It’s just been a month since Windows 8 is released but there are already some
oddities, you don’t expect from Redmond. However it seems as if Microsoft
is following a weird trend as Apple has shown before. Now you may ask what
I am babbling about? Well, buy yourself a new notebook with Windows 8.

Nothing special, you might say now. But it’ll get weird should you decide to install Windows 7.

Now you would say: Hey, what’s the difficulty here? Simply pop in the Windows 7 disc and let’s go!

A good friend of mine, thought so, too. As simple as it sounds, as difficult it can get.

So what are we talking about exactly? Well. let’s say, you buy a brandnew notebook and it has two HDD inside. Now it’s obvious to make an SSD your OS disc and boot from it.

With today’s tools this should not be as difficult as copying a floppy disk in earlier times. So my friend here bought an SSD and used a cloning tool to duplicate the OS partition and the corresponding start partition onto the SSD. Waited several minutes and then the program told him, the cloning process was successful. So far, so good. But when he wanted the notebook to boot up from the freshly cloned SSD, the first disappointment did not let him wait long. The notebook simply told him that it doesn’t find a suitable boot partition. Somehow the notebook must have been confused with the duplicate bootloader (one on the mechanical HDD and the one cloned to the SSD).

Okay, so he dismounted the HDD and watched if the notebook would fire up from the SSD alone.

Surprisingly it did. But wait, what was that? The OS told him, it could not find a suitable profile and will restore the default profile. Withnthat, also the programs were all gone. The activation seems not to have been done also. Then no driver loaded, no hardware available. A stripped Windows 8 as it iwould have been rendered unusable and useless. Nothing left, even the Explorer refused to fire up… Game over!

Okay… next try… pop in the HDD and try to fire the notebook from it: All okay so far. Why does the bastard not boot up from the SSD then?!

Well… next step was to look for the solution to install Windows 7 from scratch onto the SSD. Worked fine, the OS has been set up. But after the completed setup and the reboot process, the notebook again fired up Windows 8.

Wait a minute!

Windows 8? We just installed Windows 7 onto the SSD. What the heck was going on?!

it seems as if the Windows 8 bootloader digs into the hardware so deep that Windows 7 can write a bootloader on another disc but the hardware prefers the Windows 8 session first.

So what to do? Popping out the HDD brought back the black screen. No bootup available… WHUT?

So the BIOS. Let’s have a deep look into it. Well in the boot manager of the BIOS there’s indeed an entry for the HDD and the bootloader that fires up the Windows 8 installation.

Good, then let’s change the order of booting and all should be well. But why give up 120GB of partition space on the HDD where we have an OS we would not need anyways?
So the order was changed, and surprise, the notebook again booted into Windows 8. Really annoying! So the last thing to do: Drop the complete entry from the boot sequence order (which is offered from the BIOS by the way).

But now: GAME OVER! Really! Nothing worked anymore. The notebook launched up, the system seemed to work but then all lights go off, the fans stand still, just the HDD is spinning. What the heck is going on? Why isn’t even the bios showing up anymore?

We don’t know for sure but maybe part of the new BIOS is really transferred to the HDD. So removing the HDD would lead into immediate system defectivity. NOT good anyways as HDD may often tend to fail quickly. And what’s with the point to set the boot loader so aggressie that you can’t even install a Windows 7 without any hassle? What’s the point, Microsoft?

Things like these are usually known from Apple where you can’t simply install a Windows 7 onto the hardware as native OS (as the Apple UEFI loader prevents you to do so.). Finding out that this might bring you into trouble lets me think that Windows 8 will not be an option for me as I want to decide, which OS runs on my bought hardware and not what OS manufacturers think, is best for me. Windows 7 is rocksolid and works like a charm. It’s the modern XP which durated 10 years without any problems and still works. You can’t bring down a clean XP installation with a good virus scanner and some protective rules. I run an installation that is now 8 years old and it still works well. Power on, boot up and there we go.

Windows 7 is also very solid and well-organized. I love the Aero surface, I love the usability of Windows 7 in general as it gives you some handy tools right out of the box. Windows 7 is now 3 years old but still loks fresh and modern. It does all the things one yould need today. It offers a desktop that lets you arrange your icons/programs/documents, a “classic” start menu that works like a charm and a performant back-end system. all, even nowadays-PCs would need.

Windows 8 for it’s times might be useful for touchscreens and tablets but for heaven’s sakes NOT on a classic desktop system with a keyboard and mouse attached!

The hardware for Windows 8 still is in it’s initial states. Good so far but there are hundreds of millions of devices that are like the classic computer as we know it and as it works just fine!

So Microsoft: Why take out features from a previously good OS and strip it down back to the basics. Okay, there are people who welcome the reduced hardware requirements, yes, okay, but the design of all the UI reminds me of Windows XP basic theme… plain, ugly… not nice to look at. And this in times where even the weaker GPUs may render Aero just fine. Why isn’t there even an option for early-adopters to switch between the new tile surface and a classic desktop WITH a start menu and WITH aero?

And why releasing IE10 only for Windows 8. For heaven’s sakes. Microsoft tries to fail EVERYWHERE. IE10 could be good browser as it finally understands well with newer technology. But no, Microsoft is still planning to release IE10 for Windows 8 only. Okay then still neglect 80% of all PC users who run Windows 7 or lower. Most of them are NOT willing to buy new hardware and a new OS just to profit from some minor updates. Sorry to be THAT harsh but Windws 8 seems to me juast as a bigger update that should have been a big OS. It has good ideas, yes, it’s lightning-fast, yes, but it does miss essential parts that have been set place in the IT for decades now. and breaking the people’s necks by introducing a new technology without the possibility to switch between both worlds or at least give the opportunity to fit the UI to one’s personal needs is just a big step into Nirvana.

Although, Windows 8 seems to be a success according to Microsoft’s current press announces.

Well, I guess, only the low price of 99USD for a system builder version of Windows 8 Professional is finally offering a sweetie as earlier when Windows 7 was released, Windows Ultimate had a price tag of nearly 300USD. So no surprise here anyways. is Microsoft trying to imitate Apple who releases their OS for a mere 30USD? I guess so…

So what do you think of Windows 8?