Any reason to go from Win 7 Home to 7 or 8 Pro?

[Bluuz]

I'm currently running windows 7 home premium and am considering getting a larger ssd in the near future.

I thought this might be a good opportunity to change my OS.

Computing students at my school are given access to licenses for windows 7 and 8 Professional, so any upgrade would be free; any suggestions?

[coen113]

if its free, and you dont mind metro UI, go for win8, if else, go for 7 pro.

[Str_Mape]

The main reason I can think of would be if you need more than 16 GB of ram.

[Damikiller37]

I'd say you should to future proof yourself. Also in some aspects (such as boot up) Windows 8 does it faster especially with an SSD. If you find yourself not liking the Modern UI that can be replaced with Startisback or some other application that basicaly turns Windows 8 to look like Windows 7 visually.

[Bluuz]

How significant is the performance jump from 7 to 8?

[Scia]

I have switched from 7Ult to 8Pro a while ago, and it's a much snappier system.

 

If you have access to a key go for it ^^

[GoodBytes]

Windows 8 has a steep learning curve. It will take you about (average from people) a month to get use to it. Most people, love it, and prefer it over Windows 7, once they pass this stage.

If you choose to go with Win8, let me know, and I'll try to reduce that learning curve by explaining how everything works, and how to use it.

[wpirobotbuilder]

If you upgrade to Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate you can remote desktop directly to your computer, which is really useful.

[flibberdipper]

Windows 8 is much quicker that 7, even on most HDDs, so go for it. Gaming performance will have a negligible difference, but in the OS itself, 8 is much quicker.

[GoodBytes]

Yes, remote desktop saved me soooo many time

So many times I forget something on my desktop, so from a school computer or my laptop, I can remote desktop to my home PC, and get what I need.

Also in Windows 8 Pro, you get to enjoy File History. A new features, that allows you to have a backup (done every 5min, 10min, 15min, ... 1h, .. daily.. etc, you choose), of your files allowing you to go back in time to them. great if you accidentally delete an important file you need to recover, or you overwrite a file by mistake, or you edited a doc and deleted something you should not have to my mistake and can't go back with undo or something. Saved me many times!

[Bluuz]

Windows 8 has a steep learning curve. It will take you about (average from people) a month to get use to it. Most people, love it, and prefer it over Windows 7, once they pass this stage.

If you choose to go with Win8, let me know, and I'll try to reduce that learning curve by explaining how everything works, and how to use it.

I think I'll be going ahead with the update within a week. I'll be glad to take any advice you have.

[GoodBytes]

Cool!

 

So here is what to know about Windows 8 to get started:

 

Start Screen

First, let's get that point out of the way.

The Start Screen is the Start Menu, but expanded to the full screen. Everything you could do on the Start Menu, you could do the Start Screen, in terms of accessing stuff.

While it does that the entire screen, it avoid you searching from a small list of small items. It makes targeting items easier, much like Windows 7 task bar.

Windows 8 Start Screen layout, assumes you know Windows 7. That means, you pin your most used applications on the Task Bar, so that you can quickly access them, or do Win+# (where # is a number between 1 to 10 (0) on your row of numbers on your keyboard.)

 

Microsoft recommends to pin on your Start Screen, thing you use often (folders, or programs), or you just want easy access, to teh bottom left corner of your screen for faster access.

so yes, now you can pin any folder you want on the Start Screen, a plus to it.

 

Search is there, much like on the Start Menu, there are no visible bars, but just type, and it will search.

Hit Ctr+Tab on the Start Screen, to see all your apps, classic Start Menu style.

 

Here is my Start Screen:

Notice how I have all my games, easy access to them, and how my most used locations folders are pinned.

 

 

Using Windows 8 Modern UI apps

ModernUI app can be acquired from the Windows Store. They are the only apps that can give you live notification on the Start Screen, like the News app that you see on the Start Screen, or another example the Calendar and Mail. They can also be installed outside of the Windows Store, like what Mozilla is currently doing for it's Beta version of it's tablet friendly version its, Firefox web browser.

 

They can moved side by side with another ModernUI app, or desktop. To do this, simply position the mouse at the top center of the Modern UI app that you have open, and drag it left or right of your screen. To close a Modern UI app, simply position the mouse at the top center, and drag it all the way down, or you can do Alt+F4, like on the desktop.

 

Using Windows 8

The Start Screen, is accessible like ever, place the mouse at the bottom left most of the screen, and the Start Button will show.

You can right-click on it, or do Win+X, to access the Power User Menu.

 

This power menu, are quick access to power user panels, such as: Programs and Features, System, Command Prompt, Command Prompt (Admin), Device Manager, Control Panel, among others. This menu is customizable, they are programs that edit everything for you to change it, like this one: http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.30

 

The rest, is like Windows 7.

 

Windows 8 important keyboard shortcuts

 -> Win+C Access the Charm bar. A menu that shows on the right most of your screen, which give you access to Settings of the desktop or Start Screen or Modern UI app (you also have System options, like brightness (tablet/laptop only), and Power (to shutdown the system)), you also have sharing options, Devices, Search items. Alternatively, you can access this menu by moving your mouse at the top OR bottom right most of the screen, and move towards the center right most of the screen.

 

 -> Win+I Access the Settings panel of the desktop or Start Screen or Modern UI app, depending on where you do it, directly. So that you dont' need to do Win+C, and select Settings. This is great for having easy access to restart, shutdown, sleep or hibernate, your computer.

 

 -> Win+Q Allows you to search for apps when done on the Start Screen, or desktop. If you are on a Modern UI app, you can search inside it.

 -> Win+W Search Settings

 -> Win+F Search Files

 

 -> Win+PrintScreen Takes a picture of your desktop, and saves it as a PNG automatically on your Picture folder.

 -> Win+Pause/Break Show System Panel.

 

Windows 8.1

 - It will be a free upgrade for Windows 8 users. You can upgrade without affecting your things.

 - It offers much improvement in balancing it's interface for desktop/laptop/tablet devices, something that I think Microsoft will continue to work on.

 - Improved (over Win7) and unified search, which searches on the web, and Modern UI app as well.

 - and a lot more

 

Stuff to check out in Windows 8

 - File History. Backup all your personal files, every delay you want (every 10min, 5min, 1h, daily, weekly, etc), without performance loss. And also, allows you to go back in time to them. Re-install Windows, doesn't affect the backup. Once re-installed, all you have to do is re-enable the feature, and Windows 8 will resume where it left off.

 - Storage Space. Software RAID, works with any type of drive mixed with any other type of drives, all manage by the OS. You can expend a drive, or backup.Pretty cool, if you want to re purpose old drives. Linus did a video on it a while back.

 - Image Backup Your System, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/matt-harrington/archive/2012/04/01/create-a-windows-8-refresh-image-with-recimg-exe.aspx

 - ISO load as virtual drive. No additional software needed to load ISO's

 - Ribbon bar on folders. It gives you quick access to things that used to open panels, or not possible before, like opening the command prompt with the path where you are now.

 - Music App. Do you like music? Of course you do. Check it out. Free streaming of 30 million songs and growing. For 10$ per month or 99$ per year (US/Canada prices), you get unlimited music streaming, no ads, and unlimited music download as well (playable on Microsoft devices). You also have the web access: http://music.xbox.com, and you have iOS and Android app. Check it out! It's way better than iTunes. I started to download about 10 to 12 albums per month since I have the service.

 - Improved Multi-Monitor support, with cross screen task bar with options in customizing it, and individual background per screen

 - Re-install your system within Windows 8 (Win+I > Change PC Settings > General), clean or using your image (mentioned previously).

 

Note:

 - Microsoft Security Essential is included in Windows 8, and called Windows Defender (not to be confused with Windows 7 Defender).

 

Well hope this help you get started with Windows 8.