Why Windows 8.1?

the_randomizer

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So, today, Qtis asked or suggested that I upgrade to Windows 8.1 from Windows 7, letting me know that it's better in almost every way. Well, that's all well and good, but, no reasons or compelling arguments were given as to why I should update. There are many issues with this, I'm afraid, and I'll list the reasons and conflicting issues on why I'm wary:

- Driver software issues, I've heard stories of this happening, some hardware not being able to install them.
- The Metro GUI, while more reduced, I don't like those sodding tablet-like icons, I think they look hideous.
- What about my data? I currently have no spare HDD to really back up all my data. Some, but not all.
- I would have to reinstall all the programs I have, and I have a shitload of them, it'd be a royal PITA.
- I'm comfortable with how Windows 7 runs, how I feel comfortable with its modus operandi.
- If it ain't broke, why fix it?

I would really love for people to share with me their experiences, their opinions and the whys on why I should upgrade to 8.1 and what I can do to not lose my data. ^_^
 

Nathan Drake

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1. I have had no issues with drivers.
2. You can just install classic shell like I have if you aren't a fan of the Metro UI.
3. Uh? Backup anything that's important to a cloud service if you don't have/can't get an external storage device.
4. Back them up to a USB drive and just toss the folders back in to the program files. Easy.
5. I liked Windows 7 too, but Windows 8 is simply faster and better.
6. Because pretty much every Windows jump comes with benefits. Even Vista became a very respectable OS after some tweaks.

If you don't want to upgrade though, just wait for Windows 10. IIRC, 7 users will be able to upgrade for free just like 8.1 users.
 

Xoo00o0o0o

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I've been using Windows 8/8.1 since release and I couldn't be happier with the changes they've made. I would say that it is better than 7 in every way possible, the kernel may not be a full rewrite, but it is sure optimized a lot more. I had more crashes on Windows 7 than I ever have on 8/8.1. I have never had driver issues but that is isolated to the fact that all my HW came out in 2012 and on. I will admit that setting a desktop back up after a fresh install is a pain, so in your case I would recommend you stick with 7 until 10 comes out and then update to that. That gives you time to invest in a storage device for your data.
 

the_randomizer

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1. I have had no issues with drivers.
2. You can just install classic shell like I have if you aren't a fan of the Metro UI.
3. Uh? Backup anything that's important to a cloud service if you don't have/can't get an external storage device.
4. Back them up to a USB drive and just toss the folders back in to the program files. Easy.
5. I liked Windows 7 too, but Windows 8 is simply faster and better.
6. Because pretty much every Windows jump comes with benefits. Even Vista became a very respectable OS after some tweaks.

If you don't want to upgrade though, just wait for Windows 10. IIRC, 7 users will be able to upgrade for free just like 8.1 users.


I dunno, it's weird, I suppose that I could get another HDD and just back my crap up. Well, uh, problem with cloud services is the amount of data taken up. Have a 1 TB HDD and maybe 400 or so GB of that data is truly vital, to back that up on online storage would be one helluva task. I have a USB HDD that I use for Gamecube/Wii backups, since 2011, not sure how much longer I have in that, so a new HDD would be best. I've heard of Classic Shell, so that's good, but will the install just go over the OS and will all my data be untouched? Well, at least I can upgrade for free, so far there's no real ETA for Windows 10.


I've been using Windows 8/8.1 since release and I couldn't be happier with the changes they've made. I would say that it is better than 7 in every way possible, the kernel may not be a full rewrite, but it is sure optimized a lot more. I had more crashes on Windows 7 than I ever have on 8/8.1. I have never had driver issues but that is isolated to the fact that all my HW came out in 2012 and on. I will admit that setting a desktop back up after a fresh install is a pain, so in your case I would recommend you stick with 7 until 10 comes out and then update to that. That gives you time to invest in a storage device for your data.

Too bad my video card doesn't have DX12 capabilities, otherwise, that'd be a big plus on 8.1 for my GPU :P I built my custom desktop in 2013, so my hardware should be fine, though I can't help but be somewhat wary still. Definitely need a 1 TB HDD.
 
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Under the hood win 8 is superior, it's just the god awful (on a desktop PC) metro interface that only belongs on small touchscreen devices.
You can undo much of it with 3rd party tools as Nathan Drake said, but personally I'd rather not 'encourage' MS with my money as they went in a direction that I dont agree with.


Windows 10 will be a free upgrade from win 7 or 8, personally I'd wait for that.
 

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Cloud services really aren't a practical solution for that amount of data IMO. An external hard drive would be nice. And if you want to just copy over your program files folder, the programs won't show up in the uninstall menu which isn't too terribly inconvenient, but still somewhat of a nuisance. There should be an option to keep personal file (eg Documents, Desktop etc but not programs) when upgrading.
 
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the_randomizer

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Fuck windows 8. Will stay on windows 7, like I stay on windows XP after Vista came (which was a WISE choice actually)
Wait for windows 10.

8.1 is far better than Vista, that's automatically a given and does seem to be more stable. I simply need a decent HDD to back my vital data up :P

Under the hood win 8 is superior, it's just the god awful (on a desktop PC) metro interface that only belongs on small touchscreen devices.
You can undo much of it with 3rd party tools as Nathan Drake said, but personally I'd rather not 'encourage' MS with my money as they went in a direction that I dont agree with.
Windows 10 will be a free upgrade from win 7 or 8, personally I'd wait for that.

I can get Windows 8.1 for free via the upgrade service or via my student MSDN license, so really, I'm not paying Microsoft a cent lol, I also got this version of 7 with the same license :P Is 8.1 a lot better than 8?


Cloud services really aren't a practical solution for that amount of data IMO. An external hard drive would be nice. And if you want to just copy over your program files folder, the programs won't show up in the uninstall menu which isn't too terribly inconvenient, but still somewhat of a nuisance. There should be an option to keep personal file (eg Documents, Desktop etc but not programs) when upgrading.

Yeah, online storage would not be feasible, I just need a huge USB HDD, 1 to 2 TB preferably or an SSD.
 
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8.1 is far better than Vista, that's automatically a given and does seem to be more stable. I simply need a decent HDD to back my vital data up :P



I can get Windows 8.1 for free via the upgrade service or via my student MSDN license, so really, I'm not paying Microsoft a cent lol, I also got this version of 7 with the same license :P Is 8.1 a lot better than 8?




Yeah, online storage would not be feasible, I just need a huge USB HDD, 1 to 2 TB preferably or an SSD.

They undid a few of the more egregious changes that are really only suitable on a tablet not a desktop, eg booting straight to the desktop (without 'hacks' that often have side effects). They needed an update to let desktop users not have to boot into a touchscreen UI, brilliant!

If you like metro then by all means upgrade. You're not formatting so wont loose data or have to reinstall apps. Personally, working in IT so being in front of a PC all day, the choices in the UI are just awful. Thankfully they are rolling many of them back in windows 10 so at least they are listening.
 
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the_randomizer

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They undid a few of the more egregious changes that are really only suitable on a tablet not a desktop, eg booting strait to the desktop (without a 3rd party app). They needed an update to let desktop users not have to boot into a touchscreen UI, brilliant!

If you like metro then by all means upgrade. You're not formatting so wont loose data or have to reinstall apps. Personally, working in IT so being in front of a PC all day, the choices in the UI are just awful. Thankfully they are rolling many of them back in windows 10 so at least they are listening.


Unfortunately, Windows 10 won't be finalized for quite some time I'm sure. I'm comfortable with 7, so I was just confused on why people think I should when 7 works fine for me :P
 
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Personally I've never had a system crash under win7 outside of hardware failure (old crappy SSD).
Win8 boots faster and has some other under the hood improvements. You may see ever so slightly improved game performance but outside of the UI (if you want it) and boot time I doubt you'd actually notice a much.

Win 10 will have DX12 and hopefully bring significant improvements to game performance through reduced CPU overhead.
 
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the_randomizer

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Personally I've never had a system crash under win7 outside of hardware failure (old crappy SSD).
Win8 boots faster and has some other under the hood improvements. You may see ever so slightly improved game performance but outside of the UI (if you want it) and boot time I doubt you'd actually notice a much.
Win 10 will have DX12 and hopefully bring significant improvements to game performance through reduced CPU overhead.
I honestly don't see any benefits, other than the fact Microsoft is supporting it, so I guess there's that, heh.
When you install 8 you can choose to upgrade so you keep your software.

Too bad my video card only supports DX11, so can't take advantage of that, really. Good to know that I can keep my data though :P
 

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I agree with Nathan Drake on this. Windows 8.1 is quite a bit different than Win8, and the main points you were concerned of were answered. So far my experience with Windows 8.1 is that it's a solid OS with almost instant boot time (SSDs are a blessing for this thing), all games work (even oldies from the 90s I've tested so far) and programs are available and stable for it. This is coming from someone who uses OS X on a daily basis (MacBook Pro as my laptop), so I'm not that reluctant to try 8.1 since OS X Mavericks is basically an iOS skinned OS X 10.6.8 in many ways. :)
 

the_randomizer

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I agree with Nathan Drake on this. Windows 8.1 is quite a bit different than Win8, and the main points you were concerned of were answered. So far my experience with Windows 8.1 is that it's a solid OS with almost instant boot time (SSDs are a blessing for this thing), all games work (even oldies from the 90s I've tested so far) and programs are available and stable for it. This is coming from someone who uses OS X on a daily basis (MacBook Pro as my laptop), so I'm not that reluctant to try 8.1 since OS X Mavericks is basically an iOS skinned OS X 10.6.8 in many ways. :)


Once again, I need to backup my data, and get another HDD as it'd be nice to have two on my machine :P Perhaps I can try it out on my laptop since it has the 64-bit version of Home on there. There is an option to retain all vital data during the upgrade process, correct? And it's free to do so? I can use my laptop as a guinea pig before I try it on my desktop. I need Classic Shell, Metro GUI be damned :P I don't know why I'm on the fence. What are the benefits?
 

the_randomizer

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Another hard drive is a couple hours worth of work away. They're fairly cheap. I've got 2 ssd, a 240 for the os and a few apps. A 500gb for high end apps like photoshop and Vegas. And a 1tb from an old for for games. :3... I love 8.1 anyone who says otherwise is just weird.


Unfortunately, I'm unemployed so money is an issue, no way I can get another HDD in all honesty. Until I can, I can't do much right now.
 
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I've been holding off updating to 8.1 because I did upgrade my system and found that Microsoft somehow broke my ability to connect to an ad-hoc network which is vital to me as I use my cell phone as a hot spot and work on the go.

But if you can get it for free or cheap ($20 In my instance) the performance difference really is night & day. The only real issue my family had with upgrading was this MMO called Elsword that isn't optimized at all for 8 so my younger brother went back to 7.
 
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