OTOY Forums

Thinking about upgrading to Windows 8, but not sure of the compatability. Isn't Windows 8 more geared towards touch screens? Doesn't seem practical for non touch screens.

Don't believe the hype.
Octane works well under win8.1.

It has touch capabilities but don't forget: it is still just Windows. I have one touch monitor and I can tell you: Touch ain't their forte, just yet!

But it is nice to treat your desktop like a tablet.

8.1 is faster than 7 regardless of the UI. That alone should be enough of a reason if your thinking of building a new PC. Yes it's made to be touch compatible but you still have a "desktop" just like 7. In fact you can boot directly to that if you don't even want to use the Metro / tile interface.

Octane runs fine on mine at the house running 8.1. I run 7 at work unfortunately now that I've grown accustomed to 8.1.

Don't focus to much on Metro, that tiled menu and its apps. I completely skip it. There's tons of (even free) tprograms to install, that bring you back the functionality of a normal win7 menu (Start8 for example etc). They skip the metro menu on login .. I never use metro, as I find its tablet oriented and makes zero sense on a desktop. Same for the apps ... why would I start using an app, which never makes any real use of the huge desktop screen and lacks all normal other elements of usability?

That said I still somewhat like w8 ... it's modernized under the skin (apparently better at multi GPU gaming etc) and I have come to really like the flat, cleaned up look of W8.