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I'm with you Kevin. In Win8.1, I boot directly to the desktop and then have the Windows icon show the Apps screen rather than the Start screen. It's Win7 but with better response and more security. What more could you want?
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I like a few of the features of a "classic" menu (ability to send items to the desktop, overall organization, etc.) For 8.1 I just installed an item called "Start8" from Stardock. All of $5 and works flawlessly. I see the "Metro" screen only when I want to which is usually to start up a game of "Words with Friends" or something.... otherwise the thing is Win7 improved and the slightly flattened GUI isn't any problem. Starts at desktop. Solid release. Sticking to it.
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So it sounds like everyone's argument for why Win 8.x is great is because you can ignore all the crappy 8.x features and treat it like Win 7. It's like saying spinach is great because you don't have to eat it.
If you ever do want to use an app built for Win 8.x, you better have a lot of spare time. Since solitaire is basically a time killer anyway, I guess it shouldn't matter that it take 10 tries and 30 minutes just to open the app.
And they should have named it Window, because you can't have more than one. If you toggle away from a Win 8 app and try to go back, that app will crash.
I'm just hoping Win 10 is to Win 8 as Win 7 was to Vista.
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Member 8234661 wrote: So it sounds like everyone's argument for why Win 8.x is great is because you can ignore all the crappy 8.x features and treat it like Win 7. It's like saying spinach is great because you don't have to eat it.
Not quite. It's more like this...
My meal plate has steak, potatoes, mixed vegetables and spinach. I like the first three and not the last, so I just eat the first three. Maybe the spinach should not be there but I can ignore it. But if the spinach was "mixed in" with the other three then it would be a major regression.
Kevin
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No, there are no benefits. Take my advice, do not upgrade until Windows 10 is (at least) 6 months old. There are many drivers missing, many drivers crash and much more.
Just don't.
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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That is exactly what I was curious about. Drivers!!!
I figured it would be like this.
I remember O/S 2.0. It beat Microsoft Win95 to market by at least 8 months maybe a year and did true pre-emptive multitasking and was a nice O/S, but hte problem... no drivers for your CD-Rom, no drivers for your sound card, no drivers.
Sorry had a slight flash-back there for a moment and almost lost my cool. 
Thanks for mentioning these woes. I was planning on waiting a while... or forever.
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The big problem with OS/2 wasn't the drivers - that could have been sorted - it was the "lock-in" to IBM PS/2 instead of being usable on "any PC" as DOS / Windows was.
And given the price difference between a clone PC and a Genuine PS/2...people stayed away in droves! 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: the "lock-in" to IBM PS/2
I don't remember that. We had it installed on IBM clones here. I'm talking about OS/2 2.0 Warp.
Warp haha, that was supposed to be cool.
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OS/2 ran on any PC. I ran it on a Dell 486DX PC with 16MB of memory and 1GB of disk space (a powerful computer in its day).
The PS/2 computers differed from PC clones in that they had a protected-mode BIOS (the ABIOS) that provided some features that supposedly helped OS/2 run better. As it turned out, drivers for other PCs simply implemented the same functionality in the driver, rather than the BIOS.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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No, not a while. Just a few months when Microsoft finds a good patch.
I got my new laptop just 2 months ago, Dell Inspiron 5547 (if you feel yourself being curios about it) and I was notified for it being a Windows 10 ready laptop, I was also shown a reserve window and in the checklist for Windows 10 Requirements, all were checked. There was no problem with any hardware, application or framework.
When I upgraded, my battery timing (that was 6 hours on 90%) fell all way down to 1 hour 45 minutes (average) on 90%. My laptop's brightness buttons do not work and I am not able to alter the brightness level at all! Many other flaws, so wait for a few months. 
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan wrote: (that was 6 hours on 90%) fell all way down to 1 hour 45
Terrible. Terrible. Sorry about the troubles.
My laptop is new(er) too. i7, 8GB ram, etc. and I have recently been very happy and amazed with my battery life of 4 hours or so. I would be so annoyed if it dropped down to 1 hour or something like that.
Just terrible. Thanks for the warning.
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Mine is same, i7 5th gen, 16 GB RAM and the laptop was actually doing great before the upgrade. I was enjoying the system for my developmental purposes, now I have to plug it back after every 2 hours. 
Anyways, it still doesn't prevent me from trying new stuff.
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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You are right! I've already installed Windows 10 and rolled back to 8.1 over the weekend.
The problem I encountered was that if you have a Cisco VPN client, it will destroy the networking stack in Windows 10; which means no Internet, no network connectivity.
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Having had the misfortune to use Cisco's VPN crapware; the only part of that that surprises me is that they managed to make it work with 8.x at all. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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AFAIR the Cisco VPN client was late to W8, too. It is as amazing piece of engineering as Nikon Capture NX is - new main version for every new OS release both on Windows and Mac.
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Unless your driver author did something elephanting retarded, and presumably declined to get WHQL certified, your 8.1 drivers should all just work in 10. A number of hardware types also offer enhanced driver models to enable extra features; but the 8.1 binaries all should still be supported.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/Dn941239%28v=VS.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396[^]
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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I don't have any third-party hardware and my laptop was bought just 2 months ago. Dell Inspiron 5547, and it was shown Windows 10 ready laptop. There are many flaws, battery timing fell down the curve, brightness can not be handled and many more.
I cannot use touch commands in Google Chrome. Sometimes they work sometimes they don't.
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Of all the Windows 10 upgrade horror stories I've read so far, it seems to me that drivers are actually seldom part of the equation.
Personally, I have some that go all the way back to Vista and they work just fine. If there's something that'll ruin your day when installing Windows 10, drivers are probably not gonna be it.
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I'm hoping they have MS mouse drivers that are compatible with Wacom tablet drivers. Ever since I got my new computer with Win 8.1 onboard, I haven't been able to use leftmouseclick. My workaround is mousepoint-lefttabletclick. To make matters worse, leftmouseclick AND lefttabletclick are disabled in safe mode.
The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.
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newton.saber wrote: I like Windows 8.1.
There is probably a support group for you.
If there isn't one locally, you could start one? "Win8.1 users Anonymous" perhaps?
You could have a 12 step plan:
1) We admitted we were powerless over out computer - that our PC had become unmanageable.
2) Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Gates as we understood Him.
4) Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5) Admitted to Gates, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6) Were entirely ready to have Gates remove all these defects of character.
7) Humbly asked Him to send us Win7.
8) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9) Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10) Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11) Sought through email and forum to improve our conscious contact with Gates as we understood Him, Googling only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to Win 8 users and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
(based on "The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous" and not intended to belittle or trivialize addiction to Win8 or alcohol)
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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It is people like you who forced Microsoft's hand and made them Jump The Shark (falsely jump from 8 to 10) and who have caused this whole false windows 10 blather. I blame you!!!
Windows 8.1 is like a really nice Windows 7, but your brain is too clouded to know the truth.
You've been brainwashed into believing the propaganda from those who yell:
It is the year of the Linux Desktop!
I don't blame you though, because I know that simple minds are often taken over by propaganda and believe only what others tell them.
I'm totally kidding by the way, Griff.
I really do like windows 8.1 though.
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Pfft, I have two Linux desktops...
Ok, well... One is a Raspberry Pi that I remote into from Win7... And the other is a desktop that I haven't turned on in about six months.
But hey, I have more non-Windows computers than Windows ones...
2 x Windows (One Win7, one Win8.1)
3 x Linux (2 x Ubuntu, 1 x Raspbian)
2 x Android (One phone, one tablet)
Ok, so the only ones I use on a daily basis are the Win7 desktop and the phone... But still...
Yeah, Linux desktops just aren't there yet.
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I have the RPi also, running Raspbian.
I really do like it. Takes me back to simpler days.
I have another older dual-boot laptop running some relatively current Ubuntu version but mostly it still gets booted to Windows 7.
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Yeah, the Pi is great... Well, the Pi 2B, actually... Just got it last week.
Trouble is, I haven't managed to think of anything useful to do with it yet. Really just bought it because I was having a really depressing week and needed to take my mind off things...
But hey, I have a server running 24/7 in my apartment, using about as much electricity as a cell phone... I'm sure I'll think of something cool to do with it.
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I have my Raspberry Pi running as a server, running minidlna for streaming to my TV, SFTP for "cloud" storage, and shellinabox for CLI (and causing panic in people who think I'm hacking their computer from within a browser).
I've had the opposite experience, running a laptop with Ubuntu (Gnome 3 for myself as a WM, and MATE for my wife), with a partition for Windows 8.1 that hardly ever gets booted.
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