Should I take the leap?

Hey Partian,

Nice to hear that the business is booming. My best wishes for you.

check out this article. You might get some more points.

Well upgraded my main laptop and the Sandy bridge using an upgrade then downloaded the 8.1 for free. I do run bot in 7 style using Classic Shell as I am not keen on the Metro panels.

You could also do a dual boot for that matter depends what you want out of the thing. As a general rule I use 7 on all my machines for most of the time, and in general again I find they run a bit faster in 8.

see this Start Menu - Restore in Windows 8

The tiles or Start screen have always been optional. In Win 8.1, you can set it to boot directly to the desktop so you never see the Start screen. Since you say you want the Start button, you will need to install one of the many apps out there that bring it back such as Classic Shell.

Running Win 8.1 from the desktop is very similar to Win 7. Boot and shutdown times are improved, performance running apps is about the same. I haven't found any apps that ran on Win 7 that won't run on Win 8.

As Strollin says mate I would opt for the link I sent you and if you get stuck in the panels as one does with opening PDF files then all you need to do is hit the Windows key and X it brings up a window and you just click on Desktop and you are back where you started:)

partian said:

Hello guys,
sorry for the inactivty, business is booming :)

Even though I've always said that I would never upgrade to Windows 8 I am thinking of it.

Why?
Well, to be honest - I don't know myself.
I am wondering whether or not Win7 64bit programs run on Win8.

I haven't really done the research but I fancy giving it a shot,
"Don't hate if you ain't tried it" springs to mind,
what's your guys opinions?

I really need another vivid Win7 users point of view on this one.

You could dual boot if you want to still be able to use Win7: Dual Boot Installation - Windows 8 and Windows 7 or Vista