[Chi]

Hello everyone, seems kind of weird that a tech-person like myself is asking this sort of thing but I need some advice/help on two Windows Operating Systems if you will.

Here's a background story for you if you're interested:
I've had a HP Pavilion laptop for 7 years, yes since 2007 I've had this thing with Windows Vista. Personally, I've liked Vista and it has some programs that I use frequently if not daily. Recently, about a month to be exact maybe even less time than that. The screen on the thing went black, or so I thought. The back light is malfunctioning. I opened it up and I didn't see any torn ribbons or wires, it may be an inverter issue or a deeper issue, I'm not sure. Since if it goes out of sleep mode or when it's starting up the screen flickers for a second then goes dark. Also I seem to have this issue that sometimes I start up my laptop and it doesn't register that I connected it to my TV via HDMI. That's how I've been able to use it still. It randomly does this where the TV can't read the connection or the laptop can't read it. I'm thinking it's the laptop though since the cable works fine with my Wii U. Now here's the thing, since this laptop was so old, I went ahead and got a new laptop. I need to be able to take my laptop to class so new computer was the way to go.

Here's the short story:
The new laptop has Windows 8.1 on it. I haven't messed around with it too much but I must admit I'm not a fan of having to connect a Microsoft account to log in. Nor am I a fan of it not starting me off on the desktop screen but in that app display instead. (And yes I figured out how to fix that.) I kind of want to give Windows 8.1 a fair chance before just flaking out on it but is it worth it?

Here's the questions:
My new laptop has Windows 8.1, I have a disc of Windows 7 Pro (thank you school). Should I bother trying to work things out with Windows 8.1 or say screw it and switch to Windows 7? What do you guys think of Windows 7? What do you think about Windows 8? Any advice or stories of your dealings with these operating systems is helpful! Thanks for reading!

[Coda]

First off: You don't HAVE to have a Microsoft account to log in. You can create a local-only account. It's mostly just a convenience.

Anyway, Windows 8.1 is a substantial improvement over 8.0. For the most part, if you already have 8.1 installed, there's not a whole lot of reason to go back to 7; the main difference you'll encounter in day-to-day use is the start screen vs. the start menu.

If your laptop has a touchscreen, 8.1 can actually be rather pleasant to use. It's a little awkward with a mouse, but it's better than 8.0.

Give it a try. Reinstalling an OS is enough of a pain in the butt that you should see for yourself how you feel about it.

[Karastorm]

I'd say give windows 8.1 a litle bit more chance if it's still not your cup of tea go and install 7. 7 is a lovely platform of windows and pretty damn easy to operate. Think of it as windows xp but with shiney new grapthics and a better ram/processor. If you really, really don't like 7 you can swich back to the native install of 8.1. Your new laptop should have a windows key on it somewhere ( the acctual device not it's software, usally found on the bottom near the battery or on the top next to the touchpad). Have fun with the new toy. Also on the first issue, the age of the computer really shouldn't effect the hdmi or vga recognisation. Try it with a vga cable to your t.v. If that fails it may be the grathpitcs card has started to fail or the prt it self is loose. These things happen with old tec. ( source for all this info is my self, I'm studing I.T and computing at univeristy and will hopefully get my BSCat a at second or first)

[Karastorm]

* appoligies for all the randm bad spelling's and grammar issues, I'm Dyslexic.

[Lucid:]

I agree with Coda, Windows 8.1 doesn't feel all that different from Windows 7 in my opinion. I never liked having anything on my desktop, so I use the metro screen as a sort of desktop, with my most important programs pinned to it. I use the search function for all other programs. Everything else works pretty much the same. I definitely recommend at least giving 8.1 a fair shot.

[Chi]

@Coda: Well when it told me to log in with a Microsoft account or Create a new one, I tried to skip it, it wouldn't let me. I'm not sure how else to get around that besides making a new user and having them both be admin accounts.

And yeah, this laptop doesn't have touch capabilities, it's part of the Lenovo Y50 series, there was a Touch one which I think was the Lenovo Y50 Touch or something of that nature but it was more expensive. I had a bit of a budget.

@Karastorm: Don't worry about the typos, I typo constantly. I understand the age shouldn't affect my computer I'm just thinking since my back light finally gave out from something in there, perhaps other parts are going bad too. I'm a Computer Science major myself, just with software, not hardware. Haha.

@Lucid:: Alright, I'm going to at least keep Windows 8.1 on my machine until finals are over. I don't want to have to deal with changing the OS while I'm trying to finish up school. Talk about a lot of effort and stress when I can just wait.

Also, I've been trying to adapt to Windows 8.1 more I'm just not entirely sure how I feel about it still. I have looked up about downgrading my OS from 8.1 to 7 and it doesn't seem terribly complicated besides losing some programs, I already found instructions on how to do it on Lenovo's support site. One thing I have to make sure I do if I do go through with the downgrade is make a backup disc of Windows 8.1, I don't think they gave me one.

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Chi

@Coda: Well when it told me to log in with a Microsoft account or Create a new one, I tried to skip it, it wouldn't let me. I'm not sure how else to get around that besides making a new user and having them both be admin accounts.

At this point, yeah, you'd have to. During the setup process, though, there's a checkbox in the "create a new account" flow that lets you make it a local-only account that isn't tied to a Microsoft account.

Also, I've been trying to adapt to Windows 8.1 more I'm just not entirely sure how I feel about it still. I have looked up about downgrading my OS from 8.1 to 7 and it doesn't seem terribly complicated besides losing some programs, I already found instructions on how to do it on Lenovo's support site. One thing I have to make sure I do if I do go through with the downgrade is make a backup disc of Windows 8.1, I don't think they gave me one.

Virtually nobody gives physical discs anymore, but making a recovery disc is pretty easy. There's a wizard in the control panel somewhere to do it. You might not even need to if there's a recovery partition on the hard drive -- most manufacturers include one for a "restore to factory defaults" kind of function.

[Chi]

Originally Posted by Coda

At this point, yeah, you'd have to. During the setup process, though, there's a checkbox in the "create a new account" flow that lets you make it a local-only account that isn't tied to a Microsoft account.


Virtually nobody gives physical discs anymore, but making a recovery disc is pretty easy. There's a wizard in the control panel somewhere to do it. You might not even need to if there's a recovery partition on the hard drive -- most manufacturers include one for a "restore to factory defaults" kind of function.

Well crap, I wish I knew that sooner. Oh well. It's not a big deal since the account I used is one I don't really use. I used it once and it was for.... linking an account on a website.

That's what I figured but yeah, I assumed it would be easy to either make a recovery disc or revert back to factory settings.