Windows 8, 8.1 & 10 versus Windows 7

Mystere said:

I would disagree. There's MUCH that's wrong with Windows 98se. Although, it was probably the best version of Windows 9x. I think you'd be hard pressed to find many large apps that would run on it though. You can't (for example) run a recent version of Office on it. You probably can't run a recent version of Photoshop, or even iTunes on it. I doubt a recent version of Firefox would work, and Chrome is right out.

Microsoft Office 2000 works without any issue. I got this computer from a business when they upgraded and got everything new.

Scottyboy99 said:

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to post all this information which I will digest. Yeah sorry I just meant that years down the line I felt by the OS would be so mature that many glitches/anomalies would be hopefully in the minority. I'm not really knocking MS for bugs. I am sure some exist but on the whole I have found Windows XP through to 7 a joy. One or two hairy incidents on patch Tuesdays aside Windows 7 has been so faithful. I think Apple has soured my experiences with updates to their iOS and iTunes - some horrific bugs / feature removals on that side of the fence. But I really like how Windows 10 is looking, the aesthetics of the start menu look great too. The surface is actually for my sister in law as she moves away from an old XP laptop and it seemed the hybrid tablet/laptop design fits her needs really well. She wants computing on the move (not a watered down iPad experience) but not be weighed down, plus wants to be able to setup at home in a familiar laptop position. It'll come with 8.1 initially but I'll be urging a windows 10 upgrade to her right away.

I am still using windows 7 on my 4 year old Alienware laptop. I plan to upgrade to a desktop soon-ish but am waiting for OEM Windows 10 shipping with the new systems. I'll keep Windows 7 going on the old laptop partly for nostalgia and partly so I know some older software / games will continue to run!

You're quite welcome and again, welcome to 10F.

Coming from 7 into 10 might be quite a challenging for some, however I can see where it may be easier than 7 to 8.

May the heavens help your sister coming from XP! :)

Windows said:

I have been a power user of Microsoft Windows based desktop operating systems for 20 years, starting with Windows 3.1. I will be honest and state immediately that I strongly dislike Microsoft's most recent OS releases, which obviously includes Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 (Technical Preview). In terms of daily usability, I find Windows 7 to be greatly superior; for me Windows 7 is, by far and away, the best Microsoft OS release. Perhaps my opinion is shared by the overwhelming vast majority of Windows users, since it presently holds a hugely dominating market share compared with all other Windows operating systems.

My experience with personal computers (multi-platform) predates Win3.1 by several years, but I think Win10 is by far the best thing Microsoft has done to date. We've only had one official release of an OS since Win7, and that has been Windows 8/.1, and as there are billions more desktop computers in use globally than there are (or ever will be) tablets in use, the greater popularity of Win7 is quite understandable. Win8/.1 was crippled from day 1 because it was a tablet GUI that would never fly in the desktop environment. However, having bought Win8/.1 Pro direct from Microsoft for $39.99, I can attest to its being a much sleeker, faster OS than Win7, under the hood. But as I say its GUI doomed it from the start--somebody at Microsoft was asleep at the switch on that one.

But the Windows 10 GUI is very desktop-centric. It has a "tablet mode," an optional GUI mode if you are using it on a tablet, which is how Windows 8 should have been configured from the start. If you are not using it on a tablet then you don't have to look at and try to slog through a tablet GUI, thankfully--unlike Windows 8/.1. Using Classic Shell's start menu with Windows 8/.1 as I did for a couple of years was an unacceptable compromise for Windows 8, and I'm happy to say that I actually prefer the Win10 start menu as it has fleshed out in the latest build (10162) to the older Win7-style start menu...

At the beginning of Win10's TP road, I was worried just like you are that everything was getting dumbed down. However, as of now on the eve of the RTM release, I can see that this is not what's happening thanks to the feedback of many people aside from myself, I'm sure. All of the old Control-Panel information is still there, in the latest builds, it's just been moved around a little bit--taken out of the control panel and put somewhere else..! As far as the phone OS goes, Microsoft is seeing the writing on the wall on that one, and understanding that Windows phone probably doesn't have much of an immediate future--if any future at all. Ditto, tablets. The PC w mouse & keyboard is still far & away everyone's favorite computing device and thankfully Microsoft sees that now. Not surprising when you consider that everyone in the upper end of the company management who championed the Win8 debacle is gone...

I think very possibly your biggest problem is running Win10 in a VM. You can't feel the power of the OS at all from that position--you should be dual-booting at the least if you want to see the OS first hand but don't want to commit to it. I've found Windows 10 to be more backwards compatible with older software than Win8/.1, which I found more backwards-compatible than Win7. Pretty much, everything I've worried about in Win8/.1 has been addressed, correctly, in Win10. For several months I was running a dual-boot between Win10 and Win8.1, but I am now on Win10 exclusively, and my Win8 installation is no more. It's very fast--indeed my hardware feels almost "new" sometimes. I'm very pleased with it, actually--more pleased than I've been since Win7. You really need to get off the VM to see it, I think, and you need to use Win10 regularly so that you can adjust to the where some of the old stuff is--I actually think there's a method to the madness...!...

groze said:

Microsoft Office 2000 works without any issue. I got this computer from a business when they upgraded and got everything new.

Yes groze Office 2000 would work just fine, albeit have you attempted to use Office 2013 on that 98SE computer. . .:)

Lee said:

Yes groze Office 2000 would work just fine, albeit have you attempted to use Office 2013 on that 98SE computer. . .:)

Does Office 2000 recognize newer document formats, such as docx, etc? Because frankly, this was the only reason I have updated the Office some time ago. And I did not update from 2010 to 2013 since if there are any new features, they are so advanced, I am not actually using them. At the same time, the horrible flat and square GUI ...

@waltc - well said. Been using win 10 as my main comp since Oct and it just gets better.

waltc said:

I think very possibly your biggest problem is running Win10 in a VM. You can't feel the power of the OS at all from that position--you should be dual-booting at the least if you want to see the OS first hand but don't want to commit to it.

I agree with you. This was true for me with Windows 8.1. The VM in no way did its raw power justice. I am considering installing Windows 10 properly on my third hard disk drive to test its true power. I am intrigued to know how its performance compares with Windows 8.1. I am finding Windows 8.1 to be hugely efficient compared with Windows 7. Also, now being a full-time Windows 8.1 user (with Classic Shell installed), the transition to Windows 10 would be much easier if I ever choose to go down that route. I must say that I am quite intrigued with Microsoft's promise of frequent updates for Windows 10: it will be interesting to see how Windows 10 matures in the next year.

unifex said:

Does Office 2000 recognize newer document formats, such as docx, etc? Because frankly, this was the only reason I have updated the Office some time ago. And I did not update from 2010 to 2013 since if there are any new features, they are so advanced, I am not actually using them. At the same time, the horrible flat and square GUI ...

I am not sure if 2000 version does docx. I will have to check that out.

I have switched to open office, then switched to LibreOffice on my newer windows 7 computer. One thing I do miss is the way you can use Microsoft Access over BASE.

I tried the Open and Libre office suits, basically because at work we have Linux boxes with these things installed, but they don't really work in the sense that if someone sends you a Microsoft Office document there is no guarantee that they will render it correctly, in fact, in most cases they do that with multiple mistakes (the simplest being wrong paper and margin sizes). Therefore I use the Microsoft Office. At the same time, the only program that I use really often is the PowerPoint. In my world only secretaries use Word and I use it mostly to read what I receive from some secretary. And they use the new file extensions very rarely. So in 99% of situations Office 2000 would suffice.