Windows 8 VS Windows 7: Who is the Winner?

As Microsoft is still struggling to make the same profits as Apple does, the company of Redmond has released this year Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. In the spring, there were a lot of expectations around the new release of Windows 8 and its new interface seemed to have put Microsoft on the way of owning its own apps and its app store as well. However, things did not go so smoothly for Windows 8: users have begun complaining about its clunky interface and the Metro tiles that created a useless buffer between the traditional windows desktop and its users. Too many clicks away from the desktop and the lack of the start/shutdown menu at the bottom left hand side have irritated users and forced Microsoft to make further improvements with the release of Windows 8.1 last week.

The question is: is still worth upgrading to Windows 8 or it is better to stay with Windows 7? Windows 8 boots much faster than Windows 7. If a Windows 7 user wants to reach the booting speed of Windows 8 he/she needs to swap the traditional hard drive with a solid state drive. Windows 7 is also more memory RAM dependent than Windows 8, which means more money to spend to make a Windows 7 computer run faster. In addition, skydrive cloud service comes already installed in the system, making easier to run backups and files sync, whereas Windows 7 is not equipped at all with cloud services and allows only to run backups from the pc to an external hard drive. The last major difference between the two operating systems is in the antivirus protection: Windows 8 comes already with a built-in antivirus, but Windows 7 let the users choose for their preferred protection.

Task manager in Windows 8 is a powerful feature. It has a vastly improved performance monitoring tab and a new tool for managing startup programs; among these the process explorer has been redesigned with a new tree view which allows to see interrelationships of the pc’s various processes.

All in all, Windows 7 will be still loved and used by many users for several years to come, but if speed and productivity are more important than other tasks, Windows 8.1 should be the next operating system to purchase.

Stefano Sandano is the owner of the Bronxville computer company Pc Doctor New York that provides support and advice to individuals and small businesses dealing with computers and networks.