Windows 8 has been destroyed in tech headlines over the past year. Now that Windows 8.1 has been released, things aren’t much better. Windows 8.1 added a few new features but nothing substantial. A lot of the “improvements” were things that really should have been added in since day one.
In spite of all of the hate and confusion surrounding Windows 8, there are things to love about the operating system. Since we aim to be an unbiased news source, we want to show both sides of the debate. Here are the five best reasons to actually consider buying Windows 8:
5) The refresh and reset feature
Most PC users have had to reinstall Windows at least once in their lives. Reinstalling Windows isn’t particularly awful – especially if you’ve backed up your data – but it can still be annoying to download all your software and games again. And if you lose your data, then reinstalling Windows is a downright devastating experience.
That’s why it’s easy to appreciate the refresh and reset features on Windows 8:
-Refresh: Lets you get a fresh start on Windows 8 by reinstalling all core operating system files. Your personal files/documents and configuration settings remain, however. All your software is removed but a list of the removed software is placed on your desktop so you know what’s missing.
-Reset: Reset wipes out all data on your PC and returns Windows 8 to its clean factory settings.
Basically, if you run into serious Windows problems or software issues, you can use Refresh to fix your PC and speed it up. If you really want to start over fresh, you can Reset your PC.
4) Group multiple drives under a single storage unit
If you’ve ever run out of storage space on a drive, then you’ll appreciate the new Storage Spaces feature on Windows 8. Let’s say you have a 500GB drive that runs out of space. You need to start deleting stuff from that drive to make it usable again, right?
Wrong! With Windows 8, you can simply pop a USB drive or a new hard drive into your PC in order to expand your storage. Multiple storage drives can be grouped under the same letter, making it easy to expand your storage space without having to mess around with partitions, delete files, or swap out hard drives.
3) Restore files using File History
Most people have accidentally saved over a critical file at some point. Or maybe they accidentally made changes to a document they weren’t supposed to change.
Whatever your problems may be, File History has your back. File History regularly scans your documents and identifies any changes that have been made. If you happen to mess up a file, you can view all file changes and restore an older copy.
Most cloud storage services do this automatically, but it’s nice to have a desktop-based alternative.
2) Stay in sync with the cloud
Windows 8 – like just about every piece of software built today – was “designed to work efficiently with cloud storage services” or something like that.
What does that mean for you? It means that you can use services like DropBox or SkyDrive to easily backup your files and save storage space on your PC. Furthermore, when you log into other devices – like your tablet, phone, or Xbox – using your Microsoft account, the magical cloud will remember whatever unique account settings and preferences you may have, giving you a consistent Windows 8 experience – or at least that’s the goal.
1) Faster startups
Windows 8 is designed to run on low-resource machines. That means it’s been heavily optimized to run efficiently on machines with as little as 1GB of RAM.
The result of all that optimization is faster performance. When playing PC games, you probably won’t notice the difference between Windows 8 and Windows 7. But when starting up your machine and powering it down, there’s a noticeable difference in speed. Windows 8 is approximately twice as fast at starting up when compared to Windows 7.
Windows 8 undoubtedly has problems. It features a totally unique interface and misses many of the core features Windows users have loved in previous versions of Windows – like a Start button. But once you get past the learning curve and enjoy the advantages, you’ll realize it’s not that bad of an operating system.
