Replacement laptop, do I want touch screen?
My old Dell Latitude (xp pro) has just about run its lifecycle. Over the years I've replaced various parts on it to keep it going but I think it may have an aliment that is progressively fatal at this...
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I have a new laptop, a smaller cheap one just for traveling, as I too prefer a computer to a tablet. I did find some use for the touch screen -- in reading a news article, for instance, it is nice to expand and shrink it with 2 fingers on the screen instead of the keystrokes. To me, it is not essential, but useful at times.
Mine came with Win 8, and the awful tiled start screen. I did the 8.1 update, itself a long procedure, and then configured it to boot directly to the desktop, and not require a login password. I learned how via Google! So now it looks and works just like Win 7, without having to download a "shell", and I never actually see the tile screen. All my prior programs work well. Even Office 2003 which Microworst says is incompatible with Win 8.
Mine came with Win 8, and the awful tiled start screen. I did the 8.1 update, itself a long procedure, and then configured it to boot directly to the desktop, and not require a login password. I learned how via Google! So now it looks and works just like Win 7, without having to download a "shell", and I never actually see the tile screen. All my prior programs work well. Even Office 2003 which Microworst says is incompatible with Win 8.
