Windows 8.1 - worth it?

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Well, I just had an hour or so to kill, so I took an image of my Windows 8 partition and upgraded to 8.1.

The upgrade went well but many fonts are fuzzy. Windows and IE11 are crisp and sharp but many of the legacy applications (including Chrome) have blurred fonts. I tried messing with Cleartype (even though the Windows fonts are fine) and experimented with the anti-aliasing settings in the NVIDIA control panel and searched (in vain) through the Intel graphics control panel for anti-aliasing settings. I even tried turning hardware acceleration off for those applications that I could. I have the latest graphics drivers from Intel and NVIDIA already installed, no newer drivers were found.

Since I only had an hour or so I've restored my Windows 8 image and I'll stay with that for as long as I can now. There was a time when new versions of Windows and new service packs just worked. Those days seem to be gone....... :(
 

mdwh

Enthusiast
Actually you can, Windows 8.1 is now being sold as a full OS not just an update.
I know, though I believe this happened with service packs too, albeit not straight away? I think later versions of XP had service packs installed when sold with machines.

True, it's not done exactly the same - but it's not a case of "found it necessary to bring out a new operating system"; for existing users it's basically a service pack, and for new users, they've avoided the hassle of having to install and then upgrade. Though I see now vanthus was talking about Windows 8 itself:

I was talking about Windows 8,the only real improvement over Windows 7 I've seen posted is it's a bit faster.
I don't think it has media center either,which I use with my TV card,and it doesn't appear to have the same backup options of Windows 7,(I could be wrong about that) which was one of the biggest improvements I've seen.
But each to their own I suppose. :)
I don't think it's "corporate greed" to charge for new versions of software, software companies do have to make money at some point for their work - you are free to choose whether to upgrade or not. People expect bug fixes to be provided for free, but Windows 8 was a lot more changes than that (whether you like them or not).

Windows 8 has a new backup method - personally I think it's much better in that, although limited in flexibility, it's actually easy to use, where as I found the old one to be rather confusing. Personally I use Cobian Backup. But then, the fact that there were changes beyond merely bug fixing is another reason not to do it as a service pack to Windows 7, as people would be annoyed if their backup software changed just because they downloaded a service pack (where as with a whole new OS, people are prepared that some things may work differently).

Actually they have apparently kind of admitted that metro was a bad move, there have been leaks from MS that Windows 9 which is already in development is a Windows 7 desktop based OS with Metro options.
But that's how I'd describe Windows 8 - I use the same UI as before, and using the full-screen "metro" applications is optional. Not that I have a desktop, but I don't have a tablet either, I have a laptop. I suspect they will refine and improve the integration, and give more options to satisfy a greater range of users, but that's not saying it's a bad idea, that's making it work better. E.g., in 8.1, optionally putting the start button back and allowing boot to desktop doesn't mean those changes were a bad idea, it's just realising that not everyone has the same preferences, and giving users the choice. I think the biggest complaint is that some people don't like the changed start menu (now "screen"), but that's separate to the debate about tablets. I hated the Windows XP start menu and preferred 2000, but that doesn't mean Windows XP wasn't a "desktop OS". I like using the new start screen on a laptop, and hope they don't get rid of it.

It will also be interesting from an API point of view to see if the "modern UI" can be used to write windowed applications as well as fullscreen ones - at the moment, the modern APIs (WinRT - not to be confused with the OS Windows RT) can only be used to write the full screen Metro applications. It's unclear if they always intended this and then changed their mind, or simply did not have the time to bring out a whole new API that could fully replace the Win32 API.
 
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ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Well, I just had an hour or so to kill, so I took an image of my Windows 8 partition and upgraded to 8.1.

The upgrade went well but many fonts are fuzzy. Windows and IE11 are crisp and sharp but many of the legacy applications (including Chrome) have blurred fonts. I tried messing with Cleartype (even though the Windows fonts are fine) and experimented with the anti-aliasing settings in the NVIDIA control panel and searched (in vain) through the Intel graphics control panel for anti-aliasing settings. I even tried turning hardware acceleration off for those applications that I could. I have the latest graphics drivers from Intel and NVIDIA already installed, no newer drivers were found.

Since I only had an hour or so I've restored my Windows 8 image and I'll stay with that for as long as I can now. There was a time when new versions of Windows and new service packs just worked. Those days seem to be gone....... :(

I've found a solution to the blurry fonts - after I've restored Windows 8 of course - see https://www.supportrix.com/kb/what-...-or-hard-to-read-font-problem-in-windows-8-1/. It seems it's a common problem related to different scaling levels. Windows 8.1 lets you select the same scaling level for all displays and that (it seems) solves the problem. I'll give 8.1 another go at some time. Probably. ;)
 

gaaron

Silver Level Poster
Thankyou for the info ubuysa. I've saved the link. I haven't tried it yet, as it's only in certain situations where the fonts are blurry (looks like print on cheap paper).
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I thought I'd post back with my experiences now that I've bitten the bullet and installed 8.1. I chose not to upgrade - I hate upgrades, there's always a risk with them I think, and yes, I am way over-cautious, it's a force of habit. :)

I mess about with my system quite a bit, I'm sure we all do :) and I figured it was about time for a reinstall of Windows 8 in any case. I generally do that a couple of times a year, just to be sure there's nothing lying around after all my messing. So I decided to install Windows 8 from DVD and then upgrade to Windows 8.1 before installing any of my user applications. It was a painless (though long) process, after installing Win 8 I installed all the latest drivers for my Optimus IV (previously downloaded). The MS Store didn't offer me the 8.1 upgrade immediately after installing Win 8, I had to install 60-odd updates in a couple of runs of Windows Update before the Store offered me the 8.1 upgrade. That really is a lengthy process as some have mentioned, I do wish they'd offer the upgrade as a stand alone file so that I could slipstream it into the Windows 8 DVD image for future use.

I needed the fuzzy fonts fix I mentioned above and it worked a treat, all the fonts are crisp and clear now. I've had no other issues at all, the drivers I installed all work well with 8.1 and it seems that installing my user apps onto an existing 8.1 system was the best way to go, I had no issues with any of them. Everything that worked with Windows 8 also works with 8.1.

One new feature I sort of like about 8.1 is the new "This PC" entry in the File Explorer navigation bar in place of "My Computer". I like having the common folders and disks all together in one place. I do wish though that there was an easy way to add additional folders to the standard list. They exist as some rather esoteric registry entries, they can be deleted if you don't like them there but as yet there's no way to add additional folders, at least no way that I've found.

Speed-wise it feels about the same as Windows 8, I've not really noticed anything working much faster. I'm still using Start8 so I've not even experimented with the Modern UI improvements and I doubt I ever will.

So a good result, partly I think because I did it as a new install. So anyone experiencing problems with the 8.1 upgrade would be well advised to follow the same route.

I knew I'd never be able to wait a couple of months to play with 8.1, I guess that sometimes I'm not as cautious as I'd like to think......

:)
 

Androcles

Rising Star
Apparently many of the reasons people are having issues with 8.1 is beause they jumped the gun and installed the update without making sure the initial 8 was up to date properly, apparently there are some earlier Win8 updates that are required for 8.1 and if oyu don't insytall them first it messes with the instalation.
 
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