Windows 8

I'm Mr. YouTube today.

 

From what I understand, there's little to recommend it over Win7, unless maybe you're using a tablet or something. From what I hear there's also some trouble with backwards compatibility with quite a few programs because of how Win8 expects apps instead of executables.

I've never tried it myself, though, so no first hand experience.

 

Tal,

I have a friend who purchased a disc for his home computer. He's kind of a techno type of guy. He has planned to install it. That was 2 or 3 days ago. I'm waiting to here from him this evening after I left a him a phone message saying I had found a deal at the Microsoft store online. The deal is Win8 Pro for $39.99.

I let you know after his call.

Edit:
I just spoke with him. He says that once the computer boots up and Metro comes up, a quick mouse click or swipe will get the "normal" interface on your screen. Hope this helps.

The deal I mentioned above may only be for 32 bit. I'll know later.

 

There is also classic shell for windows 8 that will give you back the start menu and even boot you start into the desktop instead of having to go through Metro.

http://www.classicshell.net/

 

Windows 8.1

Got a new laptop with Win 8.1 without a touch screen. What a mistake. Cna't do diddly with it. Really convoluted shut down system. Added 8.1 update which made it somewhat better, works with mouse and keyboard. Still using old laptop with win vista business, work much better for gaming. Win 8.1 almost won't let you use Google. It wants to use Internet Explorer and Bing. Makes it hard to search with. Thinking about dumping 8.1 and going to Win 7. My advice is to try win 8.1 BEFORE buying. Sorry I didn't take my own advice.

 

Well thats Micro$oft for you.

Simply ignoring the ingrained habits of Win-users running the daily operations of their OS (that got shaped over the decades) and making them deal with some unbelievable design decisions and Metro-Blocks.

Meh.

They seem to have forgotten that the 'O' in OS means Operating and not 'obnoxious'

And the way they 'push' 8.1 on all new devices is annoying.

 

Ask Me

Anyone else hate the built in "ask me" pop up search feature that was hard to get rid of?

 

Reading this thread makes me glad I went with Windows 7 for the computer I plan to build this fall/winter. I've been getting worried because my current desktop still has XP and it's no longer supported; I want the new computer to last at least as long if not longer, which it should since this one is a low-mid-range HP. But I know I can upgrade the OS if necessary, and maybe the next one will be better than Windows 8. Or maybe it will be worse.

 

Windows releases go from good to bad in a mostly predictable pattern, it seems. Win98 (SE) was ok, Win Millenium was horrendous, Win XP was good, Win Vista was draconic, Win 7 was pretty good, Win 8 was a tablet OS also released for PC. By sequence, Win 9 should be quite decent again. Let's hope so, or I'll just have to switch to Linux completely after Win 7 is no longer supported.

Linux is hardly optimal either and takes a lot of getting used to, but there's more freedom to tweak it to be the way I want it to be.

 

Yeah, I keep telling myself I'm going to try out Linux, but I still haven't. My laptop is deliberately a Mac, so I stay used to both Windows and MacOS, so lacking Linux is something I really need to remedy. I hope you're right about Windows 9, though.

 

To shut down the system, try the command line command:

Code:

Shutdown -s -t 0

You can type it from the run command, the cmd (command prompt) program, and in Vista or 7 the search thingie in the Start Menu.

It works in Windows 2000 through Windows 7.
You can make a batch file with one line and put it anywhere so you can just click on the icon to shut down.
Simply open Notepad, put a single line in the file

Code:

shutdown -s -t 0

and save it as something like "shut down computer.bat". Make sure the extension is .bat and not .txt. To do that, choose to save it using "save as...". Under the part where you type in the file name is a "save as type" pop-up menu. Choose "all files" and make sure the name you type in ends with .bat.

Note that these instructions for Notepad have only been tested with Windows 95 - Windows 7, I haven't tried it in 8. The instructions for the shutdown command have only been tried in Windows 2000 through Windows 7.



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As for the OP with the choice of Windows 7 or 8, Microsoft no longer sells Windows 7. You have to get it from a third party vendor or purchase Windows 8 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate and use a downgrade option.

I honestly don't see the advantage of Windows Vista, 7, or 8 for 32-bit systems without a touch screen over XP aside from the fact that Microsoft no longer offers updates for XP.
That said, for a non-touchscreen system, 7 is the best bet of the three.
For a touchscreen system, 8 might be better if you want to use the touch screen as your primary interface over the mouse.
For a tablet, 8 is probably the way to go. For a desktop, 7 is better.