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sialivi · 2012-09-02, 22:34

(2012-09-02, 17:23)Skank Wrote: Whats uefi? How do i know of it supports? The mobo?
Ive got an asrock a75m mobo.. And a crucial m4 ssd...
Where can i find the retail?

It's essentially a replacement for the BIOS. On a traditional motherboard it takes several seconds before the computer even starts booting because the BIOS is POSTing. (POST = Power On Self Test)

With UEFI it pretty much starts booting instantaneously.

Looks like your motherboard does support UEFI. It's possible that you will have to enable it somewhere, because I think most motherboards defaults to using BIOS even if it supports UEFI.

protocol77 · (This post was last modified: 2012-09-05, 18:59 by protocol77.)

After reading this yesterday I decided to give the win 8 release preview a go Been holding off cause i think the metro screen is horrible so used the xbmc launcher software found on this forum to set shell to start xbmc it works well was using Openelec before and would have kept using it but was having driver issues with my amd fusion not play 1080p vids properly so tried win 8 and works fine no issues so will stick with this for now

Slip Stream · (This post was last modified: 2012-10-29, 06:40 by Slip Stream.)

(2012-08-29, 00:51)patseguin Wrote: Here you all go:

http://cybernetnews.com/xbmc-run-boot-xb...windows-8/

I used these instructions and they worked a treat. The only thing I didnt really like is how you had to manually run the explorer.exe from the task manager in order to launch the Windows 8 UI so I created a simple batch on my C:\ which calls the explorer.exe. Then from within XBMC, I used the App Launcher addon to call this batch file. I then pinned this as a custom favourite to the Main Menu.

I did notice some strange behaviour initially though. When you call the explorer.exe from XBMC, it would only launch a new "file explorer" window without loading the rest of the start screen, which I found weird. After a bit of playing around I found that if I ran the explorer.exe a second time from the file explorer, only then would the start screen load.

So I just updated the batch to call the explorer.exe twice. It now reads this:

@echo OFF
c:\windows\explorer.exe
c:\windows\explorer.exe

So now the system boots straight into XBMC and I can easily access the Windows 8 start screen only when I need it.

Stranger · 2012-10-29, 06:24

I've just upgraded to pro after using the preview builds with XBMC for a while. I have it set up the shell way but originally I went though the start menu. It's perfect to navigate from the sofa and acts as a pretty cool portal to other apps, like steams big picture UI. Unfortunately closing XBMC leaves you on the desktop, so I tried to create tasks to close xbmc on sleep and return to the start menu via the windows key on wake. After numerous attempts I couldn't get anything to work consistently, and now I kinda miss the start screen. Sad

I imagine a tweak will be out soon to add an argument to legacy apps like XBMC, so when you close them they return to the start screen. Until then a work around would be amazing Huh

hazeh · 2012-10-29, 21:35

(2012-09-02, 22:34)sialivi Wrote:
(2012-09-02, 17:23)Skank Wrote: Whats uefi? How do i know of it supports? The mobo?
Ive got an asrock a75m mobo.. And a crucial m4 ssd...
Where can i find the retail?

It's essentially a replacement for the BIOS. On a traditional motherboard it takes several seconds before the computer even starts booting because the BIOS is POSTing. (POST = Power On Self Test)

With UEFI it pretty much starts booting instantaneously.

Looks like your motherboard does support UEFI. It's possible that you will have to enable it somewhere, because I think most motherboards defaults to using BIOS even if it supports UEFI.

I've got two UEFI machines at work that I tested with win8, neither seem to POST any quicker than any other machine I've used.
and... if anything, the HP desktops we have seemed to have slowed down since switching from a traditional bios - The almost instant POST was one of the best things about them!

I guess that just because an old bios needs decrypting etc doesn't mean it's slow, just as a new uefi machine doesn't necessarily boot fast.
There's HUGE variance between motherboards, I wish average post time was on the spec sheets - Especially for some of these (often aimed at htpc?) small form factor boards.

kamegami · 2012-10-30, 20:51

I wanted to throw in my thoughts. I have been using Windows 8 since on my HTPC and it works great. The Start menu works beautifully with a remote or Xbox 360 remote (it is arrow key navigable). I used EventGhost to tie the Guide button on my Harmony to the Start button and now I can launch any of my apps from my remote in a few clicks, I may be getting close to eliminating the keyboard and mouse. The recently released Netflix app is solid and means I no longer need my Xbox 360 at all for media viewing. Also I hear native Kinect support is being added. I'm debating picking a cheap on off ebay to see if I can make a good remote-free interface between voice and gesture input.

Booting is indeed very quick with SSD. I use Hibernate, but the boot is fast enough that I may switch to cold booting when I power on from my remote.

I'd like to see a Metro emulator launcher, with that my media center would be effectively perfect. Not sure why people made a stink about Windows Media Center not being included. Add a PVR frontend and Media Center is completely irrelevant.

You can argue that Windows 7 is better for desktops, but for HTPCs Windows 8 is vastly superior.

dtviewer · 2012-10-30, 21:09

Glad to hear Win 8 is working for you guys.
Here is the thread I started a few days ago with some other posters thoughts on how Win 8 and XBMC is working for them:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=143684

gjlp · 2012-10-31, 03:11

(2012-10-30, 20:51)kamegami Wrote: I wanted to throw in my thoughts. I have been using Windows 8 since on my HTPC and it works great. The Start menu works beautifully with a remote or Xbox 360 remote (it is arrow key navigable). I used EventGhost to tie the Guide button on my Harmony to the Start button and now I can launch any of my apps from my remote in a few clicks, I may be getting close to eliminating the keyboard and mouse. The recently released Netflix app is solid and means I no longer need my Xbox 360 at all for media viewing. Also I hear native Kinect support is being added. I'm debating picking a cheap on off ebay to see if I can make a good remote-free interface between voice and gesture input.

Booting is indeed very quick with SSD. I use Hibernate, but the boot is fast enough that I may switch to cold booting when I power on from my remote.

I'd like to see a Metro emulator launcher, with that my media center would be effectively perfect. Not sure why people made a stink about Windows Media Center not being included. Add a PVR frontend and Media Center is completely irrelevant.

You can argue that Windows 7 is better for desktops, but for HTPCs Windows 8 is vastly superior.

I'm unable to get Eventghost to automatically launch on system startup on Windows 8 -- worked fine in Windows 7. Did you have this issue, Kamegami? Did you find a way to fix it?

kamegami · 2012-11-01, 05:02

(2012-10-31, 03:11)gjlp Wrote:
(2012-10-30, 20:51)kamegami Wrote: I wanted to throw in my thoughts. I have been using Windows 8 since on my HTPC and it works great. The Start menu works beautifully with a remote or Xbox 360 remote (it is arrow key navigable). I used EventGhost to tie the Guide button on my Harmony to the Start button and now I can launch any of my apps from my remote in a few clicks, I may be getting close to eliminating the keyboard and mouse. The recently released Netflix app is solid and means I no longer need my Xbox 360 at all for media viewing. Also I hear native Kinect support is being added. I'm debating picking a cheap on off ebay to see if I can make a good remote-free interface between voice and gesture input.

Booting is indeed very quick with SSD. I use Hibernate, but the boot is fast enough that I may switch to cold booting when I power on from my remote.

I'd like to see a Metro emulator launcher, with that my media center would be effectively perfect. Not sure why people made a stink about Windows Media Center not being included. Add a PVR frontend and Media Center is completely irrelevant.

You can argue that Windows 7 is better for desktops, but for HTPCs Windows 8 is vastly superior.

I'm unable to get Eventghost to automatically launch on system startup on Windows 8 -- worked fine in Windows 7. Did you have this issue, Kamegami? Did you find a way to fix it?

I had some issues on the Consumer Preview, but ever since installing the Release version with the latest EventGhost I haven't had any issues.

m1mi.dan0s · 2012-11-03, 14:14

That is lightning fast! The moment I read this post I immediately started uninstalling my XBMCBuntu - which was giving me nothing but headache, reinstalled windows 7 and bought a windows 8 license!

Thanks for the heads up about the tutorial, it sounds great, I'll post my experiences here when after I tested it.

Hugo32 · 2012-11-03, 15:30

Windows 8 is really a great operating system, I enjoy using it. Thanks for sharing post about this topic. I would love to read more discussion about this topic.

**patseguin** · 2012-11-03, 17:03

Yeah this works really great. XBMC pretty much becomes the OS and I boot in 2-3 seconds. Only minor annoyance is if xbmc crashes or I need to do something, grabbing a keyboard so I can run explorer.exe is a minor inconvenience.

m1mi.dan0s · 2012-11-03, 17:18

(2012-11-03, 14:14)m1mi.dan0s Wrote: That is lightning fast! The moment I read this post I immediately started uninstalling my XBMCBuntu - which was giving me nothing but headache, reinstalled windows 7 and bought a windows 8 license!

Thanks for the heads up about the tutorial, it sounds great, I'll post my experiences here when after I tested it.

Okay, so I managed to get it running and yes, using this manual: http://cybernetnews.com/xbmc-run-boot-xb...windows-8/ does boot XBMC blazing-fast!

I only run into one thing, I need Imon Manager to start in order for XBMC to understand my remote. Is there anyway I can have iMon Manager start and still use the above feature?

htpc guy · 2012-11-04, 05:53

(2012-11-03, 17:18)m1mi.dan0s Wrote:
(2012-11-03, 14:14)m1mi.dan0s Wrote: That is lightning fast! The moment I read this post I immediately started uninstalling my XBMCBuntu - which was giving me nothing but headache, reinstalled windows 7 and bought a windows 8 license!

Thanks for the heads up about the tutorial, it sounds great, I'll post my experiences here when after I tested it.

Okay, so I managed to get it running and yes, using this manual: http://cybernetnews.com/xbmc-run-boot-xb...windows-8/ does boot XBMC blazing-fast!

I only run into one thing, I need Imon Manager to start in order for XBMC to understand my remote. Is there anyway I can have iMon Manager start and still use the above feature?

I'm in the same boat. I believe iMon needs the explorer process but I would love to be proven wrong.

m1mi.dan0s · (This post was last modified: 2012-11-04, 17:26 by m1mi.dan0s.)

(2012-11-04, 05:53)htpc guy Wrote:
(2012-11-03, 17:18)m1mi.dan0s Wrote:
(2012-11-03, 14:14)m1mi.dan0s Wrote: That is lightning fast! The moment I read this post I immediately started uninstalling my XBMCBuntu - which was giving me nothing but headache, reinstalled windows 7 and bought a windows 8 license!

Thanks for the heads up about the tutorial, it sounds great, I'll post my experiences here when after I tested it.

Okay, so I managed to get it running and yes, using this manual: http://cybernetnews.com/xbmc-run-boot-xb...windows-8/ does boot XBMC blazing-fast!

I only run into one thing, I need Imon Manager to start in order for XBMC to understand my remote. Is there anyway I can have iMon Manager start and still use the above feature?

I'm in the same boat. I believe iMon needs the explorer process but I would love to be proven wrong.

I'm pretty sure that iMon needs the explorer as well, but all the same I just noticed that the complete memory footprint of windows 8 + drivers + imon manager uses only about 500MB Ram. And because for some reason Windows 8 handles suspend to RAM perfectly out of the box, unlike windows 7, I didn't need to install a seperate app for that. Also, it's much easier to disable parts of windows in windows 8 (it doesn't come bundled with all kinds of crap like before, besides IE10 and WMP). Anyway, the lightest I could get Windows 7 was around 900MB Ram and now Windows 8 runs with only 500-600MB ram. So that's amazing IMO.

--- Edit: So it doesn't really matter to me, I have a shortcut to XBMC in The User Interface Formerly Known As Metro (TUIFKAM) which is easily selectable with the remote and it's super-stable. So I'm happy I made the choice to upgrade to Win8.

Other question: Does anyone know of a iMon-.imo profile for Windows 8, cause it would be awesome to play the games TUIFKAM offers with your remote.