Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8?

[txdon]

Pat. Exactly. :thumbsup:

 

[sixdogs]

That's a great quote.

 

[dragoneggs]

I have been trying to not write anything on this but cant help myself. I used Windows for years at work, and at home too because I worked at home a lot and needed access to the work network and foolproof interchange of files. Suffered through endless upgrades, fixes, semi-fixes, trying to tell the difference between a "feature" and a "bug". Two days after I retired I bought a MacBook Pro and never looked back. Don't know the details of the hardware and software and don't need to, just use it for everything day in and day out. Reminds me of a joke my old dad used to tell. If you want to know how a lawnmower works, buy a Briggs and Stratton. If you just want to cut the lawn, buy a Honda.

I hate to sound if I am a salesman for Apple too but funny how it is that I am right now sitting on a Hilton hotel in Shinjuku, Japan and working on my MacBook online while my partner has spent hours tying to log on to wifi here with his windows laptop with no success. Not saying its necessarily windows but the hassles and headaches I had with many windows platforms is gone. When I was young it was fun troubleshooting, tinkering, rebuilding PCs but I don't have the time or patience to be working on something just so I can get to the job I really need done.

 

[cmore]

it sure did. ( does )

That about sums it up

 

[aczlan]

I hate to sound if I am a salesman for Apple too but funny how it is that I am right now sitting on a Hilton hotel in Shinjuku, Japan and working on my MacBook online while my partner has spent hours tying to log on to wifi here with his windows laptop with no success. Not saying its necessarily windows but the hassles and headaches I had with many windows platforms is gone. When I was young it was fun troubleshooting, tinkering, rebuilding PCs but I don't have the time or patience to be working on something just so I can get to the job I really need done.

Windows XP?

Aaron Z

 

[dmccarty]

It doesn't force anything. Enter a non-standard (aka not a msn or hotmail addy) and a password. It will then return the option of continuing without registering a user ID.

I upgraded 2 systems to 8.1 yesterday and gave them no info

I don't want to register a work system with my personal email account either. I tried to give a fake email address and that did not work either. At one point, giving a fake email account WOULD work but it did not work when I tried to upgrade. Other people were reporting this on the MS service site and there was no response from MS.

Just checked the MS site, http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1_pr-windows_install/windows-81-force-microsoft-account-creation/2cec5477-b919-485c-8883-28345208aea9?page=2 , this morning and the last post says to,

Neither of those is the official way
You are supposed to select "Create Account", and then on the next page, rather than actually creating account select the "Continue using existing account" link at the bottom.

Not very obvious

The post shows the registration dialog and at the bottom if you click on "Continue using my existing account" is supposed to bypass using a MS account or other account. This is just stupid beyond belief.

On Edit: I followed the instructions on the link. From the "Sign in to your Microsoft account" you have to click on "Create a new account" at the bottom of the page. On the "Create a Microsoft account" page, at the bottom you can click on "Continue using my existing account" which will proceed with the configuration. I end up deleting a bunch of Apps that I don't need to free up disk space as well.

The new "Start" window dohickey on the desktop is better than no "Start" dohickey but it only takes you to the tiles as before. You end spending more time clicking and looking than you did with previous Windows version. I have a particular problem with Win 8 that might not be applicable to others. I really need to be able to change the name of a program. In Windows 8-n this is a trivial task that just requires a right mouse button. While searching to figure out how to change a program name, which should be easy to do, I found a review of 8.1 that was interesting, http://www.extremetech.com/computing/168910-windows-8-1-and-the-desktop-a-modest-improvement-we-still-cant-recommend/3

While we haven’t touched directly on the privacy issues surrounding SkyDrive and windows, the NSA revelations of earlier this year make me deeply unwilling to work with any cloud service. That’s my own concern, but the way Microsoft hides the option to create a local account at setup makes it clear that the company really, really, wants you to share everything you do with it, and that’s not something an increasing number of people and businesses are comfortable doing.

Later,
Dan

 

[dragoneggs]

Windows XP?

Aaron Z

7 pro

 

[rekees4300]

This is just stupid beyond belief.

Yes, but it is par for the course for the MS propeller-heads.

View attachment 342453

 

[Soundguy]

Windows XP?

Aaron Z

when i use my netbook ( xp ) i have no problem finding public wifi and signing on.

 

[aczlan]

when i use my netbook ( xp ) i have no problem finding public wifi and signing on.

We have had recurring issues with XP and WPA2 wireless networks at work (heading out to look at one such case later today).

Aaron Z