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7 or 8 for a new gaming PC?
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I don't like 8's Modern UI interface nor its poor integration with Desktop, but it's cheap as dirt right now. Go for 8 simply for that reason. If you have any desire to use the app store, you'll only get that with 8.
Don't forget to get your free media center pack if you want it before it becomes $10. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/feature-packs
Don't forget to get your free media center pack if you want it before it becomes $10. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/feature-packs
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destrekor
Lifer
I've used Windows since Win95, but I'm also still in my 20s. We all like to moan about major changes to our classic systems and utilities, but I've always enjoyed fresh change and new approaches.
Completely changing OSes is a big change (I've been switching to Ubuntu as my default boot OS - Win8 purchase has got me tinkering and playing around in Windows 8 more often than booting Ubuntu though), so that's something like switching from one mobile OS to another... you have to make huge adjustments and learn new things.
But aside from some new UI changes, Windows is still Windows and everything you knew about Windows (at its core) is still completely the same. One aspect changed, plus you get some nifty new features.
Me, I'm a huge fan of syncing things - so Windows 8 offered a lot. In general daily use, I could easily treat it just like other recent versions of Windows.
It being faster and more efficient (in terms of resources) alone makes it a decent upgrade. Adding more features and adopting a fresh approach (to be used as little or as often as desired) adds a good value to it, imho.
Yes, shoehorning the "tablet UI" into Windows is a huge gamble for Microsoft. Personally, I hope it pays off. I do NOT want to lose desktop - but, this will help pave the way for a deep integration between mobile Windows and the desktop. Granted, that only means something if the mobile platform takes off for Microsoft. Ideally, I'd like for them to not only have their own mobile flavors, but also provide a breadth of software for other platforms. They do that for OS X; true, that's a minority platform in a market Microsoft ultimately commands, whereas Microsoft is a minority in the mobile front and its two largest competitors ultimately have a shared command of that market (I think we can all safely forget about BB 😛).
But regardless, I'm deeply invested in Android but will continue to utilize Windows on the desktop (even if Linux does indeed become my main daily driver), so by them supporting Android and iOS with core Microsoft apps they aren't losing customers, but rather, but helping keep long-term customers. If they don't give me those apps, they still aren't potentially gaining anything and rather, risk losing customers, be it abandoning the entire Microsoft ecosystem or dropping key services/utilities/apps; long-term, I may drop my $15/month Zune Pass (even though I love it so dearly and can't even think about dropping it at this point in time) if that promised Android Xbox Music app ends up getting canned.
If it does? Better give me a new Music/PMP device without the phone... call it Zune, call it a "Windows Phone minus the phone", call it a Surface Mini, just drop one yourselves or push manufacturers to go that route - that's WindowsRT/WinPhone8 in more hands, I guarantee it.. iPod dethroner? Not likely. Successful? Yes. Especially if Xbox Music succeeds multi-platform. Some people don't want their phone to also be their dedicated music device, sometimes we like to have a true dedicated portable music/media device.
destrekor
Lifer
?!
I don't get 5.1 in Chrome. (yes, it's in HD). 🙁
How is your audio set up? I'm using Logitech Z-5500 speakers, connected through the 3 analog cables through my X-Fi Fatal1ty (old PCI). Logitech hub is set to 6 channel direct, Windows is configured for 5.1 audio.
5.1 works in other sources. 🙁
cmdrdredd
Lifer
Klipsch Pro Media Ultra 5.1 through Realtek on board multichannel outputs running Soundblaster XFi MB2 software (emulation for EAX HD and XFI crystalizer). Realtek HD control panel is set for 5.1 output and that's really it.
Grrrr. Looking at all the win 8 reviews on youtube leaves me more confused than ever!
Spent a month agonising about what case to get, changing my mind back-and-forth between alternatives none of which are quite right. Now I have to spend an age on this decision, and, the way I work, by the time I make up my mind win 9 will likely be out!
First impluse is that I find that Metro screen really ugly. Horrible blocky design and garish primary colours. Yuk.
I'ts probably just me, considering even the win8 haters all seem to approve of it in aesthetic terms, they just dislike its functional behaviour.
And having never used Vista or 7 I resent the removal of the aero 3d effects, as I never got to try them!
I'm really not interested in all the MS web stuff linked to directly from metro, as I'm never going to use any of it. I'd rather use browsers in the traditional way fior those sites I want to visit, thanks. Can all that rubbish be easily removed?
It does seem to me that options and settings are scattered about different screens in confusing ways, but maybe that's just something you get used to?
When new programs install, do they put links on that metro screen by default, in the way they used to go into the Start menu? Or do you have to set that up yourself? The 'apps' screen seems ridiculous on a desktop - 50 horizontally-scrolling pages of unsorted shortcuts?
Dammit, sometimes I hate choices!
Spent a month agonising about what case to get, changing my mind back-and-forth between alternatives none of which are quite right. Now I have to spend an age on this decision, and, the way I work, by the time I make up my mind win 9 will likely be out!
First impluse is that I find that Metro screen really ugly. Horrible blocky design and garish primary colours. Yuk.
I'ts probably just me, considering even the win8 haters all seem to approve of it in aesthetic terms, they just dislike its functional behaviour.
And having never used Vista or 7 I resent the removal of the aero 3d effects, as I never got to try them!
I'm really not interested in all the MS web stuff linked to directly from metro, as I'm never going to use any of it. I'd rather use browsers in the traditional way fior those sites I want to visit, thanks. Can all that rubbish be easily removed?
It does seem to me that options and settings are scattered about different screens in confusing ways, but maybe that's just something you get used to?
When new programs install, do they put links on that metro screen by default, in the way they used to go into the Start menu? Or do you have to set that up yourself? The 'apps' screen seems ridiculous on a desktop - 50 horizontally-scrolling pages of unsorted shortcuts?
Dammit, sometimes I hate choices!
Oh, and I don't really care about 'boot speed'. How much time does one spend booting? There's usually something else to do while waiting anyway.
If anything its shutdown speed that matters, as I have to hang around waiting for it to finish so I can unplug the thing (as PCs use power even when turned off).
If anything its shutdown speed that matters, as I have to hang around waiting for it to finish so I can unplug the thing (as PCs use power even when turned off).
So you now close applications by dragging them off the bottom of the screen?
Are there no problems with accidentally closing applications when you are trying to move the window down the screen? Kind of hard to visualise how it would work without actually trying it! Do people find it works OK then?
Edit - Or is that just metro applications not things on the desktop? Do they each use different conventions?
Are there no problems with accidentally closing applications when you are trying to move the window down the screen? Kind of hard to visualise how it would work without actually trying it! Do people find it works OK then?
Edit - Or is that just metro applications not things on the desktop? Do they each use different conventions?
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Beavermatic
Senior member
PMV... you can close them like that (you dont have to drag all the way, just click a corner and snap down... can be done from any top part of the screen (unlike the old "X" to close button, which was only from far upper right) and this only affects Start Screen applications. Desktop applications still close like they normally do with that X button.
There's also a keyboard shortcut for closing screens so you dont have to drag anything.... press ALT+F4 simultaneous
You can also close apps running in the background if you hover over the top left corner of the start screen.... it will show a hidden list of all running, and you can right click on them and close.
There's also a keyboard shortcut for closing screens so you dont have to drag anything.... press ALT+F4 simultaneous
You can also close apps running in the background if you hover over the top left corner of the start screen.... it will show a hidden list of all running, and you can right click on them and close.
Mem
Lifer
You can close them same way as WinXP/Vista/7 etc... for example click on the calculator Metro tile icon when it appears still as the minimize and X in top right corner to close,you can put shortcuts to desktop or taskbar for Metro Tiles programs very easy to do ,for example Firefox or Opera Metro Tile you can have shortcuts on taskbar or desktop,works same way as it does in Win7/XP etc....if you click on Firefox/Opera in Metro it will launch you in that program on desktop anyway or just run it from taskbar or desktop shortcut and avoid Metro.
Basically you can avoid Metro for the most part.
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Yes, you can remove any of the default Metro apps AFAIK by right clicking it and clicking uninstall.
That's windows for ya. 😛 Since you're moving from XP, you'll be getting a LOT of settings/admin shock, which you would have gotten with Vista or 7 anyway. They've added a bunch of "friendly" screens in the way of getting to the actual settings in all kinds of places like Network administration. You just get have to used to cliking through 3 pages instead of 1 like in XP. XP was so to-the-point, and I really miss that. (But then again, its core, Win 2k [awesome OS] was designed for businesses and admins, so why is that surprising. Back in the day they realized there were 2 groups of users with different needs.)
Most Windows apps and all Metro apps install shortcuts directly to the front page of the start screen, but all traditional Windows apps will install to the "all apps" page of the start screen. Think of the main Metro screen as a "favorites" and the buried "all apps" as the actual start menu. In fact, "all apps" is still just stored in %appdata%/somthingorother/Start Menu, so it's really the same thing.
As for the 50 horizontally scrolling pages, that's the "all apps" screen. Yes, its attrocious and really slow if you have hundreds or 1000 start menu items like me. (Slow because it has to load ALL those icons.) Think of it as all the folders in your start menu opened up to display every item within. They ARE organized alphabetically by their folder names, but other than that you cannot do any sorting of them and you cannot fold up ones you don't care to see. This part is really poorly thought out IMO. Seems like they couldn't figure out how to present the contents of the old start menu well so they just shoved it under the rug (buried it in a right-click to find it). Most people who really like Windows 8 seem to like typing the names of the programs they want to run, so will never bother going to this page. To run a prog from the start screen by name, you have to just start typing and a list of matching programs, links, etc etc will pop up for you to choose from. I personally can't remember the names of all my progs which is why I categorize everything in folders by type and subtype in Vista/7, which I can't do in 8 without installing a start menu replacement, but that's just me.
You can however sort and organize the front screen by moving tiles around and inserting separators that space out sections of tiles. You cannot make folders on it which is a big, glaringly obvious oversight. (By SP2 or Win 9 I'm sure.) It can hold a huge number of tiles though, and they encourage pinning website URLs and such directly to it (especially if you use Metro IE), so I can imagine it will get to be a bigger mess than most people's desktops after a while, but that's the new way of doing things. The files and folders analogy was a good one based on an organizational system in the real world, but all OS designers now seem to prefer the Santa Claus's grab bag approach. Maybe I'm OCD, but I organize the heck out of things and dislike this philosophy intensely. But, again, that's just me. The majority seems to like the grab bag.
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Bingo. Metro != Desktop. Two different worlds entirely. You even have duplicate apps like IE10 desktop and IE10 Metro for use in the different worlds. You learn the new Metro interface for using Metro stuff, shutting down your system, and doing SOME system admin tasks. Except for those areas, the Windows desktop part is exactly the same.
Metro is ALMOST like running a program on top of Windows 7, like say Windows Media Center. You run WMC and you go into another full screen interface with its own UI and conventions. I say ALMOST because Metro does bleed over into desktop usage as it replaces the Start Menu and you have to use the Charms bar to shut down and such.
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cmdrdredd
Lifer
pmv...you can forget Metro if you don't want to use it. The desktop mirrors Windows 7, except it's overall smoother and smarter. You can then play with Metro at your leisure.
I swap between Metro and Desktop regularly myself. Not for the apps but the live tiles and integration with my contacts.
I swap between Metro and Desktop regularly myself. Not for the apps but the live tiles and integration with my contacts.
HeXen
Diamond Member
ha, learn something new about W8 everyday. I read that and opened an App, tried dragging it around and found when I dragged it to bottom, it closed but put me back in full screen start...I use Start8, so kinda annoying when I occasionally end up full screen.
but still, that beats right clicking in the left pane and selecting close. It's amazing how you try to do things a certain way that is based on historic habits, but quite refreshing to learn an entirely new way.
I also tried the app as a sidepane thing just now and having that open as a pane on the desktop while browsing the web is actually kinda nice.
I've been using Windows 8 for almost a week and it is same as Windows 7 for the most part. I installed Start8 so I never see the Metro screen unless the Charms bar pops out when I move my mouse to the far right of the screen. I haven't used the Metro screen but it is nice to have it there to download games from the Windows website. I had no problems with Windows 7 but I decided to upgrade because of the cheap price ($39.95) and it will be the one that gets the most support from developers, etc.
Beavermatic
Senior member
in case you missed in my other thread, if you right-click on the start button on the desktop in windows 8, it shows you your old start menu style list of options.
Give it a try. Left click, of course, takes you to start screen. But right-click on that start button and it gives you your old start menu back 🙂
Give it a try. Left click, of course, takes you to start screen. But right-click on that start button and it gives you your old start menu back 🙂
destrekor
Lifer
It gives you some of the most handy parts of the old start menu, but don't confuse that as it giving you the old start menu. The most obvious bit missing is of course program listings and live search (search is an option) - obviously, that's the start screen in a nut shell. But the other glaringly obvious item that's MIA is the Shutdown menu. If it was the same as it is now, with the addition of the system power button (shutdown/restart/hibernate/logout, etc), I'd be ecstatic.
Thankfully Power isn't too hard to reach, but it requires a little more work. And the fastest way isn't very intuitive: Win+I brings up the Settings pane of the Charms Bar, which houses the only system power/Shutdown menu in Win8.
Overall, I do like Win8 and overall can adapt to the changes.
colonelciller
Senior member
i'll ignore your personal attack and move on to correct you 🙂
"On that note, for those of you still on Windows XP, the fact that Microsoft is offering Windows 8 Pro as opposed to Windows 8 (consumer) should be of particular interest. Windows 8 Pro comes with downgrade rights, which allow the owner to legally install older versions of Windows. So for those of you needing to upgrade from XP but still wanting to hang back with Windows 7, this is a de-facto $40 Windows 7 Professional upgrade too"
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6065/windows-8-upgrade-will-cost-just-3999
in the future may i suggest you stop the personal attacks and lies when you lack a valid excuse to crap on comments that you cannot otherwise refute. precision is your friend.
my recomendation to buy a windows 8 license and use that license code to activate a fresh windows 7 installation STANDS
cmdrdredd
Lifer
Where is Microsoft's official documentation that states that if you buy Windows 8 upgrade you can install Windows 7 using that license key?
No link was provided to that in the article.
Microsoft's site states the following.
http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/pages/downgrade_rights.aspx#fbid=z9E5vfD9Q8_
That states OEM versions, not upgrade versions. So I'd like to know where this info that the upgrade license entitles you to use it for Windows 7 came from.
I'm guessing that according to MS it's like upgrading to 8 from a SLIC injected Windows 7 install. It's activated and genuine but not exactly a legit copy of Windows 8 since it was intended to be used to upgrade a genuine copy of Windows not a hacked one.
No link was provided to that in the article.
Microsoft's site states the following.
http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/pages/downgrade_rights.aspx#fbid=z9E5vfD9Q8_
That states OEM versions, not upgrade versions. So I'd like to know where this info that the upgrade license entitles you to use it for Windows 7 came from.
I'm guessing that according to MS it's like upgrading to 8 from a SLIC injected Windows 7 install. It's activated and genuine but not exactly a legit copy of Windows 8 since it was intended to be used to upgrade a genuine copy of Windows not a hacked one.
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zCypher
Diamond Member
It doesn't make sense to stick with an older OS. You won't have any of the behind the scenes improvements of the newer system. If your concern is aesthetic, there are always ways to make it look and feel the way you want.
The only thing is, yes it does take time to get used to the new interface. If after spending that time you still don't want the new interface, no worries, just use one of the many ways of getting the old style shell back (Classic Shell, Start8, etc etc).
Win8 will be the better choice IMO.
The only thing is, yes it does take time to get used to the new interface. If after spending that time you still don't want the new interface, no worries, just use one of the many ways of getting the old style shell back (Classic Shell, Start8, etc etc).
Win8 will be the better choice IMO.
Scotteq
Diamond Member
If it was supposed to ship from their Edison NJ warehouse, there's no power.
HeXen
Diamond Member
ah, yeah of course. didn't think about that. Though I think they should give me that extra I paid in shipping back, but whatever
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