Windows 8.1

[microsoft windows]

So Windows 8.1 just recently came out...what do yall think about it?

[SpAmRaY]

It's 5 more than Windows 3.1!!!

[Tym]

How do i geddit? (See? Like Reddit? heuheuheu)

[evolveS]

Search is better, start button is a waste of taskbar space.
More incentive to use keyboard shortcuts for everything!

[evolveS]

How do i geddit? (See? Like Reddit? heuheuheu)

It's a free download in the Windows Store if you have Windows 8 already.

[acantha]

if you already have windows 8, just type windows 8.1 in the store to get it.

i put it on my surface last night. its a good upgrade. nothing revolutionary, but the homescreen improvements are welcome. the mail app is WAAYYYYYY better. so is the store app.

all in all, its a welcome upgrade. if you're really anti-metro, its also got the "boot to desktop" option and the start button, so you can mostly go back to the old windows style.

fundamentally, if you didn't like windows 8, windows 8.1 is an improvement but the metro is still there.

[DamienG]

Mail app is much better, store app *looks* better but discovery of different sections is now hidden away under a top of the screen swipe... uh-huh.

Search no longer is able to search through your different apps

[)amien

[brialona]

If I can get w8 for free, is it worth upgrading from 7?

[Zeal]

I left my PC on overnight DLing Windows 8.1 at my office...Will have to see today!

[longweight]

If I can get w8 for free, is it worth upgrading from 7?

Absolutely.

[acantha]

If I can get w8 for free, is it worth upgrading from 7?

Absolutely.

agreed. but i really like the metro style. if you aren't into that....

[longweight]

Then you can set it to boot straight to desktop and then it is not different to Windows 7 really.

[evolveS]

My only beef with Windows 8 is the separate Metro settings and App-centric user interface. I was hoping that the choice would be given to return the 'All Apps' page to resemble the old 'All Programs' layout, but no dice.

[linziyi]

It is still an inferior operating system to perform professional tasks

[longweight]

It is still an inferior operating system to perform professional tasks

No it isn't. I use it in a professional role and it has only improved my experience.

[Tym]

Long weight how do you boot straight to desktop ? Link pls

[SpAmRaY]

Long weight how do you boot straight to desktop ? Link pls

http://www.7tutorials.com/how-boot-desktop-windows-8-skip-start-screen

[hashbaz]

If I can get w8 for free, is it worth upgrading from 7?

Absolutely.

You avatar disagrees.

[Elrick]

I'm currently using 8 only but I won't upgrade due to spending so much time editing the original system.  Now that it operates like a true os with little to no metro crap getting in the way, I'm happy.

Although you can easily edit Win 7 to do the same things as Win 8, so it's really up to the end user to configure it any way they see fit.  The old days of upgrading your windows OS has come to an end.  For some here already Windows had reached it's peak with 3.1  .

[Elrick]

Then you can set it to boot straight to desktop and then it is not different to Windows 7 really.

I would stick with Win 7, still operates fluently with virtually every piece of software that is currently available.  If it still works - why upgrade?

[DamienG]

I would stick with Win 7, still operates fluently with virtually every piece of software that is currently available.  If it still works - why upgrade?

Then we'd all still be using DOS or Windows 3.1

Two reasons I can think of:

1. It's faster and everyone always loves more speed
2. Some of the modern style apps are awesome and better than using web sites - e.g. Netflix, Facebook

[)amien

[brialona]

It is still an inferior operating system to perform professional tasks

No it isn't. I use it in a professional role and it has only improved my experience.

could you please elaborate?

[longweight]

Then you can set it to boot straight to desktop and then it is not different to Windows 7 really.

I would stick with Win 7, still operates fluently with virtually every piece of software that is currently available.  If it still works - why upgrade?

Fast boot times etc...


Also Windows seems to be going down the Apple Upgrade path, would you rather pay $30, 3 times over 3 years or $200 to upgrade from Win7 to Windows 9?

[Elrick]

Fast boot times etc...


Also Windows seems to be going down the Apple Upgrade path, would you rather pay $30, 3 times over 3 years or $200 to upgrade from Win7 to Windows 9?

Well I just put Win 7 into sleep mode and it wakes instantly when woken.  Never shut down the system hence your start up accusation has a major flaw here, if you never need to shut it down why is Win 8 so much better again?

I still use the same software on both installs (Win 7 and Win 8.0) they operate exactly the same, hence not one is better or faster than the other PC with these different Window versions.

[longweight]

"accusation "? It isn't an accusation, Windows 8 has a faster boot time.

[kmiller8]

Things I like about Windows 8.1 vs 8:

Right clicking the lower left corner now brings up power options
Multi-screen Metro Apps

Things I still dislike about Windows 8.x:

"Start button" on each screen
Lockscreen requires me to type something before typing password

From what I understand they changed a bunch of ways settings will be displayed, but I haven't had to play around with them much.

Overall I'd say it's worth the 8.1 upgrade.

If I think of anything else I'll add it.

[Zeal]

Things I like about Windows 8.1 vs 8:

Right clicking the lower left corner now brings up power options
Multi-screen Metro Apps

Things I still dislike about Windows 8.x:

"Start button" on each screen
Lockscreen requires me to type something before typing password

From what I understand they changed a bunch of ways settings will be displayed, but I haven't had to play around with them much.

Overall I'd say it's worth the 8.1 upgrade.

If I think of anything else I'll add it.

Have you tried setting Windows 8.1 to head directly to desktop instead of Start screen?

[kmiller8]

Have you tried setting Windows 8.1 to head directly to desktop instead of Start screen?

no? I have no problem taking half a second out of my day to click the desktop "app" on the start screen.

[linziyi]

"accusation "? It isn't an accusation, Windows 8 has a faster boot time.

My dear friend, nothing beats a fully configured gentoo.

[linziyi]

7 seconds for an 13 year-old toshiba laptop to boot to X11 + firefox

[daerid]

Have you tried setting Windows 8.1 to head directly to desktop instead of Start screen?

It's a bit hidden, but still fairly easy: Right-click task bar -> Properties -> Navigation Tab -> Start Screen section.

I've been on 8.1 professionally (for my job) since august (preview initially, then RC, and then RTM). Didn't even notice it came out officially on Thursday. The argument for staying on Windows 7 is generally "it works fine for me, why upgrade?" Which was also said of Windows XP when Vista and 7 came out. Vista was a dog, but 7 was pretty good. 8 is even better. It's faster in damn near every way, and 8.1's keyboard/program search is even better than 8's, which was pretty damn good. Combining the 3 separate search categories (Programs, Settings, and Files) into a single unified search is so far my favorite feature.

Windows 8.1 is a solid upgrade, both from Windows 8 and from Windows 7. It's possible to stay out of the whole "Metro" or "Windows Store" stuff almost entirely.

Personally I stay out of the "Metro" stuff, and

[kmiller8]

It's a bit hidden, but still fairly easy: Right-click task bar -> Properties -> Navigation Tab -> Start Screen section.

I've been on 8.1 professionally (for my job) since august (preview initially, then RC, and then RTM). Didn't even notice it came out officially on Thursday. The argument for staying on Windows 7 is generally "it works fine for me, why upgrade?" Which was also said of Windows XP when Vista and 7 came out. Vista was a dog, but 7 was pretty good. 8 is even better. It's faster in damn near every way, and 8.1's keyboard/program search is even better than 8's, which was pretty damn good. Combining the 3 separate search categories (Programs, Settings, and Files) into a single unified search is so far my favorite feature.

Windows 8.1 is a solid upgrade, both from Windows 8 and from Windows 7. It's possible to stay out of the whole "Metro" or "Windows Store" stuff almost entirely.

Personally I stay out of the "Metro" stuff, and

oh yeah, that's another compaint of windows 8. like 95% of the time I'm searching for something it's a setting and I have to either hit a down arrow or click with a mouse to get to the "setting" section instead of the "app" section, that would be nice to figure out a way to default to settings instead of apps

[DamienG]

Press Win+W instead of Win+S - the former searches settings by default.

[)amien

[daerid]

Whoop, looks like my post got cut off

[kmiller8]

oh yeah, that's another compaint of windows 8. like 95% of the time I'm searching for something it's a setting and I have to either hit a down arrow or click with a mouse to get to the "setting" section instead of the "app" section, that would be nice to figure out a way to default to settings instead of apps

Press Win+W instead of Win+S - the former searches settings by default.

[)amien

I kind of retract this statement, the new 8.1 search it a lot better than the 8. Since it searches everywhere I don't have to fiddle around with changing where it searches. But thanks for the tip DaminenG

[Malphas]

It is still an inferior operating system to perform professional tasks

Rubbish.

[Malphas]

Then you can set it to boot straight to desktop and then it is not different to Windows 7 really.

I would stick with Win 7, still operates fluently with virtually every piece of software that is currently available.  If it still works - why upgrade?

Faster boot time, File History, better support for modern hardware (USB 3.0, higher resolution monitors, mulit-monitor setups, etc.) link to your Microsoft Account similar to what Android does (automatic backup your preferences, etc.), native mounting of ISO files, general efficiency and security under-the-hood improvements that may not be immediately perceivable but still exist regardless.

No-one has ever made a convincing or legitimate argument for why Windows 8 is so bad. The only "argument" ever used is "I don't like Metro" which is completely subjective and runs counter to actual objective data (like the fact it requires less mouse clicks and keystrokes to achieve the same actions in windows 8 than it did in Windows 7.

[kmiller8]

No-one has ever made a convincing or legitimate argument for why Windows 8 is so bad. The only "argument" ever used is "I don't like Metro" which is completely subjective and runs counter to actual objective data (like the fact it requires less mouse clicks and keystrokes to achieve the same actions in windows 8 than it did in Windows 7.

Thank you, people just circlejerk about how terrible it is without giving any reason other than "it's different." but worse than that are people willing to give it a try, but then tweak the **** out of it to remove all the new features so it runs more like Win7. it just boggles my mind how resistant people are to change...

Honestly, **** reviewers and consumer electronic websites in general, people listen to them, and they told the people everything that was wrong with Win8 and that's all people are stuck on, too worried to try it because of all the terrible things they've heard about it.

[Malphas]

During the initial Windows 8 backlash I commented on how everyone was just repeating the same crap ad nauseam based on nothing and by the time Windows 9 came around Microsoft will have made a few concessions and everyone will have gotten used to it/actually tried this version and claim how great it was. Exactly what happened with Windows Vista and Windows 7 which are virtually identical operating systems but had vastly different receptions. Turns out it's Windows 8.1 rather than 9 and has come around a couple years earlier than I expected, but basically it's looking like what I predicted is what's about to happen.

[ijprest]

Exactly what happened with Windows Vista and Windows 7 which are virtually identical operating systems but had vastly different receptions.

This.  People have such short memories.

[ynrozturk]

I'm perfectly happy with 8 with Stardock so I don't think I'll upgrade.

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Exactly what happened with Windows Vista and Windows 7 which are virtually identical operating systems but had vastly different receptions.

With all due respect, are you on crack??? That's like saying Windows ME is virtually identical to Windows 2000. And that statement itself doesn't even make sense seeing as how ME was a 9x OS and 2000 is NT... but then again that's the point I'm trying to make.

Having used every single Windows OS since 3.1, I can say from personal experience that Vista was inferior to 7, hands down.  I have had many people ask me to upgrade their PCs to Windows 7 solely for the reason that Vista was running too slow and/or it kept crashing.

Now Windows 7 vs Windows 8 is a completely different story. You are correct in saying that many people had "Windows 8 hate" upon it's release without actually trying the OS (guilty as charged) but now that I have tried it, it is about equal to that of Windows 7. Only difference between 7 and 8 is the app screen (which I personally never use) and the absence of the Start menu (which isn't a big deal if you actually know how to use a computer).

I have no opinion on 8.1 as I have not used it.

[ynrozturk]

Vista was terrible. I remember when it first came out, I was working for Toshiba at the time. And the thing just didn't have any drivers. Customer buys laptop, and there's no sound. Or no wifi. Vista was just a terrible, terrible mess. 7 on the other hand came out solid, and it still is. So is 8, I don't see too many problems with it. Nothing serious at least.

[Neal]

Likely going to install this tonight, seeing a lot of things in my current install are broken.
Does anyone know if there are any 8.1 ISO's available? ( I have a key) Or do I just reinstall 8 then update?

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Question: since I have a, umm, less-than-legit copy of Win8 on my PC, if I upgrade will it remove my *ahem* not-so-legit activation technique?

Likely going to install this tonight, seeing a lot of things in my current install are broken.
Does anyone know if there are any 8.1 ISO's available? ( I have a key) Or do I just reinstall 8 then update?

Re-install 8 then upgrade.

[Jokrik]

Everything looks great, the customization and the fluid experience
but.....

I cant seems to get my steam working properly
COD BO II unable to load, bioshock infinite rendered wrongly which make it look 3d ish

man... nothings perfect I guess

[Tym]

Anyone know how to set your Start button to operate like it used to? (In windows 7) I like sticking to my old ways 

[Neal]

Anyone know how to set your Start button to operate like it used to? (In windows 7) I like sticking to my old ways 

Download a third party one.

[ynrozturk]

The Stardock one is really good and is like 5 bucks or something.

[Tym]

Anyone know how to set your Start button to operate like it used to? (In windows 7) I like sticking to my old ways 

Download a third party one.

Wont that look stupid with the windows 8.1 start button?