well i have jumped in it now

[Blintok]

so for the longest time i had avoided Win 8 - I got a lap top with it installed last year and just hated it and removed it shortly after.

The last few weeks i been looking at Win 8.1 .. playing with it on demo machines in the big box stores. A few co-workers have it on lap tops now and they like it.

so yesterday i bought 2 copies of the OEM Windows 8.1 DVDs.
Installed it first on my lap top. Pretty fast install. Poked around with it for a few hours.
Adjusting and setting up. This should have been what win8 should have released as. I am liking it alot.

so the big one was wiping out my gamer computer. Wiped all drives from Win8 install and got it set up. Good so far. Starting the big installs of all my mmorpg games and steam games.

i like that win8.1 boots to the desktop. pretty much everything works out of the box just like it is win7. Glad i switched. Anyone else on the fence about win8.1. go for it.

 

[gmaster456]

Windows 8.1 is a free update.

 

[Dahak]

Windows 8.1 is a free update.

Only if you have a machine that had Windows 8 preloaded or if you bought Windows 8.

Other wise you have to buy it like you would Win7 for a new machine.

But yes, the OP could have upgraded the laptop for free as he had Win8 on it originally

 

[nurturedhate]

The OP still can, provided he has the product key for the laptop install. Then he would have an extra copy for whatever reason.

 

[Blintok]

yes. i looked into that but i had thrown away / destroyed all from the laptop. Did not come with a dvd. I had wiped the laptap drive / repartioned and installed Linux Mint.

so i had to buy a new copy. no biggie. still happy to have switched.

 

[mauiblue]

I stayed on Windows Vista as long as I could. My old Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650 laptop just couldn't take the long term stress test and I had to get a new machine. I've had my new Lenovo u430 Touch for almost two weeks and I am happy with Windows 8.1. I'm finally figuring it out. I've got MS Office 365 installed as with a few of my favorite browsers and apps. It is getting easier to navigate through the system everyday I use it. I just finished setting up all my email accounts on Outlook and it just gets better and better.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I stayed on Windows Vista as long as I could. My old Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650 laptop just couldn't take the long term stress test and I had to get a new machine. I've had my new Lenovo u430 Touch for almost two weeks and I am happy with Windows 8.1. I'm finally figuring it out. I've got MS Office 365 installed as with a few of my favorite browsers and apps. It is getting easier to navigate through the system everyday I us it. I just finished setting up all my email accounts on Outlook and it just gets better and better.

I can completely understand where you're comin' from, Bub.

In my case, I don't buy new machines with the OS installed. Even my "new" laptop is a refurb surplus throwback to 2007. Once an OEM has installed the OS on a system and installed all the DRIVERS for the laptop hardware, subsequent OS offerings may likely offer native hardware drivers, but sometimes you can't find the drivers for the new OS from the hardware-maker. It becomes a test of your perseverance and problem-solving ability.

All my desktops were DIY projects and required me to buy OEM OS discs and licenses, and then to install and tweak them.

I'm not going to put Win 8.1 on an existing machine, and I might not put it on a new machine until a year from now or later.