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Windows 8 forum: Windows 8 questions

by: ChuckJTS December 30, 2012 1:34 PM PST

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Windows 8 questions

by ChuckJTS - 12/30/12 1:34 PM

Hi Everyone,

My mother in law bought us a Dell computer with Windows 8 and a 1 terrabyte hard drive. She said she didn't have a choice on the operating system. I found the operating system to be totally different.

We use the computer for working at home. My wife has foot pedals that plug into the USB ports for transcription so when she presses the peddles, the tape plays and my wife listen to the tape and types what the people say on a word processor.

I'm not really into the App store and I don't want to use Microsoft's email accounts to do business. I stopped looking at Kindle Apps because I didn't feel like a lot of them are professional enough and I looked at the programs on Windows 8 and I'm not impressed yet.

I'm willing to keep an open mind but the other half of me is frustrated because I found I don't know what I'm doing yet with Windows 8.

Should we keep this operating system or downgrade to a different one? I'm not really happy with being busy and having to learn a new operating system that I'm doubtful that Microsoft will stick with. To tell you the truth, I don't really like it because the commands are not in one central place and we don't like going to the corners with the mouse to make stuff appear.

How can I buy a backup hard drive for Windows 7 or 8? I read these reviews for hard drives and some people say their external hard drives aren't recognised by Windows 7. Am I going to have the same problem with Windows 8? I look at the stock that these companies have and none of the products say compatible with Windows 8 because I think they didn't have time to come up with new packaging.

Other than that, I use thumb drives, cameras, hard drives, word processing and internet just like everyone else for computer use.

So the questions are: (1) "Do we keep the operating system?" and (2) "Where do I get a hard drive that is compatible with Windows 7 or 8 when I read reviews that Windows 7 doesn't work with certain hard drives?"

Thank you for all the help in advance.

Sincerely,
Chuckjts


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Too long to W8 for the Answers?

by gordon451 - 1/4/13 9:54 PM

In Reply to: Windows 8 questions by ChuckJTS

How can I buy a backup hard drive for Windows 7 or 8? Er... At a shop? OK, think pre-W7: do you really need all those crufty apps pre-loaded on the hard drive? My son didn't when I bought him a 2TB external for his W2K box back in 2011... And all those bits of legacy hardware work just fine on W7!

In the end, your decision will be defined by what you can do on the new OS, and how far you can depart from what you are used to. I dunno what you've noticed about Windows over the decades, but you do need to know that W8 is the least confgurable OS Miccrosoft has yet released.

For example. You've got Notepad (or Explorer, or whatever) open, probably more than half the screen. The background is white. Snowy, blinding white. So you decide you'd like to tone it down a bit, say a very pale yellow with a hint of green? Except, you can't. Not in W8. You can in W7, but you have to go without the Aero desktop, you need the Classic, which is not available in W8. It was a piece of cake in Vista, XP, W2K, etc...

So, do you wish to be comfortable behind a user-friendly desktop, or fiercely productive with the latest version of everything?

If you decide to upgrade the Dell to W7, then you will probably need to download W7 hardware drivers for it. It's a Dell, so these drivers may not be available. You may need to (tearfully, with lots of chocolate for the mother-in-law) upgrade the Dell to a decent OEM which can handle W7.

It's a hard life ain't it!

Gordon.


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