Thoughts on Windows 8

[n0cturnal]

I haven't had a single issue with Windows 8 on my or my girlfriends computer, everything works just as fine as it did on Windows 7.

[kendro1200]

Tried 8 in December, because I figured all of the release bugs would be fixed by then. Nope, still ran into all sorts of issues with hardware pairing, having the machine boot properly, even just getting into something simple like a dos prompt was annoying beyond belief. The controls were extremely twitchy and the OS had a huge infatuation with putting itself into the metro menu with the slightest mouse movement. The only good thing I can say about Windows 8 is that it made drive partition really easy out of the box. The bad news is that I wanted to use that drive partition to put mint on the drive. Sadly when I jumped through the hoops to boot from a dvd 8 decided that although I wanted to boot from a dvd I didn't want to install another operating system and start the disc boot then dump it and go back to its own start up.
Suffice to say all I wanted was my start menu back, the ability to actually access my bios, completely power down the machine, and boot how I please. So long as Windows goes the way of Macintosh and dictates exactly how I should use my own hardware I'll stick to their older iterations of software. XP is still 50x better than 7 as far as operating systems go.

[Lathais]

XP is still 50x better than 7 as far as operating systems go.

If you want to be stuck in a 32-bit world maybe. Yes, XP did have a 64-bit version, but driver support for it is practically non-existent.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Tried 8 in December, because I figured all of the release bugs would be fixed by then. Nope, still ran into all sorts of issues with hardware pairing, having the machine boot properly, even just getting into something simple like a dos prompt was annoying beyond belief. The controls were extremely twitchy and the OS had a huge infatuation with putting itself into the metro menu with the slightest mouse movement. The only good thing I can say about Windows 8 is that it made drive partition really easy out of the box. The bad news is that I wanted to use that drive partition to put mint on the drive. Sadly when I jumped through the hoops to boot from a dvd 8 decided that although I wanted to boot from a dvd I didn't want to install another operating system and start the disc boot then dump it and go back to its own start up.
Suffice to say all I wanted was my start menu back, the ability to actually access my bios, completely power down the machine, and boot how I please. So long as Windows goes the way of Macintosh and dictates exactly how I should use my own hardware I'll stick to their older iterations of software. XP is still 50x better than 7 as far as operating systems go.

Disable Secure Boot.

[The Ogdru Jahad]

I think this is the "Microsoft" effect at play here. Release a fantastic OS... then a shitty one. Then they build on that and release a new OS later that is awesome again. We saw that with XP (Fantastic) > Vista (shit) > 7 (awesome)... 8 is going to be bad, I expected that. It's tablet/smartphone based. But I can certainly see windows 9? being great.

As someone said before, 7 is the new XP. Stick with 7 till the next iteration of windows OS is released.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

I think this is the "Microsoft" effect at play here. Release a fantastic OS... then a shitty one. Then they build on that and release a new OS later that is awesome again. We saw that with XP (Fantastic) > Vista (shit) > 7 (awesome)... 8 is going to be bad, I expected that. It's tablet/smartphone based. But I can certainly see windows 9? being great.

As someone said before, 7 is the new XP. Stick with 7 till the next iteration of windows OS is released.

95 was unstable as fuck, 98 not much better. 2k and ME were crap, XP was crap until SP2 and didn't have proper x64 support even by its EOL and did not support DX11, Vista suffered from being installed on computers with shitty Celeron processors and 512MB RAM (of course it'll run like crap with those specs) and Win 7 wasn't much better until SP1. The "good/bad" alternation simply does not represent reality.

[Ryme]

So you are now advising people to stay away from an OS based on some opinions and rumors you heard at some point in time? At least give some arguments as to why you're doing it, if you're doing it.

Why on earth is everyone so anti-windows 8?! No one is actually giving any arguments to back their opinions up.

@OP: What exactly goes wrong when trying to uninstall? What happens?

It makes no sense on a desktop, for a tablet, I could see it being wonderful, for a desktop I find it works counter-productively to what I want - I don't like the metro style, I don't have a start menu, I don't like how irritating it is to navigate on a computer, I don't like how convoluted it is to open and close programs, I don't like that for 80% of things I want to do I have to press to windows button to get back to an intuitive GUI.

It's just not for me and my desktop.

[The Cat]

I think this is the "Microsoft" effect at play here. Release a fantastic OS... then a shitty one. Then they build on that and release a new OS later that is awesome again. We saw that with XP (Fantastic) > Vista (shit) > 7 (awesome)... 8 is going to be bad, I expected that. It's tablet/smartphone based. But I can certainly see windows 9? being great.

As someone said before, 7 is the new XP. Stick with 7 till the next iteration of windows OS is released.

Comments like this are just ridiculous. Aside from the alternate edition theory being completely untrue... There is nothing wrong with Windows 8 other than the people using it. It is much more efficient than 7, it runs better, you can perform the same tasks faster... The performance is better, the driver support is there, the legacy support is there, games run as good or better on 8.. I mean the only "downside" is the esthetics of the start menu some people seem to have, which I like better. I can't go back to 7 anymore.

[crakerjack]

"blah blah blah, I can't get a game to download, windows 8 sucks." What a horrible thread. Why didn't you make a thread asking for help how to download Fable 3? I have windows 8 and I also have fable 3 from when it was only 12 bucks. Now the topic of this thread is windows 8 vs linux vs mac OS. I prefer windows to all of them only because I'm more used to it than the others... but I don't mind mas OS... I just don't use it much since I'm not into music editing or movie editing. Linux has always been my backup if windows sucked... but windows 8 is more than fine, it's great.

[Deleted]

It makes no sense on a desktop, for a tablet, I could see it being wonderful, for a desktop I find it works counter-productively to what I want - I don't like the metro style, I don't have a start menu, I don't like how irritating it is to navigate on a computer, I don't like how convoluted it is to open and close programs, I don't like that for 80% of things I want to do I have to press to windows button to get back to an intuitive GUI.

It's just not for me and my desktop.

That is all fixed with a 5$ app. After that, there's the enjoyment of a faster, improved OS. I've been running windows 8, I boot into a windows7 desktop and rarely use the metro interface for anything other than stuff I want to use it for.

@Crakerjack: This is NOT a windows vs linux discussion. You are the first to name any OS other than windows. Furthermore, os vs os discussions are not allowed around here.

[Badpaladin]

I like Windows 8 and haven't had any issues with games or applications.

I'm willing to bet the issue is GFWL, because it's shit software that screws up all the time.

[zehzao]

I like Windows 8 as well, haven't had any issues with softwares in general.

[Deleted]

My experience has been generally positive. Once I installed a clone of the windows 7 start menu/desktop addon (Took a whole 1 and a half minutes) it was like running a more responsive version of win7 anyway. (PS Fable 3 not working is your OS protecting you from a shite game. Adhere to its advice)

---------- Post added 2013-04-09 at 05:06 PM ----------

That is all fixed with a 5$ app. After that, there's the enjoyment of a faster, improved OS. I've been running windows 8, I boot into a windows7 desktop and rarely use the metro interface for anything other than stuff I want to use it for.

@Crakerjack: This is NOT a windows vs linux discussion. You are the first to name any OS other than windows. Furthermore, os vs os discussions are not allowed around here.

I use Classic shell instead, namely because it seems to be identical but costs nothing.

[chazus]

I didn't read the entire thread, but I saw GFWL and...



GFWL, on any OS I have run (XP, 7, 8 mainly), has run like crap. If you don't like Origin, you'll HATE GFWL.

I bought a bunch of games on sale during the holidays. Everything on Steam works dandy. Everything on Origin works... most of the time (I -still- can't get my ME3 DLC.)

I couldn't even play Bulletstorm (LAugh it up) or Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet for 3-4 days after I bought them, because GFWL just 'didn't work'. I spent hours troubleshooting and tweaking, registry, all the crap. It just worked a week later, long after I had given up. I figured I'd try it.

Of course, it stopped working a few days later again, and it seems like if it doesn't work, giving a day or two fixes the issue. The absolute worst part is that with many games, if you can't connect to it... You can't play it. If you're having issues with Fable, and it uses GFWL, the problem is almost undoubtedly GWFL, not Fable or Win8.

[LeVvE]

Fable 3 on PC is shit in general, just as much problem on Windows 7 as Windows 8.

My experience with Windows 8 so far is great, less problem than I had with Windows 7.

[Zogarth]

I prefer Windows 8 over windows 7 for hardcore gaming (yeah i said it). It runs faster than windows 7 from what i can see, so i get better performance in games, and heck... i like the metro system. Even tho i do not have a touch screen or anything like that. I switched to windows 8 not expecting anything as i had Vista and heck... 8 was cheap, and i do agree that vista sucks.

[Deleted]

That is all fixed with a 5$ app.

Or even the free ClassicShell works just fine.

[IdTheDemon]

Windows 7 is the new XP, stick with it.

Never liked the opinions and rumors on Win 8 so decided to skip it and haven't been sorry yet.

This.

Prepare for 10 years of 7

[Deleted]

Windows 7 is the new XP, stick with it.

Never liked the opinions and rumors on Win 8 so decided to skip it and haven't been sorry yet.

What are these opinions and rumors that you didn't like? Of course you won't be sorry skipping Windows 8, it's not like Windows 7 wasn't working for you in the first place, right? That doesn't mean you wouldn't like Windows 8 and any of it's improvements though.

[RoKPaNda]

I haven't went back yet. Every time i try to install games for windows live it says i have a connection error which i absolutely do not. I looked it up, its a w8 problem.

Are you trying to install it through Steam? IIRC That's more of a Steam problem (BLASPHEMY!) than a Windows 8 problem. Steam packages an incompatible version of GFWL with it's GFWL games.

I had issues with Windows 8 at first, and I still absolutely despise Metro (and after using it for a few months disabled it.) but thanks to third party apps that reintroduce the classic start menu and thanks to the performance gains over 7, it's totally worth using Windows 8.