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    Windows 8.1: Should You Upgrade?

    Discussion in 'Notebook News and Reviews' started by srdhkl, Oct 22, 2013.

  1. srdhkl

    srdhkl Notebook Evangelist NBR Reviewer

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    srdhkl, Oct 22, 2013
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  2. HI DesertNM

    HI DesertNM Notebook Deity

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    Definitely worth upgrading if you already have 8. I guess I would recommend it for windows 7 users as well as long as the device drivers are available. But IMO some work needs to happen like installing and re associating media viewers, picture viewers, PDF etc.. from the modern side so that they open in the desktop side. Some of the default behaviors are maddening on W8.
     
    HI DesertNM, Oct 26, 2013
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  3. Wizbeer

    Wizbeer Notebook Consultant

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    Why go with 8 since 7 is so stable
     
    Wizbeer, Oct 27, 2013
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  4. Saucycarpdog

    Saucycarpdog Notebook Guru

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    I just had to uninstall 8.1 because it was conflicting with my university's email. They should fix it a little before I install it again.
     
    Saucycarpdog, Oct 28, 2013
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  5. shriek11

    shriek11 Notebook Deity

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    I don't have an upgrade for my bluray program and the tablet pc actually *broke* after upgrading to Windows 8 before, so why go through with the headache when Win7 is not broken? In a couple of years, Windows 9 or 10 etc would be out and perhaps it would be the "Windows 7" of the future.
     
    shriek11, Oct 31, 2013
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  6. Ichinenjuu

    Ichinenjuu Notebook Deity

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    I had an issue with upgrading in regard to the system reserved partition not being big enough. It has to be at least 300 MB...
     
    Ichinenjuu, Nov 4, 2013
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  7. baggage1

    baggage1 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Came with my new machine so I'm stuck with it. One program I use on my Vista machines, Sys info., freezes, so I don't load it. I installed a 3rd party start button free trial, miss the gadgets so I may find a 3rd party for that as well.
     
    baggage1, Nov 6, 2013
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  8. bobthedespot

    bobthedespot Notebook Consultant

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    Stay away from gadgets. Disable them if you know how.

    They are a major security threat in Windows 7.

    Bob
     
    bobthedespot, Nov 7, 2013
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  9. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

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    My take is:

    XP-if you've got an XP machine, it makes sense first of all to see whether it's even worth spending more money on. An old system it probably makes no sense, but there might be some systems from 2006ish or even 2007(?) with some high end hardware (for the time) that are worth hanging on to. Then of course you need to see if the hardware can even RUN 8. If not, it's really, really time to upgrade to a new PC first.

    Vista-no particular need to upgrade yet, so long as it's supported.

    7-no particular need to upgrade yet, so long as it's supported.

    8-I guess they'll support 'regular' 8 for another 2 years, but it makes no sense not to get it done and install the update as soon as possible.

    I've noticed one gigantic thing with 8.1 I hate-Microsoft is super aggressive about trying to trick you into using a Microsoft Account in place of a local account, something that's completely unacceptable for security and other reasons. You do NOT have to do so, but they make it easy to overlook that fact, and then don't let you use Skydrive anymore with 8.1. All of that pisses me off more than it presents a real technical issue with the OS.

    The only actual technical issue I've been having with 8.1 (unless it stared with 8...) is I'm CONSTANTLY having to kill the print spooler service and restart it to get it to print. It might be something unique to me (somewhat complicated) setup, but I've never had that problem before.)


    But other than that it's been...well, pretty much like a normal service pack. Some noticible tweaks that are (aside from the above) slight improvements mostly.

    No reason to unless you need updated hardware support. Stable has nothing to do with it though as all versions of NT are stable.
     
    Wolfpup, Dec 6, 2013
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