Should I upgrade to Windows 8?


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Long story short I mostly play games and do some light productivity work (some programming, some office documentation, etc) on my system. I tend to always sleep my computer unless I'm going to be away from it for more than a day. Would Windows 8 serve me better than Windows 7?

 

I am looking to reinstall my system anyway (I normally reinstall every 6 months or so, but it's been 14 months since my last reinstall), would I benefit from Windows 8 at all (over a fresh install of Windows 7)?

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Wouldn't say Windows 8 it's THAT much better than Windows 7. I don't buy the whole faster argument. I think with an SSD they are both fast and on a cold boot Windows 7 is just as fast if not faster. The "Faster" turn on time of Windows 8 is just a hibernation hybrid startup so that doesn't count.

 

As far as the Start screen goes on Windows 8, well I think everyone knows how I feel about that pile of dog ****. That being said, with something like start8 you do get both the productivity of Windows 7, the added UI enhancements to explorer of Windows 8.

 

I would have said upgrade to Windows 8 had they (been smart and) kept the upgrade price at $40. At that Price it would have been a no brainer. Now that they got rid of that price, I would say stay on Windows 7.

 

You reinstall every 6 months? :|  ... Hmm... My Windows 8 install on my main system is over 6 months old. I guess I should reinstall ... na ... everything is working great :D

 

I would say reinstall get your system updated and all of your apps installed and then make an image of your system. Then if you must revert back for some reason every 6 months use that.

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Windows 8 will serve you just fine, but I can't think of much in the way of how it might serve you better than Windows 7.

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Honestly Windows 7 should work fine. If you want to try Windows 8, download it and see how it works - do it in a VM, which lets you use both OS's. 

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Honestly Windows 7 should work fine. If you want to try Windows 8, download it and see how it works - do it in a VM, which lets you use both OS's. 

 

Dual booting would be the better option.

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Dual booting would be the better option.

Yeah, but a VM will let the OP experience Windows 8 without touching his install. Dual booting is more involved. You can delete a VM much quicker than changing your config. from a dual boot to single boot. 

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Do you legally already own a copy of 8, if not why would you be looking to spend the money for no reason.  What aspect of windows 8 do you require or want that is not part of your current windows 7?

 

Windows 7 is a viable OS for many years to come.  Unless there is something in 8 that you want or need, there is no reason to change to it.  But there are many reason that could be pointed out not too.  Have you not been reading any of the threads here on it?

 

The money spent on windows 8 would prob be better spent on more ram or SSD or better graphics card if you looking to extend the life of your current system.  Or give it a bit of performance boost.

 

Also - since you seem to be inflicted with WRS (windows reinstall syndrome) "I normally reinstall every 6 months or so"  The suggestion of taking an image of your clean install is a good idea ;)  My previous install was years old, only reason I recently reinstalled was I finally moved to SSD - other than that it was working great.  But the move to SSD was nice performance bump - the samsung 840 pro series rocks!! ;)

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I think I'll go the VM route at first, it may not give me the experience of gaming on the system, but I'll get a good idea of how the system works.....I am really interested in the Win8 task manager and general UI improvements, plus the improved dual monitor support (I use third-party software for dual monitor taskbars in Win7, but that's literally the only feature of the third-party software I use).

 

You reinstall every 6 months? :|  ... Hmm... My Windows 8 install on my main system is over 6 months old. I guess I should reinstall ... na ... everything is working great :D

Yeah, I have a tendency to add and remove software, sometimes it's just software I didn't enjoy using (and found a better alternative) other times its something I installed for a one-time use, occasionally it's something I used a few times but haven't touched in months. Even uninstalling, or going further and running something like Revo Uninstaller to remove leftovers, it still seems to eventually clutter the system up to the point it has noticeable effects that wouldn't be there had the software never been used.

 

 

 

Do you legally already own a copy of 8, if not why would you be looking to spend the money for no reason.  What aspect of windows 8 do you require or want that is not part of your current windows 7?

 

Windows 7 is a viable OS for many years to come.  Unless there is something in 8 that you want or need, there is no reason to change to it.  But there are many reason that could be pointed out not too.  Have you not been reading any of the threads here on it?

 

The money spent on windows 8 would prob be better spent on more ram or SSD or better graphics card if you looking to extend the life of your current system.  Or give it a bit of performance boost.

 

Also - since you seem to be inflicted with WRS (windows reinstall syndrome) "I normally reinstall every 6 months or so"  The suggestion of taking an image of your clean install is a good idea ;)  My previous install was years old, only reason I recently reinstalled was I finally moved to SSD - other than that it was working great.  But the move to SSD was nice performance bump - the samsung 840 pro series rocks!! ;)

I wouldn't say there is anything I've seen in Win8 that I feel I require, but there are improvements to the general system that would have a positive affect on how I use my computer (improved task manager, improved dual monitor support, etc).

 

I already have a SSD (though it's a Gen1 drive, it's still running strong), with 24GB of ram and an AMD 6950 graphics card, probably the weakest part of my system is the video card, but it's playing games I play at 1920x1200 with acceptable quality and frame rates, so I'm not looking to upgrade it.

 

And yes I definitely suffer from WRS....the only problem is my base software tends to change slightly over that 6 months (for example I started this current install out using Chrome as my browser, I now use Firefox), or my hardware changes within that 6 months. Making images unreliable because they end up with the wrong software or wrong drivers for my system.

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Also - since you seem to be inflicted with WRS (windows reinstall syndrome) "I normally reinstall every 6 months or so"

 

HA!

I think I'll go the VM route at first, it may not give me the experience of gaming on the system, but I'll get a good idea of how the system works.....I am really interested in the Win8 task manager and general UI improvements, plus the improved dual monitor support (I use third-party software for dual monitor taskbars in Win7, but that's literally the only feature of the third-party software I use).

 

Yeah, I have a tendency to add and remove software, sometimes it's just software I didn't enjoy using (and found a better alternative) other times its something I installed for a one-time use, occasionally it's something I used a few times but haven't touched in months. Even uninstalling, or going further and running something like Revo Uninstaller to remove leftovers, it still seems to eventually clutter the system up to the point it has noticeable effects that wouldn't be there had the software never been used.

 

 

 

I wouldn't say there is anything I've seen in Win8 that I feel I require, but there are improvements to the general system that would have a positive affect on how I use my computer (improved task manager, improved dual monitor support, etc).

 

I already have a SSD (though it's a Gen1 drive, it's still running strong), with 24GB of ram and an AMD 6950 graphics card, probably the weakest part of my system is the video card, but it's playing games I play at 1920x1200 with acceptable quality and frame rates, so I'm not looking to upgrade it.

 

And yes I definitely suffer from WRS....the only problem is my base software tends to change slightly over that 6 months (for example I started this current install out using Chrome as my browser, I now use Firefox), or my hardware changes within that 6 months. Making images unreliable because they end up with the wrong software or wrong drivers for my system.

 

You might want to take a look at Sandboxie. This lets you sandbox installs of software that you are just trying out. Then if you don't want it anymore you can just delete the sandbox and it's as if it was never on your system. If you do want it, then still delete the sandbox and do an actual install. Or get yourself a VM and test software out on that.

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I wouldn't say there is anything I've seen in Win8 that I feel I require, but there are improvements to the general system that would have a positive affect on how I use my computer (improved task manager, improved dual monitor support, etc).

 

There is a clone of the Windows 8 taskmanager on the forums.  From what I have read it runs better than the stock 8 one.

Dual Monitor support on 7 is perfect (in my eyes).  If you want the extended task bar (which 8 does) there are plenty of free apps for that.  Overall unless it's something specific to metro, or touch, most of the improvements are minor, and many are not noticeable if you have good hardware which, based on your post, you do.

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HA!

 

You might want to take a look at Sandboxie. This lets you sandbox installs of software that you are just trying out. Then if you don't want it anymore you can just delete the sandbox and it's as if it was never on your system. If you do want it, then still delete the sandbox and do an actual install. Or get yourself a VM and test software out on that.

I have used sandboxie before, but I didn't know you could install things to it, I thought you could simply run software through sandboxie to keep it from doing anything to your system. How exactly does installing programs to sandboxie work? Can you still create files on your HDD through it? Like if I wanted to convert a video from one format to another, if I installed the software in sandboxie would it be able to read the source video and output to the destination of my choosing without issue?

 

There is a clone of the Windows 8 taskmanager on the forums.  From what I have read it runs better than the stock 8 one.

Dual Monitor support on 7 is perfect (in my eyes).  If you want the extended task bar (which 8 does) there are plenty of free apps for that.  Overall unless it's something specific to metro, or touch, most of the improvements are minor, and many are not noticeable if you have good hardware which, based on your post, you do.

It seems there is, it's called DBCTaskman. Oddly when googling for it, I found it on Lifehacker which has a link to the Neowin forums page. It says it's portable (or was that another task manager I was looking at?), anyone know how well it integrates into Windows 7? If I were to use it I would want it to essentially replace the Win7 built-in task manager.

 

Dual monitor support on Win7 was always lacking a major feature set I wanted. Basically I like having independent taskbars. If I have a program open on my secondary monitor, I only want to see its icon on my secondary monitors taskbar. I know there are both free and paid solutions for Win7, but all of them I have tried have quirks here and there that would be fixed by this functionality being built into the system. What I'm currently using works pretty well, but it will occasionally fall into the background where other programs will go overtop it, or it will allow programs to (when maximized) fill the space behind the taskbar instead of stopping them at the top of the taskbar. Both problems are solved by simply restarting the software, but they are annoyances none-the-less.

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Personally i upgraded all home and office systems to 8 because i like it, i like the feel of it and it just feels fresh.

I know many, many people will disagree but that's just my personal preference.

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Short answer yes.

Windows 8 improves upon Windows 7 in every place that is not ralated to UI. If you don't like metro you can always pay for Start8 or something like that and not use any metro apps.

This said it's definately not a must have upgrade. Windows 7 is still a very good os.

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Long story short I mostly play games and do some light productivity work (some programming, some office documentation, etc) on my system. I tend to always sleep my computer unless I'm going to be away from it for more than a day. Would Windows 8 serve me better than Windows 7?

 

I am looking to reinstall my system anyway (I normally reinstall every 6 months or so, but it's been 14 months since my last reinstall), would I benefit from Windows 8 at all (over a fresh install of Windows 7)?

 

I would wait a couple of months and go for 8.1 (but you can install 8 now and upgrade later via the Windows Store for free). If you do programming work you might benefit from Win8's built-in Hyper-V and do your development work inside virtual machines so you keep your host OS nice and clean. Other than that I don't know what else you use your computer for. Windows 8 also uses a little less battery overall but that's about it I guess. With the Platform Upgrade for Windows 7, you get most of the performance optimizations that they introduced so I won't sit here telling you Windows 8 is also much faster because that isn't true (nothing you would probably notice at least if you have an SSD)...

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Is there medications for that ... ? :huh:

 

2 ounces of UAC, and 1 ounce of restrictive administrative rights should be about right to prevent Installus Everythingitis.

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Not really. You only really benefit from the hybrid boot mode if you cold boot, and gaming is not any faster on Windows 8. Unless there's something you really need in Windows 8 feature wise I'd say save your money

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Upgrading from 7 is pretty much a waste of money based on how you use your PC.

 

If you have to buy a new laptop with Win 8 on it, install Classic Shell.

 

If you want to try Win 8 out without much fuss install Oracle VM VirtualBox and put 8.1 preview on it. VirtualBox is pretty awesome, I have installs of XP, Ubuntu, and 8.1 to mess around with.

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Simple answer : No. Long Extensive answer involving extreme need to use a very specific program or feature to W8 : No.

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I have used sandboxie before, but I didn't know you could install things to it, I thought you could simply run software through sandboxie to keep it from doing anything to your system. How exactly does installing programs to sandboxie work? Can you still create files on your HDD through it? Like if I wanted to convert a video from one format to another, if I installed the software in sandboxie would it be able to read the source video and output to the destination of my choosing without issue?

Just right click an exe you wish to install and select "Run in sandbox" you can still access files on your hard drive to convert. You'll have to move the file that it created out of the sandbox, which isn't hard or save the file to a location you've excluded from sandboxie.

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Just right click an exe you wish to install and select "Run in sandbox" you can still access files on your hard drive to convert. You'll have to move the file that it created out of the sandbox, which isn't hard or save the file to a location you've excluded from sandboxie.

Thanks, I might just reinstall Win7 and go with that, going to try Win8 out on VirtualBox first and see how it goes (just to get a feel of the OS itself).

 

I really love the look of the Win8 Task Manager though, and while DBCTaskman looks nice, for some reason it doesn't work at all on my system. If I double-click it, the process starts, then closes shortly after, if I run as admin, it does the same thing. Plus it's not designed to replace the Win7 task manager, which may come later when it's more stable, but not working and not integrated are some major turn-offs with it.

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Did you grab the correct 32 or 64bit version for your system ;)

 

Do you really use the task manager that often that you would change OS over something there are a million utils out there to view/manage processes running on your system other than the built in one.

 

I use it now and then if something is hung up, etc..  But its a tool, I really could give 2 ###### how it looks ;)  Does it do what I need it to do is the only requirement that is important..  It shows me the processes and their pids and how much cpu they are using, etc..  There you go meets my needs ;)

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