Hello I Have A Relatively Simple Question RE: WIN 8, Is Win 8.1 Like 7

[sebastian869]

I currently had vista and I played around with 7 for a couple of months and its vista on steroids some impotents some sugar to make ppl happy but not revolutionary. I've never see 8 or 8.1 and I read a lot that its really designed for tablets not desktops I though the 8.1 came out to placate the ppl pissed off they didn’t get a desktop OS. My question is if it's possible in 8.1 to make it look and act like 7 for the most part (The wild card are additional features and improvements to the code to make it boot faster and have some other sweets like in 7 you can have your back round swap from one pic to another. So are there any performance improvements to get 8.1 and can you make it act like 7 meaning having a desktop and have for the most part the availability to change the setting and set 8.1 into a 7 desktop with desktop icons and all that. (It's pretty retarded to MS to put out an OS that is pretty much strictly geared towards hand held table and especially since MS docent even heave great products in the market guess they are hoping they can emulate googles' OS. What I totally don’t get is that they would make it where average pc users don’t comfy and can use it like the previous version like 7. Would really love your input since I'm about to start a build and need to know if I should but 7 professional or 8.1, the only prob I have is I don’t want to buy seven then find out in 2-3 yrs they will drop support, I doubt it will happen that fast and I don’t know the features but id imagine 8.1 is faster and a better OS but with MS you never know I got millennium and I still have nightmares after that lol, can you turn the tile off and simple have the same desktop as in 7 and what is the biggest difference between vista and 7 that you can't disable or change.

Thanks,
Sebastian

 

[Mem]

Personally I use mouse and keyboard only on Win8.1 Pro on my desktop PC,good review here that covers all the 8.1 features http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/windows-8-1-1161745/review .

You can always add a third party Start Menu if you want it to be more like Vista/Win7 ,yes Win8.1 does have the old desktop still with some changes.


Win8.1 does have improved security,new features ,longer lifespan(Win7 mainstream support is until Jan 2015).

Personally I did upgrade two of my PCs from 7 to 8 and have not regretted it.

Good guide here at Anandtech forums on Start Menus for 8.1 if you need one http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2283053 .

 

[Kerry56]

I use StartisBack in Windows 8.1. With this one addition, I think it is a very good operating system, fast and stable for everything I do.

You can avoid the Modern/Metro side of the operating system entirely. I'm never in it unless I deliberately choose to be there for some odd reason.

Just remember to change default programs for many different types of files. Otherwise it will shift you unexpectedly into the Metro interface. This includes various types of media files, photos, pdf files, etc.

 

[MongGrel]

I've oddly gotten used to using Metro a bit myself.

Not bad once you get the hang of it, I bounce back and forth sometimes.

 

[slugg]

Windows 8.1 is the fastest, most responsive Windows to date. There's a lot of good stuff! But there's one bad thing: the completely full-screen start menu. That's really the only bad thing about Windows 8, but it's a not a big deal, since Microsoft already announced that a more traditional-style start menu will be available in the next version of Windows.

The other thing that really annoys me is having two versions of many apps. For example, if you start searching for "Calculator" in the start screen, you need to choose between two identically named apps. One is for the desktop, the other is for the full-screen interface. This gets even more annoying when you start to mess with system settings. I really hope Microsoft does something about this!

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

The other thing that really annoys me is having two versions of many apps. For example, if you start searching for "Calculator" in the start screen, you need to choose between two identically named apps. One is for the desktop, the other is for the full-screen interface. This gets even more annoying when you start to mess with system settings. I really hope Microsoft does something about this!

This doesn't sound entirely unusual (you do have two apps with the same name..) but, presumably, you don't want to see the Store App version of Calculator. In that case, right click > Uninstall. Works for lots of things. Not all things, but lots of things.

 

[slugg]

This doesn't sound entirely unusual (you do have two apps with the same name..) but, presumably, you don't want to see the Store App version of Calculator. In that case, right click > Uninstall. Works for lots of things. Not all things, but lots of things.

My point is that it's unpolished and entirely illogical. Out of the box, it should make sense. Having duplicate apps that work entirely differently is inconsistent, misleading, ambiguous, and stupid. I shouldn't have to sit there and delete stuff all day.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

. . . IF you can configure the classic desktop for yourself.

I'm of Medicare age, probably made a lot more money with the technology than I spent, but in my "other life," spent too much on it as a matter of hindsight.

Now I put a budget together for computer needs and wants. For fun to occupy time, I'm thinking of a sort of "gantt chart" schedule for retiring and replacing PIECES of hardware -- not just whole computers.

There are now six systems in this house, three human users, four desktop and one laptop "workstations" or "personal" computers, and one server. I've spent a lot of time this year attending to "perfect Windows" and "perfect operation" for machines, their sleep-states, their daily backup. The most recent technology in all that resides in two systems with socket-1155.

Apparently, WHS-2011 may still get "GPT" support that could fix the problem for backing up Win 8 clients. The alternative is to spend something short of $400 (less next or following year -- I hope) for Server 2012 Essentials. OR -- defer moving everything to Win 8 and dealing with problems I'd long since put to rest for Win 7, etc.

I suspect that one could keep a WHS-2011 box running and shift the backup strategy(ies). Certainly software like True Image 2014 will do the job for Win 8 systems. But then we start thinking of patchwork solutions to defer spending, and the little patches add up . . . too . . .

Maybe I'll just get a Win 8.1 Home Premium to install on one machine that hasn't yet got enough of a serious purpose.

. . . And continue to think about it as I build my Gantt chart to cover the next three years.