Microsoft No Longer Selling Windows 7 to Retailers

[belardo]

seems any one defending win 8/8.1 like Therealduckofdeath did is getting thumbed down. well get your thumbs ready again.

Win8/8.1 is not this "devil" software that you guys always make it out to be. here's the why's

1. uses about 20% less ram than win 7 , this means more resources to run programs like games , 3dsmax , audacity, ect. ect.

2. no more stupid system rating (in win 8.1). now if you see this negative then you are not a hardcore PC enthusiast. no hardcore PC guy needs their OS telling them how good their machine is. only bragarts and computer idiots do.

3. MSN accounts in win 8/8.1 directly links up to other MS services/devices. this means i don't have to install win tablet movies or xbox movies on my tablet or xbox , both of which have weak a-- HDD's. in win 8 and 8.1 you can instead install those to your PC where you have greater storage space.

-1- Memory savings is typically 10% - not a great deal. Now imagine how much lower it would be if Windows8 wasn't wasting resources running Metro!

-2- Okay... didn't know it was a selling point.
-3- Little use and what if YOU DON'T want an MSN account?

4. navigating tiles is really not that hard on a mouse is really not that hard . the OS does NOT require touch devices. furthermore you can set it up to launch directly to desktop.

5. start menu was a redundant feature that NO other OS ever had. if the start menu was the Only thing tieing your inner geek down to windows then why do you care so much that MS yanked it out ? it was just redundant and unnecessary. OS X doens't have a start menu , most version of linux or unix don't either so whats the deal? now that I've used win8 for almost a year when i go back to win 7 (on my mom and brother's pc's) I rarely find myself using the start menu there either now.

-4- Its not about being hard... its about energy use... a WHOLE screen of big ugly flat icons that spans many many screens, when a simple menu in a small area worked just fine. The UI was made for touch (not even good at that). When MS made special Win8 keyboards with their short-cut keys, it PROVES the lame design on "touch" in their GUI.

"Windows 8 is easy, simply press the Windows Key and start typing for what you are looking for" - blah blah... So take your hand off your mouse, press the Keyboard and type? That isn't a TOUCH function, now is it?

-5- The start menu wasn't ever a great thing. It was designed to NOT BE a Macintosh (or Amiga) type GUI... On other computers, the MENU bar has functions and info. Like File, Options, MS put the launcher in a single location along the Taskbar. It wasn't great, but did work out. Yes, with Windows7, they made Windows more OS-X/Linux like with a lancher built into the task bar.

6. like ALL windows releases win 8 offers a variety of ways to do this or that task the start menu never was the "go to" thing every one makes it out to be. it just became a crutch for users that didn't bother to ever learn other ways to do things. win 8 also add several new ways to go about navigating the pc desktop. and the metro UI is fully customizable down to even how large the thumbnails appear.

Start menu works fine... you can re-arrange your icons and folders... Stat Screen is customizable? Can you choose individual colors? Can it be told to be a Start Menu instead? hey, most of us are FINE for making change for improvements... WIndows8 improved nothing. Its settings are all over the place, a whole screen for a calculator? Oh yeah, you can view 3 apps at the same time! I remember MS pissing in their pants about how great that is! I can view a lot more than 3 programs on a normal desktop GUI... in fact, we've been doing such things since the mid 80s.

The only real complaint i find to be legit is that win 8 is not as pretty as win 7, but being pretty is not the point of an OS the point of an OS is to be functional and win 8 is extremely functional and fast if you take time to learn how to work with it.

So yes I find the win 8/8.1 bashing to be totally meritless. Sure you can date a supermodel and be happy , but the chubby girl next door does all that the super model does and cooks too.

Windows 8 isn't pretty... its downright butt-ugly. Its bland, its blinding. it wastes a lot of space. Its functionality is for a finger... which is mostly fine on the like of my iPad... but not in a keyboard/mouse/work setup... its pure crap. The SAD THING is, the Windows 8 PREVIEW looked slick. It was a cleaner version of what Win7 looks like. Then MS decided to go all 80's flat mono color garbage and SELL that.

Not quite getting your last part... What exactly does Win8 do that is noticeable better than Win7 or can't be done? LinuxMint boots up as fast as Windows8 and Linux doesn't hybrid boot. (This is with my own computer, I timed it). Many Win7 users just put their PCs to sleep... so wakeup time is a few seconds. Taskmanager... that's nice. I use it maybe once a month or so. Up button in Explorer? There is an add-on for Win7. Copy files? Get TERACOPY, its free and is far more powerful than Win8's copy/move window?

My wife isn't chubby... She is around 100~105lbs and she COOKS. She isn't the best looking woman I've dated/etc, but she's cute and a great compatible personality.

Windows 8 has some good points, its easily a better OS under the hood. But the crap they piled on top of it... makes it a no sale. Seriously, if Microsoft gave me 5 free copies of Windows 8.x, I would NEVER EVER install it. If they paid me $100 to install it, I still wouldn't bother with it. Remember, MS even sold Windows8pro for about $50 to get people to use it. Even pirates could get it for $50 by simply having the preview version installed. Trust me, if I thought Windows8 was worth a $1, I'd have gone for the deal.

The ONLY way MS could keep Win7 from growing market share is to kill it out-right. In NOV 2013, Win7 out-grew Win8.

Honestly, I thought Windows 8 would be kick-ass. I loved running Metro on my Android 2.x Phone. (I'm happy with Android 4.x's GUI). I thought it was an excellent way for MS to get control of the mobile market and I was drooling for the Lumia phones. A single GUI for phone<>tablet<>Desktop... Then I got the preview, which looked nice (better than the turd which people have to use today)... after about 15 minutes, I found Win8 to be... tiresome... stupid. An hour later, I downloaded LinuxMInt and installed it. I haven't touched Linux since 2001!! LinuxMint made sense on operation. It had no problems running on my ThinkPad. It looks and feels nice. It wasn't Windows... but it had everything where it should be for a desktop GUI. After a few days, I re-installed Windows8 again to give it another chance... it stayed on the notebook for months. I showed it to clients and family... they either didn't like it or flat out HATED IT - far more than I do. I then installed LinuxMint again and that is the only OS it runs.

This and the many other mis-steps from Microsoft shows a company with very stupid management and lack of skills. People have been fired over Windows / office 2013 / xBone, including monkey-man himself. With 8.1, MS continues with their stupidity.

The MS Surface tablets have failed, WindowsRT is already pretty much dead. Their OEMS are selling non MS devices. Nokia is now the ONLY company that makes "Windows" phones... which only has a tiny % of the market.

Window9 will not go back to 7/normal GUI OS. If anything, there will be even less or NO Windows Desktop. Let remember this discussion in JAN 2015. I predict MS will be down to 20% of OS market share.

 

[egilbe]

The many users I talk to on a daily basis who hate Win8 with a passion, dwarf those who find Win8 "not so bad" 8.1 was a half-hearted attempt to fix the problems that the beta testers for Win8 told Microsoft from day 1. the OS is good, the GUI is an absolute disaster. Win8/8.1 still feels like its in beta.

 

[danwat1234]

I just bought 3 licenses of Windows 7 for some new computers and one older one. I have Win8 on a laptop and it's the biggest pile of steaming crap I have ever laid hands on. It's impossible to find advanced functions, there's no logical navigation around the OS, the missing start menu is insane, the two interfaces with Metro and Desktop is enough to make me try and Apple product (and I freaking hate Apple). Seriously MS needs to get their shit together, 8.1 is JUST as sucky, I saw no improvement in the things I hate about Win8. My patience is diminishing with MS.

Just use Start8 or any of the other 10 or so start menu programs out there. It'll make Win8 be like Win7, with the kernel improvements.

Why? Why bother with that? If the ONLY features of Windows 8 is TIFKAM and the new copy window... what IS THE POINT?! Why buy this garbage... because its 8?

Every single Windows 8 supporter says the same things "Its not that bad"?! and "Once you do XYZ, you'll rarely ever see TIFKAM again"... gee... wasn't the Start Screen the whole point?

Windows 8 isn't just about the start screen (Metro), it also has faster boot ups thanks to parallelizing driver startup and multicore CPU utilization I believe. The ability to hybrid boot when you shutdown and startup again, where core parts of the OS are hibernated to the hiberfil.sys file.
New explorer file transfer features such as pausing transfers, new task manager, new ability to 'reset' your PC. DirectX 11.1.
Also potentially less RAM usage thanks to 'memory combining' http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/10/07/reducing-runtime-memory-in-windows-8.aspx

Windows 8.1 brings native 3D printer support and more importantly improved security against pass-the-hash attacks.
None of this is huge but it's nice to have all these features while still having a seamless startmenu once you install 3rd party software.

 

[SlitWeaver]

Step 1: Buy every copy of Windows 7 you can find.
Step 2: Wait.
Step 3: Wait a bit more...
Step 4: Profit.

 

[Terry Perry]

People had there chance to W8 for 40$ -32 B or 64B for 55$ a few months back I did 4 XP pc's and now there future proof there all 4 cores why I did this. I even did an 8 core and 2 I-7 the price was too good to pass up come on Pro with 64 for 55$ how could any of not take this Deal.

 

[AngryCorgi]

Windows 8 as a professional client OS is a joke. It's time for someone to start seriously pressing Microsoft with a competitive, alternative OS.

 

[Saga Lout]

I bought one of those for £25 in the UK back in January. It won't update to the Service Pack they call 8.1 and list the programmes I need to uninstall to make it suitable. One is iTunes and one other is Office 2003 which works perfectly in 8 but will be bloicked in 8.1. The Store tile just bounces when I try to go to it and the website does the same so I ran the upgrade wizard to find out why and that's what I got.

I'll sell the Licence and put 7 back on because Iwon't mess around uninstalling programmes only to find the list includes something else the next time I run the wizard.

 

[Saga Lout]

Loving 8.1 with Startisback right now. Broke ass XP users need to find jobs and upgrade to 7/8.1.

That's one big bad attitude problem you have there jurassic512 and if it's your best shot at contributing to a reasoned discussion, you failed.

First off, I've worked hard for over fifty years and will continue to do so. I'm also a committed XP user but I don't waste money until I see a Windows product I consider to be an upgrade and that hasn't happened through the last three. Three and a half attempts in seven years? XP has been going strong for twelve years!

I do have 7 and 8 in different machines in my office and it's because my living is fixing PCs so I have to know what can go wrong so I can do that job properly. It's also why I Beta tested in the past but little or no notice seems to be taken of suggestions and complaints - it's always the "it'll be alright on the night" attitude but it never has been yet.

One of my customers has 49 XP systems running with a Suse 12.3 server. Do you seriously think they'll shell out five grand British pounds pus installation just to have their staff wandering round in the dark in an unfamiliar system for weeks while they acclimatise? Public bodies all the way up to Government use it in the UK - you reckon they should get a job?

 

[realAMDfreak]

I have win 8 reinstalled again ! Last week I experienced the black screen of death. Here is what happened. The day before I turned off the PC on which I had Win 8.1 upgrade already installed. While it was shutting down it installed some updates. Next day I turned it on, after the BIOS screen, I was left with only black screen with white cursor blinking. It was not possible to boot into Safe Mode. The data could not be fully recovered. There were many users experiencing this problem. The blue screen of death was nothing in comparison with the black screen of death. Microsux touched the MBR and GPT with their latest updates and destroyed pretty much the boot. How cool is that.

 

[back_by_demand]

JD88, it's nice that you refer people to Linux because it is free, well so is ClassicShell and that gives anyone who wants it their precious Start Menu back and an enhanced Explorer - all the backend enhancements for 8 and the UI of 7 we all love.

So what's the big fricken' deal here?

 

[theLiminator]

Linux is getting more and more accessible each day. I've even setup an old computer with Lubuntu for my dad's usage and he's having no problems with it. This is a day who hunt and pecks to type (and no, he's not somehow fast with it).

 

[JD88]

JD88, it's nice that you refer people to Linux because it is free, well so is ClassicShell and that gives anyone who wants it their precious Start Menu back and an enhanced Explorer - all the backend enhancements for 8 and the UI of 7 we all love.

So what's the big fricken' deal here?

The big deal is that Microsoft and it's proponents are trying to justify paying hundreds of dollars for an operating system and it's upgrades for the sole purpose of software compatibility which is becoming a lot less of an issue.

In other words, we are paying for software twice. Once to the developers and second to Microsoft for the privilege of allowing us to use it. That's where the problem is. If Windows offers no positives aside from a bigger software library, then I for one believe it's time to make a change. For gamers, that's an extra $100 towards the graphics card. For businesses that's $100 per machine savings and even more if the transition also involves using free Office alternatives.

No way would I upgrade to 8 if were an average users and had 7 or XP installed. Just no justifying it when Linux can meet the needs of most people free of charge. This all goes without mentioning that Linux tends to run much more smoothly on older hardware, thus reducing the need for a system upgrade. For a whole lot of people, that Pentium 3-4 machine running XP still meets their needs. Upgrading Windows just because Microsoft is ready to start making more money is silly when Linux would also meet their needs just fine.

How long do we continue to let Microsoft give us products we don't like, treat the consumer like dirt, then survive because of the monopoly power they have accumulated? Speak with your wallets people.

 

[Neve12ende12]

The only time I ever see my desktop in windows 8 is when I launch Guild Wars 2. I seriously don't see what all the hate is for, I have no problems navigating metro.

 

[RealBeast]

The only time I ever see my desktop in windows 8 is when I launch Guild Wars 2. I seriously don't see what all the hate is for, I have no problems navigating metro.

It's nice that you can play your game.

Try talking a small company CEO into buying 100 Win 8 machines to replace XP when every one of his employee testers recommends against the move -- I'll move him to something (probably 7 and set up to look like XP). Perhaps you lack the concept of the training curve and lost productivity for his entire company. He sees it clearly and does not expect anyone gaming at any time.

Moreover, we have to acquire a lot of new software to replace the non-compliant programs, and guess what -- that is not free and also has a learning curve.

 

[Nossy]

What is all the fuss about the start button? Seriously who still uses that? Anyone who complains is "unable" or "unwilling" to adapt. Sorry but Win8 performs better.

Desktop is losing traction going forward, so it is not a big problem. PC gamers are really the only complainers, but honestly Steam/Origin/Uplay controls all that anyway, unless you play nonlegit copies. Overclocking? that's usually done in the bios, or software provided by MOBO vendors. Touch interface tablets/notebooks are the future. The surface pro is on the right path. Hopefully MS dont abandon it like it does to almost everything else: Zune, Game for Windows, and I personally think Windows phone will not survive.

 

[InvalidError]

Speak with your wallets people.

I "spoke with my wallet" during the week where I could get a legit license upgrade from Vista to Win8 for $15.

With Microsoft about to go head-to-head against Android for people's everyday home computing, the pressure on Microsoft to do something to maintain their market share and general mindshare is rising quickly: 2014's ~$250 tablets will have 3-4GB RAM and more efficient 64bits 2.5-3GHz 4-8 core CPUs, which brings them pretty close to desktop-class potential. Only things missing will be suitable software and OS-level support.

 

[hakkafusion]

I just bought 3 licenses of Windows 7 for some new computers and one older one. I have Win8 on a laptop and it's the biggest pile of steaming crap I have ever laid hands on. It's impossible to find advanced functions, there's no logical navigation around the OS, the missing start menu is insane, the two interfaces with Metro and Desktop is enough to make me try and Apple product (and I freaking hate Apple). Seriously MS needs to get their shit together, 8.1 is JUST as sucky, I saw no improvement in the things I hate about Win8. My patience is diminishing with MS.

The OS navigation in win8 is just fine. Just because it's slightly changed from win7 & you can't learn to change the way you navigate doesn't make it "unlogical." I find it much better and faster than win7, after you adapt to the changes.

On the other hand, stability issues are a whole different problem and there's no defending that one. Especially when things used to work in win8, and stops working with 8.1 upgrade.

 

[Nossy]

What is all the fuss about the start button? Seriously who still uses that? Anyone who complains is "unable" or "unwilling" to adapt. Sorry but Win8 performs better.

Desktop is losing traction going forward, so it is not a big problem. PC gamers are really the only complainers, but honestly Steam/Origin/Uplay controls all that anyway, unless you play nonlegit copies. Overclocking? that's usually done in the bios, or software provided by MOBO vendors. Touch interface tablets/notebooks are the future. The surface pro is on the right path. Hopefully MS dont abandon it like it does to almost everything else: Zune, Game for Windows, and I personally think Windows phone will not survive.

 

[InvalidError]

Touch interface tablets/notebooks are the future.

For media consumption and leisurely browsing, sure.

For most productivity applications that require more accuracy and speed than an on-screen keyboard and touch interface can provide, not convinced. Selecting text with a touch interface is much slower and less accurate than dragging a mouse pointer and holding arms up on the screen requires more effort too, even if this is only a few inches.

And then there is the whole smudge thing - I hate looking at screens with visible streaks, fingerprints and other stuff on them.

 

[JD88]

Touch interface tablets/notebooks are the future.

For media consumption and leisurely browsing, sure.

For most productivity applications that require more accuracy and speed than an on-screen keyboard and touch interface can provide, not convinced. Selecting text with a touch interface is much slower and less accurate than dragging a mouse pointer and holding arms up on the screen requires more effort too, even if this is only a few inches.

And then there is the whole smudge thing - I hate looking at screens with visible streaks, fingerprints and other stuff on them.

I tend to agree. I'm not convinced the convergence of tablets and laptops is the beat all end all future. Mainly because anything over 10" on a tablet is too big and anything 10" and under on a laptop is awfully small to be doing any real productivity work. For me, the ideal combination is an 11.6-13" notebook and a 7-8" tablet.

For the cost of an iPad or Surface you can get a Chromebook and Nexus 7 which I think is a much better offering.

 

[Houndsteeth]

Microsoft has made great inroads into moving their user base to anything but Windows int he last couple years. Most corporate environments are currently running Windows 7 if they can, Windows XP is the machine is old, and Windows 8 if it's the only option available, at least in my experience with the companies I have been in touch with.

Personally, I think Linux would have made great inroads into the business desktop if they could have gotten their act together. The problem i can see is the fragmentation in the distro market, not from a development side, but strictly from a "branding" side. It's hard to sell it to upper management when they ask, "Can we still run Word and Excel?" Sadly, for some corporate management, this is their only concern, which is why we will continue to see Windows on the desktop and Linux in the server room for the near future.

As for consumers, the desktop is a dying space as we see the smart phone and tablets become the digital consumption device of choice. It stands to reason, since these devices are the most convenient to use, and most users are willing to deal with a clumsier interface as long as it is convenient for them. Sadly, for us programmers, developers and content creators, we still need the desktop. And we still have to produce products that will run in "all-of-the-above" environments. So we have to deal with the various idiosyncrasies of Windows, Linux, BSD and Mac OS.

 

[belardo]

The many users I talk to on a daily basis who hate Win8 with a passion, dwarf those who find Win8 "not so bad" 8.1 was a half-hearted attempt to fix the problems that the beta testers for Win8 told Microsoft from day 1. the OS is good, the GUI is an absolute disaster. Win8/8.1 still feels like its in beta.

Yup... me and others on THIS website (which I'm sure a few MS minions visit from time to time) have given them the list of HOW to fix Windows 8 before it was released. All of it, simple. When they turned Off the Start menu and people bitched, THAT WAS A HINT! Their solution: rip out the code! There, that'll show them! MS=FAIL!

Its like the Win8 team said: Lets make the ugliest and most dysfunctional desktop UI since Windows 2! MS= Mission Accomplished.

If Metro launcher was along the LEFT side of the screen, like a long WP8 UI... and Metro Apps opened into windows... that can be MOVED around. (while on the tablet / phones = full screen)... and of course keep the Preview version of UI skin... then Windows 8 would be fine.

MS doesn't know how to do consistency. Win8 still shows the same ugly Drive properties window as it did since Windows 95... maybe Win3 even.

Install IE 10/11 on a Win7 computer and it has the ugly Win9 SKIN job!?

 

[belardo]

I just bought 3 licenses of Windows 7 for some new computers and one older one. I have Win8 on a laptop and it's the biggest pile of steaming crap I have ever laid hands on. It's impossible to find advanced functions, there's no logical navigation around the OS, the missing start menu is insane, the two interfaces with Metro and Desktop is enough to make me try and Apple product (and I freaking hate Apple). Seriously MS needs to get their shit together, 8.1 is JUST as sucky, I saw no improvement in the things I hate about Win8. My patience is diminishing with MS.

Just use Start8 or any of the other 10 or so start menu programs out there. It'll make Win8 be like Win7, with the kernel improvements.

Why? Why bother with that? If the ONLY features of Windows 8 is TIFKAM and the new copy window... what IS THE POINT?! Why buy this garbage... because its 8?

Every single Windows 8 supporter says the same things "Its not that bad"?! and "Once you do XYZ, you'll rarely ever see TIFKAM again"... gee... wasn't the Start Screen the whole point?

Windows 8 isn't just about the start screen (Metro), it also has faster boot ups thanks to parallelizing driver startup and multicore CPU utilization I believe. The ability to hybrid boot when you shutdown and startup again, where core parts of the OS are hibernated to the hiberfil.sys file.
New explorer file transfer features such as pausing transfers, new task manager, new ability to 'reset' your PC. DirectX 11.1.
Also potentially less RAM usage thanks to 'memory combining' http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/10/07/reducing-runtime-memory-in-windows-8.aspx

Windows 8.1 brings native 3D printer support and more importantly improved security against pass-the-hash attacks.
None of this is huge but it's nice to have all these features while still having a seamless startmenu once you install 3rd party software.

Nope... boot up time is quicker because it doesn't actually fully shut down. If you do a TRUE power up, it will take longer. LinuxMint boots up just as fast without a hybrid setup.

DX11.1? Who cares? Most PC games don't really make use of DX10. 10% memory savings... whatever.

And again... "once you install a 3rd party FIX"... and you're still stuck with a crappy UI with a crappy mobile settings screens.

 

[danwat1234]

Well Windows 8 is pretty nice if you get it for free off bittorrent, and then $5 for Start8, it's a good deal for me kmsnano every 180 days and no worries about activation.
Doing a full restart (no hybridness) is at least as quick as when I had windows 7 installed and booted/restarted it, and I did an upgrade so Windows 8 is not fresh. It's not slow, though the windows folder is a bit over 20GB, 5GB in \installer. Compared with XP with a very mature system hardly ever getting larger than 5GB and more like 2.5GB fresh.

 

[MidnightDistort]

What is all the fuss about the start button? Seriously who still uses that? Anyone who complains is "unable" or "unwilling" to adapt. Sorry but Win8 performs better.

Desktop is losing traction going forward, so it is not a big problem. PC gamers are really the only complainers, but honestly Steam/Origin/Uplay controls all that anyway, unless you play nonlegit copies. Overclocking? that's usually done in the bios, or software provided by MOBO vendors. Touch interface tablets/notebooks are the future. The surface pro is on the right path. Hopefully MS dont abandon it like it does to almost everything else: Zune, Game for Windows, and I personally think Windows phone will not survive.

If that's what you are proposing then most PC gamers will likely head towards Linux. It isn't about unwilling to adapt. It's about having options. It's great you like the new Windows UI. But forcing it on everyone won't keep the same amount of users to upgrade to the latest OS. People already know their options and they will act accordingly.