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Forget
everything you've read about Windows 8.
Every
negative remark about this operating system is a complete lie.
And
I will be even so bold as to say that people are being paid to
pan this operating system.
I
would like to share my life with Windows 8 over the past year -
experiencing it first with trepidation in a July 2012 beta
release and with the progression of living with it while reading
the unfounded slams and the overblown praise for Windows 7.
Anyone
who knows me that I really don't care about the latest and
greatest nor am I fond of change just for the hell of
it. The portion of my life where I was an
early adopter of anything was when I was in college and I was
one of the first students at my university to write term papers
on a computer and not using pen and pencil or a
typewriter. And I was likely the first student
at my Virginia University to have color printing in a term paper
with graphics!
Now
I am settling in on my second half-century of life and I don't
adopt anything well. I loathe anything with a fruit
on it. I absolutely loathe smart phones and tablets
- too small - hate the touch screens - absolutely
revolting. Makes no sense for me and I'm over it.
Up
to last July, all of my computers were Windows XP
machines. The reason? The operating
system flat out worked. After several years,
Microsoft solved the bugginess of the software and this was a
stable system that rarely ever crashed.
I
then purchased another $50 Dell laptop from ebay that was
supposed to replace an even older system, but I discovered it
was new enough to run Windows 8. I decided at that
time to throw caution to the wind and to install Windows 8.
And
based upon even the remarks back in June 2012, the comments were
almost all negative from the so-called computer
press.
I
was prepared to hate Windows 8. I installed
it, it went flawlessly. Installed in under 20
minutes and there it was. Start screen.
This was supposed to scare me into the next room with me leaving
in a shriek and wail.
It's
different. It didn't kill
me. I saw a button on the start screen that
said "desktop". I clicked on it with a
keyboard and mouse - I didn't have a touch
screen. In one button click I was on the
desktop.
I
was sold.
As
this was an experiment, I spent only an hour or so on this first
laptop playing with the tiles and rearranging them - I found on
my own that you could delete tiles, add tiles, resize tiles, and
soon my Start Screen became a defacto desktop.
I used the system for about two weeks and I didn't hate it - I
didn't find it difficult to use - I just gave the friggin
operating system the same time I used to learn a more
pathetically designed operating system - MAC
OS. And I discovered that sometimes change is
good.
Soon
I was researching Windows 8 and found a free "app" -
Classic Shell - in its first iteration - I added it and suddenly
I had a computer that booted to desktop and which had a start
button. I was now in the land of Windows
7.
But
alas - Windows 7 never ran this fast - never booted or shut down
this quickly -and Windows 8 with classic shell soon made me
appreciate the concept of having nearly two computers in one - I
could easily move to Windows 8 with the tiles and at the touch
of one button, I was back in the classic windows environment
that I was so used to in Windows Xp.
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I then tested this Windows 8 with
classic shell for about a month when I discovered that there were no
crashes. They system continued to boot very quickly and it ran
every program that I ran on Windows Xp.
Every one.
At this point, I purchased
another hard drive and put it in my business laptop - I installed windows 8
and added all of my business software and soon discovered the joy of a faster
computer. Windows Xp was no speed demon and changing to Windows 8
increased the perceived speed by at least 25%. I was amazed at the
speed and the ease of use.
And not one
crash. Not one.
And for the next ten months I
have been using Windows 8 and have had no crashes. The system just
works. It is way faster in most tasks than Windows 7 - so much so
that when I have to work on clients' machines with Windows 7 installed, I just
can't stand it. What an archaic system - it is like Vista on
drugs.
I recently have bought several
more $50 Dell project computers that are similar to the other two computers I
just spoke about - I have experimented with one installing a 7200 rpm drive
and the results with Windows 8 is amazing. I am getting 15 second
boot times without having to spring for a hybrid or SSD drive and the costs
are about 40% less than those others.
I am now testing on two of
those computers with 5400 rpm hard drives the new Windows 8.1 betas and the
results are promising. There are some changes that are intended to
appease those who are afraid of Windows 8 like the desktop and start screen
being easily toggled and sharing the same background - the return of a quasi
start screen and some other "under the hood" changes that seem to
make this slightly faster operating though I sense a bit slower boot time.
Overall, because I buy
computers with the eye to sell them later, I have now 5 laptops with Windows 8
running and doing different tests and in one year of time using Windows 8, I
have had NO CRASHES! NOT ONE!
I recently ended up converting
a client's slug Toshiba Windows 7 machine into a Windows 8 machine and
this was the first install that was difficult. I ended up deleting
everything on the drive and proceeding from a clean install and the
installation went flawless. I would recommend that if you are
going to convert a windows 7 machine to windows 8 to assume losing everything
and reinstalling everything back. You'll get better
results. And then with your data backed up, you actually have a
copy of what is on your computer and that is better!
With all this said, I would
like to totally rebuke every negative statement made by the computing press on
Windows 8.
I have lived with this and even
have Windows Xp hard drives now sitting idle that were in the computers I
originally tried. I kept them in case Windows 8 was
everything that the press said it was and have not reinstalled them.
You see, Windows 8 is so much
better than you'd expect - it is stable - it is faster - and it even made this
client's dog Toshiba even more responsive (as best as you can with a computer
with a 100 mhz bus speed).
If you buy a Windows 8 machine,
make the first thing you do after getting it running with updates and the
usual new computer screens and lessons - install
Classic Shell.
Once you do this, you'll have a computer like the windows xp/vista/7 deskotp
you are used to plus you can play with the new Windows 8 features and then
hitting the windows button brings you back to desktop. Consider
the Windows Button to be a "panic button". When
confused, hit it and you are back in your usual Windows world.
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