Windows 8

Already there is Windows 8.1 now. Anyone trying/going to try the preview?


Download Windows 8.1 Preview - Microsoft Windows

I've been running win8 since early january. I like it.
I'll be upgrading to 8.1 (SP1?) when it comes out. All UI changes are adaptable with minimal fuss.

I wont be trying it.

Windows 7 .

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

ped said:

I wont be trying it.

Windows 7 .

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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Yup. I was on XP for the longest time until applications stopped working.

ped said:

I wont be trying it.

Windows 7 .

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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ARG said:

Yup. I was on XP for the longest time until applications stopped working.

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Boring. I'm always an "if it ain't broke, fix it anyway until it is broke" person. That being said I'll up updating to the 8.1 trial the second it finishes downloading.

ARG said:

Yup. I was on XP for the longest time until applications stopped working.

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I definitely skipped Vista, but I did look forward to switching to 7 because it was a substantial upgrade. I was upgrading my computer at the time anyway.

Rant: What I lament is that Microsoft abandoned some features of the taskbar from WinXP, notably that vertical taskbars don't have multiple columns but instead have a horizontal scrollbar. They also made the taskbar buttons HUGE, allowing only like 25 tasks to be shown at once. They were so huge that I had to hack the theme resource file to reduce the task size to something more manageable (~60+ tasks at once). It's not like I want to click them with my mouse or collapse them into a single icon.

My rule of thumb is to skip every other (consumer) Windows release because the ones between are only half-baked. Win95 -> Skip Win98 -> Win98se -> Skip WinME -> WinXP (Win2k was okay, but more business) -> Skip Win Vista -> Windows 7 -> Skip Windows 8 -> Whatever comes next.

I'm still not sure if "whatever comes next" will be a worthy upgrade though. Maybe 8.1 will be considered the "whatever comes next" because Microsoft wised up and brought back that start button. Not everyone wants to use their desktop computer as a tablet, or see inane things in panels all the time. It's bad enough people already like to put their greasy fingers on the screen when pointing at things. It doesn't show enough tasks either.

2007Revolution said:

Boring. I'm always an "if it ain't broke, fix it anyway until it is broke" person. That being said I'll up updating to the 8.1 trial the second it finishes downloading.

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I'm a long-haul type person. I get my settings just right and then don't want to change. I've had this installation running for years on end. My last XP installation lasted me about 5-6 years straight without an reinstall -- across two hardware upgrades.

I am for fixing stuff though. There are a lot of broken things in the way the defaults are set up, so I'll go around fixing them to change my system to my liking. It's partially why I don't like reinstalling: sometimes I forget how I fixed the problem.

Bionic-Badger said:

I'm a long-haul type person. I get my settings just right and then don't want to change. I've had this installation running for years on end. My last XP installation lasted me about 5-6 years straight without an reinstall -- across two hardware upgrades.

I am for fixing stuff though. There are a lot of broken things in the way the defaults are set up, so I'll go around fixing them to change my system to my liking. It's partially why I don't like reinstalling: sometimes I forget how I fixed the problem.

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Damn! Doubt I've ever gone 6 months without a reinstall. I start getting errors and performance issues and just reinstall lol. Then again, I don't touch many of the OS's settings. The power settings (I won't use power saver ) and the language settings (I need to add more keyboards) are about the only things I change. lol


EDIT: Got 8.1 installed on my laptop. So far I'm really happy. Had to start a new MS account though as I forgot my details. Seems you need one to install now.

Yeah but you can switch to a local account once your in.

2007Revolution said:

Damn! Doubt I've ever gone 6 months without a reinstall. I start getting errors and performance issues and just reinstall lol. Then again, I don't touch many of the OS's settings. The power settings (I won't use power saver ) and the language settings (I need to add more keyboards) are about the only things I change. lol

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I do like the feeling of a recently "douched" out computer system. It does feel faster and run nicer. However, it's not really the main OS that's the problem. I've just got so much stuff installed, so many settings applied, that I hate having to deal with all that again. Some people, to get around some of that by creating pre-baked "slipstreamed" system installations to handle all those issues. That's a great way to go, and I'd probably do more of that if I could, but I also have lots of other things installed and their special settings.

Many programs don't automatically work from pre-installed programs like old MSDOS programs did; it's a reason I try to find Portable installations of programs. Often programs don't retain their settings in convenient locations: some are built into the Registry, so they have to be exported out; others are buried deep in the Users folder, and have to be reinitialized; still others, like Mozilla programs, retain the vestigial profile system from old Netscape, which means any time you reinstall, you create a new profile and need to copy all the old settings over. If everything was retained in a home folder like on Linux, it'd be nice.

Even Linux has problems though, but more at the OS level. Canonical is constantly changing how Ubuntu operates, introducing bugs as often as they're rooted out. They also change up the UI and other stuff, breaking compatibility. My biggest regret with one of my Linux installations was that I didn't use the long time service (LTS) version of that OS, because the regular desktop version expects you to upgrade your distribution periodically. If you don't, Canonical cuts you off and you can't even update your programs. Worse, distribution updates suck. If you thought Windows was bad about upgrade, Ubuntu is even worse. I never trust a distribution upgrade, but resort to a reinstall. Fortunately, the user settings are usually retained, even if I have to go through and reassign user accounts. Now I just use LTS versions of the OS and leave it running for years on end (as Linux should!)

2007Revolution said:

Boring. I'm always an "if it ain't broke, fix it anyway until it is broke" person. That being said I'll up updating to the 8.1 trial the second it finishes downloading.

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I'm the same way and I have "ruined" a lot of things because of it haha.

I've been running windows 8 since it came out. I bought a new laptop and I think it had a free download since I bought it so close to the release of windows 8 (that or it was discounted). But I get a bunch of free software through my engineering department and Windows 8 was one of it, so I got if for free there anyway . I like it but its not amazing or anything. I enjoy the metro theme which is why I upgraded. 8.1 looks like it makes it a lot better, but I am going to wait until the official release to upgrade.


A little off-topic: This thread made me dig up my old chromebook, you know the first one, the CR-48 that I got from google and I'm typing from it now. I want to check out how chrome OS is now, so I'm updating it right now

I am using the Windows 8 operating system on my new laptop and I have to say I hate it. I hate it so much. If you touch the touchpad wrong it takes you away from what you are doing. If I wanted to operate via Mobile style Apps I would have bought a damn iPad.

I've been trying to upgrade to Windows 8, but everyone just laughs at me. Where can I find the upgrade button?

Lol love it!

Just installed windows 8 on my Hackintosh pro on an M500 240GB SSD.
I had issues with an invalid product key because I am not in the country of residence of purchase....

Still having issues with it.


Good greif.... I love how Microsoft makes it as difficult as possible to install an OS on a system.

I don't like the metro look and the flipping back and forth of the desktop and start menu..... retch.....

MacOSX is a dream by comparison.

Yeah Windows 8 is CONSTANTLY pissing me off. It is like an ADHD OS that just can't stop flitting from one thing to the next. Makes me wish I didnt sell my old Macbook Pro to buy this piece of shit. Well. It is a good computer. But maybe I could get a different OS. Jeez.

Too bad Microsoft doesn't allow swapping window managers like unix. E17 has zero bull shiza and works well. While hibernation with win8 is either 80% wonderful or 20% glitch up, freeze up, blow up...