jamesm182 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 So, just upgraded my laptop to Windows 8.1 and.... It seems pretty much the same to me. Anyone else done the upgrade? I haven't delved too deeply but the only things I have really noticed are the obvious start button (seems pointless as it does the same as the windows key anyway and goes back to the tile screen) and also the fact that I can set my own background on the tile screen (nice but not ground breaking). Also, my bluetooth stopped working after the update and I had to reinstall the drivers so that wasn't great but hey it's all working now! Anyone else have any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 MUCH better imo. Can now boot straight to desktop, and the context menu on the start button is invaluable to me, I use it more than left clicking on it, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesm182 Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 MUCH better imo. Can now boot straight to desktop, and the context menu on the start button is invaluable to me, I use it more than left clicking on it, lol. Heard about the boot to desktop thing but only just discovered that menu that's pretty cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeebowhite Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Not ventured to 8 yet, unfortunately I don't have the funds, but I quite like the idea of it. At least you get the start bar back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesm182 Posted October 25, 2013 Author Share Posted October 25, 2013 Yes although not as we know it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 8.1 is what 8 should have been in the first place really. Once you enable boot to desktop, wallpaper in start and default to desktop apps (which you can also sort by name/folder categories), it is a really nice OS to use which is little different to Windows 7, with only benefits imo. It's faster to boot, less hungry on resources, much better task manager, copying dialog and other little bits that mean I couldn't go back to Win 7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyrule Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Just had a member of staff come to me with his home laptop and Windows 8.1 was installed unwittingly as he had his automatic updates on. Some of the features of 8.1 are not so bad, though the big selling point about the start button returning is extremely underwhelming, since it's a poor imitation of the well known start button. The biggest issue with 8.1 is that it's bundled with IE11, which has broken access to sites such as google and more importantly our remote working platform which ironically is supplied by Microsoft. Search for IE11 issues and you will see its a growing problem. MS tinkering with the user agent string which is causing all sorts of website incompatibilities. From a work perspective, I'd rather have my teeth pulled out than update to 8.1 since it forces you to use IE11 and the only way to revert back to IE10 is to completely reinstall Windows 8. <_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Just had a member of staff come to me with his home laptop and Windows 8.1 was installed unwittingly as he had his automatic updates on. 8.1 itself is not so bad, but it is bundled with IE11 which has broken access to sites such as google and more importantly our remote working platform which ironically is supplied by Microsoft. Search for IE11 issues and you will see its a growing problem. MS tinkering with the user agent string which is causing all sorts of website incompatibilities. From a work perspective, I'd rather have my teeth pulled out than update to 8.1 since it forces you to use IE11 and the only way to revert back to IE10 is to completely reinstall Windows 8. <_< Doesn't bother me, any version of IE is a complete pile of steaming doggy doo doo. It needs to die. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesm182 Posted October 25, 2013 Author Share Posted October 25, 2013 Just had a member of staff come to me with his home laptop and Windows 8.1 was installed unwittingly as he had his automatic updates on. 8.1 itself is not so bad, but it is bundled with IE11 which has broken access to sites such as google and more importantly our remote working platform which ironically is supplied by Microsoft. Search for IE11 issues and you will see its a growing problem. MS tinkering with the user agent string which is causing all sorts of website incompatibilities. From a work perspective, I'd rather have my teeth pulled out than update to 8.1 since it forces you to use IE11 and the only way to revert back to IE10 is to completely reinstall Windows 8. <_< I'm using Chrome so haven't really noticed this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyrule Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Unfortunately MS leaves us with no choice as their remote working platform doesn't work with Chrome or Firefox. Bundling it with IE11 is an absolute deal breaker for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Unfortunately MS leaves us with no choice as their remote working platform doesn't work with Chrome or Firefox. Bundling it with IE11 is an absolute deal breaker for me. Sounds like more anti-competitive practices :( I'd ditch Winblows if I could, I'd love to run solely Linux but major games still do not natively support it yet. Hopefully Steam OS will start to change that. Can you not just use IE with your remote application, and another browser for everything else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyrule Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Sounds like more anti-competitive practices :( I'd ditch Winblows if I could, I'd love to run solely Linux but major games still do not natively support it yet. Hopefully Steam OS will start to change that. Can you not just use IE with your remote application, and another browser for everything else? I can use IE, but need to completely reinstall Windows 8 on the laptop,then upgrade to IE10, as you cannot manually remove 8.1 or IE11 release preview. I hacked around a little today and it seems there is a way to get it to work with Firefox as an interim measure, whilst the remote working is eventually updated, once the final version of IE11 is released later this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incontro Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 I'll add my 2c: I tried installing Windows 8.1 on my laptop, but then I found that it broke my wi-fi somehow. Despite spending hours trying to fix it, messing around with different driver versions and all, I just couldn't get it to work. :( In the end, sadly I had to do a full wipe, and install Windows 8 from scratch, shame really, cause I wanted to stay on 8.1. The start screen/home screen is oodles better on 8.1, including the app-store. Windows 8 seems a little dated already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philf1 Posted November 10, 2013 Share Posted November 10, 2013 Tried to install 8.1 but failed for some reason. Reading these comments I'm glad it did. I don't really like the whole Windows 8 app thing (came on the laptop I juts bought) so installed classic Shell. This gives you the start button and boots straight to desktop option. Also can have various start menu options, like windows 7 or classic is a really nice bit of software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesm182 Posted November 11, 2013 Author Share Posted November 11, 2013 I'll add my 2c: I tried installing Windows 8.1 on my laptop, but then I found that it broke my wi-fi somehow. Despite spending hours trying to fix it, messing around with different driver versions and all, I just couldn't get it to work. :( In the end, sadly I had to do a full wipe, and install Windows 8 from scratch, shame really, cause I wanted to stay on 8.1. The start screen/home screen is oodles better on 8.1, including the app-store. Windows 8 seems a little dated already. Strange. As I said mine managed to break my bluetooth but ending up re installing the drivers and all is well :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted November 11, 2013 Share Posted November 11, 2013 I did a clean install with the Win 8.1 RTM ISO, so might be why I haven't been seeing the problems. Just watch your antivirus is still running. When I tried the 8.1 preview Kaspersky turned off without even telling me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1g_dav3 Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 I did a clean install with the Win 8.1 RTM ISO, so might be why I haven't been seeing the problems. Just watch your antivirus is still running. When I tried the 8.1 preview Kaspersky turned off without even telling me! That's because as default Windows uses Windows Defender (security essentials in W8+) which is in most cases better than the laggy anti-virus programs you can get. As for the start menu, Classic Shell is great but I've found now with 8.1 the Start menu and Start screens are far superior for both touch based laptops and non-touch ones. It's what W8 should have been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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