Windows 8 - Is it worth a try?

[Torgan]

Ello folks,

A little while ago my girlfriend purchased a copy of Windows 8 Pro that she was going to upgrade her old W7 laptop with.

She has now changed her mind (no surprise there ) and is going to get herself a brand new machine with W8 pre-installed.

I have now been given the copy of W8 Pro to upgrade my machine.

This is where I am unsure of how to proceed.... I quite like W7 and have become reasonably competent with it, able to navigate around the place and fix problems myself without much pointing. The allure of a new OS to explore however is quite appealing to me.

The reviews of W8 I have read across various magazines and websites, while initially quite critical, have recently improved as users begin to get to grips with the GUI.

I mainly use my laptop for gaming and browsing, however I am seriously considering taking on an Open University IT course in the New Year so the scope of my useage may increase significantly.

I value the opinions of PCS forum readers very highly, so if you have upgraded to W8, I would appreciate a few moments of your time to add your impressions to this thread.

I have investigated the possiblity of downgrading back to W7 without a clean install if I don't like it, and although it is possible, I have heard horror stories from various sources.

A lot of reports also list driver issues as a major drawback of upgrading, but I have already downloaded the latest W8 drivers for the P370EM direct from the Clevo site, so am quite confident I will get the machine working, it is just the Interface that is causing me concern.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated folks.

Have a good chrimbo all

Torgan.

 

[Gazzafaegreenock]

I would also like to know what people think of this.

 

[Pagey]

Ok, I'll add what I can:

Basically Win 8 isn't that much different from Win 7, it's just the the Metro UI that seems to put people off.

The things and way you'd normally do things on Win 7 you'll basically be doing on Win 8 too.

If you're not using a touchscreen, get rid of all the Metro apps you won't need as tbh they're usually scaled down versions of the original softwares and are useless for laptops.

I would normally have my "always" used software on the taskbar, software that I use but not as frequently will go into the Metro start screen, anything else can just be removed, not uninstalled from the start screen.

That's pretty much all I have to offer on Win 8.

Also Win 8 is a little more resources friendly.

 

[famin3]

I had Win8 for about 10 days. Now I'm fighting with problems it has done for 5 days already, I think that my HDD is damaged because of this. I had problems with drivers, system kept throwing some erorrs with nearly every single application I had on it... Wanted to come back to Win 7 but I was late and now I'm going to send it back to PCS I guess, because there's nothing I can really do with that...

 

[Pagey]

Are you sure you're installing the correct Windows 8 drivers from the "Clevo" website? You'll find that the drivers supplied on the DVD are still Windows 7.

 

[Toxophilix]

I quite like W7 and have become reasonably competent with it, able to navigate around the place and fix problems myself without much pointing.

That being so, my advice would be to stick with Windows 7.

I tried Windows 8 for a week before hastily reinstalling 7 (via a clean install, which I was happy to do). Of course, it's a question of personal preference as to which OS is best, but I'm fully in the camp that finds Windows 8 essentially schizophrenic with two UIs clumsily bolted together. There might be a future for a "converged" OS which is equally good on traditional PCs and on tablets, but Windows 8 sure isn't it. It's frustrating, really, as it seems Microsoft has gratuitously thrown away years' worth of UI improvements dating back to Windows 95.

Of course, you can remove many of 8's annoyances with a product like Start8 or Classic Shell, but then you could equally well achieve that effect by just sticking with Windows 7.

But YMMV.

 

[LiddleP]

Really is up to you to decide on the move - the one easy way of getting back to Win 7 without loosing anything would be to take an image and create a Live CD/DVD with a copy of the image stored on it, that way you boot up with the Live CD and can push the image back on and voila - or you could try to dual boot Windows 8 if you have the space, to create a partition for it.

As one who personally skipped Win 7, although I have supported Windows 7 a bit, and am moving from XP straight into Windows 8 I at the moment have no misgivings.
Granted, the new interface threw me a bit but I am finding my way around and the options are there to cut out most or virtually all the bloat and make it more Win 7 like.

While it may be buggy I have personally, so far (touch wood) not come across any major issues but one - where trying to perform a system restore failed as I had removed a CD that was in place when the restore point was made and it failed again after putting the same CD back in place,, presumably as it wanted to write to the CD but could not - apart from that it has been relatively smooth sailing.

Apart from the updated interface the only other real benefit would be for Quad core users as scheduler improvements in Windows 8 when using a Quad core gives your system a bit of a boost,

 

[Torgan]

I took the plunge and am quite happy I did to be honest. It is true the loss of the Start Menu is quite annoying to begin with, but after a few days, simply typing the first few letters of the system tool you want from the Metro page becomes as much second nature as the Start Menu used to be.
The actual upgrade took about 40 mins from start to finish and was quite simple. The idea of the compatability test you run before installation is an excellent idea, I was pleasantly suprised that I would only be losing a couple of older games and programs (most used loss was Dragons Age Origins) but there was nothing that made me want to stay with Win 7 just to keep. It recommended reinstalling a few utilities after the change such as iTunes, Fraps and Gimp, but they only took a couple of seconds to do once I was up and running.
I have read horror stories about Drivers following upgrading, but the only thing I have had to redo was the Hotkey (and yeah Pagey I did get the Win 8 drivers from the Clevo website. Purely out of curiousity I put in the PCS DVD and it will not even open in Win 8, it gives you an "incompatible OS message")
I have tried all my games (Steam, Origin and standalone) and everything runs up fine and the SLI still gives some lovely FPS and I have definitely seen an improvement in loading times, especially Crysis 2 and Far Cry 3.

The only heartache I have run into was after I stupidly messed about with the personalization menu and screwed the colour system up so I could not see anything I was inputting (I know i shouldn't...but I just can't help tinkering!). There is now an option called "PC Refresh" which says it refreshes the OS but leaves your files alone. A word of warning folks.... this will revert your OS settings to factory and does indeed leave all your files alone, but what it does do is also remove all executable programs. For example, all your Steam game folder files will still be in place, however the Steam Launcher will have gone...... this is also true with your Anti Virus/Spyware so a morning was spent reinstalling, but was definitely a lesson learnt.

After the inital few days of swearing at your laptop, everything clicks into place and navigating between the various Windows becomes second nature, (and in fact necessary) as many utilities have still not caught up and become compatible with Win 8 mode. For instance you can open Chrome in both Desktop and Win 8 mode (swapping via the Chrome browser menu) and Win 8 mode certainly looks more slick and polished, but has it's problems, as Norton toolbar and Vault will not work with it, so browsing is only really available from the Desktop as they will still operate in that mode.

Another issue is Backups. As far as I can see Win 8's own backup is just not cutting it. I have had a good look into it and it does not seem to be able to take a "complete" system and file backup, which is my preferred method. I have been a very contented customer of Norton Ghost for backups for many years, however that will just not entertain Win 8 at all so i've had to look around for a replacement. I have tried various freeware products from Magazine Disks/recommended downloads etc but none of them have either worked, or given me what I wanted (incremental, scheduled backups). I have finally found one that is tailored to Win 8, which although does require purchasing, has worked excellent for me for a few days now and that is Acronis TrueImage 2013.

To sum up, I would not try and talk anybody out of Win 8 (what is "under the hood" is very similar indeed to Win 7 so you will not have to relearn it). It has both advantages and disadvantages, but from what I have seen so far it is worth a try.

If anybody has anything I can try and help them with, please ask and I'll do my best to answer for you

Anyway, Happy New Year to all in PCS Forum land :balloon:

Torgan

 

[Duddy1985]

I decided to take the plunge and upgrade my Vortex II to windows 8, it was pretty much plain sailing apart from trying to find drivers etc. I got there in the end and im really happy with windows 8, i got used to it after a few hours and it actually seems easier to navigate/find what you want.

I too would not talk anybody out of upgrading.

Still waiting for my free media center key.