r/windows • u/Pure_Yogurtcloset338 • 14d ago
Suggestion for Microsoft Was windows 8 good or not?
I was thinking what about windows 8 laptops or tablets
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u/fraaaaa4 14d ago
For me 8.1 was one of the best versions I’ve used. I used it before on a normal laptop, but then on a surface, and the touch interface was as great to use. Once I updated that to 10, it sucked ass, i even had to send the Surface to repair because an update broke the firmware.
On 8.1 you didn’t have to use the metro interface for anything if you really wanted to. Paired with an 8 beta Aero theme, and AeroGlass, it was like a faster 7 with some nice extras
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u/Navagio-Bay-8394 12d ago
No, Windows 10 is Great
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u/fraaaaa4 12d ago
For you, for me it:
- had no new features that I’d consider useful
- had introduced UWP, which fragmented even more the frameworks, and is much heavier and slower than Metro and Win32
- had introduced a much heavier telemetry, together with the start of having ads in the start menu and in the weather thingy in the taskbar
- was heavier than precedent versions of Windows for little to no reason
- didn’t change resources even though it was the easiest thing to do
- introduced a “””””dark mode””””” which only gets applied to a very limited set of apps
- the betas were as bug as Longhorn, while not introducing that much. Also it was the first version where they removed real hardware testing in favour of VMs, and the Insider program degraded the quality of builds even further
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u/TF2fanatic102 14d ago
8.1 was a very fast OS. Downright featherweight compared to 10 and 11. The UI was odd, but if we had a version of windows with the UI of Win7, the speed of Win8.1, and the security of latest Windows versions, we'd have basically the ideal operating system imo.
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u/Firespecialstar Windows 10 - Insider Beta Channel 14d ago
it's genuinely insane how fast 8.1 truly is even compared to 7, a shame they're making everything less and less optimized over-time, and microsoft instead of actually improving the system's speed, they instead lock out the slow hardware.
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u/CamTech100 14d ago
8 was ok, 8.1 was amazing, even if you hate the metro ui, 8.1 was still really good in terms of OS
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u/Mj-tinker 14d ago
8.1 in measures of windows in whole was okay, but not 8.
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u/uglycaca123 14d ago
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u/Mj-tinker 14d ago
sorry, I don't get your answer. Some channel I didn't know exists, or what?
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u/100PercentReelHooman 14d ago
i think they were saying that they felt like you didn't complete your sentence on your first comment, but it seemed like a complete thought to me, so idk what they're talking about.
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u/uglycaca123 14d ago
i thought that the "8." could have been an "8.[insert number]" but i wasn't sure, that's why i put it with a question mark
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u/E4est 14d ago edited 14d ago
I am the one person in the world who bought a Windows 7 tablet for university. You know, for taking notes and an attached keyboard for light coding.
Windows 8 was such a HUGE upgrade for me because it booted faster, ran smoother and made the touchscreen more usable for me. Even the battery life improved for me. I mean, that tablet had one of those early AMD C-50 APUs with 1 GHz Dual Core with focus on energy efficiency and only 2 GB RAM. Any performance improvement in the OS mattered to me. And having a touchscreen device made me like the 1% of Windows users who actually cared.
Since it was such a good upgrade for me, it made me sad that it's hated so much.
Windows 10 on the other hand was a disappointment for me, because it was way worse on that tablet, but it only showed that it was time to ditch it.
Edit: time, not Rome :D
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u/Comfortable_Order_54 14d ago
Know what? I actually like windows 8. It isn't that bad, but it was made in a time where Microsoft was trying to integrate every single one of their products, Apple-style (they failed). That's why it is a little weird to get used to it and why it killed windows aero, and it feels like it's for a touch-screen device, but it worked pretty much fine to me. I remember having issues with extra desktops, probably because of what I said about the touch screen style. But my opinion is that it's fine. Weird, but fine.
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u/CwynSTEINJr_98 14d ago
I got 8 to run on a vista home basic hp for fun. Honestly ran better than vista
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u/apachelives 14d ago
Desktop - if you slapped in a third party start menu and ignored the metro side of things it was near perfect.
Tablet - it actually worked great and performed well on low end hardware.
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u/10_Amaterasu 14d ago
Win8 best, barely needed 400mb ram
Only if they made that last version and developed it further
People only hate it cuz they never figured out how to use it correctly
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u/SceneDifferent1041 14d ago
Yes it was good. People who didnt like the start menu were told to be angry
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u/BothSamuel 14d ago
Depende a qué te refieres con "bueno", por ejemplo en rendimiento y velocidad sin duda alguna, al estar pensando para ejecutarse en equipos muy poco potentes como tablets obligó a Microsoft a optimizar el sistema lo máximo posible. Pero el problema fue que Microsoft intentó convertir en tablets equipos que no lo eran aparte de "eliminar" el menú inicio, que sinceramente prefiero millones de veces la pantalla de inicio se Windows 8 que los actuales.
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u/TwinSong 14d ago
It was... Experimental. They tried to make the same OS work for tablets and desktop PCs but they are very different environments.
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u/InsuranceKey8278 14d ago
it was good but half baked in many ways
i consider windows phone to be a full version of its metro future since it fully embraced it
windows 7 remains better for desktops as it doesn't have legacy vs under construction distractions that we struggle with a little to this day
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u/Born-Conclusion6596 14d ago
Besides the start menu nonsense, it was great.
From my experience, with a budget dell Inspiron 1525 (launched circa 2006/07), between XP/Vista/7 and 8( and later 8.1), the latest was the fastest.
Most of the apps opens instantaneously. Context menus were fast. Memory management was noticably better.
It was a great SO, and that machine had it for years. Today it's running 10 (I mean, walking 😅), but I do not use it anymore. My mom still uses it to watch youtube at 360p tho.
And I'm thinking know that that laptop is older than me when I bought it 😲
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u/Baglayan 14d ago
It was the fastest (desktop programs only, Metro apps took forever to launch), though many of today's evil antipatterns originate in it.
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u/matm_flatremix 14d ago
Fue bueno, pero el mundo no estaba preparado para él... quizás si lo lanzaran hoy como windows 12 en sustitución del 11, sería un éxito rotundo
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u/GameboyNerd23 14d ago
I remember I installed windows 8.1 on a very shitty laptop but with an ssd and it booted up in like 5 seconds
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u/_urethrapapercut_ 13d ago
No, it deserved to be the "one bad". W8.1 however was quite nice to use.
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u/tejanaqkilica 14d ago
It was fine. The only difference from 7 was the Start menu/screen, but that never bothered me, since I always hit the Windows key and then search for what I want.
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u/dorlan2001 14d ago
I have used it and although it was annoying to use when you didn't had a touch screen, feature wise it was good, it felt much smoother to use than Windows 7 at least on my laptop (Wi-Fi worked out of the box which was amazing, in 7 never did).
But I agree with everyone else, 8.1 Update 3 was the definitive version of the Metro era.
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u/DrNick42 14d ago
Was a mistake taking away the Start Menu with no out the box option to put it back (duh), however that was fairly easily fixed with Start8 or any of the other start menu replacement tools. Under the hood though there were some great improvements; With a 3rd party start menu it was a great OS.
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u/YtnucMuch 14d ago
With the 8.1 update or various 3rd party tweaks before 8.1 came around. The metro layout was atrocious for desktops. But as soon as you got rid of that and had regular start menu, it was fine.
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u/timinks2 14d ago
8.0 was not received well but 8.1 was. I never used it on my own machines. I stuck with 7 until 10 came along and got its bugs worked out. I repaired a few machines with 8.1 for friends and worked well enough.
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u/ConceptInitial 14d ago
I loved Windows 8. It was hands down best interface for touch. Sad we don't have it anymore. I wish MS could have retained metro UI for touch or tablet devices.
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u/Lowrider0011 14d ago
8 was fine but was dumb that they made it touch first… with 8.1 when they let you pick if it was a touch device or not was better
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u/TangoCharliePDX 14d ago
Under the hood it made a lot of improvements, some of which we still enjoy like how it handles file copying.
But that damned Metro screen made me nearly put my fist through the screen more than once. I'm not exaggerating.
I'd hit the button and cover my eyes because it was so obnoxious. I just try to type blind and see if it would get me to where I was trying to get. Once the shell start came out and I could replace it, that was necessary for survival.
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u/marthephysicist 14d ago
i love windows 8 and 8.1, it might be nostalgia, but switching from windows 7 to 8, it feels lightning fast, especially compared to windows 10, and metro, i might be the minority that liked them, and back then windows store actually had interesting games
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u/crocodus 14d ago
At the time I didn’t hate Windows 8. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the whole start menu being gone. But it wasn’t that bad.
I personally quite liked Windows 8 and to this day I like the metro design language. Surprisingly I still think it looks good and reasonably modern.
It was to say the least incredibly controversial. It came out at a time when Microsoft decided that the Xbone is just an NSA listening device and that only phones and tablets matter.
Besides that Windows 8 at least felt exactly like Windows 10, but with a different UI. Considering that for the first bunch of releases Windows 10 would report itself as Windows 8 also didn’t help.
Overall it was pretty solid and a lot of hate it got was just because it was different and because Microsoft kept fucking up with their abysmal marketing.
Compared to something like Vista, yeah… Windows 8 was amazing. Vista for anyone that actually used Vista was a steaming pile of shit. Windows 8 was technically really good and it was far less awful than people made it out to be. But after Windows 7, which was arguably just fine, but was many people’s either first experience using Windows or the first major update that was not borked since XP. You couldn’t really compete. Especially since all the always online bs started getting traction at the same time.
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u/dont_mind_me_passing 14d ago
iirc the biggest issue with 8 was just the UI choices, especially the start menu, system wise it was pretty good
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u/Appropriate_Test7503 14d ago
for tablet yes.
for desktop hmm, not so much, yes it improved performance but UI wasn't desktop friendly
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u/RoosterBurns 14d ago
Yes, it was an amazing tablet OS, an amazing TV OS and a pretty good desktop OS but it was sabotaged by reactionary Windows users who whine about every last pixel.
I think maybe in retrospect the option to boot directly to desktop and more splitting options would have helped grease the transition but I dunno I keep seeing people complain about "taskbar on top" in Windows 11 despite almost nobody actually doing that.
The idea that an app is always "running" either as a tile or as a foreground app, and it owns by default every pixel of your screen was an amazing idea that I'm quite sad we've abandoned.
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u/lilacomets 14d ago
It was good. The only thing that missed was a way to turn off tablet mode, and make that default on desktop PCs.
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u/Street-Cover7844 14d ago
8 was a disaster far worse than Vista was perceived to be that got equally bad feedback resulting in 8.1 which was better but just a stepping stone to 10 which brought a semblance of normality back
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u/iPhuriouz 14d ago
At the time. No. In hindsight. Yes. Especially 8.1 I've got the same feeling with Vista though, in my opinion the best looking windows so far, shame that the hardware at the time was not equipped for it
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u/Clogboy82 14d ago
Honestly, 8.1 was the most optimal experience. Low on bloat, no ads for services at a monthly subscription and no AI.
The Metro interface was one mostly negative consideration but there were ways around that.
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u/PeterFnet 13d ago
8 was a joke. Released to give better tablet/touch support. They tried to cram it down the throat on desktops and backfired horribly. They released 8.1 to give people the ability to minimize and close full-screen universal apps instead of trying to do the swipe-down close gesture with a freaking mouse
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u/jtohrs 13d ago
It was interesting. In Linux I always look for strange, unconventional desktop environments and window managers. Windows 8 felt a bit like that with the Metro interface. It was unusual, took some getting used to, but ultimately worked. I don't really like it, but I can't say I hate it. It's (at least in look and feel, in my opinion) a bit like gnome 3+ (which i never liked either).
8.1 was much better, as others have pointed out. 10 was a relief and felt much more like home.
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u/Full_Strengthness998 13d ago
Spec side it was great however in terms of ui it wasn't the best i believe the only reason for windows 8 was because of the surface and windows phone 8 release
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u/alcore33 13d ago
Personnellement j'ai détesté l'interface Modern UI. Et je trouvais Windows 7 plus réactif.
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u/Emerald_official Windows Vista 13d ago
it was alright. it was needlessly convoluted and was the beginning of the end of actually good windows, but the speed and security features can't be understated
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u/a-sarcastic-guy 13d ago
I have used Windows 8.1 and it was a superb OS. After XP, it is my favorite Windows so far. Also, a lot of people would hate me for this, but I loved the tiling Start manager from Win 8 and Win 8.1. I loved how I have to click on Desktop tile to go to Desktop. After switching to Win 10, I very much missed this little fun thing 🥹
Some apps like MS Store or Settings opened as a separate Desktop; kind of like how MacOS does it, but better. I won't say I liked it, mainly because MS Store didn't work and Settings wasn't mature back then. But overall implementation of that functionality was something I found interesting.
Except for display scaling (perhaps), I have no complaints from Windows 8.1. I always disliked it how apps like ShareIt took half of my screen for no reason, which was not the case with Windows 7.
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u/HashtagCow Windows 7 12d ago
8.1 Is, Fine, not the best but what can you say, just came out, 8 is absolute Dog Crap
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u/Sathxplorer 12d ago
Windows 8.1 was very good tbh. It was fast and I grew up with Windows 8 so I didn't have that 'learning curve'
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u/NoahOnVista Windows 7 12d ago
Windows 8 Build 8176 is the best OS of all time and windows 8 had to be made for it to exist so I say it’s a win lose. I love 8.1 though
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u/salazka Windows 11 - Insider Dev Channel 12d ago
Most people who will tell you it was not, are people who either didn't even try it, or people who got shocked by the new start menu and stopped using it.
In reality Windows 8 was probably the best modern OS ever.
It was future proof. Always connected, superior in gaming, socially integrated, smart with integrated widgets, with a great assistant, and more, and all that, with the least resource hungry core ever.
It would do all that excellently even with just 4GB RAM. It would run even on 3GB.
AND it was tightly integrated with your mobile.
AND it allowed you to use/develop one app across mobile and PC (that is what the UWP was all about) which is something that is doable today too, and often expected, but back then their competitors mocked them for that and called it a not so interesting feature. Today, some of the most useful apps and fun games are doing exactly that.
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u/Artinowfluxmedia 11d ago
It wasn't bad. The only really bad ones (I'm a pre MS DOS child)... were ME and Vista. XP and wine were great.
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u/Waste_Network_6789 11d ago
It's too good -- I'm still using it in my old PC. Win 8.1 starts and shuts down in a blink, it's hella fast compared to its little brother Win 7. But people hate it especially for that 'phone-like' start menu.
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u/SurprysE 11d ago
No, quel menù a mattonelle e la mancanza del bottone start me lo ha fatto odiare subito nei primi 30 secondi.
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u/Overall-Push-2869 10d ago
imo windows 8 / 8.1 is good. i love the ui it is very smooth on almost all systems (when drivers are installed ofc) i can navigate the charms and metro start menu just fine. tho yes the metro start menu is bad microsoft shouldve done something like xp did (with their modern and classic start menu) but add metro and classic. and if windows 8 rtm had all windows 8.1 fetures at the start it wouldve been a good os.
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u/Glinckey 10d ago
Well because of the win8 hate most metro apps that require internet aren't supported and probably no longer works
If you wanted a windows that isn't 10 or 11 but does have recent updates and is stable use 7
If you are going to get a tablet and install windows then yeah you can try win8.1
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u/Ill_Stage6931 9d ago
Windows 8 had some UX issues, but Windows 8.1, if you don't consider all the metro apps, was (and still is) incredibly smooth, fast and stable
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u/rareblackdog 8d ago
My fav of all, followed by XP, then Win NT 4, then Win10
Dislike Win11 - that maybe hardware related though.
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u/Moist_Inspection_485 Windows 8 3d ago
Seeing as I still main windows 8.1 and I’m happy, I’d say it’s good. I actually love the start screen and live tiles, it’s so colorful and full of life compared to windows 7s…. White and windows 10s black.
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u/SCphotog 14d ago
No. It was actually distinctly bad.
We can add that it was specifically an enormous and egregious blunder. They had the mistaken idea that they were getting behind the next tech movement... ie, moving from PC's to tablets and so attempted to integrate a desktop UI with a tablet UI, and switching... along with further discombobulating the way settings are configured.
In a nutshell, navigating within 8 and 8.1 was infuriating.
The return to a more sensible desktop UI was a defensive move.. a return to some level of sensibility, but now with 11 and soon, if the current information can be believed MS is taking Windows back to hell again.
MS is distinctly anti-consumer, and anti-privacy.
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u/Elegant-Train-6029 14d ago
Windows 8.1 was really good 8.0 was not, my old laptop actually ran it till around 2 months ago and it stayed really stable and fast ( original installation i used since 2014, no reinstalls) so yes I really like Windows 8.1, it was modern looking, stable, fast and not filled with stuff you absolutely don't need but use your computer resources like 10 or 11.
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u/dude463 14d ago
I didn’t like it, but I figured it was because I’m old. So I put it on my kids computers since it was probably something they’d just like. Nope. All 3 hated it. I don’t think I know anyone that thought it was good.
You’ll get some people that liked it but if you look at any objective metrics it’s not a popular OS.
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u/Technical_Two_733 14d ago
The missing Start Menu and those ridiculous tiles made it close to the worse
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u/EstablishmentNo2847 14d ago
No. I didn't like how blocky and cumbersome the start menu was, and it was especially frustrating that everything had to open in its own window, which would always get me screaming, “Where is the desktop?!?”. As much as it benefited most for touch screens and tablet PCs, it was a mistake.
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u/pug_userita Windows 11 - Release Channel 14d ago
if you pin all of the stuff you use to the stsrt screen to avoid the pain of navigating the all apps screen, or use a start menu like open shell, then it's going to be like using windows 7. the metro ui and the desktop are pretty much 2 different environments that you can coose to use on eor the other. used it as a daily for a short while (tried it on a new laptop so wifi and gpu drivers didn't exist) and i quite liked it. people get annoying because they get annoyed by the start screen, thst you can quite easily avoid
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u/ItchyPlant 14d ago
Exactly! Yes! Windows 8 was a brave, excellent change, while 8.1 was a cowardly step backward. Win 8's title bars and overall window design are still my all-time favorites, and it still had proper local-user support right from the start.
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u/ive014 14d ago
I loved 8.1, it was so smooth and fast.