Windows 7 to Windows 8: The system's biggest improvements

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Interesting read Donald. I'm in no hurry to go to Windows 8 but it's nice to see some of the other improvements in it besides the obvious.

I installed my Windows 8 Pro on one of my hard drives this weekend. Although I've been running the preview builds since March, I'm finding the final product to be quite polished and working quite nicely. I have to say it was probably the smoothest installation I've ever done of a Windows OS.

There is nothing they can do to make me like Windws 8.

But, that's just me

Well, I figure I might as well bit the bullet and dive in. It's not going to go away and if I wait, I'll be totally behind the 8-ball, so to speak. When I just couldn't warm up to it, I made myself spend 2 weeks with it and found it was pretty OK. Now that I have the actual release, I've committed myself to a month. So, far, it's been pretty impressive and I am definitely enjoying the speed and stability.

It's possible many of my issues came from upgrading as opposed to a fresh install. I still have the ISO, and a retail Key, so I can always install it on another PC.

I just found less and less use for Metro and spent 99% of my time on the Desktop. That and having to purchase 3rd party products to make Windows functional didn't add up to keeping it.

Have to totally agree with you there...

Can you expand on that AZ? What was missing that you needed 3rd party products for? I will eventually go to Windows 8 and would like to know what else I will need to get.

If you're a Tablet user you may find the new interface completely acceptable, but the traditional Desktop user will find it somewhat of an annoyance. The Start Button and Menu have been replaced by Metro, which is basically a set of tiles much like those used tablets. This includes all items, including those designed to be run on the desktop. When those items are started, Metro switches to the desktop and leaves you there when you close the program, an extremely poor design.

Aero transparency is completely gone, and while some may find that to be an improvement I thought it was nothing more than a jab in the ribs from Microsoft ( Who's ht e boss of you, we're the Boss of you.) There was absolutely no reason to remove it for Desktop users. To make matters worse, all new software releases from Microsoft have had their menus modified to display solid (and drab) colors. The look and feel is reminiscent of Windows 3.x or DOS.

Without 3rd party software powering down the PC is awkward, and requires multiple steps. First you log out, and then power down. It’s not an intuitive process at all. The same software restores the Start button, but I found issues with all those I used.

And then there’s the issue of bugs and hardware support – On my sandbox PC I had to replace the Soundcard and Mouse (both are completely supported under Windows 7). Optical drives would disappear from time to time as well, and required a reboot to restore them.

There’s a long list of mostly unresolved issues on the technet site – give it a good perusal before you make the leap.

Windows 8 Technet

Good advice to do a lot of reading before you make the leap.

My experience has been much better than Inland's. The installation was the easiest and fastest I've ever experienced. I had to answer one question, "Do you want to keep your personal files?" and that was it. I don't think the whole process took more than 15 minutes. Windows 8 found all my devices and even set up my wireless printer which is 4 years old. I didn't even have to install my motherboard drivers. Every device, new and old, works perfectly.

I thought I would miss the Aero transparency, but I've found that I don't miss it at all. However, I do agree with Inland that it was not necessary to eliminate it for desktops. What was wrong with providing the option during installation to either turn it on or off? My Gearhead optical drive has been stable and never disappeared. I've been running the previews since January and have not had any issues like that at all.

I also agree that many things we have taken for granted are not intuitive and shutting down is an example. However, I do not log out first as Inland does. I bring up settings, power and shut down. It's 3 clicks instead of 2 in Windows 7. If you feel you simply can't live without the start button, there are some 3rd party apps that will restore it. I did decide to go with the Start8 app and it works great. Yes, it was $5, but I got my Windows 8 Pro for $60, so I didn't whine too loudly. There are other freebies out there too.

I have an 88 year old internet friend in California who installed the last Release Preview on a 4 year-old Dell laptop and she loves it. Her laptop never ran so fast or was this stable under either Vista or Windows 7 after she upgraded. She had no issues with drivers and did some reading up on how to navigate around. She likes it so much she ordered the full version.

So, there are a lot of different experiences out there and Inland's advice that you do some reading first is excellent advice.

Thanks to both of you. I will definitely read up before the switch.

Warning - digression...
As luck would have it (bad luck that is) my main desktop PC has developed a problem causing extremely slow response. I have checked thoroughly for malware and unfortunately did find some that AVG had not protected me from. But I cleared all the malware and the problem has not gone away. I am about to save my personal data and reload Windows 7 from a clean disk. I'm tempted to go to Windows 8 now but I think I will bite the bullet and reload Windows 7 and wait for Windows 8 to be a bit more mature. BTW, this is by far the worst issue I've had with Windows since going to XP. I have been generally happy with both XP and 7 until now...I skipped Vista altogether.

I would highly recommend saving your data, biting the bullet and reinstalling Windows 7. It's always a pain to get it set up the way you like it, but always worth the effort. I did it a few months ago when I installed my Windows 7 to a solid state boot drive. I'm telling those who ask me if they are happy with Windows 7 to stick with it. I'm not giving up my Windows 7 either!