Solve : Windows 8 vs Windows 7 ... and a few questions?

1.	Solve : Windows 8 vs Windows 7 ... and a few questions?
Answer» Interested in finding out the Pros and Cons between Windows 7 and Windows 8. And feedback from those who have used both. I realized that I am going to have to buy a copy in order to support end users, and I am not thrilled with the changed GUI. Someone told me that it runs faster than Windows 7 and more efficient is this true? Is there a desktop option yet to make it look like Windows 7 Desktop vs the Mobile App Touch screen look that I saw in Beta testing that so turned me away from it as a flop of a GUI? I saw a view of one guy on youtube who claimed to run a test between both OS side by side on same hardware and his system reported booting in 34 sec to the Windows 8 user interface with Windows 7 lagging by almost 30 seconds. With so many edited/fake videos out there you cant really trust everything you SEE. I have seen so many times before Apples to Oranges on youtube with comparisons. Those who dont see the problem give a thumbs up, but those like myself thumbs down it and post a comment on the issue. There is also a video of a guy with 6 displays and his co-workers slipped Windows 8 Beta onto one of his displays. The guy was like.... ok... I want my REAL PC back, i cant deal with the interface madness. Thats sort of how I am feeling even though i am going to have to buy a copy to learn it to support it. I installed it as a dual boot on one of my systems only because of my involvement on support sites. I'm not crazy about it, but yes- there is a desktop that is similar to previous Window versions. What happens is you boot to the "metro screen" (the one with the live tiles) but then there are several ways to get to the desktop view. Problem is, there's no start button or Start Menu as such (though you CAN get to a list of all apps). You can install one of several free apps that will restore the more familiar Start Menu / Programs Listing (a Google search or two will help enormously with advice on making the W8 interface more like W7). Other features and general maneuverability are also less intuitive than previous Windows versions (you have to move the mouse to corners or sides of the screen to bring up menus and options, shutting down takes several clicks and is not the easiest thing to figure out, etc). Is it faster? Faster is relative, as is always the case. But yes, it does seem to be "snappier". As for boot time, hard to tell - my W7 boot takes up to 5 minutes to finish loading, but I have a lot of "stuff" that loads on boot. W8 is essentially a clean install - haven't loaded any apps yet - just playing with the interface - so of course it boots quickly. Give it a shot - you're going to have to at some point in time anyway.I haven't seen...or timed my boot process in many years...i poerup...and i go make coffee. Not sure why boot times are so critical to many end users. Quote from: DaveLembke on November 16, 2012, 02:16:25 AM Someone told me that it runs faster than Windows 7 and more efficient is this true? Feels the same to me. Though, I imagine like any windows version there are incremental speed improvements in some areas. (Yes, even Vista had this compared to XP, it was just a lot more intensive because of new features that required more oomph such as Aero GLASS). One thing that prevents me from using it properly is the hard DRIVE in my laptop is failing catastrophically over time. Quote Is there a desktop option yet to make it look like Windows 7 Desktop vs the Mobile App Touch screen look that I saw in Beta testing that so turned me away from it as a flop of a GUI? Windows 8 has the standard desktop, just like Windows 7 does. It had that in the Beta's as well as the Release Preview. IMO the switch over is more akin to the switch from Program Manager to The Taskbar, with the added benefit that more of the familiar keystrokes still work from win7 to do the same thing, such as pressing the windows key and then typing a search query still does just that. Quote There is also a video of a guy with 6 displays and his co-workers slipped Windows 8 Beta onto one of his displays. The guy was like.... ok... I want my REAL PC back, i cant deal with the interface madness. Thats sort of how I am feeling even though i am going to have to buy a copy to learn it to support it. There are programs like "Start8" or whatever it is called from StarDock that puts the Windows 7 type start menu back into Windows 8. There are also programs that remove the windows 8 UI start screen altogether. IMO These programs are pointless. If you don't want to experience the new features of Windows 8, just don't switch to it. If (as in your case) you need to learn it to help support it, learn to use Windows 8, not one of those separate tools. Like I said above, if it wasn't for my laptop's hard drive failing I'd probably use it more. One might wonder why I'm not upgrading my desktop to Windows 8 (And, of course I can completely free, Being an MVP has it's benefits).. There are a couple reasons. 1. The Windows 8 UI. Now, don't get me wrong, I really do think it's great. But I don't have a touchscreen. I'm not one of those people that think the entire thing is pointless without a touchscreen, but I think that in many ways using the win8 UI style with a mouse is sort of like trying to use Windows 95 without the right-mouse button. I mean, sure, you can doo all the same things, but the real "power" of the UI is from the new enhancements. A good case and point is that there have been a few times when I was using it on my laptop that I had to suppress the urge to try to do things with my finger. This is pretty interesting considering I've hardly ever used a touch-screen device, so it's arguable that atouch interface is more "intuitive" (And I do try to use that word carefully, people seem to throw it around a lot). 2. I have no idea how it will affect the programs I have installed. I mean, I'd really like to use VS2012 to develop win8 Apps, and I'm sure everything else will work fine, but I've got things setup how I like them on this machine. Pretty much had the same story with win7. I installed Win7 on my laptop long before I installed it on my desktop. I didn't get it installed there until I bought another hard drive. Will likely follow the same path for win8. Buy another hard drive to use as a system drive, clone my current one, and perform the upgrade. If things don't work out I can rollback by just putting the win7 system drive back in. I've seen a lot of people make comparisons between the Windows 8 UI and the "Unity" UI of Ubuntu. Of course the key difference here is that the Windows 8 UI was created and designed using a lot of market research, whereas Unity was put into Ubuntu mostly because Mark Shuttleworth thought it sounded fun. Or MAYBE the Gnome guys didn't send him a birthday card, It's hard to say. Another issue I encountered though, with Win8 on my laptop was the touchpad didn't work about half the time. This was extremely infuriating. I had to uninstall the synaptics driver and use the default mouse driver to get any semblance of sanity back.

Answer»

Interested in finding out the Pros and Cons between Windows 7 and Windows 8. And feedback from those who have used both.

I realized that I am going to have to buy a copy in order to support end users, and I am not thrilled with the changed GUI.

Someone told me that it runs faster than Windows 7 and more efficient is this true?

Is there a desktop option yet to make it look like Windows 7 Desktop vs the Mobile App Touch screen look that I saw in Beta testing that so turned me away from it as a flop of a GUI?

I saw a view of one guy on youtube who claimed to run a test between both OS side by side on same hardware and his system reported booting in 34 sec to the Windows 8 user interface with Windows 7 lagging by almost 30 seconds. With so many edited/fake videos out there you cant really trust everything you SEE. I have seen so many times before Apples to Oranges on youtube with comparisons. Those who dont see the problem give a thumbs up, but those like myself thumbs down it and post a comment on the issue.

There is also a video of a guy with 6 displays and his co-workers slipped Windows 8 Beta onto one of his displays. The guy was like.... ok... I want my REAL PC back, i cant deal with the interface madness. Thats sort of how I am feeling even though i am going to have to buy a copy to learn it to support it. I installed it as a dual boot on one of my systems only because of my involvement on support sites. I'm not crazy about it, but yes- there is a desktop that is similar to previous Window versions. What happens is you boot to the "metro screen" (the one with the live tiles) but then there are several ways to get to the desktop view. Problem is, there's no start button or Start Menu as such (though you CAN get to a list of all apps). You can install one of several free apps that will restore the more familiar Start Menu / Programs Listing (a Google search or two will help enormously with advice on making the W8 interface more like W7).

Other features and general maneuverability are also less intuitive than previous Windows versions (you have to move the mouse to corners or sides of the screen to bring up menus and options, shutting down takes several clicks and is not the easiest thing to figure out, etc).

Is it faster? Faster is relative, as is always the case. But yes, it does seem to be "snappier". As for boot time, hard to tell - my W7 boot takes up to 5 minutes to finish loading, but I have a lot of "stuff" that loads on boot. W8 is essentially a clean install - haven't loaded any apps yet - just playing with the interface - so of course it boots quickly.

Give it a shot - you're going to have to at some point in time anyway.I haven't seen...or timed my boot process in many years...i poerup...and i go make coffee.
Not sure why boot times are so critical to many end users. Quote from: DaveLembke on November 16, 2012, 02:16:25 AM

Someone told me that it runs faster than Windows 7 and more efficient is this true?

Feels the same to me. Though, I imagine like any windows version there are incremental speed improvements in some areas. (Yes, even Vista had this compared to XP, it was just a lot more intensive because of new features that required more oomph such as Aero GLASS).

One thing that prevents me from using it properly is the hard DRIVE in my laptop is failing catastrophically over time.

Quote

Is there a desktop option yet to make it look like Windows 7 Desktop vs the Mobile App Touch screen look that I saw in Beta testing that so turned me away from it as a flop of a GUI?

Windows 8 has the standard desktop, just like Windows 7 does. It had that in the Beta's as well as the Release Preview. IMO the switch over is more akin to the switch from Program Manager to The Taskbar, with the added benefit that more of the familiar keystrokes still work from win7 to do the same thing, such as pressing the windows key and then typing a search query still does just that.

Quote

There is also a video of a guy with 6 displays and his co-workers slipped Windows 8 Beta onto one of his displays. The guy was like.... ok... I want my REAL PC back, i cant deal with the interface madness. Thats sort of how I am feeling even though i am going to have to buy a copy to learn it to support it.

There are programs like "Start8" or whatever it is called from StarDock that puts the Windows 7 type start menu back into Windows 8. There are also programs that remove the windows 8 UI start screen altogether.

IMO These programs are pointless. If you don't want to experience the new features of Windows 8, just don't switch to it. If (as in your case) you need to learn it to help support it, learn to use Windows 8, not one of those separate tools.

Like I said above, if it wasn't for my laptop's hard drive failing I'd probably use it more. One might wonder why I'm not upgrading my desktop to Windows 8 (And, of course I can completely free, Being an MVP has it's benefits).. There are a couple reasons.

1. The Windows 8 UI. Now, don't get me wrong, I really do think it's great. But I don't have a touchscreen. I'm not one of those people that think the entire thing is pointless without a touchscreen, but I think that in many ways using the win8 UI style with a mouse is sort of like trying to use Windows 95 without the right-mouse button. I mean, sure, you can doo all the same things, but the real "power" of the UI is from the new enhancements. A good case and point is that there have been a few times when I was using it on my laptop that I had to suppress the urge to try to do things with my finger. This is pretty interesting considering I've hardly ever used a touch-screen device, so it's arguable that atouch interface is more "intuitive" (And I do try to use that word carefully, people seem to throw it around a lot).

2. I have no idea how it will affect the programs I have installed. I mean, I'd really like to use VS2012 to develop win8 Apps, and I'm sure everything else will work fine, but I've got things setup how I like them on this machine. Pretty much had the same story with win7. I installed Win7 on my laptop long before I installed it on my desktop. I didn't get it installed there until I bought another hard drive. Will likely follow the same path for win8. Buy another hard drive to use as a system drive, clone my current one, and perform the upgrade. If things don't work out I can rollback by just putting the win7 system drive back in.

I've seen a lot of people make comparisons between the Windows 8 UI and the "Unity" UI of Ubuntu. Of course the key difference here is that the Windows 8 UI was created and designed using a lot of market research, whereas Unity was put into Ubuntu mostly because Mark Shuttleworth thought it sounded fun. Or MAYBE the Gnome guys didn't send him a birthday card, It's hard to say.

Another issue I encountered though, with Win8 on my laptop was the touchpad didn't work about half the time. This was extremely infuriating. I had to uninstall the synaptics driver and use the default mouse driver to get any semblance of sanity back.

Solve : Windows 8 vs Windows 7 ... and a few questions?

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