Buying new laptop - what to install - Windows 8 or 10?

[BB1950]

I agree with " slippery" as I was very happy with W7 for years, bought a new laptop last year

with W8 and now will pay a bundle to remove 8 and go back to 7 ! I will never consider W 10 !

Careful. I already posted that I bought a new Toshiba Satellite with 8, didn't like it, formatted and installed 7. To my dismay there were no drivers for 7 for my mobo and I had to revert to 8 using a Toshiba rescue image. It was a pain because I hadn't considered that before I went all in.

My vote is for 10 after upgrading from 8.1.

Motherboards don't need drivers. Just google it if you don't believe me, or see other forums: http://superuser.com/questions/333526/why-should-i-install-hardware-drivers-if-my-computer-is-working-fine

Absolutely wrong!

That's why desktop computer motherboards are shipped with driver disks! Standard drivers use basic features. Specially designed drivers provide additional features, resolve problems, increase performance, etc.... It's extremely important the drivers match the OS being used.

You periodically need to update drivers too! Even if the hardware or OS hasn't changed. Many motherboard manufactures provide services to update their drivers. The updates fix discovered problems, provide performance, and security enhancements.

Edited October 5, 2015 by BB1950

[Pib]

Motherboards don't need drivers. Just google it if you don't believe me, or see other forums: http://superuser.com/questions/333526/why-should-i-install-hardware-drivers-if-my-computer-is-working-fine

You are right that "some" motherboards may work apparently OK without the drivers from the motherboard manufacturer....just running the Windows provided drivers will surely get your computer running but it may experience some glitches/problems at various times due to not having the latest manufacturer drivers installed. Many motherboards will not work to their full potential or have unexpected glitches if not using the manufacturer's latest drivers from their website....manufacturers put those drivers there for a reason you know. And "laptops" can be especially picky about their drivers, especially their Wifi and Bluetooth drivers....and others.

Yes, manufacturers provide drivers to Microsoft so they can be incorporated into occasional Windows updates, but the drivers they provide may be older drivers and less capable drivers. Drivers on the manufacturer's website are updated much more often and may have additional capabilities. Plus a person needs to get the occasional BIOS update/driver from the manufacturer's website...Windows does not provide BIOS updates.

Heck, just a couple of months ago an older Toshiba laptop was turned into a blue screen paperweight by Windows Update automatically installing an updated Wifi driver...fortunately I had just done an image backup a few days earlier and was able to recover. And then just for kicks I let the Windows automatic update do its thing again, it identified the updated Wifi driver for install again, I said sure, go ahead an install...I wanted to confirm it was that Wifi driver which caused the previous problem...it installed in just a few seconds, I did a reboot and once again I had a blue screen paperweight...and once again I reloaded my image backup to get going again. Then I went into Windows Update and Hide that driver so it wouldn't download/install again to my computer. And with another Toshiba laptop I had Wifi connectivity problems in letting Windows install an updated Wifi driver that Windows thought was best for my computer...but once I installed the Wifi driver from the laptop website the Wifi connectivity problem was gone. And just around a money ago Windows update installed an updated driver for the touchpad on my Lenovo laptop which made it work intermittently, erratically....I rolled back to the manufacturer's provide driver and it been working fine since.

Yeap, you may get lucky in only using the drivers that Windows automatically installs/updates...your computer may apparently work just fine. But if not using the drivers from the manufacturers website you just may have problems varying in nature which you blame on the software, Windows, the hardware, a virus, just blaming everything. and just use the manufacturer's drivers to get the full potential and full stability from your computer.

I think this website taking Windows and manufacturer's drivers explains it very well: Should You Use Windows Provided Drivers or Manufacturer's Drivers.