Still Running Windows 8? Time To Upgrade, Or Else

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Why would anyone still be running Windows 8? Isn't everyone running Windows 8.1? None of you guys are running regular ol' Windows 8 are you?

Windows 8 is only three years old, so with Microsoft's 10-year support policy, one might assume it's eligible for security updates for many years. But thanks to a quirk in that support lifecycle, the clock runs out in a matter of days. If you're still running Windows 8, it's time to upgrade.
 
So the original Windows 10 will be dead in three years?

This is nothing more than a clickbait headline. 8.1 is being treated as a service pack to windows 8 because, well it is. Just like every other Windows OS it's the current SP that is supported by MS, not the original OS.

There is literally zero reason to not update 8 to 8.1. It's what finally made the OS useable.
 
So the original Windows 10 will be dead in three years?

It's kind of already dead which is part of the reason in forcing upgrades in the consumer space. For the average consumer, I can't think of a widespread reason to not be on 8.1 or 10 at this point if they're still running 8.
 
Being on a service pack has generally been the way it goes for support. Always has, always will be. :)

If you're on 8 straight, it's time to upgrade to 8.1. No real reason not to, honestly. I can see some people's hesitation with Windows 10, but 8.1 is a no-brainer.
 
If you're on 8, I see no reason why you wouldn't upgrade to 10. Outside buying into the mass hysteria and ridiculous notion that 8 is somehow better. Now if you are running 7, you may have a reasonable reason. I'm unwilling to completely give up win 7 ultimate for example.
 
Windows 8.1 was actually pretty great if you took the time to tweak your start menu layouts. To some degree I still prefer it to Windows 10. With a single click or button press I could see every single program shortcut properly organized.
 
There is literally zero reason to not update 8 to 8.1. It's what finally made the OS useable.

To call it "useable" is being generous.

I think a term like "tolerable" would be more accurate.

If you are running Windows 8/8.1 I see no reason not to upgrade to 10, unless there is a driver issue with your system. Even the mess that known as Windows 10 is a big improvement over 8/8.1
 
If you're on 8, I see no reason why you wouldn't upgrade to 10. Outside buying into the mass hysteria and ridiculous notion that 8 is somehow better. Now if you are running 7, you may have a reasonable reason. I'm unwilling to completely give up win 7 ultimate for example.

Windows Media Center is probably the only reason I would not upgrade. Although I actually DID upgrade, some people probably care about Media Center.

Windows 10 Pro has more features than 7 Ultimate did, when they dropped Ultimate they just put everything into Pro. If that's what you're worried about, it's not an issue. If you just like 7 then enjoy it up until the deadline. 10 still has a little bit of the new OS bugs.
 
Windows 8-10 is what finally made me go to linux as a primary OS for new machines.

If I didn't have Windows 7 still I would probably only have linux/osx boxes.
 
Rocking 8.1 forever, till Windows 10 mess is fixed.
If it isn't fixed by the time DX12 games hit the street I'm seriously thinking about cold swapping W7 and W10 boot drives, so W10 will only ever be used to play DX12 games.
 
Windows 8.0 still going strong here. No reason to go 8.1, or 10 for that matter.
 
Rocking 8.1 forever, till Windows 10 mess is fixed.

Windows 10 does nothing but destroy my games. crashes galore

I'm interested to know what particular issues you guys are having. Ever since I upgraded to Windows 10, barring a couple issues with some random utilities that just needed an update, I've had zero issues with games crashing, compatibility, or otherwise.
 
Windows 8.1 x64 requires CPU support for CompareExchange128 (CMPXCHG16b). Windows 8 does not.

CPUs that don't support this include early x64 CPUs (more or less circa pre Core2 Intel and pre K10 AMD, I haven't heavily researched this).

So these are computers that likely ran fine on Windows 7 x64, someone decided to upgrade them to Windows 8 x64, then they encounter an update dead-end.

Solution is to install 32-bit Windows 8/10 or buy a new PC.

Look in the Steam hardware survey to see an example of these Windows 8 systems that haven't been upgraded to 8.1
 
Windows Media Center is probably the only reason I would not upgrade. Although I actually DID upgrade, some people probably care about Media Center.

Windows 10 Pro has more features than 7 Ultimate did, when they dropped Ultimate they just put everything into Pro. If that's what you're worried about, it's not an issue. If you just like 7 then enjoy it up until the deadline. 10 still has a little bit of the new OS bugs.

That's pretty much it for me. I still use WMC, though not as much anymore. I have win10 installed (and tweaked to eliminate what everyone complains about) on every single other machine in the house. I'm basically keeping 7 on one specific machine until I have no more time.
 
Windows 10 does nothing but destroy my games. crashes galore

I was having crashes out the ass, and then I decided to turn off my video card overclock. For the last two weeks, I've not had a single crash!

Just something you should try. Just because your system was stable under 7 or 8 doesn't mean Win 10 works exactly the same :D
 
Windows 10 jacked up my Surface Pro 1. I have had nothing but problems since upgrading. Its also much harder to use in tablet mode than 8.1 was. I'm going to be going back to 8.1 because 10 is a mess on the SP1
 
Windows 10 jacked up my Surface Pro 1. I have had nothing but problems since upgrading. Its also much harder to use in tablet mode than 8.1 was. I'm going to be going back to 8.1 because 10 is a mess on the SP1

Seems like a common complaint that 10 is a big regression from 8.1 for Surface owners and tablet owners in general. Maybe by Redstone, 10 won't feel like a beta.
 
This is nothing more than a clickbait headline. 8.1 is being treated as a service pack to windows 8 because, well it is. Just like every other Windows OS it's the current SP that is supported by MS, not the original OS.

There is literally zero reason to not update 8 to 8.1. It's what finally made the OS useable.

Exactly what I was going to say.

Windows 8.1 is Windows 8 SP1.

The pre SP windows versions are never maintained for long after the SP has been made available.

Nothing to see here. Move along.
 
Seems like a common complaint that 10 is a big regression from 8.1 for Surface owners and tablet owners in general. Maybe by Redstone, 10 won't feel like a beta.

There are elements in Windows 8.1 that I agree are more tablet friendly than 10. The left side swipe navigation between apps, brightness and volume sliders in the Charms Bar and IE 11 modern with better touch first support than Edge is the bulk of what I've seem people mention as regression.

However there are some things that I think work better. Mixing desktop and modern apps while using touch works better. Om larger screens I tend to always stay in desktop mode and not use tablet mode as apps that suspend when in tablet mode that are in the background don't, like Netflix and on a larger screen tablet windowed apps work well for me, better than split screen.

Than there are things like Windows Hello and Cortana which can reduce the need for typing and make things easier than use a touchscreen keyboard.

Initially, the Windows 10 10240 release was wonky on my Surface 3 and Surface Pro 3, version 1511 with the latest updates has been very solid on them. I use a lot of modern apps and a number of them are of the universal 10 kind that aren't supported on 8.1. There are certainly touch improvements that need to come, like touch support in Edge.
 
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