[Closed] Is Windows 8.1 really that bad?

i would suggest its not worth downgrading for home use, 8.1 is fine.

It's been fine on my new pc. Very stable.

[confession]

I mostly run it with a Windows 7 desktop view.

[/confession]

8.1 is OK... compared to original 8.

Remember you'll be able to get windows 10 for free when it comes out, I think, so might not be worth the hassle of sticking windows 7 on it.

I have it on a tablet and it's fine. I still prefer the W7 interface rather than metro but you get used to it and you can install classic shell or similar to get back to the W7 style.

You can get windows 7 machines with free option to upgrade to 8 at a later date from the likes of HP and Dell via their business arms. I bought one from Dell France, admitteldyfor business use as am self employed. (was a bit long winded as had to order a QWERTY keyboard as a special, DELL UK would not deliver to France etc etc)

It's ok. I've not used the new fangled interface at all, or the "apps". The old desktop view is available, and a home button(not quite the same as the old one) is there. Bit I dislike most is having to have a Microsoft Account, and risk losing access to my PC if I have to reformat or the like. I never password any of my PCs.

The big issue with W8 is its insistence on popping in and out of the Metro interface. Fine if you're on a touchscreen device but a bit pish if not. There's a thing called "Classic Shell" which can get rid of it if you really don't like it.

I use 7 at work and 8.1 at home; the main difference is the start menu or start screen, but I use stuff on the taskbar so hardly use either. From that point of view there's very little difference.

Upgrading from 8 to 8.1 turned my mouse wheel upside down. That was far more annoying than anything else.

With Classic shell 8.1 is fine, I can't remember it crashing the the past 12 months [touches wood].
The only issue I have is I often can't delete PDFs without to a hard delete.

Its strange to say the least.

It comes with a nice front end like a Windows Phone, and you think oh this is nice.

You then open any application, and it sends you back to an old desktop type scenario, except most of the useful stuff is missing.

Its neither one thing or another. Almost like some kids were given a school project to design a new front end, but then got bored half way through

I am utterly confused as to why people have a problem with it. As an OS it's perfectly fine.

I'm running 8.1 on an old non-touch core 2 duo laptop. I think it's great! I run Win 7 at work and home on another machine, and 8.1 is very quick and useable.

I like it, not sure what all the moaning is about really.

It's fine but I just find it somewhat half-finished. Some stuff is 'new' and modern in look and feel but then other stuff is just w7 and you kind of change between the two in a less than intuitive way. Some stuff is in the new section, others you have to dip into the old. It doesn't feel finished to me.

It does work perfectly well though.

Windows 10 is coming soon and will be a free upgrade from 8, FWIW.

Markie - Member
Windows 10 is coming soon and will be a free upgrade from 8, FWIW.

It came on my new laptop, I can't see any reason I'd want to go back to Win7.

It's fine but I just find it somewhat half-finished. Some stuff is 'new' and modern in look and feel but then other stuff is just w7 and you kind of change between the two in a less than intuitive way. Some stuff is in the new section, others you have to dip into the old. It doesn't feel finished to me.

^This

It feels like you are running two operating systems, neither of which is finished. A half-cock job, but it is stable!

8.1 is better then 8 or Vista.
I am stil using a mixture of XP and 7 at work and like 7.
10 is coming soon. They are saying its a free upgrade from 8.1,8 and 7 but only for the 1st year. There is talk of some kind of subscription after that 1st year.

Use it on my work laptop, its fine, especially in 8.1 form.

No its worse than that. It might work well for phones and tablets but for pc/laptop its awful

No its worse than that. It might work well for phones and tablets but for pc/laptop its awful

Why awful? It's stable, easy to use, works fine. And if you bother to learn the keyboard shortcuts it's even easier.

seosamh77 - Member

aye brings back the start menu for some strange reason.

That strange reason being that they broke 20 years of consistent UI and the replacement forced upon us had no apparent benefits over what was already there*.

*unless you're using a touchscreen

Can't see a problem with it but maybe that's a consequence of what I use it for. It's basically windows 7 with a full screen start menu for me. I think I prefer it to 7 but not even close enough to care one way or the other.

retro83 - Member
seosamh77 - Member
aye brings back the start menu for some strange reason.

That strange reason being that they broke 20 years of consistent UI and the replacement forced upon us had no apparent benefits over what was already there*.

*unless you're using a touchscreen

The start menu is a terrible UI. Just because it's been about fro 20 years does not make it good! 😀

if you bother to learn the keyboard shortcuts it's even easier.

As a confirmed keyboard shortcut junkie I've no issue with that personally, but if you have to rely on them then its defeated the object of a GUI. The whole point is that it's supposed to be intuitive.

The start menu is a terrible UI.

For all that people bemoan the loss of a Start menu, I don't remember the last time I used it. To launch a (non-pinned) application, I just tap the Windows key and start typing its name. Eg, to launch Notepad I'd type Win-'not'-Return.

Pinned apps are even easier of course; it's the Windows key and the number key corresponding to the app's position on the bar.

As a confirmed keyboard shortcut junkie I've no issue with that personally, but if you have to rely on them then its defeated the object of a GUI. The whole point is that it's supposed to be intuitive.

Yes - but that doesn't go against what I've said. I didn't find it that different to earlier versions of Windows, and the OP's daughter certainly won't have any problems if she's anything like mine.

[i]Its strange to say the least.

It comes with a nice front end like a Windows Phone, and you think oh this is nice.

You then open any application, and it sends you back to an old desktop type scenario, except most of the useful stuff is missing.[/i]

Agree.
I use http://www.classicshell.net/ on my test workstation at work. makes life much easier.

Yes.

bought my parents a new lappy for christmas.
took 3 relatively techy guys in their 30's + 40's to suss out how to get it set up.
I expect my mother will be more of a Win8 expert than the 3 of us by now, and the 3 of us are "IT support". My dad still can't understand why the mouse has a tail coming out of its nose and not out of its ar5e, which was basically solved by getting a wireless mouse, so all he needs is a TIFKAM button for solitaire, and pass the laptop to my mother whenever it needs to be turned off.

i'm sure it's stable though. as was w8, w7, xp, ...

I was perfectly happy with XP. All seems like change for the same of it.

[i]I was perfectly happy with XP.[/i]

Here here!

and pass the laptop to my mother whenever it needs to be turned off.

that big button used to turn it on... works a treat to turn it off too 😉

I was perfectly happy with XP.

I've always hated it. YMMV.

Pinned apps are even easier of course; it's the Windows key and the number key corresponding to the app's position on the bar.

that big button used to turn it on... works a treat to turn it off too

As others have said, it is very stable and with Classic Shell it is very like Win 7/Vista/XP, but it does feel very disjointed between the normal desktop and the touchy-swipey interface.

Windows 10 is shaping up to be more unified, with much less pushing users to be touchey-swipey.

Mind. Blown.

I did wonder if anyone would go "ooh" at that one. (-:

The failure there ofc is, there's no number indicators on the icons. Gets a bit reliant on memory when you've got a full task bar.

I'm also not a fan of W8 or 8.1. As said W10 is coming out and will be a free upgrade as apparently most businesses won't use W8 and the hardware business is up in arms as they can't shift any pooters with W8 installed. According to our IT bod.

I like 8 and 8.1
I just don't use the Metro side of it at all.

8.1 here, and most of the computers at our small charidee.

They are all set to run immediately into traditional desktop environment, and I only had to tape one picture of a windows button onto someones desk for a week before they all had the idea of how to pop back and forth between traditional and tiles thing.

Seems very stable now (I had a couple of wobbles at first, but I think that was a dying hard drive, not Windows), and no reason to touch any of the machines in a few months.*
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.
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*I bet they all die horribly tomorrow...

Cougar - Moderator
Mind. Blown.
I did wonder if anyone would go "ooh" at that one. (-:

I cannot seem to rid the awful "Charms Bar " nonsense, despite disabling it the various ways suggested on the net. Hope Win 10 does not have this feature.

As said W10 is coming out and will be a free upgrade

sierrakilo - Member
I cannot seem to rid the awful "Charms Bar " nonsense, despite disabling it the various ways suggested on the net. Hope Win 10 does not have this feature.

charms bar is indeed useless, well apart from getting to the desktop easily/temporarily revealing it if you drag the mouse to bottom right corner. but that's the same in w7, so I guess not actually part of the charms. 😆

Mind. Blown.

Presumably by the utter uselessness of that "feature"?

People are weird.

Presumably by the utter uselessness of that "feature"?

Don't get me wrong, I'll never use it again but for now I'm flicking aimlessly between SQL Server, Chrome and Spotify in a whole new and exciting way.

hardware business is up in arms as they can't shift any pooters with W8 installed. According to our IT bod.

Yup Dell are still selling new machines with Win 7 installed. I use Win 7 at home and work but have used 8.1 and it's absolutely fine besides [url= http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-product/windows/3496959/windows-10-uk-release-date-price-features-beta-technical-preview-launch-event-update-upgrade-spartan-screenshots-insider-tcs/ ]Win10 is going to be a free upgrade for everyone running win7 onwards.[/url]

[i]People are weird.[/i]

If we weren't this forum would be so dull 🙂

Windows 8.1 I can handle (even though upgrading from 8 takes an inodrinatelly long time)

However I can't stand office 2010 - I need a classic shell for it...

that ribbon was stupid when it first came out, and it still is

that ribbon was [s]stupid when it first came out, and it still is[/s] [b]needs getting used to, but when you have it is ace, especially in office 2013[/b]

nope. still stupid. still has useful things in illogical places.

except the bit where you can totally hide it and add a few favourite buttons to a tool bar (just like you've been able to do since win3.1).

Windows 8 then 8.1 on this machine. It took about a week to get used to it and since then it's been a pleasure to use. Nothing have ever gone wrong. No crashes, no blue screens. it just starts up fast and runs till I send it to sleep or turn it off. Updates have worked fine, it's compatible with every programme I used and every device I've got (including ones that were for Vista and wouldn't run under XP). I'll no doubt go for the free upgrade to 10 if that happens but will miss the phone feel of 8.

Edit: only problem was that I never did manage to get the machine to boot off an old hard driven despite telling it to do so in the bios.

It's not as terrible as people make out, but I do find it slightly infuriating working with it.

Hitting the windows key and then typing the name of the application to launch is quite good. But it's full of annoying little quirks, such as if you are typing the name of an application it behaves slightly differently than if you are trying to find a directory. And say I want to run notepad but I already have one open, it'll open the one that's open, so I then have to use the mouse to open it from the start. If I wanted to go to the one already open I'd have tabbed to it.
And tabbing between windows is not always consistent, so that it doesn't always return you to your last application.

It is impressively stable though and I've only seen it crash the once.

seosamh77 - Member
The start menu is a terrible UI. Just because it's been about fro 20 years does not make it good!

Why?

How would you improve on it? Apple haven't managed it*, so I'd be impressed if you could!

* See Launchpad (which is slow and inconsistent with the rest of the OS and nobody uses, and the Dock which wastes screenspace and has no means of accessing items not dragged into it). Oh but you can search with Spotlight - yes, but you can from the Start menu as well, so no advantage there, and it's less discoverable as the icon is out of the way next to the clock.

and it's less discoverable as the icon is out of the way next to the clock.

cmd-spacebar

Well,

Inspired by this thread, I've just been playing with the tech preview of W10.

First impressions: it's ace. W10 is to W8 as W7 is to Vista; it's the all the good bits of the core OS with all the really bloody annoying bits fixed. Some really lovely little "you've thought about this" touches. I haz teh hopefuls.

Windows releases are ostensibly following the same development model as Star Trek movies.

I was resistant at first based on the media view on it which makes 8 sound like it's awful, but frankly 8.1 is actually fine and has many under the hood improvements. In the main most people think it's awful purely because of the lack of start menu and the metro/modern apps.

Well the old Start menu is no loss. Just stick shortcuts on the desktop and common items pinned to the task bar, and trust me it's no different in normal use to 7 or XP really. If you really can't cope without the menu, there are third party apps to add it back in. Anyway, if you're a Luddite that prefers the old start menu, Windows 10 returns it (and to be honest it does look quite nice).

You can ignore all the Metro/Modern apps if you like. However they start to make a lot of sense if you use 8.1 on a tablet. On the desktop, just don't use them.

Windows 8 got a lot of bad press basically because it used to boot desktop PCs into the Start screen and people would get confused. They'd think they have to use the apps, and even fail to notice the big tile marked Desktop that gets them back into their comfort zone. 8.1 however detects a desktop install and dumps you into the desktop on boot.

Big improvements - Much faster boot up (and with the right hardware it's literally just a few seconds). Proper touch support. HD display scaling on small screens. UEFI support. USB 3 support. Better power management. Connected Standby (instant on from sleep, apps update while in sleep but very low power, almost no battery consumption). Various performance improvements, and better recovery from crashes.

Oh and OneDrive integration with Smart Files. So to save space on small SD/SSD memory devices, you can have files just in "the cloud" and only download when you access them, but still appears in the drive folder. A major benefit if you have 30gb of photos etc but are using a tablet with small storage. Sadly though, Microsoft have decided to removing this feature in Windows 10, so either you have all your OneDrive content on the device or none of it!

I hate windows now, loved W7 but w8 is awful worst thing I did was to upgrade, its just horrible to use that unsigned drivers nonsense wtf! Its so bad I have gone apple. Always been a PC and Android user but w8 and I was out.

that unsigned drivers nonsense wtf

Unless you're installing unapproved dodgy drivers, you shouldn't have unsigned driver problems. If the manufacturer of the device is pushing unsigned drivers then that's their problem. I've not had anything use an unsigned driver in years.

Plus, it has nothing to do with Windows 8. Driver signing has been going on since XP days, or earlier. Unsigned drivers always required prompts and admin rights to install them. It's better now as at least they can't be installed without permission and Windows 8 makes it harder, so manufacturers have to get them signed, as they should be.

Still, Apple's walled garden keeps things simple so nothing can go wrong. You just aren't allowed to do anything that's all 😛

The basic problem is that Microsoft don't seem to be able (or willing) to separate the OS from the UI. From all accounts 8.1 is a good OS, stable and efficient, but the UI is biased towards touch screens, so awkward for some people without those. If MS would just say "here's our new OS - and you can control it with this UI or this one" there'd be no difficulty.

... which is what W10 does. There's a "tablet mode" tick box.

So how can I get w10? I'm thinking for my bargin w8.1 tablet (lynx 7 - £60!)

You can wait till it's released, then get it for free.

I got a Garmin Virb camera and the Virb Edit software wouldn't run on XP so I upgraded to 8.1 and have been pleasantly surprised. It does everything I want it to (faster than XP) and I've had very few problems at all.