HP makes Windows 7 default OS for new PCs in US

[crash5s]

it's not all that bad...just some software that i need doesn't run, RTC issue when overclocking, and then there's the Rubik's cube known as modern ui...tho i liked some modern ui apps like the weather app

Software playing catch-up to an OS is nothing new though, this happens all the time. You don't have to deal with modern UI if you don't want to. I just use it as a sort of fancy screen saver. I don't really think either of these are worth getting upset about.

[SEA]

Windows 8.x is pretty much equals Windows 7 except start menu screen and better speed of Win8.
I got used to menu after 1 day of use it. I have 3 Win8(.1) and 1 Win7 home now. No single hardware issue.
I can't imagine to degrade back to Win7 - Win8 has all that win7 got and plus many other things...

I use start menu exactly the way I used in w7 - press button WIN and start typing.

Moreover, eventually I started using various tiles apps everyday - weather, some tablet games and some other stuff.

[SubZero.it]

I bought two Dell Precision T1700 for work...they shipped with Win7
Windows 8-8.1 looks horrible to me.

[Evantaur]

well installed win8 to my test bench, for "stuff"

[AliG]

Windows 8.x is pretty much equals Windows 7 except start menu screen and better speed of Win8.
I got used to menu after 1 day of use it. I have 3 Win8(.1) and 1 Win7 home now. No single hardware issue.
I can't imagine to degrade back to Win7 - Win8 has all that win7 got and plus many other things...

I use start menu exactly the way I used in w7 - press button WIN and start typing.

Moreover, eventually I started using various tiles apps everyday - weather, some tablet games and some other stuff.

That's exactly what I've been saying. Windows 8 got a really bad stigma, so people seem to automatically discount Windows 8.1. All the minor changes they made have a huge difference in overall user experience, and I honestly greatly prefer it over Windows 7

[Baenwort]

Until they at least match Windows 7 for multi monitor usability I'm going to be stuck on Windows 7 as I have an odd setup (Portrait on each side of a Landscape). I'll admit I'm an edge case but so are people who are fully happy with the Modern UI.

[SEA]

Baenwort
Win8 actually surpasses Win7 in multi-monitor support.
And one of the Win8 machines that I use at work has exactly the same config as yours

[To(V)bo Co(V)bo]

Love 8 Hate 8

Good job Microsoft. Dividing your user-base is such a good move.

Microsoft has been on a fail roll for a while now. It is funny how win7 was a "collaboration" of user input, while 8 was just a stick it in your eye kind of OS. Seriously, who does Microsoft think they are, Google?

Wish I could build a OS. Maybe I'd actually get some work done, the whole reason I use a PC in the first place. It would be epic.

[crash5s]

That's exactly what I've been saying. Windows 8 got a really bad stigma, so people seem to automatically discount Windows 8.1. All the minor changes they made have a huge difference in overall user experience, and I honestly greatly prefer it over Windows 7

It's Grandma syndrome entirely. When we moved from office 2003 to 2007 and the ribbon came along, all the geriatrics in the office freaked the hell out because things were moved around. Since they never learned any shortcuts or basic competency in interfacing with their programs, the world ended. They couldn't point and click the way they used to. Of course all the people who weren't Grandma didn't have an issue.

Same crap with 8. Everything you want is still there, and it's faster at that.... but if you were only pointing and clicking your way through an OS and never learned to do anything but, things changed on you.

[To(V)bo Co(V)bo]

Everything you want is still there, and it's faster at that.... but if you were only pointing and clicking your way through an OS and never learned to do anything but, things changed on you.

Some people have disabilities and can only click through the os. What about them?

[AliG]

Some people have disabilities and can only click through the os. What about them?

I say they should use a mouse like the rest of us. Have you even tried out 8.1? It has a very mouse/keyboard friendly interface.

It's Grandma syndrome entirely. When we moved from office 2003 to 2007 and the ribbon came along, all the geriatrics in the office freaked the hell out because things were moved around. Since they never learned any shortcuts or basic competency in interfacing with their programs, the world ended. They couldn't point and click the way they used to. Of course all the people who weren't Grandma didn't have an issue.

Same crap with 8. Everything you want is still there, and it's faster at that.... but if you were only pointing and clicking your way through an OS and never learned to do anything but, things changed on you.

To be fair, office 2007 was extremely laggy compared to 2003. However 2010 fixed all of that and then erryone was all #RIBBONS

[Sparky]

It's Grandma syndrome entirely. When we moved from office 2003 to 2007 and the ribbon came along, all the geriatrics in the office freaked the hell out because things were moved around. Since they never learned any shortcuts or basic competency in interfacing with their programs, the world ended. They couldn't point and click the way they used to. Of course all the people who weren't Grandma didn't have an issue.

Same crap with 8. Everything you want is still there, and it's faster at that.... but if you were only pointing and clicking your way through an OS and never learned to do anything but, things changed on you.

Not exactly a fair comparison. You shouldn't have to know all the keyboard shortcuts to use the operating system efficiently. Yes, efficiency is higher when you do know the extra shortcuts (I use them all the time) but that shouldn't be a requirement. I like the Office 2007+ ribbon setup as it makes logical sense. I know some people that still prefer the old-school 2003 look, even though they have no problem using the 2007+ setup. I still don't particularly care for some of Windows 8's design choices, but that isn't "grandma syndrome" - which by the way there is no reason to go trying to insult people that don't agree with you. Grow up a little bit.

I think one of the big goofs with Windows 8 was there was no introduction to the new layout, at all. Just dumped you on the start screen with an interface that was totally different looking in almost every way. Previously, changes were definitely noticeable but not totally foreign. From 98 to XP, then XP to Vista/7 there were some big changes but the gist of the basic function was still similar enough it wasn't hard to adapt to and really no intro was necessary for most people. Then 8 came along totally changed up everything, and left people a little clueless. People like you and me aren't afraid to just poke around and find out where they put things, and we both have are preferences and like certain new things and prefer the old setup for other things, but a lot of people aren't, shall I say "adventurous." Windows 8.1 brought in some helpful hints when you first bring stuff up that I'm sure would have helped a lot had they put that in Windows 8.

Windows 8/8.1 is undoubtedly geared towards a touchscreen, and it works great with that. But I think it still feels clunky trying to replicate touch screen gestures with a mouse.

[FischOderAal]

It's Grandma syndrome entirely. When we moved from office 2003 to 2007 and the ribbon came along, all the geriatrics in the office freaked the hell out because things were moved around. Since they never learned any shortcuts or basic competency in interfacing with their programs, the world ended. They couldn't point and click the way they used to. Of course all the people who weren't Grandma didn't have an issue.

Same crap with 8. Everything you want is still there, and it's faster at that.... but if you were only pointing and clicking your way through an OS and never learned to do anything but, things changed on you.

"Grandma syndrome"? While this is true for many of my collegues (most of which are 40-50 years old) I can't help myself a lot of times as well. And I'm just about to turn 28 in february...

From what I've seen about Win 8 it seems like Vista all over. It's better than its reputation, but it's not quite there either. The benefits do not outweigh the drawbacks for most of the users.

I consider myself quite fit with Windows and Office (though I honestly would prefer using LaTeX [1] and Excel is overused in engineering) I can't help but feel dissatisfied with the route Microsoft has taken with their products. Many of the features I use everyday are hidden deeper and deeper behind more and more clicks. Sure, for the everyday-user things get "easier" and look prettier, but I feel like the industry is moving to prettier interfaces and that a lot of functions do not really have an easy and memorizable shortcut anymore.

I feel like in the development of the program the "prettyness" (pun intended) has become more and more important over the features of the program.

Unfortunately, Microsoft's competitors are not better. Google has "verschlimmbessert" [2] their online programs quite a lot. They too are hiding functions behind more and more clicks and a lot of stuff has become counter-intuitive.

[1] I am sick and tired of having to rescue Word-Documents because someone ed up the format.
[2] "verschlimmbessert" (German, colloquial) = mixture of the German words "verbessert" (improved) and "verschlimmert" (making something worse); meaning that something has been changed meaning to improve it, while actually making it worse

[i found nemo]

[2] "verschlimmbessert" (German, colloquial) = mixture of the German words "verbessert" (improved) and "verschlimmert" (making something worse); meaning that something has been changed meaning to improve it, while actually making it worse

improved incompatibility .. sorry been wanting to use that for a while.

anyways for most users the biggest issue is the "start screen" but i don't believe in grandma syndrome. my neice is 17, and knows NOTHING about computers and absolutely loves her windows 8.1 laptop she got for x-mas. she also has access to win 7 computers, but ACTUALLY LIKES windows " start screen " and she can navigate it easily after only a few hours of ever have been on win 8.1. i think the issue is bias. i'll admit i'm biased. i had win 8 on my pc for 1 day, my best friend tried it for a week. i know performance in win 8 in the over all scheme of things is improved, but i just can't be hassled with that damn screen, and i surely don't wanna modify 20 things to get it to look like win 7. /rant

[AliG]

I consider myself quite fit with Windows and Office (though I honestly would prefer using LaTeX [1] and Excel is overused in engineering) I can't help but feel dissatisfied with the route Microsoft has taken with their products. Many of the features I use everyday are hidden deeper and deeper behind more and more clicks. Sure, for the everyday-user things get "easier" and look prettier, but I feel like the industry is moving to prettier interfaces and that a lot of functions do not really have an easy and memorizable shortcut anymore.

I feel like in the development of the program the "prettyness" (pun intended) has become more and more important over the features of the program.

Unfortunately, Microsoft's competitors are not better. Google has "verschlimmbessert" [2] their online programs quite a lot. They too are hiding functions behind more and more clicks and a lot of stuff has become counter-intuitive.

In the words of my personal favorite American hero, sometimes you just gotta go into the Danger Zone!

anyways for most users the biggest issue is the "start screen" but i don't believe in grandma syndrome. my neice is 17, and knows NOTHING about computers and absolutely loves her windows 8.1 laptop she got for x-mas. she also has access to win 7 computers, but ACTUALLY LIKES windows " start screen " and she can navigate it easily after only a few hours of ever have been on win 8.1. i think the issue is bias. i'll admit i'm biased. i had win 8 on my pc for 1 day, my best friend tried it for a week. i know performance in win 8 in the over all scheme of things is improved, but i just can't be hassled with that damn screen, and i surely don't wanna modify 20 things to get it to look like win 7. /rant

Exactly what I've been saying all along; Windows 8 got such a bad rap (deservedly so in some areas) that people aren't willing to even try an 8.1 trial. It's a really nice interface.

[tiro_uspsss]

I find it odd that some ppl find 8.1 'so different / superior' to 8 they're the same to me! both 8 & 8.1 are way better performance-wise to 7 - so much more snappier, efficient, resourceful, I love it! yeah the GUI is a little.. new but that's what Start8 is for!

[AliG]

I find it odd that some ppl find 8.1 'so different / superior' to 8 they're the same to me! both 8 & 8.1 are way better performance-wise to 7 - so much more snappier, efficient, resourceful, I love it! yeah the GUI is a little.. new but that's what Start8 is for!

For me there's 3 big changes:

1) The whole start menu/button implimentation (along with corresponding left sidebar app shortcut menu), and the fact that it is way more organized due to having a primary set of apps and then submenu for all apps

2) Being able to control the scaling and resolution of each monitor seperately. Windows 8 had a lot of issues with multimonitor setups.

3) You can actually dual boot really easily with the re-vamped UEFI startup. Before it was a nightmare getting linux or even Windows 7 to dual boot

[Razmatazz]

My son has Windows 8 on his touch screen all-in-one computer. He seems to like it. I tried putting it on my desktop and tried it for a week or so. I just simply didn't like it as well. It is simply a preference thing I suppose. Went back to 7 and have been happy ever since. I'll probably give 8 a try again when I build my next system.

[blindbox]

It's Grandma syndrome entirely. When we moved from office 2003 to 2007 and the ribbon came along, all the geriatrics in the office freaked the hell out because things were moved around. Since they never learned any shortcuts or basic competency in interfacing with their programs, the world ended. They couldn't point and click the way they used to. Of course all the people who weren't Grandma didn't have an issue.

Same crap with 8. Everything you want is still there, and it's faster at that.... but if you were only pointing and clicking your way through an OS and never learned to do anything but, things changed on you.

Explain to me, why I really love Office 2007 and 2010 (Office 2013 is questionable. I hate the blinding interface and the commands that are in caps) but hate Windows 8 immensely. That said, my main problems with Windows 8 isn't the interface at all, but it doesn't help that it adds to the frustration.

1) Driver problems. Lower performance in games. FPS graphs might not show it but I can feel the stutter
2) Video playback problems. Video lags for like 5 seconds every 10~15 minutes. It might be due to application incompatibility with MPC-HC, ffdshow and LAVs.
3) Mouse input lag in games. Seems to have been fixed just 3 months ago.

I changed my start menu using classic shell to alleviate things a bit. I like to watch videos while doing something else, thank you. I don't want a full screen start menu.

2 weeks with Windows 8, and I reformatted it back to Windows 7.

[Buckeye]

I think I heard all this before from Windows XP users complaining about Vista then Win 7.

Same o'l stuff

[stuffme]

I think the biggest problem is for us long time users that we see it pretty quickly if it improves user experience and usability. For me it doesn't take long to realize that this makes my work harder on the pc or this does my work easier. It's all about more or less clicks. But of course the eye candy matters also, like I don't like the tabled looking sidebar for example making wifi connection. It just looks stupid and unnecessary big for desktop computer, but I understand how it makes sense for tablets.

But in the end like google does , the actually make thinks work better by moving and changing stuff. But microsoft is so lost that they are just trying to create something new that people would adopt, but in the end they don't know what they are doing. They just make things new by moving stuff around and not really thinking about, does it improves usability and user experience. And then microsoft just tries to force that so called new and "improved" down to our throats.

That's the fact in my mind and nothing to do with the kids ability to learn stuff and liking it. And by the way, of the kids like that candy eyed user interface more than that older looking windows 7 look.

[Think]

Anyone who likes windows 8.1 is a masochist...period. Been working with it since it's officially release and it's f(^**(&EN garbage interface.

[kromosto]

Bdsm???

[Think]

sounds about right

[Sparky]

'tis a little early in the morning to be drinking.

Or to be that angry.

Or both?