# The Windows 8 Laptop



## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Had to dive out and get this just before Christmas. The desktop machine was dying and is now dead, although I did manage to get most of the important stuff out before it died. :sadwalk:

Thing is, this system is pants :yes: It's great at e-mails, not bad on HTML coding using back compatible Win Vista programs - - the Win 8 programmes are sh*te - - but Media Player is total crap, you can't rip, even using an external drive, you can't burn at any more than a snail's pace, and that's only on CD's, trying to run or burn DVD's is a nightmare, loading in 260Mb of pdf files from CD is gonna' take "over 1 day" FFS! I'm having to resort to using the old laptop ('bout 5 years old) to do anything reasonable, and at that age, who knows how much longer it will last before it dies.









And as far as I can find out, you can't *upgrade* back to Vista or soemthing that works better! Just be aware if you are off to get a new machine, and ask a lot of questions about what it will actually do, and don't take sh*te for answers. IMO it's nearly as good as Win3.2 on a good day!

Anyone loaded on up on LINUX and does it work with Linux or a variant?


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

All I know about Windows 8 is that if you want to go somewhere and do something *NOW*, you can't. It is a complete f**k around. 

Later,

William


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2015)

i had the same issues with a windows 8 pc...hated it and downgraded to xp, its super fast and does what i want now, only problem is finding the drivers, but if you know what motherboard and chipsets you have it should be possible or at the least you should be able to go back to win 7


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

I'm using Classic Shell on my Win 8 laptop....so it looks and works like XP etc.

I'm also using Oracle's virtual machine VirtualBox....so if you have the original CD-ROMs for Win 3.1, NT, XP etc, you can install these operating systems (+ their programs) within their own VM on Win 8 and have some good old fashion fun.

Both Classic Shell and VirtualBox are free.


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## trackrat (Jan 23, 2012)

Be very wary about trying to install Linux.

The EUFI BIOS will probably block you from doing that.

Before you throw it against the wall, persevere, as the free upgrade to Windows 10 will be along in about 6 months.


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## taffyman (Apr 26, 2011)

Got rid of mine through shear frustration and baught aSamsung tab 3 does all that I want from it but stillgetting the hang of the uploading of pics etc. H


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## mrbarry (Dec 20, 2014)

Tablets are great but now and then I like a keyboard. I use my phone 99.9% of the time tho.

Hate windows 8! It's so bad Microsoft are apparently going to give a discount to users against windows 10 when it hits the market.


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## greasemonk (Oct 4, 2012)

windows 8 is [email protected] am in the same boat as mel.can just about find my way around the laptop but its bloody hard work.i tried to buy a new windows 7 laptop but coudnt find one for love or money.my youngest son works as a professional computer engineer and his opinion of windows 8 is different to mine.he says it is totally useless [email protected] [email protected]!.


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Windows 8 was going to be Microsoft's cross platform wonder child. You were supposed to move seamlessly from PC to laptop to tablet to smartphone. Their effort to be all things to everybody resulted in creating something that was nothing to anybody.

Later,

William


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## mrbarry (Dec 20, 2014)

Yes that's spot on. It was designed to rival iOS but it failed in spectacular manor.


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

I'm glad it's not just me then! But it's a barsteward that I've this machine with loadsamem I can't really use 'cos it don't really work. :bad:

I remember now why I liked DOS in the day 

Has anyone found a Media Player that will Rip and Burn CD's at least and work with W8Shate ? Copy DVD's would really be icing on the cake. (I know, I'm looking for Utopia)


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## andyclient (Aug 1, 2009)

mrbarry said:


> Yes that's spot on. It was designed to rival iOS but it failed in spectacular manor.


Thats the answer buy a Mac, I'll get my flameproof coat on ;~)


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## scottswatches (Sep 22, 2009)

Windows 8 is so good that they dare not call the next os win9 for fear that people will think it is an 8 upgrade. Speaking to a chap from Microsoft last week off the record and he said September for win10

I might wait for win10.1


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## mattbeef (Jul 17, 2008)

Can you not downgrade it to Windows 7?

Failing that go for an Ubuntu Live disc and that will give you an idea Mel.


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## fastmongrel (Aug 12, 2013)

I bought my sister a 2nd hand 8.1 laptop and trying to swap administrator took me nearly an hour. Setting up a new drive partition defeated me after an hour and trying to move her files from her pc to the laptop nearly drove me insane "why the ***** wont you ********* well let me put the **** photos where I ******** want them to go you ******* ***** I will ******* **** you Bill Gates you ******** ******* ****** *** tax dodging ***** moron" (swear words and threats of violence deleted to prevent a ban)

Installed Classic Shell and spent ages getting rid of stupid Corners setting up the folders I wanted but I got there in the end. 8.1 was like introducing a new car but putting the foot pedals handbrake and gear lever in different places for the hell of it.


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## fastmongrel (Aug 12, 2013)

mattbeef said:


> Can you not downgrade it to Windows 7?


No or at least not without a claw hammer.


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## mrbarry (Dec 20, 2014)

It's very easy to format and install windows 7. But you need the disc. Â£45 or so buys you a home edition, and unless you run mirrored drives or any industrial applications home is all you need.

There are unofficial hacked versions around, I have one such disk. I wouldn't dream or sending a copy out for a pound if it helped out tho due to legal issues and not wanting to break site rules 

Althouh it's a hacked version with no serial it still works with windows updates etc. As it goes I have a product licence for my laptop but as always it came preloaded with no disk, so for me I'm not actually breaking any laws. I'm well aware copies have been used on other Pcs with no issues for a few years however.


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## Chally2 (Jul 11, 2008)

Mel, what are the technical specifications of the laptop you have?

CPU, RAM and Hard drive?

An OS, often, is no better than the Hardware it runs on.


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## Caller. (Dec 8, 2013)

I have windows 7 on my laptop, but windows 8 on one of those smaller convertible thingys' that become a tablet when you remove it from the keyboard. I only use this when travelling or am going out and about. I have learnt that I actually prefer the speed of touchscreen of windows 8, but not in the format it's in, which is a mess.

I heard they had scrapped 9 as it was just the next version of 8.1, which was rushed out to address all the straight 8 issues. I'm hoping 10 will be something like a touchscreen 7, if you get my meaning.


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## JTW (Jun 14, 2007)

mel said:


> Has anyone found a Media Player that will Rip and Burn CD's at least and work with W8Shate ? Copy DVD's would really be icing on the cake. (I know, I'm looking for Utopia)


Have you tried VLC Mel, it's free and very flexible.


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## fastmongrel (Aug 12, 2013)

VLC does work fine but I found it a bit awkward to use, another one you can try is Multimedia 8 http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/0260a0fc-38bb-45a6-aa2a-f2453766c5fc


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

I'm playing with VLC at present, and I can indeed Play CD's and some DVD's allright, the fails seem to be home produced DVD's using my old SONY VCR/DVD combo

Multimedia 8 I haven't found yet, Windows Media Player I can now persuade to Rip to the WMP files, but Burn to CD has not been entirely successful yet, using an external USB drive which I'm powering with a separate PSU rather than utilising two USB slots off the computer. Spec of the Machine I'm not sure of, it has 1Tb Mem, an ACER Ill check on the rest and post later.

Thanks for help so far and suggestions, more welcome! :lol:


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## trackrat (Jan 23, 2012)

mel said:


> Spec of the Machine I'm not sure of, it has 1Tb Mem, an ACER Ill check on the rest and post later.
> 
> Thanks for help so far and suggestions, more welcome! :lol:


With 1 terabyte of memory, that has to be the fastest laptop on the planet. :lol: :tongue2:


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

trackrat said:


> With 1 terabyte of memory, that has to be the fastest laptop on the planet. :lol: :tongue2:


You mean the slowest! Once you go beyond 16gb the overhead slows things down. :lol:

Later,

William


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

I've today managed to load my music library from a memory stick direct into the USB port, took about 12 minutes for 7Gb of dance records (my type, not boomabangnam stuff :lol: ), so at least I haven't lost that alltogether from the dead desktop :yes:

Still won't Burn tho, it sticks on the last track and won't finalise to make it compatible, just keeps on finalising (waited twenty minutes before I gave up ) and of course the disc won't then play on anyfeckinthing! :wallbash:

Sigh! where's the aspirins Dear - - she's still not well and she's cornered the supply!


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## Chally2 (Jul 11, 2008)

Is this computer an Acer Aspire E3 series with an Intel Celeron N series CPU by any chance Mel?

edit for typo.


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## Alas (Jun 18, 2006)

Hate to be the odd one out but I don't mind Windows 8. Took me a while to set it up the way I needed though. Must admit to going nowhere near Windows Media Player as too many good alternatives out there. Got over 500gb of music so need speedy media progs and different ones are better at different things. Use Jet, Winamp and MediaGo.

Will be interested to see Windows 10 though.


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

We have downgraded many many machine to W7, from 8, which is lawful if you have an 8 licence.

The issues are, as has been said, the uefi bios, which prevents this being done successfully, and managing to find 7 drivers for hardware intended for 8.

You think 8 is bad? (which it is...)

Who the **** thought that the world needed that stupid front end on a server!

I hate Server 2012.

Roll on 10 and a different set of issues....


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## artistmike (May 13, 2006)

Last year I got PCSpecialist to build me a computer ( I can really recommend them to anyone thinking of doing the same) and I was lucky enough to be able to get Windows 7 Pro installed with it and I believe you can still get that as an option.

I've helped people who have Windows 8 and to be honest I hate it, even with shell installed. ... I too will be interested to see how Windows 10 pans out, but to be honest I'll be happy to keep Windows 7 for a good while yet and can't honestly see me upgrading to 10.


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## fastmongrel (Aug 12, 2013)

Nothing wrong with 8 if its used where it was intended ie on a phone. Its still not as intuitive as the latest Jelly Bean or Apple and some of the apps are buggy as hell but thats probably because the market is so small.


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

I have a Galaxy S4 with Android. What a steaming pile. The phone part of the OS will crash requiring me to reboot it before I can make or receive calls.  If you shutoff the never ending updates in an attempt to keep it stable, it will hound you endlessly.

Google should stick to what they do best, blackmailing people with their search engine.

Later,

William


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Chally2 said:


> Is this computer an Acer Aspire E3 series with an Intel Celeron N series CPU by any chance Mel?
> 
> edit for typo.


To answer your question - -

ACER Aspire E15

Intel Celeron N2840

Intel HD graphics

4Gb DDR3-L Memory

1000Gb HDD

which goes about twnety feet over my head - - any thoughts still welcome, seriously thinking of getting the old desktop in to get fixed, I think I should have spent maybe a third of what this heap of ooh: cost me!


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## Chally2 (Jul 11, 2008)

Hi ya Mel,

The Celeron "N" series are designed to sip power, most use no more than 7 Watts, my C2D laptops use 35 Watts and have a battery life of 2 or 3 hours. The battery life on your Lappy must be quite a bit longer, I suspect?

What they( the N series) aren't good at is serious number crunching. Every day tasks, office work, e- mail, you tube and watching movies is about the limit.

Editing video and such intensive work will task the CPU to beyond its capability, unless you have time to waste.

I'm not sating it's a bad computer, but it really is designed for portability with long battery life and low intensity CPU tasks. Putting another version of Windows (or any other OS) is unlikely to make it work much quicker at what you are doing.

ATB, Stan.


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## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

Can't add anything to this really as I've only ever used Windows 8 once & disliked it immediately - I had to go online on my office pc (Windows 7) to find out how to use the new operating system - rubbish!!

My home pc still has XP on it -which works fine - but I use my tablet most of the time which is Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) I think. The tablet's getting on a bit now (Motorola Xoom) & I'm considering changing it but seeing as it works fine & does most things I want it to do (internet, Netflix etc) so there's no need at the moment


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## ketiljo (Apr 22, 2009)

William_s I qwwwwwwwswefrwrrtttWilson said:


> I have a Galaxy S4 with Android. What a steaminoooig pile. The phone part of the OS will crash requiring me to reboot rows qfrand qq add wwq as eeewwwthe never ending updates in an attempt to keep it stable, it will hound you endlessly.
> 
> Google should stick to what they do best, blackmailing people with their search engine.
> 
> ...


ww w


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## ketiljo (Apr 22, 2009)

William_s I qwwwwwwwswefrwrrtttWilson said:


> I have a Galaxy S4 with Android. What a steaminoooig pile. The phone part of the OS will crash requiring me to reboot rows qfrand qq add wwq as eeewwwthe never ending updates in an attempt to keep it stable, it will hound you endlessly.
> 
> Google should stick to what they do best, blackmailing people with their search engine.
> 
> ...


ww w


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## ketiljo (Apr 22, 2009)

William_s I qwwwwwwwswefrwrrtttWilson said:


> I have a Galaxy S4 with Android. What a steaminoooig pile. The phone part of the OS will crash requiring me to reboot rows qfrand qq add wwq as eeewwwthe never ending updates in an attempt to keep it stable, it will hound you endlessly.
> 
> Google should stick to what they do best, blackmailing people with their search engine.
> 
> ...


ww w


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