Quick advice for a windows dummy!

Ok, so i've not really used windows since 3.1 was current... been a Mac guy.. Have and love my Macbook Pro Retina and while it's specs are amazing (for its size), it falls very short in the level of gaming performance I want/need.

I went ahead and sunk a ton of money into a Alienware 18, fully loaded with the best graphics card, CPU and drives available for it... but alas, that means windblows 8.. I'm used to a nearly trouble free computing experience with no headaches with drivers, viruses, conflicts, bla bla... so I'm afraid that i'll be lulled into not caring for my windows platform and bring endless headaches upon myself..

Can someone give me the windows 8 for dummies maintenance basics? I'm just used to doing the occasional "Repair Permissions" on the Mac and that's it...

Do we still need to de-frag with windows? what bout anti-virus, do I need to spend the money on it? if so, which? McCafee?
Anything else?

Thanks for the tips!

 

Quick tip

Change to win7 if you can

Forget mcafee (not that it exists anymore..it's been rebranded to intel something-or-the-other), if you want either go for norton Internet security (?2014),avast etc. personally I use MSE and MBAM

If you have ssd's then no defrag (amongst other options) need to be enabled (resource thessdreview dot com)

And welcome to the AW group

 

Too late for the Windows 7... would set my order back 2 weeks... why anyway? Seems like the benchmarks I saw on Anand showed windows 8 ran better frame rates?

When i ordered the computer (from Dell), they offered McCafee, but you are basically saying unneeded, eh?

As for drives... they're not really pure SSD's like on my Macbookpro.. it's a Raid 0 of 750GB 7200RPM drives, with 80GB SSD buffers? never heard of it until I ordered...

btw, how did you make a signature bloc? seems like it would help rather than keep typing my PC specs when I ask for words of wisdom!

Thanks for the welcome!

 

Not knowing your exact spec's they may be high enough in the future to take advantage of DX 11.2 advanced features, then again they may not matter. A lot of 8.x benchmark advantages tie to not using Win7 Aero and other features eliminated in Win8. In the end the OS is a personal choice.

MSE, IMHO, is a fine free choice for an AV. Norton or some others are great pay for subscription but there are also other free alternatives. as far as the hybrid option you probably could still benefit from an occasional defrag but TBH I am not familiar with any that would just do the HHD of the raid 0.

In the boards CP you will find options to add signatures etc.

 

Thanks for the feed back.. I'm still trying to figure out how to do a forum signature like you have, but the details are:

i7-4930MX, 32GB RAM, 2 x GTX 780M 4GB in SLI, 2 x 750GB 7200RPM / 90 GB SSD.... the rest of it is boilerplate Alienware 18..

I assume it's next to impossible to revert to 7.0 after ordering it with 8.1?

 

OSX users typically do not have issues with Win8.1, since Apple hasn't used a menu-based launcher since OS9. In fact, Win8.1 is the closest to OSX of any Windows version I've ever used. My wife runs OSX Mavericks on her MBP, so I'm very familiar with both. Here's a Win8.1 crash course for OSX users:

Dock = taskbar pins
Spotlight = start screen search
LaunchPad = start screen pins

Also, check out the two links in my signature for more info on how to use 8 (and 8.1 specifically). On a non-touchscreen desktop-replacement laptop, I'd skip using metro apps and simply use the start screen as a launcher, so maybe just look at the second of the two links.

As for maintenance: do NOT defragment if you have an SSD. Ever. If you have a spinning HDD, hit the win key and type defrag (start screen search). The option will pop right up. Regardless of whether you have an HDD or SSD, you should run disk cleanup periodically. Hit the win key and type clean and one of the options is "free up disk space by deleting unnecessary files." Choose that. Nothing else is really necessary.

As for antivirus, Windows Defender (part of Win8) is all you need. Don't waste money and system resources on something like McAfee or Norton.

 

I would still install Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, the free version as an on demand scanner to go along Windows defender. As for the get Windows 7 instead of Windows 8, it's more of a matter of personal taste in UI if you ask me.

As for the signature, you should be able to make one in a day or so, it requires 5 posts to get signature privileges and then the database has to update at 11 pm EST which is bad luck for you given that your last post at 11:01 may not have been made in time for the update.

 

Forgot about Malwarebytes, but I endorse it 100‰. Get it (it's like a $20 one - time purchase, not a recurring charge) and run it concurrently with Windows Defender. That's all you need.

 

Odd logic why get two programs that will conflict with each other?? Get MSE it's free and replaces Defender with a complete package with malware scanner and A/V it's not the best but at least you have only one program to contend with and it integrates with your Windows update. And cost you nothing if you already have W8 or W7 to install it and configure it and it does the rest. No malware cleaners are the best but lessening it to one program avoid pitfalls of malware finding a weak point and exploiting it.

If the order is made probably not but you should call and ask them is it possible politely. If they are reputable and want your business they most likely have people asked them that question already and probably have the disk to go back to W7 so just call and ask them what the harm in that.

 

Windows 8 is a very polarizing topic. You will find people with no issue forcing their beliefs on you. At the end of the day, *you* are the person paying the money, so *you* are the one that decides what OS you are using. As a 3x Mac owner myself, I know your ecosystem so I can tell you Win8.1 is .. jarring.. but if you haven't touched Windows in decades, you don't have much to contrast it against. You already know it won't be like using a Mac. For gaming Win8.1 is keen because you get a nice tiled Start screen which acts a little like the Launchpad. Click icon, play game. Simple.

PC Makers get kickbacks from software makers when they add their software. It's usually garbage (we call it bloatware). While the built-in antivirus is hardly 100% perfect, it's a good starting point, and if you will be primarily gaming and not clicking a lot of weird websites it should be a non-issue. Windows is otherwise pretty much maintenance free aside from updates which are mostly automated.

If you've been buying Macs for years you're well aware they used to have hard drives.

The AlienWare 18 is immense, so there's a lot of space to play with. They can actually put two hard drives and a flash module (like your Retina has). This is massive overkill, but again, it's your money.

 

Guys, thanks all sincerely for the good advice. It's sad, as there was a time in the mid to late 80's when I was the computer wizbang and knew it all... I played with Apple OS, DOS, Windows when it was new and such and knew the in's and outs... then I sorta phased away from the geeky aspect of computing and switch to Mac around 1999 and completely lost touch with PC... as my job doesn't really require me to interact with a computer, I never even had to do the most basic things on one... so this has been very helpful.

Thanks again

 

As an aside, Malware Bytes can run alongside MSE and is commonly used as an on demand, rather than real time, scanner.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

this is right. and as an aside to an aside, MSE is defender in W8 -- which can be both, on demand and real time.

 

Thanks, that's what I thought--MSE and Defender are not competing products, but different names for the same product in different versions of Windows (and Defender is preinstalled on Win8 machines, whereas MSE has to be manually installed on Win7).

 

Don't feel too bad OP. Tech changes stupid fast, and you can get lost pretty quickly. Hell, I barely know how to use Android and that's *the top* mobile OS currently, if it makes you feel better.

Personally, I'd get 7 instead of 8.1, though both do what you need them to do. It's just a matter if you can stand 8.1's "Modern" GUI after coming from OSX. 7 is still pretty different to OSX as well, but it's a more "traditional" desktop GUI (for Windows, at least); it has somethign similar to the OSX dock on the bottom of the screen in that you can pin applications to it, click that button, and launch it. 8.1's interface is more akin to a phone/tablet than the traditional desktop.

I've used both MSE + MalwareBytes (free) as well as MSE + MalwareBytes (paid) and I've never had a problem with them conflicting.

 

well, problem solved ... I went and modified the order for my son's PC, and added windows 8 while at it...

BUT, you all have me thinking now, since i too do prefer the traditional windows desktop myself (my son loves the 8 UI)... is there a way to configure windows 8 to AUTOMATICALLY go to the desktop and skip the 8.x UI?

 

IIRC, Microsoft added an option in 8.1 to boot directly to the Desktop mode (traditional). However, for some things (such as messing around with system settings), it will still take you to the Modern UI to perform that action.

 

please don't spread misinformation about W8 if you don't actually use it, i.e. don't know. with the exception of start screen settings themselves, naturally -- there are no system settings that can only be accessed through the start screen UI. you're correct that the setting to boot directly to the desktop was added in W8.1 though.

Sent from my Lumia 1520 using Tapatalk

 

Ah, I recalled (wrongly, it seems) that that was the case.

 

What he said was not inaccurate. Perhaps not complete in thought, but right in wording. If you follow the "traditional" style of doing things, it will frequently come to a point where it will send you to the ModernUI interface. If you want to, say, add a user.. And you do it through Control Panel > User Accounts, It clearly offers only "Add a new user in PC settings" (the ModernUI one). You can certainly still add a user, a local user, through lusrmgr.msc or computer management > users, if you are used to doing it that way.

There are some Win8.x functions, like changing the lock screen, that have no real direct desktop interface equal.

 

Spoiler

changing the user account picture is a start screen setting, otherwise everything else (e.g. account type and UAC) is where it's always been. i stand corrected about adding a new user though; that does send you to "PC settings"/the start screen CP.

agreed. the new lock screen is a start screen feature, ergo it's settings are only accessible via the start screen's CP.

 

The start screen is just a Window without the usual borders, title caption and window controls that takes up the whole display so you can not see what is behind it. IOW the pic you posted is not the start screen, ie those settings are not part of "start". Here is the setting screen with the start window as well.

It may look a bit odd here but I prefer to still see most of the desktop and taskbar when using "Start" so it's resized for that but the pic should show they are 2 different windows. IMO posters calling it the "moderngui look" is a much better term.


GamerPC, you may find the Alienware threads useful, in particular the AW18 thread.

Even has a W8.1 thread.

 

lol, you've missed something. and i have no idea what's going on with your start screen but it looks like it needs work. :hi2:

Spoiler

 

Not sure why your bringing personal preference into it, the point was the Start screen is just a Window and the settings screen is just another window that is separate from start.

 

to anyone still monitoring this thread, any thoughts on Webroot? I had a guy recommend I get it today .. $49/year.