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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Win 8.1

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palcal

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Joined: 12/10/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1989

Posted: 01:42pm 01 Apr 2015

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Thinking of buying a new computer for my work shop. Don't need anything fancy just a cheap tower. I've been using Win XP on an old box about 10 years old.
Is Win 8.1 OK or should I wait for Win 10 and will that be any good.
Paul.

"It is better to be ignorant and ask a stupid question than to be plain Stupid and not ask at all"

G8JCF

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Joined: 15/05/2014
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 676

Posted: 02:18pm 01 Apr 2015

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@palcal

Get Windows 7 Pro which has a Windows XP Virtual machine built in for free so that any of your "old" s/w, eg VB6, can still run.

Windows 7 Pro can be purchased for less than US$40 from http://www.os-operating-system.com/en/Operating-Systems/Windows-7-Professional/ . It's all legit, I have bought 3 to upgrade my Windows XP computers and they're all working great - use the Windows 7 upgrade wizard to check that your h/w is sufficient (I had to buy a new graphics card for my old Dell Dimension 5000).

So if you can find a machine with "Downgrade" rights to Windows 7 - go for it, else, think about upgrading your existing machine/buy an OS-free machine to Windows 7 Pro.

Of course you could be really radical/brave and take a step into the Brave New World, and go with Ubuntu (Linux)

If you really have no option except to run Windows 8, then be sure to get Start 8 so as to restore the Start Menu (Windows 7 style) to Windows 8.

Peter

The only Konstant is Change

Gizmo

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Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5116

Posted: 03:03pm 01 Apr 2015

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Yeah agree with Peter.

If your like me and many others, and just want to use the computer as a tool, then going from WinXP to Win8 will be a frustrating experience.

If you like a bit of change, and have time to learn a new interface, then Win8 is pretty good. Win8 is faster, and better in many ways than the previous versions, but it is a big change, and has a bit of a learning curve to find the things you used daily on XP.

Personally, I'm sticking with Win7, and Classic Shell for my startup button, for as long as I can, and will look at Win10 at a later date. I'll give Win8 a miss.

Glenn

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ

BobD

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Joined: 07/12/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 935

Posted: 03:09pm 01 Apr 2015

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Paul
I've been running win 8.1 ever since it was released and I have no problems with it. As Peter says, if you get win 8 / 8.1 get Start 8 or if you want a free one then get Classic Shell. If you are seriously thinking win 8 then go 8.1. It is much superior. If you decide to go that way then post back as I can help with where to get the legit installer etc.
Bob

hitsware
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Joined: 23/11/2012
Location: United States
Posts: 535

Posted: 03:46pm 01 Apr 2015

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I just got 1 of these
and liked it enough to get 2 more.
I think no worse (after XP)
than XP (after Win98) ! .............
Then (as mentioned) there is Linux
(which I've used for the last 2 years)
Depends what you want to do.
Edited by hitsware 2015-04-03

Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9593

Posted: 06:12pm 01 Apr 2015

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I moved from Win7 Ultimate to Win8 then 8.1, and personally, I really like Win8.
I find it is loads faster then even Win7 was on the same hardware, and it is a rocket on the same hardware compared to XP.

Although, to be fair, the machine I had XP running on, probably was designed more for the Win7 OS, so it may have been inefficent on XP as a matter of coarse, so I might not be giving XP a fair rating on that one.

In any event, XP does not like SSD's, and although you can force a certain amount of SSD and AHCI support into XP, it was never designed for SSD's, so does not really run that well on SSD's. Win8 on even a modest SSD is fantastically fast. So much so, that I can hardly bear to wait while XP painfully refreashes all the screen graphics when you crank something up, as it cache's from the HDD.

Not that it was a problem then or even now, but once you get a taste of the speed of something like Win8 on an SSD install, that was enough for me to stick with 8 from that point on - slow PC's make my neck-hair itch.

As for Linux, it is getting better all the time in terms of ease-of-use vs it's power, and I now have two Linux boxes on my Windoze network - one is a server, the other is an OpenElec media-player running on a Raspberry Pi 2.

I still use an XP box too, but it is on a static IP with no gateway access, so it can't talk to the Internet. This runs my radio-station software, and acts as a print server for my old printers that don't have Win8 support.

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

BobD

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Joined: 07/12/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 935

Posted: 06:55pm 01 Apr 2015

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Grogs
Thanks for mentioning SSDs. I converted both of my machines to SSDs about 6 months back. One machine, an overclocked desktop beast, was already pretty zippy and it took off when installed with an SSD. The other was a very slow 10" notebook. I put an SSD and an AC wifi card in it with Bluetooth it is now a very useful machine. They both run win 8.1. I agree with your comments about speed. Win 8.1 is better than 7 & 8.

The problem with XP and SSDs is that it can't do TRIM which helps cleanup the deleted areas on the SSD.

jman

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Joined: 12/06/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 711

Posted: 07:26pm 01 Apr 2015

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Hi

My two penny's worth
I use win8.1 64 bit with no issue and really do like it.
For the old legacy stuff I run a XP virtual machine using the free version of VM Player the advantage of the VMware products it that they do USB pass-through
really easily (So things like a pickit 2 work with no dramas in the virtual machine)

VmPlayer

Regards
Jman
Edited by jman 2015-04-03

Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9593

Posted: 07:50pm 01 Apr 2015

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@ BobD - I think you mean this link for TRIM

I seem to remember reading that TRIM and SSD's WERE supported in XP, but only in a certain fashion. Win7 and higher are designed to use SSD's as the install drive by default, which means they can build in obvious speed advantages at OS level, for these type of drive. Naturally, you can still install 8 or 8.1 on a spinning HDD, it just won't be as zippy as on an SSD.

EDIT: Forum software is removing the parenthesis from the link, so it is not working right.

Text-only link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_(computing)Edited by Grogster 2015-04-03

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

BobD

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Joined: 07/12/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 935

Posted: 08:03pm 01 Apr 2015

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Grogs
Thanks for sorting out the link. It was one of the few times I didn't test the link when in Preview. I was in a hurry to take the dog for a walk and get to the mailbox. She who normally walks the dog and spends all my money, is away at present.
Bob

raymond thomson

Newbie

Joined: 19/09/2013
Location: Australia
Posts: 36

Posted: 05:15am 02 Apr 2015

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I have to agree with Glenn. Having spent many hours trying to sync accounts across MS platforms Win 8.0 has to go. I am running it on an HP touch screen laptop and it is very inconsistent, if fast. Even MS have agreed to give free upgrades to Win 10 and appear to be walking away from yet another disaster. When at home I find myself resorting to Win7 on various machines around the house and thank goodness for cloud storage.
Their attempt to replicate apps in the same way that Androids do is not successful.
Raymond

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