Getting Ready For Windows 8

Over the weekend, I read a pretty negative review of Windows 8 in the Wall Street Journal Weekend edition.

Apparently the new interface is nothing like any previous windows edition, including Windows 7. The author ... and even the authors kids ... were having a tough go of it.

If I were you ... I would take my time and watch the general public reaction.

I still kind of miss version 3.1 a bit.

Now where are my Depends.

From what I read it doesn't make any sense to upgrade without a touch screen device.

Following Windows track record, every other release has been so-so.

98 was good
ME was a joke and very buggy
XP was very good
Vista was so-so at best
Windows 7 is pretty good

The majority of businesses have finally upgraded to Windows 7 so they aren't going to hop on the Windows 8 bandwagon right away.

If you get a new computer, then yes, get Windows 8, but upgrading just for the sake of upgrading, I don't think so. That's my 2 cents worth.

They had to replace their outdated hardware.Our company is now starting the forklift upgrades.

Pluses
1. Low upgrade price at $40 download.
2. Improved security.
3. You have and prefer to use a touchscreen rather than the mouse.
4. Supports faster USB 3.0 (*IF* you have USB 3.0 devices--most people don't--it would be most useful with data storage such as with external hard drives and flash drives)

Minuses
1. Huge learning curve due to radically different interface.
2. Not designed for traditional non-touchscreen desktop and laptop and many owners will find it very-to-EXTREMELY annoying on those devices.
3. Reports of bugginess and not-ready-for-primetime. It rarely pays to upgrade Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit etc. software before one or two major bugfix releases. See this off-the-record, leaked late September warning from Intel re: Windows 8 being not-ready-for-primetime:
http://wraltechwire.com/business/tech_wire/news/blogpost/115...
4. Windows ME and Windows Vista were huge disappointments due to annoying roadblocks in user interface, and some people are predicting the same for Windows 8. Windows 7 remains a very good release for traditional desktop and laptop users without touchscreens.

If you can shoulder all the headaches and promise not to whine about them and like the idea of being an early adopter, go for it. My pet peeve is the people who buy early and then whine, whine, whine about all the problems and how they're never buying another product from X again. What the heck did they expect?! These things always work much better one year out than in month one. And maybe by then you'll be ready to buy and use a touchscreen device with Windows 8 which is the real reason Microsoft invested so heavily in changing everything up--they don't want to be left behind with everyone going to tablets.

Two-and-a-half minute video: 5 Reasons Not to Upgrade. Also click link to right of video for C-NET review:
http://cnettv.cnet.com/reasons-upgrade-windows-8/9742-1_53-5...

Good luck.

I heard it was very similar to Windows Phone operating system. My understanding is that Microsoft is making all their operating systems similar so it doesn't matter what device you're on - it will all look and function the same.

When I bought the computer I have now it had Windows 7. The mail client that comes with it is Windows live. I HATE windows live.
If you make a mistake and perm. delete it on your computer it deletes it on your mail server's site. I know this from a mistake.
From what I read Windows 8 is a live web interface. If that is anything like Windows Live Mail I am going to stay away as long as I can.
I am tied to the internet enough as it is.

I do try and get all the new programs but this is one I think I am going to skip.

Sounds like I might be an Old Lady

@mgarledge Surely there's an option in Windows live mail client to delete/not delete from the server site. I don't use it, but there is in any other mail client I've used.

Larry

I'm running Vista on my PC and it's not the best, but its working and everyone in the house knows how to use it. I'm not changing untill this computer dies on me.

The best way to get ready for the new Windows 8 is to just forget about Windows and buy an Apple computer.
Problem solved.

And replaced with a whole new set of problems.

Not to mention that 80% of the software I use doesn't run native on Mac.

It is completely different. I never like to be on the bleeding edge. I'm on Windows 7 and love it. Much better than other Windows before it. Just wait until you are forced to go to it. Maybe by that time many of the bugs will be out.

Back up your entire C: drive to another drive using something like Ghost. That way if you don't like Win8 you'll be able to go back to your existing system within minutes without having to re-install anything.

Once that's done, go through your entire "Programs" directory. Start each program and if there's any data (settings) involved find it and back it up. Remember to save your e-mail sent and received items.

Report back here on your Win8 experience.

Cheers

I regret that I may have left the impression in this earlier post that I think one HAS to use a touchscreen with Windows 8. I know this is not correct. You can use a mouse with Win 8 and do not *have* to have a touchscreen. But it's *designed* to work with a touchscreen on a smaller device such as a tablet or phone, which means the interface is scaled that way and not for the huge advantages you can have with a larger desktop or laptop screen.

In Win 8 you cannot rely on the traditional Windows interface of clicking one of many small desktop icons or clicking among multiple offset open windows to choose what you want to see and do next, because Win 8 is not designed to do that. The Start menu is completely gone (though that removed element of the Windows interface can be restored with an add-on app).

Similar to the highly annoying Apple interface in my experience, ahem, doing many things requires more touches/clicks than previous Windows versions. These "features" will likely annoy many traditional Windows users and may be a dealbreaker for some.

The Win 8 interface has been described: as different from all the Windows versions that have come before it as Windows 3.1 was from DOS. You will need to spend a considerable amount of time getting used to how things are done in Windows 8 before you will feel comfortable with it. If you have already made the leap away from desktops and laptops to small devices, you will probably welcome the change. But if you have old-timey desktops/laptops and are happy in Win 7, you may be much happier sitting tight for now. If portability and touchscreen operability are your first priority, Win 8 will be for you when some bugfixes are in.

Guess I am behind the ball lol Still on Windows XP Professional here. May update this Spring with a new computer, after the kinks are out of Windows 8.

To Windows 7...

I have a few things that require Windows (such as the airline res software my wife needs to use for her travel business). Some of my (old) design tools and other geeky stuff are also XP based. I have one "real" XP box, the rest are VMs.

Tried working with a Win 8 preview, and found it quite frustrating. Not just new ways of doing old things; Win 7 had plenty of that. Win 8 at least for me breaks a lot of the old UI models and rules.

So it's time to start upgrading boxes to Win 7, while it's still available.

...and some of the reviews Win 8 has been getting have got to be enough to make a Microsoft PR flack start looking for a safer client!

our home computers. IT specialist at my wife's Clinic updated some hardware and software. We asked about going to Windows 8 and his recommendation was that for the average user, who is doing spreadsheets, data management and online banking......Stick with Win.7

Just having changed to 7, it seems to do everything we need and we are not real interested in touch screen technology.....so we have decided to wait.....In spite of the tempting $40 upgrade!

I am going to back up my entire win 7 system and take the plunge with windows 8 - I will DL to a flash drive to allow me to the flexibility to reinstall in the event I restore Win 7 and need revisit win 8. In any event I end up being the family tech support agent and new PCs will have Win 8 on them after the 26th.

I agree with you about Windows Live mail ... I am not a fan of it either. Windows XP and Vista both had a conventional email client (Outlook Express and Windows Mail respectively) and I was upset that they did not include something similar in Windows 7.

If you Google for it, you will find that most of the Vista Windows Mail software modules are included with Windows 7. Microsoft included the email client but just decided to not enable it and promote Live Mail instead.

There are instructions available online on how to enable the Windows Mail client in Windows 7. I have done it on my Windows 7 machine and it works great; very much like the old Outlook Express. I was even able to import all my saved messages from my old XP backup of my Outlook Express into Windows Mail. No Windows Live for me!

You are right, i way, thank you

I have been running Windows 8 on one of my hard drives since February and currently have the release candidate that is what will be released Friday. After playing around with it for months I have decided to stick with Windows 7 in all my computers.

Unless your computer has a touch screen monitor I cannot think of any compelling reason to upgrade to Win 8 if you already are running Win 7. There is a learning curve making the transition and Win 8 is not really as easily mastered as Win 7 was.

Windows 95, 98 & ME were still based on DOS. Windows NT & Windows 2000 were concurrent with the last consumer-oriented versions of Windows prior to XP. Windows NT 3.1, 3.5 & 4.0 were the direct predecessors of Windows 2000 (aka: NT 5.0). Windows XP was NT 5.1, which is where the two lines merged into one.

All of the NT series were pretty successful in their target market, with significant progress made between NT3.1 and NT5.0 (Win2000). Windows XP (NT 5.1) continued this trend, but introduced a new, more consumer-oriented, more "stylish" interface - but XP also retained the older Win2000 "classic" interface as an option. With Vista, Microsoft shifted further toward a consumer-oriented interface, and that trend continued with Win7 (which does not make the "classic" Windows 2000 interface available as an option). So part of the problem for business users is that the more consumer-oriented interface (to make it easier for inexperienced users), tend to reduce the productivity of experienced users doing most business tasks (i.e.: work, rather than play).

It has only been since the patches like Classic Shell (and many others) have become available for Win7 that it has been more widely adopted by businesses, an upgrade that was in no small part also driven by the fact that the last mainstream OEM hardware for which there was widespread OEM support for Windows XP was the first generation Core i3/i5/i7 a couple years ago. Since then, the OEMs have mostly not made XP drivers available for their latest hardware. So if businesses wanted to replace aging desktop PCs, with newer and much faster boxes, it wasn't really practical to do anything but switch to Win7. I expect fully patched and tweaked Win7 PCs to have at least as long of a lifespan as XP did, including OEM driver support for many years to come. Microsoft will have a steep uphill battle pushing touch-screens or Windows 8 into this segment.

I don't have a touch screen computer and currently use Windows 7. The Metro interface or whatever they call it now is so far from what I use the computer for that it will not go on my machine.

I would go to the desktop after bypassing Metro and then essentially I have Windows 7 that is just a bit harder to use.

No Windows 8 in my future anytime soon unless someone can convince me that it has any use whatsoever.

Any touch-screen interface is less efficient in a normal office/desktop environment compared to using a mouse, because the pointing device and the interface itself is about one-third as precise as a mouse pointer and a list view.

Using Windows 7, if you want to get an idea of how it would be to work in Windows 8, launch Windows Media Center, which is has what's sometime called the "10-foot interface" (designed to be used with a remote from 10 or more feet away). Windows Media Center has a similar "coarse," conditional, very large icon layout that forces users to page through many more screens than on the much more "fine" classic Windows interface.

...or simply change all folders to Tile view and set the type size to the maximum possible.

Amazing response

I think Windows 8 is one of those "nobody wanted this" releases like Vista, that will be fixed later but given a different name (like Windows 7 replaced Vista) so that the users have to buy it yet again rather than getting the fixes as a service pack. I'm not rushing to this one.

As with Vista, I think the only people who want Win8 are Microsoft. Corporates aren't going to go for it and once the feedback surfaces neither are most homes I think. They'll have to extend Win7 support to 2030.

Has everyone forgot BOB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob)?

Evidently Microsoft did. I guess MS is going to have to re-learn that mistake. Bob was designed almost entirely by two university professors, and Win8's Metro/Modern UI interface looks like the handywork of people who rarely venture out into the real world where work gets done on PCs.

If you're considering "upgrading" to Windows 8 and have any obscure programs you may want to check this site to see if the program is compatible with Windows 8

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/en-US/C...

I almost did that with this last computer I bought, with Windows 7.

I should experiment with the MAC windows emulator to see how well it runs MS Office Access.

Just can't get over the hardware costs on a MAC. Sure they run well, but my PC's get 5 to 10 years with little hardware problems and they are half the price.

The MAC's are pretty!

3.o very difficult
3.1 easy to load difficult for some to use
Windows 95 great, but hard to load
Windows 98 very good
Windows ME poor excuse for an upgrade
Windows XP Excellent
Windows Vista not worth the effort,and had to spend to much money for new programs
Windows 7 excellent, but remember you already spent all that money for new programs to run Vista and they will run on 7
Windows 8 ????? look at the history in the above list, I think I'll wait for Windows 9

Ya mean there's a newer system out?

I wont be running it at home while I have had access to it through Microsoft Technet.

I work in IT, and it looks like with the new Windows Server 2012 you will need Windows 8 to run remote server administration tools (rsat). I can't say I am crazy about that as I am a fan of Windows 7.

I know this ships with Windows 8 and will be available down the road for Windows 7.

I have used both Oublook Express and Windows Mail. I love them. Will google for the directions. I looked into it when I got my computer but only found people saying it wouldn't work. Thanks.

That would be great. All I want to do with my mail is to leave everything on the mail clint and only the new messages come into my mail software. That is how Outlook and Windows Mail worked. It wasn't linked live to the mail client.

Thanks for your idea.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33153_7-57534248-10391733/why-y...

ommentary If you wait much longer, you'll be stuck with Windows 8. That's right, I said it. This may be your last chance to get a Windows 7 system.
Rick Broida
by Rick Broida
October 17, 2012 10:21 AM PDT

Not wild about Windows 8? Yeah, me neither. That's why you'd better buy a Windows 7 system while you can.

Not wild about Windows 8? Yeah, me neither. That's why you'd better buy a Windows 7 system while you can.
(Credit: CNET )

I don't want to alarm you, but the clock is ticking.

The Windows clock, I mean. Microsoft's new operating system debuts October 26. This means that very soon thereafter, any new Windows laptop or desktop you want to buy will come with Windows 8.

Let me be blunt: As a desktop operating system, Windows 8 blows. It's completely unintuitive. It forces you to relearn the simplest tasks, like how to shut down your PC. (No, seriously; there's no more Start menu, so to shut down, you have to venture into the Settings menu. Seriously.) And from what I've seen so far, it offers no clear-cut advantages over Windows 7. Quite the opposite: I think it'll put most PC users at a disadvantage.

Consequently, I think if you're in the market for a new computer, the time to buy is now. Get a Windows 7 system while you can. This doesn't mean missing the Windows 8 boat entirely: thanks to Microsoft's Windows 8 upgrade offer, you can get the new OS for just $14.99 when you buy a new PC. That puts you in the driver's seat. You can run Windows 7 as long as you want, but keep the upgrade on hand in case the day comes when you're ready for it.

(You might even be able to set up a dual-boot option, running both Windows 7 and Windows 8 on separate partitions. You can do that now with the Release Preview, but I'm not sure if that'll work with the upgrade license.)

From a hardware standpoint, the desktop or laptop you buy today will barely differ from the one you'd buy after October 26. It's not like Windows 8 is ushering in any new hardware standards (well, other than for tablets, but that's a different discussion entirely). The one exception might be a touch-screen LCD, but I'm not convinced I'd want one on a laptop -- certainly not on a desktop.

Nah, if you're going to get Windows 8, get it on a Surface tablet, where it looks pretty sweet. If you're going to get a desktop or laptop, buy the most powerful system you can afford, and buy it now, while you can still get Windows 7 preinstalled.
Related stories

Windows 8 is easy: Ask this 3-year-old
Making sense of the confusing world of Windows 8
Windows 8 buying guide

It's worth noting that you'll still be able to buy refurbished and clearance Windows 7 system for months to come. But if you want a custom configuration or state-of-the-art hardware, Windows 7 will stop being an option in just over a week.

What are your thoughts on this? Think I'm being too hard on the new OS? Or do you agree that Windows 7 is the best desktop OS Microsoft has ever made, and therefore the one to covet when it's time to buy a PC? I eagerly await your feedback.

In the meantime, check out CNET editor Donald Bell's spot-on video, "Top 5 reasons not to upgrade to Windows 8."

I used CP/M before DOS was thought of.

I won't be upgrading to Windows 8 anytime soon. I tried it briefly and absolutely loathed it with a passion. The only computer in my house that saw any benefit from it was my roommate's Dell Duo, with a touchscreen.

I may switch to Linux soon...or at least dual boot. I'll need it if I ever want to compile for Android.

thanks for all the input. i'm sure you noticed i said i was not going to be at the head of the line to buy Windows 8. i will wait to see what folks are saying. i never ran vista but did a little on other people's pc's and didn't like it. 7 has been good except i had a few old programs that would not run under any arm twisting i tried on it. as far as the windows live stuff it has some dvd editing and burning software i like but that may have been because it is a studio pc ....thanks again!

I assume the OP has a desktop, as he has a second hard drive. What I do and recommend is to buy another identically sized hard drive to your C: drive. Put it in the second bay and copy the entire C: drive to it. I bought Acronis True Image to do this as an occasional backup for my primary 2TB drive. Now remove or disable the C: drive and your PC should boot with the backup drive. Install Win8 on the backup drive to see how you like it. If not, reboot off the original C: and recopy to the backup drive as a backup copy. It is helpful to rename each C:, My current one is named "HP11Dec".

With all my photos and videos from about 10 years stored on a second drive (and an external too). My laptop gets sent the whole My Documents using SyncTool. My Photos and videos are all in the Picasa cloud, but probably at a lower resolution.

11 Dec! Excuse me while I backup my C:.

I willingly went from XP Pro to W7-64 due to 32--64 Improvements, and Native AVCHD playing capability...

But I see no "Must Have" features in W8.... For Desktop or Laptop use...

I might be wrong, and I'm willing to listen to what I may have missed.... but I see No Valid reason where a upgrade will improve the speed or "feature set" over W7-64...

If they want my $$ they have to increase my productivity, and I don't see any "Must Have" improvements over W7-64.

My $.02

Not quite true. The bottom-left tile on the (new) "Start" page is "Desktop", and the desktop looks pretty familiar except...

...and I'm sure that a lot of people will do that, much like the way people begged for an option to disable the ribbon in Office_2007 and go back to the previous menu system.

I'll admit that I was slightly disoriented at first when I was looking at the Win8 desktop with no place to "Start" (and then a bit confused when I moused to the bottom-left corner, clicked the "Start" pop-up, and found myself back at the main page). But after only a few minutes I "got it":

In Win8 think "Search" instead of "Start". The old "Start" button was the beginning of a hierarchical journey through the program menus and it was quite straightforward (most of the time, anyway) once we knew where to find something. In that way, previous incarnations of Windows were similar to the old DOS version of WordPerfect: it was relatively easy to use once we had memorized the things that were of interest to us.

In Win8, instead of clicking...

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter

...just mouse over to the top-right corner, click the "Search" icon (magnifying glass), type "defrag" and click on the program when it pops up in the results pane.

wish a portable version

Thanks for the reminder!

Remember the days when a Windows release would cause people to wait in lines for days to get it?

Now a Windows release is a non-event, or to be evaded.

I agree for the most part, but people do seem to forget that there were also a lot of complaints about XP and Win7 when they were brand new. XP really hit its stride after the release of SP2, and Win7 started to shine when hardware vendors got serious about writing device drivers that actually worked.

As a few others have said it seems every other version of windows is crappy bugridden garbage so im waiting for windows 9 because it will be a fixed windows version that will be better. it seems microsoft has to get bit in the wallet then develope better software. if fewer people buy and more people complane the you get better software. windows 8 already has problems with people acepting it as a viable upgrade, its comlcated buggy and doesnt play well with some software!!