Windows 8

Slyboogy

Slyboogy

World Champion
Contributor
I've just bought a laptop from Comet with Windows 8 on it.

Speaking to a few people after I bought it got me wondering if Windows 8 worth getting for a laptop that isn't touch screen. I don't really like the tile layout, I would prefer the Windows 7 layout, is it possible getting the Windows 7 layout even though using the Windows 8?

The only reason why I bought the one that i did, was because it was value for money compared to the rest, plus it had Windows 8, which I kind of sealed the deal as I thought "might aswell" as I was thinking that it will become the norm soon.

Anyone got any experiences through windows 8?

I could still return the laptop as I haven't turned it on and get another.
 
As I understand it, the Windows 8 UI is geared towards touchscreen and therefore there isn't as much point in having it with a standard device (keyboard & mouse/touchpad).

You could always purchase Windows 7, reformat and install that - assuming you know how to do all that?

However, you're probably better off buying an older device pre-loaded with Windows 7.
 
If I didn't have an iPad, I'd get a Surface table (and the optional keyboard). It's kind of pricey but has the best of both worlds. Now back to your question, I'm with Brogan, if you really dislike the tiles get a laptop with Windows 7.
 
You can get a small plugin to allow you to reformat the screen back to windows 7 start menu etc, is about $5 to activate it (a lot cheaper than buying windows 7). I can't remember the details of the company right now as am not in the office where my windows 8 machine is hiding with it installed on, but will let you know on Monday where to find it...
 
i have a brand new Samsung 900x running Windows 8, which I fully recommend. For the most part Windows remains the same in the way that you use applications, the desktop and the task bar. However, the start menu has been replaced with the tiles and things like the Control Panel look quite different. Despite the laptop not having a touchscreen, the touch element to it is only really a layer over normal point and click functionality and so everything works fine and is easy to use. You can also use "gestures" on the touchpad to emulate some of the touchscreen features. The gestures include swipe both ways, two finger drag, pinch, swipe-in left, swipe-in right.

The laptop is the best purchase I have made in a while ad the upgrade to Windows 8 is a definite improvement and an easy step.
 
I haven't tried it yet but the one person I have talked to that adopted it early gave me a review similar to ExtremeNinja 's. In a sense all that's happened is the start menu becomes a start screen which has much broader functionality. He also mentioned things like his laptop being much quicker to start and having significantly longer battery life after installing Windows 8.

People have been very quick to give Windows 8 a bad reputation but I think it's actually emerging as a very good system, so long as you invest a little bit of time in it to start with (much like the ribbon menus in Office, I guess). It's also now apparent how Microsoft are going about creating their equivalent of the Apple 'ecosystem' and I think they've got it right, it's just a matter of persuading people. The phones, tablets, laptops and PCs now all have similar interfaces and with the phones in particular they're really marketing themselves as a modern, more colourful option.

My advice is to stick with it.
 
Windows fell behind Apple in user experience stakes for a while but with Windows 7 they moved ahead and produced a really good operating system. Windows 8, whilst a bit of a departure, is actually a progressive evolution and is really quite good.

My laptop starts in seconds and the battery life is immense, as your friend confirms. Some of this is down to the hardware. If you can get something with a solid state memory rather than a traditional hard drive then you will be doing yourself a massive favour, too.
 
Cool. Even on my spanking new laptop which came with Windows 7 and was quick anyway, Windows 8 has made a difference. Power management is much better as it's designed to work on tablets as well as laptops and PCs.
 
I don't really want to return it, but Windows 8 looks a bit of a put off, I've read more negative reviews than positives (yes I should have done the research before).

But the laptop has intel i5, 6gb RAM (memory), and 1TB storage, nothing came close to it for that price apart from an Acer which only bet it for the RAM category by 2gb, the rest was a downgrade.

I bought it with Windows 8 in mind as I thought it will slowly become the norm.

I woke up this morning with exchanging it in mind, but I think I'll keep it now after reading the posts above.

Also, if anyone's got anything to add feel free to post.

Thanks canis that would be very helpful.
 
We have been playing with Windows 8 for some time and looking at the differences. While as technical people we think the product is better and would recommend it to clients, we also understand that anything different will put them off (getting them to move to Win 7 was easy as visually very little different in the way it works). Because of that we started to look at ways to get them to move and then hopefully get them off their dependence on the old style start menu, and this mod came up which will allow you to put an old style start menu in the desktop mode but also keep the new style menu at the same time. This means people can move across to the new style at their own pace.

The same company also do a mod to allow you to customise the background of the new menu screen, so you are not stuck with a solid colour background (worst idea in Win 8).
 
I'm not keen on Windows 8 but run a copy in a VM just for familiarity's sake. Generally I run it only on the desktop with classic shell installed, which adds a windows 7 style start menu and removes the need to keep visiting the new tiled start menu system.
 
Slyboogy Before you decide if you want to return the laptop for one with windows 7 on it be aware that the newer laptops are equipped with the new superfast usb 3.0 which is far faster and more efficient than usb 2.0 and will be the new standard in short order, it would be a shame to take a step backwards in technology, so it would be wise to check the spec of the laptop you have purchased...
 
FB Macs are overpriced, you may get a great product, but the money you pay for it, is not worth it. Well it may be, but half of the features I won't use on, and it will take me a while getting used to the system.

Rather stick to something affordable but great, and something that I'm used to (although you could argue that I'm not used to Windows 8 LOL).

The majority of the specs that are on this laptop would have cost me double the amount if I got a Mac infact nothing from Mac comes close to it, remember FB, I am a student!

Mephistopheles it has the USB 3.0 port. :)
 
I wonder if anyone can help me out with a problem? No, not that problem! It's a bit public here for that!

No, the problem that I'm referring to is with Windows 8. Or slightly more specifically, trying to link my old man's new laptop (running Windows 8) with his old PC which has XP on it. I've setup a network on both computers and I can access shared folders from the laptop on the XP PC. However, I've been unable to access any files/folders from the old PC on the laptop.

When I view the network (I've called it MSHOME) on the old PC, I can see the laptop and when I click on it, I'm asked type in a username & password. The only password I can see on the laptop is for "HomeGroup", which I understood was not compatible with XP. However, I have been able to connect to the laptop & access the shared folders, etc by using HomeGroup as the username & it's password

When I view the network (again called MSHOME) on the laptop, I can see the old PC, but cannot access any shared folders, etc. When I click on the old PC icon, it says I do not have permission and to contact my administrator! :(

What am I doing wrong?

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.
 

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