Windows 8 Revisited

I don't see any current posts on Windows 8 here and what everyone thinks of it so let's open up to a "revisited" post here now that everyone has been running it over a year and I'll start with my observations. First of all let me state I am not enamored with it for several reasons but was afraid to mention it in my last forum residence as I was accused from everything to being on a Jihad to rid us of it to being labeled a "Windows 8 hater " by the milder critics I had.

The idea that an OS that allows smart phones, tablets and pcs to share the same OS has never been proven to me as even the slightest reason to have changed that much in Windows. Microsoft, always known as "the great imitator" never got this idea from Apple because Apple never saw a reason to do this. Offering a desktop of tiles is great for smart phones and tablets, but why not give desktop and laptop owners a choice to leave a desktop they can use easily and quickly? Well it appears that will be here in Windows 8.2 as Ms has finally listened to us.

The Uefi bios and Secure Boot, the latter only works in Windows 8, is supposed to be more secure but so far is proving to be secure from the pc owners only trying to access bios or repair modes and making all miserable in the attempts. Malware is having no issues infecting especially if you are believing that Windows 8 natural defenses are enough to protect you, something I disproved in another place in exhaustive testing.
I did find armed with a good third party Av like Nod32, Malwarebytes Pro Lifetime and WOT (the Web of Trust) the system was better defended than earlier versions of Windows.

As for the quicker boot and running, I see little difference with a Windows 8 system running a decent SSD as my main pc is. I can boot faster actually in the Windows 7 pc providing we count from when a browser Windows opens and you can move. While Windows 8 boots faster than 7, adding a third party start menu and desktop slows that but without it the screen may come up quickly yet the computer is ready to go later than the Win 7 pc again judging on being able to do something not just booted up!

These are my findings, what are yours?

 

Over a period of time with Windows 8, I've come to much prefer the tiled Start Screen and the way the lesser used shortcuts are presented in the 'All Apps' screen. So much so that my Desktop and Taskbar are only sparsely populated with anything. The OS runs all of my programs without a hitch. So, all in all, I'm very happy using Windows 8.1 on my computer with a keyboard and mouse.

If Microsoft bring back the Start Menu and the option to avoid the Metro interface in Windows 8.2 and beyond, I hope they will also make it possible to ignore the Start Menu and Desktop because Metro, as it stands now, has now become my preferred way of using Windows.

I think Microsoft has listened to those who want the Start Menu back but wonder if 'bowed to pressure' might be a more appropriate term. If the Start Menu is being brought back, who has Microsoft listened to? It would seem to be those who write reviews and give opinions in various technical articles on the Internet.

I have always wondered though, are the people who do this representative of the masses who have computers with Window 8 installed? I think it's mostly only people who are unhappy about Windows 8 that will take the trouble to write about it. I believe there must be a far greater number who just use Windows 8 to run their programs without saying anything. Happy people mostly don't take the trouble to write and say so . Therefore, it might only be a comparative, more vocal, minority who make it seem to Microsoft that nearly everyone is unhappy with Windows 8 in its current form.

The only aspect of the previous OS I have brought to Windows 8 is the ability to run Metro Apps in floating windows. This being done with Stardock's ModernMix. I read this might come as standard with Windows 8.2. This would be welcome with me if it does.

I haven't come across UEFI since my computer uses BIOS. I therefore can't comment about that because I haven't experienced it. I'm dual booting with Ubuntu at present and my only concern is that I'll still be able to do that when it comes to getting a new computer that uses UEFI. Reading here, it looks like this will still be possible:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

If this reduces Windows security, I don't think I'll find much problem protecting Windows one way or another as I've always done.

Having said the above, I'd see no reason for anyone using Windows 7 to upgrade to Windows 8.1, unless out of pure interest like I did. It won't run programs any better ..and this is the real point of any OS regardless of the way used to start them. However, I also think that there's no need to try and bring back a previous look and feel when getting a new computer with Windows 8.1 installed. The Windows 8 way of running programs works well enough without doing that.

The above are my opinions and feelings after being with Windows 8 from day one.

 

Noting that the third party programs adding back start menu and booting to the desktop, though 8.1 also now allows that as well, also slow down the bootup I have eliminated the 3rd party programs as well yet
I still don't see a significant quicker boot either, though it is a bit faster. Again it isn't the bootup as that is quick as much as it is being able to do something in Windows 8 that I actually find slower than Windows 7
but it could also be the full desktop I have plus the "Start" screen even though I have really culled that down in size also.

One of the other things that concerns me is that most rescue disks for imaging programs do not work with Uefi bios and secure boot as well. I have not checked recently but actually none of them I tried worked from Acronis, Macrium or Todo Backup that were Linux based. The Macrium PE disk works but of course that is a Windows environment. It is encouraging to see there are work arounds for Linux now that would allow them boot so I assume the image file rescue disks are possibly close or available as well.

In another post here I talked about infections and the natural defenses of Windows 8 which I have pretty well proven do not work as expected to so now I wonder how long we will torture ourselves with the UEFI Bios and Secure Boot. I sure hope they are not here to stay.

I have to agree other than curiosity about the new OS, I also see no real reason to upgrade to it as of yet. It does not seem to give the user anything significant on the plus side I can see.

 

I rely on disk imaging for changing systems with different security programs installed and/or for cleaning up after trying out various softwares. EaseUS Todo is used for this. It will be a while before I need a new computer, so EaseUS will be OK into the foreseeable future. I note that EaseUS has published help on how to use their imaging program on computers with UEFI:

http://kb.easeus.com/art.php?id=10011 (a WOT 'green' rated web page)

Maybe this will be more polished by the time I need to change the computer. I tend to use small independent computer builders for new computers, so perhaps there'll be options to stick to a BIOS system. Something to look into when the time comes.

I haven't noticed much difference in boot up time between Windows 7 and Windows 8 (8.1), especially by the time third-party realtime monitoring security software is added ..but shutdown time on 8.1 is pretty quick. I don't worry too much about boot-up time because this is when I go to make the coffee. The computer is always ready to run by the time that's done.

I find that, even after initial boot-up time, the computer is still best left for a minute or so while the AV program checks for updates and Skype fires up. Perhaps other things taking a while to settle down as well. Using the computer too quickly after the Start Screen appears will usually result in the browser being a bit slow to open.

 

I build systems for most of my clients and I wish you were right about bios coming back or being around as I am yet to see any except where I am using older hardware. I wish we could go back as testing has shown me this is little or no help in Malware prvention and a heavy PAS when it comes to setting as every Uefi is different and more annoying than the last and computer makers are really scrambling to provide bootability to dvd drive and even just access to settings.

I have to agree on boot time where it is not that important either and 8 does shutdown rather quickly but you have to understand it really doesn't shut down the way earlier versions did and the startup speed is gained by not being totally shut down. I can imagine how slowly Windows 8 would boot without this "cheating".