Most of the faster boot times on 8 is allegedly due to "shut down" not shutting the device down, but rather sending it into hibernation.

It's not traditional hibernation (which captures the entire system state as-is) so for most purposes it works fine. Windows updates do require a normal restart to install; 8.1 adds an "update and shut down" feature which does the same sort of thing.

I bought Windows 8 on discount for like $20 when it was first coming out from the windows site... I hate it though and much prefer Windows 7 (Which I am using now). XP was the best OS I ever used, period.

You can have the boot menu only appear for a second or not at all, if you can change those settings with Windows 7. Control Panel->System->Advanced System Settings->Advanced Tab->Settings in the Startup and Recovery Section. At the top you have default OS, and then right underneath a checkbox with time to display list of OS...uncheck that box or change the setting to 1 second.

Yeah it is currently 3 seconds I think, but if the user touches the keyboard during the timer, it stops. I originally changed the boot priority to Windows 7 from that place you mentioned. Maybe I need to remove the timer altogether there.

In theory, I love the metro screen, but only after customizing it with 3rd party software, and then I still dislike the way the tiles behave as opposed to how icons on the desktop behave. Updating to 8.1 did some cool things to the metro screen, like adding a scroll bar at the bottom of the screen and offering you four different tile sizes even for your custom tiles. But it still doesn't allow you to customize their look apart from that, and it also introduced a horrible automatic color scheme for them. So if you create a custom tile from a desktop shortcut, e.g. for a game, not only will it just be the small shortcut icon lost in a plain-colored box, but it seems the color is chosen depending on a dominant color of the icon, and instead of contrasting it, it tries to match it within the limited metro palette, so the icon is even harder to discern. And for some weird reason, in more than 50% of the cases the tiles turn out an ugly orange for me.

As for Office, I went to great lenghts to get a retail copy of 2010 instead of using 2013, partly for the look and the 'cool' new online mobile features that I don't need, partly for Microsoft's new license policies.

Golly...I sure do appreciate your input. I naturally have been wondering and curious re 8.1. Not too many folks have 8.1, so info is not easy to come by. Re tiles, metro's tiles (the ones I've kept and not uninstalled) are pink, yellow, pleasant colors. I dislike orange...UGH ! My tiles are smaller than metro's and are blue. I have not created a custom tile from a desktop icon. Hmmm, I'll have to try that and see what happens. The game tiles I have on the metro screen, just automatically appeared once I uninstalled most of metro's tiles and there was room left on the screen. Guess my PC or metro thought it best to fill up that screen with something !!

Question: If I upgrade to 8.1 and don't care for it, can I easily go back to 8 ? That orange color alone would turn me off.
And have you used 8.1 with your games ?

Thanks, too, for the Office feedback. You've helped me make my decision.

I think the metro screen is essentially the same as the start menu, just with a different look. If you install a game or program that would normally add an entry to the start menu, it should add that entry to the metro screen instead, although (thankfully!) most of them are hidden on that second screen that is just as chaotic or probably even worse than the old start menu used to be. So that's probably where your game tiles come from.

If you right-click on a shortcut on the desktop, there should be an option to "attach it to 'Start'" or something like that. If you do that, it will appear on the rightmost end of your metro screen (you may need to scroll there). And it will probably look just like your other game tiles look. As you said, in Win 8 all these custom tiles have the same blue color, which is neither particularly pretty nor particularly bad. In Win 8.1 they have varying colors (blue, green, grey, red, orange etc.) but you will have no influence on which ones Windows will choose (except maybe by changing the shortcut icon). If you use OblyTiles to customize your tiles, it doesn't really matter, but that requires a lot of effort.

Check out the screenshots below for an example of 8.1's default color scheme and an example of customizing the tiles with the 3rd party tool OblyTiles.

No, going back from 8.1 to 8 is not easy at all, you may have to completely re-install Windows 8. There might be alternatives for more experienced users, like creating a recovery point or something like that, but no guarantees. Once you've updated to 8.1, you can't just de-install it again.

Yes. Almost all work fine and just the same as with 8. If I recall correctly, I might have had issues with one or two games after updating, but I was able to solve them.

Just create an image file with either a free program or with the built-in program.

Anyone know if they fixed the imaging program in Windows 8, it didn't work last time I tried it...and it was still called Windows 7 System Image or something like that. One of the greatest features of Windows 7 they screwed up with the Windows 8 clusterfuck. Still works great in Windows 7.

Great info Leroux...I checked your attachments and ORANGE (yuck) is the predominate color. Phew. But I really liked the Oblytile look. I had not heard of OblyTiles so googled it and since you've used it, I know it's safe and I am going to use it.

So there really isn't any difference game-wise 'tween 8 and 8.1...correct ? Have you tried any of your old DOS games ?

@jjsimp...I'm going to look for an imaging built-in program on my PC and will get back here.

Hm, now that you say it, I think I haven't really played a DOS game in a long time. I have only a few installed at the moment and when I tried to start them now, DOSBOX opened a window but then closed it again and nothing happened. :/

This might be due to me using outdated installations though. I'll have to download the most recent installers from GOG and try again to be sure. I already made that mistake once, believeing a GOG game would not run on Win8, when in truth I just hadn't used the new installer with Win 8 compatibility enabled. I think GOG updated a lot of games to make them work with Win 8 but didn't specifically notify us about it.

I've had a positive experience overall.

I gave Metro a week and after that week went and bought Start8. I haven't seen the metro interface in months. I'd probably be more receptive to metro if I was using a tablet, but I'm not.

With metro right out of the picture win8/8.1 has been great, it's certainly an upgrade from vista which I used last (yet wasn't as horrible as some people make out)

I have not tried my DOS games on this new desktop of mine, but on my old Win 7 desktop, I had to go in and click "make compatible with".......which I can do with this one.
Tho, I doubt I'll really be playing Gabriel Knight or any of the other DOS games again. Besides, it seems that the classics are being updated. So I guess that doesn't matter.

I don't have a "Start" on my right-click desktop icon. I can send to docs, fax, mail, DVD, zip, desktop...no "start".
I also don't have an imaging program built-in.

However, you are using 8.1 with no real issues, altho we can't forget that Orange. But it can be fixed with OblyTiles.
Besides, if 8.1 is an issue, reinstalling 8 couldn't be that bad. How many times have we had to reinstall a game ?!

I've been told by Techies that Vista was better than XP. I didn't have metro on my last PC, but got it with my new PC and monitor.

Hm ... What type of shortcut icon did you try? Was it a standalone game or program? I know it doesn't work with certain more dependent types of shortcuts, e.g. shortcuts to Steam games (which is another issue I have with the metro screen - you can't just attach *any* shortcut to it without hassle). A GOG game should work though.

Well, I think re-installing an operating system is quite a bit more work than re-installing a game, but YMMV. ;) Just don't say you weren't warned and be prepared for any case of emergency. I went into it completely naive, without making recovery points and thinking everything would be fine and improved upon, and I regretted it afterwards.

All of my games, no matter where I get them, GOG or Steam, etc. ask if I want a shortcut to desktop, and I do. When I right-click on that short-cut, I get the same thing, no variations. no start.

Okay, I misunderstood you as to 8.1. I will not upgrade to 8.1. I'm not as knowledgeable as you are with PCs, and If I wanted to uninstall it, you would need to stay online 24/7 and walk me thru the nightmare step-by-step !! *joking, kinda*

I need to go grocery shopping now, but I'm going to d/l the OblyTiles program when I get back.
You are very kind to spend all this time helping me...thank you, Marianne