Have you gone or thought about returning to Windows 7?


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Windows 8.x made me go back to the Mac at home.

 

At work we're sticking with Windows 7 for as long as possible. Of course we're going to look at future Windows versions, but it'll take a lot before we move away from the tried and trusted Win7.

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Bought Windows 8 when it came out, tried it for a week, hated it, went back to Windows 7. After being bashed here on Neowin, tried it again, and loving it!

 

Have you gone back or contemplated of going back to Windows 7?

Never going back to an old interface. After using Windows 8, Windows 7 seems dated.

 

 

I'm using Windows 8.1 and wouldn't go back to Windows 7. There are too many improvements that I'd miss, despite the usability issues.

Exactly.

 

I paid for and upgraded to 8.  Used it for a week, and still thought it was the worst OS I've ever used.  Requested a refund, got it, and went back to Windows 7.  I hate Windows 8, and I can't see 8.1 being any better.

I'm investigating the tools I will need to have available on Linux distros for my future beyond Windows 7, because as far as I'm concerned, Microsoft dropped the ball and stopped giving a **** about a large chunk of their user base.

Everyone has his taste, best of luck!

 

Many people like Windows 8, many of the people that don't will get use to is, and..... adapt. People adapted to a GUI, a mouse. Try Windows 8 for a month or more, and your thinking might change.

 

 

You can't get rid of Metro.  There is no program capable of doing it, not one.  Unless a company has completely re-written the Control Panel, there will always be Metro elements in the operating system.  I don't like Metro on my computer, and that includes things like changing my account password, or creating a new account.

How's that for logic, buddy?

 

Why would you get rid of Metro? you don't like it, don't use it. Its not like its taking a ton of ram of processing power, and with 8.1 you can directly boot to desktop. How many times do you need to change your system password?

 

I am OK with the new start screen... Use my computer for like 10-11 hours a day, see/use the start screen 1~4 times.

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I'm not a nerd who's going to remember those codes.  That's not easy for an average user.

So go to the desktop and enable the control panel icon... exactly like before. Pin that in a bajillion places, just in case. No nerdism required. Those "codes" are just so you can create a direct shortcut and skip going thru the control panel itself, one less step.
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I used 8 for a few months, and when the novelty of "apps" wore off, the OS become extremely annoying.

Since I was using the Desktop mode only, there was really no advantage at all over 7.  I have SSDs in all my PCs, so any speed trickery that 8 does is negligible.

 

Having 2 UIs, 2 control panels, etc etc and not giving the user the option to customize (turn on/off) things, is a massive turn-off.  The organization of everything was a huge step back from 7.

 

I'm much more productive on 7, and I don't have to deal with the added junk in 8 that I don't use/want.  It looks like 8.1 is bringing not a lot to the table, and the "start button" they added is basically a slap in the face to the people that honestly wanted the start menu back.  I lost a lot of respect for Microsoft over what seems like trolling.  Why would anybody want a button that takes you to the Metro UI?  What a joke.

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commands still work good in windows 8 and winkey + r still gets me to a run prompt.  I have little issue with windows 8, once you learn the commands for one windows os you lean the commands for all windows oses. 

 

key ones to keep in memory:

appwiz.cpl

eventvwr.msc

sysdm.cpl

control printers

ncpa.cpl

devmgmt.msc

 

6 of the most commonly used control panel items.  This will work for all windows versions from 2000 on up to current.  It isn't that hard to remember these for 13+ years.  It is harder to figure out where Microsoft buried it in this or the next version.

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When i first got my new laptop (it came with 8) i figured i would play around with it for a bit and then go back to windows 7 however, after a week or so of using the laptop i decided that i liked it and have not gone back. I am very happy with Windows 8 and it seams to do everything that i wanted it to do  (even without a touch screen)

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Windows 8 has nice features such as ISO mounting, built-in antivirus, the power menu. I know I won't go back to Windows 7, but if it haven't been for the cheap upgrade price I probably would still be using Windows 7 as I won't have wanted to pay $200 for an operating system that people were giving bad hype (Kind of glad I ignored the bad hype). Another reason I believe Windows 8 is really good because Microsoft are releasing Windows 8.1 for free, which fixes a lot of the complains.

 

I'm glad I upgraded when it came out for the discounted price. :)

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Have you gone back or contemplated of going back to Windows 7?

 

I'm currently on Windows 7 as of last week. I used Windows 8 from it's release, and tried the 8.1 update. 

It's a shame, I like Windows 7 but it's just so slow in comparison to Windows 8. Right now I'm just binding my time until I can download Windows 8.1 ISO and do a clean install.

 

Hopefully I have a change of heart with Windows 8.1.

 

I did like Windows 8, I even liked what the start screen (even if it did make me feel sick when I first started to use it) and the idea behind the apps.

However, Microsoft seems to have no direction with what they want to do with it.

I can't remove the start screen or apps from my Desktop machine, even though I've decided they're of no use for me, and I can't disable the desktop and let the kids play on the startscreen/metro only.

It honestly feels like a disjointed mash up of a very poorly written 3rd party app akain of Microsoft Bob.

 

I got to use a Mac around 6 months ago, and while I had a few issues with not knowing the key short cuts or some basic usage such as how cut and paste files I found I liked OS X more then Windows 8. If I was a console gamer, I'd have switched full time to a Mac already by now. I found all the programs I needed where there, and replacement ones for those that didn't have native Mac OS X versions and for the rest, cross over worked fine.

 

I use steam and it just hit home with one of the biggest issues I have with Microsoft and their eco system. I've used Steam on Linux and I got a a small collection of games to play, that was some time ago now. I used the same account as my Steam I used with Windows and I didn't have to rebuy the same games. Then I got more then half of my games supported on Mac OS via Steam too. Again I didn't have to buy again, exact same games, exact same steam achivements and most of the ones I tried even had my save games syned to steam too! I have a xbox, a Windows Phone and Windows 8, all signed in with the same account, but I have to buy the same crappy game each and every time on each platform. I'm not doing that. I've stopped buying games on my windows phone, I'm not buying anymore Xbox games, certainly won't be getting an xbox one and.. as for Windows 8... I'm not sure if I even want to go back to it anymore.

 

But yeah, Windows 8,, not using it now, currently on Windows 7. Will be going back to Windows 8.1 purely for the speed boost... for how long... Who knows.

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I never left. Love it and works for me fine.  I did try Windows 8 and did not like it.

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Tried 8 a couple times and it seemed to take more work to get where I wanted. Metro is useless to me. I've created my own shortcuts on 7 to go right to any file in on click, not two or three. I'd like to know the age of people using W8 and on what devices. Tablets, phones, desktops ?

- I believe the real failure of Windows 8 is the failed attempt at having businesses switching over to it from XP or 7. Its not going to happen.  Companies were slow in the first place, if at all to switch from XP to 7. The learning curve in training thousands of workers to adapt to W8 from the traditional XP or W7 would be too steep and costly.

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I'm not a nerd who's going to remember those codes.  That's not easy for an average user.

 

Typing those letters is much easier than working out how to do these things without the "codes". And you don't have to remember them, you need them once, since:

 

post-105752-0-71024200-1380215777.png

 

works too, and even has the correct icon by default. Matching the one in control panel.

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Switched to Windows 8 during the RC and although I went back to 7 until the final release of 8, I ended up buying the upgrade for $15 and haven't gone back yet.

I used the start screen for awhile since I didn't mind it but last month I realized I never used metro apps so I bought Startisback and have been very happy to have the start menu back since I don't have to clutter my desktop with the documents/music/photo/etc folders now. Its pretty much Windows 7 but better.

 

I don't see why I'd go back to 7, I do miss Aero glass and all the msstyles I had though... But it was the same when I went from XP to 7, I can get over it.

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Bought Windows 8 on release day and haven't looked back. They're both solid operating systems, but I like the start screen much more than the button/menu concept. Plus 8 seems much more responsive than 7.

 

Win8 does feel unpolished in places, but that makes perfect sense, really. We're seeing the start of a new UI concept after 17 years of the start button. It feels a lot like Win95 did back in the day - imperfect but with a lot of great ideas that just need a little refinement.

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I never switched to 8. I probably will whenever I get around to building a new computer. 8.1 may make the switch more enticing/less frustrating, so that will help too.

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All of our work machines and my personal machines are running 8 or 8.1 and I am completely happy with it. It almost feels a little retro for me when I use 7 as I have been using 8 since the original Developer Preview.

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Windows 8 is light years better than 7, I see no reason to downgrade to a worse OS

I coud understand that some people would prefer windows 8; but these exaggerations are just non-sense to me.

It's as if windows 7 was already obsolete , which I  think is bit silly : windows 8 looks for the most part like windows 7,

with that metro layer / logic  over it. It's precisely that metro thing that some people don't want to accept,

although it seems that are ways to ignore it .

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Windows 8/8.1 is so much more than old Windows-plus-Metro apps-minus-the Start Menu.

 

So many small things;

 

- Cleaner Explorer, ribbon (or not), more useful stuff in "This PC" window, copy/move dialogues

- PIN logon

- Multi-monitor taskbar

- Storage spaces

- Cool lock-screen slideshows

- loads of other stuff I can't think of right now...

- & best of all - 'borrowing' Windows 2012R2's best feature - FS Deduplication FTW!

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I don't know if this happened to you guys, but after I did upgrade from windows 7 to windows 8.1; I was prompt to enter password for my local account then I was prompt to provide outlook.com account and when I did computer logged in with outlook.com account. So I went to User Accounts to disconnect outlook account and then windows 8.1 is asking me to create local account instead of giving me option to use the one which already exist, so I had to create another local account, log in back to my original local account and delete second local account. Windows 8.1 brings really nice performance but everything else is messed up, out of box. After uninstalling Metro Apps (don't use them), Windows 8.1 turned out to suffer from same issue as Windows 8, pretty unusable. Browsing apps through Apps Metro screen is just eye killing process, literally I get lost there since everything is just dump on screen. Again due performance improvements and installed Start 8 which makes Windows 8x OS usable in my opinion. A lot of annoyances are still present in Windows 8. Some options are removed from Control Panel so you are forced now to go to PC Settings, still major mess there. Search through Metro is major annoyance since it takes me from desktop to full metro screen, just so bad for eyes and then everywhere search option is just hell of over doing not bringing anything I am looking for. So I disabled Bing, also I disabled Sky Drive which is pretty useless compared to Bit Casa I use. Apparently Photos and Camera cannot be uninstalled along with Sky Drive but again I had to change default photo editor so I doesn't open Photo Metro App while I am on Desktop which lacks even simple option like Print.

 

Overall, I am not sure what is worse, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, just terrible experience for desktop users. Again, Start 8 resolves all issues, pretty much don't have to go to Metro world ever. I was thinking about going to Windows 7 but no need since Start 8 does a trick, again some performance improvements I get with Windows 8 is a plus. I do miss Aero interface, this one looks too boring and flat, but that's just my preference. Acronis True Image is replacement for useless System Restore and File Backup built in Windows 8. Also boot process with Windows 8 is same as with Windows 7 since I disabled hibernation and sleep, something which is out of option for overclocked high end system. As far as anything else Windows 8 doesn't bring anything new worth mentioning. Lock screen is rather a joke, like some flash card which plays no purpose for me since I don't use Metro Apps and don't care about notifications on it.

 

That would be my mini review of Windows 8.

 

MS -> please bring Windows 9 and separate Desktop OS from Table/Phone OS.

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I have a windows 7 OEM DVD, if it was a retail DVD in an instant.  My PC came with Windows 8, so I don't know if anything wouldn't work or not.  

 

Probably would, just get drivers from OEM for Windows 7. Most of those drivers support Windows 7/8 so you should be fine.

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As far as Windows is concerned, I've used every version of it since 3.0.

 

I didn't like the betas/preview versions much, but I'm now using a couple of machines with 8 on it daily and frankly I no longer see what the big fuss is.  8's just another evolutionary step.  I use different machines all the time with different OSes and can switch back and forth without a second thought.  My world isn't crumbling around me because of Windows 8.

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