Windows 8

nickcc

MadTechie wrote: »

I Paid £25 today, but as I don't want to pay with my time, I am going to keep it on the back burner for a while, Moving to windows 7 was pain but I do like win 7, but win 8 looks like a mobile OS instead of a desktop OS and yes I know that's the direction of things but with all the services linked together and html5 and JS integrated in to the OS you know win8 is a malware authors wet dream come true.

Make sure you do a backup first or save all your files to disk as I lost all of mine alongside all my photos.

MadTechie

Backup are for wimps..as windows is the most stable OS in the known worlds and never crashes...
ROFLMAO :rotfl:

But yes that's a very good point, also windows transfer is quite useful in that respect

gildius

I got my laptop and I'm quite happy with windows 8. I like the look of the start screen (naturally I've removed most of the buttons, I only want the bare essentials on there), and it's very easy to escape to the familiar desktop when I get stuck.
Overall, I'm pretty happy, although I feel like the start screen is more like one way of navigating my laptop, rather than the only way.

spud17

Any one else thinking "where have I seen that desktop before?"

HERE?

Johnmcl7

No, having used an Acer Aspire One the interface doesn't look similar to me. The Acer has bright colours but that's about the only resemblance as it used standard icons on a fixed background not dynamic differing tiles on a large scrolling banner.

John

spud17

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

No, having used an Acer Aspire One the interface doesn't look similar to me. The Acer has bright colours but that's about the only resemblance as it used standard icons on a fixed background not dynamic differing tiles on a large scrolling banner.

John

Sorry mate, I missed the from my post.
And yes I've used a Aspire One, even installed the latest Mint, which looked superb.

Johnmcl7

nickcc wrote: »

Make sure you do a backup first or save all your files to disk as I lost all of mine alongside all my photos.

Your files should all be backed anyway as hard drives can and do suddenly die and recovery from specialist companies can be prohibitively expensive. If you haven't already tried I'd highly recommend to immediately stop using the machine and run file recovery software (I have had good results from File Scavenger even after an OS install plus it's fairly cheap for the licensed version) to see if you can get any of your data back.

John

RichL74

I always live on the edge with Windows, the first thing I always do on a new install is turn off system restore.

nickcc

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

Your files should all be backed anyway as hard drives can and do suddenly die and recovery from specialist companies can be prohibitively expensive. If you haven't already tried I'd highly recommend to immediately stop using the machine and run file recovery software (I have had good results from File Scavenger even after an OS install plus it's fairly cheap for the licensed version) to see if you can get any of your data back.

John

Thanks John. Unfortunately I rarely carried out a backup just copied my photos to DVD disk, buried head in sand and never expected to loose all my old data when downloading Windows 8. Will try file recovery as I've not used my laptop since installing 8.

AshleyPomeroy

nickcc wrote: »

Has anyone upgraded to Windows 8 yet (download released today) and is it worth the £25 and what are the benefits over Windows 7.

I installed it on one of my old, XP-powered laptops when it was released to the public. In general I'm pleasantly surprised - the start screen was less irritating than I expected, and once you learn to ignore it the desktop feels faster. It certainly boots faster than my XP laptop. I've since installed a widget called Classic Shell, which brings back the start button and essentially banishes the start screen. And now my laptop feels slightly faster and is presumably more future-proofed than it was before, although the difference is very slight.

Is it worth the £25? Hard to say. That's a relative bargain given that my copy of Windows 7 cost me £180. I have a laptop running XP, a laptop running Windows 8, and my desktop machine runs Windows 7, so I can compare them all, and I can't honestly say that Windows 8 is a game-changer on a purely functional level. I can't really do anything that I couldn't do before. An XP upgrade compels you to reinstall your software again, which might be a bother if you have a tonne of stuff installed, especially if you've mislaid the DVDs.

The most obvious "benefit" is that it gives you access to Microsoft's app store, but from what I've seen the store is a bit of a wasteland, and most of the apps are just cut-down website portals. For example, you can download a Booking.com app that lets you search hotels and things through Booking.com, but you get fewer search options than by just using the website, and it's full-screen, so if you want to run a second tab with your flight details (say), you're stuffed. Windows RT tablet users are stuck with this, it doesn't make sense if you have a proper computer. My feeling is that if you're going to cut yourself off from standard Windows applications, you might as well go the whole hog and install Lubuntu or similar, which would be more flexible, and cheaper.

Still, it feels faster than XP. It has Microsoft's app store. It boots faster and has pretty tiles. It will be supported for slightly longer and is presumably more robust. I can't say I regret buying it, and it's not the utter disaster that some people have predicted, but I have no plans whatsoever to upgrade my Windows 7 machine or my XP laptop.

I might have put it on my old Asus netbook - it would be a natural fit - but the absolute minimum resolution it supports is 1024x768, and my netbook has a 1024x600 screen, so no.