12-13-2012, 10:50 PM
Last weekend I finally decided to reinstall Win8 on my home workhorse desktop to test out performance. I spoke to some people at work who were very adamant that there were definitely performance gains to be had in Win8 (beyond just the boot times), so I wanted to run the system through some typical use tests just to see. The initial install was an upgrade to a long existing Win7 install. I ran into a number of performance issues, lag, whatnot. My Adobe products weren't looking good (or better), and crashed/hung a few times. Wasn't thrilled with the results.
But, as I was about to put Win7 back on, I decided I'd try once more with a full re-pave and clean install of Win8. That seemed to have done the trick. I don't know what legacy software/drivers/whatever I had on Win7 that was causing issues, but I haven't experienced any problems at all with the clean install, and have seen very noticeable performance gains in Premiere Pro, After Effects, rendering, Photoshop, etc. The whole system seems much snappier than Win7. Even gaming feels smoother. And now that my Microsoft Account is integrated between phone, laptop, and desktop, all my settings are instantly synced, but what's really awesome is that SkyDrive+OneNote have become my new best friends for day to day life productivity. For example, I can create a living Grocery list, store it on SkyDrive, and then access it to read or add to from phone in grocery store, from home looking through fridge, while at work and I think of something. Another example: on a Sunday night, instead of emailing my work address with a To Do list for the upcoming week of things that I need to track, I just throw it into OneNote on SkyDrive, and just keep it ongoing - add new tasks as I think of them, remove those that I complete, add in pertinent info from email/web, pictures, whatever is needed. Little things, I know, but it certainly makes life easier.
My biggest gripes about Win8 from using it at work over the past months is lack of start button. I am still against it being removed, but now that I've got it on home computer, I'm forcing myself to use the WinKey shortcuts and Start Screen, instead of hack programs like Start8 (which I was using at work) in order to get used to it all. Definitely a relearning/mental remapping going on. But it does get better, and more natural.
But, as I was about to put Win7 back on, I decided I'd try once more with a full re-pave and clean install of Win8. That seemed to have done the trick. I don't know what legacy software/drivers/whatever I had on Win7 that was causing issues, but I haven't experienced any problems at all with the clean install, and have seen very noticeable performance gains in Premiere Pro, After Effects, rendering, Photoshop, etc. The whole system seems much snappier than Win7. Even gaming feels smoother. And now that my Microsoft Account is integrated between phone, laptop, and desktop, all my settings are instantly synced, but what's really awesome is that SkyDrive+OneNote have become my new best friends for day to day life productivity. For example, I can create a living Grocery list, store it on SkyDrive, and then access it to read or add to from phone in grocery store, from home looking through fridge, while at work and I think of something. Another example: on a Sunday night, instead of emailing my work address with a To Do list for the upcoming week of things that I need to track, I just throw it into OneNote on SkyDrive, and just keep it ongoing - add new tasks as I think of them, remove those that I complete, add in pertinent info from email/web, pictures, whatever is needed. Little things, I know, but it certainly makes life easier.
My biggest gripes about Win8 from using it at work over the past months is lack of start button. I am still against it being removed, but now that I've got it on home computer, I'm forcing myself to use the WinKey shortcuts and Start Screen, instead of hack programs like Start8 (which I was using at work) in order to get used to it all. Definitely a relearning/mental remapping going on. But it does get better, and more natural.
~ The Duskwood Gankster ~
WoW & Beyond: Grizzle / Grizol
EQ/SB: Rafkin / Kriticos / Dudain
WoW & Beyond: Grizzle / Grizol
EQ/SB: Rafkin / Kriticos / Dudain