I've finished installing Windows 8 on every computer in my household.

[XX55XX]

Between my sister and I, we own four computers. I have a desktop and a laptop, and she has two laptops.

Yesterday, I finished installing Windows 8 onto her ancient Toshiba laptop that had been previously running Windows 7 32 bit. It's still slow, but not as slow as it once was.

Now, all of the computers in our household are running the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I will reformat them again once the RTM version is out, but even though I dislike Metro, I can't deny that Windows 8 is significantly snappier than any other version of Windows I have ever used. Boot up times and shut down times have been shaved enough for me to notice.

[_neutrino Veteran]

Excellent, and you are right in my experience as well the performance is VERY good even on older machines. and the UI is not all that bad once you are used to it. They just need to do a few more tweaks with the UI to make it more usable for folks that are not going to be using a touch interface.

[LightShadow]

Not the best of ideas. It's still beta.

I even switched back to 7 as it's still not fully stable. You're at risk of losing files.

I would have waited till the RC when it'll be much more stable at least to use on all devices.

[goofyinthehead]

but even though I dislike Metro, I can't deny that Windows 8 is significantly snappier than any other version of Windows I have ever used. Boot up times and shut down times have been shaved enough for me to notice.

So you take a "small" speed boost over not liking the operating System? That really makes no sense. The gain you get from installing a "fresh" installation over having to use something you don't like every day boggles my mind. Now if you would have said that you loved metro and the spped was just a bonus then that's a whole different story. And no, using it every day does not mean you will ever fall in love with it.

[neufuse Veteran]

Not the best of ideas. It's still beta.

I even switched back to 7 as it's still not fully stable. You're at risk of losing files.

I would have waited till the RC when it'll be much more stable at least to use on all devices.

yeah, its amazing how many people dont think of dataloss in a beta OS.... look at some of the past betas MS had.... which one of the larger dataloss bugs was corrupting MP3 files when it was reading their tag info.... that was just win7 beta wasn't it?

[giantpotato]

This is a bad idea there could be a bug that could mess with your data. Windows 7 beta for example had a bug that chopped off the beginning of MP3's.

Edit: Yeah, I'm slow. ditto what neufuse just said.

[XX55XX]

I have two copies of everything stowed away onto two different external hard drives. This is the most important stuff. As for smaller things, I rely on a mixture of Skydrive and Dropbox.

If I have the funds this summer, I will build a backup server with a RAID setup, but that isn't feasible right now.

[XX55XX]

So you take a "small" speed boost over not liking the operating System? That really makes no sense. The gain you get from installing a "fresh" installation over having to use something you don't like every day boggles my mind. Now if you would have said that you loved metro and the spped was just a bonus then that's a whole different story. And no, using it every day does not mean you will ever fall in love with it.

I don't hate Metro that much. It is what it is. I've gotten used to it, but I would prefer to see the start menu make a comeback.

[goofyinthehead]

"Getting used to it" seems to be the motto for Metro

[xendrome]

yeah, its amazing how many people dont think of dataloss in a beta OS.... look at some of the past betas MS had.... which one of the larger dataloss bugs was corrupting MP3 files when it was reading their tag info.... that was just win7 beta wasn't it?

Maybe... or it was Windows Home Server, I don't remember either..

[Mystic Mungis]

Personally I love Metro and the Windows 8 experience as whole and although I'm running the 8 CP as my main OS I wouldn't push it upon others. I have accepted the fact that I may lose my data but I do constant backups, other family memebers don't and therefore I wouldn't think about upgrading then to the CP, each to their own though! Would be interesting to watch how they cope with it. What does your sister think of it?

[+Warwagon MVC]

I'm sorry.

Myy Acer Iconia Tab w500 should be here tomorrow. It can't come fast enough. Going to use it as my Windows 8 Test machine. Then it can finally get the **** off my laptop, on my laptop Windows 8 is driving me nutters. I've had it installed since the CP came out. A major step back on the desktop / laptop.

Having said that, I'm very excited to use Metro on a tablet. Some might think I'm a Metro hater, I'm not. I'm just a metro on a keyboard and mouse hater. I'm super excited for Metro on a tablet.

[Night Prowler]

yeah, its amazing how many people dont think of dataloss in a beta OS.... look at some of the past betas MS had.... which one of the larger dataloss bugs was corrupting MP3 files when it was reading their tag info.... that was just win7 beta wasn't it?

What exactly am I going to loose in Windows 8 that I won't loose in windows 7 using a daily backup, or better yet, a continuous backup?

[+Warwagon MVC]

What exactly am I going to loose in Windows 8 that I won't loose in windows 7 using a daily backup, or better yet, a continuous backup?

Your sanity?

[Calum Veteran]

What exactly am I going to loose in Windows 8 that I won't loose in windows 7 using a daily backup, or better yet, a continuous backup?

As people have pointed out, the Windows 7 beta messed with MP3 files, and if you're replacing your backup daily, you would very likely miss that bug and not be able to recover the files that weren't messed with.

[Crytel]

Isn't most stuff in the cloud in some way or other anyhow? I know that almost all of my data is these days my computer just acts as a window to the data and does the editing. Of course I have early on adapted to this way of thinking so that I can easily use any of several computers and OSs to access that data.

[geircito]

Not the best of ideas. It's still beta.

Every computer operation system and software is beta - beeing forever in beta and never "finished" :-)

[winrez]

It was Windows Home Sever V1 not Windows 7 that chopped the MP3's

[Orange Battery]

Ive installed Win 8 on one PC just so I can mess around with it, I wouldn't dream of putting everything onto a beta product. Still, I guess we need real world testing of home networks etc so I respect that. Your doing it so we don't have to lol.

[techguy77]

I feel sorry

[techguy77]

I feel sorry