New PC, request advice on WIN 7 vs WIN 8.1

philsey

philsey

New member
I'm going to buy a new laptop. It WILL be WIN, likely a Thinkpad T450s.

I am strictly a casual user. Internet browsing, Word/Excel, simple graphics, NO gaming. Usage not likely to change.

I presently run WIN 7Pro, like it, am comfortable, etc. I WILL NOT have a touch screen.

So .... is there any good reason to complicate my life (IMO) with WIN 8.1?

TIA.
 
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Why not a Surface Pro3? I use it with a little baby keyboard and it is sweet. Best thing about 8.1 is you can configure it to be like earlier versions. I have no problems with it. I very rarely use it as a touchscreen but it being a tablet it has instant on which is very nice. No moving parts either. Give me a call sometime.
 
personally if you go win 8 on a laptop, get a touch screen. trying to use a pad/mouse on win 8 is more hassle on a non touch screen unless you force it to load the desktop on login with some reg hacking which I have done.

but you still have to deal with that stupid tile desktop at rare times. I use desktop mode 99% of the time on my desktop system. I also run win 7 media center on my tv computer (has a ceton 4 tuner with a multi-stream cable card in it to record shows).

the wife likes 8 on her laptop but she has a touch screen. daughter refuses to move to win 8 on her laptop and still runs win 7, and she specifically researched only win 7 laptops.
 
This is a good thread - So: questions:

I have a 12 year old desktop computer at the moment - I have some 10 year old National Geographic - US Geological Survey Topo maps of several western states. That's what I download and print my maps for off-roading. Each state is on several CDs. Is there a way to hook up a CD player to the new fangled laptop computers?

It would be real handy to have a laptop sitting in the passenger seat beside me running the Nat Geo, USGS maps while I'm in 4LO cruising the back country and not have to spend so much time, paper and ink cartridges before I head out on each trek. And it could be running all day off the 12v from the truck?
 
Ron4RNevada said:
This is a good thread - So: questions:

I have a 12 year old desktop computer at the moment - I have some 10 year old National Geographic - US Geological Survey Topo maps of several western states. That's what I download and print my maps for off-roading. Each state is on several CDs. Is there a way to hook up a CD player to the new fangled laptop computers?

It would be real handy to have a laptop sitting in the passenger seat beside me running the Nat Geo, USGS maps while I'm in 4LO cruising the back country and not have to spend so much time, paper and ink cartridges before I head out on each trek. And it could be running all day off the 12v from the truck?
Click to expand...

Let me help you out a bit Ron. Go to Staples and buy a 30 gig thumb drive for about $15. That will hold about 32 of your CD's on a flash drive the size of your thumb. Plug it in to a laptop USB port and you are good to go with a laptop in your truck.
 
Yup, there's USB or even Bluetooth and WiFi CD/DVD players now.

And I just bought a Toshiba tablet for that exact reason. Delorme TOPO with a USB GPS reciever, I'll rig a tablet mount and never have to use a handheld GPS or my Android again.
 
If no touch I would go 7. If touch then go 8.1. 7 and 8.1 are nearly the same base with a skin on 8.1. There are a few things that are handy with 8.1 that you don't need to download other software for whereas you would need to with 7. But the only time I have run into that is when mounting an ISO file (making a flash drive act like a CD to install something). 8.1 does it automatically whereas with 7 I needed software.

My laptop has 8.1 and my desktop has 7. I personally am a weird type of power user. I have completely clean desktops and use rainmeter (look it up) as shortcuts and such so it looks cool. I do not like the 8.1 tile layout so I have it boot to desktop so it acts just like 7. So I would just say 7 for me stand point being I have made my 8.1 act like 7.
 
My preference is for 7 I don't think it will matter that much because Microsoft will be giving away windows 10 in July and everyone who has windows 7 or 8 or 8.1 will be able to upgrade for free if your using 7 or 8. Its supposed to be a lot more user friendly. Hope that helps.
 
I was a big fan of Win7, got a new laptop with touchscreen that had Win8 on it. Didn't like 8 at first, but after a while I've gotten used to it. NEVER use the touchscreen on the laptop, save your money IMO.

After a year with both Win7 and Win8 computers in the house, I'd recommend either equally. 7 is great, 8 is no worse, and in some respects better. I think 8 runs lighter on the computer, starts up faster, etc. You can't lose, I wouldn't stress this point at all anymore.
 
Thanks to all who posted. I've decided to stay with what I know how to use. With WIN10 'announced', and a free upgrade, I see no sense changing now just to change again in the next year.

Now if I could just stop vascillating on a laptop model .....
 
1engineer said:
Let me help you out a bit Ron. Go to Staples and buy a 30 gig thumb drive for about $15. That will hold about 32 of your CD's on a flash drive the size of your thumb. Plug it in to a laptop USB port and you are good to go with a laptop in your truck.
Click to expand...

Thank you....
 
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