Windows 8

[Ague]

I know that currently, Windows 8 is not supported by DDO. Windows 8 was released today, officially. Are there any plans in the future to make it compatible? I really want to upgrade, but don't want to not be able to play DDO.

[Pantronic]

I know that currently, Windows 8 is not supported by DDO. Windows 8 was released today, officially. Are there any plans in the future to make it compatible? I really want to upgrade, but don't want to not be able to play DDO.

So, DDO may save you from a year or so of pain while MS gets Windows 8 bugs worked out.

[Zenako]

Seriously curious about Why? you really want to upgrade to the new eye candy? Also based on past experiences, new OS's and games like this take some time to iron out the kinks.

[arminius]

Well, in answer to "why," new PCs are shipping with Windows 8 as default, and major vendors like Dell have clamped down on customization options to save costs so chances are very good that any new PC you're going to get from now on will have it.

So unless you're willing to have a full licensed copy of Windows 7 lying around the house that you use to downgrade the PC with very uncertain consequences for the newer hardware that may or may not only have good drivers for Windows 8, then you're going to have Windows 8.

[Gkar]

Well, in answer to "why," new PCs are shipping with Windows 8 as default, and major vendors like Dell have clamped down on customization options to save costs so chances are very good that any new PC you're going to get from now on will have it.

So unless you're willing to have a full licensed copy of Windows 7 lying around the house that you use to downgrade the PC with very uncertain consequences for the newer hardware that may or may not only have good drivers for Windows 8, then you're going to have Windows 8.

Unless you are a corporate customer. Dell has committed to deliver Win 7 for at least another year (and generally they do it as long as their is demand). At this point there is very little hardware certified win8 only.

I do agree DDO should get on the windoz 8 certification though. It only makes sense to make sure you they catch up and are current. Their biggest problem is they are using a version of .net for part of the program that is not supported in win8.

[Pantronic]

Well, in answer to "why," new PCs are shipping with Windows 8 as default, and major vendors like Dell have clamped down on customization options to save costs so chances are very good that any new PC you're going to get from now on will have it.

So unless you're willing to have a full licensed copy of Windows 7 lying around the house that you use to downgrade the PC with very uncertain consequences for the newer hardware that may or may not only have good drivers for Windows 8, then you're going to have Windows 8.

Buying a PC with "windows included" is a nice thing for most people, I guess... I have never done that, and never had a problem installing an older version of Windows on the latest hardware. If the drivers needed are not on the windows CD, they can be downloaded from the internet and installed later.

Upgrading to a new version of an operating system is a choice I make based on my needs, not MS's or Dell's.

[arminius]

Unless you are a corporate customer.

Yes it is true that corporate customers get what they want. I have little doubt that if you paid enough money and signed enough support disclaimers you could have Dell or HP deliver a Windows for Workgroups build.

But just as a word of warning please, please don't install DDO on a corporate PC unless you are truely an expert at thwarting SCCM software inventory and have the rights to take the steps necessary to do it. Or unless, you know, you own the corporation.

[gk_zone]

I'm running DDO on Windows 8 and it runs fine. You'll need to make sure that you install the pre-requisites like .Net 1.1 and .Net 3.5 and such.

What I did was copy the program folder over, which is what I do anyway instead of downloading the program from the net again. When you start the launcher (dndlauncher.exe) make sure you do a "run as administrator" so it can install the components it needs. I also created a shortcut on the desktop and set compatibility options to run as "Windows 7".

For me, it runs better on Windows 8 as I could never get it to work on my work laptop. When my work laptop was upgraded to Windows 8, I was able to get DDO to run. Now I can play when I'm on the road, which is good as it'll keep me out of the hotel bar.

If you have any problems getting it to work, pm me and I'll try to help you out.

[AZgreentea]

Well, in answer to "why," new PCs are shipping with Windows 8 as default, and major vendors like Dell have clamped down on customization options to save costs so chances are very good that any new PC you're going to get from now on will have it.

So unless you're willing to have a full licensed copy of Windows 7 lying around the house that you use to downgrade the PC with very uncertain consequences for the newer hardware that may or may not only have good drivers for Windows 8, then you're going to have Windows 8.

Yes, but why would you take an existing windows 7 PC and then upgrade to windows 8? I've been looking at the reviews and I cant find a compelling reason to leave Win 7 behind. I cant come up with a reason to pick Win 7 over Win 8 unless its "Because I'm getting a new computer".

Still though, DDO should be supported on Win 8. I'm sure they are working on it, but with some of the dependance on legacy that DDO has (.NET 1.1), it might not be simple.

**EDIT
Well ok, so .NET 1.1 is not technically legacy until July 2015, but it still dosent play nice with Win8 and it wont be officially supported much longer.

[arminius]

Yes, but why would you take an existing windows 7 PC and then upgrade to windows 8? I've been looking at the reviews and I cant find a compelling reason to leave Win 7 behind. I cant come up with a reason to pick Win 7 over Win 8 unless its "Because I'm getting a new computer".

Still though, DDO should be supported on Win 8. I'm sure they are working on it, but with some of the dependance on legacy that DDO has (.NET 1.1), it might not be simple.

No, I would not upgrade from Windows 7. It makes sense to upgrade from XP or Vista if your machine has the ability to go beyond 4 GB of memory on the motherboard, but if you are already on Windows 7 64 bit on a decent machine with at least 8 GB of memory just stay there. Windows 7 is a great OS, Windows 8 has some advantages like better use of SSD's, etc, but Windows 7 is not something I'd leave for 8 unless I had to.

I was just saying that if you buy a PC from a major vendor and don't build your own, etc, then it may just come with Win8 and you'll have to deal with what to do from there. And there will be cases where there aren't good drivers for your hardware for older OS's. I tried to keep my children's laptops on XP instead of Vista-32, and it seemed to work, but there was crackling through the sound card that could never be fixed. Fortunately by the time we finally gave up Win7 came out to save us from Vista horror.

Edit: that brings to mind another caveat--don't forget that when it comes to downgrading OS's laptops have much, much less flexibility than desktops. Not only are laptop drivers typically more picky and precise, if push came to shove on a desktop you can always just dump the video card or sound card that is giving you problems and get a Win7 compatible one; not so with a laptop.

[My2Cents]

I've got boxed original copies of both Win98 and MS-DOS 6.1 you can have...

(And before anyone starts one of those "I've got older than you" things, I probably have some of that same way-old junk floating around here too under a box somewhere.)

I would be very surprised if Win 7 didn't work pretty well on any of the latest hardware (with a little driver research.) Am I wrong? Its going to be hard to pry WinXp away from me.

[Ague]

Well, the concern that I have is not my desktop (which runs Win7 64-bit) it's my laptop. I do a lot of travelling with my job and my laptop currently runs Vista. I have ample memory and whatnot for Win8 already. My laptop checked out as qualifying to easily run Win8 Pro. I'll eventually update my Win7 box after some time, but I just don't have any plans right now to do that. I just really want to get my laptop upgraded because I'm tired of Vista.

Also, Win8 Pro is only $39.99 for the upgrade right now, so I want to purchase it before the price skyrockets to in the hundred's of dollar range.

[Zenako]

Ooouch! Vista... That might be a compelling reason.

Seriously from just the posts here, it seems some success so far with Win 8 and some sets of hardware as long as proper updates were installed. So give it a whirl. You can always just hold onto the new OS and install later if it fails to play nice with the current hardware/driver environment on the laptop. Call it hedging your bets for fairly short money this fall.

[Full_Bleed]

I upgraded to Win 8 (64 bit and 32 bit) and DDO runs fine on it.

The only thing you need to do is install .NET 1.1 after you upgrade. When you try to run DDO for the first time it will tell you this.

Here is the direct link if you want to manually install it:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl...ylang=en&id=26

The .NET install will give you a warning about a potential compatibility issue but everything will work just fine.

[GeneralDiomedes]

For future reference .. 'not supported by' doesn't necessarily mean 'doesn't work' it just means customer service won't help you

[Ague]

For future reference .. 'not supported by' doesn't necessarily mean 'doesn't work' it just means customer service won't help you

you make a very good point there...

[Hambo]

Unless you are a corporate customer. Dell has committed to deliver Win 7 for at least another year (and generally they do it as long as their is demand). At this point there is very little hardware certified win8 only.

I do agree DDO should get on the windoz 8 certification though. It only makes sense to make sure you they catch up and are current. Their biggest problem is they are using a version of .net for part of the program that is not supported in win8.

There are supposed to be over a thousand certified systems available today running Win8... This includes Tablets as well, mind you.

Theoretically any system that can run windows7 can run 8, as the hardware requirements actually decreased. In fact, I ran DDO on Windows8 Developer Preview and Customer Preview without an issue at all. It even ran with the Release Preview, until Turbine made their loader changes in late Aug/early Sept.

When I was running DDO on Win8 I saw about a 15% framerate increase over the same hardware running Win7.

When DDO installs on Win8 it puts a link onto the new UI and runs from there, so its not as if you have to search for it.

There have been a couple of "fixes" listed, from Turbine suggesting copying the contents of the "patches" directory up 1 level, to a post today saying that a "data file repair" from the loader screen worked with Live Win8.

If nothing else when I get my upgrade I can always keep running dual boot or I can use my Win7 disk to install a Hyper-V Virtual machine for DDO...

[Hambo]

I've got boxed original copies of both Win98 and MS-DOS 6.1 you can have...

(And before anyone starts one of those "I've got older than you" things, I probably have some of that same way-old junk floating around here too under a box somewhere.)

I would be very surprised if Win 7 didn't work pretty well on any of the latest hardware (with a little driver research.) Am I wrong? Its going to be hard to pry WinXp away from me.

Beat CP/m 2.2 if you can

[Full_Bleed]

There have been a couple of "fixes" listed, from Turbine suggesting copying the contents of the "patches" directory up 1 level, to a post today saying that a "data file repair" from the loader screen worked with Live Win8.

I didn't have to do anything of the sort.

I merely installed .NET 1.1 after installing the Win8 64bit upgrade (from Win 7) and ran DDO from the shortcut on my desktop as I've always done. Later, I just pinned the shortcut to the new Start page and it runs fine from there as well.

A friend of mine reinstalled DDO on a Win8 (32bit upgrade) and after installing .NET 1.1 it updated and ran fine for him as well.

In fact, DDO recognizes that .NET 1.1 isn't installed the first time you attempt to run it and then sends you right to the download page for it. Given the circumstances (that .NET 1.1 isn't officially supported by Win8) I don't think it could be much easier.

[illutian]

-_-'

Why is it that DDO has not been upgraded to NET 2.0? Porting a NET 1.1 program to NET 2.0 isn't that hard.

It's looking like the only games I won't be able to play on Windows 8 are...LoTRO and DDO. And whattda ya know, those are the only two that use NET 1.1...fact those are the only ones that even use .NET, I see MS Visual C++ Redistribs. but no .NET installs.


Just looked on my Windows 7 rig, that's the test bed for most of the applications I play around with....only MS .NET Framework 4 Client Profile and the Extender is installed. Looks like all the other companies went with Visual C++.

Hope that's what Turbine is in the process of doing :\

PS: Love Windows 8. So far 76 (would be 78..Turbine..) work fine with Windows 8.