Does Windows 8 suck?

[Dyno]

My laptop is on it's last legs and I have a feeling I'll be needing a new one very soon. I need to stay on a PC, as much as I would love a Mac. I don't need anything too fancy but it looks like most use Windows 8, about which I've heard nothing too good. Is it bad? How different than Windows 7 is it?

 

[Boom_70]

"If you get Windows 8 you will also need Driver 8" / Michael Stipe

 

[jackfinarelli]

I have used Windows 8 for the last 14 months with zero problems.

 

[HandsomeHarley]

I bought a new PC in March and it came with Windows 8.

I am about to dig my nails into the ****ing PC to dig the worthless piece of **** out.

Short answer: Yes. Yes. Yes.

 

[amraeder]

My brother just got a new laptop with Windows 8. He said it pisses you off for the first 2 days just because it's different and you're not used to it. But once you get used to it, it's good.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=4937&name=Windows-7-Laptops&

Choice of new laptops with Windows 7 installed.

 

[Starman]

I got a new desktop a couple months ago with Windows 8.

My old computer (10 years old), which is still running, and my laptop, both use Windows XP so that was the system I was used to.

I was up and 'functional' on W8 within a couple days but it took a week or so before I really started to understand how it worked. (And I still don't completely get it.)

Some things about Windows 8 are quite cool but a lot of other things mainly appear designed to ensnare you deeper and deeper in the Microsoft corporate/ online identity empire.

 

[Oscar Gamble]

My brother just got a new laptop with Windows 8. He said it pisses you off for the first 2 days just because it's different and you're not used to it. But once you get used to it, it's good.

Same held true for me when I bought one in January. It irritated me for a week or so until I got accustomed to the differences between Windows 8 and the prior version of Windows. Now I love it especially with the huge price difference between it and an Apple product.

I went the inexpensive route buying a Toshiba C855-S5347 on sale at Office Max for $299. You can't beat it for the price as Office Max seems to have this model on sale at least once every four weeks for the $299 price. I've had it now for a week shy of 6 months and it's fast and efficient. Only complaint I have is the speakers suck but a $18 purchase of a Cyber Acoustics USB Speaker Bar (CA-2880) cured the 'tinny speaker' problem. Love that it has a HDMI port as I plug it into my 60" HDTV and watch the baseball games from mlb.tv.

http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/satellite/C850/C855-S5347/

http://www.officemax.com/technology/computers/laptop-computers/product-prod4380340

http://www.officemax.com/technology/computer-accessories/speakers/product-prod4310432

 

[HandsomeHarley]

The small, OCD problems:

* The front page is useless. At first, I started removing all the "windows" that I would never use, and added a few that I would.
Ultimately, however, I, like 99 percent of the world I'd guess, immediately hit the "desktop" icon and go from there.

* Speaking of the front page, under "Mail," it shows nothing when I, in fact, have new email, but when I go in and read/delete that email, THEN it tells me I have email (when I don't).

* If you want to group a bunch of related icons on your desktop, say, to the right side of your screen, Windows 8 moves them back in line over on the left. It did this a dozen times before (I think) it finally left them where I put them.

* When you want to shut down, you no longer click on the box in the bottom left corner and hit "SHUT DOWN." Now you have to go logout (top right corner), then go to the exit screen (bottom left corner) before you can finally turn the damn thing off (bottom right corner). I'd almost rather pull the plug from the wall when I'm finished using the computer.

The BIG problems:

* These ****in' cheapskates ... used to be when you bought a new computer, it came with Microsoft Office and at least one year of security. Now the sons of ******* puts a TRIAL for Office on the computer, and bugs the living **** out of you if you don't pay their exorbitant ****in' fee (More than $120) for the real thing. I guess I was fortunate in that the Best Buy (or wherever we bought the damn thing) gave us a free one-year subscription to Kaspersky so we do have security.

* Worse, it won't allow you to load your old version of Office. It kicks it back at you.

* My daughter gave me one of her three licenses for her Office. It wouldn't accept that either.

* I wanted to download a program off the 'Net, so I went and did just that. Put the cheat icon on my desktop, no problemo. Double-click on the motherf-- (I've used enough profanity for one rant) and it said, "Not supported by Windows 8."

I want SO BAD to dump this **** and load the software from my old computer on the new one (more RAM and a faster processor), but my lovely wife won't let me. So I'm stuck with this piece of s--- crap.

 

[slappy4428]

I got Windows 8 pro as an upgrade from 7 for $10 bucks in January and put it on both laptop and desktop. It does take some getting used to and you have to work at using some of your desired default programs instead of what Microsoft wants. On the other hand, it rarely crashes and you're booting up within 30 seconds.

 

[Matt Stephens]

Windows 8 is incredible. I love it. It's Windows 7 with more stability, plus an option for touch screen.

I had both the public beta builds and they were hit or miss at times, but the final product is great. I was able to get the pro edition for $15 since I bought my new beast of a desktop in a certain time frame last year that had a promotion with it. My wife's not the biggest fan since it's a little bit of a change. It's the first Windows since 95 that doesn't have the Start Menu (replaced by the Metro screen), but after you get used to it, it's simple.

 

[Batman]

* When you want to shut down, you no longer click on the box in the bottom left corner and hit "SHUT DOWN." Now you have to go logout (top right corner), then go to the exit screen (bottom left corner) before you can finally turn the damn thing off (bottom right corner). I'd almost rather pull the plug from the wall when I'm finished using the computer.

Not sure if your computer has this, but there is an easier way. From the desktop, hit the Windows button on the keyboard to get back to the icon screen. In the bottom right corner, there's a small button that looks like this: [-]. It works a lot like the old Start button. Click on it, and your menu options appear along the right side of the screen. From there you can go to settings, power, and shut down.
My wife was cursing up a storm every night until she figured that trick out.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Harley:

MS security essentials is a good, free minimalist antivirus program. I dumped AVG on my laptop and replaced it with that. No noticeable issues. I would hope it's available on 8.

Forget MS Office. Download Open Office for free. It takes some getting used to but it's a quality clone.

 

[Matt Stephens]

* When you want to shut down, you no longer click on the box in the bottom left corner and hit "SHUT DOWN." Now you have to go logout (top right corner), then go to the exit screen (bottom left corner) before you can finally turn the damn thing off (bottom right corner). I'd almost rather pull the plug from the wall when I'm finished using the computer.

Not sure if your computer has this, but there is an easier way. From the desktop, hit the Windows button on the keyboard to get back to the icon screen. In the bottom right corner, there's a small button that looks like this: [-]. It works a lot like the old Start button. Click on it, and your menu options appear along the right side of the screen. From there you can go to settings, power, and shut down.
My wife was cursing up a storm every night until she figured that trick out.

You don't even have to push the Windows button on the keyboard. Just hover your mouse over the bottom right corner of the screen, a menu will pop out, click settings, power then shutdown. Same amount of steps it took in previous versions, just the right side of your monitor instead of the left.

 

[Batman]

* When you want to shut down, you no longer click on the box in the bottom left corner and hit "SHUT DOWN." Now you have to go logout (top right corner), then go to the exit screen (bottom left corner) before you can finally turn the damn thing off (bottom right corner). I'd almost rather pull the plug from the wall when I'm finished using the computer.

Not sure if your computer has this, but there is an easier way. From the desktop, hit the Windows button on the keyboard to get back to the icon screen. In the bottom right corner, there's a small button that looks like this: [-]. It works a lot like the old Start button. Click on it, and your menu options appear along the right side of the screen. From there you can go to settings, power, and shut down.
My wife was cursing up a storm every night until she figured that trick out.

You don't even have to push the Windows button on the keyboard. Just hover your mouse over the bottom right corner of the screen, a menu will pop out, click settings, power then shutdown. Same amount of steps it took in previous versions, just the right side of your monitor instead of the left.

That is an option, but my mouse seems a little twitchy when I try to do that. It's like it has to find just the right spot, then when I go to click it often yanks the menu back and I have to find it all over again. Much easier to hit the Windows button and have a stable target.
Windows 8: The clitoris of operating systems.

 

[Bubbler]

Fired up our Windows 8 today and immediately felt like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

 

[TrooperBari]

Harley:

MS security essentials is a good, free minimalist antivirus program. I dumped AVG on my laptop and replaced it with that. No noticeable issues. I would hope it's available on 8.

Forget MS Office. Download Open Office for free. It takes some getting used to but it's a quality clone.

I'll second the love for Open Office -- does everything I need Microsoft Office to do and at a fraction of the price. As for antivirus, I pay for Norton but also use Avast! as a backup.

I've had Windows 8 for about a month now and have mostly figured out the necessities. My biggest complaint is that I keep inadvertently bringing up that stupid new Windows menu, apparently by grazing the touchpad with some part of my body.

 

[Colton]

Reading all the differing reviews as I consider upgrading or super-charging the laptop I have.

At this point, still very much undecided (pretty much normal for me, though).

 

[sgreenwell]

Re: Shutting the computer down, alt-F4 is your friend. It still works if you're on the desktop, and it's usually the universal program command to shut something down. (i.e. Almost every program from Firefox to uTorrent to most games will shutdown if you hold ALT then hit F4.)

I view Windows 8 as Microsoft trying to get more hip, trying to be more like Apple. However, if I had wanted a Macbook, I would have just bought an iSomething. I like you for you, Microsoft - don't change, don't ever change. Adding the touch screen option is fine, but I could honestly not give two craps about your tiles thing, and why is your basic media player defaulting to Movies instead of that thing you have called Windows Media Player? I mean, I'm going to use VLC anyway, but still.

 

[Wenders]

I'm pretty sure I'm not compatible with Windows 8. I was looking at new laptops a few months ago and I think I broke one of the display computers at Best Buy. All I know is that the screen went black and my friend and I couldn't get it back and I scurried away before an employee came by. Then I decided to go with Apple. It's just safer.