Am I the only exception or are there others?

[strollin]

Reading this forum, I get the impression that my experience with Win 8.x is the exception rather than the norm. I have installed and run Win 8.x in VMs, on Desktops, laptops, netbooks and tablets and have had very few problems to the point that I don't even recall any. I install all updates and have never had issues caused by them. All in all, Win 8.x has been very clean and stable for me on multiple hardware platforms.

How about it, are there others out there who have had very few problems with Win 8.x?

 

[David Bailey]

me.

 

[theog]

Only had one problem on three rigs, same problem on all three.

 

[davehc]

No problems. In fact, as I posted elsewhere, I often have difficulty recreating a problem, in order to offer help!!

 

[play2mefish]

No problems here either. I did have an issue on my wifes computer with the automatic repair loop...it turned out to be faulty RAM.

 

[alphanumeric]

I had WIFI issues after doing the Store Upgrade to 8.1. No such issues after doing a clean install of 8.1 though. Other than that not a whole lot to complain about. I didn't have any of the reported Windows update issues.

 

[Phone Man]

On my main PC I installed Windows 8 Pro when it was first released and have it fully updated to 8.1 and have had zero problems.
I have a new Windows 8.1 laptop I bought in May and have had not problems keeping it updated.

Jim

 

[popeye]

Only problem here was getting wifi to work properly. After finding the right driver, very stable.

Only criticism I might have is MS pushing driver updates that may actually end up buggering things for some people. Even though they are usually flagged as optional many folks go ahead and install anyway. With drivers the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" adage definitely applies.

 

[LMiller7]

Forum posts are not an accurate indication of peoples experiences with Windows 8, or any other OS for that matter. I expect that most people will have few problems with Windows 8. But inevitably there will be numbers that do, many of whom will come to this or some other forum for help. Human nature being what it is, some will be very vocal about their problems. Few people (relatively speaking) would even consider joining a forum such as this until they have a problem.

Edit: My experiences with Windows 8 are limited, confined to a trial version on a virtual machine with limited resources available. Even so there were few problems.

 

[banger]

No problems with my x86 install of Win 8.1 but tried a dual x64 dual boot and lots of driver problems with peripherals. Now running x86 version as main rig.

 

[fireberd]

I haven't had any problems with Win 8/8.1. I do have the "Start8" program that restores the Start Menu and primarily use the desktop rather than the Metro.

All my recording studio programs and equipment work OK in Win 8 (which is my main application). I did have to install my Frontier "Tranzport" (wireless control surface for my recording program) in a Vista compatibility mode, but that was the only device that did not install in native Win 8.

I'm a retired computer geek and have worked in computers in one capacity or another since 1962 (in the Air Force) and my last 23 years was as a LAN/WAN Network and Hardware Help Desk Manager. Change is a constant given in computers and after a while you take whatever change comes around and just use it. You don't think about whether its good, bad or somewhere between.

 

[ARC1020]

Yup, perfectly reliable here.




Although in fairness most of those are due to IE. I find running Internet Explorer in Enhanced Protected Mode with 64-bit processes for Enhanced Protected Mode enabled is not very stable at all and never has been. And it seems whenever they fix one problem, a new one usually replaces it. So although I find Windows 8 reliability OK in the main, I think they need to get on top of issues reported with the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer and provide quicker fixes. Probably why they resorted back to not having it enabled by default.

And although I've never had a problem with Windows updates, now-a-days there does seem to be a lot more Windows Updates being pulled by Microsoft not long after they've been released, which I can't remember happening much before.

 

[Edwin]

The odd glitch here and there but nothing drastic!
You don't hear from the users that DON'T have problems, just the ones that DO!

 

[CountMike]

It seems like many had problems with 8/8.1 even BEFORE they tried it. I did have few problems, mainly GPU driver when I upgraded to 8.1 but that got fixed by AMD shortly after. Other problems that I didn't cause by experimenting were with updates, actually more like with cleaning their backups but that got fixed too. Few BSODs here and there, attributable to badly or non-supported HW but not Windows' fault. Speaking of drivers, there were some changes, poorly documented, to how some drivers or "hooks" for them work mainly graphics and printers but altogether surprising number of HW devices were found and installed automatically. Going from XP to Vista, that segment was really frustrating comparing to W8/8.1. Keep in mind that I started from alpha version when there were problems in the beginning because of I almost gave up on W8 but curiosity got better of me. RC edition was almost perfect and didn't have to do much different when I switched to retail. I thought that W7 was almost perfect but 8.1.1 is even closer. Let's see what W9 will bring and hope for best.

 

[paulsalter]

Nothing major here, gone from 8.0 with all updates installed as they come out

I don't remember anything happening that stopped me using my PC

*if I check the reliability monitor (as above) then yes I have some crashes and it could be better

 

[alphanumeric]

Most of my issues were driver issues with the preview releases. I also had some app issues, now that I think about it. Again though those were when running one of the preview releases. They don't count in my book. I didn't like 8.0 all that much so more often than not, I went back to windows 7. The changes they made in 8.1 changed all that for me. There is no going back to 7 for me now.

 

[pparks1]

I've had next to no problems with my windows 8.0 boxes and 8.1 boxes that I have rolled out at work. I'm in the middle of upgrading the 8.0 boxes to 8.1 at work via The Store and that's working out just fine (just time consuming). My upgrades from 8.1 to 8.1 with update 1 and the latest Windows updates has been smooth sailing as well.

I'm running it on a variety of hardware too

• Microsoft Surface Pro Gen 1
• Dell e6430 laptops
• Dell e6430u laptops
• Dell e7440 laptops
• Dell XPS 18"
• Acer 23" All-in-One
• Samsung Series 7 Ultra
• Dell XPS 13

Aside from an initial lack of choices in 8.0 (no boot to desktop, no classic start menu, non-intuitive way to close full screen Windows 8 apps), I've found it to be just fine. I'm still hesitant to say it's a worthwhile to pay for upgrade though for most people on Windows 7 who aren't having problems.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

No probs at all with W8.1 - but I really detest the Store method of update -- give me an ISO any day.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[CountMike]

Hi there

No probs at all with W8.1 - but I really detest the Store method of update -- give me an ISO any day.

Cheers
jimbo

Of course, with ISO, at least you are not at internet and their FTP's mercy and can do it at your leisure.

 

[pparks1]

Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't make the ISO upgrade route very friendly. I've tested upgrading with an MSDN based copy of Windows 8.1 and via the Store and they take around the same time.

With the ISO and my Dell with an embedded Windows 8.0 key in the BIOS, here were the issues
1). When you run the setup from the ISO, it won't load without you having to insert a key as the embedded 8.0 BIOS key doesn't suffice
2). So, you have to grab the OEM key, then put in a dummy key to install, and then run slmgr.vbs to reimport back the BIOS key.
3). Once you finish the upgrade to 8.1, you then have to manually turn around and install update 1.

With the store upgrade, it not only does the 8.0 to 8.1 upgrade, but it also brings you up to 8.1 with update 1 at the same time. So, 1 less step that you have to run above.


In both cases, my total upgrade time was ~90 minutes.