I finally got around to installing the 90 day trial version of Windows 8 and Office 2013 this weekend. I have used the preview a little bit on an extra partition, but I have decided to go all in and only run Windows 8 on my machine. I like metro a lot on the Windows Phone, however, I have not been totally sold on the desktop, so now I am going to give it a real shot and try to work with it on an everyday basis.
I did a clean installation, which took around 15 minutes I’d guess, which is very fast. I think it could be done a lot quicker on newer hardware, but I am pretty impressed by the speed none-the-less. I am using 5 year old hardware, and so far I have had no driver problems whatsoever, which surprised me to be honest. I know OEMs are pretty good at back porting their drivers, but this is still a pleasant surprise.
I have also noticed that my computer runs quite a bit faster than Windows 7, which was fast as well. Come to think of it, the last two versions of Windows have definitely breathed new life into my hardware. I bought this machine during the Vista era and ever since my WEI score has improved with every new edition of Windows. Granted, it is not the most impressive WEI score, and I could probably benefit quite a bit from a new processor, but still, it suits my needs just fine.
for the time being, I don’t miss the start button, which many people have been complaining about, but I might in a few days. It takes a little getting used to having to go to the metro interface to do some of the thing I used to do with the Start button, but for now it doesn’t bother me.
Verdict so far: So far so good.