Is anyone using windows 8.1?

[ogey boogey]

Don't feel like going through the trouble of upgrading from win 8. Did anyone install it?

[dom samui]

Yes

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[shimizu]

Yes, easy to install and works flawless. It's free, so why not give it a try?

[KittenKong]

I put it on my laptop (which I rarely use). It doesnt appear to be significantly different to Win8. Personally I cant use either version without installing Classic Shell which makes both of them behave and look more like Win7.

I just wish they would remove the tiles and everything else that is designed to work on a touchscreen, or at least incorporate a mode that turns all those things off for people who want to just use a mouse and keyboard in the normal way. And disable all apps that only work full-screen. Oh, and it would be nice to have Aero back too.

In fact why didnt they just leave it looking exactly like Win7 did? Win7 was fine and required no changes at all at the GUI level.

[straycat911]

My computer is touch screen, and i updated to 8.1, and it has alot of changes you can see if you look in to the settings and customizing areas of the windows, like starting up straight to the main windows screen bypassing the tiles screen, its great

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[Pib]

Now I don't run Win 8, still happily on Win 7, but if I was on Win 8 I would upgrade to Win 8.1 in a heartbeat since it's a free upgrade, fixed many things a lot of people complained about, from what I've read a pretty fast & painless upgrade, and probably fixes minor bugs that maybe only Microsoft knew about.

[KittenKong]

... if I was on Win 8 I would upgrade to Win 8.1 in a heartbeat since it's a free upgrade, fixed many things a lot of people complained about, ...

I dont see that it fixes much that's visible. It changes some things though.

Yes, it does give you a (well-hidden) option to skip the evil tiled start page and go straight to the desktop on boot (though the evil times start page still tends to come back again for no reason when you dont expect it). But Classic Shell skips the start page better.

And yes 8.1 does give you something that looks like a start button which unfortunately isnt attached to a proper start menu and so seems rather pointless. Classic Shell does give you a real start menu that you can actually use.

I really dont understand why MS buggered about with the perfectly usable and functional Win7 GUI in order to make this unholy tiled mess that can only be used by people with touchscreens or touchpads. These people must represent a tiny percentage of all PC users and an even smaller percentage of those who actually use their PCs to work with. Just another example of dumbing down, I suppose.

Edited November 10, 2013 by KittenKong

[Pib]

I really dont understand why MS buggered about with the perfectly usable and functional Win7 GUI in order to make this unholy tiled mess...

I'm still trying to figure out why MS ever released that disaster named Vista. I was never so happy when I upgraded from Vista to Win 7....it balanced out the day I upgraded from XP to Vista.

[wgdanson]

What's all this about finding Windows 7 style desktop . All you do is click on the GREY box which says DESKTOP and there it is. And as for all the <deleted> about a START button. Hit the MICROSOFT button and ï and there it is at the bottom right RESTART/SHUTDOWN/SLEEP. One more click shouldn't kill you !

[Chicog]

I run it on a Dell and Asus Laptop, and a Lenovo AIO and Laptop (both touchscreen). It's fine on all of them.

I used Classic shell to restore the start menu as the desktop/tile arrangement sucks the big one.

Other than that it's fast and stable, and a step up from Windows 7.

[edwardandtubs]

Not much difference between 8 and 8.1 Even with a touchscreen laptop I still prefer it with Classic Shell. The only positive is that the start menu button now looks normal.

[DogNo1]

I've been using Win 8.1 after doing a fresh install of it about ten days ago. If you start up in or choose the desktop, you can have a task bar and icons on the desktop, just as in Windows 7. A little arrow in the lower left part of the screen lets you call up a charms display of all of the programs and utilities installed and the combination of Windows Key-X brings up a nice list of Windows functions to run, including the "Run" command and "Shut Down." It takes getting used to but everything is there - just not where you are used to. I believe that the release of Windows 8 was to start to develop a tablet-friendly OS, especially to compete with Android which is becoming hugely popular. Windows 8.1 does seem to run faster than Win 7. Every new OS and program is a challenge to learn and get used to, especially when it is being written by young developers who like things to work differently than they did in the older versions.

[PoetDrunkInTheBoat]

I am a devotee, Linuxwise. So, yes I did install windows 8.1, or rather upgraded from 8.0. I have not yet used it much because I upgraded just this morning.

I was very pleased with 8.0, so much so that I almost did not bother installing Suse on my new computer.

I think that either OS will be pretty good, depending on what you will be doing with your computer, of course. The 8.0 offering really did change my opinion about MS oses, for the better.

Now I am happy to use either Windows OS, or OpenSuse. One that I have yet to try, principally because I don't want to spend the money, and also because I still like PCs, clunky though they may be, but I really would love to get one of those Baht 50,000 deals with the huge brilliant screen.

So yes, I did install 8.1, and I am happy I did.

A friend of mine used 8.1 for manipulating physics data while down under at one of the university labs.

She loved it but did not have the free ticket to upgrade from 8.0.

I think she may be using a bootleg copy of 8.0 or something.

Just from using 8.1 for a while today, I did not notice any big driffeence from 8.0.

So those are my thoughts about these two related OSes.

Hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine.

[KittenKong]

What's all this about finding Windows 7 style desktop . All you do is click on the GREY box which says DESKTOP and there it is. And as for all the <deleted> about a START button. Hit the MICROSOFT button and ï and there it is at the bottom right RESTART/SHUTDOWN/SLEEP. One more click shouldn't kill you !

There no problem finding the desktop, but why should I have to find it. I just want it there all the time.

As for the start menu, why should I have to push an extra button to see it. I want it (and the taskbar and system tray) there all the time.

And even when I finally get to the Win 8.1 start button and click on it, it doesn't give me half the things I want on it and that I had on Win7.

The Win8 GUI is just an ill-conceived disaster. There was nothing wrong with the Win7 GUI and nothing needed changing.

[KittenKong]

I'm still trying to figure out why MS ever released that disaster named Vista. I was never so happy when I upgraded from Vista to Win 7....it balanced out the day I upgraded from XP to Vista.

Yes, Vista was nasty as was ME. Microsoft seem to have a thing about releasing a good OS followed by a crap one.

[alfalfa19]

I'm still trying to figure out why MS ever released that disaster named Vista. I was never so happy when I upgraded from Vista to Win 7....it balanced out the day I upgraded from XP to Vista.

Yes, Vista was nasty as was ME. Microsoft seem to have a thing about releasing a good OS followed by a crap one.

Of course. MS likes to alternate crap OS with very good ones. They push the "upgrade" to the crap OS down everybody's throat, saying it's the latest and greatest. Then, the victim or consumer must shell out the big bucks again to upgrade to a workable OS a year or so later. . This has been their strategy with Win ME, Win Vista, and now Win 8.

[HAL9000]

I just don't understand why people resist staying up to date, especially when it's free. Life is so much easier when I don't hang on to the old.

[wgdanson]

Hi Kitten Kong. Get a life. What's ONE more click matter if the OS is booting up 10 seconds quicker than W7 ?

[KittenKong]

Hi Kitten Kong. Get a life. What's ONE more click matter if the OS is booting up 10 seconds quicker than W7 ?

Thanks for your suggestion. I do have a life. I also have a PC that stays on 24/7 and is in constant use. Boot times really aren't at all important to me.

More important to me is the large number of extra manipulations (not just one) in Win8 required to get to things that I regularly use, compared to Win7. Also the many programmes and applets that only run full-screen in Win8. These are highly impractical for someone who needs to have multiple windows open at all times. I only require the desktop mode and will never have the slightest use for the full-screen tiled interface or any of the programmes it contains, therefore I would rather there was a way of just turning it off completely. Classic Shell comes close to this, and it provides something close to Win7 start menu functionality.

Win8 is very impractical for desktop PC users with mice and keyboards who actually use their PC for serious productive purposes. Win8 is fine for people who have touchscreen devices and/or just have basic requirements of productivity like email and websurfing (or printing out answer sheets for pub quizzes ), which I readily admit does cover a large number of users.

Horses for courses, and in this instance MS appear to have completely forgotten the needs of the professional computer user. Even Apple havent been that stupid, and that's saying something.

[sammycic]

Kittenkong if you don't like 8.1 don't use it stick in the past and shut up about something that is too hard for you. Give it a rest. Love 8.1 so easy to use, must be because I am not a computer guru like you.

[MilesofSmiles]

More important to me is the large number of extra manipulations (not just one) in Win8 required to get to things that I regularly use, compared to Win7. Also the many programmes and applets that only run full-screen in Win8. These are highly impractical for someone who needs to have multiple windows open at all times. I only require the desktop mode and will never have the slightest use for the full-screen tiled interface or any of the programmes it contains,

Metro apps are fullscreen-only in 8. Still worked fine I didn't use them much as a result.

WIN+left/right/up/down moves windows around nicely.

You can also split and Maximise by throwing windows against teh side of the screen.

In windows 8.1 you can move them around monitors, split-screen with metro apps + native across multiple monitors now, which is cool.

They can also share a screen with other normal programs, your desktop, whatever.

(ie. not only fullscreen)

Windows 8/8.1 is the best OS Microsoft have put put in years, and I doubt anyone slagging it off has actually used it.

The consistency from desktop - web - tablet - phone is impressive.

[Chicog]

More important to me is the large number of extra manipulations (not just one) in Win8 required to get to things that I regularly use, compared to Win7. Also the many programmes and applets that only run full-screen in Win8. These are highly impractical for someone who needs to have multiple windows open at all times. I only require the desktop mode and will never have the slightest use for the full-screen tiled interface or any of the programmes it contains,

Metro apps are fullscreen-only in 8. Still worked fine I didn't use them much as a result.

WIN+left/right/up/down moves windows around nicely.

You can also split and Maximise by throwing windows against teh side of the screen.

In windows 8.1 you can move them around monitors, split-screen with metro apps + native across multiple monitors now, which is cool.

They can also share a screen with other normal programs, your desktop, whatever.

(ie. not only fullscreen)

Windows 8/8.1 is the best OS Microsoft have put put in years, and I doubt anyone slagging it off has actually used it.

The consistency from desktop - web - tablet - phone is impressive.

If you started on WP8 and then moved across to the rest you'd still find it shit to use without a touchscreen.

What on earth is impressive about a cross platform OS that has to be used differently on each platform?

[KittenKong]

Metro apps are fullscreen-only in 8. Still worked fine I didn't use them much as a result.

WIN+left/right/up/down moves windows around nicely.

You can also split and Maximise by throwing windows against teh side of the screen.

In windows 8.1 you can move them around monitors, split-screen with metro apps + native across multiple monitors now, which is cool.

They can also share a screen with other normal programs, your desktop, whatever.

(ie. not only fullscreen)

Win7 did all of this. So did XP for that matter. And both did it better.

Windows 8/8.1 is the best OS Microsoft have put put in years, and I doubt anyone slagging it off has actually used it.

I have no issues with the OS. It's the pointless tiled full-screen interface and lack of a proper start menu that I object to. It is completely and utterly unusable for any serious task on a desktop machine.

The consistency from desktop - web - tablet - phone is impressive.

I dont want my desktop, tablet and phone to have the same interface as they are totally different devices with totally different functions. I just want each device to have an interface designed specifically for it.

In the same way as I might have feet for short trips, a bicycle for slightly longer ones, a car for long ones or shopping and a plane ticket to travel overseas. Horses for courses.

"One size fits all" just doesn't work in practice. It really means "everything fits badly".