Hey bit-tekkers I've been thinking of building a new computer, as such my thoughts turn to the latest windows. I have previously tried windows 8 but found it a pain with a mouse and keyboard. It also seemed very unintuitive to me when it came to actually altering settings and locating files and folders. I also hated the whole app modern UI thing. So really I was hoping to get your thoughts or review on the following aspects: Just how does its desktop mode compare to windows 7 i.e. does it truly make it a desktop environment Locating and adjusting settings e.g. device manager, network, adapters, firewalls, msconfig, etc, etc... Compatibility with desktop programs i.e. does it support many and do they function well Are the drivers up to scratch How does it fare with gaming Thanks in advance for your thoughts
The desktop on 8 is exactly the same as it is on 7. Easier than 7 imo, in 8.x the start button/corner has a right-click menu that'll take you straight to most of those options... The control panel options are largely unchanged from 7... A few of the msconfig things are now part of the Task Manger now though... If it works in 7 it'll work in 8... Not come across a program where that's not been the case... Yep The same as 7 does...
well as I said it was unintuitive to me, in the sense that I never saw a direct path from the start screen to say view my local disk of which I did manage to but I found it irritating compared to 7. my comments were simply how I felt about the OS I'll admit however that i probably did not give 8 as much of a chance I should but I hated the whole start screen app thing with all store things and such (being a minimalist) also distinctly remember that I kept getting dragged into the metro UI I couldn't say on what instances exactly but do remember it happening
Ah ok. I think it took me several weeks to get used to Modern, now I prefer it tbh. It has it's issues, such as the settings in Modern and Control Panel not being the same. As for being dragged into the Modern UI, not sure what you were doing, unless you had IE as default web browser set to use Modern. The only time I see Modern UI is if I willingly click to see it, have a mail popup that I click on which launches Mail, or click a link to a Store app. The only way for you to tell if you like it is to try it, there are Start Menu replacements around which will effectively make it like W7, but I'd say try Modern for a bit before switching over. You might find you like it.
Move to it, you won't regret it. I was a big fan of W7 and never really tried W8 due to the bad press. Just put W8.1 64bit on my new gaming rig which is needed really for the latest DirectX. No regrets here, boots quicker, some nice new features and it boots straight to desktop so you don't have to interact with Metro if you don't want.
Doesn't that depend on what you are including in your definition of the desktop ? Back OT, 8.1 improves a lot over 8 when it comes to minimising the impact of the Modern UI if that isn't your thing. Third party software can be used to replace the start menu, hot corner's can now be disabled, there are plenty of articles around that explain how to keep elements of the Modern UI out of the way, such as this one or this one. As for some of the other things people have already mentioned, such as booting quicker and better gaming performance. Yes it boots quicker, if you don't mind giving up some extra disk space, and gaming performance is probably on par with 7, some benchmarks show 8 is better than 7, some show 7 is better than 8 so YMMV.
You can always download 8.1 trial, spend 90 (180 if you rearm) days with it and decide then. I didn't care for 8 when it arrived, but 8.1 is almost really like a totally different OS with a lot of improvement. After using 8.1 for some time I really like it quite a lot and wouldn't want to use 7 if I had a choice.
If you're starting from scratch I'd go with 8.1. Been using it for a while now, and find it better than 7. You don't really have to use the 'modern/metro' features if you don't want to, performance seems to be better overall, you can still use all the same programs etc, don't really see a reason to go for 7.
I guess I'll give it another chance although I don't have my hopes up for it XD. That is good to know thanks. Thank you, you answered a lot of what I wanted to know. Good suggestion, I think I will try it. Much appreciated Bit-Tekkers
