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Impressed with windows 8.1

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
Original poster
May 3, 2009
74,365
44,622
I have to say that I've resisted the siren call of windows 8 long enough and used windows 7 as that's been rock solid for me but I have to say at this point in the life cycle of win8. Its a good OS.

I kind of have my start menu back, insofar as what I need is accessible. Mostly right clicking for the file explorer, running stuff etc.

It still seems a bit jekyll and hyde the way the metro interface works with some apps, like the default email client. I go into that UI when accessing the email and then if an email as a link, i get a different flavor of IE.

All in all, though its a solid OS.
 
I'm impressed with Windows 8.1 as well, it has been extremely stable and metro apps are awesome on my HDTV (Microsoft is eventually going to push a update that lets Metro apps run Windowed as well).

The only thing they messed up with was excluding the Start Menu and not having a option to choose a Aero Glass-ish theme. Everything else is customizable without too much effort.

If you want to get the Windows 7 feel back, setup your user account as a local account (none of that Microsoft Account crap), set all your default apps (Default Programs in Control Panel) to the desktop versions instead of the metro counterparts and then Install StartIsBack (it uses Windows native API's to give you the same Start Menu from Windows 7).

P.S. You can change which version of IE opens in desktop IE's settings. Also on StartIsBack's page don't mind the shamrock as the Start icon or the non-flat appearance, you can change that in its settings.
 
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I'm using Stardock's Start8 It gives me the windows 7 start menu or a window's 8. I've used Startdock products in the past so I had no issues with using them now. Its not free but its not expensive - its only 5 bucks.
 
Been happy with it as well.

I built an i7 rig late last year, and it was basically "too new" to run Windows 7 on, as stupid as that sounds. Most of the parts came out in mid 2013 and it had drivers that supposedly worked for all the devices (usb 3, gpu, etc) - however - it was insanely unstable (couldn't sleep, blue screened constantly....). I've used windows for years in a dev environment - and I simply could not figure out why 7 ran so badly on it. Especially considering it ran perfectly on my slightly older machines. I tried every configuration I could think of to get it to run.

Finally I gave up. Before going the linux/hackintosh route - I installed Windows 8.1 around december, and it's been running steady since. Only thing extra I installed as far as drivers go is Nvidia's suite for my 650 TI boost.

Use it for gaming and desktop/web development - without any issues. This machine has basically become my main day-to-day machine, and my mac mini has since been relegated to a testing machine and set top box.

I can see why people hate 8 initially - but once you get things setup it runs just fine on a desktop.

---

I'm looking forward to 9 for sure. It looks like they may put the focus back on desktop users again, which would be quite welcome.
 
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jeremysteele said:
I'm looking forward to 9 for sure. It looks like they may put the focus back on desktop users again, which would be quite welcome.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think MS realized that the metro interface doesn't work well with non touch screen computers. Also businesses were not moving to win8 for that very reason.
 
I've installed Windows 8/8.1 on my Mac, as well as my parents' 4-5-year-old desktop and notebook computers, which were both running Windows XP.

The experience was pretty good on my Mac, but I prefer Windows 7 so I switched back.

My parents' machines have been a decidedly mixed bag. The laptop has been great. Everything installed smoothly, including Windows 8.1 update 1. The only minor hiccup was the WiFi card. It was detected and had generic drivers installed but would not connect to any network. I managed to work around it by setting it to connect only in 802.11g mode, which is more than fast enough for their usage. I could easily replace the card, but a) it's a waste of money for such an old laptop and b) I'm too lazy to do it. :p

The desktop system has been a nearly unmitigated disaster. Windows Defender stopped working for heaven knows what reason, so I had to install Avast. The 8.1.1 update would not download at all from Windows update, requiring me to find the individual files manually, which took an absolute age. Everything is where it should be, but I spent the better part of a day getting it there. Quite frankly, I'm hoping it dies relatively soon so I won't have to service it any more.
 
jeremysteele said:
I'm looking forward to 9 for sure. It looks like they may put the focus back on desktop users again, which would be quite welcome.
Click to expand...

You don't need to wait for 9, a revamped start menu (desktop apps on left, live modern tiles on right) as will as the ability to run modern apps as a desktop app (basically what ModernMix does now) should be coming in September is Windows 8.1 Update 2.

Anyway, I'm happy with StartIsBack and update 1. I find it quite useful that I can have the mail app and the store pinned to the taskbar just like desktop programs.
 
p3ntyne said:
Anyway, I'm happy with StartIsBack and update 1. I find it quite useful that I can have the mail app and the store pinned to the taskbar just like desktop programs.
Click to expand...

I use start8 by stardock, its a few bucks, as opposed to the free ones, but I've had other stardock products in the past there I didn't mind paying for it.
 
maflynn said:
I use start8 by stardock, its a few bucks, as opposed to the free ones, but I've had other stardock products in the past there I didn't mind paying for it.
Click to expand...

StartIsBack is not a free - it costs $3.33 AUD. I tried Classic Shell and the 30 day trial for Start8 however, Classic Shell didn't look as nice and Start8 had an annoying bug with search.
 
p3ntyne said:
Start8 had an annoying bug with search.
Click to expand...

Really, I hadn't come across any issues with searching. What issues are there, its possible I have not run into it the way I was searching.
 
maflynn said:
Really, I hadn't come across any issues with searching. What issues are there, its possible I have not run into it the way I was searching.
Click to expand...

Firstly, when searching, the text in the search box would contsantly flash and secondly, despite setting the preference to not search outlook and some other private files, it kept persisting to do so. Reistalling did not fix either of them. Perhaps it was a quirk with the free trial.

Either way, I have heard that Start8 runs as a background service whereas StartIsBack runs more like the start menu in Windows 7 due to its implementation and also functionality.
 
When I first installed windows 8, it was rolled back to windows 7 very quickly . Windows 8.1 is currently on my PC , solved a lot of the major issues I had with 8 and I like it. Very stable
 
Yes very impressed with Windows 8.1. I just installed this weekend and can't get off it.

Hope the OS X they release today has something to brag about else...Windows is looking very sweeeet....
 
Never had a problem with Windows 8. It impressed me the very day it was released and I bought a copy. Much faster, stable and secure than Windows 7.

The rest of the world seemed to have trouble adjusting to a fullscreen start menu and the idea of two different app types.
 
roadbloc said:
The rest of the world seemed to have trouble adjusting to a fullscreen start menu and the idea of two different app types.
Click to expand...
Mostly because its a poor option for non touch screen computers. I'd much prefer the start menu (I'm using Stardocks Start8 to get it back)
 
I have a question...

My setup is as follows

iMac 27" connected to Lacie 4 TB Raid Thunderbolt external Drive. I use that to store data and such. Using a Toshiba USB with my Airport extreme for time machine backups as I also have a rMBP Pro that I want to backup over Wi-Fi.

Now, the thunderbolt Lacie was partitioned and used RAID using Apple Disk Utility software.

So everything on the Mac side works just fine.

I boot into Windows 8.. need to access the RAID thunderbolt drive formatted as HFS+ and I am using MacDrive Pro (trial) to do that it works fine as well.

But when I shut down the computer the Lacie Drive is still running....

With the Mac when the computer shuts down, the Lacie Drive shuts down as well.

All I can think of at this moment is that I forgot that the Bootcamp drivers came with thunderbolt driver and installed the Windows thunderbolt Marvel drivers from Lacie website. Still I dont think that should matter..

But curious if anyone else has this issue.....
 
p3ntyne said:
Anyway, I'm happy with StartIsBack and update 1. I find it quite useful that I can have the mail app and the store pinned to the taskbar just like desktop programs.
Click to expand...
I tried StartIsBack and while it worked, I preferred the Start8. It wasn't bad, but I think I got so used to Start8 that I see no reason to change :)


krravi said:
...
But curious if anyone else has this issue.....
Click to expand...
You're better of asking this question in a thread instead of hijacking a different thread that has nothing to do with the issues you stated.
 
Not gonna lie, W8.1 is pretty hot! Of course it's taking me a little while to get used to all the new stuff but I'm loving it so far!
 
I find Windows 8.1 to be a great OS. I'm a little iffy on the metro side of things, but it's more stable on my custom PC than OS X is on any of the 3 MacBooks that I use.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I find Windows 8.1 to be a great OS. I'm a little iffy on the metro side of things, but it's more stable on my custom PC than OS X is on any of the 3 MacBooks that I use.
Click to expand...

I am and I'm not surprised about the stability of windows 8.

I'm not surprised at how stable it is, because win7 was rock solid.

I'm not all that jazzed up about the Metro interface and since I my MBP does not offer a touch screen, I use the above mentioned utility (start8) to basically avoid its use.
 
maflynn said:
Mostly because its a poor option for non touch screen computers. I'd much prefer the start menu (I'm using Stardocks Start8 to get it back)
Click to expand...
Even if I had a touch screen monitor, I wonder if I would really use metro all that much. It's just so much easier with a mouse :p
 
Hello

OSX IS outddatted
.

I WANT TO BE FREE, FREE TO USE THE OS, i want TO BECOME with the OS, become all of us, BECAUSE all toegtehr, we are all one, AND really, IF WE

HAVE

THIS
AMAZING

WINDOWS 8

OS

THAT IS JUst so good thats touchscreen and metro and all of it, WE should all jOIN TOGETHER na BE FREE TOGETHER
 
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