Windows 8... worth an upgrade from 7? - Page 8

I use the one in this post... works great.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1422535/windows-media-center-vs-tivo-premiere#post_22263973

Screw touch, not on a desktop. Speed. XP is junk. Old slow and insecure. 8 is liquid on a SSD and still fast on a HDD. Most businesses are a joke. Banking for example still relies on crippled XP in a lot of places around the world. They should stop being so cheap and move into the 21st century.

[SIZE]4[/SIZE]Old enough to know to wait for the first Service Pack

I keep reading but it seems Windows 8 is more of a tablet-like version of Win 7. I have an iPad for a tablet. Are there any desktop improvements to Win 8?

I would have to warn to stay away. I downloaded the "upgrade" version out of curiosity. It disabled most of my legal and installed software, including MS OFFICE 2010!!! PowerDVD was also lost, along most other programs.

Wow, I didn't even know Windows 8 was out and I read the news everyday.

I remember the days when peeps would line up at midnight for the newest version of Windows. Now it's all Apple I suppose.

Well since no one knew the answer, I'll answer myself for any others that might be interested. My recordings survived the Win8 upgrade and WMC installation. However the Hauppauge remote which came with my 2650 cablecard tuner no longer works.

However I find Windows 8 beastly. Granted, I didn't bother to read up on it much but dang, it's a pain. The first shock was when I wanted to play some freecell while background tasks were going on. I became aware there is no programs menu. I don't have a shortcut for all my programs on the desktop so I had to go all around to Laura's house to bring up "apps" which I don't think represents everything I had in Programs. I can't imagine using this in an office environment. And of course i freaked out when Free Cell wasn't avaiable. Googled that I had to go to the store. Then had to Google how to search the stupid store.

I can't get the start menu, nor that right side search/settings menu to come up reliably, so it's very annoying to keep waving my mouse around waiting for invisible menus to appear. Luckily this is a non-critical system so I can suffer through it.

I vaguely recall Win 8 not loading the 2650 IR driver at first, but I was able to force it. Just browse directly to the driver and ignore the incompatibility warnings. But this was several months ago, and I've gone through a lot of tuners and remotes, so I could be thinking of something else.

Otherwise, a different remote should work fine. The ARC-1100 is on the Win 8 compatibility list and is around $15 on amazon.

That's how I've been viewing Windows 8; essentially, it's a fancy "launcher" that is much more touch-screen friendly. Yes, it's faster than Win 7, etc. but you eventually "launch" the Desktop "app" that brings you to a screen complete that everyone is familiar with (complete with traditional icons, the Taskbar and the Start button).

When I get a new touchscreen-enabled laptop and/or Surface Pro, that's when I'll use Win 8. For the time being, I don't see any worthy gains in moving to Win 8 on a non-touch computer. It's just not friendly to the traditional keyboard/mouse setup.

This type of thing is always a risk when going with a new OS. If your remember the switch from win95 kernel to XP or win2000, broke a lot of legacy hardware and then the switch to 64bit did the same thing. Lots of things over a few years old never get new drivers.

Unfortunately there is no Start button in desktop mode. So launching apps is a lot more time consuming, requiring many more mouse moves, key strokes and even text searches. "Eventually" ending up in a crippled desktop environment is unacceptable to me. Not only that, without Aero, it's just plain ugly and primitive looking. No thanks.

THERE ARE NO MORE SERVICE PACKS ANYMORE. THIS IS 2012 NOT 1995.

Git off my lawn! Winderz aight iz a finished opereratin sistem. If it don't have it, you don't need it!

totally agree. i am running it on one of my htpc's, and a tablet and will be installing it on my laptop and my remaining desktops soon when i get time.

i haven't had any issues. and win 8 is more efficient once you get past the past and learn how to use it.
Edited by gammite - 10/31/12 at 8:52pm

ok, here is my impression of windows 8. its basically windows 7 but with that start screen made for touch screen interface and a little confusing to use windows like you did with windows 7 because they got rid of the START button. windows 8 does tend to run a little quicker than 7, boots up faster, SSDs running a little faster too, and actually takes up less space than Windows 7, but it really is the same code as windows 7 tidied up with a new coat of polish. its supposed to be more power efficient than windows 7 but i wont be finding that out until i get a new laptop sometime in the next few months. i would say going from vista to windows 7 was a much bigger difference than going from 7 to 8. i think microsoft knows this and thats why you are seeing windows 8 pricing where it is right now. if they sold it for they have sold past windows versions for, you would not be seeing many people upgrading at all. i bought my copy of windows 8 pro from amazon for $70 but it comes with $30 amazon credit so it really only costs me $40. even got the media center upgrade for free which is useless to me unless i install 8 on my HTPC which im not. i would have never paid $70 for windows 8 because i never even tried the preview version after reading so many negative reviews. luckily for me i have 2 SSDs in my desktop so i have it set up to dual boot both windows 7 and 8. each OS on its own hard drive. maybe i will learn how to use windows more efficiently and actually like. only time will tell.

Wow, that's crazy, how did Microsoft get into your house to remove the key from the keyboard?!

You can create a Start Menu (toolbar) that sits to the right of the default toolbar (or elsewhere) which has links to the various programs. Plus, there are apps that restore the original look (function).

http://blogs.computerworld.com/19820/how_to_bring_back_the_start_menu_to_the_windows_8_desktop
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33642_7-57543008-292/win8-startbutton-gets-your-start-menu-back-in-windows-8/

Personally I think the current stampede to all things mobile is a big mistake. Sure it's new and all novelty like but like all tools, each has its place in the overall scheme of things. These mobile devices are tools with two purposes. From the consumer side of things they are supposed to provide you with instant gratification...sort of like skipping the work required to go on a date and build a relationship before jumping in the sack and instead heading straight for the bathroom for a little session with mother thumb and her 4 daughters or your favorite battery powered companion. From the manufacturer/dealer perspective, these things serve quite well as a handy tool to drain you of all the money they possibly can. But hey, what do I know? I'm old fashioned and all that experience I've built up certainly can't be useful...right?

Go knock yourselves out but please try to keep a cool tool in the process.

After using Windows 8 for a year I decided that I will still use Windows 7 next year for my long overdue workstation upgrade.

Yes, because the only reason businesses don't upgrade is because they are cheap.

Many businesses rely on third party software (many are even custom) and hardware. These third party products do not always work (or work well) with newer OSes. There is also loss of productivity while employees learn the new OS and the added cost of training them. Many employees barely learn the one they are currently using.

The price of the OS is only a small part of the cost of upgrading for business.

Info for anyone using a Logitech Performance Mouse MX. The button area under the thumb has an option to assign it as a Start Men button. Pressing down with my thumb switches back and fourth from Desktop to Metro.

That is the dumbest comment......Vista nightmares anyone? what a POS that was from XP and even ME might I say.......7 however is indeed beautiful, modern, and IMO perfect in many ways...if you dont like it than go Apple or Ubuntu BUT!! "Doesn't apply to OS's"! BS, BS, BS! and stupid! .....Why risk hours and hours of work with 8! It took me 2 years to do 7 as I did not trust them until it had a good run and lots of data....once the data came in all is good. Wait at least a year on 8 or suffer an unsure fate. Unless you are a casual FB, Twitter e-mail only PC user.... For business apps and anything enterprise WAIT! .....oh and for MCE which I have had since the XBOX team started back during 98. Win 8 NEVER!!!....why?....it has no updates from 7...MCE team is shut down which sucks...no benefit in 8 from 7...only big problems if you want raw vid and FLAC play back etc as all of the plug ins and and codecs might or might not work....good luck cuttign your MCE wrist with 8!! Don't do it

Then you will wait forever and never again update to a new version of Windows:
http://www.instantfundas.com/2012/10/windows-service-packs-no-more.html

Upgraded to windows 8 day 1.
it takes almost 1-3 hours to learn the new way of searching, browsing, switching between applications etc. But it is worth upgrading and learning

I was getting ready to reply to a few posts here and it dawned on me that most of the people commenting don't have a clue about Windows 8. I'm not about to wrestle with pigs in the mud, nor attempt to have a coherent conversation about Win8.

Just because YOU read it in a "blog" doesn't make it true. Sad, very sad.

When I managed to find services, the IR was running. I even stopped and started it. I guess I'll just try reinstalling it to see if it takes.

Just because that "dawned on" YOU doesn't make it true either. A lot of us actually do have a clue about Windows 8.

i have had this tablet for 1.5 years and installed windows 8 on it last march. it works flawlessly.

Thanks again. The Hauppauge download link wasn't working, so I just reinstalled the IR software from the cd, dated 11/2011 and my remote is working again.

awesome tip. i will have to utilitze this on my performance mx's. i wonder if there is a way for the anywhere mx to do this.