windows 8 / windows 8.1 vs windows 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Windows 10 is in market now and Microsoft distances itself from older OS, we all look at the best option for our PC

Update - Windows 10 is on the way. This latest iteration of Microsoft's desktop OS looks set to leave both Windows 7 and Windows 8 in the dust, and we can't wait for the full release. It's sporting some seriously cool features, too - the ability to flick between separate desktop environments, integration of Microsoft's digital assistant 'Cortana' and the return of the traditional start menu all have us pretty excited.
 
Support for Windows XP came to an end in April 2014, and Microsoft has set a date of January 2015 for the withdrawal of mainstream Windows 7 support. This doesn’t mean Windows 8’s predecessor is out of the game, however, and remains a popular option for consumers and business users alike.
In fact, recent market share statistics revealed that users choosing to move on from Windows XP are actually opting for Windows 7 rather than Windows 8 or 8.1, with Microsoft’s latest operating system not being welcomed as quickly as had been hoped. Until Microsoft stops support for Windows 7, people will continue to choose it over the alternative.
What, then, is the best option for your PC? Following XP’s demise, the upgrade candidates were Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, and I have broken down the key features to help you decide which is the better choice.

 

1. Boot time

Windows 8 machines only take 10-15 seconds to boot up, with some switching on even faster depending on the SSD. Gone are the days when you have to distract yourself by going to make a cup of tea while your system wakes up.

But how have we gotten to this point? Microsoft engineers combined the hibernation and shutdown modes into one for Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 uses a hybrid boot mode that allows the PC to start up much more quickly. The kernel lets it hibernate instead of shutting down completely, and the use of cores makes it possible to start-up in seconds.
Winner: Windows 8 – The faster the machine boots up, the more time you are able to spend on doing more productive things. By the end of the multiple year lifespan of your PC, this can add up to hours of reclaimed time.

 

2. Enterprise features

Windows 8.1 has more enterprise features than Windows 7, with Windows to Go featured on the Enterprise edition allowing users to start a personalised version of Windows from a USB or any other machine running Windows 7 or 8. It also means that the Windows Store is enabled by default, allowing users to access apps across multiple machines.
IT admins can virtually run Windows without any third-party software. Adding in the optional Hyper-V support for your copy of 8.1 allows you to connect to a server.

Windows 8.1 also has better support for managing mobile devices, with tap-to-print support via NFC and enhanced biometrics, malware resistance and encryption also included.
But IT departments around the world have given Windows 8.1 the cold shoulder in favour of its older siblings. In fact, HP told IT Pro that Windows 7 is the most popular choice for companies upgrading from XP.
“Business are ignoring Windows 8,” said HP project manager Jeff Wood.
What enterprise customers prize over everything is stability, and Windows 7 has time, familiarity, extensive testing and total peripheral compatibility on its side.
Those upgrading from Windows 8 to 8.1 have also run into problems, with users complaining the update broke simple things such as the ability to print.
Winner: Draw – Although Windows 8 has more enterprise features as a default, Windows 7 has the benefit of being tried and tested. Then again, further updates for 8.1 have fixed many of the biggest problems inherent to previous iterations of the OS.

 

3. Performance

Microsoft used Windows 8 as a guise under which to revamp the engine, and the results is a much faster system that consumes fewer resources than before. This makes it a better choice than Windows 7 for low-end PCs.
The redesign opts for simple colours and fewer visual effects, also contributing to the increased speed due to resources saved compared to the Aero Glass effect of Windows 7.
Overall, Windows 8.1 is better for everyday use and benchmarks than Windows 7, and extensive testing has revealed improvements such as PCMark Vantage and Sunspider. The difference, however, are minimal.
Winner: Windows 8 – It’s faster and less resource intensive.

 

4. Interface

The front-facing user interface that characterises Windows 8 has been a huge talking point since it was revealed, and there are several reasons for that. For some, the radical redesign has always felt more like two operating systems meshed together, and it has become the most discussed element of Windows’ latest operating system.
When switching on the computer, users are greeted with the now-familiar Start screen – a page of apps and live tiles. This Metro interface includes everything in the form of apps, including the classic desktop mode that has proven to be the preferred view for so many. In addition, apps like IE 11 are great for touch screen web browsing, but not much else.
But even the desktop looks a little different on Windows 8, despite the fact that Windows 8.1 did feature the long-awaited return of the start button. This doesn’t, however, come with the return of the Start menu (thankfully confirmed for Windows 9 in 2015), instead simply switching users between screens.

To say the revised interface has had a polarising effect is an understatement, and there is no shortage of people who have complained about Metro since it was released. Among their arguments – an interface designed for touch doesn’t make sense on a desktop computer.
Windows 8.1 has gone some way towards fixing the problem, however, as users can now choose to avoid Metro entirely and boot directly to desktop. Spend a little time setting up the OS, and you can get a comparable, if not slightly better, experience.
There are real UI improvements with 8.1. You can add Start bars to dual monitors with separate wallpapers on each. There’s also a fast universal search tight there on the Start screen, which you can access by hitting the Windows key and typing to search local files, OneDrive files, apps, settings and the internet. You can even browse OneDrive files through File Explorer (aka Windows Explorer).
Winner: Windows 7 – The classic, familiar desktop remains popular for a reason, and thus wins the day. Windows 8 simply tries to do too much too quickly and, even though the 8.1 update allows users the option of booting straight to desktop, Metro still has a nasty habit of popping up when it’s not welcome.

 

5. Security

Security is a massive issue for both individual users and businesses and, as the most popular desktop operating system, Windows is sadly the primary target for malware and viruses.
Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 share many security features, both of them using BitLocker Drive encryption, but 8.1 goes one step further by enabling them by default. You can always download Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows 7, and it’s free, but its younger brother has it already built into the system.
Secure booting on UEFI systems is also included with 8.1, making it much harder for rogue malware to infect the bootloader. PCs running Windows 8.1 can also automatically connect to VPNs.
Winner: Windows 8 – The latest version of Windows smartly has more security features set as default.

6. Task Manager

The Task Manager for Windows 8 displays more information in a visual form, with coloured charts for heat, CPU, memory, disk, Ethernet and wireless consumption. There’s even a breakdown of how each program effects boot time.

Winner: Windows 8 – Who doesn’t want more informative graphs and charts?

 

7. USB 3.0 support

Windows 8.1 sports OS-level support for USB 3 devices. Instead of relying on manufacturers or updates to add support for devices, any Windows 8-enabled device can now enjoy faster speeds of up to 5 Gbit/s.

Winner: Windows 8 – Getting faster transfer speeds is always a positive thing.

 

8. Data transfers done right

Copying and moving data on Windows 7 was handled in the wrong way. When encountering a name collision between two files, for example, the transfer was interrupted with a prompt asking how to proceed, stacking individual windows for each transfer.

This has thankfully been cleaned up with Windows 8, putting all transfers into one window and pushing name collision dialogues to the end of the process. Windows even tried to make the time estimations on transfer more accurate.
Winner: Windows 8 – Not only does it transfer data faster, but Windows 8 ensures less interruptions and more accurate time estimations.

 

9. Daemon Tools is obsolete

Windows 8 finally added support for native mounting of ISO, IMG and VHD disk images. We can now access the content of virtual disk files and write them to physical CDs without any third-party programs like the now-obsolete Daemon Tools.
Winner: Windows 8 - Finally helps to put the nail in the coffin of physical media.

 

10. 3D printing support

Microsoft added native support for 3D printing in Windows 8.1, allowing you send files to a MakerBot Printer straight from the Charms bar.

Winner: Windows 8 - It’s not a necessity yet but, in the future, the ability to print 3D prototypes could be invaluable to businesses.

Verdict - Which version of Windows is right for you?

Windows 8 has received a lot of flack for the Metro interface, but this shouldn’t overshadow the number of improvements Microsoft has made to the OS since.
In this way, think of Windows 8.1 as just Windows 7 with four additional years of development. The downside is that updates can break the system simple because it isn’t as tried and tested as its predecessor, but this changes with time.
The latest OS has a faster boot time and better performance along with a superior task manager and security features. It also has native support for USB 3, 3D, ISO, IMG and VHD.
However, Windows 7 did manage to win in the interface category, also salvaging a draw when it came to judging enterprise features.
If you’re buying a Windows machine for personal use, then, it seems that Windows 8.1 is the way to go – as long as you ignore Metro for productivity and use it only for web browsing.
Businesses looking to deploy machines will most likely want the familiarity and stability of Windows 7, however, and this is something OEMs such as Dell and HP have recognised – now selling Windows 8 machines to enterprises with the option to downgrade to Windows 7 if they desire.

*Special note- Inspiration behind this post is a young lady reader and my best buddy Miss Natalia.

features that make android lollipop worth the upgrade

The latest version of Android is a big upgrade. Android 5.0 Lollipop is here and beginning to make its way to more and more devices as manufacturers and carriers slowly send out updates.
I have dig a little deeper into a handful of the most compelling new features and upgrades that make the fifth major revision of Android the sweetest yet.

 

ART makes everything better

That's not Warhol, that's Android RunTime (ART), which is the new run-time environment that completely replaces the old Dalvik VM in Lollipop. Google claims that ART "improves app performance and responsiveness" and is 64-bit compatible.
ART seems to deliver the goods. Even with Lollipop's focus on animations all the time in Material design, apps run smoothly and with almost no lag, even when moving quickly among multiple running apps in the new overview screen (formerly recent apps, overview is Lollipop's new multitasking center).
There is a minor downside to this official switch to ART though, which is that compatible apps are typically going to take up more storage space.

 

Pinning is power for parents

I find that the ability to "pin" a single screen or app – essentially locking a user out of all the phone's other functions temporarily – is the real star in a suite of new security and sharing features.
To pin a screen, you'll first have to turn the feature on in your security settings. Then open the app or screen you want to pin and hit the overview button (better known as "recent apps" in previous Android versions). Drag the app, document or tab (on certain devices, Lollipop will allow you to access individual documents or Chrome tabs from overview) to the middle of the screen and a pin icon will appear in the lower right.

Tap that pin and you'll be asked to confirm that you want to pin it. Once it's pinned, you can hand your phone to your child, frenemy or whoever without having to worry that they'll go rooting around your personal data, access something inappropriate or mess with your settings. You'll want to be sure to set up a pin or other password to get the most out of pinning, as that's the security layer that actually prevents users from "unpinning" whatever screen they're on.
Beyond acting as a parental control, pinning is also useful for setting up a Nexus 9 or other device as a display or demonstration model, say at a conference or trade show of some sort.

 

The right to remove bloatware

Lollipop comes with a bit of good news on the down low for those of you who could easily do without NFL Mobile and the many other examples of carrier bloatware that find their way onto Android phones.
If you have a phone that is locked to Verizon's network in the United States, you have probably noticed NFL Mobile: it comes installed on all Verizon phones and there is no easy way to uninstall it. While I personally depend on this app, I understand that many of you could care less about how the Denver Broncos did this week, no matter how blasphemous that may seem to me.

Of course, this is just one example of irritating bloatware that sits unused, taking up valuable storage space on many devices. Carriers have a tendency to include their own messaging, navigation and other apps in the system partition of devices, making them much more difficult to uninstall.
Lollipop attempts to quietly address this by being setup to automatically download carrier software from the Google Play Store whenever it detects that SIM card has been inserted. While this seems like Google doing a favor to carriers, which is surely how it was explained to them, it also means that carrier software should be just as easy to uninstall as any other app downloaded from the Play store.

 

Better battery use

Back at Google I/O in June, Google introduced something called Project Volta, which is basically a collection of tweaks and best practices for developers designed to make Android and apps run more efficiently, draining less juice out of a device's battery along the way.
Evidence of this effort is visualized for Lollipop users in the form of a new, detailed power usage chart and a battery saver mode that Google says will squeeze an extra ninety minutes or so out of each charge, but there's more going on in the back end with Project Volta, too.

Changes in how a device's various pieces of hardware and software work together reportedly gives Lollipop as much as a 36 percent boost in battery life on last generation devices compared to KitKat.

 

Apps get full SD card access

You might have noticed starting with Android KitKat that there were some changes to how apps could access different areas of a device's storage, particularly an inserted microSD card. Developers complained about these restrictions, and Google responded in Lollipop by more or less completely opening access to inserted memory cards. This makes it much easier for media-heavy apps to seamlessly store and access photos, video or audio files on a memory card with less hassle.
But perhaps most notably, the change also makes it possible for apps to install themselves entirely on the SD card, which should be a nice way of offsetting the fact that ART-friendly apps now take up more space.

*Just upgrade your phone to android lollipop and enjoy the latest release.

signed in as temporary profile problem in windows 8 and windows 8.1

When Windows Operating System doesn’t read particular user profile settings and files properly during the booting process, it will load with temporary new user profile. That will look like a brand new user profile and have the default desktop and icons. You can’t find your customized desktop with icons, files and program shortcuts, that could shocking for you. Do not worry, your files and folders are safe in your computer. This guide talks about temporary profile in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 and how to fix it.

Realistically Windows 8/8.1 handles temporary user profile issue better than Windows 7. You will not face this issue most of the time if you have a freshly installed Windows 8 or 8.1 computer. But you may face this sometimes if you have a Windows 8 which was upgraded from Windows 7.

This problem usually occurs when user profile settings got corrupted by some software or virus or unexpected shutdown of computer and even by delay in reading settings files while booting.

In order to prevent Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 from loading using a temporary file, step-by-step instructions given below must be followed:

1. Restart the Windows 8 computer.
   
   
2. Enter into the BIOS setup and configure the system to boot from CD/DVD Drive.
   
   
3. Save the modified settings in BIOS and reboot the computer.
   
   
4. Insert Microsoft Windows 8 bootable installation DVD into the optical media drive (CD/DVD Drive).
   
   
5. When prompted to Press any key to boot from CD or DVD, press any key to boot the computer from DVD support.
   
   
6. On the displayed Windows Setup box, click Next.
   
   
7. On the next page, click Repair your computer.
   
   
8. On Choose an option screen, click Troubleshoot.
   
   
9. On Troubleshoot screen, click Advanced options.
   
   
10. On Advanced options screen, click Command Prompt.
    
    
11. On the opened command prompt window, type C: and press Enter.
    
    
12. On C: prompt, type NET USER ADMINISTRATOR /ACTIVE: YES command, and press Enter to enable the built-in administrator account.
    
    
    
    
13. Once the command executed successfully, type EXIT command to close the command prompt window.
    
    
14. Back on the Choose an option screen, click Continue to restart Windows 8 computer.
    
    
15. Eject Windows 8 installation DVD from the optical media drive when done.
    
    
16. Log on to Windows 8 computer with the administrator account.
    
    
17. Click Desktop tile from the Start screen to go to the desktop.
    
    
18. Once on the desktop screen, click File Explorer icon from the taskbar.
    
    
19. On the opened Libraries window, right click Computer from the left pane.
    
    
20. From displayed context menu, click Manage.
    
    
21. On the opened Computer Management snap-in, go to Local Users and Groups category and create a new user account.
    
    
22. Close Computer Management snap-in when done.
    
    
23. Logoff from the Window 8 computer.
    
    
24. Log on with the newly created user account to activate the user profile of the logged on user.
    
    
25. Logoff the current user account.
    
    
26. Again, log on with the administrator account.
    
    
27. Click Desktop tile from the Start screen.
    
    
28. On the desktop screen, click File Explorer icon from the taskbar.
    
    
29. On Libraries window, navigate to locate C:\Users\<Old_Username> folder.
    Where old username is the name of user profile from which files are to be copied.
    
    
30. Once located, go to View menu at the top right corner.
    
    
31. From displayed options in the ribbon, click Options.
    
    
32. On the opened Folder Options box, go to View tab.
    
    
33. On the selected tab, click to select Show hidden files, folders, and drives radio button to
    view hidden files and folders of user profile.
    
    
34. On the same tab, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) checkbox.
    
    
35. Click OK to save the changes.
    
    
36. Once done, copy all the contents of the folder except NTUSER.DAT, NTUSER.DAT.LOG, and NTUSER.INI files.
    
    
37. Once copied, paste the contents to C:\Users\<New_Username> folder. Where new username is the user account name that was created earlier.
    
    
38. Close all the opened windows when done.
    
    
39. Restart the computer and logon with the newly created user account.

* Also, you can try system restore or re-installation (repair) of whole Windows 8 / Windows 8.1 Operating System if above steps not work for you.
(System restore is always the best solution to such problems and every time it gives 100% success)