Windows 8 My revised and updated thoughts about Windows 8.

[zmechys]

A few days ago, I started a new thread about Windows 8 OS called,
“After two weeks with Windows 8, I find it the least stable OS”.
http://windows8forums.com/windows-8...indows-8-i-find-least-stable-os-new-post.html

My opinion was based on my personal experience using Windows 8 during a two-week period.
During that time, I have had five “Refresh your PC”, one reset, and two “clean installations” of Windows 8 on two of my computers. I was very upset about the hours wasted/lost in order to refresh, reset, “clean install”, update, re-install other programs, etc…
Of course, I blamed Windows 8 and Microsoft for my debacle.

Right now, after receiving numerous replies and doing a lot of reading on Windows 8, I would like to rectify my opinion.

I’ve been using Avira as my choice of Antivirus for many years and on many computers with different Windows operating systems; therefore, I knew what do first, upon purchasing a Windows 8 computer – install AVIRA 2013 Antivirus. Within very few days, I had several crashes of Windows 8.
First time, I did not pay too much attention to the notes on the Blue screen, but after several crashes I decided to follow Microsoft’s recommendation and searched on-line for “"Bad_Pool_Header".
The Internet told me that the culprit was Avira AV.
“Currently, the Avira products are not ready for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 (Built on Windows 8).”
Link Removed
Next step for me was very simple, if AVIRA could not join the “march of technological progress”, it must go.
(Just in case, I was able to uninstall Avira only in Safe Mode. Please be advised.)
I’ve been a “secret” fan of BitDefender for a long time and for that reason, I knew my next choice of AV was BitDefender. In order to avoid ANY COMPATIBILITY issues with Win 8, I’ve selected BitDefender Windows 8 Security Antivirus.

“Windows 8 Certified Bitdefender 2013 Launches #1 Proven Security Products on Windows Store. Bitdefender 2013, the world’s top-ranked antivirus,is now available through the Windows Store, enhancing Windows security with innovative features such as Bitdefender Safepay™ to protect online shopping and Autopilot to run your security for Windows 8 at maximum effectiveness.”
Windows 8 Certified Bitdefender 2013 Launches #1 Proven Security Products on Windows Store
Now, I truly believe that the cause of all my Windows 8 problems was/is BitDefender Windows 8 Security Antivirus not Windows 8 OS.
(But Windows 8 CERTIFIED BITDEFENDER 2013!)
Should I blame (1) Bitdefender for getting Windows 8 certification from Microsoft or
(2) Microsoft for giving that certification to BitDefender?
One more thing.
My problems were initiated by BitDefender AV but exacerbated by Windows 8 default settings –
“Turn on Fast Startup (Recommended).
“Fast Startup (aka: hybrid boot or hybrid Shutdown) is a new feature in Windows 8 to help your PC start up faster after shutting down. When turned on, Windows 8 does this by using a hybrid shutdown (a partial hibernate) method that saves only the kernal session and device drivers (system information) to the hibernate (hiberfil.sys) file on disk instead of closing it when you shut down your PC. This also makes the hiberfil.sys file to be much smaller than what hibernate would use (often 4GB or more). When you start your PC again, Windows 8 uses that saved system information to resume your system instead of having to do a cold boot to fully restart it. Using this technique with boot gives a significant advantage for boot times, since reading the hiberfile in and reinitializing drivers is much faster on most systems (30-70% faster on most systems tested). If you have a motherboard with UEFI, then fast startup will be even faster.”
Because of that feature, anytime I manually used to shut my computer down, Windows 8 was trying to load the “frozen” corrupt system information instead of going the long way and completing its normal full startup sequence.

I've immediately turned Fast Startup off and changed my mind about Windows 8 to positive.

I did not want to be uncouth and unfair to Microsoft after posting a lot of negative comments about Windows 8; therefore, I decided to publicly express my “updated” opinion about Windows 8.

 

[kemical]

Glad to hear your issue has been sorted.

 

[davehc]

A breath of fresh air. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[zmechys]

Glad to hear your issue has been sorted.

I am still using BitDefender Windows 8 Security AV; therefore, the issue is still there. Every other day, my Bitdefeder switches from Autopilot to User mode without my say. Minimum three times a week, Windows 8 Security Center does not recognize BitDefender and informs me that “my computer is not protected.” I can name a lot of small BD glitches, but…
Let's hope, BitDefender slowly but steadily will resolve those compatibility "hiccups" with Windows 8.
In my opinion, Bitdefender , as probably the best antivirus program available right now, expanded too much and too fast by adding a "quiet firewall", Safepay, Sandbox, "accurate anti-spam", online backup, PC tuneup, encryption, anti-theft, etc..
For the time being, my best solution to that problem is
TURN YOUR FAST STARTUP OFF.
It is my Number One recommendation for Windows 8 users.

P.S. Microsoft should have two versions of Windows 8.
One - for touch screen/phone users, one - for “hard-working” desktop people, but
I’ve learned how to use “Windows + X”, and “Alt+F4”; therefore, I am happy with Windows 8.

 

[Medico]

Two points:

1) I have AVG AV 2013 installed. Both the free, and the paid version (I found a 3 license edition on Newegg. With a mail in rebate it was free. I do not think this exact edition is available now) work very well with all my installed Win 8 PCs.

2) Fast Start up is working fine for me. I like the fact that 15 seconds after I turn on my PC, I can enter my Picture Password and then go out to get my morning coffee while I wait for the boot to finish. (I also run a cleanup batch file at each boot which takes almost 1 minute to complete)

I guess this just proves that each setup is a little different, and what works for one may not work for another.

I'm glad you have found your problem and resolved it, thus changing your opinion of this fine OS.

 

[zmechys]

Two points:

1) I have AVG AV 2013 installed. Both the free, and the paid version (I found a 3 license edition on Newegg. With a mail in rebate it was free. I do not think this exact edition is available now) work very well with all my installed Win 8 PCs.
OS.

Sorry, I've never liked AVG. Avira or BitDefender.

2) Fast Start up is working fine for me. I like the fact that 15 seconds after I turn on my PC, I can enter my Picture Password and then go out to get my morning coffee while I wait for the boot to finish. (I also run a cleanup batch file at each boot which takes almost 1 minute to complete)

After numerous issues with my computers, I’d better be safe (slow) than sorry. On my computers Fast Startup is off.
In case of my morning coffee, I'd rather grind coffee beans and get my coffee maker ready in the evening than grind beans in the morning in order to get that freshly ground coffee aroma.

 

[kemical]

I am still using BitDefender Windows 8 Security AV; therefore, the issue is still there. Every other day, my Bitdefeder switches from Autopilot to User mode without my say. Minimum three times a week, Windows 8 Security Center does not recognize BitDefender and informs me that “my computer is not protected.” I can name a lot of small BD glitches, but…
Let's hope, BitDefender slowly but steadily will resolve those compatibility "hiccups" with Windows 8.
In my opinion, Bitdefender , as probably the best antivirus program available right now, expanded too much and too fast by adding a "quiet firewall", Safepay, Sandbox, "accurate anti-spam", online backup, PC tuneup, encryption, anti-theft, etc..
For the time being, my best solution to that problem is
TURN YOUR FAST STARTUP OFF.
It is my Number One recommendation for Windows 8 users.

P.S. Microsoft should have two versions of Windows 8.
One - for touch screen/phone users, one - for “hard-working” desktop people, but
I’ve learned how to use “Windows + X”, and “Alt+F4”; therefore, I am happy with Windows 8.

But still you found a solution, of sorts, which works for you. It's the price we pay for using the latest and dare I say greatest. The same could said about hardware and games. If you purchase straight out of the running blocks then some bugs may still need to be ironed out. I've owned numerous graphic cards and games which all, at some time or other, shown this tendency.

 

[Medico]

After numerous issues with my computers, I’d better be safe (slow) than sorry. On my computers Fast Startup is off.
In case of my morning coffee, I'd rather grind coffee beans and get my coffee maker ready in the evening than grind beans in the morning in order to get that freshly ground coffee aroma.

That's why they call these things Personal Computers. Each of us use the apps that work for us. If I ever have problems with Fast Startup then I will also disable it, but at this time it does work for me. AVG is working very well. Perhaps the new 2013 edition is improved. Before this I was using Windows Defender (MSE in Win 7, updated for Win 8) during the besta test period, but a friend convinced my to try AVG. I am impressed so far.