Shopsmith Forums

As of 11:53 tonight I'm up and running windows 8.1.

My main machine that is.

No it was not easy.

This is the only update I've had to spend a good deal of time trouble shooting. But it's done now, or at least the boot issues are solved. Going to update some drivers and hope I don't break anything.

Ed

Ed, why?

Wasn't Windows 7 OK?

(PM me, and I'll send you a decent copy of W7.)

steve

Did you download the update or did it come in as an update I have been waiting for it to come out to fix my screen I don't have a touch screen and this update was supposed to do something to make it better?

I'm interested to hear about windows 8.1.

From everything I hear windows 8 is a disaster and should be avoided.

The magazines say 8.1 is only marginally better.

But that does not make sense to me. I would think Microsoft was smart enough to see Windows 8 was driving people off windows and would make a change to resolve the issues.

It is as if Microsoft wants to shoot itself in the foot. But before I finalize that conclusion I'm waiting to hear from 8.1 users.

I updated a few days ago to 8.1 and so far, I like it. I was running 7 but Media Center ( which comes built into 7 but not 8 or 8.1) suddenly would no longer work. After trying (google) lots of "fixes for M.C." offered by "random strangers on the internet" without success, and knowing 8.1 was just out, I decided to update to today's windows, ie, use the Win8 cd I bought awhile ago and after installing 8, update to the free 8.1. and finally get the latest Media Center, which I use a lot with my tv card and projector.

Lots of difficulties overcome to get the updates on, ( note that the updates kept my old programs, settings and docs intact, big cheer!) then I paid the $10 and downloaded Media Center for 8.1, only to get the same error msg I saw under 7, something like "Video files are not installed or corrupted, please restart". Eventually after more googling, someone suggested that changing the drive where recorded tv is kept will make that go away, and so it proved.... ......M.C. is working just great now.

I was familiar with 8 from having tried out the trial version, 8.1 has a number of improvements. The big objection to 8 that I read about was the "loss of the start menu"!

The menu that pops up when you left click the 8.1 lower left screen corner looks like this:
[ATTACH]23127[/ATTACH]

When you double click "this computer" on the desktop, you see this:
[ATTACH]23128[/ATTACH]
So, between the two, you don't really need the old 7 "start menu". Nevertheless, I did install a free start menu replacement (Start8) and do use it occasionally, just for variety, rather than feeling like I need it.
.
Because clicking the desktop tile puts you back into a Win7 environment, I feel like I did not give up 7 and I now have the 8.1 Modern tiled world to play with, which I enjoy. Good fun, if you have the patience for it.

prmindartmouth wrote:I updated a few days ago to 8.1 and so far, I like it. I was running 7 but Media Center ( which comes built into 7 but not 8 or 8.1) suddenly would no longer work. After trying (google) lots of "fixes for M.C." offered by "random strangers on the internet" without success, and knowing 8.1 was just out, I decided to update to today's windows, ie, use the Win8 cd I bought awhile ago and after installing 8, update to the free 8.1. and finally get the latest Media Center, which I use a lot with my tv card and projector.

Lots of difficulties overcome to get the updates on, ( note that the updates kept my old programs, settings and docs intact, big cheer!) then I paid the $10 and downloaded Media Center for 8.1, only to get the same error msg I saw under 7, something like "Video files are not installed or corrupted, please restart". Eventually after more googling, someone suggested that changing the drive where recorded tv is kept will make that go away, and so it proved.... ......M.C. is working just great now.

I was familiar with 8 from having tried out the trial version, 8.1 has a number of improvements. The big objection to 8 that I read about was the "loss of the start menu"!

The menu that pops up when you left click the 8.1 lower left screen corner looks like this:
[ATTACH]23127[/ATTACH]

When you double click "this computer" on the desktop, you see this:
[ATTACH]23128[/ATTACH]
So, between the two, you don't really need the old 7 "start menu". Nevertheless, I did install a free start menu replacement (Start8) and do use it occasionally, just for variety, rather than feeling like I need it.
.
Because clicking the desktop tile puts you back into a Win7 environment, I feel like I did not give up 7 and I now have the 8.1 Modern tiled world to play with, which I enjoy. Good fun, if you have the patience for it.

Is this on a desktop or laptop? If laptop do you have a touch screen?

Desktop, I7, 3.4GHz, 8 gig ram, mouse only, no touch screen! More about it here:http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthr ... =projector

I didn't upgrade - just bought a new laptop that has a touch screen. I love it. It is much faster than xp that I have on my old laptop. Mine is a Levovo Twist Think Pad.

Don't know much about the computer other than it's a 64 bit unit. It serves my purposes well. If the Wife wants to know what's on TV, I can reach for my laptop, turn it on and touch on the Time Warner App, and within 1 minute I can tell her every thing that's on.

This site and all Shopsmith sites come up real fast. Shopping there and at other sites is easy and fast. I can switch sites quickly. Games are fun to waste time. Angry Bird, Deuces Wild Poker, Free Cell,.

Only issue I have is Outlook Express is not available for Windows 8. Gmail works but is not my favorite.

I think Windows 8 and touch screen inventions are indeed the future of computers. Might as well join up now and learn the new and better ways. Those that dis Windows 8 (like shopsmith dissers) mostly are repeating words of others. I say try it - you'll like it. Take a little tutorial available on the internet and the troubles (operator made) will go away.

Howdy,

My laptop came with Win 8, so I upgraded to 8.1. Both systems have worked well for me. I heavily use applications from Photoshop, Sketchup, Microsoft Office and a myriad of multimedia apps. I haven't had any problems except the funky user interface. I installed the menu program Start8 from Stardock which restored the Windows 7 menu and appearance. I would installed Win 7 on the machine had it not been for Start8.

Best,
mike