Getting kinda tired of Windows 8.1

[JDR13]

You haven't re-installed in 3 years? That's a big mistake for gaming, if you ask me. Unless you're incredibly anal about keeping it clean.

I re-install at least once every 6 months - because I hate the feeling that everything is not optimised. So, to me, it's a trivial process. The longer you wait, the worse it'll get

I've just been too lazy and cheap to do it until now.

What's the advantage (if any) of paying the extra money for the full version vs the OEM version? Besides the fact that you get both 32bit and 64bit discs with the full version.

 

[joxer]

Unfortunately, waiting that long is not an option. I'm upgrading within the next 30 days.

Waiting for win 9 is a viable option and I did it myself. 9 will be released in Q1 next year. Sometime with TW3.

Get 7 pro, later upgrade it to 9 for cheap. Even if you don't upgrade it to 9, Microsoft won't stop the support as companies are refusing to switch on 8.

There is no real reason to buy retail over OEM unless you're changing your hardware frequently. And I'm just like you. Once installed, I never reinstall OS. And it never breaks on me, and everything runs perfectly.

 

[JDR13]

Waiting for win 9 is a viable option

For you perhaps.

I'm getting my new CPU shortly after it's released at the end of this month along with a new motherboard, RAM, etc. I want a clean OS install to go with them.

Besides, purchasing a copy of Win 7 Pro would cost me just as much as Win 8 anyways.

 

[joxer]

JDR I bought a completely new machine a couple of weeks ago.
Bought parts, combined them by myself, installed OS by myself.

Win 7 pro is on it and runs without problems. The same price of 7 and 8 doesn't mean 8 is a better option. If one of your parts will be touchscreen, then buy 8 definetly. If not, I really see no reason to go torture yourself with it.

And I'm waiting for win 9. Will skip 8.

Also nothing will break if you plug your old HDD on the new machine and it won't go crazy, it'll work fine. No, it won't be a registry mess. You need no fresh OS install.
But please, don't do it. Buy SDD and install OS on SDD. The difference is drastic.

 

[JDR13]

No, I definitely need to reformat.

Not just because of how long it's been, but also because my current dual-boot setup essentially cuts my hard drive in half. It's a 1 TB drive, but I currently have it split into two 500GB partitions with 1 OS on each. Since I no longer use WinXP, I want to reformat the drive back into a single partition to better utilize the space.

 

[DArtagnan]

I've just been too lazy and cheap to do it until now.

What's the advantage (if any) of paying the extra money for the full version vs the OEM version? Besides the fact that you get both 32bit and 64bit discs with the full version.

I'm not aware of any advantage.

I bought a supposed "upgrade" version of Windows 8, but it installs from the ground up just fine.

As long as you have access to the 64-bit version of W8 (Pro or whatever), I think that's basically all you need.

That said, I haven't bothered to research it, so there might be something I'm missing.

 

[joxer]

It's a 1 TB drive, but I currently have it split into two 500GB partitions with 1 OS on each. Since I no longer use WinXP, I want to reformat the drive back into a single partition to better utilize the space.

If win7 is on C: you still don't have to reformat. You can edit boot ini file and remove XP option, then through drive manager delete the whole winxp partition and resize C:.

If win7 is on D:, E: or anywhere else I'm not not sure, never had an opportunity to mess with that. It's still possible some of utils can do it (Acronis diskpart for example).

In any case, I always keep more than one partition on my hard drives and am never installing games on C: if possible (not possible on Steam preload if Steam is installed on C.

 

[zahratustra]

Nothing bad will happen as I have done it before myself. It's just not recommended. As Drithius wrote below you will have to edit and fix your registry.

Is there an app which could help with that?

 

[Toff]

You can use this tool to get your windows key: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ekeyfinder/?source=directory

Do not use the old JellyBeanFinder as an external company bought it and stuck a bunch of spamcrap in it now.

There are legal downloads to Win 7, here is a link that explains it: http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html

As to the Pro versions, you don't need it unless you log on an Active Directory Server. Typically thats at work. The Home version or whatever they are calling it now will work fine.

Myself I would stick with 7 until Win 9 comes out since it is close(ish).

 

[Couchpotato]

Is there an app which could help with that?

Not that I know of.

Anyway I have done this twice and never had a problem except a few games had to re-installed. There are no bad side effects or problems despite people saying don't do it.

 

[blatantninja]

I was going to start a new thread about Windows 8, but I figured I'd just necro this one instead.

Since I'm about to upgrade my system, I'll no doubt have to reformat my hard drive, and I need to decide what I'm going to intall as my new OS

I currently have a Win 7 Pro 64bit - Win XP Pro dual boot setup.

I almost never use Win XP anymore. In fact, I think I might have booted it once or twice over the last year. I kept it around because I thought I'd use it for older games, but I never do. I'm just going to go with 1 OS this time so I need to decide between Windows 7 or 8.

For those who went from Windows 7 to Windows 8, was there any noticeable performance difference either way? I'm not talking about boot times or opening programs, I'm talking about gaming performance. What about compatibility issues? Is the Pro version worth the extra $50?

I can't speak to newer gaming performance unfortunately since everything I play is so old, but I haven't had any issue with any of my older games. The exception being Dungeon Siege, but it was a pain to get working in 7 too (I did eventually get it working in 8.1). The Pro version has some things that the regular does not, but you may not use them:

Client Hyper-V
Domain Join
Group Policy
Bitlocker
Remote Desktop (Host)

For me, the only one I really use is the RDP. That alone has made it worth it to me. Also, if you want the media pack (Media Center), I think you can only get that with Pro (for $15 more).

Not sure if it is still the case, but the non pro versions of 7 only allowed you to connect to something like 4 other PC's on your network, which may or may not be an issue for you. For me it is, because I have 1 Desktop, 1 HTPC, 1 WHS (virtualized), 1 virtual desktop, 2 laptops and 1 Surface Pro.

One thing I also like about 8 is that it integrates very well with OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive). I didn't really use it until I got my Surface Pro, but now I use it pretty extensively.

 

[joxer]

I didn't mention it, but for all I know everything that works on win 7 will work on win 8 too. Thus compatibility is not an issue.

Dunno about media center on win 8 nor am sure why it isn't free.
I don't use Microsoft's media player crap on my win 7 anyway, my only player is VLC. For pics I use IrfanView.
But on win 8 crap UI you accepted to be tortured with, you can always go with another crap UI media center freeware called XBMC.

There is a reason for this. VLC doesn't touch OS codecs. Games, some, use OS codecs. If your PC is in codec hell because you were messing with questionable codec packs, games stutter or have serious problems (an example is Freelancer).

Bitlocker? That's something a normal person doesn't need on their desktop machine. On laptops with sensitive data it's a must, so in this case it's also not something to consider.

I dunno what's Onedrive nor what's Skydrive and just cba to google for it. If it's a cloud, get real and switch to box.com. You get 50 gigs of cloudspace for free and currently it's not on antipiracy radar like mega, rapidshare and other similar crapsites.

Also noone mentioned that manufacturers tend to distribute only win 8 drivers for their new machines on official sites. There is no worry, Slimdrivers, a freeware app, finds you every single possible driver for winxp, win 7 and win 8.

Basically the decision to buy win 8 or stick with win 7 comes down to your feelings about phone/touchscreen UI. If you hate it, get win 7. If you adore it, go for win 8.

 

[blatantninja]

Dunno about media center on win 8 nor am sure why it isn't free.

It's not free because 1) they are phasing it out and 2) they got tired of paying the fees for the codecs on every install when less than 1% of people were using it.

I don't use Microsoft's media player crap on my win 7 anyway, my only player is VLC. For pics I use IrfanView.
But on win 8 crap UI you accepted to be tortured with, you can always go with another crap UI media center freeware called XBMC.

I've never been happy with the quality of the picture in VLC. It always seems a bit rough. I really like the MCE interface, just wish it was a bit more customizable. Really MCE plus MediaBrowser is a slam dunk. Been using it for years and its pretty amazing.

There is a reason for this. VLC doesn't touch OS codecs. Games, some, use OS codecs. If your PC is in codec hell because you were messing with questionable codec packs, games stutter or have serious problems (an example is Freelancer).

This why most people in the HTPC community don't use codec paks. Really, you can play just about everything with only a handful of standard ones, rather than the dozens that come in with a pak. I also don't game on my HTPC, so its not much of an issue worrying about compatibility with games.

I dunno what's Onedrive nor what's Skydrive and just cba to google for it. If it's a cloud, get real and switch to box.com. You get 50 gigs of cloudspace for free and currently it's not on antipiracy radar like mega, rapidshare and other similar crapsites.

It's like Box or Dropbox. I use Box as well as a secondary backup, but OneDrive just integrates better with Windows as a whole. It also works very well with MS Office, which I had issues with Dropbox on. Its also free for I think 15GB (and there was some recent promo that got me to 200GB for 2 years for free too).