Does Windows 8.1 make sense in a non-touch laptop?

[hopmedic]

I've got a three year old laptop with a touch screen, and I think it's great. Granted, there are lots of times that I don't use the touch screen, but there are other times when it comes in very handy. I realize that if I used the touch screen for everything that a touch screen could be used for, I'd have needed shoulder surgery long ago, which is why I don't believe the mouse will be leaving us anytime soon. That laptop just became pretty much a permanent desktop replacement, since I just bought a Lenovo Yoga 11S, another laptop with a touch screen - but this one practices Yoga and becomes a tablet!

 

[wolfdale]

I run Win8.1 Pro in my 4 year old Vostro (Dell) laptop without touchscreen and it seems to run fine. I mainly use it for C# development. Everything else I do on Slackware, same hard drive, different partition.

 

[skstrials]

Okay I have tried the W8.1 Enterprise evaluation, I think I will just stick with Windows 7 Pro for now.

- The live tiles did not update by themselves, and I had to open the apps, then close them to see the updated info on the tiles (Weather, News). Especially apps like news, it should really update itself hourly at least.
- Advertisements in the original Windows apps?? Really?
- 'Swiping up' the pretty picture lock screen everytime I turn on and unlock my computer?

Having said that, I installed the 8.1 on my 4 year old laptop and it immediately became more stable, with no overheat. With Windows 7 on there before, it would overheat and turn itself off, but now it's actually usable with the Windows 8.1 installed. So I might actually buy the 8.1 for my old laptop.

But my work computer does not have any stability issues with Windows 7 to begin with, so I'm sticking with Windows 7 on the main computer.

It is such a shame because I wanted to have the "unified" look with Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8.1 on my computer, but I just cannot be as productive with W8.1
Mainly though, I am just shocked to see an advertisement inside an OS that costs up to $200.

To be fair, Windows 8.1 is perfectly fine for everyday computing and gaming, but for productivity work, I would still go for Windows 7.

 

[Tansen]

Frankly I think that Windows 8, and particularly Windows 8.1, works well on both a touchscreen laptop and a mouse and keyboard desktop setting. I have a Lenovo Yoga convertible laptop with touchscreen, but when I'm at home I have a Logitech receiver for wireless mouse and keyboard, external speakers, and HDMI out to a large monitor.

I use it effectively as a desktop (Running Windows 8.1, of course) and utilize many of the same gestures and features. Rather than swiping from the right, just move the mouse to the top or bottom right corner to get the same charms and clock view. Top left then down pulls up all active windows and apps (the desktop is one of them). Again this is ALL mouse and keyboard with no touch input whatsoever while at my desk. Windows 8 and 8.1 are significantly smoother and more visually appealing (in my opinion) and really lose nothing in terms of functionality. Some may not like the start screen (I do, for touchscreen or desktop modes having you use at a glance) but you can easily jump straight to the desktop automatically with a setting. The start button is still there, and right clicking on it pulls up a list of higher level functions (command prompt, disk manager etc.)

I feel the biggest issue with Windows 8.1 is that frankly many people take one look at it and jump away, right back to what is comfortable and familiar, without really giving it a chance. I find myself more enamored with Windows 8.1 than I do with any Mac product (which looks antiquated and bland by comparison). I understand that you have experience with Windows 8.1, and that you feel it is not as productive as Windows 7, but I'm eager to know what exactly you feel is problematic with it.

Marco

 

[Tansen]

I do that so often when using the laptops of friends with macbooks. After having a touchscreen for so long with Windows 8/8.1 I feel downright restricted and limited without one, like "Man the trackpad is all I have to interact with this computer?" At least when on a desktop you have an external mouse, which arguably allows for more movement more easily.

 

[Tansen]

Wow, had no idea windows+C pulled out the charms bar... The more you know lol.

 

[smurfercom]

Okay I have tried the W8.1 Enterprise evaluation, I think I will just stick with Windows 7 Pro for now.

- The live tiles did not update by themselves, and I had to open the apps, then close them to see the updated info on the tiles (Weather, News). Especially apps like news, it should really update itself hourly at least.
- Advertisements in the original Windows apps?? Really?
- 'Swiping up' the pretty picture lock screen everytime I turn on and unlock my computer?

Having said that, I installed the 8.1 on my 4 year old laptop and it immediately became more stable, with no overheat. With Windows 7 on there before, it would overheat and turn itself off, but now it's actually usable with the Windows 8.1 installed. So I might actually buy the 8.1 for my old laptop.

But my work computer does not have any stability issues with Windows 7 to begin with, so I'm sticking with Windows 7 on the main computer.

It is such a shame because I wanted to have the "unified" look with Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8.1 on my computer, but I just cannot be as productive with W8.1
Mainly though, I am just shocked to see an advertisement inside an OS that costs up to $200.

To be fair, Windows 8.1 is perfectly fine for everyday computing and gaming, but for productivity work, I would still go for Windows 7.

Just get start is back and be done with it. The only time I'm in metro is to play solitaire on my Dell Inspiron. Start is back puts back the start menu and makes 8.1 a productive machine, they just coded what MS took away so no extra process running in the background.

 

[hopmedic]

Okay I have tried the W8.1 Enterprise evaluation, I think I will just stick with Windows 7 Pro for now.

- The live tiles did not update by themselves, and I had to open the apps, then close them to see the updated info on the tiles (Weather, News). Especially apps like news, it should really update itself hourly at least.
- Advertisements in the original Windows apps?? Really?
- 'Swiping up' the pretty picture lock screen everytime I turn on and unlock my computer?

Having said that, I installed the 8.1 on my 4 year old laptop and it immediately became more stable, with no overheat. With Windows 7 on there before, it would overheat and turn itself off, but now it's actually usable with the Windows 8.1 installed. So I might actually buy the 8.1 for my old laptop.

But my work computer does not have any stability issues with Windows 7 to begin with, so I'm sticking with Windows 7 on the main computer.

It is such a shame because I wanted to have the "unified" look with Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8.1 on my computer, but I just cannot be as productive with W8.1
Mainly though, I am just shocked to see an advertisement inside an OS that costs up to $200.

To be fair, Windows 8.1 is perfectly fine for everyday computing and gaming, but for productivity work, I would still go for Windows 7.

To say that Windows 8 (or 8.1) is less productive than 7 is to do an injustice to yourself. Live tiles not updating? It could be that this is a limitation of the eval version (I don't know - just a thought). But if not, then something was wrong, and you're judging the OS on a faulty install, which isn't fair. Advertising - yeah, this has been a source of talk in more than one arena... Swiping up the lock screen? Or clicking the mouse, or tapping a key on the keyboard.... That vs Ctrl-Alt-Del (assuming a domain setup - it's been so long since I built my own domain that I don't even remember if it is required on a non-domain setup). What difference does that make?

Windows 8 is the first OS in history to require LESS hardware than its predecessor. It is more stable, more secure, and it is where the future is going. To deny this is to imprison yourself in 2009. Do yourself a favor and pull the plug.

And if hotkeys will help, here's just one list of hotkeys for Win8:
Complete List Of Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts [Hotkeys] | WML Cloud

 

[berty6294]

My gaming rig runs 8.1 and it is FAST. I have no issues using a mouse on 8.1, using track pad is a little more of a hassle I agree. But I don't suggest using those programs to bring back the start menu, like if you are seriously using one of those than you are just ignorant as 8.1 does the things you need much better than those start menus will!

 

[jmshub]

The 8.1 update makes Windows 8 even more usable than before on non-touch laptops. Functions like boot-to-desktop and such make the .1 update more Windows-like than Win8 was.

 

[BaritoneGuy]

On my Asus Zenbook, the touch pad drivers are finally in a place where most of the touch screen functionality is available via the touch pad. Fro my Dell machine at work I picked up a Logitech T650 touch pad which does pretty much the same thing. At work I can sometimes go for days without even seeing the Modern UI.

 

[iamtim]

The live tiles did not update by themselves

For productivity work, why are you using live tiles anyway? On my Win8 productivity machines I shut the live tiles off specifically because they're distracting.

Advertisements in the original Windows apps?? Really?

Which apps?

'Swiping up' the pretty picture lock screen everytime I turn on and unlock my computer?

You can also just click the mouse. Or hit enter. Either one of the three are better than CTRL-ALT-DEL to login.

But my work computer does not have any stability issues with Windows 7 to begin with, so I'm sticking with Windows 7 on the main computer.

Good plan. If you're happy with Win7 and it's working for you, there's no need to upgrade right now.

I just cannot be as productive with W8.1

Sure you can. Like your "swipe up to login" issue, you just have to learn how. Because Win8 caters to both touch and non-touch systems, you really have to optimize your system for its intended use.

 

[Obaydok]

Why not?
Fast speed and optimized for older machines

 

[skstrials]

Okay I think I might have been too harsh on Windows 8.1. I ended up getting the W8.1 for my laptop since it started freezing up on me. While you could argue that reinstalling Windows 7 would have solved the problem as well, I thought I should take the benefit of my university student status (which will end in a few months after I graduate) and get the W8.1 Pro at $80.

So far, I love the live tiles. I set it up for news and weather. I also installed WP Central app, but was disappointed that it does not actually update on the live tile itself. I realized that I only access about 10 programs regularly, I just set up the shortcut for those on the start screen, so I do not even use the app screen that much actually.

Other than that, Skydrive integration is flawless (which was also the case in Windows 7). And the startup time is a lot faster (even though I disabled the "fast start" option in the settings).

There are a few suggestions I have:
1) Having desktop background in start screen is nice, but why not just keep whatever is open in the classic desktop and use that as the background. For instance, if you are using internet or word, when you go to start just show that on the background, (maybe with a bit of shading).

2) Some apps such as news should work with keyboard arrow keys for scrolling. Thankfully, I have pointing stick on my laptop, and it can replace the lack of keyboard arrow key functions.

3) Some apps seem to give off notifications even when I am on desktop? For instance, I got notification on the upper right corner from CBC News app that Canadian athletes just won gold medal. It's nice, but I want to have a setting to disable it.

And lastly

4) For the apps list on the left side of the screen, why not have an option to "close all" or "close all except for desktop". Of course, you could do alt f4 to close the app everytime, but the app list can start to pile up, and it can be annoying to individually close every app.

Otherwise, I am pretty happy and I won't be going back to Windows 7.

 

[Joshua Jackson]

I currently have a Dell Precision M4700 with Windows 7 Pro, it does not have a touch screen.

But after using Windows 7 for more than 4 years now, I am getting a bit bored and would love to try a new OS.

Problem is that my laptop does not have a touch screen, so would you recommend Windows 8.1 on a non-touch laptop?

The cost is not really an issue since I am a student and I can get a Windows 8.1 Pro for $70 from Microsoft store.

If you already have Windows 7, and don't have other Windows 8 devices, there isn't much reason.
I have multiple Windows 8 devices (phone, two tablets, and wife's laptop), so I really am used to the interface.
It made sense, in that setup, to have Windows 8 on my non-touch laptop.

Aside from that, I needed a genuine Windows license and it was cheap.
Hehehe...
JJ

 

[michail71]

I run it on several non touch systems. However, I will take the unpopular opinion that it is less efficient at certain things. I say that while liking it at the same time. But it's only less efficient if you heavily multitask on the desktop. I'm often switching between Visual Studio, SQL Management Studio, Excel, Outlook, ID, Chrome, etc., etc. when I work. Sometimes getting switched to the Modern UI unexpectedly can be jarring in those situations.

It does shine much better when on a touch system. I would not buy non touch hardware going forward.

 

[ivanrf]

why not? it's an old post, it could be updated to win 10, but still... why not?

 

[dupczysko]

I`m using Win 8.1 on acer es1-111m netbok. 9/10

 

[Ola Rybacka]

I don't think so. I'm happy just because of start button.