Windows 8.1 Speed

Chris Bryant wrote:
People often think a new OS is much faster than an old one- simply because the old OS has become bloated with leftover detritus- Windows with its registry is especially bad, but every OS suffers to some extent.

Not true. No such problems with my Apple computers running OS X. I spend 99.9% of my time cleaning up our Windows 7 computers. The registry is the dumbest piece of software engineering ever contrived.

Problem with Windows is that Microsoft has a primary objective to be sure that its Office and other in house software is so entwined that users will find it too difficult to use competitors' products.

The only way to speed up Windows is to run it off a solid state drive.

APT wrote:
... April 2014 when XP systems were rumored to instantly explode and all the private data would be held for ransom, ...

I totally missed that rumor and I read computer forums everyday!

I assembled a desktop computer in 2001 or so whenever Windows XP launched. I was so happy when it booted to desktop in 15s. Over the many years I kept up to date antivirus and Windows service packs and updates. I also replaced various hardware lastly with a dual core i5 and appropriate motherboard. Boot times grew and grew to about 3 minutes. Because of that, I wouldn't' use it often, just a smartphone more because it was always on.

April 2014 when XP systems were rumored to instantly explode and all the private data would be held for ransom, I bought an SSD and Windows 8.1. Now I'm back to 15s boot to desktop.

win7 laptop + win8.1 tablet here. "Classic shell" works perfectly and gets you a nicer interface than even win7. Win 8.1 settings will allow you to disable app updates, app searching and apps altogether, as well as disable all the wiggling "effects" that make the interface impossible to use on a touch tablet. One done you will have a slightly better OS than even win7, which I love.

IMO, 90% of speed improvvements are likely hardware. Board mfrs use a variety of specialilzed chips to speed up the user experience without speeding up the proc speed (which drains the battery). Sometimes there really are things that MSFT can do to make the interface move faster. But in both cases this is independent of CPU speeds.

SSD might also help a lot.

People often think a new OS is much faster than an old one- simply because the old OS has become bloated with leftover detritus- Windows with its registry is especially bad, but every OS suffers to some extent.

owenssailor wrote:
... I found this very helpful comparison between Start8 and Classic Shell: Comparison

That's a good comparison but I disagree with the first line of that article, power users don't miss the Start Menu in Win 8 as there are many alternative ways to access your programs. It's non power users that seem to be completely lost without a Start Menu.

My sister (not a power user) recently got a new laptop that came with Win 8.1. I told her to stick with the desktop and to install Classic Shell. She hasn't had any problems using it that way but would have struggled otherwise.

owenssailor wrote:
For Win 8 machines I install Start8 from Stardock. It gives a perfect Win7 user interfaceMany that I have done that for really like it.

Thanks for sharing this. I found this very helpful comparison between Start8 and Classic Shell: Comparison

For Win 8 machines I install Start8 from Stardock. It gives a perfect Win7 user interfaceMany that I have done that for really like it.

I have a 3 1/2 year old Toshiba Portege with an Intel i5 processor and 4GB of memory set up to dual boot Win 7 and Win 8.1. Performance is about the same for both. I boot up on Win 8 occasionally to see if I can learn to like it. It hasn't happened yet.