Windows 7 , 8 , Or 8.1

[legendarytoyou]

This is just me but Windows 7 64 bit is the most stable imho.  Windows 8 and even 8.1 still feel to...well...IPad like for my taste.  They are working on Windows 9 and it's looking promising but given the cluster fuck Windows 8 was (only holds about 11% of the market, the rest is spread between Windows 7 and XP) many analysts are saying if Windows 9 doesn't live up to its expectations it could potentially hurt the franchise.

 

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/why-microsoft-must-ensure-windows-9-is-a-big-success-1263870

 

If they want to minimize as much damage as possible the only advice I can give is this;

STOP WITH THE GRAFTING OF TOUCHPAD OPTIONS ON A DESKTOP OS.

 

I see what Microsoft is trying to do.  They think that's where the market is leading.  Sure if you're on an Ipad or smartphone but not a fucking desktop!  Most 1080p and now the new 4k monitors DO NOT HAVE touch screen options and it makes very little sense to tell someone to dump their $500 monitor for a new $7000 monitor with touch screen.

 

Give Windows 9 the same option Windows 8.1 does but broader; an option to completely disable the touch pad option and go straight to the desktop traditional browser.  Windows 9 would sell like hot cakes as long as it has good Mantle support.

[sorsharavenwing]

Absolutely 100% without a question Windows 7 Ultimate. Windows 8 came straight from the bowels of Hell. Windows 8.1 is only just slightly better. Thanks, Micro$oft for continued years of job security.

[Rayblue]

 

STOP WITH THE GRAFTING OF TOUCHPAD OPTIONS ON A DESKTOP OS.

 

 

 

Trying to ape mobile gadget interfaces onto a desktop machine doesn't work. I use Win7 for the reason is that it still works with older hardware -- even without UEFI -- without the speed penalty associated with XP. 

[darkconsole]

Windows 8.1 For The Win.

 

Rocksmith 2014 Shits Itself If I Do Not Run It In Administrator Mode, But Other Than That.

 

 

8.1. It takes some getting used to, but I recommend it. I've had (for gaming) zero trouble with it.

 

it takes 0 getting used to. its literally exactly the same as 7 just with a full screen start menu. i've been doing web development on windows for forever now and nothing has changed about my workflow since xp. still clicking the same shit, using the same apps, doing the same garbage, as i have been for forever.

 

[zippy57]

Give Windows 9 the same option Windows 8.1 does but broader; an option to completely disable the touch pad option and go straight to the desktop traditional browser.

You do you never have to use the "touchpad" interface if you don't want to, right?

Windows 8 came straight from the bowels of Hell. Windows 8.1 is only just slightly better.

I'm curious: Why do you think that?

[Kind9]

Might as well go with 8.1 for a new build.

 

[shirow]

 

Unfortunately when I did order my computer(last year) , I took windows 8 >.>  ( I did chek like 5 times ealier before taking 7 and when I did finally order 8 like an ass... epic fail!) So well windows 8 Is nothing more than a bad version of seven converted to phone. Seriously this annoying menu with all the apps... Well I did broke my windows application I can't even update  to 8.1 since I did almost everything I could to tweak things and other and I did some shit and revome shit also.

 

Anyway don't take windows 8 ( Well about gaming I did had almost no problem just 10 blue screens of the death in bit more than 1 year but I did prefer my laptop under seven no problem when I had it )

Shirow.. try memtest. Free program on the web. I had a similar issue and found my very good high quality ram was bad. Stress test the ram using that program for a few hours. If there is any errors get the ram changed. This is especially true if the frequency of blue screens ocur more and more often. Could be other things but many I know runing windows 8 don't have crashes with a properly configured system. ( unless you truly did break the OS with your tweaks if so reimage back and try again).

 

Oh well ... I can't backup a lot of things since I've got only 12 Go to store ( Yeah my brother got all the external hard drive... and he is 200km away from my home ) And I've got slow connection but I'll reinstall all things and make the 8.1 update and everything ( just on a whim ).

Well acutally that's not a bad idea it will resolve few problems, I cannot keep a lot of files, only the "really" important ones.

 

ps : I may have overeacted to windows 8, it isn't that bad but I do still prefer 7.

[Kuunkulta]

8.1 has some benefits for gaming, but with a great cost. I have 7 on my gaming pc and 8.1 on my casual laptop. 5 minutes on laptop and I'm ready to throw it at the wall, it's really infuriating to use 8, even with a touch screen. So I wouldn't recommend 8 to my worst enemy and I'd personally much rather use Vista, but as others have said already, you MIGHT get used to it.

 

You could also give Steam OS a try, after all it's free though still in beta. Been meaning to try it myself (installed already but never gotten around to booting into it )

[zippy57]

What's the great cost of Win8.1?

[27X]

 

 

There are mod creators and moderators here that use 8.1 without many problems.

 

Then they aren't using anything older than Dx9L, cause 8/8.1 has a fuckton of issues with older software; most especially games, particularly rendering and memory usage.

 

"I use X and it's fine" is a never a legit answer unless you're actually listing what you're using.

 

I can tell you from direct usage that Win8 and software made before 2007 have many many issues, some you may never directly perceive unless you're looking under the hood, and "virtual XP, lolz" is not a magic fix for those pieces of software. Glide/Rage and OGL titles in particular.

[Vykroft]

I want to add... the reason why some computer boot faster is because of the new UEFI boot system, it doesn't have anything to do with windows 8.

I installed a windows 7 x64, 10 days ago, in a motherboard with a i7 proc (the mobo has the dual BIOS/UEFI option).

It boot windows 7 in less than 3 sec, so windows 8 doesn't make any improve in the booting time, is just the new boot system.

[sorsharavenwing]

 

Windows 8 came straight from the bowels of Hell. Windows 8.1 is only just slightly better.

I'm curious: Why do you think that?

 

 

Where do I even start? Let's see. Windows 8/8.1... how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. Joining a Windows 8/8.1 Pro system to a domain that has elevated "legacy" servers... not fun... damn frustrating. Getting Windows 8/8.1 to run proprietary software for specialised equipment? Not without having to shell out a small freaking fortune to get a new version that works with Windows 8/8.1... grrrrr. And how about not wanting to shell out $$$ for a new version of Photoshop or Maya 3D or Lightwave 3D that'll play in the Windows 8/8.1 sandbox? My telescope is older. Windows 7 will interface with it. Windows 8/8.1 will not. And that's just a start. The only reason I think Windows 8.1 is slightly better is because they at least brought back the start button. I have about as much use for Windows 8/8.1 as I did for Windows ME. Can I use it? You bet. Can I support it? Absolutely. Do I want to? About as much as I want a root canal. I'm not a fan. Nope.

[Ep1cL3w7z]

Windows 8/8.1 has many handy additional features, and has some rather sizable performance improvements, especially when it comes to boot times. Furthermore, it will have DirectX 12, whereas Windows 7 will not. People parading Windows 7 over Windows 8 for a new system are simply following the hate train. Windows 8/8.1 doesn't give a whole lot of a reason to upgrade from Windows 7, but it's definitely the choice to go with for a new system.

 

People constantly complain about the Modern UI, but you don't ever have to touch that if you don't want to, minus the start menu. You don't ever have to use any of the "apps". Hell, with a program, you can get the old-style start menu back as well if you really want to (even though the new start menu is much faster and efficient if you use it how it's intended; searching, and pinning your most-used applications to the screen).

 

I've been a pretty hardcore programmer and general developer for several years, and I've built multiple computers for myself and a few buddies. Windows 8/8.1 is definitely an overall improvement over Windows 7, thanks to its new features and speed. The new start menu may take some getting used to, but it's definitely faster and easier to use than the old one in most situations. It's also more customisable, so you can use it for all your primary shortcuts, and give it its own unique wallpaper and other such stuff if you wish.

[aRuthSA]

Windows 8/8.1 has many handy additional features, and has some rather sizable performance improvements, especially when it comes to boot times. Furthermore, it will have DirectX 12, whereas Windows 7 will not. People parading Windows 7 over Windows 8 for a new system are simply following the hate train. Windows 8/8.1 doesn't give a whole lot of a reason to upgrade from Windows 7, but it's definitely the choice to go with for a new system.

 

People constantly complain about the Modern UI, but you don't ever have to touch that if you don't want to, minus the start menu. You don't ever have to use any of the "apps". Hell, with a program, you can get the old-style start menu back as well if you really want to (even though the new start menu is much faster and efficient if you use it how it's intended; searching, and pinning your most-used applications to the screen).

 

I've been a pretty hardcore programmer and general developer for several years, and I've built multiple computers for myself and a few buddies. Windows 8/8.1 is definitely an overall improvement over Windows 7, thanks to its new features and speed. The new start menu may take some getting used to, but it's definitely faster and easier to use than the old one in most situations. It's also more customisable, so you can use it for all your primary shortcuts, and give it its own unique wallpaper and other such stuff if you wish.

 

^this, so much this. I was hesitant to go with 8.1 when I built my gaming machine, but then I really looked into it, and considered what I wanted. And it was a no-brainer.

[zippy57]

Then they aren't using anything older than Dx9L, cause 8/8.1 has a fuckton of issues with older software; most especially games, particularly rendering and memory usage.

Have an example game that doesn't run well that I might be able to test? So far every game I've tried that ran fine on Win7 runs fine on Win8.1, and that's including 10-15 year-old software. If there's any issues occurring "under the hood", they're having no effect whatsoever on the user experience.

Getting Windows 8/8.1 to run proprietary software for specialised equipment? Not without having to shell out a small freaking fortune to get a new version that works with Windows 8/8.1... grrrrr.

Is it really reasonable to expect any highly-specialized software to survive any OS upgrade intact? More importantly, is it really reasonable to blame Microsoft for a software developer's decision to not support a new OS without an upgrade?

And how about not wanting to shell out $$$ for a new version of Photoshop or Maya 3D or Lightwave 3D that'll play in the Windows 8/8.1 sandbox?

What do you mean, "new" version? Even Photoshop CS2 can run on Win8.1.

[27X]

 

 

dx12

 

Being in game design, I can tell you from my end nothing relevant from the new platform as an exclusive paradigm change requiring an upgrade within 8's premier shelf-life, so mentioning as a plus is literally moot; it's quite the opposite, in fact. There will be no killer DX12 app within 8's lifecycle, thus no reason to offer the situation as a mandate to upgrade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

no effect

 

Prematurely and unnecessarily taxing hardware and storage will have a definite effect on the user experience.

 

 

 

 

example

 

HL1: rendering and culling errors

Star Control 2 (UQM): Sound drops, incorrect calendar advancement

AvPG: lighting issues, unable to recognize VESA compatibility modes

Enclave: Unable to initialize fullscreen 32 bit mode

AvP2: Straight up crashes on changing vision modes, gamma levels breaking when enabling multiframe rendering, unable to display the screen period in normal VESA modes

NOLF/NOLF2: Broken gamma

JK2/A: Unable to initialize but 4:3 rendering modes in MP/Skirmish/CTF, broken lighting

Space Rangers: Sound issues leading to BSODs/hard locks

Unreal 2: various random graphical issues, option and pause menu often fail to even render after launch after a checkpoint is triggered.

etc etc etc

[gregathit]

I've yet to find any game that ran on Win7 that I can't run on Win8.1.  There indeed were some early issues with the beta versions of Win8, but those were solved during the beta and don't exist anymore.

 

If you want to talk about game issues, then you need to focus on nvidia vs radeon and driver versions, not the OS version you are running.

[RitualClarity]

 

 

Unfortunately when I did order my computer(last year) , I took windows 8 >.>  ( I did chek like 5 times ealier before taking 7 and when I did finally order 8 like an ass... epic fail!) So well windows 8 Is nothing more than a bad version of seven converted to phone. Seriously this annoying menu with all the apps... Well I did broke my windows application I can't even update  to 8.1 since I did almost everything I could to tweak things and other and I did some shit and revome shit also.

 

Anyway don't take windows 8 ( Well about gaming I did had almost no problem just 10 blue screens of the death in bit more than 1 year but I did prefer my laptop under seven no problem when I had it )

Shirow.. try memtest. Free program on the web. I had a similar issue and found my very good high quality ram was bad. Stress test the ram using that program for a few hours. If there is any errors get the ram changed. This is especially true if the frequency of blue screens ocur more and more often. Could be other things but many I know runing windows 8 don't have crashes with a properly configured system. ( unless you truly did break the OS with your tweaks if so reimage back and try again).

 

Oh well ... I can't backup a lot of things since I've got only 12 Go to store ( Yeah my brother got all the external hard drive... and he is 200km away from my home ) And I've got slow connection but I'll reinstall all things and make the 8.1 update and everything ( just on a whim ).

Well acutally that's not a bad idea it will resolve few problems, I cannot keep a lot of files, only the "really" important ones.

 

ps : I may have overeacted to windows 8, it isn't that bad but I do still prefer 7.

 

 I haven't tried 8. Haven't had a need to. I do know that someone here on LL had a problem getting FO3 to start ( because of that windows live thing) and had to install it. I don't have to with win 7. It starts without that for some reason. Nice. I do have a free upgrade option to 8 and thus to 8.1 through the store but my main machine. The one that would be best to handle the OS is the same one I use for Gaming. Don't want to change environments that I am use to. So I will have to agree with you that I don't really have any problems with 8 and know that I will have some adjustments needed to be done just like from 98 to XP to Vista, to 7 I will have to adjust to 8.1 when I do eventually move to a newer OS. Who knows perhaps at that time it might be 9 or 9.1.. lol.

[zippy57]

Well Win9 is coming very soon due to people's bizarre inability to understand Win8. Mid-2015 I think I heard, though it was just a guess.

[RitualClarity]

I was happy with Vista yes it was crap but it was the first fully 64 bit system that had compatibility that I needed and drivers for my stuff. I had to use dozens of reg-edits and such to "fix" the various issues but in the end it became almost as good as Win7. I moved to Win 7 when I learned that it was basically what I had worked so hard to achieve with Vista and more. I haven't had the need to or desire to change beyond 7. Eventually however with gaming being the really only reason that I have to get new equipment I will have to move to a newer system as I would need the newer functionality of current graphic cards. Direct x12 and such as these functions become more and more current and widely spread.

 

I do hope that the next edition solves whatever problems people are having with Win 8. However I can say with confidence barring my purchase of a laptop or such I will be waiting for some time until upgrading because I build my own computers and upgrade them as needed. I am not at the mercy of Manufactures and their choices of software or  hardware. It does cost slightly more to start but in the long run I get more dollar value.

 

[zippy57]

I do hope that the next edition solves whatever problems people are having with Win 8.

Considering the only feature people are talking about in regards to Win9 is how it brings back the old Start menu, it's fixing half the problems with Win8. The other half, people dealing with change so badly that they imagine problems that don't exist and blame Microsoft for ones that aren't their fault, will sadly not be solved within our lifetimes.

 

The major user-related difference between Win7 and Win8 is the Start screen. I personally find it more useful than I ever found the Start menu, but that's not saying much since I never liked the Start menu anyway. It was always quicker to navigate to the Program Files folder and run the .exe directly than finding the entry in the menu and it still is quicker to do that, but now I have the weather on the Start screen so it's marginally more useful... or at least it would be if the weather live tile hadn't been broken since Win8.1 came out so it's now exactly as useful as the old Start menu. Actually, Win 8 ended up speeding up this process because the lack of a My Computer button caused me to learn the Win+E shortcut which saves quite a bit of time.

 

The point is that there's not really much to get used to. I have an old (relatively) Win7 laptop that I keep sitting beside my Win8 computer and they're basically the same except the laptop runs slower because it's a cheap old laptop. The Metro Modern UI is actually too simple, but you never even have to use it if you don't want to. Biggest stumbling block: Getting to cmd and the Control Panel and shutting the computer down, all of which are actually easily accessible but in a rather unintuitive location.

 

And since I seem to have missed this post:

Being in game design

You'll forgive my doubts about this, I assume?

There will be no killer DX12 app within 8's lifecycle, thus no reason to offer the situation as a mandate to upgrade.

Do you know this because of your ability to see the future, or because the irrational hate of Win8 is going to make this the shortest gap between Windows OS releases ever?

Prematurely and unnecessarily taxing hardware and storage will have a definite effect on the user experience.

I can understand that it would be an issue if it happened. But it doesn't happen, so mentioning it is literally moot.

etc etc etc

If these are caused by Win8 why can't I find anyone else anywhere on the internet complaining about these issues? Why can I find people playing these games with Win8 with no issues? Why can I play some of these games with no issues on Win8? It's pretty obvious that whatever issues you're having aren't caused by Win8.

 

Also, please quote using the full quote data so people know who you're actually quoting.

[Guest endgameaddiction]

I was happy with Vista yes it was crap but it was the first fully 64 bit system that had compatibility that I needed and drivers for my stuff. I had to use dozens of reg-edits and such to "fix" the various issues but in the end it became almost as good as Win7. I moved to Win 7 when I learned that it was basically what I had worked so hard to achieve with Vista and more. I haven't had the need to or desire to change beyond 7. Eventually however with gaming being the really only reason that I have to get new equipment I will have to move to a newer system as I would need the newer functionality of current graphic cards. Direct x12 and such as these functions become more and more current and widely spread.

 

I do hope that the next edition solves whatever problems people are having with Win 8. However I can say with confidence barring my purchase of a laptop or such I will be waiting for some time until upgrading because I build my own computers and upgrade them as needed. I am not at the mercy of Manufactures and their choices of software or  hardware. It does cost slightly more to start but in the long run I get more dollar value.

 

Vista was not that bad actually. It was a step back, yes, due to the inability for gaming, but there was a work around like there is for win8. It was just funny when Vista was out and people started using it and had issues with MMO always crashing at launch because of UAC. It was so fucking funny how many pages and pages I would read on forums because of this. People had no idea what was going on or how to get their launcher to work without CTD. Especially 3rd party apps. lol Funny times.

 

8.1 heard great things, but still I never liked the touchscreen or tiles. I think I'll be sticking with win7 for a couple more years or so.

[legendarytoyou]

 

Give Windows 9 the same option Windows 8.1 does but broader; an option to completely disable the touch pad option and go straight to the desktop traditional browser.

You do you never have to use the "touchpad" interface if you don't want to, right?

Windows 8 came straight from the bowels of Hell. Windows 8.1 is only just slightly better.

I'm curious: Why do you think that?

 

Sometimes no.  Clicking the Window option immediately reverts it to Touchpad interface which can be infuriating.  I want the option to disable it completely.  Hell even downright uninstall it in favor of the traditional desktop.

[Dee383]

Well Thank You All For The Replies .... As For Deciding On A OS It Seems Windows 7 64bit Could Very Well Be The Way I Will Be Going ...

If It Wasnt For The Fact That Most Of The New Games Been Released Lately Only Run On Windows 7 - 8 Or 8.1 I Wouldnt Bother Upgrading

And I Would Happily Stay With Windows XP Pro ........ 

[zippy57]

Clicking the Window option immediately reverts it to Touchpad interface which can be infuriating.

What is the "Window option"?