Windows 8.1

chunter

No it is pretty unusable. Go and find a business pc that hasn't a window 7 alternative.
Problem with the 3rd party start button sis that tiled rubbish is still waiting in the background to ambush the innocent user when they male a false mouse movement.

Every so often a Japenese soldier comes out of jungle and claims windows 8/1 was really good.
War's over. You lost - ages ago. Go home.

[Deleted User]

poppellerant wrote: »

As a Windows 8.1 user, I use StartIsBack and never ever use the start screen or it's tiles.

I use Classic Shell. I've set it to look like the Vista machine I use at work.

Jivesinger

Are you running 32-bit or 64 bit Windows 8.1?

My experience (with my 8-year old laptop) is that there were no 64-bit drivers so I use 32-bit, but it's generally OK.

But I did have to find the drivers myself and (when I installed it) uncheck the box to let Windows try to install drivers. If I let Windows try to find its own drivers, it would give Blue Screens of Death.

RumRat

poppellerant wrote: »

Except in Windows 8 the tiles are on the start screen, which was intended to replace the start menu as we knew it. Quite rightly, people hated the start screen and turned to replacement start menus, such as StartIsBack.

As a Windows 8.1 user, I use StartIsBack and never ever use the start screen or it's tiles. I won't be using tiles in Windows 10 either.

That doesn't make it 'Unusable' just Unliked....

chunter wrote: »

No it is pretty unusable. Go and find a business pc that hasn't a window 7 alternative.
Problem with the 3rd party start button sis that tiled rubbish is still waiting in the background to ambush the innocent user when they male a false mouse movement.

Every so often a Japenese soldier comes out of jungle and claims windows 8/1 was really good.
War's over. You lost - ages ago. Go home.

Not many business' have moved over to 8.1 yet. Most of them are so backward they are only just getting into W7. Anyway I'm guessing the main queries on here are for home systems.
Claiming it's 'unusable' just indicates that you personally couldn't use it. You surrendered before a shot was fired...;)
Using a third party app to make a more familiar setting is fine as long as you recognise that it's a personal choice and not necessarily a prerequisite.
Windows has been customised by third party apps since the beginning. Funny how those using CS or StartisBack etc. seem to think they've hit onto something new. That said, most people with it will still use them with W10, good luck to them, their customisation is their business....:)

NiftyDigits

kemi1975 wrote: »

Hi,
I reluctantly "upgraded" this week to Windows 8.1 from XP and have been regretting it since. I think the root of my problem is that my motherboard (Foxconn K8M890 M2MB?) has been phased out so no Windows 8.1 drivers but not entirely sure. My system runs but is painfully glitchy and crashes constantly, screen flickering and going blank from time to time. I work from home and am stuck until I can get it sorted, so... is it worth trying to rebuild around another motherboard (computer is 8 years old and was perfectly adequate for my needs) or is there some way of finding alternative drivers that will get it running? I'm toying with the idea of giving Linux a try and kicking Windows into touch but I need to use a CAD program and don't know how tricky it would be to migrate to a Linux version.

You can use Windows 7. Let me know if you need help with the installation.

almillar

OP - we really need to know which drivers you are using at the mo. Did you install any, or is it just the standard install? Are you on 64 bit or 32 bit.
It's very unlikely there are Windows 8 drivers for your computer, but if you goto your manufacturers website, find and install, in order of preference:
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP drivers. Even Windows 2000 drivers might work for really ancient stuff but that won't apply to an 8yr old computer.
Chipset driver would be the one to do first.

chunter - you can't lose a war based on opinion. Lots of people don't seem to have like the slightly steeper learning curve put in front of them my MS this time (Start is a whole screen, not just a menu, wow!) and didn't want to get on. Now they've had to backtrack a bit to get people back on board. I do understand that it looks very touch optimised when you use it on a desktop, but if you use a trackpad on the desktop it can make a lot more sense.