clutchc :
Lol... and here I thought I was the only one that hated Win8, 8.1, 10. Yeah, tried the Win 10 Release Candidate. Still not ready for prime time IMO. I really can't find a reason to give up Win7. Easier to use, works smoother, bug-free, interface doesn't look like my damn phone... And if there's any serious improvement in gaming, I couldn't see it.
I hated windows 8 at first admittedly,I sorted my uncle out a new laptop before xmas as his old windows 7 model failed on him -bear in mind he's 74 & not exactly computer literate.
Before that new laptop arrived & I started moving stuff from his old one to the new I had never used windows 8 - I had to spend time installing classicshell & gadget packs to make it run as much like windows 7 as possible.Like falcon says above with his wife not wanting to use a new windows 8 setup it would have been worse for him - he quite literally would have been completely lost with the windows tab screen,no start menu etc.
Once you have set it up it is really virtually indistinguishable from win 7 though imo.H's happy enough with it anyway.
It is definitely more responsive,less memory intensive,does run some games better than windows 7- that is pretty much it though admittedly,the start tab screen is a nightmare admittedly & an incredibly bad idea by MS.
My sole reason for upgrading my own pc to windows 8.1 were pretty much,
1.I got offered a legit windows 8 upgrade key for $10
2.Farcry 4 would not work on my setup at all with windows 7,after hearing 2 reports of windows 8 sorting this problem & the fact it was dirt cheap I upgraded.
It sorted the 4 problem straight away,its now pretty much indistinguishable ( even to me) from my previous windows 7 install.
Would I pay full price to upgrade it if I was currently happy with my windows 7 performance - a straight no - its quite simply not worth it for the money.
I also would not recommmend anyone doing the windows 7 update to windows 8,then to windows 8.1 - that took the best part of 2 days & is an absolute fkn nightmare - failed updates galore,rollbacks on boot,having to install updates manually 2 & 3 at a time is no fun at all.
If youre going windows 8.1 then just do a straight fresh install