I didn't update my Win 8 to 8.1. Could you possibly downgrade or is that impossible? I read something about 8.1 having issues not too long back, and some general sentiment in some ways it was going backward in design concepts; the article seemed to be a warning about 8.1. Not sure it was a link you posted in another thread or something I found myself.

For the past decade I've generally had a philosophy wait & see, of reading user reviews before updating software. In that way finding out if the updates are true updates & bug free or not or whether it could render my use of such software difficult or impossible, wrecking work flows. I've sometimes made exceptions, and sometimes regretted it. Downgrading after such mistakes can be difficult & troublesome.

Yes I know the worded hype in updates suggests you should update for security or other reasons, when it's often just a marketing kind of wording. (Improvements, but we don't yet know how many dozens or hundreds of bugs might show up or whether the improvements might actually be detrimental to general use lol.)

Hi LOTR

Unfortunately, my son's laptop came with Win8.1 pre-installed, possibly on a hidden partition, and I just had to run the installation program so I guess downgrading to Win8.0 is not really practical.

MS has really made a "dog's breakfast" of Win8.0 and I guess it will stay that way until they disentangle (or unbolt) the Tablet O/S from the PC/Desktop O/S, simply because very few people want a two in one computer or a hybrid Tablet. Plus, as MS has shown with it's Surface Tablet, such a machine is prohibitively expensive.

Anyway, like you, I do not upgrade for the sake of upgrading I need a reason for such a task, usually beneficial or technical. That's why I'm still using WinXP Pro, I just don't see any real benefit in losing all my utilities, changing my hardware, and basically starting again for MS's new (and improved aka dog's breakfast of an) O/S.

Catch you later.


UK Bob