I noticed i could preview the new update. I just don't know if it would be a wise decision.

I was thinking of giving it a go on my laptop, which doesn't have much on it except Google Chrome, but I'll wait to try it on my desktop.

I have W8. I'm waiting until I get the free update. So sure.

This is what I came to say. Well, guess I'll just be moving along. Oh, also, thanks for reminding me to actually download the update for my laptop.

I was going to install it but then I read you had to do a refresh or clean install to go back to 8.0. Only problem for me is both my laptop and my desktop are mission critical for me so I was going to wait for a final build.

@earlessshrimp: No problem, I read a few things that said some people where having issues. I guess that is to be expected when installing a preview.

If you are building/buying/whatever a completely new machine you may want to shop around to see what you can get.

If you currently have Win 8, then going for 8.1 is an easy choice.

If you have a functional Win 7 machine today, neither Win 8 or Win 8.1 is a good reason to mess with it.

I have two laptops running windows 8. I just got a new ultrabook today and i was thinking about playing around with 8.1 preview. Just checking if anyone had the chance to test its reliability.

I wonder if the people who whine about the lack of a start button simply haven't grasped the fact that you can press the Windows key to access everything on your computer by just typing it in.

I installed it in a virtual machine. It's Windows 8.1. Good changes, but tiny changes.

Like Jeff said, the difference between clicking the replaced Start Menu icon and pressing the SUPER (Windows) key is practically nonexistent. If one is the kind of user who never knew that CTL + C means copy, I'm sure it'll be a God-send. To everyone else, it's just the comfort of that tiny icon returning.

There are enough new options in Start Screen tile manipulation to make it much more customizable, and the added options for Start Screen backgrounds is much appreciated by those of us who don't like the garishness of Windows 8's.

Unified search is another addition, and a critical one. Spotlight is great because it searches everything instantly. Quicksilver is phenomenal because I can choose precisely what it searches. Unity and Windows 8 are frustrating because I have to select which type of item I'm searching for. Windows 8.1's search is a slightly slower Spotlight.

Windows 8 is still an excellent OS, and I still won't reinstall my copy because of the ads in the Metro apps.

well I hope its good for people who like windows 8.

@excido said:

This is true, there is no guarantee that Microsoft will give an upgrade path from the preview build to the final build. Installing it on your main machine wouldn't be wise.

I have zero interest in apps or ads in my desktop so i wont be installing W8, ever.

Anyone can have a go at making a Metro app and they can then decide to charge for it or include ads. You certainly don't have to look at any ads unless you are checking out what is available in this new ecosystem, but even if you want to ignore these Metro apps completely there are plenty of improvements. Handling multiple monitors works great and was a pain in Windows 7, same for switching between languages, start up and shut down is faster, etc. People are wary of Microsoft and the desktop turning into an Xbox style dashboard, but they have done a great job and Windows 8 is easier to customize than any other OS they've put out.

Im running a single monitor and have no intentions to go multi monitor in the future.

I also have a SSD so my computer starts up well fast already..

Im just going to skip W8 and hope the next one is not a hybrid of tablet and desktop OS..

MS is bringing ads to Bing search when you use it anywhere, not just in browsers..

LINK

Hmmm.. I just had a look at 'Smart Search' and don't like the look of it at all, the existing search function in Win 8 works well and this looks like a nasty evolution of this function.. I might end up holding off on 8.1 if it goes ahead like this...

I would install it, but it's not available in my language. You know, English. Apparently it only comes in American.

@sagalla said:

I'm running multiple monitors in Windows 7 just fine; I'm curious what you think made it cumbersome.

It can be pretty quirky when using monitors with different resolutions.. If you have a laptop and switch between using it alone and hooking it up to a TV or second screen it works much smoother now

I did and it stuck my nearly brand new Samsung laptop in a reboot loop :( Thankfully still under warranty so off to repair hopefully to be fixed. Heard from a friend yesterday that his laptop wouldn't even turn on after the update. Another friend of mine had no trouble updating it on his Lenovo Yoga, so I dunno. Proceed with caution.

Eh, I haven't had any problems.. I use a 50" 1080p LED screen and a 24" 1920x1200 screen and it was really simple to get them set up and working for gaming.

They will never fool me into using Windows 8. Never ever.

Unless they take out the ads and remove all the feel of touch screen that it has and make it a computer that isnt attempting to be a touch screen device.

I probably wont even then out of some lame principles or something.

I'm still using vista so probably.

Oh snap! I might actually update to 8.1, as those changes to OG W8 seem rather nice.

When I bought Win 8 I thought Metro was just the new look for the desktop, which I wouldn't mind as it seemed intuitive and fast. As such I was really disappointed to learn it now had two different desktops, in a way that feels kinda jarring to me. I was also stupefied by the way they had hidden the shutdown/reboot bottom, in such a way that made it seem like they wanted me to suspend my computer, as if it was a tablet.

I quickly figured out how to make a shortcut for shutdown, and my important programs on the metro start, but it just doesn't look good. I just get the sense that Microsoft was very aware of the success of Apple's App Store and wanted to imitate it, and Metro Start was going to be way to kinda force it upon me.

That was the last straw and I decided to switch back to Win 7. I'm sure they could've made Metro Start purely optional, but they want people to use their App Store and doing so would go against that plan.

Which is just one more reason I feel Microsoft are too self serving in everything they do, and are consumer friendly only when they got no other choice.

I just moved back to Windows 7 after using 8 for around a year. Feels good man.

I'll give 8 another try when I do a full system upgrade, which won't be for another year or two yet!

i didn't yet but planning to move windows 8 soon

Can someone please explain any advantages that Windows 7 has over 8?

All the complaints seem to be ahhhh things are in a different place or ahhhh tiles are gross. You figure out where everything is after a few days and using the tiles is completely optional.

In every important way 8 outperforms 7, not by a significant amount but there's still no reason to pick 7 over 8 unless you really don't like change. It seems like a lot of people just hate 8 because it's cool to hate.

I have a tablet PC at work that I've thrown the 8.1 preview on. The only reason was for the start button; in my work environment, we simply cannot have thousands of people trying to relearn how to walk. The re-introduction of the classic start menu would have solved the UI issues.

Being able to boot up to the desktop is nice. However!

The start button is simply a button you click to bring up metro UI. It feels like a giant fuck you from Microsoft.

Advertisements in a few of the Metro apps are bull. The standard Metro is like a the Yahoo home page in tile form. Yes, you can edit it. However, I look forward to the day when someone's Win8 Metro UI screen is full of Bonzai Buddy 2014 QuickSearch Toolbar Internet Security 2017 tiles.

I installed it on a work PC, I don't like how it's a completely new install with a generic CD key right now so I'm waiting for the actually update to use it at home, I'm completely used to and I pretty much never see Metro any more so it's not really fixing any issue I might have had anyway.