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Windows 8 and the Y500 -Your opinions please folks!


4REAL

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I just got my y500 about a week ago after being on a MacBook Pro for 6 years, and a Win7/ML tower I built last May. I personally haven't noticed any performance difference between 7 and 8, but anytime an app opened in Metro/Modern, I hated the delay that the switching to and from desktop mode created. I got StartIsBack based on recommendations here, and it definitely minimizes the switching. I don't feel the need to spend time/resources buying/installing/activating 7.

StartIsBack is great. I've lost count of how many times I've recommended it to people who have a hard time adjusting to Windows 8. For me, it seriously made the difference between sticking with 8 or going back to 7, as I had a spare license of 7 lying around.

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StartIsBack is great. I've lost count of how many times I've recommended it to people who have a hard time adjusting to Windows 8. For me, it seriously made the difference between sticking with 8 or going back to 7, as I had a spare license of 7 lying around.

Yeah, more than worth the $3 they want - and that's for 2 computers. Learning the Win-X shortcut was great for me, too - but I guess that's more just re-acclimating to Windows after years in OS X.

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I mean the tiles suck but they basically allow me to keep my program shortcuts there and prevent clutter on my desktop, so that's ok. Additionally, the performance vs windows 7 is proven to slightly faster which is important if you're using the y500 for gaming.

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I have a different take on this. I use win8 as a host and do all my surfing, banking, tests on different VMs. I run Win7 on my VMs but used the speed boost of Win8 on my host. I get the best of both world. I am running win 8.1 preview but didn't notice any improvements compared to win8... the "come" back of the start button is laughable.

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I held off until May of this year when I purchased a laptop with Windows 8 installed. All my games work and it's actually not bad as a launch platform for my games. However, trying to do anything like device manager, disk manager or even shutdown or restart takes more clicks than under Windows 7. One of my friends has an Acer laptop and at least Acer added a virtual power button so shutdowns and restarts are simple.

Other than that I haven't found anything in Windows 8 that keeps me from playing.

Cheers,

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I was all ready to put the new mSata drive into my y500 upon arrival. Read up on how to and what I needed. Then I tried windows 8. Initially I felt lost. It was counter intuitive to me. Slowly over the day it really grew on me. The whole system is a little snappier with it. I've held off on putting the SSD in for a little longer to make sure I like it but I think I do and will keep 8 on it.

It helps to have shortcuts to windows 8 too

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I've bee resisting Windows 8 for quite a while now, even after purchasing a Pro license during their extended "sale". I've noticed a few things here and there that annoy me, but I think for the most part it's just something new to get used to. Windows 8.1 will alleviate some of the complaining, but it will never be the same again. We'll just have to adapt.

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I've bee resisting Windows 8 for quite a while now, even after purchasing a Pro license during their extended "sale". I've noticed a few things here and there that annoy me, but I think for the most part it's just something new to get used to. Windows 8.1 will alleviate some of the complaining, but it will never be the same again. We'll just have to adapt.
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  • 2 weeks later...

thing boots like it's on an SSD LOL even though I have slow-ass 5400 RPM HDD. Seriously the fastest Windows boot I ever seen

So true! you should give win8 a chance. Only parts missing is the start button and the new metro UI(which you could bring back with 3rd party softwares).

Also the win 8.1 preview is out now which fixes the tiles on the metro UI which really could help.

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Aside from some software incompatibilities i encountered, i'm happy sticking with windows 8 in my ideapad y500. same with you guys, installed startisback, and productivity is the same as using a windows 7 os. i didn't stop there though, cause i replaced the 16G mSata SSD with 256G crucial m4 and made it the primary boot drive.

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This is exactly my story. I was fighting with Windows 8 on Y500 for 3 days - it was licensed and i felt sorry to loose it. It was doing endless updates, started loading slower and slower, etc. At last I formatted all the system-hidden-etc partitions by gparted and installed my favourite windows 7 xDark which works 3 times faster than Win 8.

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@_EF_ i had trouble installing windows 7 with UEFI enabled, that was why i got stuck with using windows 8. with UEFI enabled, the windows 7 installer just hangs, and you have to turn the laptop off just so you can reboot.

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When I first started using Win 8, the touchpad drove me nuts, changing from desktop to Metro to Charms. I also disliked the lack of a Start Button. Installing a start button was a huge help. It also helped some of the touch pad issues. Other than those issues, I like WIn 8 better. Snappier use and I much prefer the resource monitor over Win 7. It will be prefect once I get an SSD installed

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I find Windows 8 acceptable most of the time, it runs really well, performance of apps and game performance is fine.

The lack of a start button bugs me, an the UI can be downright horrid, as finding certain settings can take ages, as nothing is as easy as clicking on the Start button any more, but once I'd finished tweaking my settings and getting more used to the UI it's pretty good, if not annoying at times.

It is far better than Vista when that first came on my old laptop.

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I believe that in windows 8 highly improved performance compared to Windows 7. Especially in Windows 7 still has some problems with the drivers. I tried to install Windows 8.1, but the microphone and webcam do not work properly with this system. :(

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