[TwentyPercentCooler]

No one can name a piece of software that will run on Windows 7 but not run on Windows 8.

Older Need for Speed games.
Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends due to GFWL having problems with Windows 8
Heck, anything that uses GFWL will have problems, which are ocasionally fixable, but ocasionally are not.

Anything that uses GFWL already has problems. 

[Mongoose]

Heh, yeah, it's now kaput.

[S-99]

Exaggerating much? Again?

You must be kidding. You didn't listen. The pictures you showed are a perfect example of microsoft obscuring the fact that you can make a local account on your computer. Everything in those pictures is very dominantly suggestive of the fact that if you don't have a microsoft account that you have to create one, while the only place to make a local account is at the bottom of the same screen for creating a microsoft account. I was not disputing that you couldn't make a local account, just that it's deliberately laid out to make people think that you can't.

I stick by what i said earlier; that i can't recommend software that deliberately tricks the user into doing stuff they otherwise didn't need to do.

[Mika]

Anything that uses GFWL already has problems

Indeed.

[Political correctness mode on]
Suppose a person is annoyed by these measures, luckily those issues could be, eh, let's say circumvented by certain modifications to certain core files. Now suppose I bought Deadrising 2 without realizing it's a GFWL game, it could have been very likely that I may not have signed in to play it. Given this imaginary situation, you could think of my surprise if I happened to discover this while installing the game. It could also be said that in this imaginary scenery, I shoulda read the box better when I bought the game.

Though, it is also true that Games For Windows Live looks quite close to Games To Windows, but given this supposed sample, I'm nowadays aware of the difference and not gonna fall to it again.
[/Political correctness mode off]

[Grizzly]

You must be kidding. You didn't listen. The pictures you showed are a perfect example of microsoft obscuring the fact that you can make a local account on your computer. Everything in those pictures is very dominantly suggestive of the fact that if you don't have a microsoft account that you have to create one, while the only place to make a local account is at the bottom of the same screen for creating a microsoft account. I was not disputing that you couldn't make a local account, just that it's deliberately laid out to make people think that you can't.

I stick by what i said earlier; that i can't recommend software that deliberately tricks the user into doing stuff they otherwise didn't need to do.

To fall in with S-99, when you already have a Microsoft account, you are presented with the option to use your microsoft account. Peroid. The idea of clicking "Create a new account" would never occur in someone who already has a MS account, thus he never gets to see the option to not use an MS account. I fell for it, for one, and I actually went looking for the option, knowing it was in Windows 8.

---

Is there any way to detach my MS account now?

[Ghostavo]

Go to the account options and select disconnect.

[redsniper]

Ok then, I stand corrected. I really just wanted some concrete examples of what broke aside from the start menu.

[Flaser]

if i see the word "app" connected with windows 9 in any way, nope.

like everyone else, i'm happy with XP and 7, but i need a new laptop and missed my chance to get one with 7 (easily anyway).  i'll be sending back the one i tried out with 8 in the next day or two.  sad, because it was a really great deal and the only other thing it is missing is a trackpoint.  and the screen kinda sucks but i think that's going to be the case with any laptop these days.

I can't believe no one told you this yet:
Windows 8 Pro OEM licenses come with the right to "downgrade" to Windows 7 Professional, that is if you have an Windows 7 OEM install media on hand (MS won't help you with that), you can install it and use your Windows 8 serial to activate it.

[Klaustrophobia]

and if i had Pro i would do that, but consumer laptops come with basic

[S-99]

Time for windows bashing to happen. I got a hold of a copy of window 8 (i didn't opt for 8.1 since 8.1 is a plecibo) just to see how nasty it is (installed on a foreign hard drive). I didn't connect it to a network which prompted for a local account to be created.

My word, microsoft wants to track your every move with this os. The preconfiguration screen was disgusting. How do i get to the standard desktop (it wasn't obvious)? I like how alt-f4 didn't close internet explorer. It was very unintuitive (keep in mind, this is the second time of me using it, but now i can use it long term). I know i need to spend more than five minutes with the bastard. I'll do that tomorrow.

[The E]

Ummm

If you have all those preconceptions, why did you go for 8 in the first place?
And how did you get the impression that 8.1 is a placebo, when it actually addresses a few of the issues people had with vanilla 8?

[Klaustrophobia]

the only thing it really did for me was allow boot to desktop. even so i had to use the internet to figure out how to do that.  but you're right, there's still really no reason NOT to use it.  well in my case it initially broke SLI but that was fixed with an update from the laptop manufacturer.

[S-99]

Ummm

If you have all those preconceptions, why did you go for 8 in the first place?
And how did you get the impression that 8.1 is a placebo, when it actually addresses a few of the issues people had with vanilla 8?

My objective is to see just how horrible it really is. I thought this was disgusting. Big brother much?



I don't really think it matters too much leaving any of these on or off if you ask me, since i essentially don't really trust that any of that stuff can ever actually be turned off.

Windows 8.1 on the other hand i call a placebo for one reason. While it may have addressed a few issues for users, the start menu is not one of them. It's just a button you click that takes you to the start screen.

[Klaustrophobia]

and that was already in 8 anyway.  you just had to hover in the corner for a half second instead of it being a permanent taskbar button.

[S-99]

Windows 9 being called thresh hold is quite accurate. They probably hit a thresh hold that microsoft will never get past.

[jr2]

95 was good but 98 sucked

I don't think you remember that era as well as you think you do.

(98SE was totally the best Windows version until XP.)

QFT.  You probably experienced the original '98, not the 98 Second Edition that most people used (cause the first one had some MAJOR flaws, IIRC).. sort of how XP did before SP2.

[Nuke]

i think people would have used 98se for longer if it wasnt limited to 512mb ram. i saw the switch happen in my system builder days, we stopped using 98se and started using xp the day after i got the job. we were still putting 256mb in the buisness builds, but the computers we sold to students were shipping with 512 mb. a couple people requested a downgrade, one guy had some exotic professional audio hardware (i think he was a sound engineer) that just wouldnt work under xp, and another was just an old fogey that didnt like change. before i left we were doing 1gb, so we discontinued using 98.

i rather liked windows 98. it was a fun os. ive never ran into an install that wasnt plagued with viruses and glitches. viruses were an actual threat back then, not fear mongering to sell virus scanners. there was no security. for me that was a plus because i dont like security slowing me down, and i could run a tight ship. it was fun to fix and it was really fun when it went wrong. if it was in good shape, it was fast as ****. and it was built on dos so you could run all your dos games without any emulation.

im actually more impressed with the current ubuntu than i am with windows 8.1, if they are going to rape all my interfaces again its a good time to switch.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Not positive about 98se but you could go above 512mb win ME with a simple .ini file edit.  Found that out when I bought a 512mb chip to upgrade from 256mb not knowing about the 512mb limit.

[Nuke]

im pretty sure it was a hard coded limit in 98.

[jr2]

The only change you have to make should be this:

THIS GOES IN SYSTEM.INI:
- Start/Run/Sysedit
- Select System.ini window
- Search for existing VCACHE line
- Replace that with lines below

[vcache]
minfilecache=0
maxfilecache=524288


I'm not kidding - that is it. Worked for me with both 1 gig and 2 gig of memory in my system before I finally moved that rig to XP.

Enjoy

You really don't need a cache that size. A 32MB cache is quite suffice.

minfilecache=0
maxfilecache=32768

Or a 64MB cache (65535)

This takes care of the caching issue - However you now have another problem. Windows 98/Me *CANNOT* address more than 1 GB of RAM - your trick fixes the problem with the 512MB cache limit, but there is no fix for the 1GB address limit in 98. However, the good news is that yes you can dual boot XP and Win98 and yes you can have more than 1GB of physical RAM, however you can only use 1 GB of it in Win98 - so it is very important that you add this line in your system.ini, in the [386Enh] section

MaxPhysPage=40000

This will LIMIT windows to SEE and USE only 1GB of RAM. Attempting to use Win98 with more than 1GB will cause problems and possibly corrupt your OS should the OS get past that point - so don't be fooled if your OS appears to work - try to fill your RAM up and you will see...I've tried it. With this trick you LIMIT the range, and windows will see only 1GB and use only 1GB. You can also set this feature using msconfig and using the advanced tab and setting maximum RAM to 999MB. P.S. You must perform this change BEFORE you physically install 2GB of RAM, not after you do so. Always BACK UP your registry before doing so (run scanreg) in case you screw up and get a blue screen on bootup and see your registry corrupted!