Is windows 8 worth using?

[Mike_Lewis89]

I was just given a copy from a friend as an early christmas present and I was just curious if you guys think it's worth it to wipe my drive and install it?

I've currently got windows 7 professional installed and I'm in need of a format either way and starting from a clean slate.

Anything special I need to do? I saw somewhere about something pertaining to eufi and windows 8 but I can't seem to find the article I was reading.

 

[Tsumi]

The only special thing is the requirements for Secure Boot/Ultra Fast Boot GOP. That's if you want the extremely fast boot speeds where it will bypass the bios startup sequence. To do this, you need to partition your hard drive as GPT instead of MBR. Your motherboard and GPU will also need to support Ultra Fast Boot GOP, there's a thread on this already.

Other than that, there are no special requirements. As for whether it's worth it or not... there is already plenty of threads and debates on the subject. IMO, if you're already doing a reformat, you might as well try it out. If you don't like it after a week or so, you can just reformat and revert back to Windows 7 without losing much.

 

[BurntToast]

Why do you need to reinstall Windows 7? I used to reinstall Windows XP maybe once every 6-9 months. I installed Windows 7 once and it lasted a long time.

If you are dying to use the Metro interface, install Windows 8. If not it won't offer you anything desirable.

Windows 8 is all about applying 10 or so tweaks to have it mimic Windows 7 as close as possible.

 

[Liger88]

Without knowing what you use your computer for there really is no right answer. At this point you're really only asking whether or not its worth taking the leap of faith into metro or going with a classical interface you're accustomed to.


If you really don't have any reason to upgrade to Windows 8 then don't, but if you're just curious and you're reformatting anyways why not at least play with it for awhile. It does pretty much everything 7 does although in a different way than most of us are used to.

 

[Void]

You already stated that your going to format and do a fresh install of 7 anyways so why not just install 8 instead. Try it out and if you don't like it then install 7. No harm done since your formatting anyways .

 

[Tsumi]

Windows 8 is all about applying 10 or so tweaks to have it mimic Windows 7 as close as possible.

We've been over this numerous times in numerous threads, this is simply not true for everyone.

 

[Snufykat]

You already stated that your going to format and do a fresh install of 7 anyways so why not just install 8 instead. Try it out and if you don't like it then install 7. No harm done since your formatting anyways .

I agree with this, give it a try for yourself and come to your own conclusions. It may work just fine for you and your usage, for others they set it up to be a new version of 7.

 

[TeeJayHoward]

If you are dying to use the Metro interface, install Windows 8. If not it won't offer you anything desirable.

Speaking personally, it offers the following three things which Windows 7 does not:

Storage Spaces
Hyper-V
Knowledge of Windows 8 for certification examinations

They're probably not important to everyone, but for me, it was enough to spend the couple bucks and buy an upgrade copy. Just remember that right-clicking the bottom-leftmost pixel gives you a power user menu. If you want to find an application on your system, hit the windows key and start typing.