{"id":4588,"date":"2012-07-21T13:32:05","date_gmt":"2012-07-21T17:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=4588"},"modified":"2012-07-21T13:32:05","modified_gmt":"2012-07-21T17:32:05","slug":"why-you-should-consider-installing-windows-8-rp-on-your-windows-7-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/why-you-should-consider-installing-windows-8-rp-on-your-windows-7-computer\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Consider Installing Windows 8 RP on Your Windows 7 Computer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I’m going to stick my neck out here. I’ve never been one to recommend that anyone run Windows operating system betas. But if you’re using Windows 7, you might get a nice surprise if you download and install Windows 8 Release Preview. It’s the most polished Windows preview ever — and if you don’t like the Metro interface (see image below), you can use the standard Windows desktop sans start button. There’s no start button on Windows 8 so why does my Windows 8 have one? Because I added one with the help of a little freeware program called ViStart<\/a> (beware, it wants to put other software on your computer — but if you’re careful and click the decline button when it asks to install the junkware, you’ll get a nice Windows 7-style start button on your Windows computer).<\/p>\n

\"InfoAve
\nThe Windows 8 Metro Desktop <\/span><\/p>\n

\"InfoAve
\nThe Windows 8 Desktop sans Metro – using ViStart to restore the start button.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost any computer currently running Windows 7 has more than enough power to run Windows 8. And all or almost all of your applications will run on Windows 8. My windows 7 laptop got peppier after installing Windows 8 — Windows 8 handles memory better than Windows 8 and I think it’s generally lighter on resources.<\/p>\n

The official Microsoft minimum system requirements for the computers to run Windows 8 are:<\/p>\n

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
\n1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
\n16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
\nDirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver (If you’re running Win 7 Home Premium or better — you have these)
\nTaking advantage of touch input requires a screen that supports multi-touch.<\/p>\n

Microsoft has a free tool that will analyze your computer and provide you with information about any incompatible devices and software on your computer so that you can upgrade them or remove them before installing Windows 8. One thing I’ll tell you right out of the gate is that you’re going to have to uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials before you can install Windows 8 Release Preview. Windows 8 comes with Windows Defender (an antivirus\/antimalware) which is not the old clunky Windows Defender but a newer version of MSE.<\/p>\n

To check your computer download and run the Windows 8 Consumer Preview installer http:\/\/windows.microsoft.com\/en-US\/windows-8\/download<\/a> .<\/p>\n

The program will run and start a compatibility checked instantly. It will take some time for the program to analyze your computer. Once it’s finished it will list all the devices and programs that you’ll need to update or remove before you install Windows 8 on your computer.<\/p>\n

In my experience with this tool, only 2 software programs (one a virtualization tool, the other MSE) were not compatible. I had no hardware incompatibilities on my 2 1\/2 year-old Windows 7 laptop.<\/p>\n

Windows 8 runs so smoothly that many mornings, when I start work, I forget I’m using Windows 8. It has caused me no problems whatsoever. Windows Mail runs great on Windows 8 –even better than on Windows 7.<\/p>\n

A couple of other things you should be aware of:<\/p>\n

1. The final release of Windows 8 might be substantially different from Windows 8 Release Preview
\n2. You can’t go back to Windows 7 if you install Windows 8 Release Preview. That means you’re going to have to buy Windows 8 when it’s released, or start over from scratch by wiping your hard drive and reinstalling Widnows 7. But… you can get a great deal on Windows 8 Professional (upgrade). It’s only $39.95 between now and January 2013.<\/p>\n

Windows 7 users can keep all their programs, personal files, folders and settings. Windows Vista users can keep their personal files and settings. Windows XP users can keep only their personal files. So if you’re a XP or Vista user — keep in mind you’re going to lose your programs and more if you install Windows 8 Release Preview.<\/p>\n

Words of caution: This has been my experience with Windows 8. Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m going to stick my neck out here. I’ve never been one to recommend that anyone run Windows operating system betas. But if you’re using Windows 7, you might get a nice surprise if you download and install Windows 8 Release Preview. It’s the most polished Windows preview ever — and if you don’t like the Metro interface\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4590,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions\/4590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}