My top 2 reasons to upgrade to Windows 8--share yours

Cly

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I am perfectly happy with Windows 7 on the desktop, but I did find two reasons for upgrading to Windows 8:

(1) I can now open ISO files natively. I chose not to include a CD-ROM in my machine, so this will come in very handy.

BUT WIN 8 UNFORTUNATELY DOES NOT INCLUDE THE ABILITY TO CREATE ISO FILES. BUMMER.

(2) BitLocker is now included. Encrypting the whole system drive just got a lot easier.

Also the upgrade price is nice.

Since I don't have a DVD, I don't care about the lack of software to play DVDs. That's what TVs are for.

What reasons do other folks have for wanting to upgrade?
 

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This is true, I'm cutting out my DVD player from my new desktop in lieu of more hard drive space.

My top two reasons I'd say would be the Start Screen and Automatic Maintenance.
 

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I believe you will have to be on the Pro version of Windows 8 to get the bitlocker support.
 

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Top two reasons:
- iso support also
- better compatibility mode + reduced color mode
 

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    That's basically it.
Not sure why people are so excited about iso mounting.

I suppose it is marginally more convenient to have it included if all you ever want to do is mount them .

No biggie. Plenty of free isomounting software already available. If you have simple needs, then this is good WinCDEmu - the easiest way to mount an ISO. And more... ( it also creates iso's). Works great on win7.

If you want to do more than just mounting you would need a full isohandler anyhow.

Like this: PowerISO - Create, Burn, Mount, Edit, Compress, Encrypt, Split, Extract ISO file, ISO/BIN converter, Virtual Drive


the free (unregistered ) version does almost everything - the only limitataion of the free version is you are restricted to editing only up to 300mb. It is also great for writing iso to flash
 

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I believe you will have to be on the Pro version of Windows 8 to get the bitlocker support.

You are correct, but I believe that is the version they are selling as an upgrade, right?

With Windows 7 you had to buy Ultimate or Enterprise to get Bitlocker.
 

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    Windows 8 Pro
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    i7 2600K
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    Asrock Z77 Extreme4
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    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX nVidia GT 420
    Hard Drives
    Crucial SSD
    3TB HDD
    2TB HDD
    PSU
    Seasonic 750W
Not sure why people are so excited about iso mounting.

I suppose it is marginally more convenient to have it included if all you ever want to do is mount them .

No biggie. Plenty of free isomounting software already available. If you have simple needs, then this is good WinCDEmu - the easiest way to mount an ISO. And more... ( it also creates iso's). Works great on win7.

If you want to do more than just mounting you would need a full isohandler anyhow.

Like this: PowerISO - Create, Burn, Mount, Edit, Compress, Encrypt, Split, Extract ISO file, ISO/BIN converter, Virtual Drive


the free (unregistered ) version does almost everything - the only limitataion of the free version is you are restricted to editing only up to 300mb. It is also great for writing iso to flash

There are a couple of reasons for preferring it to be built in:

(1) Having a to look for, possibly paying for, verifying that it's secure and not some trojan, and keeping it up to date. Multiply that by every utility that could be provided by a third party and it gets tiresome pretty quickly.

To me ISO mounting is as basic as reading the contents of a hard drive or a Zip archive. Also, recall that MS had a utility that worked only in Windows XP, but they discontinued support for it in Vista and 7.

(2) I carry some ISOs with me that I would like to use on clients' computers sometimes. It's not convenient to also carry an ISO mounting tool AND ask the person to give you Admin privileges so that you can install it!

It's just a very basic OS function.

I would have liked to see ISO creation too. I am hoping that oscdimg can handle basic ISO creation.
 

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    Windows 8 Pro
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    Asrock Z77 Extreme4
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    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX nVidia GT 420
    Hard Drives
    Crucial SSD
    3TB HDD
    2TB HDD
    PSU
    Seasonic 750W
Top two reasons:
- iso support also
- better compatibility mode + reduced color mode

I am curious, what do you mean by "- better compatibility mode + reduced color mode"?
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
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    Built it myself
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    i7 2600K
    Motherboard
    Asrock Z77 Extreme4
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX nVidia GT 420
    Hard Drives
    Crucial SSD
    3TB HDD
    2TB HDD
    PSU
    Seasonic 750W
(2) BitLocker is now included. Encrypting the whole system drive just got a lot easier.

The only technical reason to consider Bitlocker is if your computer has a TPM, which is a rare feature, whose additional protection is incremental at best. Even then, my understanding is that Bitlocker doesn't allow you to log on by entering a passphrase; you have to use a physical device like a USB drive, which for me defeats the entire purpose, or you can use a 4-20 digit (I repeat, digit) PIN. Truecrypt is free, works perfectly, has more features, and operates totally seamlessly after you start your computer and enter the passphrase. I Truecrypt all my drives, from system to data to external to USB flash drives.
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
(2) BitLocker is now included. Encrypting the whole system drive just got a lot easier.

The only technical reason to consider Bitlocker is if your computer has a TPM, which is a rare feature, whose additional protection is incremental at best. Even then, my understanding is that Bitlocker doesn't allow you to log on by entering a passphrase; you have to use a physical device like a USB drive, which for me defeats the entire purpose, or you can use a 4-20 digit (I repeat, digit) PIN. Truecrypt is free, works perfectly, has more features, and operates totally seamlessly after you start your computer and enter the passphrase. I Truecrypt all my drives, from system to data to external to USB flash drives.

I use True Crypt on some drives, but have shied away from using it on the System drive. Please let me know if you know of a way around these issues:

(1) Per the documentation, TC should not be used on drives that use TRIM. My system drive is an SSD.
(2) Per the documentation, TC does not know how to handle a system drive on shutdown or hibernation. There is no API for it. See page 89 of the manual.
(3) TC requires creating a recovery CD/DVD. My computers don't have a CD-ROM. Creating a recovery USB drive is a hassle at best.

I haven't investigated Bitlocker yet, but using a pin as a pasphrase is ridiculous. Then again a pin + USB drive as a TPM might work. Are you sure that a TPM computer is rare? I thought that most modern computers have it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
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    Built it myself
    CPU
    i7 2600K
    Motherboard
    Asrock Z77 Extreme4
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX nVidia GT 420
    Hard Drives
    Crucial SSD
    3TB HDD
    2TB HDD
    PSU
    Seasonic 750W
I use True Crypt on some drives, but have shied away from using it on the System drive. Please let me know if you know of a way around these issues:

(1) Per the documentation, TC should not be used on drives that use TRIM. My system drive is an SSD.

The documentation does not say that. It talks about certain consequences of TRIM that would affect any encryption system that doesn't disable it. Only people concerned with plausible deniability should worry about it. The documentation also talks about wear-leveling and reallocated sectors and the risks they may impose. Microsoft's position on these things is typically not to mention them. BTW, my Truecrypted system drive for the last 1.5 years is an SSD drive that uses TRIM. The main thing most people need to worry about is to perform the encryption right after installing the OS, before you've entered any sensitive information such as adding a password to an account.

(2) Per the documentation, TC does not know how to handle a system drive on shutdown or hibernation. There is no API for it. See page 89 of the manual.

It doesn't say that either. It talks about the inability to clear keys from RAM and why you should wait several minutes before considering the computer secure to an attack that can read RAM from a powered-off(!) computer. The "missing APIs" require Truecrypt to keep the system volume mounted during shut down, and while mounted, the keys must be in RAM. Again, they're providing the type of exhaustive documentation Microsoft never does, and it's all in the interest of disclosure; unfortunately, it seems to create a lot of confusion. This is nothing to worry about.

(3) TC requires creating a recovery CD/DVD. My computers don't have a CD-ROM. Creating a recovery USB drive is a hassle at best.

I don't know any way around that, but it's been a couple of years since I encrypted my system drives, and I don't remember much about it.

I haven't investigated Bitlocker yet, but using a pin as a pasphrase is ridiculous. Then again a pin + USB drive as a TPM might work. Are you sure that a TPM computer is rare? I thought that most modern computers have it.

None of the several Asus and Gigabyte motherboards I've bought have one, very few of them that are available at places like Newegg seem to have them, and my Dell Vostro laptop from 2008 or so doesn't have one. I've personally never seen a computer that has one. Then again, I just found some articles claiming 100,000,000 computers have TPM chips in them, so what do I know?
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
I like the fact that Windows will finally mount an ISO file as it's a feature that my Linux distros have been doing with built-in software since I started using Linux almost 13 years ago. I prefer to not have to use 3rd party utilities for such basic tasks.
 

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    Windows 7
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    Self-Built in July 2009
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    Intel Q9550 2.83Ghz OC'd to 3.40Ghz
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    Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R rev. 1.1, F12 BIOS
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    8GB G.Skill PI DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 timings
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    EVGA 1280MB Nvidia GeForce GTX570
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    Realtek ALC899A 8 channel onboard audio
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    23" Acer x233H
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
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    Intel X25-M 80GB Gen 2 SSD
    Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black, 32MB cache. WD1001FALS
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    Corsair 620HX modular
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    Antec P182
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    stock
    Keyboard
    ABS M1 Mechanical
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    Logitech G9 Laser Mouse
    Internet Speed
    15/2 cable modem
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    Windows and Linux enthusiast. Logitech G35 Headset.
I think the TC documentation is a little confusing if not confused when it comes to the discussion of TRIM and hibernation/shutting down. I did not understand the TRIM discussion to mean that it's only an issue for plausible deniability, but I could be wrong.

And I thought the issue with shutting down/hibernation is not that of a cold attack at all but that bits of RAM could end up in the pagefile and/or the hibernation file. But then again it could be that the documentation is poorly worded. As I understand it Windows 8 uses the hibernation file almost exclusively to shut down.

Another perceived advantage of using Bitlocker is that you're not putting all your eggs in one basket. Bitlocker for the system drive, which has nothing of value (in plain text) on it except the page file, and a small TC container on that system drive.

As for the hibernation file, I would quickly get rid of that in Windows 8. My computer starts up quickly enough without any help.

I don't know how many computers have TPM. My computer at work has it, and it's not a special computer. If the computer doesn't have it, you can use a USB drive instead with Bitlocker I think. A pin with only digits is pretty unbelievably silly though.

I am going to use TC on my old laptop to see what it's like. It has a very slow hard drive, so it might be unbearable with encryption, but I will check it out.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
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    Built it myself
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    i7 2600K
    Motherboard
    Asrock Z77 Extreme4
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX nVidia GT 420
    Hard Drives
    Crucial SSD
    3TB HDD
    2TB HDD
    PSU
    Seasonic 750W
Crawfish--TC gives the option of either encrypting (i) the partition where Windows resides or (ii) the whole drive where Windows resides. I haven't partitioned the drive, so it is basically one partition except for the 100MB mystery partition that Windows 7 creates. Would you choose (i) or (ii)?
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
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    Built it myself
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    i7 2600K
    Motherboard
    Asrock Z77 Extreme4
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX nVidia GT 420
    Hard Drives
    Crucial SSD
    3TB HDD
    2TB HDD
    PSU
    Seasonic 750W
I think the TC documentation is a little confusing if not confused when it comes to the discussion of TRIM and hibernation/shutting down. I did not understand the TRIM discussion to mean that it's only an issue for plausible deniability, but I could be wrong.

And I thought the issue with shutting down/hibernation is not that of a cold attack at all but that bits of RAM could end up in the pagefile and/or the hibernation file. But then again it could be that the documentation is poorly worded. As I understand it Windows 8 uses the hibernation file almost exclusively to shut down.

I think it's pretty clear, but it does require careful reading. Maybe more than once. No idea how Windows 8 is using the hibernation file. As you are using an SSD, something I wrote the other day bears repeating:

I always recommend disabling hybrid sleep on SSDs unless you really need it, and if you're on a laptop, you don't thanks to the battery, and on a desktop equipped with a decent UPS like my APC XS-1500 running Powerchute, you don't, because the UPS will wake it from regular sleep to hibernate in the event of a prolonged power outage. This saves me 10s of GBs of completely pointless writes per day.

You really don't want to be frequently hibernating to an SSD due to lifespan issues, and hybrid sleep writes a hibernation file.

Another perceived advantage of using Bitlocker is that you're not putting all your eggs in one basket. Bitlocker for the system drive, which has nothing of value (in plain text) on it except the page file, and a small TC container on that system drive.

If the pagefile isn't encrypted, you're potentially leaking data. I don't understand the rest of the comment. I think the real advantage to Bitlocker is that it should work with all the Microsoft technologies like dynamic disks and the new storage spaces. It might even be possible to dual boot with it. Truecrypt forced me to give up on multi-booting and disk imaging and thus my Terabyte products, but for the multi-booting, anyway, it really kind of did me a favor, as I now consider it more trouble than it was worth. For my purposes, VMs make up for it.

As for the hibernation file, I would quickly get rid of that in Windows 8. My computer starts up quickly enough without any help.

I keep it around for the power loss issue mentioned above, but I never hibernate manually. Only my UPS will ever do it, and so far, it's done it once.

I don't know how many computers have TPM. My computer at work has it, and it's not a special computer. If the computer doesn't have it, you can use a USB drive instead with Bitlocker I think. A pin with only digits is pretty unbelievably silly though.

The USB drive always seemed very stupid to me. One can't just leave it attached all the time, and what do I do with it after I boot? Hide it? Then when I reboot, I have to go retrieve it from its hidey-hole? No thanks. I'll just keep using Truecrypt and typing my passphrase. This is actually what made me go with Truecrypt when I was looking at it and Bitlocker a couple of years ago when I got my SSD and decided to encrypt everything, which is the only way to avoid data leakage.

I am going to use TC on my old laptop to see what it's like. It has a very slow hard drive, so it might be unbearable with encryption, but I will check it out.

You won't notice any speed degradation unless your CPU is very slow, and if your hard drive is very slow, well, that means your CPU will have to be that much slower. If you don't have a newer CPU with the AES instructions, multiple cores can help a lot. Deciding to use Truecrypt makes me glad I bought an i5 750 with 4 cores back in 2009 when I built my current computer.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
Crawfish--TC gives the option of either encrypting (i) the partition where Windows resides or (ii) the whole drive where Windows resides. I haven't partitioned the drive, so it is basically one partition except for the 100MB mystery partition that Windows 7 creates. Would you choose (i) or (ii)?

I no longer split drives into multiple partitions so I always in effect encrypt the whole drive. I also get rid of the 100 MB partition if Windows should create it. So, I don't have any experience with what you're asking. However, I would choose (ii), to encrypt the whole drive. Note this only works on the system drive; if you ever try to encrypt a data drive that has partitions, it won't let you. You'll either have to delete all the partitions first or encrypt them one by one.
 

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  • OS
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Ok so if Bitlocker is a bootlicker, then that leaves me with only one reason to upgrade to Windows 8, and not a very compelling one at that. I did read that Windows 8 is "more efficient" with multi-core CPUs. But my fast desktop is plenty fast and my slow laptop is not multi-core.

Does it come down to the GUI then? I did try the first Windows 8 trial--was it called Customer Preview or something? I was not impressed but I did not really invest any time learning it. I did not want to invest any time because it was not inviting, not attractive and a lot less intuitive than Windows 7. It did run much better than XP on my old 1.5GB laptop though, which inspired me to upgrade to Windows 7 on the old laptop. Windows 7 also runs much better than XP on that machine. Amazing, ain't it?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
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    Built it myself
    CPU
    i7 2600K
    Motherboard
    Asrock Z77 Extreme4
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX nVidia GT 420
    Hard Drives
    Crucial SSD
    3TB HDD
    2TB HDD
    PSU
    Seasonic 750W
Crawfish--TC gives the option of either encrypting (i) the partition where Windows resides or (ii) the whole drive where Windows resides. I haven't partitioned the drive, so it is basically one partition except for the 100MB mystery partition that Windows 7 creates. Would you choose (i) or (ii)?

I no longer split drives into multiple partitions so I always in effect encrypt the whole drive. I also get rid of the 100 MB partition if Windows should create it. So, I don't have any experience with what you're asking. However, I would choose (ii), to encrypt the whole drive. Note this only works on the system drive; if you ever try to encrypt a data drive that has partitions, it won't let you. You'll either have to delete all the partitions first or encrypt them one by one.

I tried encypting the whole drive. I got an warning that I have nonstandard partitions and encrypting the whole drive could make the system unusuable. I clicked cancel at that point. I never create partitions either so I have no idea what it's talking about.

How do you delete the 100MB partition that Windows 7 creates?

EDIT:

I just opened Computer Management. There is an 86MB partition labelled OEM Partition. Safe to delete? It's a Dell laptop.

EDIT:

It can't be deleted from the Computer Management console; successfully deleted the OEM partition using diskpart. I can't combine it with the main partition though.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Built it myself
    CPU
    i7 2600K
    Motherboard
    Asrock Z77 Extreme4
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    XFX nVidia GT 420
    Hard Drives
    Crucial SSD
    3TB HDD
    2TB HDD
    PSU
    Seasonic 750W
1.) The Ribbon feature in Windows Explorer. You guys have NO idea how happy that's made me.
2.) I have a feeling I may be one of the few who enjoys the Metro interface. Even though I still use the desktop more often, I've enjoyed browsing through the tiles and downloading new apps to try out.

I'm looking forward to Bitlocker as well, but since I already had Windows 7 Ultimate installed on my computer before, I'm not as excited about it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 (Release Preview)
I have two more. :D

Windows 8 To Go, that is very handy to have Windows on your person with you at all time. I just used it yesterday to diagnose a dead netbook battery.

And, the Ribbon. Very nice!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
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