Posted on 03/24/2014 8:02:11 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Microsoft hopes to make it easier for Windows XP users to drop their old computers and upgrade to a newer Surface or PC by offering them $100 to do so.
The Redmond-based company announced earlier this month that support and security updates will no longer be available for its popular old operating system after April 8. That doesnt mean the computers will immediately become unusable, but they may be more vulnerable to hackers.
Windows XP users can get $100 off when they buy a Surface Pro 2 or select PCs for $599 and more. The cheapest is an Acer Aspire touchscreen laptop for $599, while the priciest is a Dell XPS touchscreen laptop that starts at $2,299. There are several laptops and all-in-one computers in between.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.sfgate.com ...
windows 8 sucks big time. Even trying to figure out how to play a dvd on the laptop with windows 8 takes time. What the hell were those people smoking when they designed windows 8. It’s a horrible, horrible program. Not user friendly, not at all.
If you are one of many customers still on dial up internet service WINDERS 8 is a horror story. The program has to talk to everyone which drastically slows browsing even with the Metered Connections turned to the off position which is supposed to stop unnecessary OS use of your bandwidth. I got to use maybe 15 MB bandwidth in 24 hours time. WINDERS 8 used 100MB talking to all the corporate friends. Closing functions in Task Manager can not stop it nor can selective start up.
ALL SYSTEM SETTINGS should be found in the Control Panel. Nope on W-8 half of them require going to the bottom right corner of the screen where suddenly another group of options pop up.
It is not fun or exciting to get a new machine and have to spend days configuring it or rather wading through the childish idiotic layout the so called great minds at Microsoft put on a desktop for reasons that defy any common sense whatsoever.
WINDOWS 8 Stinks. No amount of updates can fix it and the patches and updates already twice exceed the total MB's of XP patches and SP upgrades in it's lifetime.
WARNING TO ALL. Be very careful customizing the Horrid METRO screen. One wrong click on the Metro screen and the program is gone as in deleted. I would say something positive about WINDERS 8 if I could even one thing about it that isn't a royal PITA.
Seriously I will not ever purchase another Microsoft OS if this is the best they can do. XP was great. W-7 was close enough to XP people could adapt. WINDERS 8 Looks like someone went out of their way to make a system so dysfunctional it would frustrate anyone over 16 years old. Classic Shell helps just a little but still it doesn't help find configuration settings. The Stupid Goobers at MS need to get a clue. Perhaps when people stop buying their poorly designed dysfunctional crap they might learn? Their next OS should be closer to a XP or traditional WINDOWS layout and called Windows Apology.
Some placesstill use dbase 2.
Out of my cold damp hands maybe ...
Considering the sophistication of hackers,I would say that anyone using an unsupported OS is like a schoolgirl skipping through a prison yard.
I7’s have more cores. That’s where you get the advantage.
Windows 8.1 is for people with touchscreens and people who do IT for a living...like me. Win8.1 is like a bank vault of security.
Where were they when we really needed them? We recently dumped our old computers for the new Win 7 version and would GLADLY go back to XP (with a few fixes needed). Too may changes to the new systems (Win 7, Win 8 and so on) without being fully tested and debugged. If Microsoft would worry more about “quality” than getting a new system released every month or so, things might settle down a bit in the PC world. Reminds me more of the cell phone world of change.....Who the hell can keep up with that?
I haven’t encountered any bugs in Windows 8.1. There is a lot I don’t know about it but it is rock solid so far.
well that may be, but making software people hate is just stupidity
lol....smart sneaky move by MS. Many of those old machines that run XP will likely crash due to hardware resource issues. They will make their $100 up and then some, with upgrades and new PC’s.
My new machine is offering an upgrade to WIN 8.1 on updates. The thing is , my trust level of MS is about a mm long.
I bought a nice Dell Quad Core Refurb last month for $240. It had a date of original manufacture of Nov 2011. It came with Windows 7 Pro and I’m very satisfied with it.
I bought my first 3.1 computer in 1993. I opted for the more expensive 4megs of RAM instead of the standard 2. I’ve been buying Windows devices every other year since.
8 is unusable. I quickly bought another computing device just to have something useable: an IPad, my very first Apple product. My next computer will be a MAC.
I’m not some Apple shill. I’ve been a loyal Windows customer.
8 is a deal breaker. Windows burned a long time customer. I know they don’t give a damn about individual users and so they just don’t care that they put out an unusable product. I’m sure 9 will fix a good chunk of the problems since every other OS from MS seems go work fine.
Still. Until and unless MS makes it right that I spent hundreds of dollars on a useless machine, they will stay on my list that includes companies like govt motors.
I’m gonna put cva66snipe in the ‘NO’ column for a Winders 8 upgrade - LOL!
OH WOW!!! i learned Dbase III over 20 yrs ago
Shameless Linux bump! I dumped Microsnot when Vista came out.
I have an old XP desktop that I might turn into a Linux box. What flavor do you recommend? I think I’m gonna keep my XP laptop till it dies though, since I already have a Win7 laptop.
I'm at two weeks now still trying to navigate through WINDERS 8. XP only took me about a night to do most configuring. WINDERS 8 OTOH has been a total nightmare with no rhyme or reason as to layout or settings locations. So far most functions require several more steps to complete. The Font on most of the boxes like File Explorer {what Idiot thought that mess up I'll never know} is hard to see and navigate as well.
I'm a typical user with no advanced tech knowledge, no computer courses, etc. That said I have always been able to straighten out my own programing, files, setting issues, or hardware issues by myself. For all the frustration I could have put a Penguin in one of my older boxes and saved the price of a new one. The main problem with MS is they need an affordable competitor to keep them in line and stop their where else can you go arrogance.
Windows 8.1 works fine on a non touchscreen laptop.
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