Windows Problems

[Buskins]

Hi folks,

I have the late 2012 iMac with all the bells and whistles (minus SSD, I stuck with fusion).

I have a question regarding Windows 7 & 8. For my old iMac I had Windows 7 Home Basic, and when I got my new iMac I installed the 64Bit version and quickly found out of my 32GB RAM windows was capping at 8GB (lame).

So I upgraded to Windows 8 and ... well it's horrific. I find it to be my own personal definition of horrible. Add to that half the time I log in it logs me into a temporary profile for no apparent reason, when it wakes up it crashes citing something about a thread exception - and sometimes will just flat out crash due to sometime about a watchdog?!

I want to go back to Windows 7 - but I want to use ALL my RAM. You know, I bought 32GB for a reason, I'd like to use it all, not 8GB.

So to go back to Windows 7 will I have to buy the Professional version? It's over 200 pounds. I upgraded to Windows 8 because the upgrade was dirt cheap, and it uses all my RAM by default.

So consider me between a rock and a hard place,seeking advise, not wanting to spend a needless amount of money.

/Buskins

 

[simsaladimbamba]

If you cannot live with Windows 8 (Metro, or whatever it is called now, can probably be deactivated or circumvented), then Windows Professional and higher are the only options to support more than 8 or 16 GB of RAM.

 

[Buskins]

I have no idea what the below quote means:

(Metro, or whatever it is called now, can probably deactivated or circumvented)

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I have no idea what the below quote means:

(Metro, or whatever it is called now, can probably deactivated or circumvented)

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_(design_language)

 

[Buskins]

Oh right, interesting.

It's not just the layout (which I find difficult to navigate), it's also the constant crashes I think are tied to the drivers.

 

[justperry]

Oh right, interesting.

It's not just the layout (which I find difficult to navigate), it's also the constant crashes I think are tied to the drivers.

Make sure you downloaded the latest bootcamp drivers from Apple and for the right device.(MBP-Mini-MacPro....)

 

[Buskins]

Yeah the installation of bootcamp got the drivers for me. I downloaded newer ones that were linked on a thread in this site somewhere-- guess they are buggy. I plan to do a fresh Windows install in a week so that is why I asked my question now to get any insight.

Looks like it'll be Windows 8 again with a few tweaks.

FYI for anyone installing Windows 8 by first installing Windows 7 and then upgrading ... it's a pain in the arse