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[Mictlantecuhtli]

Newsflash: DirectX11.1 will not be supported by Win7, only Win8. Argh, why make this so hard?! Maybe I'll just go for 8, and hope for the best...

I upgraded to Win7 to be able to use DX11+..

[GlyphGryph]

I'm actually in the same boat. I think I might end up going with 8.

If I could find a bloody place to purchase it.

All Microsoft is offering is upgrades, which are kind of useless to me...

So, anyways, my point is - Let me know how you do with 8. If it goes poorly, I know to get 7 instead.

[foil]

If you are buying something with a touchscreen then Win 8 is the way to go. 

Anything else and you are better with the Os designed for desktops 1st.

Better getting the Os with the interface that suits the input device.  No point getting a Os designed for touchscreens, only to use it with very limited Keyboard/mouse support instead.

[Alastar]

Some of the "innovations" are beyond annoying, some of the design is clumsy, it has a clown UI tacked on to it, it's probably a vehicle of (more) unhealthy business strategies and tacky commercialism... but there are advantages to Windows 8 too.

1) It seems slightly faster and more stable than 7.
2) Some goodies may not be available for 7
3) It has a half-decent search implementation and the Quick Access Menu (right-click on noexisting start button or Win+X) is surprisingly sane.

Third point is most important to me because my impression of a typical Windows administrative task was "[something almost but not entirely unrelated to what you want] -> Options -> Advanced Settings -> Maintenance -> Administration -> Options -> [Setting I want is present but greyed out] -> Advanced Settings -> System Preferences -> Make Your Computer Easier To Use -> [UAC Prompt] -> Finally there, pray it works".

Unless you used a specific service pack of the Professional version, in which case it was in reverse order. All online documentation assumed you did.

*

Having used Windows 8 on the side for a while, I found Windows 7 surprisingly hard to live with... and fixing my relatives' SNAFUs more difficult than it needed to be. I'd tentatively suggest Windows 8 although I find it tacky and annoying.

And since Vista was brought up... I see no real reason for that unless you just need an interim solution and have a spare license gathering dust. It's no lighter than the newer systems, still overenthusiastic with its then-new services and just needs a ton more upgrades/tweaks to work mostly like Windows 7 with a slightly more old-fashioned interface.

[Leatra]

I was thinking about upgrading my OS from XP to 7 but I can't bring myself to use that shitty UI. My mom uses Windows 7 and I had some experience with it. Boy, is there anything that works like XP in that thing? Whenever I try to do something BANG! "Hey, you just double clicked on something which is enough for me to ask you if you give permission to open it?" Everything I do seems to take a few extra clicks.

Newsflash: DirectX11.1 will not be supported by Win7, only Win8. Argh, why make this so hard?! Maybe I'll just go for 8, and hope for the best...

And I was going to update my OS just for the new DirectX support. These guys figured out the whole keep-consumers-consuming thing.

[crazysheep]

I was thinking about upgrading my OS from XP to 7 but I can't bring myself to use that shitty UI. My mom uses Windows 7 and I had some experience with it. Boy, is there anything that works like XP in that thing? Whenever I try to do something BANG! "Hey, you just double clicked on something which is enough for me to ask you if you give permission to open it?" Everything I do seems to take a few extra clicks.

Disable UAC via the control panel.

[Heron TSG]

That just gives you permissions as if you were a normal user using an "administrator" account. To actually access everything, there is strange command prompt witchery to be done.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/enable-the-hidden-administrator-account-on-windows-vista/

[Tellemurius]

i remember seeing that account alot whenever im resetting a customer's computer. Its disabled by default from microsoft (go figure) and basically whenever you run as administrator windows will log into that account for permissions (hence the UAC black out as it suspends the current user)

[Tellemurius]

So i don't know if Classic Shell has been mentioned here yet but i for one will be doodling on Win8 boxes for installation instructions, you'll thank me later

[Leatra]

It should have been default. Why Microsoft is trying too hard to keep computers safe? If Microsoft was a country it would probably be like a police state.

Is there a way to make 7 exactly like XP? Interface, I mean.

[Heron TSG]

The Windows Classic theme looks just like the Windows Classic theme from XP.

[Thief^]

Why are people so in favour of disabling UAC on windows? It's there to prevent viruses / malware having admin access to your pc. It serves a similar purpose to using a sudoer account instead of just running as root on linux. If you need to be able to write to a file in a protected folder (e.g. program files), it's easy enough to alter the permissions on that file/folder so that you personally have write access, which removes the need for UAC. UAC only kicks in if you only have write permission to a file via the "Administrators" group, and not personally or via the "Users" group.

To throw my 2c in on the OS version debate:
Windows 8's start screen is horribly invasive on a huge desktop monitor, and nothing else in Windows is at all usable on a tablet-size touchscreen. Windows 8's a bastard hybrid of touchscreen and mouse interface. Other than that it improves on Windows 7 in a bunch of subtle ways. There are a load of 3rd-party start menus to resolve the former problem, Stardock do a nice one.
Windows 7 is mature and stable now, I'd easily recommend it if you didn't want Windows 8.
Windows XP is old now. Only use it if you have to for some reason. Don't put it on a new PC.

[Siquo]

Why are people so in favour of disabling UAC on windows? It's there to prevent viruses / malware having admin access to your pc. It serves a similar purpose to using a sudoer account instead of just running as root on linux. If you need to be able to write to a file in a protected folder (e.g. program files), it's easy enough to alter the permissions on that file/folder so that you personally have write access, which removes the need for UAC. UAC only kicks in if you only have write permission to a file via the "Administrators" group, and not personally or via the "Users" group.

No. It also prevents me from running as root, where on linux I can just type "sudo", in Windows I do not have the luxury of such a simple circumvention, and the annoyance is 10 times greater. (This was on Vista, btw, maybe 7/8 is better?).

[Heron TSG]

7 is definitely better.

Why are people so in favour of disabling UAC on windows? It's there to prevent viruses / malware having admin access to your pc. It serves a similar purpose to using a sudoer account instead of just running as root on linux. If you need to be able to write to a file in a protected folder (e.g. program files), it's easy enough to alter the permissions on that file/folder so that you personally have write access, which removes the need for UAC.

Which is of course why, after running a program as an administrator and specifically allowing myself to do so, I didn't have the permissions required to change the priority of said program's task. Or why I couldn't delete a file out of Program Files despite allowing myself access to the folder, giving myself permission with UAC, and confirming the file action. Nope, no permission. That kind of stuff doesn't happen as much in 7, but by the gods it happened to me a lot with Vista.

[Thief^]

In 7 they allowed a bunch of Microsoft-signed binaries to bypass UAC, which means for most things you do via explorer or the control panel it will skip the UAC prompt. Other programs will still need to go via UAC to get the permissions, however.