Still undecided with the Windows 7 vs 8, what do I go for?

W

waynedance

Gold Level Poster
Have ordered Windows 8 but keep reading up on the net about how bad it is. Gone for 8 as it is the latest OS I want to be up to date.

Is it really easy to make it look "normal" so to say? Without spending extra or installing loads of crap, seen lots of so called "put the start bar back" downloads.

Can you still have a normal desktop with short cuts and add what you like as in 7?

Can you boot to desktop without using the new tile system screen?
 
M

Marks

Bronze Level Poster
I'd check the offer is still on and if it is, get win 7, then get the £14.99 upgrade to win 8 to keep for when you need it.
 
W

waynedance

Gold Level Poster
Well just been researching Windows 8 and how to get the Start Button back and it seems easy with something called Power Shell which is free. This would be the biggest problem for me and being able to boot straight into a deskop with a start button would be great.

What I have learnt is 8 seems to be faster and consumes less battery than 7.
 
Grimezy

Grimezy

Prolific Poster
Marks said:
I'd check the offer is still on and if it is, get win 7, then get the £14.99 upgrade to win 8 to keep for when you need it.
Click to expand...

I'm doing this. Well I planned to but I'm very happy with Windows 7 so no real need to upgrade right now.
 
nathanjrb

nathanjrb

Prolific Poster
I've been using W8 for a few weeks now, and I can assure it's not as bad as people are making out. It just takes some getting used to. I have to admit the start interface seems a little unnecessary for a desktop, but I can see it's advantages in laptops/tablets.

The problem is they have made it almost like there are 2 operating systems. For instance, I can browse the web 'raw' like you are used to with all the previous incarnations of Windows, or you can browse it via the 'Start' menu, where it's full screen and over simplified and everything is animated. It's almost like Microsoft built it because that's what everyone else was doing and not because they needed it...
 
W

waynedance

Gold Level Poster
Well I intend to do away with the Metro and install Power Shell to try and get back to what I like and Know.

Things may improve with future updates.
 
baron75mk2

baron75mk2

Banned
maybe im missing something about win 8 , but if you are not using metro then whats the point ? , aside from this its just win 7 with no start menu & just generally a lot more of a pain to use (also you can no longer do full pc backups in backup & restore any more - good one microsoft take away something we actuallly liked)

I tried the developer preview & hated it & just yesterday i tried the full win 8 again & still hated it , its not like its needed for a new variant of direct X or something , so to me unless its metro your after than you might as well stay with 7 as i have gone back to today. :eek:
 
rickne

rickne

Master Poster
The point is it is much better optimised. Faster performing than Windows 7. The Metro system is a choice. I never even see it now. Win 8 is amazing and a step forward. Staying with 7 is just throttling your experience.
 
baron75mk2

baron75mk2

Banned
rickne said:
The point is it is much better optimised. Faster performing than Windows 7. The Metro system is a choice. I never even see it now. Win 8 is amazing and a step forward. Staying with 7 is just throttling your experience.
Click to expand...

Better optimized for what exactly ? Tablets ?

Didnt seem to perform that much better to me yesterday , 1 or two fps extra in games aside form that nothing different in terms of performance.

But it is nice to see someone who actually likes it :)
 
J

Jedimaca

Bronze Level Poster
I have been beta testing windows 8 since its first pre release and have got the final pre release running on my home theatre pc now as I write. I'd say it's looks the biz but I mainly just use the desktop so it looks exactly like windows 7 but a few of the things your used to are not there like the windows button in the bottom left corner doesn't bring up all your applications and it's a bit of a pain in the arse to get used to. My main bug bare is the compatibility problems as usuall I had all these problems when vista first come out, windows 7 wasn't too bad but the problems I'm hearing with windows 8 are unreal. I installed it on my former laptop which had shared graphics and the shared graphics didn't work it only recognised the dedicated gpu so now battery saving so I ditched it right away and went back to 7. I hated vista and totally boycotted it altogether with the problems I had in the begining my digital camera wasn't compatible, my laptops sd card reader... I stuck with xp till 7 came along. I am just ordering a optima iv now and am gonna stick 7 on there at least untill micro suck sort there @&£) out with 8 so I'd say if you want everything to work go with 7.. If you are prepared for teething problems go with 8.. I personally do not think that 8 looks good enough or does anything that 7 doesn't so I'm sticking with 7 for a while at least untill I see that 8 is running better frame rates for gaming and they have ironed out all the creases.
 
M

mdwh

Enthusiast
I've used Windows 8 RTM in a virtual machine.

The start button is still there - move the mouse to the bottom left of the taskbar and click. The difference is that there's no longer the icon of a "button" (this used to say "Start", in Vista or 7 they removed that and just had the Windows logo, now they have nothing). I'm not sure why they removed this - seems odd to remove the visual cue - but it's there, despite the scaremongering from the media. It also works fine as before it you just press the Windows key shortcut (despite the claims that it's only for tablets/touchscreen, the keyboard is as useful as before).

If you really want the icon back, there are free tools that do that.

The start menu is different yes - but then, they change the start menu in every other version anyway. I hated the change from 2000 to XP, for example. It's not actually that different - you can still lauch things by typing the name with keyboard like in Windows 7 (actually the fastest way to launch things, though many people seem to not know about this feature). And instead of scrolling through a list of names with the mouse, you now scroll through icons and names. And it takes up the full screen - which makes sense to me, why waste the full size of my monitor, and only have it in a tiny corner?

But again, if you don't like it, there are free tools to get the Windows 7 start menu back.

At first it seems a pain to have to do one extra click to get to the desktop, but think about it - what's the first thing you almost always do when you start? You go to the start menu, to launch something ... so starting from the start menu (or "screen") seems actually a good idea.

There are valid concerns over what the future of computing is - will all software start using only the new fullscreen UI, for example? But for now, Windows 8 will work just as well your software, in exactly the same way as with Windows 7. (And if everyone does switch to only making tablet-optimised software, then you'd be doomed with Windows 7 anyway, which won't run them at all.)

baron75mk2 said:
maybe im missing something about win 8 , but if you are not using metro then whats the point ?
Click to expand...
There are other benefits to Windows 8 (e.g., see Wikipedia). Whether they're enough to justify the upgrade cost is up to you, but one could say that about any new version of Windows. £30 isn't that much, plus if you're buying a new machine, then there's no extra cost to Windows 8 versus 7 anyway AFAIK.
 
J

Jedimaca

Bronze Level Poster
I'll stick to Linux for the most part its more secure and stable imo and keep using windows 7 only for gaming or applications that wont run on linux till I'm forced to update to 8. I stuck with xp as long as I could till certain games were not supported so finally upgraded to 7. I'll let windows 8 iron out all the incompatibility issues and teething problems probably service pack 2 before I upgrade.
 
K

Keithg

Enthusiast
I have windows8 on my optimus4 and am very happy. All devices and features worked with a minimum of fuss (baring USB3 of course).
The boot time is incredibly fast and general performance is very good, faster than 7 I am not sure but certainly not slower.
I enjoy the tiles and icons screen, previously the desktop was a waste of space (as I didnt have icons there) and the live tiles are helpful.

I do not like the layout if alot of the metro apps (store esp) as the seem to be tailored specifically for tablets. Is it too much for me to ask to get more smaller icons rather than a couple of really large ones and a scroll bar. Although a mouse with a wheel that can scroll left and right help here.

A couple of games had issues (GTA IV) but this was due to the Games for windows client being incompatible but there is already a work around for this.

To summary no regrets with windows 8
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top