Like it or hate it, Windows 8 looks to slowly become the dominant OS over the next few years. Much like there was resistance to Windows 7, Windows XP before that and even a little to Windows 95, almost all Windows users will inevitably migrate - some enthusiastically, some less-so. But is all the negative publicity justified? Should people be apprehensive about this tablet-centric OS?
After having used it for a while, I honestly believe the answer to both is: No, with a "but."
Much like many other PC enthusiasts, I'll freely admit I wasn't looking forward to the idea of using Windows 8. I'd "read all the reviews" and "heard all the comments" like so many others, and was expecting that any such transition would be like suddenly being told I had to walk on my hands: possible, perhaps, but not without a long, annoying transitional period, especially given walking on my legs is no longer a mindless activity these days.
I'd already had some time to play around with Windows 8 on my Ativ. As a table/convertible OS on a secondary machine, I had no great complaints - it was easy enough to get around in, ran everything I had attempted to run and generally felt fine. Granted that I've no experience with Windows 7 on a similar system, I didn't really feel as though anything was overly complicated or dumbed down. In fact, I found myself rather appreciating the clean styling it offered as the somewhat cartoony look which started with XP never really sat well with me.
But, long ago, I told myself I'd be updating to a Haswell when they came out, and I intended to make good on that. Since my Windows 7 license was an OEM license which isn't valid for use on a new machine, I had to make a judgement call: Do I get another Windows 7 license, or do take a gamble and get Windows 8? I decided the latter (I may or may not have been out of my mind at the time) and hoped to give it a good showing as a primary OS on my day-to-day machine.
To begin with, it wasn't smooth sailing. I'd opted to keep all of my old harddrives - which turns out to have been an invitation for trouble. Originally I'd hoped to do an in-place upgrade over my existing Windows 7 installation but that cannot be done from outside the OS and attempting to boot Windows 7 on completely different hardware was wildly unsuccessful; plus it seems OEM licenses aren't licensed to do such a thing anyway, which seems moot in retrospect. Fortunately I'd already backed up my boot drive in anticipation that I'd have to do a fresh installation.
So I set about the fresh install. It went through reasonably quickly with no great dramas to speak of. I got into the OS, loaded up my drivers, installed updates, set up users and started importing my old settings and saves. Here I struck the first peculiarity - at the same time I was doing this, I was also re-organising my harddrives and met with permission errors transferring to places I shouldn't need permissions for. I figured it was some throw-back from the Windows 7 install these harddrives had been used for and set about resetting their permissions through the command line. One problem down and everything seemed fine - until later that night.
Windows 8, like Windows 7 and Vista before it, needs to be activated online. It also has a full-screen prompt telling you as much. Since my internet connection was working at the time, I decided to let it do its thing there and then so I could get on with what I was doing. No dice. I was confused - it came back telling me my license was invalid. Since the registration code is printed in smaller font than Windows 7 was, against a lower-contrast background than Windows 7 was, I figured I must have entered it wrong (yet it still installed?) and set about trying to change it. Several web searches later I found out how and re-typed it, checking it three times to be sure.
Still no dice. At least this time it had the decency to offer me a phone number to contact Microsoft to help with registration. So I called, followed the prompts, typed in the horrendously long number and got a slightly-shorter one in return. I double-checked it to be sure, keyed it in and told it to go ahead. Denied again! Figuring I again made a mistake, I called back, followed the prompts again, keyed in my numbers again and it read back exactly the same number I'd already tried and failed with.
At this point, things weren't looking good. I called back one last time, followed a couple of the prompts but then stopped entering anything. After it told me I "seemed to be having trouble" a few times, it put me through to an actual person. I explained my situation to the woman on the phone and she asked for a few details. We then set about the horrendously long number exchange (HLNE) again and the same outcome was reached. Since this wasn't successful, she transferred me through to someone else in a different department who she hoped would be able help.
Unfortunately, the next person was no more help. Details were exchanged, the story was told, we did the HLNE once more and exactly the same events transpired. This time, though, there was no transfer to another department - I was informed (politely, mind you) that the distributor was responsible for troubleshooting my OEM licensed Windows installation and Microsoft was unable to help me further. Not really the answer I was hoping for, but it was the only one I was going to get.
After a day of thinking, I'd reached a decision: I was going to try one more thing to get it to work and, if that failed, I'd be returning it to the point of sale and getting a Windows 7 license instead. After all, it's not like I'd registered or anything so it was still effectively unused software.
My last ditch effort involved a new-ish feature to Windows 8, known as "Refresh my PC." This is, in essence, a way to re-install the OS over itself from within the OS, returning it to its original state - no updates, no software, no nothing. The only things preserved are drivers. It backs up the Users folder, but that's about it - anything not in that folder is gone. Doing this took about as long as the previous installation and then the system was back up, so my first goal was to get it activated.
Rather surprisingly, following the installation of my LAN drivers (which, according to the installer, aren't Windows 8 compatible - weird), it worked. Internet activation, not phone, and on the first try. Not even a hint of a problem. I cautiously installed updates and checked it was still "active" and there was still no problem. Here I am, a couple weeks later and it's all just fine.
I may never know what actually caused the problem. I suspect it was permission related - that fits with the other major issue I was having with the previous installation. But, regardless, it's working now and it only took way, way too much messing around.
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