A short write up on my first 24 hours with Windows 8.

I upgraded my windows 7 to windows 8 yesterday after Microsoft aggressively priced the upgrade for existing Windows 7 user. Sure there were alot of debate regarding the MetroUI being a pain in the ass for Traditional keyboard & mouse/touchpad users. Well,we will touch on that later. 

Let us first talk about the upgrading process:

• Everything was Smooth right from the Start, i just went over to https://www.windowsupgradeoffer.com/en-SG/,click on continue,filled in the form.
• The email came within minutes with the link to download the Upgrade Assistant 



Everything was done right from the Upgrade Assistant , from checking compatibility to installation.    

•  Within an hour after the download complete i found myself running windows 8 with everything still intact. The only things that was not working was my Intel Wireless and Bluetooth other than that everything else was working perfectly right from my first windows 8 bootup. 
• Even so i still went over to http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GE60-0NC.html#/?div=Driver&os=Win8%2064 to download the manufacturers driver updates.
• Within another 30 minuets i found myself exploring and playing around with Windows 8.

MetroUI and me:

• Like everyone else i didn't really like the metroUI on my system so i downloaded 3rd party Start button plugin for my Windows 8 desktop: 

What you see here its call Classic shell . 

• Currently there are 2 popular choices for the 3rd party Start button plugins. I chose Classic shell over Stardock's Start8 . Because the former is free the latter requires you to pay after a 30 day trial. 
• Everything is highly customized-able:

Customize everything to your liking!

• But honestly speaking certain Apps look really awesome with MetroUI like:

Skype for windows 8

Conclusion and Final Thoughts:

• In my opinion there is several improvement such as better boot time as promised by microsoft.
• I don't know if this is a placebo effect,but to me, i can feel that the system is quite a bit smoother comparing it when it was on windows 7
• Gaming wise for GW2 there seems to be a slight improvement of 2-4 fps.
• Given the price of the upgrade i never regret jumping on to the bandwagon,even though i still can't get use to the new user interface.
• In my opinion Microsoft has just decided that its time to launched the next generation OS, after all touch screen devices are getting really common nowadays in the consumer sector.
• Great play by Microsoft to even allow pirated users of windows 7 to upgrade to windows 8 at such a low price point,its has been a very effective anti-piracy from my point-of-view.