What Do You Think About Windows 8?

[Senzo Tanaka]

I don't like the 3rd party Start button replacements. They are all hacks from what I've seen and don't perfectly mimmick the way it worked in 7.

It's inexcusable for Microsoft not to have a "Classic Start Menu" option that you can enable. It's all about them trying as hard as they can to have the same OS on tablets, PCs, phones and the Xbox. It's just not user friendly with a mouse.

 

[motorboatJones]

Tried looking for new software on HP's support site?
Or you could try running the setup you have in compatibility mode.

yeah im downloading it now

/

 

[bubkusjones]

Windows 8 gets a lot of ridiculous hate. You can get a program to replace the beloved start menu ...

Shouldn't need a third party program to do that. Should've allowed for users to pick their preference for this round, wait till touch screens become much more common before forcing users into an interface much better suited for that purpose.

Hell, in XP-7 they had "classic" mode, where you could replicate the Win98 interface, why not now?

 

[Big Burly]

Running it on my laptop and my desktop, it's fine.
If you really miss the start menu grab Classic Shell.
I don't really mind what the screen looks like for the 3 seconds I'm typing in the name of the application I'm starting, so whatever.

Winkey+X is great. Much quicker access to anything you need than going through the start menu. New task manager is great, no need to download a third party one anymore.
Built in hypervisor is nice for running a virtual machine or two, but I'm just so used to virtualbox I haven't messed with it yet.
Don't really get the hate for it, it's like 7 but better.

I also like it. A lot. I never had Win7. I came from XP. Since it is so damned cheap right now, it is a no-brainer if you don't have Win7 already.

 

[Da_Rev_Ong]

Hell, in XP-7 they had "classic" mode, where you could replicate the Win98 interface, why not now?

That definitely would have been nice. But if you think about it, that would be aping UI style that's almost 15 years old now. I can understand how they'd want to stray from it.

 

[therealdope]

There is nothing wrong with the windows classic "XP style" desktop.

Just tell me that I can still load cygwin without issue and I'm good.

 

[fingercuffs]

WTF?

/posted on a Mac.

 

[weed]

Is this classic shell thing provided by microsoft or 3rd party? If 3rd party, is it supported by ads or something? I just bought a new desktop during the african american friday sales and have the option to upgrade to Windows 8 for free. Wondering if I should pull the trigger.

hahahha

 

[feedmelies]

I tried using my image disk to revert back to Windows 7 and Windows 8 won't recognize it. Now I'm pissed. I could reinstall Windows 7 using a product key, but I'd lose all the software that came with my laptop.

 

[dAfTiE]

I tried using my image disk to revert back to Windows 7 and Windows 8 won't recognize it. Now I'm pissed. I could reinstall Windows 7 using a product key, but I'd lose all the software that came with my laptop.

The disk is probably bootable.

 

[feedmelies]

The disk is probably bootable.

It doesn't seem like it's possible. Stupid Microsoft.

As an engineer, I was curious about Windows 8. Thus I bought Windows 8 online directly from Microsoft which automatically was setup on my USB thumb drive. I did a BIOS update on my computer, also saved an image of my Windows 7 system (VERY SMART STEP!) and then I was ready. I choose to do a clean windows 8 install! Played with Windows 8 for a month and realized what a mess.

So then, I thought, its time to put Windows 7 back on my computer. This should be simple. Just restore my Windows 7 image. WRONG ! ! ! !

You have no idea how many problems and errors I discovered. There were so many I did not even keep track of all the error codes and everything that would not work. And I was armed with everything: I had a Windows 7 bootable USB recovery drive, a Windows 8 bootable install/recovery USB drive, a Windows 7 image file, and the latest and greatest BIOS. All were of no help !

What I discovered was that Windows 8 changes your hard drive from MBR to GPT (boot sector) and each one does not like the other. Thus you CANNOT boot a Windows 7 recovery USB drive AND/OR do a Windows 7 image restore if your hard drive is set as a GPT volume/disk; likewise, you CANNOT do a Windows 7 MBR image recovery from a Windows 8 recovery bootable USB drive.

After spending 16 straight hours of research and work on this problem, I finally found the solution. It's a painful solution but it works.

What I had to do is: (this assumes you installed Windows 8 and thus your hard drive is set as GPT)

see: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26203-convert-gpt-disk-mbr-disk.html

boot up from your Windows 8 recovery/install USB drive and enter into COMMAND PROMPT (NOTE: this is not starting up the entire Windows 8 operating system)
you MUST manually delete all volumes on the primary disk that is listed on your hard drive (do research using 'diskpart' and also 'delete partition' and 'delete volume' commands. I think I finally had to use the delete partition command)
Then execute a 'convert mbr' command to the primary disk

Once you know that GPT is gone, your set! Just reboot using a Windows 7 recovery USB/CD drive and select restore an image (Windows 7 image). It works! You now have Windows 7 back.

You could try using the original Windows 7 install CDs, but my new laptop does not have a CD player.

http://superuser.com/questions/335571/how-to-revert-to-windows-7-after-installing-windows-8

 

[dAfTiE]

It doesn't seem like it's possible. Stupid Microsoft.



http://superuser.com/questions/335571/how-to-revert-to-windows-7-after-installing-windows-8

Ah, sorry, thought you were talking about recovery disks that came with your system.
Easiest might be to download GParted, make a bootable usb or cd from it, boot the system, remove the partition and remake with the proper MBR boot record, then boot the 7 recovery media and restore. Should save you some typing at least.

It's weird though, I installed 8 on this machine on a clean SSD not long ago, just default install and it's set as MBR.

 

[feedmelies]

I just installed Classic Shell and I feel better about Windows 8 now. I'm pretty much stuck with it anyway.

Hopefully they have updates that fix things like the start menu.

 

[KoreanZawmbie]

Looks like a stupid smartphone OS....Which seems to be the point made by Microsoft.

 

[Arnold22]

I just want to say here that Windows 8 is good windows and have all the latest features i am also using windows 8 and this is as a mobile windows and operat to your system fastly and make the new generation to your computer with having all the latest software

 

[Madmick]

Here's a post Morozevich made on Windows 8 in the VG forum. She's got me considering giving it a trial run:

Be honest -- do you actually have Windows 8 or are you just hating it because you saw the metro interface and a ton of bad reviews?

I have Windows 8 thanks to DreamSpark (i.e. gives free Microsoft everything to students majoring in Computer Science).

Windows 8 is unquestionably a superior OS to Windows 7.

• Boot Time -- The boot time is almost instantaneous, even without an SSD.

• 
  Windows ToGo -- Probably my favorite feature of Windows 8. Copy your entire OS, with all your settings/files/etc on a Thumb drive. Stick that in any computer and it is basically your home computer running on different hardware.

• 
  Charms -- Blows any start menu/search function in a OS out of the water.

• 
  Snap -- My second favorite feature. Allows you to have multi-task like a motherfucker. Organizes your programs so it is extremely easy to navigate through them.

• 
  Multiple Monitors -- The most robust handling of multiple monitors I have ever used.

• 
  Performance -- Everything just runs a lot smoother and faster on Windows 8. A lot of that might have to with them getting rid of Aeroglass.

Not to mention, you can ignore the entire Metro interface at your choosing.

Met several Windows 8 haters that now love Windows 8 once they actually downloaded the OS. If you like Windows 7, there is absolutely no reason to not like Windows 8.

 

[Lay and Pray]

windows 8 is fantastic, almost as good as vista and alot better than that pile of garbage [windows 7]
...................ahem

 

[phoenixikki]

Could Windows get even dumber? Yes!