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A Windows 8.1 Retrospective

boiled4safety
By boiled4safety
in Windows
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Hey all,

 

Recently built my home media PC and while creating my bootable USB I thought Iˋd install Windows 8.1 to take a look back and revisit the OS. Have been playing with it for a few days and there were some things in 8.1 that I forgot about after years of using windows 10 that just feel so much better. I donˋt have any hopes of Microsoft bringing some of these touches back but here are the few things that I just liked better on 8.1 than Windows 10.

 

But I should mention here that the 8.1 Start menu and Start Search are horrible and makes Win10ˋs implementation look amazing lol

 

In 8.1 the activation prompts are far more aggresive, in 10 you can basically use the OS as normal with a watermark, compared to 8.1's approach, of frequently, often at startup, giving you a blue page just saying activate windows. You can obviously click through to the settings and then X out and pretend it never happened. But the more you do so, in my experience thus far the X goes away and you have to Alt-tab your way out. This happens at least 3-4 times a day of just casually using the OS. I don't want to buy an activation key considering 8.1's long term support is ending in 11 months so, just thought I'd mention it.

 

1) How Updates are handled (Shocker to no one)

While I haven't gotten much updates since my install, other than at the very beginning. The updates were far less obtrusive. They just ran in the backgroud and the settings to change my update preferences were respected and easy to configure in the admitedly kinda janky settings app of Win 8.1. I'd say only in the past year or two has 10 come around in terms of making the updates a little less aggressive and random and out of nowhere. But it's happened for over 5 years that they were aggresive and out of nowhere for seamingly no reason and it does still happen from time to time where I go to boot up my Win10 PC and its just updating where as on 8.1 I have full control on whether that happens or not. 

 

2) File Explorer

File explorer in general just has flaws and it is well documented that from time to time it will freeze or be a little janky and chunky feeling. That is totally correct, but comparing File explorer on my Media PC with WAY older hardware VS my personal system with much more modern hardware. It is truly staggering that I found the 8.1 file explorer just more reliable. It just does what I want it to do when I want to do it. And this was tested with adding large hard drives with lots of data on them for an apples to apples comparison. As well as the old school Win7 style icons, those were pretty sweet but I think I like the visual look of 10's file system a little bit better. Also, Windows photo viewer is so quick on 8.1 compared to the Photos app on Win10. 

3) Themes

While I prefer the look of Win10 overall more than 8.1 and overall I think 10 goes more out of its way to be more customizable in terms of asthetics. There's something super nostalgic about these old themes that we just don't have anymore. I do perfer the stock wallpapers of 8.1 however. But, just a thought. 

 

4) The volume settings are WAY better than the annoying little volume menu we have in 10

That is all I have to say about this, because its true. However I work in audio engineering and I almost never use this menu because all of my sound is controlled and amplified externally but thought I should mention it. 

 

5) Snappier feel on older hardware

I'm running 8.1 on my super old rig, becuase I still had some parts laying around and for a home media PC consisting mostly of streaming Netflix and watching Youtube its totally fine. I'm running a Core2 Quad Q6600 4 Core, 8gb of DDR2 and a 120gb SSD. The OS just feels normal and not sluggish whatsoever. Other than a frame or 2 here and there dropping, this OS just glides. A stark contrast to the much heavier Win10 that was honestly dog slow on this hardware. 

 

6) Installation literally took no time

So much less button clicks. So much less telemetry settings. So much less "TRY OFFICE 365". Just select the version of Windows you want to install, select the drive to install it to, and boom it starts installing. Literally took no time.

 

These are just 6 little things that I liked about 8.1. Do I think its overall better than Win10? No. That can go for many reasons, whether its compatitbility with newer games and software or newer hardware. The design of Win10 is far more modern compared to its predecessor. Overall I just prefer to use Win10 on the day to day. But this little experiment was fun and it brought me back in time and I found somethings I like and don't  like about this older OS. Remeber hot corners in 8.1? That was annoying lol

 

Let me know if anyone else has some thoughts on Win8.1 or older versions of Windows. Maybe things that would be cool to be brought back and re-introduced in Windows 11. Thanks for reading my random thoughts. 

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There are a lot of small things like that that I prefer 10 over 11 for. XP is still my favorite Windows version and it'll probably always remain that way. It seems with every version they make some small changes that some people want, but of course not everyone wants those. In trying to make it more user friendly often functionality is removed, or the other way around. Something I loved about XP that they actually brought back in 11 but wasn't in anything in between from what I can tell is, if you mute volume then use the up/down buttons, it changes what the volume will be when you unmute it, but still leaves it muted (while every other Windows unmutes it when you press the other buttons).

What the horse considers play, the monkey considers business...

But to Tom, it's all foolery. 

 

 

 

 

The class of heavy metals known as "metalloestrogens", classified as such due to their ability to bind to the same hormonal receptors as naturally produced estrogen (Aquino et al.), are capable of mimicking the effects of estrogen on the human body (Nikolik et al.). Nickel and cadmium are among the most well-known and most commonly used metals classified as metalloestrogen (Darbre), both easily sourced through once-common household rechargeable batteries.

Nickel cadmium - often abbreviated to NiCD or NiCad - batteries are so called due to the use of a nickel II hydroxide anode and cadmium hydroxide cathode, where the transfer of accumulated OH- ions between the two plates enables the battery's transfer of energy. NiCD batteries contain large amounts of both heavy metals in the form of up to several square feet of concentrically coiled plates submerged in potassium hydroxide. Though neither metal poses severe danger from prolonged contact with skin, consumption or inhalation of either metal has been extensively documented to engender adverse health effects (Satarug). 

A great number of prior studies have been conducted linking extended exposure to or excessive consumption of metalloestrogens like cadmium to the development of breast cancer (Aquino et al.) - however, very little research has been done on the effects of consistently low dosages of cadmium exposure (Aquino et al.). Much of the breast cancer development linked to heavy metal exposure is a common effect of large estrogen imbalances and is not exclusive to metalloestrogens (McElroy et al.). Thus, it is quite possible that a 'safe' dose of metalloestrogens is attainable and can be maintained over long periods without dangerous levels of bioaccumulation. 

Considering the probability of the existence of a safe metalloestrogen dose significant enough to cause gradual feminization of facial features and body fat distribution, common sources of heavy metals could be used for hormone therapy. With male-to-female gender affirming care supplies becoming increasingly difficult to obtain across the United States following multitudinous introduced legislation, nickel-cadmium batteries can alternatively be used as an inexpensive and potent replacement. 

 

Works Cited

      Aquino NB, Sevigny MB, Sabangan J, Louie MC. The role of cadmium and nickel in estrogen receptor signaling and breast cancer: metalloestrogens or not? J Environ Sci Health C Environ Carcinog Ecotoxicol Rev. 2012;30(3):189-224. doi: 10.1080/10590501.2012.705159. PMID: 22970719; PMCID: PMC3476837.

      Rollerova, E., Urbancikova, N. Intracellular estrogen receptors, their characterization and function (Review). https://www.sav.sk/journals/endo/full/er0400f.pdf.

      Nikolic J, Sokolovic D. Lespeflan, a bioflavonoid, and amidinotransferase interaction in mercury chloride intoxication. Ren Fail. 2004 Nov;26(6):607-11. doi: 10.1081/jdi-200037149. PMID: 15600250.

      Darbre PD. Metalloestrogens: an emerging class of inorganic xenoestrogens with potential to add to the oestrogenic burden of the human breast. J Appl Toxicol. 2006 May-Jun;26(3):191-7. doi: 10.1002/jat.1135. PMID: 16489580.

      Satarug S, Garrett SH, Sens MA, Sens DA. Cadmium, environmental exposure, and health outcomes. Environ Health Perspect. 2010 Feb;118(2):182-90. doi: 10.1289/ehp.0901234. PMID: 20123617; PMCID: PMC2831915.

      McElroy JA, Shafer MM, Trentham-Dietz A, Hampton JM, Newcomb PA. Cadmium exposure and breast cancer risk. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006 Jun 21;98(12):869-73. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djj233. PMID: 16788160.

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33 minutes ago, boiled4safety said:

Also, Windows photo viewer is so quick on 8.1 compared to the Photos app on Win10.

This is my single biggest complaint about Win10. The new Photos app actively tries to be harder to use versus the Photo Viewer. Problem is that the Photo Viewer has bugs with newer(?) JPGs and doesn't correctly support WEBP.

 

It's on my todo list to start trying alternatives (Irfanview, etc) to see if there's another one I like better.

Main System (Byarlant): Ryzen 9 5950X | Asus B550-Creator ProArt | EK 240mm Basic AIO | 32GB G.Skill DDR4 3600MT/s CL16 | XFX Speedster SWFT 210 RX 6600 | Samsung 990 PRO 2TB / Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB | Corsair RM750X | StarTech 4× USB 3.0 Card | Realtek RTL8127 10G NIC | Hyte Y60 Case | Dell U3415W Monitor | Keychron K12 Blue (RGB backlight)

 

Laptop (Narrative): Lenovo Flex 5 81X20005US | Ryzen 5 4500U | 16GB DDR4 3200MT/s (soldered) | Vega II 384SP Graphics | SKHynix P31 1TB NVMe SSD | Intel AX200 Wifi | Asus 2.5G USB NIC | Asus ProArt PA278QV | Keychron K4 Brown (white backlight)

 

Proxmox Server (Veda): Ryzen 7 3800XT | ASRock Rack X470D4U | Corsair H80i v2 | 128GB Micron DDR4 ECC 3200MT/s | 2× Samsung PM963a 960GB SSD / 4× WD 10TB / 4× Seagate 14TB Exos / 4× Micron MX500 2TB / 8× WD 12TB (custom external SAS enclosure) | Seasonic Prime Fanless 500W | Intel X550-T2 10G NIC | LSI 9300-8i HBA | Adaptec 82885T SAS Expander | Fractal Design Node 804 Case

 

Proxmox Server (La Vie en Rose): GMKtec Mini PC | Ryzen 7 5700U | 32GB Lexar DDR4 (SODIMM) | Vega II 512SP Graphics | Lexar 1TB 610 Pro SSD | 2× Realtek 8125 2.5G NICs


Media Center/Video Capture (Jesta Cannon): Ryzen 5 1600X | ASRock B450M Pro4 R2.0 | Noctua NH-L12S | 16GB Crucial DDR4 3200MT/s | EVGA GTX750Ti SC | UMIS NVMe SSD 256GB / TEAMGROUP MS30 1TB | Corsair CX450M | Viewcast Osprey 260e Video Capture | TrendNet (AQC107) 10G NIC | LG WH14NS40 BD-ROM | Silverstone Sugo SG-11 Case | Sony XR65A80K

 

Workbench (Doven Wolf): Lenovo m715q | Ryzen Pro 3 2200GE | 16GB Crucial DDR4 3200MT/s (SODIMM) | Vega 8 Graphics | SKHynix (OEM) 256GB NVMe SSD | uni 2.5G USB NIC | HDMI add-in module

 

Network:

Spoiler 
                       ┌─────────────── Office/Rack ───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
Google Fiber Webpass ── Cloud Gateway Max ══╦═ Pro XG 8 ══╦═ Flex 2.5-8 ══╦═ Doven Wolf
                      La Vie en Rose (DNS) ═╬═ Narrative  ╠═ Veda-NAS     ╠═ La Vie en Rose (vmbr)
                                Veda (DNS) ─┘             ╠═ Veda (vmbr)  ├─ Ptolemy (vmbr)
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╩═ Ptolemy-NAS  ├─ Veda (Mgmt)
║   ┌ Closet ┐      ┌───────── Bedroom ─────────┐                         └─ Veda (IPMI)
╚═══ Flex XG ══╦╤═══ Flex XG ══╤╦═ Byarlant
       (PoE)   ║│              │╠═ Narrative 
Kitchen Jack ══╣└─ Dual PoE ┐  │╚═ Jesta Cannon*
   (Testing)   ║┌─ Injector ┘  └── Work Laptop
     Bedroom ══╝│        ┌─────── Media Center ────────────────────────────┐
     Jack #2    └──────── Switch 8 ────────────┬─ nanoHD Access Point (PoE)
Notes:                                         ├─ Sony PlayStation 4 
─── is Gigabit / ═══ is Multi-Gigabit          ├─ Pioneer VSX-S520
* = cable passed from Bedroom to Media Center  └─ Sony XR65A80K (Google TV)
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I loved XP and 7, the two that I grew up on primarily, with 8.1 in a tie for 3rd with 10. 8.1 and 10 are vastly different interfaces, and have their benefits and detriments and 8.1 was really good for using on a touchscreen laptop for many power-user activities in my experience.

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When I built a new system in May/June 2013, I installed both Win8.0 and Linux Mint. 8.1 wasn't out yet. To make Windows usable I installed a Add-on called ClasssicShell. Among other things it brought back the Start Menu. It also behaved more less as Win7. The Metro UI is totally useless as a Desktop. For Smartphones and Tablets? I wouldn't know.

 

With Win10, the Developer couldn't keep up with the stream of Updates, so he retired and FOSS the Add-On and it now Open Shell. I have that installed on 10.

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1 hour ago, whm1974 said:

When I built a new system in May/June 2013, I installed both Win8.0 and Linux Mint. 8.1 wasn't out yet. To make Windows usable I installed a Add-on called ClasssicShell. Among other things it brought back the Start Menu. It also behaved more less as Win7. The Metro UI is totally useless as a Desktop. For Smartphones and Tablets? I wouldn't know.

 

With Win10, the Developer couldn't keep up with the stream of Updates, so he retired and FOSS the Add-On and it now Open Shell. I have that installed on 10.

For tablets, the Metro UI was second to none. It was absolutely fabulous. And for touchscreen laptops it was pretty great as well for multitasking as the snap feature wasn't out yet (W10 feature). It did require quite a bit of customization to get it to be streamlined, but once you put in the time, it was pretty useful, albeit annoying at times when you would accidentally brush your finger across the windows key. 8.0 was awful, and 8.1 fixed a majority of the frankly idiotic things they did.

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1 hour ago, BiotechBen said:

For tablets, the Metro UI was second to none. It was absolutely fabulous. And for touchscreen laptops it was pretty great as well for multitasking as the snap feature wasn't out yet (W10 feature). It did require quite a bit of customization to get it to be streamlined, but once you put in the time, it was pretty useful, albeit annoying at times when you would accidentally brush your finger across the windows key. 8.0 was awful, and 8.1 fixed a majority of the frankly idiotic things they did.

Well I did read about how great on the Smartphones and Tablets it used on, low powered Atom SoCs based ones that is. The ARM WinRT should have been better with a decent explanation of no it can't run x86-64 Windows Applications at all...  And used on Smartphones and Tablets only.

 

Personally I would used Metro with WinRT and not Win8.x at all. But...

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2 hours ago, whm1974 said:

Well I did read about how great on the Smartphones and Tablets it used on, low powered Atom SoCs based ones that is. The ARM WinRT should have been better with a decent explanation of no it can't run x86-64 Windows Applications at all...  And used on Smartphones and Tablets only.

 

Personally I would used Metro with WinRT and not Win8.x at all. But...

I had a windows phone running 8.1 and the interface was unmatched. It was honestly a super easy to use OS. The biggest detractor was that they couldn't really get higher end internals in the phones so they struggled as they went on. I had a Nokia Lumia 635 that had 8GB ROM and 512kb RAM and it was unable to access websites that had lots of banner ads or high def video playback. The whole system would crash to desktop whenever something intensive was requested. But mind you, that phone was pretty much the most barebones ones that was sold. The only OSes that I've found that were better were Oreo and Android 11

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3 hours ago, BiotechBen said:

I had a windows phone running 8.1 and the interface was unmatched. It was honestly a super easy to use OS. The biggest detractor was that they couldn't really get higher end internals in the phones so they struggled as they went on. I had a Nokia Lumia 635 that had 8GB ROM and 512kb RAM and it was unable to access websites that had lots of banner ads or high def video playback. The whole system would crash to desktop whenever something intensive was requested. But mind you, that phone was pretty much the most barebones ones that was sold. The only OSes that I've found that were better were Oreo and Android 11

That is a low amount of RAM for a smartphone back the. The ~$80 to ~$100 low end smartphone I gotten in 2013 after I received my SSDI Award, had better Specs then that.

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12 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

Something I loved about XP that they actually brought back in 11 but wasn't in anything in between from what I can tell is, if you mute volume then use the up/down buttons, it changes what the volume will be when you unmute it, but still leaves it muted (while every other Windows unmutes it when you press the other buttons).

That's actually awesome, if ever I upgrade to Win11 I'm def going to try this. 

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11 hours ago, AbydosOne said:

This is my single biggest complaint about Win10. The new Photos app actively tries to be harder to use versus the Photo Viewer. Problem is that the Photo Viewer has bugs with newer(?) JPGs and doesn't correctly support WEBP.

 

It's on my todo list to start trying alternatives (Irfanview, etc) to see if there's another one I like better.

Holy cow, if you find a better one I'd love to hear about it. I'm a hobbyist photographer and this is such a pain point for me in Windows 10.

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11 hours ago, whm1974 said:

When I built a new system in May/June 2013, I installed both Win8.0 and Linux Mint. 8.1 wasn't out yet. To make Windows usable I installed a Add-on called ClasssicShell. Among other things it brought back the Start Menu. It also behaved more less as Win7.

Classic Shell was such a life saver at the time. I remember reading the articles about it and seeing bascially everyone I knew with Win8 install this. At the time I just stuck to 7 and waited a little bit longer. 

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9 hours ago, BiotechBen said:

For tablets, the Metro UI was second to none. It was absolutely fabulous. And for touchscreen laptops it was pretty great as well for multitasking as the snap feature wasn't out yet (W10 feature). It did require quite a bit of customization to get it to be streamlined, but once you put in the time, it was pretty useful, albeit annoying at times when you would accidentally brush your finger across the windows key. 8.0 was awful, and 8.1 fixed a majority of the frankly idiotic things they did.

I remeber at the time when Windows Phone was still at its prime and people were still slinging Lumia's and that cool yellow one with the big camera. That the UI was surpisingly fluent on devices like phone and tablets and even ran well on lower end hardware especially compared the lower end android phones of the era

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4 hours ago, whm1974 said:

That is a low amount of RAM for a smartphone back the. The ~$80 to ~$100 low end smartphone I gotten in 2013 after I received my SSDI Award, had better Specs then that.

Oh, my bad, it was 512MB RAM, which was about 512MB short of what it needed to be.

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