Windows 8 - should I upgrade to it?

OK I'm no computer expert, but I think Windows 8 is an improvement over Windows 7 in that you have all your old operating environment available, plus a whole bunch of new panels which you would expect on a tablet/phone.

It boots faster as well.

One problem I've found is with Cubase audio software.

Cubase uses e-licenses, and by changing the OS, you invalidate your software e-licenses. For me, that means I can no longer export audio as MP3, only WAV or AIFF. As I use Cubase Essential 5 from 2009, Steinberg have today informed me they have no plans to offer a Windows 8 upgrade to
Cubase Essential 5.


BUT you can't uninstall Windows 8!


Go to System restore. Choose a Restore Point. The earliest one available is the date you installed Windows 8.


Still, they've got rid of all the chrome 3D-effect graphic rendering around frames so that makes everything a bit less memory-hungry.

In conclusion, Windows 8 is really just Windows 7 plus a bit, minus a bit.

amen to that

Hi OP,

I spend all day installing Widows 8 on new machines, I work for Geek Squad.

Personally I think Windows 8 is decent so far.

Biggest Issue currently is a lack of updated drivers, but this is to be considered normal for any new OS on the market.

Improvements are as most have already listed,

Faster Boot time
Better Security
Very Similar to Windows 7
Built to play nice with touch interfaces

Things I do not like

Windows 8 wants an MS account, not needed but wants it.
Compatibility issues with drivers being outdated or just not available yet

As far as the start button being gone.....it is not, if you take your mouse and hover over the lower left had corner where start used to be a miniature charms screen will appear, this can be left clicked on to bring up the metro screen, or right clicked on to access things like Programs, file manager(my computer), control panel, and other features old and new.

Over all my advice to people who ask this question.....

If you get a free or discounted upgrade, do it

If no free or discounted upgrade then wait, your not missing a lot, let all the bugs and compatibility issues be fixed then upgrade.

Overall Windows 8 seems to be a solid decent OS.

You can uninstall windows 8, if you boot into your recovery program.

What I recommend is creating an image of your OS before upgrading then you have a back up plan with out losing much if you decide you do not like it.

But as I stated you can just factory reset your machine to its original OS and state at worse case scenario.

Ensure you have good back up habits and losing data should be a trivial issue.

Thanks Truthseeker. As I said, I'm no expert. Having already installed Windows 8, if I want to reset my PC to its factory settings, is there a safe way to back up all my files and folders?

The difference is, this time people making drivers MUST have them "signed" by Microsoft, or the OS simply won't load them. And to get your drivers signed, you have to pay an exorbitant fee to MS...

Many free drivers will not make it to this OS.

If you have already installed Windows 8, Then you will want to take any files/folders that are important to you and put them on an external device or another HDD(Ensure that this HDD is not just a partition of your main OS HDD, and is a completely different HDD).

Best practice is an external device such as portable external HDD, or sizable USB drive.

Avoid leaving anything of value on any of the pc's HDD's as they all may be wiped out with a factory reset.

Again best practice, copy all files/folders of importance to an external device.

Once reset has completed move(copy) files back to pc from external device.

Make a habit to back up your files/folder regularly.

Do you ask people what kind of toilet paper to use as well?

There ARE THINGS that you can research ALL BY YOURSELF and find out. That's what is AMAZING about the internet.

-Anyway...I apologize. But...I think people seek a bit too much approval for simple things. Its really easy stuff. Just look it up...

Is not going to a WEBSITE and asking a question the same thing as going to google/bing (which are website's) and typing in a question?

Won't the results turn up answers to the question??

Answers to questions already posted had to come from questions asked didn't they?

I see no difference, stop being so bitter!

In my opinion the user has already done what you said, but yet you wish to take issue with it, and instead of providing meaningful feedback you choose to ridicule.....

Find something better to do with your time. You'll be happier for it.

Last Edited by TruthSeeker2012 on 11/01/2012 10:57 AM

not worth it. don´t give them your money.

when you get a new machine, it will have some new windows on it.

old or new win, doesn´t matter. it just works.

i´ve got my win 7 on a ssd.

that said, i will not buy magnetic disks again.

i´ll buy a new machine only when ssd´s are stardard on new computers.

silent and fast.

Went here and got Windows 8 for 14.99. Yeah, it's legit and legal as it's directly from Microsoft. Really for people that bought a Windows 7 PC in the last few months, but there is zero verification so anyone can just input some data and get the promo code.

[link to windowsupgradeoffer.com]

Before I installed I had a bad opinion of Windows 8. After I've played with it a few days I really like it. Everything I had under Win 7 still works just fine and I had zero problems except I had to reinstall my wifi driver because it wasn't detected by Win8. I really like the Metro interface and having live tiles on screen. New Task Manager is also extremely cool. Definitely seems faster than Win 7 although gaming performance is either exactly the same or very close to the same as Win 7.

For 15 bucks you can't lose.

BTW, all you hobby developers should go here:
[link to www.microsoft.com]
and sign up to get a free copy of Visual Studio 2012 Professional too. :-)

I already do this but thanks =)

I have an external hard drive for everything (pics, documents, scanned receipts, etc)....and then I have several 32GB flash drives to use in the couple of digital frames I have for pics =)

And shite, I've been using Ubuntu off on on for years, and never once has it run properly on 5 different systems I have had. Do not listen to this guy, Linux is still sadly a pain in the ass.

Why do people keep saying that. I do like change. I enjoy testing out new software and exploring all the new features. But change just for the sake of change is bad. Why can't you create folders in metro? After I install a few dozens apps there are pages and pages of tiles. I should be able to place related apps into folders and have them expand when I hover/click on them. Having to scroll through pages of tiles instead of looking at a few folders makes it harder to find what I'm looking for. Sure, I could search for it, but what if I can't remember the name of the app I'm looking for.

How come metro doesn't support jump lists? The Win7 start menu has jump lists. I dunno, maybe if they allowed for the creation of folders, added jump lists, and made metro an overlay on top of the desktop instead of a full screen page that takes you away from the desktop it might be ok. Metro in its present form is unusable to me.

You can zoom out in metro and make different parts for Those tile apps

Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. Maybe O.K with a touch screen, but then 15 years ago I saw Windows 95 with a touch screen which worked just fine!

God knows what Microsoft have been thinking of, Windows 2000 was an excellent O/S unfortunately IE was badly coded and interfaced into the GUI, which started all their problems. Windows 2003 was their Zenith (XP without the shit eye candy). After that it has been one blind alley after another. Microsoft have been playing catch-up, and ironically played into the hands of their competitors. Apple is sexy, but noddy, Linux is as always just slightly off beat, android primarily a phone O/S.

Stick with what you're happy with. The software will outlive the hardware. Buy a games console for games!

Here's one more:
Why Windows 8 Scares Me (Updated)