There are many who share your positive experience with 8 <sarcasm>
But seriously, there are little things that can help if you are missing the start menu etc. such as Classic Shell.

But there are other things that make it fail in terms of setting it up and interface. I don't like it's insisting I make a Windows live account

...to limit how much Windows 8.1 is going to nag me to let it do the driving instead of me.
I've got 8.1 RT on a Lenovo Yoga. I've gotten used to using a stylus instead of a mouse.

Works pretty good for what I do with it (college work, writing and illustration), but gawd-amighty, I hate being stuck with the Windoz app store. That's why I've downloaded the RT app developer, I'll figure something out with that.

Haele

The computer corporations want you to buy the touch screen devices next year after you find you can't stand Windows 8 on the usual computers. It's just a money play.

However, I think there's a way to "downgrade" to Windows 7, which would work better on your platform - depending, of course, on the skin your computer manufacturer put on your laptop. Check the computer forum.

Haele

Sorry about that. They got you coming or going. If you've got the $50, it will be worth it just for the comfort factor; Windows 8.whatever will be no problem later on; everything will be touch screen by the time you're ready to get a new laptop.

Haele

Gives it the look and feel of Windows 7.
http://www.classicshell.net/

You don't need anything special, just click Desktop, and you are good to go. I customized the tiles on the main screen, but found I never use them since you can just start typing and don't need a command line to type onto.

Maybe because I've gone through most OSes, I adapt easily.

Good luck

It also doesn't help it's not liking my visual aid software which is making it hard to operate

you can use a local account setup. If you chose not to then the only down side is you won't sync across your platforms. It is a feature I find amazing. I never have to worry about setting up on new devices, my phone, my desktop, my tablet, or any of my x-box games.

And it's supposed to be better than Windows 8

"SHUDDER"

The whole thing with Windows 8 is I get the idea and it's kind of a cool idea there's no lag in learning to use any Windows device. But the problem is not all devices are touchscreen and just everything is overly complicated to do one thing.

Well, perhaps you'll get used to it, although that's easy for me to say.

Good luck!

My aunt gave me a really nice desk top with windows 7, so I can't complain about the price. But, windows 7 sucks, everything is really hard to find.

I'm a little familiar with windows 8 from going to the library, and it's even worse than 7!

So I got a windows 8...pure nightmare!!

You feel lost without a start menu. Every simple thing takes many steps. UGH! I tried for 4 days to live with it...but couldn't. Returned it to Best Buy and ordered a windows 7 from Amazon. I will take very good care of it and hope by the time I need a new one they'll make the next more useable.

I've heard nothing but bad things about Windows 8. I was going to buy a new computer this year, but will be waiting until next year due to financial concerns (triple whammy: mortgage, doctoral degree, and a trip back to the states). Not sure what I'll do when I buy another computer as I just don't want Windows 8. The OP said it's $50 to downgrade. If that's true it's ridiculous. I'll tell them exactly where to stick their system.

Quite a balancing act but sounds as if you have it together.

I dunno... it seems MS is getting pretty slipshod. I can't use MS Office, for some reason. IE crashes regularly-- and I mean at least once each time I log in. Chrome doesn't, but I don't like its interface. I'm so used to IE but when it just stops responding it makes me see red. Plus, I can't download the important updates.

I can't even bring up a Word document!! Grrr...

and have stopped using idiot exploder (haha) completely. It is a POS. The problem with Chrome is on some sites I've found it is not compatible with the browser so I have to use IE.

For Office can you take it off and re-install it? I know that's a pain.

The error I get doesn't even make sense. Oh well... guess I'll have to pay a techie to look into the problem.

I wish I could do a sort of hybrid of IE and Chrome, though I know that's not possible.

Sometimes I miss my good old desktop.

I hope you can find someone that will fix it and won't gouge you for it.

I have to pray to the computer gods that mine holds out another 16 months or so until I finish my dissertation. Hopefully at that point I'll be able to get a new one.

You're not in the US at the moment?

Been here 10 years now (as of the 2nd of Jan). Got married 8 years ago today. Reminded my wife it was today and were were joking about it.

I bought a Mac Mini in 2009 and that wonderful computer is still cranking along now with no major problems. Its operating system needs to be updated, but so far it is doing fine. If there are any problems, a restart solves them.

That's not even counting the overpriced part.

People don't realize when they suggest moving to Mac that it's not just an OS change. Like you said you have to be sure that you are comfortable not being able to run the vast majority of games, and many apps. If you are comfortable with that then Mac is a fine alternative, but then so are many Linux distros. And I have enough experience with macs crashing and bugs in Mac software to know that the "never crashes" thing is overhyped. Since windows Xp all my pcs have run as rock solid as most macs I've seen.

With windows 7 and Ubuntu. I find I rarely boot into windows since I can run most stuff in wine on Ubuntu if I really need to use windows programs. I use OSX 95% of the time anyway. Figured I'd use Ubuntu the most, but osx runs great.. Haven't had a crash..

I'm sure with enough time, I might get use to it.

It's not a massive improvement but it's far better. Still I hate the tiles though.

If it comes to it I'll downgrade

to find all my stuff I transferred over with my passport. I really haven't been happy since XP.

I had to get a new laptop recently, and so had to make the switch. I'd heard so much negative about it, but I don't mind it.

I hate more than Windows Vista is the Green Bay Meat Packers.

my old software wouldn't load on it (Excel and Word early 2000 editions) so had to get new Office package, But for the most part have found it easy to adapt to. Use both the tile window and the desktop. My only complaint is if I leave it on without using it for more than 10 minutes, it goes into a sleep mode and I have to log in again. After hearing some negative comments about Win 8 I was very concerned, but so far pleasantly surprised.

Visual aid software and Windows 8 don't play well with each other

Since touch screen computers are expensive and don't have nearly as good of specs as non-touch screens, I didn't bother to get one.

Thankfully, there's a simple way to bypass that stupid tiles screen once one loads up the computer.