Win 7 -> Win 8

[Ghost]

Well I have recently made the switch from windows 7 to windows 8. Quite literally about an hour ago. I tested the OS during the beta and didn't like it very much, however, now they seemed to have fixed a lot of my issues with it.

Linus kind of gave me the idea with his iOS -> Win Mobile Blog, that maybe I should do a blog about changing from WIn7 to Win8 as many people seem undecided and there are a lot of assumptions flying around. Reminiscent of the Apple vrs. Android battle between users of the two OS's.

I haven't decided what format this blog will be in, I could do videos every day or I could just write a paragraph (that may sometimes extend to a wall of text) every day. As this will be mainly read/watched by you guys if this does go ahead I thought i'd ask you guys first.

Thanks!

[gamer tom]

Write a paragraph everyday, a lot of us won't bother watching videos

[Ghost]

Write a paragraph everyday, a lot of us won't bother watching videos

I would have thought a vid is less bother but okay. :)

[TheDarkKnight_91]

If it's going to be s massive wall of text then I would definitely rather watch a video but if it's just a paragraph or two, then I would rather read it. Either way this sounds interesting. I've been debating switching to windows 8 for a while now.

[UberFefa]

I am also I windows 8, and have been for about 2 months (plus about two weeks of CP). I overall think its a good OS, but there are quite a few downsides. I think you will find alot of these over the next days and weeks.

As for the blog, I would suggest a paragraph a day + any other things you think of. I think you might want to make a blogspot or tumblr(?) page for it though, as it would be more steam line with less interruptions compared to the forum. Then you can just link.

For content I would suggest you give your opinions on the UI (a big deal among some people) as well as talk about which (if any) apps you use. I personally use the Mail, Calendar, (sometimes) and people apps, and suggest you at least give them a try.

After that, after a few weeks or so, you might want to talk about bugs and issues, as there are quite a few (I find it to be quite unfinished) all the while you can just give general user experience points.

I think that this is a great idea, and look forward to reading what you have to say. Don't forget to pick up a free copy of windows media centre (unless you dont want it), if you haven't already.

[amintha1992]

i have switched all my PCs from win7 to win8.

so far i have had no problems. and the transition was very easy. noting was realy new about the UI. except for the start screen.

but these days we are so used to having similar layouts on our phones and tabs it was not an issue at all.

and i recommend it to anyone who ask me about it.

[Ghost]

Oh btw I am keeping a log (bullet points) of how its going, I just haven't had time to type it all up yet.

The massive wall of text is coming guys.

[MG2R]

Go for videos...

BTW: I switched to Windows 8 as well, both on laptop and main desktop. It took me about 1 or 2 weeks before I sorted everything out but now I'm happy I made the switch :)

[Laksen]

I like windows 8 with it's ridiculously fast boot time with a SSD, and after installing the "start-menu" from ninite, it basically starts on the desktop instead of within the metro interface, so I hardly never use it, although it could be a little more mouse friendly.

[Borek]

Hey, I put Win 8 on my girlfriend's new computer. I've noticed when playing games that are full-screened, alt tabbing takes an unusually long time. There's no SSD in her machine, but it was definitely much faster in Win 7. Can you at some point report on whether this happens on your machine? Thanks in advance. :)

[Ghost]

Hey, I put Win 8 on my girlfriend's new computer. I've noticed when playing games that are full-screened, alt tabbing takes an unusually long time. There's no SSD in her machine, but it was definitely much faster in Win 7. Can you at some point report on whether this happens on your machine? Thanks in advance. :)

I will do a full test for you later.

I just ran CS:S to test it for you. The first time I alt tab'd the screen when black for half a second. After that it was literally instantaneous. This points to some sort of caching. But its actually faster than Win 7 from what I remember.

[Ghost]

Damn.

I'm back to windows 7.

I will do a write up about why and my experience later. I will try to keep switching between 7 and 8 but I will probably stick with 7.

A few main points would be:

- Inability to end process' in Task Manager. I am left feeling like an idiot while windows tries to determine the issue when I know it can't. You can End Task in 8 but everyone knows how ineffective that is.

- I wish I could install Start8 on Windows 7. It is so much better than the Start menu.

- 8 tends to dislike running programs and games. More about that in the write up.

- My main issue is I am left feeling powerless in windows 8. I have no control over what happens in my PC. I would feel the PC is in danger if I tried to overclock on 8.

- No windowed Skype program in Win 8.

(Ironically this was post 666 for me)

Another point: - Programs don't launch on start up very well on windows 8. Or maybe they do, there's no way of checking. >.<

[Salmiakbal]

Yeah, I also tried it but it felt too dumbed down for me.. The ''app store'', nice and girly start screen.. Nothing for me.

Some stuff was nice like native ISO mounting and the likes.

[Ghost]

And I'm back to windows 8. The clean UI is just too nice.

ALL I REALLY NEED IS TO BE ABLE TO END PROCESSES!

Is there a cmd.exe command I can run to end a process?

[El_indian]

Alt + F4 closes programs. But that's not what you want right?

[MsTrMind]

Damn.

I'm back to windows 7.

I will do a write up about why and my experience later. I will try to keep switching between 7 and 8 but I will probably stick with 7.

A few main points would be:

- Inability to end process' in Task Manager. I am left feeling like an idiot while windows tries to determine the issue when I know it can't. You can End Task in 8 but everyone knows how ineffective that is.

- I wish I could install Start8 on Windows 7. It is so much better than the Start menu.

- 8 tends to dislike running programs and games. More about that in the write up.

- My main issue is I am left feeling powerless in windows 8. I have no control over what happens in my PC. I would feel the PC is in danger if I tried to overclock on 8.

- No windowed Skype program in Win 8.

(Ironically this was post 666 for me)

Another point: - Programs don't launch on start up very well on windows 8. Or maybe they do, there's no way of checking. >.<

There actually is a Skype Desktop application ;)

http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-computer/windows/

I am running W8 since I got a couple of free versions from school, on both desktop and laptop.

Would never go back! Everything just feels snappier, faster and more stable (appart from Firefox, wich is just isn't working for me...).

Another verry VERRY good pro-point is: windows update doesn't shut down your pc anymore :D

[MsTrMind]

And I'm back to windows 8. The clean UI is just too nice.

ALL I REALLY NEED IS TO BE ABLE TO END PROCESSES!

Is there a cmd.exe command I can run to end a process?

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/8ea152/kill-process-from-the-command-prompt-in-windows-8/

This would do the job ;-)

[Ghost]

And I'm back to windows 8. The clean UI is just too nice.

ALL I REALLY NEED IS TO BE ABLE TO END PROCESSES!

Is there a cmd.exe command I can run to end a process?

Damn I could kiss you. (Figure of speech)

Thanks a lot. Involves typing but its better than nothing. Now I just need to learn all the parameters for it.

[Ghost]

Alt + F4 closes programs. But that's not what you want right?

Thats "End Task". I want to "End Process". End Process is much more forceful and works instantly the whole time. The only difference is if you pick the wrong thing you could screw yourself over. Its a good tool if you know what you're doing.

[marv1336]

Good idea, I'll be waiting for more info, I'm on 7 but thinking if it's worth going to 8.

[BenHTBDT]

Damn.

I'm back to windows 7.

I will do a write up about why and my experience later. I will try to keep switching between 7 and 8 but I will probably stick with 7.

A few main points would be:

- Inability to end process' in Task Manager. I am left feeling like an idiot while windows tries to determine the issue when I know it can't. You can End Task in 8 but everyone knows how ineffective that is.

- I wish I could install Start8 on Windows 7. It is so much better than the Start menu.

- 8 tends to dislike running programs and games. More about that in the write up.

- My main issue is I am left feeling powerless in windows 8. I have no control over what happens in my PC. I would feel the PC is in danger if I tried to overclock on 8.

- No windowed Skype program in Win 8.

(Ironically this was post 666 for me)

Another point: - Programs don't launch on start up very well on windows 8. Or maybe they do, there's no way of checking. >.<

You can definitely end processes in task manager. Simply scroll down past the "APPS" section and into "background processes, you can ALSO end processes through the "details" tab. As far as programs on start up, of course they launch basically the same as Windows 7. This is actually handled under task manager instead of msconfig.

CLICK VIEW MORE DETAILS IN TASK MANAGER AND YOU WILL BE GOOD. (Caps for bold effect)

This lets you see processes below the apps, and also in the details tab it looks exactly like the processes tab of old.

Not trying to be rude in any way, but it might be best if you Google these "issues" you're having before making conclusions that they're Windows 8 problems and not PEBCAK issues. This is MS we're talking about, they're not going to release a product that doesn't work (This isn't vista, and even vista wasn't as bad as people think). They didn't really remove anything that was in Win7 at all, though it might be in a different menu or worded differently.

Overclocking has literally NOTHING AT ALL to do with your OS so I'm a little confused there. If you're overclocking in a Windows based application, there's your first problem...

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that for you, it's gonna take some learning of the new OS. It WILL involve effort on your part. That's normal. Don't jump to conclusions that Windows 8 doesn't have X or Y and you'll be good.

As far as your programs not running? No clue. I've noticed no difference between Win8 and Win7 other than some superficial features, speed, and obviously the Windows 8 (APPS) interface.

A tip I would like to give you is if you're looking for a setting, search for it. Go to the start screen, type what you want to do, and then click settings. Chances are, whatever you want to do will come up and you can go straight to that setting instead of digging through menus being clueless as to where to look. This is a huge help to me, and I imagine it will be to you as well.

Happy OS switching :)

[BenHTBDT]

Also, if you do continue the switch, a paragraph a day + maybe a weekly recap video would be nice.

[Ghost]

Damn.

I'm back to windows 7.

I will do a write up about why and my experience later. I will try to keep switching between 7 and 8 but I will probably stick with 7.

A few main points would be:

- Inability to end process' in Task Manager. I am left feeling like an idiot while windows tries to determine the issue when I know it can't. You can End Task in 8 but everyone knows how ineffective that is.

- I wish I could install Start8 on Windows 7. It is so much better than the Start menu.

- 8 tends to dislike running programs and games. More about that in the write up.

- My main issue is I am left feeling powerless in windows 8. I have no control over what happens in my PC. I would feel the PC is in danger if I tried to overclock on 8.

- No windowed Skype program in Win 8.

(Ironically this was post 666 for me)

Another point: - Programs don't launch on start up very well on windows 8. Or maybe they do, there's no way of checking. >.<

Okay this deserves a screenshot. I did not have permission to end a process. Just wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. http://i.imgur.com/R3gDlBg.jpg

And why is ending a process called "End Task"?

[MG2R]

I like windows 8 with it's ridiculously fast boot time with a SSD, and after installing the "start-menu" from ninite, it basically starts on the desktop instead of within the metro interface, so I hardly never use it, although it could be a little more mouse friendly.

Yeah, once you have the classic shell, it's just liek Windows 7, but faster :)

[MG2R]

Hey, I put Win 8 on my girlfriend's new computer. I've noticed when playing games that are full-screened, alt tabbing takes an unusually long time. There's no SSD in her machine, but it was definitely much faster in Win 7. Can you at some point report on whether this happens on your machine? Thanks in advance. :)

Two SSDs in RAID0. Alt-tabbing from anything into anything is done faster than the blink of an eye.

Two things affect alt-tabbing speed. First: is the data you are alt-tabbing to loaded in RAM? If it is, alt-tabbing should be about instantaneous. Otherwise the second thing that affects speed comes into play: the speed of the drive with your pagefile on it.

The test Ghost ran proves this: the first time he alt-tabbed some content was probably written to the pagefile and needed to be loaded. The second time it was probably still in RAM so there wasn't any delay other than the time it takes to refresh the screen.

My bragging thing above actually is misleading. My SSDs have *nothing* to do with my alt-tabbing speed because I have my pagefile completely disabled. In other words: everything that is opened is loaded in RAM all the time. This makes alt-tabbing instantaneous.