Higher resale value for computer, Windows 7 or Windows 8?

[Skryblz]

From a buyers perspective, which would you value more on a new/used computer Windows 7 or Windows 8? I have a computer business locally and when I get computers that have XP but can handle 7 well I always upgrade as there is no question 7 is a great step up from XP. However, I've been thinking that recently the computers with Windows 8 preinstalled might be worth more if I installed 7 because of the stigma surrounding 8.

Anybody recently shop for a computer and that was their choosing factor? I know most computers don't ship with 7, and the process of downgrading can suck; finding drivers and what not. But, is it worth it? I'm solely asking from a business point of view if it would be more profitable to downgrade.

 

[Berryracer]

when I shop for a computer, I either look for one that comes with Windows 7 preinstalled or check the manufacturer's website to see if they have Windows 7 drivers for downgrading. I hate Windows 8

 

[VirtualLarry]

I personally much prefer Windows 7. I wish you could still get computers with Windows 7 pre-installed instead of 8.

 

[Skryblz]

VirtualLarry, thats the feel I'm getting from these forums and others across the web. Pretty much anyone who USES a computer (and not just browse facebook, youtube, clip coupons and read email :|) wants Windows 7.

Kind of crazy, your avatar is my business card!! :ninja:

I crossed out the business-ee stuff so hopefully nobody thinks I'm trying to promote myself, just a crazy coincidence!

 

[lxskllr]

Windows of any kind isn't a feature for me. It'll be wiped as soon as I get home, and I'd rather save money if possible. If I were forced to use Windows, I'd prefer 8. I don't necessarily like it better, but it has a longer shelf life.

 

[Steelerman]

Ive been shopping for a good used pc for my son and I always pass up the Win8 pc's for now anyway would prefer Win7

 

[WilliamM2]

I personally much prefer Windows 7. I wish you could still get computers with Windows 7 pre-installed instead of 8.

You still can. Newegg has over 500 choices for desktop computers with Win 7 installed, only a litte over 300 with Win 8. They also list more laptops with 7 than 8. Not hard to find at all.

 

[HeXen]

Personally I don't find any version of Windows to be that great of an OS. 8 looks a lot less cluttery and simpler than 7 from a visual standpoint. I never liked the old start menu and the cascading tree of folders and programs. 8 menu is very nice..all I see is large launchers minus all the "links" "uninstall"..etc associated to it yet can still right click and do what I need.
The search features of all Windows has always been terribad. The registry is a nightmare that must die and too many poorly coded drivers and programs are designed for it. However it's commercially viable and marketed so I don't have to look too hard for compatible stuff.

Honestly I find W8 just like W7 minus the UI but with many nice underhood improvements that make it snappier overall. I don't see the big deal honestly, the UI is easy to change just like it is in Linux.
Everyone customizes Windows to their liking anyway, so why it's a big deal to use classic shell or else is beyond me.

 

[Nothinman]

From a buyers perspective, which would you value more on a new/used computer Windows 7 or Windows 8? I have a computer business locally and when I get computers that have XP but can handle 7 well I always upgrade as there is no question 7 is a great step up from XP. However, I've been thinking that recently the computers with Windows 8 preinstalled might be worth more if I installed 7 because of the stigma surrounding 8.

Anybody recently shop for a computer and that was their choosing factor? I know most computers don't ship with 7, and the process of downgrading can suck; finding drivers and what not. But, is it worth it? I'm solely asking from a business point of view if it would be more profitable to downgrade.

I always look for Linux and I guess now Win7 compatibility in order to ensure most flexibility. I know they can supposedly be disabled, but the UEFI SecureBoot settings required for Win8 just add more hoops to jump through if you want to do anything besides treat it like an appliance.

 

[HeXen]

I always look for Linux and I guess now Win7 compatibility in order to ensure most flexibility. I know they can supposedly be disabled, but the UEFI SecureBoot settings required for Win8 just add more hoops to jump through if you want to do anything besides treat it like an appliance.

You should beable to turn UEFI off in bios. My Win8 works fine without it and have dual booted with Fedora 3. I think I had to do something different with grub though I can't recall exactly.

 

[Mushkins]

Lots of enthusiast answers, no business answers so far.

From a business perspective, keep 8 on there. The people coming into a mom and pop PC shop looking to buy a used PC on the cheap aren't really the same people looking to get into the technical side of things, whether 7 is better than 8, etc. They want a computer cheaper than they would get one at Best Buy.

They can either feel like they're getting a discount because it's old, or they can feel like they just got a steal on the "latest and greatest" with windows 8. How the OS handles is of little consequence to someone honestly looking at the sticker to guide their purchase. 8 is newer than 7, and that means it's better, right? Kind of like how the $40,000 car is *always* more reliable than the $17,000 one

An enthusiast is more than likely going to be buying that kind of hardware from a site like Newegg, where they definitely have all the specs in front of them and can custom tailor their purchase to what they want as opposed to what old PCs the local shop has sitting around. These are the people who would pay more for a downgrade to Win 7

 

[Nothinman]

You should beable to turn UEFI off in bios. My Win8 works fine without it and have dual booted with Fedora 3. I think I had to do something different with grub though I can't recall exactly.

UEFI isn't the problem, SecureBoot is. We got a number of laptops in that needed Server 2008 R2 installed temporarily and getting it installed was a PITA. Disabling SecureBoot was an option in the firmware, but disabling it didn't work reliably and it usually took several attempts to get it to stay off. I know that's probably more of a model specific issue but if manufacturer's implementations of "standards" like ACPI are any indication, little details like this will be spotty and unreliable at best as well.

From a business perspective, keep 8 on there. The people coming into a mom and pop PC shop looking to buy a used PC on the cheap aren't really the same people looking to get into the technical side of things, whether 7 is better than 8, etc. They want a computer cheaper than they would get one at Best Buy.

They can either feel like they're getting a discount because it's old, or they can feel like they just got a steal on the "latest and greatest" with windows 8. How the OS handles is of little consequence to someone honestly looking at the sticker to guide their purchase. 8 is newer than 7, and that means it's better, right? Kind of like how the $40,000 car is *always* more reliable than the $17,000 one

That ignores the fact that a lot of people don't like the changes in Win8, especially if you have a PC without a touchscreen. And the fact that a lot more people don't like Win8 because of what they've heard about it. I'm sure there's a decent sized market of people out there that don't want Win8 whether they can articulate why or not.

 

[Mem]

That ignores the fact that a lot of people don't like the changes in Win8, especially if you have a PC without a touchscreen. And the fact that a lot more people don't like Win8 because of what they've heard about it. I'm sure there's a decent sized market of people out there that don't want Win8 whether they can articulate why or not.

Works both ways ie some people do like changes,a few other factors involved like Win7 is already 4 years old and Win8.1 is around the corner so in that respect Win8 has better upgrade potential and longer life span,obviously it's down to the owner/user in question but I know which one I would go with.

End of the day you can't cling on to the past forever,I could also speculate that Microsoft will probably stay with a hybrid type UI on Win9,10 etc but with improvements so might be wise for the users out there getting use to the latest OS rather then living in the past so to speak,remember this is from a DOS 6.22 fan(myself) that has seen many changes just like you and adapted to the decades of different operating systems.

 

[darkewaffle]

If I were to buy a used PC, the first thing I would do would be format it. Currently installed software wouldn't really impact my buying decision at all. If it came with the license, I would value Win7 and Win8 equally.

 

[corkyg]

Why not make it available with either one - buyer's choice.

 

[Mushkins]

That ignores the fact that a lot of people don't like the changes in Win8, especially if you have a PC without a touchscreen. And the fact that a lot more people don't like Win8 because of what they've heard about it. I'm sure there's a decent sized market of people out there that don't want Win8 whether they can articulate why or not.

You're right, it does, and it does on purpose. Remember, "know your audience." Jim Tom walks into the shop and sees a Win8 PC, he *might* have heard bad things about Win8 on the news or from a friend or something and be slightly apprehensive but the bottom line is he's still in here looking to get a deal on a used/refurbished PC, and it's still the new and latest iteration of Windows. Jim Tom walks in and sees a Windows 7 box next to a Windows 8 box in that shop, and guaranteed his immediate reaction is going to be that the Windows 7 box is older and somehow inferior before looking at hardware specs or anything else.

For arguments sake, you could put SLI Titans and a top of the line Haswell i7 in an old grimy offwhite 90's ATX case and slap Windows XP on it because WinXP is the "best OS evar!!!!" Put a big Windows XP sticker on the monitor so everyone sees it when they come in, and sit it next to a bunch of $300 big box sale of the week crapware with Windows 7 or 8. Odds are the majority of people in the store are going to totally ignore that XP box because of the first impression that its "old" and cant possibly compete with the newer stuff. It's a dumb metric by any technical standards, but it's the most visible one and easiest to somewhat understand for exactly the clientele of these small computer repair shops. Nobody said marketing was anything *but* exploitative

 

[Nothinman]

You're right, it does, and it does on purpose. Remember, "know your audience." Jim Tom walks into the shop and sees a Win8 PC, he *might* have heard bad things about Win8 on the news or from a friend or something and be slightly apprehensive but the bottom line is he's still in here looking to get a deal on a used/refurbished PC, and it's still the new and latest iteration of Windows. Jim Tom walks in and sees a Windows 7 box next to a Windows 8 box in that shop, and guaranteed his immediate reaction is going to be that the Windows 7 box is older and somehow inferior before looking at hardware specs or anything else.

For arguments sake, you could put SLI Titans and a top of the line Haswell i7 in an old grimy offwhite 90's ATX case and slap Windows XP on it because WinXP is the "best OS evar!!!!" Put a big Windows XP sticker on the monitor so everyone sees it when they come in, and sit it next to a bunch of $300 big box sale of the week crapware with Windows 7 or 8. Odds are the majority of people in the store are going to totally ignore that XP box because of the first impression that its "old" and cant possibly compete with the newer stuff. It's a dumb metric by any technical standards, but it's the most visible one and easiest to somewhat understand for exactly the clientele of these small computer repair shops. Nobody said marketing was anything *but* exploitative

I think you underestimate the number of people who have heard about how bad Win8 is, warranted or not. I know at most 1 person who actually likes the changes while everyone else has given it a "I can deal with it" kind of review at best. But this is all anecdotal anyway, there's a lot of other variables that come into play from physical location to age and experience. If it were my business I would have both Win7 and Win8 options available in some way until MS either backtracks even more on their Start Button/Menu BS or they find some way start forcing people off of Win7. But either way I think it would be dumb to limit your business to selling just Win8 as it is right now.

The XP comparison is a red herring. Win7 is about 3 years old and support will be available for it at least another 5 years while XP is 11 years old and most developers have moved on by now.

 

[escrow4]

Win 8 only. I've chucked or sold off all my old 7 systems, and my desktop, gaming box and (soon to be delivered new) laptop all run Win 8. I also have a Windows phone running 8. All will be clean installed with 8.1 once it hits retail. I don't run old OS's period, plus all the myriad Win 8 improvements, and I wouldn't go back to 7 if you paid me, cooked me dinner, and gave me a massage.

 

[nemesismk2]

I say Windows 8 would have a higher resale value compared to Windows 7 because most people i've met would want something with a higher number. I am a Windows 7, Windows XP and Ubuntu 12.04 user so i know that Windows 7 is better than Windows 8.

 

[nemesismk2]

The XP comparison is a red herring. Win7 is about 3 years old and support will be available for it at least another 5 years while XP is 11 years old and most developers have moved on by now.

Is that true because i thought that Windows 7 would reach it's end of life in 2020?

 

[Mem]

Is that true because i thought that Windows 7 would reach it's end of life in 2020?

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=windows+7

 

[Nothinman]

Is that true because i thought that Windows 7 would reach it's end of life in 2020?

I didn't actually look up the dates for when it would end. The point was just that Win7 will still be supported for longer than one will likely have the PC. And if MS extends support like they did with XP it'll take even longer to be phased out.

 

[nemesismk2]

I didn't actually look up the dates for when it would end. The point was just that Win7 will still be supported for longer than one will likely have the PC. And if MS extends support like they did with XP it'll take even longer to be phased out.

It took me ages to actually like Windows 7 (i kept using Windows XP) so hopefully MS extends support for Windows 7.