So Long Windows 8.1 - An End of Support Retrospective 

Same here. But I actually upgraded to Windows 10, only to realise it had a lot of issues, so I went back to 7. I eventually went back to Windows 10 after a year of EOL for 7. Fortanitly, it is a lot better now.

@@halo64654 So both of you liked it but not enough to not go back to Windows 7 - which is ultimately what I did but I never liked Windows 8. To be fair, I "endured" Windows 7 too given that XP was the best OS that Microsoft ever made - even as a now full-time Linux person, the "Windows Classic" interface is XP was one of the best and simplest GUIs ever made ("Give me access to my applications and then stay out of the way") and they ruined that with the ugly Aero interface in Windows 7.

Windows 8.1 was the last actually good OS by Microsoft

I stayed until EOL on Windows 7 too

Windows 8.1 is also faster than Windows 10

You can since 2017 trick Windows 10 to delay updates via registry

I particulary use the LTSC version that only gives security and fixing updates once a month. Of course it's not a legal copy.

If you want to suspend updates indefinitely for free on any edition you can do this: Open services. Look for windows update and double click it. On the 2nd tab untick the “run with highest privilege checkbox” and select your own user BUT enter an invalid password (twice). Apply the changes and then restart the service. It will fail to start. Now your pc cant update no matter what. One side effect is that the Microsoft Store can install apps anymore but if you really use the store just tick the checkbox again and it instantly fixes itself. You can do this as many times as you want.

Thanks guys for all your feedback regarding disabling Windows updates. I am familiar with all kind of tweaks to disable updates and how that affects the Store as well, but what I meant is the ability to check individual updates and choose whether to download or install them separately. Anyhow, I have learned to live with this now.

@@_S.H_ Wsus does that I think

bro read my mind

8.1 was great... as long as you installed the classic start menu lol. But yea it was fast and reliable, overall pretty dang good. I preferred it over 10 for quite awhile... now I am on 11 and miss the old days when things actually just worked.

Windows XP,Windows 7 and Windows 10 have always been my best operating systems,Rest not been to good for me,Worse thing in Windows 8.1 is the Start menu goes in to another screen,I find very annoying grrrrrrr Glad Microsoft changed that in Windows 10,Brought back to normal start menu

Worse Microsoft Operating system's Ive ever had was Window ME,That keep t on crashing all the time,Windows Vista run smooth,After a week later started crashing as well,They two where my worse ever operating systems

I agree. Very few bugs, crashes, blue screens and driver issues. It ran butter smooth on even mid-range hardware and it was quite secure. The user interface was the biggest let down but once you installed Classic Shell and configured it to boot into desktop mode it was honestly rock solid

God damn why I can't install Windows 8.1 on my laptop, the setup starts, but after that it gets stuck in a loop of BSOD's, so I can't get to OOBE

Same. Mine are quite fond. I held on to XP until like 2010 or so, then installed 7 which was a huge relief. I honestly can't remember why I upgraded from 7 to 8.1, but I do remember skipping 8 entirely because of the metro UI crap. At least 8.1 was advertised as a fix to that fiasco, and of course I had StartIsBack installed the whole time. I was just NOT having that whole tablet crap on my PC. I just got used to its quirks and had no problem using it. In fact I miss it and would still be using 8.1 if my modern hardware had drivers for it, despite the lack of support. Windows 10 is just a spit in the face to decades long Windows users. It's like it's built for dumb children. Can't even decide whether your machine should restart after an update or not without messing with group policies and getting lucky. I'd gladly deal with the occasional malware if at least I can trust my system to listen to me first and Microsoft second. Now those were the good ol' days. If anybody from Microsoft is reading this: I am literally ONE incompatible game away from completely switching to Linux and never looking back. Just saying, if you happen to care, which I doubt. The list of software keeping so many of us shackled to you is growing shorter and shorter every year. In the end nobody will love you, Microsoft. You accumulated many loyal followers in the 90's and 00's because you had a theme worth following. You promised us a bright future. What the hell do you think you're promising to those growing up with your contemporary products? Constriction, censorship, and manipulation, that's what. They'll leave you behind like you left us behind, and then you will turn to dust.

I have issues with a laptop after 10 years now on Windows 10 with the keyboard and touchpad drivers broken, thanks to the abomination of Windows 8. Every single laptop from 2012, 2013 came with Windows 8, my decade old laptop has a freaking i7-4700MQ (same perfomance as a desktop i7-3770). Windows 8 is a disgrace, for me it's almost as bad as ME, both worse than Vista.

Especially leaked development builds! They have so many UI elements that look just awful.

I used windows 8 until 2019 Never had a problem with it

Windows 8.1 pro - never a problem. All devices work fine on the first try. Windows 10 foced updates bsod crashed pc 4 times. W00ps. Windows 10 software uninstall also decided to uninstall the mouse (???) so that was fun putting the mouse back in, with keyboard shortcuts and no mouse. MS taking good things and making them worse . . .

it was more lightweight. Less spooky too. The last OS from Microsoft before all the hidden telemetry to watch your every move. I loved Windows 8.1. Still do.

it is much lighter than windows 7 actually.

Why it is nostalgic? İt looks fking new

@@skinnypotato4452 Because it was the only computer OS I used at home until I got my own laptop. I didn't have a phone or tablet at the time either, so this computer was where I did almost all of my school research and typed papers.

@@leothehuman_9476 can you provide source for that claim?

I absolutely agree

Agreed. The dilution of the animations in Windows 10 was one of my least favorites things about upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1.

Also way smooter than faded animation from windows 7. Or maybe windows Vista/7 really that bad in optimising animation?

Windows 8 really felt like those guys at microsoft were onto something

​@@FishNChips-kq3hkOnto something great, but then they messed up since Windows 10

Why did your dad never let you install it ? It was your pc isn’t it ?

@@sheppardpat47 my dad actually owned it at the time. I owned it when he stopped using it

This was exactly my experience. While me and my dad had our own laptops, technically he was still the owner of mine (I was maybe 10 at the time so quite reasonable). When that upgrade button showed up he said he didn’t trust the “free” update and figured it’d charge you at some point, but I begged him for months and once he let me upgrade from 8.1 I was so excited!

funny thing is, you can still get the free upgrade (even on a oem activated win 7)

@@Kurumisama and most machines you find will have a Home license on the BIOS, except machines you assembly yourself.

It was an abomination of an OS, i still have a high end laptop from that era with a 4th gen 4core/8 thread i7 and that doesn't matter if the UI is so bad. Now it has Windows 10 since a very long time.

@@saricubra2867 the UI was clearly designed only for touch screen users lol

i think the color customization isn't much more than cosmetic so besides it was apparently faster than windows 10

This is one area that most people overlook because they're too quick to judge the entire OS by the UI's shortcomings. If you ignore the Metro stuff, you're left with perhaps the best performing version of Windows Microsoft ever put out. As you said it's the last version to work properly on a hard drive, but there's also no bloatware, it's light as a feather, fast, and stable. The flat UI may be dull but it really enabled the system to fly on older hardware, without bogging down the graphics chip showing a bunch of fancy transparency effects. Function over form.

I used Win 8.1 on my Core2Duo laptops and it just flies even on hdd Sadly its end of support But i finally found worthy successor Its called Win 10 Enterprise 2016 It comes close to Win 8.1 in resource usage although slightly higher RAM usage and runs similar on hdd like Win 8.1 And supported till 2026 👌

10 on a HDD was fine for me.

@@godmagnus every laptop i used with Win 10 on hdd it was literally unresponsive for like 20 mins after boot so it was unusable Win 8.1 on same laptop and hdd ran blazing fast compared to Win 10

@@filipb.8698 I had to setup Windows 10 on some crappy celeron AIOs with HDDs and it was painful. Too bad I never thought of downgrading to 8.1 back then, ended up debloating 10 with Win10-Initial-Setup-Script to make them bearable.

Never faced a blue screen. It was the most stable windows after windows XP sp2 and windows 7. I face bsod or bootloop because of those f*king updates that microsoft is too lazy to check before making you install them forcibly

you mean POS?

Well said!

do you mean “get go” lol

@@qpol its just a phrase. get-go or gecko whatever.

​@@SomeUnremarkableGuyfrom the get go is a phrase. From the gecko is not 😂

The update 2 was it's final form, but only released for RT machines. It was like the first builds of Windows 10.

same bro, had it on this massive gateway.

same

8.1 was my second os I got on a tablet pc, my first was xp

Fucking hell I'm old. For me it was Windows 95 at the age of 6.

Same! I had it on my first laptop and I remember having a program named "Classic Shell" to have a Windows 7 style start menu.

For me it’s the visuals of 8 that look way better than 10, 8 to me feels like a modern version of 7 where as 10 looks uglier than 9x versions of windows with the program windows being completely white

I love how 7 got official support dropped first, but had DirectX support for longer than 8.1 did. That was why I had to go to 10, they just didn't show 8.1 any love.

Win10 is better than win8 in every way.

@@kokoamericano1233 LMAO, no , it's not. 10 is a bloated mess, spies on you, has terrible update problems, and has had more random, OS based issues that require entire re-installs than any other OS I've ever used.

@@sporemaster97 the UI sucks, windows 8.1 had vibrant colors that was fun and consistent. windows 10 is like a combination of a bunch of WordPress templates by a 5 year old

I never hated the start screen because of the smooth animations that were cool as hell and the constantly updating widgets/tiles. I tried using classic shell but uninstalled it next hour.

Winaero Tweaker lets you customize all your windows settings, disable updates, and take back control of your PC from microsofts random changes... The OLD Control Panel system display is still in Windows 10 /11 , just hidden. To see it make a shortcut to: C:\Windows\explorer.exe shell:::{BB06C0E4-D293-4f75-8A90-CB05B6477EEE}

same here, windows vista too

@@Apersonig Windows Vista is still my #1 favorite of all the Windows OS.

@@klwthe3rd same

I also love Windows Vista while everyone else hates it.

@@ranchocommodorereef You rock in my book sir! 📖

It was the last major Windows version that ran well on HDDs. I remember being pissed at how slow W10 was that I bought an SSD just for it.

@@SirFaceFone Not gonna lie, this is the reason why i refuse to upgrade to Windows 10 till 2021 before Windows 11 released to the Public in October 5. It is because Windows 8.1 ran pretty fine on SSD, unlike on Windows 10, it runs painfully slow on my Toshiba Laptop because of HDD and 4GB RAM Combined, Windows 11 is much worse, MS Word didn't respond very quick which urge me to bought an SSD from Lazada (SEA equivalent of Amazon).

@@SirFaceFone ?? My setup is 7 years old with a HDD and win 10 never gave me issues? Hell I'm still using the same old ass HDD and every boot up is less than 30 seconds.

@@lasarousi laptop hdd. Desktop hdd are fine.

ultra based windows 8.1 user

You are not alone, many Windows users hates Windows 8 because of the start menu and the impractical interface. One of the most annoying thing in Windows 8 is the system apps that placed outside the desktop (such as Maps, Microsoft Store, Media Player, and Photos app) and you need to use Windows + Tab button or go to start menu and click "desktop" just to go back to the desktop every single time after opening those apps

Windows 8.1 was DOA for many of us.

@@farsidesc4044 What?

That was my experience as well. I went from 7 to 10, but my parents struggled with Windows 8 and I struggled to help them.

My laptop had windows 8 and later updated to 8.1, but because stability issues we downgraded it to W7, it is still going strong today. Windows 10 is a very cool OS, and Windows 11 is just a bad joke

It's nice that it's still present in Windows 11 Nice one Microsoft

@Maru Angelo Maglalang Santos he did not say 8.1 was bad

Its still in live.. Only not for important things.

Use Open Shell and Aero Glass. You can install them both using the Windows 8 to 7 Restoration Pack.

It definitely doesn't have more software support than Windows 7 even now. Windows 7 even got (a limited form of) DirectX 12 support, whilst Windows 8.1 never did. Same goes for driver support. There are drivers for my RTX 3070 for Windows 7. I've played Cyberpunk 2077 on Windows 7 just for kicks. AMD dropped driver support for Windows 8.1 all the way back in 2017, with the RX 400 series being the last cards to work on it. Nvidia only dropped it in 2021, yet support was never provided for any RTX card, with the 10 series being the final cards to get an 8.1 driver. Frankly, I'd be fascinated to know what software you're using that kept Windows 8.1 support longer than Windows 7 support, bar programs designed specifically to fix how terrible 8.1 is out of the box.

@@CaptainKenway 8.1 has out-of-the-box support for some extra hardware like NVMe drives plus some internal improvements like the overhauled Task Manager. Plus, some minor bug fixes at least that Windows 7 never got. There's probably more I'm not thinking of, but 8.1 had a fair few things over 7.

@@CaptainKenway 12on7 worked on Windows 8.1 like it did on Windows 7, so Windows 8.1 had DirectX 12 support. And you can just install Windows 7 drivers on Windows 8.1, i kept doing that with my laptop.

@ThatYahoo LOL You wanna bet?

how do you activate it?

I'm still afraid to use Windows 11 so I continue to use my Win 10 desktop and do most things with my cellphone. Bought a Windows11 laptop for my sister and it came with Windows 11 S mode. I'm hoping it's not hard to turn off the S mode. Guess, I'll find out before long.

@@Eeveewashere it's very easy from the store with a login to a microsoft account. There are workarounds even for that though (loading the system registry hive in winPE and changing some value).

my games run so much better than on 10

Same

:(

It really did run so much better, and nobody seems to ever talk about it.

@@sporemaster97 yeah, people keeps focusing on trashing the start screen while ignoring the performance

Or you could make use of Open Shell.

@@TheExileFox I don't really use or mind w8's start menu, though. The only thing I really find annoying about it is the shutdown thing, but it's way simpler and easier to just use the Alt + F4 method that Open Shell would just be adding extra steps for me.

update your windows 8.1, they added that back. it won't update it to windows 10, but it will give you a shutdown button in the start *screen*

Honestly, never really hated it as a kid (we went from xp to 8)

I think windows 8 might be the most optimized version of windows, the only thing I liked in windows 8 more than windows 7 was the performance

Holy hell it's Madobe-san! Hello!

Honestly it was better than 10, 8.1 can be fixed with a single program, 10 and 11 simply can't be fixed

@@justwentfullchuu2 what the hell...

Wish it remained a standard, optional, thing.

because it was built for touchscreens which never caught on making things annoying to navigate

I liked the start screen even with a mouse and keyboard

@@scottishblacklab You could delete most of the metro apps yk and if you wanted regular windows programs instead of tiles, you could do that too

well theres the lack of drivers, im using a 2021 laptop and there are absolutely no drivers for windows 8.1 and below ive tried using windows 7, but with the default drivers its a much worse experience

Saaaamme

Saaaamme

make it 2.61% which includes me and another fellow commenter Cronuslite6358

Same!

Classic shell is amazing, its very good especially on windows 11 with the new crappy menu

he mencioned it twice, i think you didnt watch the full video.

13:01

i mean 10 1507 never removed it fully and if you patch a dll you can reenable the 8.1 start screen (not to be confused with the awful one provided by w10 in settings)

it's been so much more stable than the arcane mess that is win10. Only other problem is: Microsoft prematurely killing it instead of fixing 8.1 causing idiots at Dassalt to force me to be stuck with the 2018 version of Solidworks. I have some hardware that is incompatible with Windows 7 so downgrading was not an option. And other software I use does not and cannot run under the arcane mess that is Win10. Thanks Ms, i hate it.

Same