XP can utilise FTTC. W7 and above not necessary.

Horses for courses. Yes 25 devices will require more bandwidth but who really needs 25 devices connected concurrently.

If SD viewing is fuzzy then an eye check-up is long overdue.

Word processing and spreadsheets can't have data input into them any quicker on W8 than DOS6.1 so not quite a personal opinion.

If keeping up with "the Jones' " is your thing and wanting the best then feel free.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

From what I remember from reading a few days (weeks?) ago Win 10 will give us back a proper desktop interface.

The "proper desktop interface" never went away.

Yes it did, and still isn't present in Win 8.1.

For instance, the normal menu that pops up in Win 7 and below on clicking the Start button only appears by right-clicking the Windows icon in that position. Left-clicking it gives the Metro. I haven't tried to pin frequently used programs to the right-click menu as I have most of what I need on the taskbar anyway, but I did used to have some on one and some on the other. Where's the box for the "Run command? (I never used that anyway as I pin a c:\ prompt to the taskbar).

It also can be tricky getting the desktop version of IE onto the taskbar shortcut area. You have to be savvy enough to avoid the Metro version and relatively few people are.

Those are just off the top of my head. I'm sure I could find other extra difficulties. We shall see, when Win 10 comes along, how that compares.

Also one thing that I find annoying. I do not like all the metro apps that are constantly downloading and updating everything from news weather and social media junk. I took the trouble I thought to remove all these. Along came an update and many were back as well as a flock of ones I had never seen before which were trying to push information I do not want.

Having said that I ave to admit the laptop is a back up machine and only used when I am away from home, so I can not really claim to have spent a vast amount of time in front of it. For a fairly cheap machine it does seem nice and fast and capable. A pity that skydrive is tied to the microsoft user which seems to be able to see relatively little on my home network (including printers).

When the 7 and XP machines are finally retired (they die) then I am sure I will get to love it.

If you right click on the start button there is an option there to launch run. Exactly the same amount of clicks required as in Windows 7 (actually less, because in Windows 7 Run doesn't appear by default so you have to enable it).

Of course you could just press winkey+r.

IE desktop version can be fixed by, you guessed it, going into IE options.

All these "niggles" could be fixed in about 5 minutes. As a power user you should be able to deal with it.

I wouldn't class myself as a power user, but far more knowledgeable than most.

Perhaps all the others who complain about the Metro interface and don't even know how to do what I can are all wrong. Whoever at Microsoft has decided to backtrack should perhaps be sacked?

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

All these "niggles" could be fixed in about 5 minutes. As a power user you should be able to deal with it.

I'm certain, given time, a lot of the frustrations of Win 8.1 can be circumvented. Unfortunately I tend to want to use my PCs as a Tool - not some sort of mental challenge!

As an example, may I compare my Desktop PC (Win 8.1, but with "Classic-Start" installed), against a brand new Laptop with just 8.1 - both with MS Office installed.

I want to start MS Word (not exactly an "obscure" program, which is NOT an App in the "Metro" sense, but a proper Windows Application that launches in a Windows type of Screen ), both from the Desktop Screen:-

PC:-
1 - Click Start
2 - Click Word

LapTop:-
1 - Click Start (goes into Metro Mode)
2 - Locate & click down-arrow to get into Apps Screen (which are sorted by name) & look for either "Word" or "Office"
3 - Scroll to the end of the Apps List - not there!
4 - Keep Scrolling to find "other Lists", which ultimately includes a MS Office List
5 - Eventually click on "Word"

Needless to say, I will be installing the non-MS Classic-Start onto my new Laptop as soon as possible!

I've yet to find anyone that has clarified the advantages of "Metro" on a "Work-horse" Computer!

On the Start Screen type the word "Word"
You should see MS Word in the search results on the RH.
Select MS Word.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

On the Start Screen type the word "Word"
You should see MS Word in the search results on the RH.
Select MS Word.

Many thanks for that! I hadn't realised that it bought up a hidden Search Screen!!

Tends to confirm the point that I already made:-

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

I'm certain, given time, a lot of the frustrations of Win 8.1 can be circumvented. Unfortunately I tend to want to use my PCs as a Tool - not some sort of mental challenge!

It is also very easy to remove programs from the start menu that you don't use, move them about and regroup them.

First of all you can drag any icon to a new poisition just by pointing holding down the left mouse button and dragging.

I have used this to drag all the programs I use to a new group.

Next hold down the CRTL key and scroll you mouse and the start screen will minaturise. You can now drag the groups around. If your useful group is not at the left move it there.

Now when using the desktop you are back to where you were before,

1 click on the start button
1 click on the program you require

The search facility is also great for things like control panel.