What is the verdict on Windows 8?

[txus.palacios]

How about a BIG FAT FREAKING NO. That's not a Windows problem. Applications are doing things horribly wrong if they need administrator privileges.

^This. Can't stress this enough. If an app requires admin privileges and is not an admon utility, they're badly designed and the dev should reconsider their life.

 

[Xtreme Barton]

my verdict is that microsoft pushed windows 8 as a way to back their mobile services.. nothing more than to compete with that market

 

[txus.palacios]

I like Windows 8 so far. The only nuisance is the Start Menu. Add Classic Shell to the mix and problem solved.

Or just do what I do and just use Windows for games and Linux for everything else.

 

[SteveLord]

What makes it worth the money? I have yet to see anyone mention that. More of the "I like it", but no specifics or advantages to it.

 

[c627627]

It is not worth the money to upgrade to it -- but Windows 8 should not be avoided given an equal choice. Provided you don't mind installing Classic Shell and disabling Charms if you don't like Metro which 9/10 people do not.

 

[DAKz]

Not taking sides here, because its clear that every other version of Windows blows, vista bad, 7 good, but...

I am a bench tech at a shop and we had a guy come in to sell us a brand new Toshiba laptop, with a busted screen, he explained his story...

"So I bought this and it has Windows 8 on it, I hated trying to use the metro UI, and just everything about it, so I called the store I got it from and told them I wanted to take it back it was defective, they told me to contact Toshiba, which I did, they said that not liking Windows 8 was not a reason they could accept since it is not a manufactures defect and there was nothing Toshiba could do since the OS had not damaged the hardware, So I told them wait, and I punched out the screen and told them that Windows 8 made the screen break they said sorry and hung up"

We bought it, replaced the screen and installed Windows 7

 

[manu2b]

^I love it!

You could also have unloaded a 7.62/39 magazin on it!

 

[DarrenP]

Thanks for the laugh man! xD

 

[DAKz]

Can anyone tell me how to get into the bios on a new Windows 8 machine.

Also, the salesman who I bought the new HP Win 8 machine from told me it could not be retrofitted to Windows 7. Can anyone confirm this?

Should be f9 soon as it powers up, the salesman is wrong (figure the odds) you will need to disable UEFI system delete ALL partitions reformat to ntfs and then install Win 7, we do it all week long for all the happy Windows 8 customers.

 

[c627627]

You need to shut Win 8 down completely. Laptop Shut down does not really shut them down.


You need to either take out the battery or use a custom shut down link.

Only then does F2 or whatever other key your system uses gets you into BIOS.


Then you need to disable secure boot and switch away from uefi to boot from CD or usb.

Laptops use gpt disks and have several hidden partitions.

 

[CompuTamer]

Yeah, the way Windows 8 is installed on new computers is weird. It's an EFI system, with secure boot, and a bunch of features disabled by default. On my GF's Asus notebook, i had to dig through the EFI and turn off a bunch of stuff, turn on a bunch of stuff, and then figure out how to make it boot from my USB drive. It can be done, but it's not as easy as with a normal computer with a BIOS.


It's more like installing Windows on a Mac, really... A pain.

 

[briansun1]

So in the end, you are wiping and reloading your OS with this new OS, but then you are installing an add-on to make it look like your older OS you just wiped out (most likely).

hmm..

yes yes we are why do you ask?

 

[Wipeout]

I loved XP until Win764 has me hooked.This is the best os imo,but 8 is supposed to be faster.Everyone says go to the classic shell.Why? I want a os that works without reverting back to make things better.That defeats the purpose.Its almost like Vista vs 7.I'll wait for 9.I know desktops are not the mainstream,but they could have made the best of both worlds.Why pay for there big mistake.

One example. Games an Win8 have more problems vs 7 .Not all games,but F that, just for that reason.

 

[Culbrelai]

You know, they said the same thing about XP vs 7 on games and that turns out to be false, XP is faster. As for 7 vs 8 on games, IDK, any other ways its 'faster' it doesnt matter because the UI will slow you down and cancel out any gains. And yeah the compatibility issues are silly, since its almost the same as 7...

 

[DAKz]

I loved XP until Win764 has me hooked.This is the best os imo,but 8 is supposed to be faster.Everyone says go to the classic shell.Why? I want a os that works without reverting back to make things better.That defeats the purpose.Its almost like Vista vs 7.I'll wait for 9.I know desktops are not the mainstream,but they could have made the best of both worlds.Why pay for there big mistake.

One example. Games an Win8 have more problems vs 7 .Not all games,but F that, just for that reason.

I saw a preview for 9, unless it changes drastically its more of the tablet touchscreen Metro UI. Stuff and I second the vote on Win7 x64.

 

[Xtreme Barton]

Microsoft is taking a page out of the mobile market with their boot-loaders.. just like so many manufacturers locked down cell phone boot-loaders.. all the are trying to do is lock you in to their software.. which of course is totally unacceptable and a bad move .. i dont like to be forced to do anything ... and usually 99.9 % of the time makes me look for an alternative .. and if I find .. I go ... DUHHH Microsoft !!

 

[JimmyG]

You need to shut Win 8 down completely. Laptop Shut down does not really shut them down.


You need to either take out the battery or use a custom shut down link.

Only then does F2 or whatever other key your system uses gets you into BIOS.


Then you need to disable secure boot and switch away from uefi to boot from CD or usb.

Laptops use gpt disks and have several hidden partitions.

The HP that I bought (the first one since 1990 that I didn't build myself) is a desktop not a laptop. I still haven't figured out what key to open the bios. I went to youtube and found an OEM video that demo'd how to get to it in an ACER machine. The sequence took me to an icon that supposedly would reboot the machine and open the UEFI bios. However, when I got to the icon and clicked it, it made the computer stop responding. I powered down and it came back up, but apparently, HP works even harder than ACER to prevent me from opening the BIOS. But, I will prevail somehow Anyone else with an idea???

 

[cullam3n]

I usually just rub F1-F12 back and forth until something happens.

 

[SteveLord]

I usually just rub F1-F12 back and forth until something happens.

Indeed. Sometimes you only have a split second to trigger it. DELETE is also very common.

 

[briansun1]

The HP that I bought (the first one since 1990 that I didn't build myself) is a desktop not a laptop. I still haven't figured out what key to open the bios. I went to youtube and found an OEM video that demo'd how to get to it in an ACER machine. The sequence took me to an icon that supposedly would reboot the machine and open the UEFI bios. However, when I got to the icon and clicked it, it made the computer stop responding. I powered down and it came back up, but apparently, HP works even harder than ACER to prevent me from opening the BIOS. But, I will prevail somehow Anyone else with an idea???

my idea do a clean install