Windows 8

I got Windows 8 Pro installed on one of my hard drives this weekend. Although I've been running the previews for 9 months, I'm very impressed with the final release. It's very fast and stable. And the best news of all is that my games are installing and playing without any problems at all. So far games such as Dracula The Last Sanctuary form 2002 and a couple others from that general time period are working great. As time permits, I'll be testing out as many games as possible. But, so far, so good!

Thanks for letting us know Draclvr. The games running are always my first concern with a new OS. Are the other programs easy to use ? And are they easy to use ?

hatshepsut

I'm not sure what you mean by programs, but learning to use this new OS is a whole new experience! Your "start" is now the tile interface you see in the commercials. However, if you are more comfortable in the familiar Windows 7 type desktop interface, just a tap of the Windows key takes you there. I rather like both of them and some of the apps on the tile interface are very cool. I love the news app - my entire screen is what I'm reading - no ads! I also downloaded the All Recipes.com app and had to drag myself out of it after an hour.

My favorite thing is the speed and stability though. I'm running it on a separate hard drive in the computer I built 4 years ago. It runs circles around my Windows 7 installation on an identical hard drive running on the same hardware.

But it is new and different. I'm recommending to anyone who asks that if you like Windows 7, just stay with it. But if you have to buy a new computer, don't be intimidated by Windows 8 on the desktop because it works with mouse and keyboard very well.

I really don't like Windows 7. I guess I was a little vague about the programs. I meant does Windows 8 have an Office program that is rasy to use. Does it have an email, music and pictures that are easy to use and find. Is the media player uncomplicated ? And does it have an easy to use paint program. Is the Documents easy to use save and find ? I'm not sure I understand about the interface ( I haven't seen any commercials). Would you have the same choice of interface on a laptop that you have on desktop ?

hatshepsut

Windows comes with nothing, but the OS, just like Windows 7. You can purchase Microsoft Office - I have Office Home and Student which only has Word, Excel and Power Point. Or you can download the free Open Office suite. It has a mail app which you can tie to a web-based email account such as Hotmail or Gmail. If you want to use a POP email account, you can download Windows Live Essentials. From there you can choose Windows Live Mail (the old Outlook Express), Messenger, a picture and movie maker and several other programs. I only use Live Mail, so didn't download any of the others. Or you can download something like Thunderbird which is an email program from Mozilla which also has the FIrefox web browser.

Like Windows 7, it has the basic word processor Word Pad which is fine for simple word processing. Documents, Photos, Videos and Music are found in the Library just like Windows 7. The default interface is the "Modern UI" formerly known as Metro. You can switch back and forth between it and the desktop with the Windows key.

This is at the Microsoft website. They only show the Modern UI interface in the video, but the desktop has a picture below. Windows 8

Thanks for the information Draclvr. Sounds like Windows 8 would work for me

hatshepsut

I am using Windows 8 Pro since a month now. It's great, fast and super-stable. I thought that I wouldn't like the surface screen (aka Metro) but I got used to it and I think that it is very good too. It is twice as fast as WIndows 7 and all in all significally better. If someone for any reason doesn't like the Metro screen and wants to0 boot directly to the desktop, there are many great freeware utilities which do the job and add a start button/menu too. For example:

1. Classic Shell (That's what I use full customizable with skins etc. I didn't disable metro though, just to have a normal start menu).
http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

2. Skip Metro suite
http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.103

I got Start8 for mine. I looked at Classic Shell too; hadn't seen the other one you mention that allows you to skip the tile interface or Modern UI or Windows 8 UI or whatever they are calling it now. But I'm like you and I rather LIKE my start screen and its tiles.

But the speed and stability are definitely my favorite things about it. And once you learn the tricks on getting around, I find it much easier to find things too. Search is amazing and the new Task Manager is darned near worth it alone!

Just curious - Drac, do all your old DOS and Win 3.xx games run in Windows 8 as well?

I don't play DOS or Win3.xx games. I imagine they will need 3rd party software to play just as on Windows 7.