UPDATE: I've been on Windows 8.1 for about a few days now and haven't came across a single issue, none of my previous Windows 8 bugs have occurred and I'm feeling right at home with 8.1 after the switch from 7.
Hi forum.
I'm upgrading my desktop with a new HDD and my first SSD (quite excited) Due to this I have asked a friend for his "genuine" windows install disk of which he has 2, Windows 7 and Windows 8...this is where I am torn.
In the past, close to Windows 8 launch (prior to 8.1) I tried to give Windows 8 a go and was plagued with bugs regarding game performance and sound (OS basically made my USB condenser microphone unusable)
Despite the bugs I did enjoy the overall feel of Windows 8 even with it's odd Metro interface (which I am aware can be avoided) and I am now wondering how people feel about Windows 8 for gaming and such.
In short, I will be using a WINDOWS operating system for a mix of gaming and multi-media work (Adobe CC) and wish to know others performance experiences and any issues that I may have.
Here are my specs in-case you get interested: Motherboard: MSI H61M-P32/W8 GPU: R9 270 CPU: i5 2400 RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz OS Storage: SanDisk SSD PLUS 120 GB Main Storage: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200RPM.
(Final Note: I am NOT interested in using Linux or any other variant of it, Windows is what I am familiar with and would like to stick to despite what the Twats at Microsoft are doing)
windows 8 works, is it possible to go to 8.1 or was that a limited time kinda thing. had 8.1 and then upgraded to 10. I think I enjoyed 8.1 better but my concern for 8.1 was that adobe's applications would be better optimized to run on windows 10. I was looking for the best possible performance... but now I'm being spied on so I don't know if it's worth it. Anyway windows 8 had major performance improvements over 7 and it's still supported. I think windows 7 support was cut a while ago. hope that helps.
I'll see if he has 8.1 (I'm sure I can find it if not) obviously the free upgrade to 10 is available for me right now but I'm scared of repeating the experiences I had with Windows 8 at the time (early bugs) Judging from what I have heard so far it seems 8/8.1 works quite well so I may give it a go, thanks for the info!
8 has worked flawlessly since 8.1. Truthfully, 10 works almost flawlessly as well (for me at least), most driver issues have been fixed at this point so it's buttery smooth.
Just download classic start from www.ninite.com if you go with 8.1 though.
Friend informed me that he has a disk for Windows 8.1 Pro so I'll nab that and see how it goes, any ideas on whether it's worth buying a Key from ebay or just dealing with the watermark "not genuine" issues.
Would there be many trust worthy activators on there? Also where would I go to get a genuine key then? I tried searching the Microsoft store but I had Windows 10 blasted into my face at every click.
I got a Windows 7 Ultimate key off ebay for like $20. I just checked the guys feedback to make sure his keys were actually activating.
I thought it was a scam, but it activated as Geniune Windows OEM, and it even let me have the free Windows 10 upgrade. So I ended up with an activated Windows 10 Pro for $20 (but I could've lived on 7 Ultimate). No way I was going to pay $$$ to install an OS on a computer I paid $30 for.
Since no one has mentioned it to you yet, regardless of what you install you will eventually wind up on Win X unless you turn off the updates right after the install and even that is not a sure thing, MS's intent is to twilight (end support) all Windows consumer versions forcing users into the Win X exosphere.
I understand them cutting the updates, if worse comes to worse I'll upgrade to 10 which by then should be well into it's release and have most of the kinks worked out (if any)
Oh they are not cutting the updates, they in fact will update you right into Win X, it's the support which would be fixing security holes, vulnerabilities, and compatibility with new features that they will be ending, if I remember correctly everything consumer short of Win X has a shelf life of a little over a year, so some time in 2017 they will stop releasing targeted updates for the above mentioned items unless you have paid for support, they will on the business side continue to fix problems for years, but on the consumer side you will be assimilated into Win X sooner or later.