Computer Help

[Jerry Bruette]

Looking to buy a new desk top computer and I'm a little concerned with Windows 8. I read that it's on the third revision and the revisions had to do with making it more keyboard and mouse friendly. Is it really the monster some people claim it to be or have the revisions helped?

Is it possible to buy a machine that can run Win7 now and switch to Win8 later when Win7 is no longer supported or is that just a pipe dream?

The LOML and I have Kindles so I get the tile thing but don't know how comfortable it would be using a mouse.

For the folks that do have Win8 what do you do for email? I've used Outlook Express forever but I guess I'll have to switch to something else.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I moved away from Outlook Express years ago & I'm glad I made the move.
I went to Gmail. Gmail is just so much nicer. I don't have to bother with backing it up or moving it whenever I change computers.

Plus, I can access it from nearly everywhere.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I have a laptop running the newest windows 8.1 and our household has 2 desktops and 2 other laptops running windows 7. If you can, I would suggest you get a windows 7 machine. We can still get them here. Even with the improvements in 8.1, it is still best on a touch screen machine, IMHO. It is fast - faster than 7 on equivalent hardware. Another option is to go for the 8.1 machine and load an add-on that makes it look and feel like 7. That way, you get the best of both worlds. It depends on how comfortable you are tinkering with things.

As for email, that is even more subjective. I have the office suite, so I've been using outlook forever. I dropped outlook express a very long time ago. It worked well when I used it, and outlook serves me well now. I have a gmail account, too, but use if only for some subscriptions that I prefer to keep out my outlook. Gmail works very well as does the current version of outlook online. I have a paranoia about google products, so I would not use gmail as my primary email application. That's just me, though.

[Mike Cutler]

Jerry

No, Win 8 is not an unworkable OS, and I'm a Mac guy at home. Other than the new desktop interface presentation, which is quite different from Win 7, it works fine. Don't be afraid of it. It's a little tough to navigate at first, but you'll get the hang of it fairly quick.
My personal opinion is that if you're going to get a new machine anyway, just get it loaded with Win 8. Why upgrade later and possibly introduce new issues.

There will always be multiple revisions to any OS, it's just the nature of the beast. Currently I'm running OS 10.9.1 on my mac, but prior to that I was Running 10.7 and then 10.8, both of which had multiple OS rev's prior to the next major OS platform change. Mac's aren't immune to the OS updates either.

[Curt Harms]

Yes, you can buy Win7 machines, Win7 is supported with security updates 'til Jan. 2020 I think. You may not find them at Best Buy or Staples, though. MicroCenter has some and I imagine independent shops can sell you machines with Win7 installed. I use Thunderbird for an email client. As long as you don't have to connect to MS email systems Thunderbird should do nicely. If Win8 were preinstalled, I'd probably install classic shell (www.classicshell.net), start8 is another paid but cheap option. I haven't used any of the Windows replacement shells so no first hand experience.

[Chuck Wintle]

Looking to buy a new desk top computer and I'm a little concerned with Windows 8. I read that it's on the third revision and the revisions had to do with making it more keyboard and mouse friendly. Is it really the monster some people claim it to be or have the revisions helped?

Is it possible to buy a machine that can run Win7 now and switch to Win8 later when Win7 is no longer supported or is that just a pipe dream?

The LOML and I have Kindles so I get the tile thing but don't know how comfortable it would be using a mouse.

For the folks that do have Win8 what do you do for email? I've used Outlook Express forever but I guess I'll have to switch to something else.

there are free programs that install on windows 8 so that it will act and look like the traditional windows. Also switch to Thunderbird to get rid of outlook express...it work much better and they keep it updated.

[Jerome Stanek]

Check out the Microsoft page and see how you can downgrade a Windows 8 machine to Windows 7 for free

[Myk Rian]

Is it possible to buy a machine that can run Win7 now and switch to Win8 later when Win7 is no longer supported or is that just a pipe dream?

The last machine I bought came with Win7 installed, and a DVD for Win8. I bought it at Micro Center. I haven't used the Win8 disc.

[Larry Frank]

I am using Win7 and very happy with it. I was not very impressed with Win8.

I am using Thunderbird for email and it is a lot like Outlook and it is free. I also use Gmail for some correspondence.

[David Masters]

You can still find new computers that are preloaded with Windows 7. You'll most likely find them in configurations that businesses purchase. I know that Dell, HP, and Lenovo have Windows 7 systems available for purchase. But if it were me, I would buy the computer that meets your budget and if it comes with Windows 8, install the free upgrade to Windows 8.1. I'm a Mac guy (run it sometimes in a VM on my Mac) and find Windows 8.1 usable and it is easy to configure into something that looks a lot like Windows 7.

I don't use Windows x.x for email, but Windows 8/8.1 doesn't support POP email, which is what Outlook Express defaults to. Windows 8/8.1 supports IMAP only, which most ISP's support these days. If you go with Windows 7, you can download and install Windows Live Mail, which is Outlook Express like and supports POP and IMAP. Do a Google search on Windows email clients and you should find several that work on Windows 8/8.1.

[paul cottingham]

Seriously, if you have to learn a new OS with Windows 8, why dont you consider Linux? Its free, much less prone to virii, and works great. Dont believe all the nonsense about how hard it is to use, or how it is really hard to find hardware for it.

Just a thought.

[Alan Gan]

Seriously, if you have to learn a new OS with Windows 8, why dont you consider Linux? Its free, much less prone to virii, and works great. Dont believe all the nonsense about how hard it is to use, or how it is really hard to find hardware for it.

Just a thought.

I agree, I run Ubuntu and really like it. Sometimes it is like a non domestic car, all the controls are on the wrong side but can be changed. Linux has come a long way from days past, and it is Free.

[Peter Stahl]

I have a new laptop with windows 8. I bought ($7 I think, didn't try a free one) a program to make it look like Windows 7. There is also a Desktop Icon you can click to go to Desktop mode, the program I got just adds all the function you get with Windows 7. I haven't had any problem with Window 8. Also Windows 8 was made for a touch screen for a tablet (e.g. Windows Surface). As far as Linux goes, unless you are a Computer geek it isn't as easy as Paul & Alan say it is.

[Chuck Wintle]

You can still find new computers that are preloaded with Windows 7. You'll most likely find them in configurations that businesses purchase. I know that Dell, HP, and Lenovo have Windows 7 systems available for purchase. But if it were me, I would buy the computer that meets your budget and if it comes with Windows 8, install the free upgrade to Windows 8.1. I'm a Mac guy (run it sometimes in a VM on my Mac) and find Windows 8.1 usable and it is easy to configure into something that looks a lot like Windows 7.

I don't use Windows x.x for email, but Windows 8/8.1 doesn't support POP email, which is what Outlook Express defaults to. Windows 8/8.1 supports IMAP only, which most ISP's support these days. If you go with Windows 7, you can download and install Windows Live Mail, which is Outlook Express like and supports POP and IMAP. Do a Google search on Windows email clients and you should find several that work on Windows 8/8.1.

i just recently bought a laptop from Dell with windows 7 loaded on it. It was just about the only model left with this OS option. Also as was noted in a post Linux has come a long way, Ubuntu and Linux Mint are some of the most widely used now. Installing them is relatively painless and its free. My only problem with Linus Mint and ubuntu is that "some" of the things that may need to be done require an above average computer knowledge.

[Jerry Bruette]

All great advice and very encouraging with Win8. I'm not very geeky and LOML is even less geeky...she still looks for cassette tapes...so I think I'll stay away from Linux products.

Surprised that Mac users are telling me that Win8 isn't so bad. Or maybe they're setting me up for a laugh when I'm suffering in misery with a Microsoft product.

The machine I'm looking at is a Dell 8700 series with a i7 processor, and 12G of memory, and 1T hard drive so I'm hoping it'll be big enough and fast enough for a long time.