Customer Ratings & Reviews

Windows 8 is not easy to navigate. I does not resemble the previous version and is not easy to use.

I purchased my HP Pavilion Elite HPE-580t desktop over three years ago and over the past 16 months, have made some hardware upgrades, including a new video card, power supply unit, and an SSD. Prior to that, I have upgraded Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro with an upgrade license at a promotional launch price. Some time after moving Windows to the SSD, I have experienced some performance issues and they have become worse after upgrading to Windows 8.1. I've tried restoring Windows 7 to the SSD, but the issues still persisted. I was told by Microsoft support that running my original Windows OEM license on a new hard drive is the reason for the performance issues, so I purchased a new Windows 8.1 Pro license and installed it on my SSD. Now finally, I got Windows 8.1 to run the way it's supposed to. My boot times have improved and recent games run better than they did on Windows 7. There were a few times when Windows Media Player would crash when loading a song and some large files on my external hard drive would not open. I think that using the W8 music app would run better, so I will use that or update Windows Media Player. Some installed programs, such as Kaspersky anti-virus, appear to be the reason for those small lockups. Windows 8.1 is not perfect, but has come a long way since it first launched. It will take more updates to perfect it to the same stability level as Windows 7, but Windows 8.1 is slowly maturing. I used to have issues when Windows 8 would not burn audio CDs, but now I can burn MP3 CDs with no issues at all. I love the Windows Store app features; I can download lots of free programs and games. OneDrive is another excellent feature since I can sync my settings, files, and browser favorites between my PC and Windows tablet. The bottom line: this product has restored my PC to like-new performance and it looks like the days of constantly reinstalling Windows are finally over.

It is good...it is faster boot than windows 7, which I like. However, my husband is not a fan of the new start menu. It doesn't bother me though. It really depends how much you were used to windows 7 and want to replicate that experience.

I would recommend this product to anyone that has a computer and wants it to up to date

This OS is really good for productivity in the office, home, and hobbies. I've been using Windows 8 for well over a year and Windows 8.1 for a good few months now. I can give a first hand recommendation that this product is really worth it.

The $9.99 Windows Media Center package is not available for Windows Pro 8.1. To obtain it you have to purchase Windows 8.1 Pro-Pak. Instead of buying this package, you should buy Windows 8.1 and the Windows 8.1 Pro Pak upgrade where you also get Windows Media Center. Microsoft website is very misleading on this and after spending over 7 frustrating hours waiting on the phone with MS support, I find that I have to spend $99.99 to buy the Windows 8.1 Pro-Pak just for the media center even though I have Windows 8.1 Pro loaded on my PC

This has got to be the biggest disaster of a system ever. My wireless is constantly crashing. None of my games work, and im a hardcore gamer usually. Nothing is compatible with it. Even the geek squad has told me it's terrible and go back to Windows 7. They dont update the drivers or anything else going on with this thing. On top of that as a sn i bought a brand new gaming Computer from best buy a little over a year ago and that company wont make anything to update past Windows 7 because windows 8 is that bad. If you think im lying just google all the issues.

Windows 7 pro came with Windows Media Center, it costs you extra to get it with this. This is why I haven't upgraded since it's the center of my entertainment system.