8 responses to “Forget Windows 8: Give us Windows 7.8”

1. 

   Gregory Forster October 26th, 2012 at 01:12

   I have Windows 7 Professional on my desktop and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 on my laptop. I use both for business. Programs I use regularly are:
   Firefox, Thunderbird, GNUcash, LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice, GIMP, Truecrypt,Keepass, E-Sword, VSee, Skype, Audacity, VLC, CCleaner, AVG 2013, Malwarebytes antimalware, Spybot S&D, Power BibleCD, Adobe reader, Sumatra PDF. How do I know what programs will work with Windows 8?

2. 

   herb rubin October 26th, 2012 at 21:56

   Woody,
   Wonderful thoughts but probably a fantasy.

   What do we do when we need new computers (soon) and have work vital software that requires windows to run.

   Is there any alternative other than to grin and bear it, get around the tiles and use the mouse version?

3. 

   woody October 26th, 2012 at 22:19

   @Gregory -

   With a few rare exceptions, any program that works in Windows 7 should work in Windows 8. I don’t know if CCleaner will work with Win8, but it probably will.

   Any program that works in Windows 7 will NOT work in Windows RT.

   - Woody

4. 

   rc primak October 27th, 2012 at 03:39

   I am using CCleaner successfully in Windows 8 RP. It does flag one Active-X Registry Entry which turns out to have a vital function in Metro, but no harm is done by removing that and letting it recreate itself, AFAIK.

   With the exception of certain Windows 7 programs which contain drivers or use special functional libraries not present in Windows 8 (and these are rare exceptions), IF you stick with Win 8 Pro on capable hardware, even older drivers and programs which require Compatibility Mode have been working for me. And also most early testers in the Windows Secrets Lounge.

   Microsoft maintains a partial listing of compatible and incompatible software at:

   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/win8/CompatCenter/Home?Language=en-US#

   There are tabs and drop-downs for more specific category searching. Good resource, but not comprehensive.

5. 

   rc primak October 27th, 2012 at 03:42

   However, security programs are a different matter. Stick closely with Microsoft’s recommendations from their Compatibility Center listing. It’s under the Apps Tab, sub-category Security. For one, Avast does NOT work yet.

6. 

   EP November 4th, 2012 at 19:33

   @rc primak: Avast is not yet fully compatible with Windows 8 as it causes some BSODs under there as I’ve read on the Avast support forums web site. An upcoming 2013 release of Avast will probably “work” on Win8.

   Same thing with the current versions of the Lavasoft Ad-aware security software – not yet Win8 compatible but the upcoming 10.4 and 11 versions of Ad-aware will be compatible.

7. 

   EP November 6th, 2012 at 07:37

   I almost forgot, Avira also has security software that is currently NOT Windows 8 compatible but will release compatible versions sometime in early 2013 as noted here.

8. 

   rc primak November 10th, 2012 at 04:06

   @EP — That stuff is all on the MS List at my link.