What OS do you use? 7? 8? 8.1? 10? Other?

Hi All,

I'm not intending starting a flamewar by any means but I've been thinking what OS you use with your Alienware?

My 17 came with Windows 8, then I upgraded to 8.1, it's alright and it's quite snappy with my mSATA. Obviously I installed Start8 as I tried to use Metro and it wasn't for me.

My partner who uses a M17 R4 for music production doesn't seem to like Windows 8.1 and I have a Windows 7 Alienware ultimate disc which installed fine, whilst I have the mSATA and she does not (I'm about to whack in a Samsung 500gb SSD this weekend) but I couldn't help but feel that while Windows 7 had better eye candy, I find Windows 8.1 much quicker at pretty everything from boot up to running programs to transferring files (I appreciate that I have mSATA which plays a big part)

I was just looking for some input, as this weekend when I throw in the SSD I will be reinstalling the OS so keen to hear peoples views. I may even wipe my laptop and go with the crowd as I'm keen to try Windows 7 on mine.

 

Im running 7 pro on all of mine because I came across 20 pro keys for free

 

I run Windows 8.1 cause i like it, it's better than Windows 8.0.

But when Windows 10 will come out, i'll upgrade. I've tried Windows 10 Technical Preview and i like it!

 

before I finished college, school gave me lots of keys to microsoft software and developing software as part of the Computer Science major. It also included OS's So I got windows 8 free from my school. When I got myself an SSD and wanted to upgrade my alienware m14x. I thought to just go to windows 8 along with it.

There were things I liked about it, things I don't. I installed a 3rd party Start menu. and with the upgrade to win 8.1 most of my issues were gone. So I'm a satisfied windows 8.1 user. And there are a few things I like more about 8.1 compared to win 7. Such as copying files show very accurate statistics now. Task manager now shows disk usage too (no more need to go to the resource monitor) and many more small things that I like.

 

Howdy Tinker_XP,

I am running Windows 8.1 on my M17xR4. It shipped with Windows 7, but came with a free upgrade to Windows 8. Which of course came with a free upgrade to Windows 8.1 I have hard time using Windows 7 now, as Windows 8 is so much faster. On my M17xR4 (which has a 32 GB Caching SSD) took around 60 seconds to boot Windows 7 (which is pretty quick for that OS from my experience), but on the same system Windows 8 (8.1) takes 15 seconds to boot. Everything is just much snappier and faster under Windows 8. I don't even use a Start Menu shell, but do spend 99% of my time on the desktop. Most of the apps I run are accessible directly from the Desktop, so I rarely have to go to the Start Screen. Good luck!

Rich S.

 

Use all three flavors of Windows... but, I only like Windows 7.

 

Mainly Windows 7....I have tried 8 and 8.1 but I usually end up with BSOD's shortly after install and bail on it every time. I had the tech demo of 10 installed and ran that primarily for a few months but started running into issues with Skype crashing and the wifi being a pain to configure so I went back to 7. At this point I am waiting for a consumer version of 10 and will probably switch at that time. Being that I have two keys for Windows 8 I am really hoping they offer free upgrades.

 

I had a total of 6 Windows 8 Pro licenses, but all machines that were upgraded went back to Windows 7 because all users of those machines decided they hated Windows 8 after a 1 year trial period. Out of those 6 Windows 8 licenses, only 1 is still being used for dual booting my M18xR2 to run Fire Strike benchmarks.

 

Running Windows 7 Home Premium. I was very happy that they decided to give me the same OS for my warranty exchange that I had before, and I don't see any reason to move off of it any time soon. I'll probably resist Windows 10 like the dickens, just because I don't want to think of all the little incompatibility errors and hiccups that come along when going to a new OS; watching my poor wife's struggles with 8.1 hasn't really warmed my heart, either.

 

The sad part is, Windows 8 has been out since 2012 and it's still a messed up pile of trash. Windows 10 is built on Windows 8 and other than a minor UI improvement, it's just as messed up as Windows 8.

 

I haven't used Win 10 yet, but I'm guessing you're right. I'm definitely giving it side-eye until they force me to give up Win 7. Thinking about the compatibility issues, BIOS, graphic drivers, sound, HDD controllers involved in a new, unknown OS install over the top of a five-year-old existing one that works just fine.... gah, I probably wouldn't even upgrade to tell the truth; I'd get a new machine with a brand-copy of Win 10 and a system that I knew was built for it. I'm very much in favor of starting the unknown with a clean slate. I'm definitely staying put for as long as possible.

 

Hi Tinker,

I am still using Win 7 Ultimate. It works and works well and I don't see any reason to change. It ain't broke so I ain't gonna fix it

 

i wonder if win 10 is compatible with win 8 fast boot

 

I'd prefer constructive criticism...

 

There's already plenty of evidence this is true, so there is no need for lengthy explanation in this thread. Windows 8's meager market share alone is ample proof that the masses hate Windows 8. Where new machines are offered with Windows 7 Pro as an option, the preference is more than obvious. Where an option is available on a new machine, Windows 7 sales eclipse Windows 8. And, if you look in the threads where the enthusiasts talk you will become aware of its performance crippling qualities. Here we are, about to embark upon year 3, Windows 10 Tech Preview is out, and Micro$lop still hasn't corrected the performance issues or problems with the RTC. This problem is severe enough that many benchmarks run with Windows 8 are invalidated by HWBOT.org because the results are unreliable. Micro$haft have dropped the ball and demonstrated unprecedented incompetence in their product development. I don't know of any constructive way to present that. Since they don't listen, there is no point is trying to be gentle or politically correct about it here. If you like it, you are certainly free to use it and we will not care or think poorly of you for having a personal preference.

Many people wrongly conclude Windows 8 is faster. Windows 8 creates an impression of being swift by having the UI stripped down to accommodate anemic hardware that cannot handle Windows 7 with grace. With the trend toward extraordinarily pathetic hardware, low power processors for garbage like tablets and Ultrabooks, that might be necessary to support such products. When you start actually measuring performance, CPU, memory and disk read/write performance lags behind Windows 7 on well-endowed hardware. It probably does feel like is moves things along a little bit quicker on systems with modest specifications.

Yes, I have tested in in dual boot with Windows 8 and it works the same. Just be aware that using Fast Boot can sometimes create OS stability issues and is conducive to corruption. This is the case with any form of hibernation where data is held in memory and subject to corruption instead of flushed by a proper shutdown. It's probably better to not worry about losing a couple of seconds in startup time and benefit from a more stable system by not using Fast Boot.

 

It is, boots even faster for me than 8 did. :thumbsup:

 

I'm sticking with Win 7 Ultimate; my first Alienware 17 had 7 Home Premium, and the second came with 8.1.
Ten minutes in I knew it wasn't for me - so I bought a legit license and installed 7 Ultimate, I installed SSD's at the same time, keeping the supplied HDD with 8.1 'on ice' in case I want to play with 8.1 or install 10 on it, most likely the latter.......

 

Remeber: doesn't matter which Windows version we are running. The important thing is running videgames!!!

 

Windows 7. I am a Compucom employee, and I can tell you, all major banks in north America, have been in the last year or so upgrading all their widows ME/XP systems to windows 7. Not Windows 8. This will mean, once again, that there is much higher support for windows 7 then windows 8 or 10. The business word uses Wndows 7 the way the world used Windows xp for over a decade.

You want an illusion that its faster, go windows 8, its a sneaky OS, that does less, but does a few things more that you will probably appreciate.
If you want support and stability and to use an OS the same as everyone else, to be on the same page as everyone, use Windows 7

 

Interesting thoughts, I've become quite accustomed to Windows 8.1 however I do like Windows 7. My security company still uses Windows XP due to a few compatible issues with our software however even then they plan on rolling out Windows 7 to the organisation.

Windows 10 although seemed good, crashed multiple times on the latest build which made me go back to Windows 8.1

 

Are you based in Oregon cos I know someone that used to work for compucom.

 

Used all the iterations of Win8 and upgraded to Win7 Ultimate, I'm happy as ever and never look back :thumbsup: !

 

using 8.1 with classic shell. best of both 7 and 8

 

when windows 7 was in Beta, i never seen it crash, nor did i hear of issues. Hearing so many issues about win10 is making me cautious.

also , no i am in montreal, and Compucom is HUGE.

 

yeah i realised after looking at your profile

 

Running windows 8.1 in test mode, allows the freedom to mod and run unsupported software, plus i have the 980m so i kinda have no other option...

 

I'll be running Windows 7 for as long as I can. But I fear I will be forced to have Windows 8.1 or 10 on my next PC. Micro$oft can shove it.

Spoiler

I suppose there's one positive thing to look forward to: DirectX 12 support.

 

That quote shows how pathetic their views are... as if we should be impressed by 33 FPS. They need start by investing in better hardware if the demo ran at 19 FPS, because that's where the primary problem is.

DX 12 won't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. Sending a boy (software) to do a man's (hardware) job is never a good solution.

 

Exactly, lol. It's pathetic, to say the least.

 

Notice the adulterous conflict of interest? Intel spokesman preaching the virtues of a Micro$lop product. They need to focus on making bada$$ hardware and let Micro$haft figure out how to best deal with their own incompetence. It's funny how all of the Micro$haft concubine püches refer to their relationship with the software Mafioso from Redmond as a "partnership" LOL.

 

I've stuck by 7 for the past few years and it's rarely done me wrong, as long as I disable auto-updates.

I tried 8/8.1 once and I had to pay my hospital bills myself.

I'm very ponderous about 10...

 

7. I tried 8 for a few days, ran a few mods to change things, still didn't like it. Back to 7. Any variant of 7 is still better than 8.

 

Why do you say you need to run 8.1 because of the 980m? I am curious because I am probably going to upgrade to a Clevo with dual 980ms and I don't want to have to use 8.1.

 

At this stage it's just the Alienware m18x R2 that needs to use 8.1 with 980m in full UEFI mode to work. Unfortunately we don't know why yet. You lucky Clevo users are fine to use any Windows and Legacy mode.

 

8.1 Pro with media centre.

I pre-ordered it in the uk so ended up with the full retail edition.

 

Thanks TBone. Actually I'm still a lucky AW17 owner but I don't think I will be for too much longer

 

Is it true that Micro$oft went from Windows 8 to 10 because they wanted it to match the version of Internet Explorer: IE10?

 

No, it was because 7 ate 9.

There is a lot of speculation and spin. Some say that the OS version being 9 might confuse applications and cause them to misidentify the OS as 9x (95/98). I suspect it to be a publicity stunt for marketing to give the impression of a huge leap from the Windows 8.X.X "Millenium Edition" pile of crap OS we have now. These guys in Redmond are their own worst enemies. Every time they do something right, it seems as though they feel compelled to do something to screw it up. Multiple millions of people love Windows 7 and don't want something that looks, acts and feels different. They need to learn to stop while they are ahead. Those that like Windows 8.X.X better are a tiny minority...

 

Well I ended up installing 8.1 on my partners pc due to the fact that she missed the charm bar of all things when she was using Windows 7.

You can slate 8.1 but my god, her M17x R4 with the Samsung SSD installed boots from cold to desktop in about 12 seconds. That's an impressive feat i'd say.

 

If micro$lop realeases DX12 for Win7 then benchers / enthusiasts would definitely opt out Win10, unless it's worthy of an upgrade

 

Yup, nothing with 12 seconds boot time. That's pretty sweet. However, what is far more important is what happens after it drops you on the desktop, which is one of the reasons I prefer Windows 7. It performs better overall.

 

My Win7 wakes from hibernate in the same time it takes 8 to boot up, big deal. They're basically the same thing anyway.

 

Yours is slow in windows 8 once it gets onto the desktop? I've not noticed that.

 

I think Mr. Fox is referring to lower benchmark performance in Windows 8 compared to 7.

 

Thing is, the partner is just after speed, nothing more. So Windows 8.1 was the clear winner. I on the other hand tend to use most parts of the OS, and at the moment I'm thinking of upgrading to Windows 8.1 Pro so I can run Windows XP virtually without using a 3rd party software as I believe this is built into Pro?

One thing I did like about Windows 7 other then Aero and a few other things was the Alienware login screen, that does look kinda cool!

 

In my humble opinion, Windows 8/8.1 is entirely unusable on a traditional hinged laptop without touch input. The UI is just weird and not suited for touchpad/keyboard interfacing. It DOES work just fine on mobile devices, but definitely not on a regular laptop. The lack of aero glass is also quite sad, as it brought a certain eye candy to the OS in windows 7, where Windows 8 now looks rather bland. The BSOD screen and bootloader configuration GUI changes also are.....stupid in my book (seriously, a sad face....). Sure the Windows 7 kernel may be a little slower than the Windows 8 kernel, but it's usable, fast enough, prettier, and just makes MORE SENSE, which is why I use it. I cannot understand why MS decided to strip the traditional menu and GUI features away in windows 8. If they could simply reintroduce Windows 7 with all the kernel changes and upgrades of Windows 8, they would have a real moneymaker on their hands.

/rant

I use Windows 7 Ultimate x64, and experiment with various versions of Mac OS X just as a proof of concept (and proof to mac owners that PCs can do anything Macs can do, but even better)

 

except scaling

 

that's why you install something called classic shell!

 

The false sense of UI snappiness in Windows 8 can be easily replicated in Windows 7 by disabling some of the visual effects (e.g. fancy animations) to make it resemble 8.

Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise, and Ultimate have Windows XP Mode. Windows 8/8.1 do not.

 

It's not even snappier. It's all an illusion. I'm running the 8.1 Pro crud now since I have to bend over and prepare for UEFI insertion to get 980m's to work. Like someone already mentioned here, people do a clean install and think it's running better after coming off a crusty old Windows 7 install.
I don't actually mind the UI of windows 8, but as an OS it doesn't do anything better than W7.