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Pros: great performance (at least compared to w7).
Cons: ugly, weird and inconsistent ux.
I am helping someone to install in an All in One with 2GB Ram, but is very slow ahahahah I don't know why the manufacturer put Windows 8 with these types of computers... I think will be the best Windows 7 for this one and 32 bits as max.
As rallymax said, you'll need ay least 4gb of RAM to make it somewhat usable: even if you use a lightweight OS, any browser will eat up the whole RAM.
Anyway: try both w7 and w8 (32 bits below 4gb RAM) to see which performs better.
Upgrade RAM. Swap storage to SSD if possible.
Yeah! I was thinking to change to an SSD, but in these case he would need an 1TB SSD, but he can afford that, it is like 100 - 120 USD. The RAM also for these type of All in One model is pretty hard to get
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It should just be laptop RAM. Any Best Buy should carry it.
I don't know about ram but you don't need a whole TB of SSD for performance upgrade. You can install a 120/250GB SSD for the main OS and softwares and install the hard drive in place of the DVD drive bay or another SATA port if it has any. This hybrid combination will improve the day to day usage drastically along with another stick of RAM.
Try Linux
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Back when they were released, I used the Developer Preview of Windows 8, the Consumer Preview, (skipped the Release Preview), Windows 8 itself, and Windows 8.1. All of them were much faster to boot, faster to navigate, faster to open apps, and performed better in games, browsers, and Steam than Windows 7. I was shocked at the time (especially since the preview versions were free).
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At the time, yeah, I did do a fresh install away from a long-haul install of Vista, actually. My point of comparison, though, was the clean install of 7 I had been swapping in using a separate SDD. My college had just gotten in a batch of 30GB Intel SSDs, and was letting me test one out. As such, I got to play with 7, as well as all the preview releases of 8 and the final release. 8 was fast, and I did get slightly better performance out of games, but man, it's been years. I really just remember my impressions from the time.
Pros
Animations were smooth and pleasing (something Windows 10 has never achieved and only 11 has started catching up)
Performance was snappy even on old HDDs (Again, Windows 10 could never)
The tablet UI/gestures were fantastic if you used one back then
Live tiles were sometimes useful
Kickstarted the modern design trend
Cons
Universal apps run fullscreen on desktop (No idea why they approved that)
Half of the OS is Windows 7, the other half are blown-up mobile UI (they're too much even for someone like me who likes a little bit of spacing on desktop)
Duplicate apps (The Settings/Control Panel divide is even worse here)
A point that stands out is that it's still looking like the Settings/Control Panel migration is going to continue with Windows 11, which makes 4 versions of Windows with it unfinalized.
the settings/control panel migration will never be complete. Microsoft has to keep the control panel around at least for applets, & some like the mouse section programs specifically depend on or add their own sections to. I think what we have in the current dev insider build is the most they're willing to chip off of control panel, given that it hasn't changed in a while
Thank you for your comment!
The biggest con is that it has less than 2 years remaining support. If one's not currently using it, there's no reason to begin using it.
Given the image, I have to ask: who uses a computer to use the computer's OS? Most people use computers to use application software? While using applications, one isn't looking at the Start screen's live tiles.
If Windows 8.x Start screen makes it easier for some to find and run applications, that'd be a PLUS; however, if it makes it more difficult for others to find and run applications, that's be a MINUS.
IOW, one's opinion of Windows 8.x very much depends on whether one likes live tiles or considers them a distraction. I'm in the latter group.
Great comment and thoughs! Thanks
Pros: insanely fast and optimized
Cons: it permanently fucked up the Windows UI for 10 years.
Honestly, if you ignore the Start screen and the Charms menu, everything else in Windows 8 was basically copy-pasted from Windows 7.
'Fast Startup' wasn't
?
Windows 8 was released in 2012 and it introduced the disjointed "modern" and windows 7-esque "classic" desktop UI, which carried through to Windows 10. Even though amends and improvements were made, the disjointed UX still remains as Microsoft struggled to forge a design that could merge the two.
A real overhaul and unification of the UI language will only be in Windows 11, which will generally reach customers in 2022, 10 years after Windows 8.
did I really need to explain this?
Pros: Better performance than 7, very easy to build custom tiles
Cons: for some reason at some point they disabled the ability to use the WMC remote to move around the start screen and in apps. Also no update to WMC meant the death of that.
Pros: Performance
Cons: poor UI and UX
I don’t rmb any pros tho I rmb I didn’t hate using it.
But one con I have is the start screen. For win8 there’s no start button which is annoying. But for both 8 and 8.1 the start menu occupies the whole screen. It’s not the worst thing in the world but is a little annoying.
Tiles and the fullscreen start menu are amazing for certain scenarios. I can see not liking them for day to day desktop/laptop use. I can even see them being nice on a tablet. But where they really shine? r/htpc. The Start Menu is navigable with WMC remote commands as well as XInput game controllers. All you need to do is map a key on your remote to press winkey to open the menu and you have the best 10' UI app launcher on the market.
Win10 was the best solution, keeping tiles and allowing fullscreen as an option. I'm disappointed that Win11 took away fullscreen and tiles. I'll be devastated if they also take away the WMC and XInput inputs.
Pros: Feels lighter and faster compared to Windows 10, and has a UI more suited to touch devices.
Cons: Only has around 1.5 years of security updates and support from Microsoft, has an inconsistent, dated UI, most built-in apps no longer work, some programs such as Microsoft Office are not compatible.
These are my views regarding Windows 8.1.
Pros:
most responsive Windows I've used.
Performs very good on low-end CPUs.
Boot very fast even on a HDD.
Metro IE is fantastic.
The last Windows version where casual user can fully control how Windows update. (not via Group Policy)
Cons:
No Aero.
No Windows Media Center.
Windows search (on Start screen) functions differently from Windows 7. I almost never found what I wanted. Oddly, typing the same keywords on Explorer yield results.
If you clean install Windows 8.1 today, you can no longer update most in-box Metro apps.
Fast startup sometime cause unexpected problems.
No Windows Media Center by default. It was basically DLC.
Start screen is my only con (for 8.1). I have no pros or other cons.
pro: most stable and fast windows, really well made (nearly no bugs or dumb implementations), great own and creative ui design, best tablet os behind iPad os, liked the start menu even on desktops
cons: full screen apps, 8 bootet directly into start screen
Pros: it was installed on some ridiculous hardware, like 1-2 gb ram and 16gb disk, and it worked
Cons: basically everything else. A shame of an OS that fucked up everything, especially touch, since the other day when MS released 11
biggest con is its inconsistent design. and dont even get me started on Windows RT. i would rather run XP Tablet Edition.
Pros: the start screen backgrounds slapped
Cons: it took so long to use the start screen, you had enough time to admire them
I actually enjoyed the start screen, but it certainly took some getting used too. Metro UI was good compared to Windows 10's weird mish mash of design languages but certainly not as visually appealing as the aero design Windows 7.
Pros: feels optimized for low end hardware like i3 3-4gen and gt1030/gtx750ti,etc
Cons: drastic change in ui/ux
Pros: I don’t use it anymore
Cons: I used it some point
Pros: none.
Cons: no support for it.
If you ask here obviously people will say it's bad. Ask on windows 8 subreddit.
Good point ahaha
Bloated, congested, slow and annoying.
It was shite, is that enough of the 'cons' ?
Cons: Too square-y
Pros: Everything else (and yes, Start Menu too)
Pros: better performance Cons: metro apps, ui design and accessibility
pros: excellent performance and... thats pretty much it.
cons: shittiest UI I've ever used in my entire 17 years on this miserable world.
I actually didn't hate the concept of windows 8. I think a more consistent and modernized design could've made it great. Too many people just don't like change.
Pros: It's not Windows Vista
Cons: It's not Windows 7
I used Win 8.1 with student license for Industry Embedded Pro and I am still using it on one of my laptops. Pro: It was really compatible with everything because it was just flattened version of Win7. My license didn’t come with default Metro apps, just Windows Store was there. Cons: Metro apps were hard to use on computers
Btw. I think it was more UI consistent than Windows 10.
My father had one and I thought it was a weird windows 10.
Windows 8 was a pain to support for old people in general (mainly how I experienced it). Getting them to install TeamViewer was a pain since iirc Metro IE wouldn't show downloads the same way.
Also annoying on a server over RDP when it refreshes the entire remote window just to show me the start menu.
It did work great on tablets tough.
Pros: performance ofc (as compared to win 10 on older hardware).
Some animations were very cool.
Cons: in some apps, windows weren't a thing.
The store didn't have good apps
The mix of modern flat ui with old (win 7 like) apps was kinda weird
And yeah. START. I won't say any further.
Pros: speedy. UI simplicity at face value. Some forward thinking views on how the operating system should be a single thing for all platforms (tablet, desktop, and phone although the implementation was halfbaked).
Cons: UX redesign was inconsistent at best, extremely confusing at worse. Shutting down the computer itself took multiple steps and wasn't explained well. Control panel wasn't moved to the modern settings app completely, and the two had to be switched between constantly to change things. In general, the UX was a mess despite it visually being decent. The tablet UI was pretty much forced at all times, rather than having a separate one for tablet vs desktop (like 10 introduced).
I really like 8 tbh and don't agree with people that said it was shit purely because the UI was different. Those people exaggerate the problems with 8 and make it sound like it was a crash-prone mess or that 7 was overall better in speed or whatever, kinda like they have to tell themselves that 8 was irredeemable on all counts to justify them sticking with 7. I liked 8, but felt like it was halfbaked. 10 is to me what 8 should have been from the start, though with a lot less telemetry. 10 can be slow because of how it's constantly pinging Microsoft Everytime you move the mouse or open explorer, whereas 8 just zooms.
I love the OG version of Metro UI, just like Windows 8.x and Windows Phone 7 and 8.x. I had an 8” Win 8 tablet about 7-8 years ago and it was fantastic! Things like the charm bar and UI gestures made the whole thing really ahead of time. I also used Win 8 on desktop, it wasn’t bad there, it was okay, but I definitely missed a touchscreen monitor. I think I only hated the Store because it is very closed, and there wasn’t sideloading, which is a nonsense for a desktop computer. (It is nonsense on mobile too, but it is much common there). I don’t like Windows 10 because not a proper desktop UI neither a proper tablet one. The tablet mode is a joke, the desktop mode has elements both from the desktop and from the tablet world too. I don’t like Windows 7 either but at least that’s a solid desktop UI. Windows 8 had a solid tablet UI and a solid desktop UI too, and I really liked this, because both were great for their own purpose. So tldr for me Windows 8.x is the only Windows release I actually liked.
Pros - nothing now
Cons - It’s Windows 8.x - eww
pros: 8.1 is at least somewhat supported compared to 7.
cons: my GPU drivers keep crashing on 8.1 (I have an amd Radeon hd 6850), explorer is less stable compared to 7 and 10. most software that drops support for 7 also drops it for 8.
Great for tablets terrible for desktop
Pro;
The great UI for Touch and Tablet.
Con:
The UI is just made for Tablets and was terrible to use for a Desktop,
I like the look of it
I loved this os. Fast, beautiful and easy to use
Pros: Beautiful, consistent design. Great performance, great platform, amazing features. App contracts. A lot of thought went in the Start screen design. Ahead of Android upon its release. Sync features are top notch.
Cons: Services shutting down and/or apps being removed. Microsoft games, Movie Moments app, and Windows Phone app gone.
The stability provided by it not getting changed every 6/12 months is nice, though 10 is about to pick up that advantage as well.
I'm always confused by how people talk about Windows 8 ignoring the desktop experience to focus on a completely disjointed tablet interface as if it was a bad thing. Windows 7's interface was great, and I'm glad to get to continue to have it in 8 once I've removed or hidden all of the Metro stuff.