Pros/cons upgrading to Windows 8 from 7

locky123

I have the option of installing Windows 8 instead of 7 on a new HP laptop i3 3110M 6GB RAM.

Is it worth the hassle doing it now before I start using it? ie. will it give me any noticeable gains in performance, loading times etc?

I assume when upgraded from 7 Pro to 8 Pro, that I then can download 8.1 for free.

AlecEiffel

8 is a great OS. Fast and stable. Whether you prefer it to 7 is your call - no doubt a million people will be along in a mo to say how bad 8 is cos it's different. Its personal choice. 8.1 is free should you decide to go for 8 (do some windows updates and it will appear in the store).

J_B

Well, there you go .... someone who likes Win8 .... is this a first?

Tiglath

I hate Win8 - it's not really designed for PCs.

Johnmcl7

AlecEiffel wrote: »

8 is a great OS. Fast and stable. Whether you prefer it to 7 is your call - no doubt a million people will be along in a mo to say how bad 8 is cos it's different. Its personal choice. 8.1 is free should you decide to go for 8 (do some windows updates and it will appear in the store).

Agreed although with a little effort, it's possible to have Windows 8 function much the same way as Windows 7. 8 isn't a huge upgrade over 7 but I prefer 8 (on both touch and non-touch systems) as it's a bit quicker and feels more responsive, the new task manager is vastly improved, hardware devices now get their own event logs, the new start screen gives one click access to items compared to multiple clicks on the old start menu and the power user menu which is in the bottom left of the screen is also handy.

The touch/Modern UI and apps can be ignored, I set the default associations to use the desktop version of applications and remove the Modern tiles from the start screen then add the desktop shortcuts I want to use. It makes it little different to Windows 7 but I gain the benefits of 8 which are mostly small but I find I miss them when I'm using 7.

John

locky123

I'll give it a go and see whether I can adapt it to my liking. From what I read it should boot up faster and browsing should be bit quicker.

Which browser works best, IE11 or Chrome?

J_B

locky123 wrote: »

Which browser works best, IE11 or Chrome?

Firefox??? :rotfl:

locky123

The license key for Windows 8 is apparently hidden in the BIOS.

Is there a way to retrieve this just in case?

warehouse

If an operating system could be pretentious is would be Windows 8 on a non touch-screen system.

Avoid.

Johnmcl7

locky123 wrote: »

I'll give it a go and see whether I can adapt it to my liking. From what I read it should boot up faster and browsing should be bit quicker.

Which browser works best, IE11 or Chrome?

Whatever you prefer in 7 I'd say, I really like the touch version of IE on my W8 machines with touch but otherwise I just stick to my normal desktop browser (Opera)

John

mart44

J_B wrote: »

Well, there you go .... someone who likes Win8 .... is this a first?

No, we probably number many. No need to say much if you're happy with it and everything works OK.