I've taken the plunge XP to Windows 8.1

I've been putting off upgrading from XP for years mainly because some of the applications I use wouldn't run on later OS versions. Now the withdrawal of support for XP has pushed me into making the change. I've just ordered a new PC - a flying machine with a solid state 1TB HDD, quad core 3.4 GHz processor and 8 GB RAM and Windows 8.1 64 bit. I've gone for a fairly high spec because I do quite a bit of video and photo editing which is pretty demanding on processing power.
It remains to be seen just how many of my peripherals won't work with the new OS. I know my colour printer isn't supported and suspect my photo scanner isn't and I'm just hoping that MS Office 2010 will run and also Photoshop CS5, otherwise the upgrade could turn out more expensive than I want!
If push comes to shove I'll have to keep my 'old' XP PC running too for a while.
One thing I have discovered is that it possible to run win 8.1 with an XP-look user interface by installing this classic shell.

http://www.classicshell.net/

 

Thanks for the info John - I think I'll need all the help I can get!!!

 

I have ordered a new laptop today, windows 8.1, 64 bit, as also upgrading from xp, delivery tomorrow, so may be installing the classic shell you recommend.

 

I've recently jumped from XP to windows 8 recently.
I use it in desktop mode, I cant understand the other bit, I end up going round in circles.

 

New 8.1 PC arrived this morning, and it's up and running though I've a lot to do yet.
I really don't like all the garbage that MS install on the main start up screen so as soon as possible I'll be ditching half of that stuff.
Just imported my photos from the 'old' PC -took two and a half hours as there were almost 25,000 pix and 250GB. Ive now thinned them down to 20,122 pix but i really ought to convert my RAW pix to jpg as it would save a lot of space.

Thanks for the tip about Win 8 for Dummies John, it's already saved me quite a bit of faffing about!

 

I wouldn't, storage is cheap and jpgs don't have the quality of RAW.
You can always convert to jpg if and when you need to for emailing, posting and so on but at least you still have the high quality RAW originals.

 

I've got Windows 8 running as a second OS on my laptop, needed it for help in fixing client's W8 systems. Wouldn't use it otherwise.

Upgraded to 8.1, still not keen on it, but when the 8.1.1 (or whatever it's called) came out, it's not as bad in my opinion, still prefer 7 personally, but the current version of 8 is bearable now at least.

 

Problem with Windows now is that it's trying to be all things to all men and it just does not work out.
It's a well known fact that Microsoft "borrows" features from Mac, Linux and now Android and put's them all together as a sort of trifle pudding, a hodge podge.
(In fairness, everyone "borrows" from everyone else, but the trick is to incorporate them wisely and selectively).

I can see why Microsoft did it as they are trying to remain relevant in a world that is increasingly moving towards open source.
There is Linux which is in everything from computers to routers to DVD players to the latest TVs, then there is Android which is based on the Linux kernel and even Mac which has it's roots in Unix which is a "cousin" of Linux.

Already there is a new generation of users that will grow up using an Android based device for all of their computing needs and will completely bypass Windows.
The suits over in Redmond are very aware of this and are desperately trying all sorts of things to stem the tide (Win 8 Metro and UEFI boot lockout come to mind) but me thinks they have missed the boat already.

I reckon that in the coming years, Windows will be mostly used in the office environment and occasionally in the home for mainly document and spreadsheet work and for programs that have no open source equivalent.

Microsoft is still hanging on to an outdated model where it chargers customers for the O.S.
The new trend is that the O.S. is free (and mostly customizable) and users download apps for a small fee.

My involvement with computers is mainly in an industrial and commercial aspect where I design custom hardware and the software that drives that hardware and the company took a decision about two years after Win 7 came out that it would migrate to using Linux for all it's development and the use of Windows only for the administration side and there will be no upgrading from Win 7 to 8 until it's absolutely essential and people are already looking at possibly moving over completely to Linux when that day comes.
Many others have done or are doing the same.

From a non home/office use point of view, the biggest problem with using the recent Windows (7, 8, 8.1) is that the kernel has completely gotten out of hand with a hopeless patchwork of half monolithic structure and external modules (making it very difficult to strip down for specific applications), an API set that changes from version to version and of course the fact that it only (natively) supports FAT and NTFS file systems which are no good for applications that require hard shutdown tolerance.

Both FAT and NTFS, don't have proper support for file ownership control and is the reason for Microsoft's half baked idea of permissions and User Control which is not only confusing but just gets in the way.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not for a minute trying to say that everyone should all of a sudden ditch Windows, and in fact for casual home and office use, Win 7 is still the best but for anything else, well..... there is something else.

My 2 cents worth.

 

Ditching

 

Ditch
informal
get rid of; give up.
"it crossed her mind to ditch her shoes and run"
synonyms:throw out, throw away, get rid of, dispose of, do away with

 

@ARMANDII

You are absolutely right.
Microsoft needs to make money for it's investors and what better way than force people into a vicious upgrade cycle with new releases as often as possible and if you don't upgrade, they simply pull the plug on future support to spook people into upgrading.
They did this recently with XP, even though there are estimates that up to 60% of users are still using it (private and commercial).

Hackers are well aware of this and will concentrate their efforts on finding new ways to exploit any weaknesses present in the O.S.
Therefore a upgrade to 7 is wise (even if it's forced) but that is as far as I would go and give HATE err, sorry 8 a miss.

This time around though, Microsoft also had loads of competition from the likes of Android and iOS which were not around before.
One of the main attractions of Android and iOS is the support for touch screens albeit on mobile devices.
Now Microsoft had to come up with something to offer in competition to these and since developing a whole new O.S. is very expensive, they thought that combining a "normal" desktop O.S. and one that also supports touchscreens natively was a good idea.

The result, a half baked O.S. that does not know if it's a mobile device (with touch screen) or a normal one with a conventional screen.
If one looks at all the doubling up that is required to support both scenarios, it's easy to see that it's downhill from here.

At least they were clever enough to offer Win 7 and 8 in both 32 and 64 bit and unless one has a specific reason for using 64 bit (dedicated software that needs it), 32 bit is the way to go.
The myth that 64 bit is faster, is exactly that, a myth and if the software does not make use of the extra bits (bus and registers), it can actually be slower as modern processors actually buffer commands and try to align them.
Over and above this, when it comes to hardware, most drivers are still only 32 bit and the O.S. has to perform thunking, see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunk
and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoW64
Net result?, more of a performance hit and sometimes total incompatibility.

Bottom line, unless you have a very good reason to upgrade to 8, stay with 7, and if you need to upgrade, aim for 32 bit.

 

If your software uses it then great.

In normal use, I doubt you will see a difference.
The problem comes in with very intensive games or spreadsheets/databases with loads and loads of records if the database engine is 32 bit.
The problem with drivers is also present.

The other problem of course is that when the O.S. is 64 bit, it puts the processor into 64 bit (long) mode which precludes the use of older 16 bit games.

Yep, that's 8 for you.