Windows 7, 8 or 10

[thewolfe]

I'm thinking about buying a new computer and wondered what OS I should get. What say you?

And what about 10 installing on 7?

[Krom]

Windows 10 will be free for existing users of Windows 7 or 8. Otherwise for a desktop computer, use windows 7 or you will have to use classic shell to make Windows 8 behave like 7.

[thewolfe]

Thanks, I think I'm going to stay away from Win 8. Have they said when Win 10 is supposed to come out?

[Sirius]

Late summer this year, supposedly. Feels like an awfully long road with all the bugs, but it's worked out before, I guess.

[Tunnelcat]

For a gaming computer, would it be better to upgrade to Windows 10 from 7 this summer when it comes out, or stick with 7? I also heard that for any existing computer running Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8, it would be free, no subscriptions or payments in the future. Still sounds sketchy if you ask me. Nothing is ever free. There's always a catch.

[Krom]

The catch is you won't be using Windows 7 anymore...

The major thing Windows 10 brings to the gaming desktop is DirectX 12, which will NOT be back ported to 7 or 8. So if you want DX12 support, you have to use Windows 10.

[Duper]

in typical MS fashion.



That's been going on since Dx9

[Tunnelcat]

The catch is you won't be using Windows 7 anymore...

The major thing Windows 10 brings to the gaming desktop is DirectX 12, which will NOT be back ported to 7 or 8. So if you want DX12 support, you have to use Windows 10.

Yeah, but will Windows 10 itself be backwards compatible with older games and applications? Would YOU upgrade to Windows 10 Krom?

[Krom]

Yes, most likely I will (skipping 8 entirely).

I will also probably upgrade my surface pro 2 to 10, because it may be possible to get the start menu back in it without having to resort to classic shell like I use now.

I see Windows 10 as being a likely solid successor to 7, if only because Microsoft has wised up and put all the tech hippies who were responsible for Windows 8 back on their meds.

[Tunnelcat]

[Top Gun]

I guess I need to finally get my ass to 7 so that I can then subsequently get my ass to 10.

[Sirius]

I will also probably upgrade my surface pro 2 to 10, because it may be possible to get the start menu back in it without having to resort to classic shell like I use now.

I'd say that's pretty much a foregone conclusion. There is a "tablet mode" you can switch into that goes full-screen, but the default for desktops (and also supported on a Surface Pro but I don't remember whether it's default) in the current preview is a typically-dimensioned start menu.

It is a start menu with a bunch of tiles on the right, but that doesn't seem to annoy most people I speak to. You can put pretty much whatever you want there anyway.

[Tunnelcat]

I guess I need to finally get my ass to 7 so that I can then subsequently get my ass to 10.

What? You're still using XP, or worse, Vista? {shudder}

[Top Gun]

XP babeh. Mainly because I've been too cheap to shell out whatever it'd cost for a 7 license, and this piece of crap is so old that it'd probably choke on it anyway.

[Sirius]

Computers from the early Vista era (or earlier) are probably in a fair bit of danger of that. I wouldn't want to run it on anything with less than a couple GB of memory, personally.

[Krom]

You don't want to run Windows 7 on less than 4 GB either, it gets ugly.

[Tunnelcat]

You don't want to run Windows 7 on less than 4 GB either, it gets ugly.

Heh. You don't want to put Windows 7 on any computer that has less than 2 CPU cores either. I'm finally giving up on a laptop that has a single AMD CPU. Even after throwing in an extra 4G of ram to make 8 total, it's still relatively unusable. I had to turn off every service I could find that it didn't need just to get it boot in a decent amount of time. I also have to wait 10 minutes after every Windows Update install just so's the Windows Modules Installer will quit grabbing 100% of the CPU so I can get it to reboot too.

[Top Gun]

Huh...so much for even bothering with 7 if I decide to keep this old fossil, then. It's a single-core 32-bit P4 with 3GB of RAM; obviously because of the 32-bit limit putting any more in there is a waste.

[Krom]

My router is bigger and faster than your regular desktop...

(Intel i7-2700k 3.5 GHz quad core, 16 GB of RAM, 80 GB SSD, dual Intel gigabit LAN cards...)

[Tunnelcat]

Showoff.

[Sirius]

Hmm. I don't really know about that machine. I'd say it'd be borderline for Win7... it'd definitely run, but whether it would run well I can't be sure.
Faster than a laptop I used to run 7 on, at least. But that one was no speed demon, just okay for less demanding tasks.

[Tunnelcat]

Sneaky bastards. They supposedly installed nagware for Windows 10 during an update on March 27th. I looked on my system, but couldn't find that particular KB number (KB3035583), so this month I'll keep an eye out this month, and the next.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/29 ... tices.html

[Sirius]

I don't terribly trust the conclusions these people are drawing. Especially not the comments section.

There will be a way to turn it off.

[thewolfe]

Any downside to Win 8 with Classic Shell?

[thewolfe]

Looking at a Dell that has Win 7 Pro & Win 8.1 Pro. How does that work? Are they both installed on the computer?

[Hunter]

I heard Win 10 will be spying on users seeing as MS in the backpocket of the NSA

[Krom]

Baseless, Windows 10 doesn't need to spy on you because your ISP already does for both the NSA and for targeted advertising.

Granted, there is always room for more spying and more targeted advertising...

[Tunnelcat]

Marketing weenies and spies should both be shot on sight.

[Sirius]

But how will you do that if you never see them :ninja:
They are spies after all!

[Tunnelcat]

How about pray and spray?

[Tunnelcat]

Revenge against the MS nerds.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/23 ... 10-upgrade