So I started looking for a new computer recently only to find that they're all equipped with Windows 8 and touchscreen now. And for those of you who like your Windows 7, like me, all of the computers that come with that OS are expensive ($500+) so you're pretty much forced to buy a computer with Windows 8 if you want a laptop that is affordable. For those of you who have a computer with the new OS on it, do you like it? Was it hard to get used to? Do you miss 7? What's different about 8?

Now Dell sells some laptops with Win8 that are non-touch, which is what I finally decided upon but I'm pretty worried about getting on the train with the new OS. I got the Inspiron 15 here and, because Dell does price matches now, I got it for $244 instead of $290 because WalMart is selling it cheaper here. Does anyone else use this computer? Is it good? Did I make the right choice?

I used Windows 8 (no touchscreen) for about 2 years and I feel like I was the only person I knew to actually enjoy - before my laptop glitched out. It's not difficult to navigate once you get used to it and the only thing that bugged me a little was not having a start menu and having to use more steps to search for a program that I didn't have pinned.

Unfortunately Windows 8 has some glitches (I had an HP and so did my coworker who also had the same problem so not sure if it applies to Dell too) where the laptop will just freeze up completely and the only way to resolve the issue would be to just force a shutdown and reboot. I tried really hard to search for a cause/solution to the problem but came up with nothing. Some people speculated that it might have been Windows 8 not agreeing with Chrome+gmail, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice either to test it out.

My HP had been getting progressively worse over the past 6 months (but 60 hour work weeks meant that I my days were basically just wake up work sleep repeat) so I held on for as long as I could, but I ended up jumping ship to mac this month. I've gone through 4 laptops in the past 5 years so I figured I might as well invest in a mac instead.

Oh lord, this really doesn't make me look forward to getting the computer. It doesn't have a start menu? That's just great. How do you get to your files and things? Is saving and finding pictures difficult? I was also recently told that the "desktop" is now an app and to make sure you don't delete it. Like what the hell? I'm almost regretting the purchase of this computer, but I figure if I don't like it after a few weeks I'll just send it back and pay the price of a computer to get this one fixed or just pay extra to buy a computer with Win7. :/

I'm currently using an Asus with Windows 8, which I got this past April. Granted, I was initially worried about having Windows 8. I took an informatics class the previous semester and many people were having issues with it. However, one of the guys from Best Buy (along with additional research) convinced me that most of those bugs Windows 8 had were fixed. I just kind of hoped for the best.

Now that I've had it a couple months shy of a year, I'm actually really pleased with it. It'll feel a little different at first, not having a start menu. But still, you can switch between the screen with the tiles and a typical desktop screen (minus the start menu). When I need to find a program that isn't pinned/doesn't have a shortcut on the desktop view, I simply use the searchbar on the tile view and can find what I'm looking for pretty easily. Likewise, if you right-click on the Windows 8 symbol in the bottom left corner on the desktop view (where the start menu is on 7), you can see a few options from signing out and shutting down to pulling up the task manager.

Typically, computers last at most two, two and a half years until they completely crap out on me. Mine is not quite a year old yet, but it is still working well and fast. Unlike , I haven't really had any issues with my laptop completely freezing on me forcing me to do a complete shutdown. I've had it not respond before, but I've had that happen on previous computers too. I just let it sit for a moment and fix itself, lol.

So overall, I'm happy with Windows 8. It'll take a little getting used to transitioning from Windows 7, but it didn't take me long at least. It works better than my last laptop for sure (but that could just be due to laptop brands as opposed to operating system). I'm just praying it'll last me more than the usual two years lol.

Ugh. I got a new laptop this June as a graduation gift, and it is a windows 8. It crashes constantly (I just recently had to update a bunch of stuff to make it stop) and it is also a touchscreen. I am still not used to this layout, and to know that windows 10 is coming out soon... It feels like this just came out ._. blah. I don't like Windows 8. 7 all the way!

Nope, no start menu. You can just pin windows explorer to your the taskbar and get your files from there, it's not so bad that way. You can probably also put it as an icon on your desktop - I prefer to keep my desktop completely clear so I didn't do that. On my laptop I pinned windows explorer, chrome, MS word, excel, powerpoint, and calculator. Otherwise every time you want a file you'll have to swipe right (which switches to a different screen), click search, and then search for what you want. Saving pictures was a little annoying for me because I never figured out if it was possible for it to NOT open in the pictures app when I wanted to see it in a non-thumbnail size. (I also had trouble getting it to go through an entire album of pics, it seemed to only want to open one at a time but I never looked into it because I haven't traveled much since I've had that laptop, aka no pics). I had no idea desktop was an app lol but oh god just imagining accidentally deleting it...

I used Windows 8 for over a year before going back to Ubuntu. I liked it well enough, about as well as I liked Windows 7. It took some getting used to but for someone like me who's not too shabby with computers making the transition was only a bit bumpy. Most people I know have a harder time with computers and found the switch very difficult. I got many emails from one person who just could not understand the difference between the app meant for tablets and the app meant for the traditional desktop because you can choose even on a PC to use the "PC" style of application or the tablet style of application with the latter being full-screen and trimmed down to the bare necessities. Some people have a very difficult time with that and the start screen in general.

There are lots of different programs available if you want to use a more traditional start menu though. :) It's quite easy to customize so if you don't like how it works out of the box there are plenty of options!

There's nothing wrong with Windows 8 you just have to get used to it. If it's crashing either your computer doesn't have the right specs to run it or something is wrong with the programs you're trying to run.

I've been using Windows 8 for quite some time now, and while it was annoying to use at first, I'm used to it now and have no issues running it. Like said, once you have everything you use pinned to your taskbar, using 8 is a cinch.

[edit]There was a topic here, I seem to have broken it?--

I have a self-built PC running Windows 8.1. It's not that great in my opinion. It's Windows so I have a problem with it automatically. But it's the only OS series that'll play games, so I have to deal with it on my main PC. On my laptop, I run Linux Mint, and that feels much more like home to me. Once you get used to all the FOSS alternative software pieces, you really start to like the reliability and security of Linux. For all that crap you hear in the news about the likes of HeartBleed, Ghost, etc. it's much, much worse on Windows. Those flaws that are newsworthy are patched within a week or even days after they're discovered. Usually long before they're news-worthy in the first place. Linux all the way!

Windows 8 is frustrating. For me having everything deciding to open in different apps is the bane of my computing experience. Why can't gifs just automatically play in the photo viewer like they used to? And why can't I view my email without leaving the desktop? (Yeah I can use my browser but that's not the point.)

My last computer was running XP, so I made quite a jump switching to a Windows 8 machine. Ideally I would have liked to get Windows 7 but I'm not in a financial situation to afford one, or even replace the OS on this thing. TBH, I'm not really fussed on Windows 7 either. I definitely prefer XP more.

I have a computer with windows 8.1. I only got it because they were no longer selling any that were still windows 7. I do have a start menu. I don't mind it--it's really not as terrible an OS as I had the impression. But, it is really super slow sometimes and both the memory and disk can run high. But it's not terrible, and surprisingly user-friendly.

I agree with , having to open some things as apps and some as programs is a pain in the ass. And the desktop mode/app mode running at the same time is what I assume makes the thing run so damn slow.

If you have the time to wait until Windows 10 comes out, I would. The only reaon why I bought this is because my last one with linux mint died. I'll be building a desktop PC when I have the chance.

Thanks for your input. My computer has already shipped out or else I'd cancel the order. I don't even plan on opening the package though, I want to send it back. I already regret buying it because of all the horrible things I've heard about it. Is Windows 10 supposed to have an app desktop?

No problem. It's really not a terrible OS, but if you know where to get one with win7 it might be better. I'm not sure about win10, I haven't been doing much research on it. But they aren't going to be making the same mistakes they did with 8, considering it's about as unpopular as vista (if not moreso). It won't be out for a while, so I haven't bothered doing a ton of research on it.

I got a new laptop over the winter holidays. Its from hp, and touch screen. It took me a long while to get used to the new Win8 system. I disliked many features with the touch pad because of the pinch zoom and the sliding to the left to go an app. I'm glad I disabled it. Love the touch screen. I play Caliph's Tomnb and Matlal's Jewels with it.

I have a question to those who has a touch screen. After using the touch screen for a while, my mouse is no where to be seen and my browser window I'd be using is frozen. I can click over it if I open a new browser window though. But its too much of a hassle to reload my tabs. How can I solve this? Its bugging me so much.

Windows 8 isn't hard to get used to, and I don't mind the way it looks - my issue is with how much it breaks/messes things up. I have had issues with Windows 8 causing my computer to blue screen when I plugged my tablet into it (this was SUPER scary since the computer was very new when this happened) - thankfully I fixed that.

However, Windows 8 is also known to lag with any other browser than IE (I hate IE and refuse to use it... sadly Chrome + Windows 8 don't go well together, at least not for me. FF works decently).

Anyway, I could list a million things wrong with it. I like the sleeker look of it. Aside from that, I'd prefer that they didn't release it before fixing all of its issues :(

Didn't read through everything so not sure if this has been mentioned already, but there's mods to make Windows 8 look like 7, and I think it has it's own way to make it look like 7 now so should be easy to transition over. I've found that Windows 8 is faster than 7, not overwhelmingly so, but with Classic Shell, which is what I use to make it look like 7, it's better.

Both my parents computer and my laptop are windows 8. My laptop is an HP Stream and while youtube, tumblr, and gif-heavy sites make Firefox lag like crazy on it, I haven't had too much issue with it. I've just learned to use a few sites for IE. I don't really like IE, but I don't really have much of a choice.

As long as you can get to the desktop menu(which I can on both) if you right click down in the lower left where the windows icon is a semi-start menu should appear for you. Everyone says how much they dislike windows 8, but it honestly doesn't bother me too much. Neither my parents computer or my laptop is touch screen, I hate touchscreen for computers tbh lol.