Now Crunching with Windows 8.1 Pro

Bradtech519

Senior member
Jul 6, 2010
520
47
91
Decided to take advantage of the student pricing for Windows 8.1 Pro, and upgrade for $69.99. Currently taking online courses for work with a local university, and have a .edu email address. Running BOINC 7.2.31 (x64) with no problems so far. I've been a Windows CE/Mobile/Phone user for a while so the Modern UI isn't much of a shock to me. I haven't experienced any issues so far or loss in performance. I'm running SkynetPOGS and Asteroids. Nothing for GPU until I can find some tools to monior temps and crank up fan speeds. Initial benchmarks comparisons.
Win 7
Measured floating point speed 3001.05 million ops/sec Measured integer speed 10187.21 million ops/sec

Win 8.1
Measured floating point speed 3035.47 million ops/sec Measured integer speed 11404.48 million ops/sec
 

Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
24,125
508
126
I've briefly used Win 8 a few times, the 1st occasion I looked for the start menu, & it wasn't there! I remember thinking how am I supposed to control this POS! ;)

The 2nd time I had to google how to open the ctrl panel, ffs!, really can't see the point in junking large parts of windows to make it a PITA to use, relative to Win 7 & XP.
I shall still be using Win 7 in 10yrs time ;)

Err anyway didn't mean to rant ,lol. Glad it's working out for you :thumbsup:

I wonder how many DC projects are compatible with Win 8?
 

petrusbroder

Elite Member
Nov 28, 2004
13,346
1,146
126
I have 3 comps running Win 8.
No problems with any BOINC-project yet: Seti, Einstein, WCG, Asteroids, POGS Skynet, Rosetta, LHC, FightMalaria, MilkyWay, GPUGRID, CPDN, MalariaControl, PrimeGrid, SIMAP, DistrRTgen, Cosmolgy, Correlizer, Collatz.
No problems with Folding@home either. Have not tried DPAD ...
 
Last edited:

Rattledagger

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
2,989
18
81
I've briefly used Win 8 a few times, the 1st occasion I looked for the start menu, & it wasn't there! I remember thinking how am I supposed to control this POS! ;)

The 2nd time I had to google how to open the ctrl panel, ffs!, really can't see the point in junking large parts of windows to make it a PITA to use, relative to Win 7 & XP.
The start-menu is back in win8.1, but the most useful options like re-booting and control-panel and so on is found by right-clicking the start-menu.

I shall still be using Win 7 in 10yrs time ;)

Err anyway didn't mean to rant ,lol. Glad it's working out for you :thumbsup:

I wonder how many DC projects are compatible with Win 8?
Well, personally I've not had any problems in win8 with Climateprediction.net, Einstein@home, SETI@home, SIMAP and World Community Grid.
 

Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
24,125
508
126
Good to hear the start menu is back! lol.

Petrus
I'd bet that if any project had a problem with Win 8 it would be DPAD ;)
 

biodoc

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
6,285
2,238
136
I hated win8 until I found http://www.classicshell.net/

Now I have a proper start menu with classic style or win7 style.

I have the "10 sec" problem with some of the primegrid projects where where WUs fail every 10 sec. I don't know if there's a solution yet my solution is to boot into linux and problem's solved.
 

Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
11,898
2,716
136
The start-menu is back in win8.1, but the most useful options like re-booting and control-panel and so on is found by right-clicking the start-menu.

That menu is actually in Windows 8 by right-clicking in the same area, although not noticing it is to be expected. And the Charm bar is superior anyway in terms of accessing the power control and Control Panel.
 

Bradtech519

Senior member
Jul 6, 2010
520
47
91
I've been using it with the classic start menu from 2000/xp. I made myself run Windows 8.1 without it for a while though. It boils down to personal preference/habit. I can pin everything I need to the start screen and find other stuff by clicking the down arrow on modern UI to find everything installed. I just prefer the old windows 2000/xp start button. I haven't ran into any instances of my PC taking a hit in performance for DC projects yet. 8.1 actually cleared up some odd chipset bugs with Windows 7. USB ports wouldn't charge my camera or smart phone. Tried several drivers from MSI and on AMD site. Installed Windows 8.1 Pro and everything is working normal charging.

I hated win8 until I found http://www.classicshell.net/

Now I have a proper start menu with classic style or win7 style.

I have the "10 sec" problem with some of the primegrid projects where where WUs fail every 10 sec. I don't know if there's a solution yet my solution is to boot into linux and problem's solved.
 
Last edited:

Bradtech519

Senior member
Jul 6, 2010
520
47
91
Most annoying thing to me is the Apps and background tasks with new Modern UI based Apps. They are RAM hogs if you leave them running. I have 8 GB of RAM and was using 70% of it because of all the background apps. So I've started to close them manually once accessing them.