t420 + win8?

Do you guys recommend win8 with t420 or keep win7 for stability reasons?

 

Honestly, I wouldn't install 8 on any typical laptop/desktop computer. It's a tablet/smartphone OS, and it belongs there, not on a full-fledged computer. See the Windows 8 link in my sig.

Besides, if 7 is currently working for you, why bother changing it? Windows 7 is still supported by Microsoft.

 

I hardly ever see or use the "modern" apps during the day at work because I use traditional Windows 7 apps all day. The OS hasn't crashed on me and I actually prefer several aspects over Windows 7.

If you want to experiment before making the full time plunge, buy a spare hard drive. Remove your current Windows 7 drive, pop in the spare, install Windows 8 and make your own judgement.

I decided I wanted the start menu button back so I bought Stardock's Start 8. There are other free alternatives on the market now, too.

 

Stick with windows 7. I generally like windows 8, and it is a must on touch enabled laptops, but it adds very little to the T420 and makes some things more annoying.

After my initial upgrade, drivers and existing utilities continued to work fine. However, after running Lenovo's System Update recently, the radio toggle shortcut key doesn't work (it always switches to airplane mode). Other utilities (such as the webcam/audio config utility) dont launch on hotkeys either (and yes I have reinstalled the hotkey package). Simple things such as connecting/reconnecting to wifi networks are more annoying because instead of showing the networks list where you click, it slides in a panel from the right. There are a couple other issues (maybe unrelated) as well.. such as decreased graphics performance in games, touchpad is more jumpy, and trackpoint's middle click doesn't work as before. I haven't had time to research each of these, but my guess is that a recent win8 compatible driver update is responsible for these regressions. I'll definitely be rolling back to win7 which was rock solid for me.

 

Windows 7 is certainly a safe bet. But if you want some apps in the Windows store like I did, you have little choice.

 

Windows 7 is certainly a safe bet. If you want Aero like I always do, you have no other choice.

 

Or more than one window opened at once on the "main" desktop.

 

What are you calling the main desktop? The modern tiled desktop or the traditional Windows 7 style desktop?

The modern desktop is full screen immersive experience. It is easy to flip between the background apps. You can have more than one app on the screen at a time using the pseudo split screen capabilities. It lets you make an app sticky.

On the traditional desktop, you can run dozens of apps just like Windows 7.

 

By "main", I'm thinking Metro (what Microsoft wants to push on users with 8).

Sure, you could have one window taking up ~85% of the display, and another in the remaining ~15%, but what if you want two full-sized windows open at once on Metro? Or multiple windows open at once? For example, it would be very helpful to have that feature when you want to type up a research paper in one window like Word, an internet browser or two open for research, maybe some other documents/pictures/videos for research/reference, etc. Yes, it's easy to change windows in Metro, but 1) the same can be said for Windows 7 and just about any other OS, and 2) there's no way to boot directly into Windows 8 "Desktop" mode, which is just annoying.

 

Wow, "Windows 8 speak" galore! Every little action in Windows 8 is termed "experience." You no longer do things: you have experiences. Just drag a bunch of folders to the recycle bin and empty it -- man, what a satisfying experience. Ooops...

Maybe Lenovo should call the T431s a "modern" ThinkPad. And change its slogan to "For Those Who Experience."

 

I use three external LCD panels with my W530 so there is plenty of screen real estate. Regarding booting directly into the desktop mode, I do it every day. I use Stardock's Start 8 ($4.99) for that and other Windows 7 features I wanted. There are free alternatives also on the market.

Seriously, people are making way too much out of this.

I look at it this way, I basically have all the features of Windows 7, quite a few of them improved (like file copies), plus the added apps from the Windows 8 store. I am pretty happy with Windows 8. It runs everything I have very nicely.

 

I run Win8 on a T420 and it runs great. Lot's of minor improvements besides the "Touch Mode".

I also Highly recommend "Start8" I tried the free ones and they suck compared to Start8.

I installed it from scratch the other Day and it was a snap (I had previously done an upgrade Install from Win7 [which went fine]). Only a few things needed from Lenovo downloads.

 

After trying win8, then back to win7, I feel that the overall performance and experience is snappier with win8 than win7. I'm highly considering returning back to win8. Any simple guide to what optimum steps to install drivers? (maybe that's the trick for peak performance?)

 

I bought another T420 is excellent shape and installed Windows 8 to it yesterday. I just used a few of the drivers from support.lenovo.com and of course the windows update servers. It's running great though there are periods where the indexer is doing it's thing. It will settle down today.

Installed Start8 right away.

 

I did a fresh install of win8 and installed the necessary drivers and windows updates, but I still have "Base System Device" unknown in device manager. Suggestions?

 

It could be the Ricoh multicard reader.

 

I have a fairly limited install and that is not missing.

The ThinkVantage Tool is definitely worth installing

I installed Intel Rapid Storage, Active Protection, Hotkeys, Power Management and Critical Patch to fix TVSU

My guess is it's one of the first two.

 

If you look at the properties of the device, grab the hardware string, then search, it takes the guess work out of the picture.

 

that's correct!

did you have to install power management in win7 compatibility mode?
what's the importance of rapid storage?
what's TVSU?

 

1. No. It works on some machines and doesn't on others. I didn't bother (yet) on my T420. I would like to run it, but I will do a backup before installing.
2. Intel RST is usually preferred for machines with hot plugging eSATA and eSATAp drives. I will likely install this on mine at some point but it isn't needed at the moment.
3. TVSU = ThinkPad Advantage Software Update. It's the program that automates a lot of the driver maint for ThinkPads. It has a checkered history so I don't install it. I prefer manual research and installation instead. TVSU used to have a lot of memory leaks and performance issues, thus banned in my corp environment.

 

Yay! ...

 

I have the latest driver of the N6205 wireless adapter, suddenly it can't connect to my network, "limited connectivity". Other laptops connect normally.

 

System Update is one of the reasons I keep coming back to ThinkPads, nobody does it as well.

You can pick and choose what you want.
It explains "mostly" what things are for.
It shows you what you have now and what it will update too.
It shows if you ever installed it before, which is helpful.
You can hide an update.
You can shut off automatic updates.
It's very lightweight.
Always updates itself smoothly.
I just run it manually, so never had any issues with memory leaks, even if it did.

Never had a problem with it, been running it since T41p days. Once in a while an update might get stuck (like it occasionally does with windows update). Ignore or manual update usually fixes it.

First and only thing I have to go hunt for on Lenovo.com