Windows 8 Will Let You Store The Entire Operating System On A USB Drive And Use It On Any PC

Business Insider ^ | 07/09/2012 | Steve Kovach

[SeekAndFind]

MicrosoftMicrosoft just demonstrated a feature of Windows 8 called Windows To Go that lets you store Windows 8 on a USB drive and use it on other PCs.

Windows To Go puts all your apps, settings, etc. on your USB stick. From there, you pop it into another PC and a full version of Windows 8 is up and running. It even works on machines running older versions of Windows.

Essentially, it's the entire operating system stored on a USB drive. Very cool.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Just curious. All these years Redmond has been saying that your windoze license was always for one computer and one computer only. I guess the thinking here is what - that the performance of “windoze on a stick” will be such that nobody will want to do this except as a temporary convenience as opposed to a permanent solution?

Basically I wonder what their bean counters think about this?

[Clock King]

So, I’m going to plug this into a piece of hardware Without an OS? What is the point?

[Darksheare]

I saw her.
She’s there as a distraction from the crappy product they’re selling.

[RegulatorCountry]

A boot disk? How is this novel? I remember using those with Macs in the bad old days nearly twenty years ago.

[Calvin Locke]

Did not anyone notice the total babe...

Most probably filed it under "The Art of Distraction".

Otherwise, there's usually nothing appealing about MS, at least not in a long time.

[sockmonkey]

I hope you seriously don’t expect anyone to believe that.
Win8 can’t install itself unless you did it manually.

The last time I really used that computer was when we would have the "24" threads on Monday night.

The phone company guy used it when he set up my network a few months ago, but he used firefox, and just did some stuff to link the tv, and all my computers.

I don't see why he'd have put windows 8 on it.

[Calvin Locke]

windoze license was always for one computer and one computer only.

Good point. I remember an article by an industry journalist test driving an early version of XP. He's on a plane, and changed some thing on the laptop, and XP started asking for a new license/auth code because the hardware profile changed

[cableguymn]

Yup.. Still have a 256meg stick with linux on it. I use it to boot windows machines that won’t boot on their own. Go in, fix the windows problems and get it up and running.

Also great for booting machines with lost administrator passwords so one can “recover” the password.

[cableguymn]

looks stoned out of her mind to me.

[OneWingedShark]

What is this, a thread for homos? Did not anyone notice the total babe holding that thumb drive but me?

I don't think she's really all that attractive... but then again, blondes don't usually do it for me.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Absolutely. I’ve experienced this many times myself.

And more recently when I do a linux software upgrade and something changes with regard to virtual box, the windoze that’s running as a virtual machine on top of vbox thinks that the “hardware” has “changed” and calls home to Redmond.

So this idea seems contrary to all of that but it might be a bit like when the record companies made peace with analog copying to cassette tapes and such because the thought was that the experience was somehow degraded.

[Edward Teach]

While this is cool, the security implications are a little bit frightening.

[martin_fierro]

[rlmorel]

[Carriage Hill]

If the eyes BLINK while it's working with data, I want one!

[rlmorel]

I admit she was the first thing I noticed when the thread opened, but I didn’t think she was attractive. There is something about her that gave me the willies...maybe the pursed lips, something.

I did think the comment by Lee’sGhost was hilarious though!

That said, I think that kind of flexibility is a good thing. I have used that kind of functionality for years on the Mac, carrying a firewire drive around and booting any mac from it (any mac that had firewire and OS X) I found it to be a useful troubleshooting tool. If it boots normally from the disk, it most likely isn’t a hardware problem other than possibly the hard drive itself.

I don’t find the Windows 8 interface appealing at all (The “Idiocracy” reference made me LOL!) but I would have to try it first.

Sometimes things that don’t appear to be useful or efficient, can in actual use, be quite good once you understand the concept. I think it is a hideous interface, with icons designed like what you would see in a train station or an airport (they actually did that deliberately, as they proudly stated in the roll-out video!)

But I will reserve judgement. You never know, it just might be better. Don’t care for the look, though.

I do see this might be a rather bad thing from an enterprise perspective, though. Lots of retraining, though I venture to guess a lot of people will do better with this than they did with Windows 95. Seemed like EVERYONE had to be trained on that, but going from 95 to XP wasn’t bad, training wasn’t that much of an issue.

[Carriage Hill]

“...there was Windows 8..it had installed itself. I didn’t do it-didn’t want it.”

Another *feature* of Windows. Remember when they called *bugs*, *features*? LOL.

[Bikkuri]

Dark.. please don’t fall into the dark shadows..

I have been on PCs since before DOS existed.. been through many OSs.. these childish cat-fights push people away from other OSs..

Mac is a faggy OS.. Windows is a Lazy OS.. Unix/Linux is a Geek OS... ... ... crap.. where would I go?! :/

(Both MS and Mac) are Liberal/socialist/communist supporters... .. well, leaves me one place to go.. Linux..

BUT.. prob is, most people today have NO idea how to run it (I will say that it IS getting better)... but there are so many levels to understand the difference (not to mention HOW to upgrade.. run the things we need on MS)..

I am actually starting to get pissed off thinking bout it.. fan-boy this.. fan-boy that...

Just jump in here and help us sometimes, and things will go much smoother.. Stop calling people n00bs.. stop talking like you are the king (not direct to you Dark)..

I remember the days when I had control of all of my ‘friends’.. I was the only one who knew DOS in my town (NOT a programming language.. but an operating system)..

I mean.. how technical do we need to get to prove our point.. yet confuse the majority of the computer users?

I will ALWAYS hate Mac (and this goes back to the Commodore/AMIGA wars in the 80s)..
They will always hate MS... and neither will give in to Linux unless there is something that gets their attention.

I think the major hold-back now is that the majority of the Linux ‘gurus’ love their position of ‘KNOWLEDGE’... and are about 90% jerks... and love to show it :/
They present ‘helpful’ info.. but it is only ‘helpful’ to those that already know.. or at least partially understand Linux.. heck Unix was much easier than this...

Dark, I am in NO way accusing any FReepers of this.. but this is what I have observed since I have gotten serious with Linux. I tried it out 12 years ago.. didn’t like .. 10 years ago.. didn’t like it.. 4 (or so) years ago.. didn’t like it. FINALLY.. about 3-4 months ago, I liked it.. and try to (re)learn it... but the ‘guru’ side of it is very DISTASTEFUL. :/

I HIGHLY respect you and all the other FReepers.. but sometimes, maybe, there would be much better tech support here than on (even specific) Linux forums..

Take care all, and I meant no disrespect :) Long live FR and our republic (and screw the fag corporations)

[Darksheare]

I liked XP, and Se7en.
I detest Vista and Win8 reminds me of the fiasco that was Microsoft Bob.
I’ll move to Se7en and wait it out for a better OS than 8 to come along.

[Bikkuri]

Likewise, I liked the stability of XP (after the updates).. and Win7 is a Godsend (except for the fact of the person/corp) it comes from :p

I have been tester for MS since XP.. I get the good stuff before it get released... but I think I end the line here..

I will attempt to go Linux from here on out. (Win8 seems like a disaster, to me)..