General software, true. System level software (defraggers, firewalls, antivirus, etc.) do need to be specifically coded per OS. Someone can choose to run what they want. Just know what you're getting.
Simple really, choose W10. Its the best windows version to date and will be supported for years to come unlike W8. Just tweak it a bit, uninstall any apps or games you dont want and go in the settings and turn off all the MS telemetry crap. W10 works fantastic for me on a 5 year old desktop, I really dont know why anybody would not run it. Well I know, but almost every program on your computer "spies" on you in some form or another, nothing is private on the web unless you go to great lengths, really not worth the effort for 99% of us.
I was a Windows 7 Die Hard only when I played around with 10 a little bit and was able to upgrade for free was I then hooked I actually love it now wouldn't go back to 7 or 8
Using 10 Pro on new desktop and laptop devices, I've no compelling issues with it, and overall I like the version a lot. I never used 8 so I can't comment on it.
To explain, not to flame: actually at home, for personal use, I'm working with Seven and I've not problem and I don't need anything else. For the new pc I say 8 because Seven cycle of life is now short. I don't like 10 update system, I don't want waste time for privacy, telemetry, unwanted programs and functions working, I don't like the GUI: which advantages I can have from 10 for my personal use ? This is the reason for 8.
the question should be: can you run your chosen hardware with windows 8? go to vendors site and look for windows 8 drivers (chiptset/audio/network/etc). if you wont find some, you should drop it as your system wont run at maximum performance due missing drivers. you dont have much choice!
8 was, but 8.1 is pretty good, as good as Vista with SP2, flawless. 8.1 should be supported until 2023, but MS recently said something, that it will not, breaking its own EULA. I can not find the link. MS is really pushing 10, it wants everyone to move to 10. On the other hand, 10 can be customized under the hood pretty well, even Home version. There are tons of ways to disable Windows Updates and etc. So it is not that bad, just bad.
I agree. Windows 8.1 was excellent and so was Vista SP2. The main issue with Windows 8.1 was the lack of a Start Menu and that can be quickly and easily fixed. Despite all the hate for Vista, with SP2 installed, it works very well - nearly as well as Windows 7.
Likewise to both repliers comments-opinions. 8.1 continues to hum along as nicely as back when XP SP3 then Win 7 percolated ahead. Windows 10 only use for this user is it's Video and other little add-ons for multi-media. Like many others they turned me completely off when they didn't drop their feelers into and out via forced networking which they call improvement. Bahh. It's only another stupid spy machine which I couldn't care less what they suck out from my machine, BUT when they eat up precious bandwidth (not exactly in large supply here) and then resources/CPU by constantly activating via schedules/auto-actions so many internal processes-services as well as interrupting a smooth quiet flow free from that junk, I had enough it and 8.1 suits to a tee everything expected when web connected and w/o that sort of constant interruption-interplay etc. Win 10 is IMHO turned into nothing short of a nuisance
Well, in a few days I'll have my new pc: which is the really faster way to update it, with only security updates ? Windows Update Mini tool ? Or what ?
Good choice, and I suppose most hardware should work with it. It's perhaps a bit controversial but from my experience I can tell that security updates are overrated, I didn't patch my Win XP system for 8 years and now I'm on Win 8 with almost 4 years of no update except for a couple of high risk ones. It's not that easy to exploit systems from remote.
it's not? you're not serious, are you? it's not how but who. you can't stop a determined hacker from getting into any system remotely.
Well, it is almost childishly easy to protect against automated malware, even without AV or updates, but as you said, it is impossible to stop a hacker, a real person, so why bother? A hacker will not waste his time hacking someone, when there are millions of people, who are easily hacked by using his malware, 30% will send you their password, if you just ask. I used XP with IE7, with no updates, no AV, no firewall and not a single infection, ever. And since updating in 10 is broken, I just install RTM and I do not really bother with updates afterwards.
we all know a hacker wouldn't just waste their time and effort to hack into ordinary individuals' systems when they can hack into corporate systems and/or vip individuals. hackers don't do it for fun but for money.
It depends on how much you want to be annoyed by your operating system. Windows 8.1 will annoy you less, but it makes no sense to install an older os on new hardware. Mrk
For me a thousand times less annoying. Windows 8.1 users since its inception and I've never regretted, at all. But again, for me it makes a lot of sense to install or try to install it on new hardware. In fact, I was very lucky I was able to make an Intel HD G610 graphics card onboard to accept a driver to run on 8.1 on a Kaby Lake system (Pentium G4650)
Windows 10 for me. It's not perfect but to be fair, every Windows version I've used came with certain annoyances that require workaround or things to be changed from the default in order for the OS to function the way I would like it to.
I forgot to say that with the right security tools it's difficult for hackers to exploit systems, I believe they are more important than patches. Most of the hacks that you read about could have been easily stopped. Exactly, I wouldn't give this advice to corporations, they shouldn't take any risk. But for home users it's a different story and besides it's getting harder and harder to exploit tools like browsers. I know what you mean, almost 12 years without any updates, except for a few and no security problems whatsoever. With that I mean, I haven't lost any money or data AFAIK. Of course there's always a risk that I have some kind of unstoppable rootkit on my system, but I doubt it. Why not?
That's a limitation but no nonsense whatsoever. If the new yet not so current hardware is able to support it, go ahead. That's what I did with a new 8.1 system a couple of weeks back.
That's very true but your reply just opened up a great wonderful thought for me, short of going Linux that you know well. Might try myself to have a newer machine with all the Power and Energy of the latest CPU-Memory etc. and transfer my nicely humming 8.1 completely onto and into that sort of new and improved hardware. Win 10 can stay camped on the mediocre machines. LoL