Windows OS - Merged Thread

[johnlove]

I tried looking for a Windows 7 laptop today. Seems all laptops/netbooks sold at stores already use Windows 8. Phase out na ata ang Windows 7.

Please take note that some laptops, specially those which are sold without windows installation disk, are not downgradeable to Windows 7.

You can still buy Windows 7 from stores, but make sure you could install it in your preferred laptop.

Edited October 21, 2013 by johnlove

[Gambler_m]

I atill have to try this

[sonnyt111]

Please take note that some laptops, specially those which are sold without windows installation disk, are not downgradeable to Windows 7.

You can still buy Windows 7 from stores, but make sure you could install it in your preferred laptop.

Thanks for this caveat. This will surely save a lot of people a lot of money....

[shiju]

Windows 8 is pretty good with regard to performance. It boots extremely fast and I like the fact that you can right click the lower left corner and bring up a ton of options for running your pc. the UI sucks though.

[maxiev]

Windows 8 is pretty good with regard to performance. It boots extremely fast and I like the fact that you can right click the lower left corner and bring up a ton of options for running your pc. the UI sucks though.

The very fast boot and shutting down of Windows 8 is one of the things I like about this OS. Somehow I still prefer to use a mouse even if my laptop is touch screen. Guess old habits die hard. I actually use a combination of touch screen and mouse to navigate the browser. For instance, if I can't click on a link using my finger, I click on the link with my mouse.

[shiju]

The very fast boot and shutting down of Windows 8 is one of the things I like about this OS. Somehow I still prefer to use a mouse even if my laptop is touch screen. Guess old habits die hard. I actually use a combination of touch screen and mouse to navigate the browser. For instance, if I can't click on a link using my finger, I click on the link with my mouse.

 

Yeah, same here. I prefer the mouse over the touch screen. I just wish that they didn't force the Metro UI and the linking of profiles with a Microsoft account.

[islekimp]

In all honesty it all depends on needs and wants. ms windows 8 like any new os from ms requires more out of the hardware. Does it do justice to a user, to some yea. But other not really since I prefer the simple concept of xp or 7.

 

I been using ms os since 3.1 and yea changes over the years are awesome, but 8 really sticks the ugly for me.

 

Using linux (various kinds) is good but every day things I still kind of use 7 rather than 8 due to functionality and reliability

[maxiev]

Here's an article about Windows 8 I picked up on Yahoo news the other day.

 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/03/windows-8-is-a-failure-this-radical-new-device-pro.aspx

[bluemaster]

I feel that Microsoft should have released two versions of Windows 8 - One focused on desktops and laptops and a separate OS for tablets. While I understand why they try to make one "good for all" OS, it will feel weird to have a "desktop" environment in a tablet and it's much counter productive to have the start menu in a horizontal sliding fashion for enterprise users just like gamehunter mentioned. What's worse, the Windows 8 and the Desktop environment tasks are managed differently and the good old alt + tab will not work exactly as you wish it would. It might be good enough for a home PC but I can't imagine running Windows 8 in the office. An impending nightmare for IT departments and enterprise users if you ask me. Unmatched booting time though and nice colors.

[sonnyt111]

http://www.forbes.co...artner=yahootix

 

 

What Windows 9 Must Do To Avoid Flopping Like Windows 8

 

 

Windows 8 is a flop. It is a painful thing to say about one of the most ambitious operating systems ever released, but the stats don't lie. It has taken half the OS market share Windows 7 did in its first 12 months (10% vs. 20%) and now the adoption rate is so slow it is barely gaining on its 4 ½ year old predecessor. Finally Microsoft MSFT -1.44% has had enough.

 

This week leaks flooded out that Windows 9 will be formally announced at Build, Microsoft's annual developer event in April. If true this is an extraordinarily short gap for the company to jump between Windows versions and it is thought Windows 9 will formally go on sale in early 2015 as part of the 'Threshold' wave of updates it will apply to its Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox OSes.

 

But if Windows 9 is to avoid the pitfalls of Windows 8 it is going to have to make some major changes. These are my suggestions, and I welcome yours in the comments.

 

http://b-i.forbesimg.com/gordonkelly/files/2014/01/Windows-8.1-background-1024x575.jpg

 

No more split personality

In merging the traditional Windows desktop with a finger-friendly touchscreen interface Windows 8 broke new ground, but the implementation was jarring. Speculation is Microsoft may formally split the platform into formal desktop and Windows RT only versions, but that would be a backwards step.

 

Instead the two need better integration. Syncing wallpapers between both was a step in the right direction, but the touch UI should have a transparent background to feel more like a flyover to the desktop and therefore never disorientating the user. It also needs to enable apps to operate on the desktop (not in a split window) to encourage greater use and spur on developers.

 

Remember most people still use a keyboard and mouse

The advances Windows 8 made in touch usability were negated by the ropey keyboard and mouse integration as Microsoft threw out the baby with the bathwater. Catering for new laptop and tablet form factors is well and good, but forgetting (or ignoring) 99 per cent of the market using traditional laptops and desktops was foolish. A new, universally accessible control method for Windows 9 is a priority – particularly for touchpads where compensatory gestures have become horribly fragmented between PC makers.

 

http://b-i.forbesimg.com/gordonkelly/files/2014/01/2-1024x575.jpg

 

Learn to scale

Ever since the iPhone 'Retina Display' ultra-high resolutions have been all the rage – first in phones, then tablets, now in laptops and desktops. Windows 8 coders failed to address this and the increasingly wide array of high resolution laptops and 4k monitors result in a ludicrous Windows 8 desktop experience. Websites and text have to be blown up around 200% while menus, tabs and other crucial parts of the user interface shrink becoming microscopic (above Windows 8 on a 3200 x 1800 pixel display).

 

The flaw is a lack of scaling, something Mac OS X wasn't immune to when Apple AAPL -2.51% launched Retina Display MacBook Pros but it still works better than Windows 8. The trouble is not only does the Windows 9 desktop need to scale, but it needs to introduce upscaling for legacy software to also make these programmes useable. A huge, but essential task.

 

Cold corners

http://b-i.forbesimg.com/gordonkelly/files/2014/01/3-602x1024.jpg'Hot Corners' were introduced in Windows 8 to bring some of the touch navigation gestures to keyboards and mice, but they are horrible. Hot Corners are activated when a mouse pointer ventures near the top left, top right and bottom right corners of the screen or when the pointer gets to the bottom left corner then moves vertically.

 

Needless to say these areas of the screen are regularly visited by the cursor in normal use when looking to open, close, minimise or maximum windows and programmes. This causes endless frustration as users looking to manipulate windows are dragged off into touch gesture shortcuts and users looking for touch gesture shortcuts end up accidentally manipulating windows (image right – cursor over the close window option brings up the 'Charms Bar'). At the very least there needs to be an option to disable Hot Corners, if not redesigning them completely.

 

Play nice with others

For Windows users part of the appeal is it is not Mac OS. That is Windows brings greater freedom to pick, choose and customise itself using the software you want in the manner you want. Windows 8 veers dangerously away from this imposing Windows Live accounts on all users, SkyDrive for backups, Bing for search and more. It is time Windows remembered where its appeal comes from in the first place.

 

http://b-i.forbesimg.com/gordonkelly/files/2014/01/5.png

 

Better Windows Phone/Xbox integration

Microsoft may have thought it was leaping ahead of the pack with its revolutionary Windows 8 UI but, in truth, both Apple and Google GOOG -0.59% better integrate their distinct mobile and desktop platforms. With Windows Phone 8.1 lifting the lid on hardware restrictions and the Xbox One launching with bags of unfulfilled potential Microsoft needs far better communication between these powerful platforms.

 

This means synchronised media content, app purchases, remote control and if Sony Sony can make PlayStation 4 content run on the Vita, Microsoft should be able to bring Xbox One gaming to Windows Phones and Windows 9 PCs and tablets. No company has Microsoft's breadth of platforms, it needs to start capitalising on that.

 

9th Life

While it has not met commercial expectations, the good news for Microsoft is Windows 8 has already done much of the heavy lifting for Windows 9. It is fast, efficient, stable and has excellent inbuilt security. With this foundation the list above feels far from wishful thinking and Microsoft should be looking to implement them all and much more.

 

Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously said Microsoft "bet the company" on Windows 8. It didn't. With its vast wealth Microsoft took a calculated but affordable gamble. This time things are different. Windows 9 is not coming off the goodwill of a respected predecessor, PC and laptop sales are collapsing against the threat of tablets, Apple is edging ever closer to Mac OS XI and Google is starting to gain momentum in the desktop and laptop space with Chrome OS and Android – both of which are expected to unify during Windows 9's lifetime.

 

Windows 9 is now where Microsoft bets the company.

 

Also on Forbes:

 

Microsoft Introduces the Surface Tablet

 

 

Microsoft Introduces the Surface Tablet

1 of 19 http://i.forbesimg.com/assets/img/loading_spinners/43px_reversal_on_transparent.gif « Previous Next » AFP/Getty Images http://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/04Wk21HaVG5aB/0x600.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000 +show more

Microsoft Introduces the Surface Tablet

The new Microsoft Surface tablet on display following a press conference at Pier 57 to officially launch Windows 8 and the tablet in New York on October 25, 2012.

[Guest iyukitakahishi]

Windows 8 sucks..!!

 

Yeah it sucks. Wonder why they had to change it. Its UI is really ugly and that menu bar that pops out at the side is really annoying. Good thing i was able to do some tweaks.

[ugi]

I use it with classic shell so it feels like W7, but starts up faster.

[muttley]

Here's my story. Recently, I was shopping around for a new laptop. Puro Windows 8. No more Windows 7 available. I decided to get a Macbook Pro instead. End of story.

[remoteworld]

For enterprise users who are focused on productivity the new tiles interface is a step backward. It is quite sad given that the new windows have performance tweaks such as improved booting and memory management, it is still shunned by office users because of its 'toy' interface.

best win8 app for me is Finance. with it, it's like subscribing to 8 newspapers, getting updated in stocks every hour (except when pse is closed), with handy money apps inside

[pawikan101]

im still using Windows 7, i tried Windows 8 on virtual machine , i see no reason to change OS for now

[menemis]

Olats Windows 8

[jasperchua]

Win 8 is "okay" at best. It was made to catch up with the touch-based devices of Micro$oft's competitors.

I'm still running on Win 7 too. There's no benefit running games on Win 8 vs Win 7 anyway, so I choose to stay with Win 7.

As for the apps, you can do so much more using other apps.

Windows 9 might be interesting.

[j.e]

masa ok parin sakin ang 7 kaysa 8

[shiba]

I use both windows 7 and windows 8.1 Pro. with same spec I can say windows 8.1 pro is much faster in overall performance compare to windows 7, since win 8.1 has apps you can multi-task greatly

[Kikko23]

Been on Windows 8 since February. I'm using a touch screen laptop/tablet hybrid so I don't experience much of the issues non-touchscreen users experience. It's faster than any Windows version before it, and I really hope they find a good compromise between desktop and tablet UX. Looking forward to Windows 9, actually.

[`ShinChan]

Mas okay ang 7 kesa 8

[Callcenterguy88]

Win 9 is just around the corner. Welcome back start screen!

[philnightlife]

Still windows 7 hehe...haven't really gotten time and interest trying out windows 8 (and I'm an IT guy)

[Kurtsky Keigee]

I didnt use Windows 8 since it is optimized for Touch screens. Waiting for W9

[sonnyt111]

I didnt use Windows 8 since it is optimized for Touch screens. Waiting for W9

There won't be Windows 9. Microsoft if going straight to Windows 10

 

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/windows-10-undoes-the-disaster-of-windows-8-mostly-98835840904.html

 

 

Windows 10 Undoes the Disaster of Windows 8 (Mostly)

David Pogue‎ Oct‎ ‎1‎, 2014Today, Microsoft took the wraps off the next version of Windows. You’ll be able to install a free, unfinished “technical preview” version this week, or get it in final form sometime next year. It’s called Windows 10.

 

(Why is it Windows 10? What happened to 9? Making sense of the Windows naming sequence is like solving one of those Mensa “What’s the pattern?” puzzles. So far, we have this: Windows 1, 2, 3, 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10. OK, whatever.)

 

Windows 8, as the world now knows, was a superimposed mishmash of two operating systems. There was the touchscreen-friendly TileWorld interface, as I called it. (Microsoft, at various times, called it Modern or Metro; it has officially retired both of those terms and replaced them with nothing.)

 

They are quite separate, these two environments. Each has its own Help system, its own Web browser, its own email program, its own control panel, its own conventions and gestures. Worse, each runs its own kind of programs. Regular Windows programs open at the desktop, as always — but TileWorld apps open in TileWorld, with no menus overlapping windows. Like iPad apps.

 

Microsoft believed at the time (2012) that the world was going touchscreen crazy. That, sooner or later, every PC would have a touchscreen.

 

Betting on both

It bet wrong. Most computers still don’t have touchscreens. Windows 8 was a massive flop with critics. “Windows 8 is a failure — an awkward mishmash that pulls the user in two directions at once,” wrote Woody Leonhard in InfoWorld. “A horribly awkward mashup of two fundamentally incompatible approaches that worked poorly on both PCs and tablets,” wrote Galen Gruman.

 

Windows 8 was a massive flop with consumers, too. Today, 51 percent of desktop PCs still run Windows 7; only 13 percent have “upgraded” to Windows 8 or 8.1, according to Net Applications.

 

And at the Windows 10 announcement, you would not have believed the words coming out of Microsoft’s mouth.

 

“In Windows 8, when users launched a Modern [TileWorld] app, it sort of had a different environment,” OS Group VP Joe Belfiore said in his demo. “We don’t want that duality.”

 

Now, when I wrote exactly that in The New York Times, Microsoft PR descended on me like the beasts of hell.

 

The answer has always been screamingly obvious: Split up the two halves of Windows 8. Or, as a wise man once wrote, “Put TileWorld and its universe of new touchscreen apps on tablets. Put Windows 8 on mouse-and-keyboard PCs.” (OK, it was me.)

 

Anyway, here’s the big news: In Windows 10, Microsoft has done just that.

 

Mouse-and-keyboard mode

If you use Windows 10 with a mouse and keyboard, the Start menu is back. Not just the Start button, not just the secret Windows key+X utility menu of Windows 8.1 — the real Start menu.

 

And TileWorld is gone. No more screen of big flat tiles taking over your monitor.

 

Tiles aren’t gone completely; they still pop out of the regular Start menu, a little weirdly.

 

And what about all those TileWorld apps that could run only in TileWorld? Since TileWorld is gone, these apps now open up on the desktop, in regular windows with regular title bars and window controls. You can still see your desktop, and you can see TileWorld apps and regular Windows programs side by side.Tablet mode

If you don’t have a mouse and keyboard, then you still get TileWorld — a Start screen and apps that fill the full screen. In fact, Microsoft demonstrated how, if you’re using a Microsoft Surface with the keyboard attached, you get the Start menu and desktop — but if you detach the keyboard, Windows automatically offers to switch into TileWorld mode, hiding the Start menu and making your apps full screen.

 

Good!

 

New features

There are also some useful new features (new to Windows, anyway). Search results now include listings from the Web as well as from your computer. There’s a new “task view,” modeled on Mac OS X’s Mission Control, which shows you miniatures of all open windows when you click a button on the taskbar.

 

And you’ll be able to “snap” windows together so they all occupy part of your screen.

 

What about Windows Phone? It will resemble Windows 10, although it won’t have the desktop view. Microsoft says that laptops, tablets, and phones will all get their apps from a single, unified app store. (It’s not clear if that means the same apps run on all those platforms; I’d guess not.)

 

Windows 10 looks as though it will be far more usable and less confusing than Windows 8 and 8.1. It’s too bad the whole tile design is still mixed in there for desktop PCs, but at this point I guess it’s too late for Microsoft to abandon the whole misbegotten tile thing altogether.

 

But at least mouse-and-keyboard folks won’t sacrifice productivity in the name of the touchscreen revolution that never came, and tablet fans won’t have to work (much) with tiny window controls.

 

Let us welcome the saner heads that have finally prevailed in Redmond.