What's the general consensus here of Windows 8?

**Buffy** · 2012-11-04 07:14

Originally Posted by Aemora

So!

Got Win7 Pro. Thinking about upgrading. Been reading a lot about how you can 'customise' it to act like Win7, which gets me thinking - Why upgrade if you want it to act like Win7 when you already got it? If they wanted you to mess around with it, they'd give you the option.

With this in mind, I'm considering a dual-boot. Keeping both of em incase I don't like it. But then, knowing me, if I didn't click with it, I'd give up and just use Win7... But an upgrade to 8 onry means I'd be forced to learn it.

Idk... The price is my desire to upgrade, plus it looks awesome. If I do go down the dual boot path, can I later delete Win7 as on OS just to make my transition potentially not fuckmeupable?

And does a 'clean' boot require wiping my HDD and starting from scratch because that's a whole Sunday consumed right there. Also, will my programs tgat work on Win7 work on Win8?

So many questions :/

Aemora! Come back to ffxi! Don't come back now though, game is boring. Come back when the expansion drops.

Dual-boot is messy, but workable. I wouldn't recommend it based on my experiences. I'm sure someone could give an alternate opinion, but the two computers I had to use that had dual-boot options, files constantly got corrupted, weren't available, wouldn't read. And invariably, whatever operating system I was using, I needed to be on the other one for something.

I haven't messed with windows 8 yet, but if it works like previous versions of windows, each side is going to be completely closed off from the other. So for instance, on a computer with a 500 GB hard drive, you would have a win 7 install with 250 GB and a win 8 install with 250 GB. (You can customize the size of the install). Each side is called a 'partition'. You can go back and delete a partition easily, however what you now have is a unformatted 250 GB partition on your computer. You would still have to go back and reformat it, or it would never be available. And if you ever wanted all 500 GB to be available as one hard drive again, a complete re-install would be needed. Otherwise you would have two virtual hard drives on one physical drive (Some people do this for backup purposes or to keep music and movies separate from other more commonly accessed files).

Yes, a clean boot from scratch requires a complete reformat of your HDD. You can upload your your desktop and libraries to google docs or to a thumb drive ahead of time. Google Drive would be the best solution imo, because then you can upload them and let it sync while you are asleep.

I miss your taru-ness!

Buffy

**Aemora** · 2012-11-04 15:21

BUFFY!!!! (Sent you a PM!)

I've created a Virtual Machine and loaded the Developers version of Win8 onto that to play around with to see if I like it. Shit was free so why not, I don't lose anything if I don't like it, and I have the possibility of upgrading my Win7 at a later date if I do enjoy it. We'll see!

(Read my PM!)

**Matthias** · 2012-11-11 05:05

ok so i put a few upgrades on my computer, including windows 8 home, and a new graphics card, a geforce gtx 670, upgraded from windows 7 home + gtx 560 ti. the windows 8 interface is cool, took some getting used to but i can navigate through it pretty well now, and, as mentioned by others, in some ways is in fact quite a bit better than windows 7.

i've noticed though in a few of my older games, including ffxi, the framerate gets choppy now and then, with severe drops during some cs's. i put it side by side with my other computer - a quadcore 9300 running windows vista home premium with the gtx 560 ti that i had removed from my main, and it was performing way better for ffxi.

in fact i've read a lot about how ffxi just doesn't work on windows 8, and that was the case for me as well. but i was able to get enough information to get it to work, and it runs now, just with the aforementioned performance issues. i've also heard ffxi doesn't play nice with the geforce 600 series either, so going to try reinstalling windows 7 and seeing if that works any better, and see if the graphics card might be the problem. i dunno anyone else experience this? if so damn that's $85 down the drain for my copy of windows 8.

although from what i hear, this is pretty typical of new windows versions. i've read a few articles/forums that said windows 7 absolutely sucked early on in terms of compatibility with various games and programs, and it wasn't until SP1 came out that things were streamlined/optimized/whatever and finally started to perform well. so i wonder if it really was a waste of $85, or is it too early to say for sure, and i should wait until SP1 comes out to really make an assessment on it? how long does MS usually take to release SP1? i really don't want to go back and forth installing and uninstalling OS's.

**6souls** · 2012-11-12 11:50

Microsoft has confirmed that graphics software DirectX 11.1 is a Windows 8 exclusive, and "at this point there is no plan" to make it available for Windows 7. This is a departure from Microsoft's past stance — DirectX 11 was built for Windows 7 and retrofitted for Vista, but DirectX 11.1 will only work on Windows 8. The newest and most graphically demanding games are traditionally built using the latest version of DirectX, and as a result, PC gamers may get stuck between a rock and a hard place. While Microsoft has decided not to support the latest graphics software for older operating systems, game developers like Valve have expressed resistance to Windows 8. Microsoft employee Daniel Moth says he is "still crossing [his] fingers" that the company will reverse its position, but he has less hope than he did several months ago.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/12/3...11-1-windows-8
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/For...7-4cf2a74bfdb6
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...=vs.85%29.aspx

**Mayareira** · 2012-11-12 17:40

Before you upgrade (if you decide to, that is) make sure your computer supports it. Several laptop brands are still yet to prepare proper drivers and regardless of your specs, certain functions may not work with win 8 at all.

Laerned the hard way, spent way too much time to wipe the hd, reinstall 7 and restore files.

For tablets, yes it'd be useful but for a regular laptop pc its quite unnecessary, at least for now.

**Correction** · 2012-11-12 19:13

Originally Posted by 6souls

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/12/3...11-1-windows-8
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/For...7-4cf2a74bfdb6
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...=vs.85%29.aspx

Post this in gaming. Enjoy the meltdown.

**Nyima** · 2012-11-12 21:50

Most games still run on directx 9c because of consoles being so old and decrepit.

**Gokulo** · 2012-11-13 00:18

Yeah, this won't matter for looong time.

**hey** · 2012-11-13 02:39

Yeah, i'm not concerned either. As long as windows 9 isn't shit as well, that is.

**Niya** · 2012-11-13 08:27

Originally Posted by Nyima

Most games still run on directx 9c because of consoles being so old and decrepit.

This, and game developers/publishers would be mad to drop all possible clients that still run on Vista/7... I mean, Shattered Horizon was one of the first games that dropped dx9/XP, and that was 2 years after the release of Vista and close to the release of Win7. So unless Win8 becomes a HUGE success (which i highly doubt...) we'll still have a few years before games become dx11(.1) only.

**Seraph** · 2012-11-13 16:03

Originally Posted by Correction

Post this in gaming. Enjoy the meltdown.

Most of the gaming stuff I care about still runs perfectly fine on Windows XP (3GB of RAM starts becoming the potential limitation, not the graphics cards yet). I wouldn't worry about 7 going obsolete for a long, long time.

**Cream Soda** · 2012-11-28 11:08

Getting ready to do a fresh install. Should I stick with windows 7 or is windows 8 worth giving a shot?

**Yugl** · 2012-11-28 11:10

Windows 7 from what I hear.

Edit: However! Check 6soul's link. Not having Direct11.1 can potentially prevent access to newer games.

**Denchi** · 2012-11-30 10:22

In Windows 8 I have this new problem....where if I Alt-Tab from a game (So far League of Legends and Borderlands 2) 50% of the time the game will crash.

.....wtf? Anyone else having instability issues with Windows 8?

**Jojimbo** · 2012-11-30 10:29

Did it not happen in Windows 7? Some games just don't like alt-tabbing from fullscreen, if you have a single GPU then you can set the game to windowed fullscreen which will allow you to alt tab without crashing.

**Denchi** · 2012-11-30 10:30

Didn't happen in Windows 7. But that's a good point about fullscreen, I'll try that.

**AidenCarby** · 2012-11-30 10:32

Couldn't stand windows 8 interface, was extremely clunky and put 7 on the new pc instead. The gadgets and apps are fun for 10 minutes until you realize you have to click 10 buttons to get back to your desktop, sorta dumb really.

**Denchi** · 2012-11-30 10:33

Originally Posted by AidenCarby

Couldn't stand windows 8 interface, was extremely clunky and put 7 on the new pc instead. The gadgets and apps are fun for 10 minutes until you realize you have to click 10 buttons to get back to your desktop, sorta dumb really.

Agreed. I've tried to get used to it and it's just dumb. I just use the desktop and don't really mess with the new interface shit.

**chiyio** · 2012-11-30 13:17

Originally Posted by AidenCarby

Couldn't stand windows 8 interface, was extremely clunky and put 7 on the new pc instead. The gadgets and apps are fun for 10 minutes until you realize you have to click 10 buttons to get back to your desktop, sorta dumb really.

windows key plus clicking on desktop is 10 buttons? oh.... I read that sorta dumb really wrong, you weren't talking about windows 8, heh

you can also just do windows key + D.

**Cream Soda** · 2012-11-30 16:49

Lol yea sticking with 7 for now; will upgrade if forced to down the road.

Thread: What's the general consensus here of Windows 8?

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