used 35 of the 80 GB I had allocated to Windows, thinking that would be enough. This makes me very skeptical of the 20 GB hard disk space requirement for Windows 8. In any case, the partition doesn't have 20 GB free, plus I'd like to swap back if this is a failed experiment so I opt to go with a new drive.

I also did some research into the multi-screen capability of Windows 8. The first things I ran across mislead me to believe it didn't work very well. Further research corrected this vision and pointed out a few features that sounded very promising:

• The Start screen can be used on either monitor
• You can run Windows Store Apps on one monitor (same monitor as Start screen) and the Desktop on another.
• You can run a 1/3 split Windows Store App and the Desktop on the same monitor.
• The Desktop task bar can be on all displays and has options for controlling what buttons are on the taskbar.

I am most interested in the last point. I often move my browser or email program to one monitor and it will be nice to see it's taskbar button on the same screen so I won't have to move my mouse as far to interact with it. The other points give me hope that I can mostly keep with my normal workflow while interacting with the Start screen and any Windows Store Apps I may run.

Where is the Power button?

After a day of Windows 8 experimentation and demonstration, I was ready to shut it down before going home. By this time I had looked up (and forgotten) some windows key shortcuts like Windows key + D to toggle the Desktop and Windows key + R to pull up the Run dialog box, and I had explored the Windows 8 Charms.

I could figure out how to log out and switch users by clicking my always-visible user name on the Start screen, but still no clue on how to shut down. Even bringing out the Charms bar didn't help: Search, Share, Start, Devices, Settings, Power. Just kidding. That's where I thought it should be, but no dice, the list ends at Settings.

I eventually tried logging out and there found a familiar looking power icon to click. I decided to try again to see if that was the only way. This time I looked at Settings from the Charms bar and found Power. Four clicks... Searching around I found another option. Go to the classic Desktop and then give the classic Alt + F4. Shutdown menu. A little more searching suggests there may be some ways to get a Windows Store app, old-style widget, or custom shortcut on the Start screen to do the same.

I suspect this hidden shutdown option is either a nod to working more like a tablet, or to an expectation of always-on or sleep like the Apple i-Macs (turning those things on does not give good feedback, yet return from sleep is instant.)

The Start screen IS the Start menu

My tests on Windows 8 earlier in the year were very minimal. Just a quick "see if our software installs and runs". I didn't think much of it after that. When I was asked to setup a couple of systems, I did a lot more research to get ready. One of the most frequent complaints or workarounds talked about was the "missing start menu" and how to put one back.

My use of the start menu may be non-typical. Since the switch to Vista I have become a huge fan of the Quicksilver-like search feature. I was equally pleased to have a similar feature appear on Ubuntu. When I need a calculator, I press the windows key and type calc, and press enter. When I need the word processor, I press the windows key, type word, and press enter. I do have a few quick launch items that I click on the task bar to launch, but that's the basic workflow. I haven't navigated into a nested start menu for quite some time.

To me the Windows 8 Start Screen is like a big horizontal start menu with no nested folders and a dashboard at the same time. The search feature is not at all obvious like it is in Vista and Windows 7, but it is there. Just start typing and you go into search mode. Being such a search fan, I think this will work for me.

I finished out the setup of the tech support system including the installation of a couple of our software packages and arranging their tiles on the Start screen to demo the process.

Account Type

Once I had a capable system for installing Windows 8 on, the install went smoothly. Soon I was asked to create my first user account and noticed the option to make it a Microsoft account or a Local account. Fortunately I had another computer handy to search and read up on the unexpected choice. The gist of the choices boils down to this:

• Microsoft Account: Your preferences and settings are synced to their cloud. Ties into Windows Messenger (Windows Live ID), Sky Drive, and the Windows Store. It sounds like you can log into another Windows 8 computer and have these same things pulled down. Sounds great for home users. I'm not sure about for corporate users. More for the IT department and Legal to evaluate.
• Local Account: Your preferences are local to this computer. This is the most similar to the user accounts you are use to using.

The User settings lets you switch either type into the other at any time, so just pick one. I chose to use local accounts. They "just work" with our workgroup file sharing and everything else we are use to.

System Requirements

Microsoft seems to have pretty reasonable system requirements for their new OS, so the task to "round up a system to run Windows 8 for technical support to have access to from one of the unused systems" didn't sound very difficult.

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
• Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

Four computers later, when I found one that worked, I realized that the NX bit was more elusive than I had expected, at least in the systems I had available to test. All three systems with Intel CPUs failed the test and would give a scary stop error when attempting to install from the DVD-ROM. The AMD based system of the same era worked. I'm not sure if this was due to supporting the feature or just not failing the test.

Run the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant found on their support page for upgrading to Microsoft Windows 8 and pay special attention to the hardware restrictions listed in the report that are one of the system requirements listed above. The NX bit was a "maybe" option in the report but turned out to be a "no dice" road block when I was unable to update the old BIOS to have the option to enable the feature. A lot of searching found that the CPUs didn't even support the feature even if I had found a BIOS update.

Motivation

I've been using Windows Vista since shortly after it released. I had been happy with Windows XP, but some hardware issues lined up with the Vista update so I switched to make sure our software worked on "the latest and greatest from Microsoft." I enjoyed most aspects of Vista over XP and didn't see 7 as a big difference. The only hitch was when Windows Error Reporting's application mapping tool was updated to require Windows 7.

The real motivation to switch though was a perspective customer asking if our software supported Windows 8. I had run the preview release under Virtual PC a few months earlier and found that everything worked fine, but it was only a brief test and our technical support department didn't have any experience with the new operating system, so the boss suggested we get a system setup for them to have access to for familiarization and tech support and that we have a development system to make sure we're really ready for Windows 8.