Windows 7 or 8 preferred?

[razorseal]

So I have a TS140 that I just ordered (xeon 3.2 1225v3) along with a WD Purple drive for surveillance, a WD blue drive as misc drive and a used SSD I have from my old computer for windows..

I have both Windows 7 and 8 (from older laptops that I have the keys for) so I have the option of installing either one... Is there a preference for which one I should look at? it'll be 64 bit for sure (who use 32 bit anymore? lol)

 

[bp2008]

I run my main BI instance on Windows 8, and my secondary BI instance on 7. Both run fine. I personally dislike how Windows 8's task manager reports different CPU usage values depending on which tab you are on. For instance I always see Blue Iris using 5 to 10% more CPU on the Processes tab, compared to the Details tab. But other than that I don't have any problems with Windows 8.

You might consider just taking the free upgrade to windows 10 when it comes out later this year anyway, at which point it won't much matter which OS you choose now. Otherwise, Windows 7 will go the way of XP, and stop receiving updates sooner or later. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[LittleBrother]

I use Windows 7 at work and at home partly to acclimate myself to it installed Windows 8 over a year back. I still hate it and think its interface is thoroughly horrendous. It is much better with this http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php and I do mean MUCH better, but still I find it annoying and a stupid upgrade by Microsoft. Hopefully Windows 10 is better.

 

[bp2008]

Yes, a replacement start menu is crucial to success with Windows 8. I tried a few back when Windows 8 was new, but I just use Classic Start now, since it is available with Ninite and it has tons of customization and options.

- - - Updated - - -

I haven't seen what Microsoft did with the start menu in Windows 10 yet... hopefully 3rd party replacements will no longer be necessary.

 

[fenderman]

Yes, a replacement start menu is crucial to success with Windows 8. I tried a few back when Windows 8 was new, but I just use Classic Start now, since it is available with Ninite and it has tons of customization and options.

+1 on classic shell, 8 is unusable without some sort of start menu replacement - my office staff did not even notice that windows 8 was different when using classic shell...dont know what they were thinking...the worst part is that even after the user base refused to accept the tiles, Microsoft stubbornly refused to return a true start menu - even as an option...

 

[Jaceon]

I am very much so enjoying windows 10 so far. Of course it's still buggy but it seems like everything windows 8 should have been. Windows 8.1 has taught me to use a lot more keyboard shortcuts though. Between that and the nice list of options that come up when you right click the taskbar windows symbol.... now that I'm over that learning curve.... I hate to admit this out loud but I prefer windows 8.1 pro over 7. Obviously I pretend the "app screen" doesn't exists in 8.1. (No PC user uses that efficiently lol)

As far as B.I. though. I've had zero issues running that on 8.1 pro currently or windows 7 in the past. So I'd say whichever you'd use if you didn't have B.I. I've even tested it on windows 10 pro, build 10074 and all seemed well on that. (obviously it's still a tech preview so it would be pretty dumb to run my server on that right now :confused3