Time is now 23:41

Installed Windows 8 onto my home PC (Compaq 7900, 8GB Ram, 1GB Nvidia Card, E8400@3GHZ, 500GB WD HDD).

Installed Windows 8, updates, Avast and Firefox, Start8 and Flash.

Crash score so far: 7 times in one hour.

7 has yet to crash on this machine.

Works Laptop, not crashed at all.

@EstateMan

Ubuntu would be brilliant but... Does it run office (open office is fine), Battlefield3, Canon software, drivers for printers etc

Otherwise I'd do it NOW:)

With apologies to domhnall for being a tad off topic. After exhaustive testing of Windows 8 we have now made the decision to go fully Linux at work. Linux was more compatible and much more secure than Windows 8 for our needs. I only work part time now but I manage a small network amongst other things. My network is fully Linux and has been for two years or more now with some of my machines having run Linux at work for over 4 years with full compatibility with Windows for the things we need to do. Linux Ubuntu runs many things these days. Printers run fine. Almost any computer will run Ubuntu, it supports most hardware without any problems and is easy to install. There is good online support or paid for support from Canonical if you need it. There are hundreds of thousands of free fully tested programs that can be used. I've not tried running MS office myself (may run in a program called Wine if you really want it, as may Battlefield3) but mostly people run OpenOffice or better still, Libre Office which has taken over from OpenOffice in most quarters now (and comes loaded already in Ubuntu 12.04). It is virtually identical to OpenOffice but with some extras and of course is similar to MS Office. We have used it for over two years at work instead of MS Office. Learning curve is almost zero. The advantage over Microsoft Office is the complete compatibility Libre Office has with almost every other office suite on the planet. It does everything and talks to MS Office with no problem, exchanging docs, powerpoint presentations, spreadsheets etc etc without loss of any data or corruption. It's brilliant. We use 'Evolution Mail' which is almost completely identical to Outlook. I can't see email being a problem. Since going Linux on my network it has been a dream to manage, with non of the old Windows issues. Security is superb and you don't need any expensive corporate stuff to protect you. Bitdender does a good job of sorting out any windows viruses that may come in. And of course no Windows viruses/malware can infect you. Nothing can install without your permission. Malware is taken care of with a rootscan using built in software. The whole network is considerably more robust running Linux for sure. And frankly Windows just cannot match it. We've tested it time and time again over a long period against our Windows networks and there is no contest. Because of what we do we have to be ultra secure. We employed the best hackers to attack our systems and each attack over a 6 month period failed. Now we are leaving Windows we will be much better off in every area. It's certainly worth looking into if you are wanting to change. I recommend it whole heartedly. Good luck. PM me if you need help.

Interesting, i had a play with linux but couldn't get on with it. Deal breaker as i recall was tbe inability to access my work exchange server.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Interesting, i had a play with linux but couldn't get on with it. Deal breaker as i recall was tbe inability to access my work exchange server.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

You can enable OWA on Exchange and use a web browser. CRM software and many common business packages are available in thin client form - often web based. Some VARs are now integrating everything into a single web application - all you need is web browser - either at a central office or as a homeworker.

Interesting, i had a play with linux but couldn't get on with it. Deal breaker as i recall was tbe inability to access my work exchange server.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

rwbaldwin is correct of course. That's how you can do it. But what Linux version were you using and what mail program were you using to try to access your exchange server? If this gets complex we ought to start another thread I guess as don't want to hijack anyones thread or just PM me.

I downloaded it on my daughter's laptop (due to the fact it had siezed up on Vista and I had to re-format it)

Biggest PITA was finding out how to shut it down completely, as all the so-called shut down buttons just put it into sleep mode

In the end I found a Google entry which suggested typing shutdown plus a few extra bits in the 'run' box, and it worked

Never liked Vista

linux.

Time is now 23:41

Installed Windows 8 onto my home PC (Compaq 7900, 8GB Ram, 1GB Nvidia Card, E8400@3GHZ, 500GB WD HDD).

Installed Windows 8, updates, Avast and Firefox, Start8 and Flash.

Crash score so far: 7 times in one hour.

7 has yet to crash on this machine.

Works Laptop, not crashed at all.

Another dozen times this morning.

Bye 8.

Not had a crash yet, 3 weeks.

It's strange, both machines are Compaq (so no obscure components), but the 7900 just doesn't want to stay up for a reasonable time. If it goes to sleep, it crashes immediately on logging back on.

Will leave it a while before coming back to it on the 7900. For now, I'll be back on 7 at home. (No need to upgrade to 8, was done "just because I could")

Upgraded to Windows 8 the other day. I love it! Still have the desktop and backwards comparability for my stuff then there's "Start" that my wife uses. She is computer illiterate, but she loves the front end, similar to smartphones.

Thinking of getting a touchscreen monitor now.

I work in IT and been on XP for a long time now, Windows 7 was a breath of fresh air but Windows 8 has gone that one step further. So many apps in the store people don't have to worry about "oh, how do I install this application" etc.

Edited 11 November, 201213 yr by DionJ

Going in today,

I'll report back when done ....

I've been running it since Tuesday on my little HP Compaq 2510p. I quite like it! Only issue I've got so far is that the games won't sign in to my xbox live account. Googling around, this appears to be a known issue with 32bit so will wait for a fix!

I've been running it since Tuesday on my little HP Compaq 2510p. I quite like it! Only issue I've got so far is that the games won't sign in to my xbox live account. Googling around, this appears to be a known issue with 32bit so will wait for a fix!

Couldn't you install the 64-bit edition instead?

Couldn't you install the 64-bit edition instead?

Indeed, I would always install 64bit now on a modern computer. The limitations of 32bit will soon become apparent as 64bit is now becoming the norm. I was surprised that Windows 8 is not 64bit only, but I guess it could be the last version of a 32bit Windows desktop OS given that the server side has been 64bit only for a number of years now.

Indeed, I would always install 64bit now on a modern computer. The limitations of 32bit will soon become apparent as 64bit is now becoming the norm. I was surprised that Windows 8 is not 64bit only, but I guess it could be the last version of a 32bit Windows desktop OS given that the server side has been 64bit only for a number of years now.

I have to admit I thought 7 would be the last 32bit edition.

Couldn't you install the 64-bit edition instead?

Tried it, for reasons known only to itself the laptop wouldn't have it!

Windows 8 .......

Where do I start, installed on son's laptop, fesh install, tiles would not work, wouldn't let me see copied files from old install, got around this by deleteing the standard admin account, took me a day or two work out, sorted he thinks it great with all the tiles doing their thing for twitter, sports news etc.

My Win7 install had no moment Sunday afternoon, so I thought lets do it now, oh how wrong I was my box (all higher end gear branded 16 gb ram ssd etc)

It wasn't having any of it, all booted up ok, but just kept stalling, you know all ok one minute then a lenghty pause of no movment then fine again. I tried another install, was a little better after a few updates, but still unusable.

Now back on 7 all running fine !!

I don't mr and mrs x and are going to take to Win 8, I think it's far too different for the average user to pick up and use.

That start button is so much more user friendly.

Had the same problem on my HP. Went back to 7 after 2 hours of messing around,

Work laptop has 8 running, no problems. Ditched Start8 and got Classic-Shell. Does the same job, but for free. No metro and have a start button.

I installed 8 on my laptop a few weeks ago as I got a cheap £14.99 upgrade. Fortunately I did it as a dual boot alongside the original Win 7. Although the installation was problem-free and it does boot faster into 8, I really don't like the UI of Windows 8 at all.

I thought that the more I used 8 the more it would grow on me, but I'm afraid the opposite has happened. Every time I boot into 8 it seems to find yet another way to p*ss me off, and hampers me doing the things I want to do. I've used every version of Windows since 3.1 and this is the first one I've hated. I don't even mind Vista much, but this.....

Installed it on my Netbook to give it a try (12.1" screen, atom n270 1.6, 3GB RAM, nVidia ION and 128GB SSD.

So far so good. I think it works very well on a machine used mainly for web browsing and the odd little game.

Runs very smooth and very quick. I've always used hibernate on the netbook and this is now super quick. From pressing the power button to booted up is about 18-19 seconds.

Phil

I don't know how people are having so many problems unless there's a propriety Windows 32bit driver for one of the devices on your machine that just doesn't like windows 8.

I must say, I love it. Not had a single issue and it's not a special machine and it's a few years old, Dell Inspiron with 3Gb and a Geforce GTX 260 Video card. If anyone was going to have problems I though it would have been me!

Did an upgrade of Windows 7 that has been on since it was released so loads of crap installed too.

Still liking Win 8 but frustrated with the issue of bluetooth saying its disabled when it's not so I cannot use my mouse. Searching doesn't seem to help either as its quite a new thing so isn't the pages of results you would have for 7 or XP

My tuppence worth......

My son's home from Australia, and returns on Monday. Asked what he wanted for Christmas - he said he fancied getting his laptop upgraded

It is a Dell XPS L702X, with an i7 sandy bridge quad-core, 8GB ram, 1920x1080, blu-ray and GT555M graphics. Two 500GB 5400rpm hard drives.

So what has he got now.........

Removed the boot drive, with all its original Dell bloatware, replaced it with a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD, and 16GB of ram. Did a clean install of Windows 7 64 bit (his original OS) on to the SSD, then downloaded the Windows 8 Pro upgrade (£24.99). Chose the 'do not retain any files' option. Apart from an initial screen flicker when running on battery (a Dell L702X issue fixed in settings). Deleted Windows.old folder.

Must say it is stable, and quite impressive. Had to download drivers for the multi-touch touchpad, and that brings me to the other comment I would like to make......

A lot of folks on this thread are saying "It's only useful if you have a touchscreen or tablet". Well, a lot of laptops now have multitouch touchpads - giving access to the same gestures as you would use on screen.

We will also see growing choice of desktop multi-touch pads, either USB, or bluetooth, that bring the same multi-gesture functionality to desktop set ups.

I decided to take a plunge and upgrade from Vista to W8 Pro for £24.

Install was the best I ever experienced and when it finished all was working fine.

As I do play BF3 a lot this was my forst port of call of course

On Vista it was jerky more often than not. PC Spec is rather dated 2.66 Quad core with 8GB RAM and HD5700 gfx all on Raptor HDD.

I was really gobsmacked on how good BF3 played on W8 Pro. Smooth as silk, perfect frame rates and it looked like graphics looked better as well!

I don not mind all the tiles etc and fishing round screen corners for menus. One thing missing is the programs button etc but Iread there is some 3rd party soft addressing this.

One major cheese off is MS Office 2003 did not automatically port to W8 as I chose to keep everything during install.

Now I will have to either d'load everything back from servers or hunt for that pesky *.pst file...

Is OpenOffice compatible with W8? Anyone with direct experiences using OpenOffic eon W8?