My Experience With Windows 8

GDT78

I have now had a MEDION® AKOYA® P6815 (MD98234) laptop with Windows 8 for 2 weeks and would like to share my experience.
First the Medion is proving to be a great value laptop meeting all my expectations.
Second, after some initial set up, Windows 8 is a significant improved upgrade over previous versions. On a laptop I now have two computers in one. I have a normal laptop using the Windows 7 type desktop and I have a tablet type device with apps using the (Metro) start screens.
To get Windows 8 working well I needed to:
i) move away from Avast antivirus. Avast caused all three (IE10, Firefox & Chrome) internet explorers to behave slowly and inconsistently. Uninstalling Avast fixed all the problems but as I'm not convinced Windows Defender gives the best protection I have installed the free version of AVG. This has caused no problems.
ii) install Start Menu X which gives you not only a Start Button a la Windows 7 but also a much improved Start Menu.
Switching between Metro and Desktop is easy and intuitive using the mouse to the top and bottom left and right corners - you get used to switching quickly.
All in all I am very pleased with my upgrade to the Medion with Windows 8. Getting over the fear of change has proved well worthwhile.

Lum

Windows Defender isn't great any more, but it's still a hell of a lot better than AVG. AVG hasn't been any good for years!

Is that a touchscreen laptop then?

Gillor

Lum wrote: »

AVG hasn't been any good for years!

Says who?

AVG Anti-virus Free 2013 came out better for protection than any other free a/v tested by Av-Test.org in November/December.

JulyKnot

I agree that W8 is not as difficult to get to grips with as I was expecting.

My machine came with a 90 day Kaspersky trial and Windows defender seems to be turned off and am unable to turn on.

Should I uninstall Kaspersky and then try to turn on Windows defender? Or something else that is free? Recommendations if so please.

GDT78

Windows detects if you have third party antivirus software. If you uninstall Kaspersky then Widows Defender will be enabled. If you install another antivirus program then Windows Defender will be disabled and unavailable. You can't have both.

I did an extensive search to try and determine which is the best, hopefully free, antivirus package. There are as many different opinions as there are packages so very difficult to tell.

I have used either free AVG or free Avast for a number of years now and never had a problem based on my typical internet usage. As mentioned Avast appeared to cause browser problems in Widows 8 so I have moved to AVG. Up to now no problems.

Jivesinger

JulyKnot wrote: »

Should I uninstall Kaspersky and then try to turn on Windows defender? Or something else that is free? Recommendations if so please.

Do you use online banking? If so it may be worth checking if your bank offers a security product for free. For instance, Barclays offer you a free Kaspersky product.

JulyKnot

Jivesinger wrote: »

Do you use online banking? If so it may be worth checking if your bank offers a security product for free. For instance, Barclays offer you a free Kaspersky product.

Yes I do. Thinking about it, I've just started using Santander and keep getting a message about something called Rapport but ignored it.
Is that worth having?

Whilst on the subject of W8, the mail tile seems very slow to update ( eg when I email myself to test). How can I adjust the settings?

Jivesinger

Hmm I'm not sure about Rapport - as far as I can gather it's just about what happens when you're using online banking, not a general security product. (I have a Santander account and ignored it too!) So you may be out of luck there.

Jivesinger

JulyKnot wrote: »

Whilst on the subject of W8, the mail tile seems very slow to update ( eg when I email myself to test). How can I adjust the settings?

• Go into the Mail app.
• Then use the <WindowsKey>+I combination to bring up the "Settings Charm".
• Click on "Accounts"
• Click on the link for your email account (I guess you could have more than one).
• The second box is labelled "Download new email", and can be set to "As items arrive", "every 15 minutes" etc. What does it say for you?

One of the options is "Manual" but I must admit I don't know how that works if you set it.

JulyKnot

Jivesinger wrote: »

• Go into the Mail app.
• Then use the <WindowsKey>+I combination to bring up the "Settings Charm".
• Click on "Accounts"
• Click on the link for your email account (I guess you could have more than one).
• The second box is labelled "Download new email", and can be set to "As items arrive", "every 15 minutes" etc. What does it say for you?

One of the options is "Manual" but I must admit I don't know how that works if you set it.

Oh I do remember now being at that page when I set it all up and chose "as items arrive" thinking that would be fastest. Not very fast it seems!!!! Not the end of the world.
Thanks.
( Also, didn't know about windows +I.....quicker than hovering over RH corner of screen)

JulyKnot

Lum wrote: »

Windows Defender isn't great any more, but it's still a hell of a lot better than AVG. AVG hasn't been any good for years!

Is that a touchscreen laptop then?

What's wrong with AVG? I'll stick with my trial Kaspersky for now but will be on the lookout for something else soon
And what makes you say Defender isn't great anymore? I just used MSE on windows 7 machine with nothing extra. I gather WD is the replacement?