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Windows 7 or Windows 8.1?

t0ny

By t0ny
in Getting Started With Imaging

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Daveb3650

Daveb3650

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Same here...my PC came with Windows 8.0 and it was terrible, The upgrade to 8.1 was a little better as the old Start / Programs button was back due to public demand. I gave it a while and decided that I preferred Windows 7.  It's so much better and totally stable.

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laser_jock99

laser_jock99

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Win 7 64bit is my current OS of choice. I have laptops with Win 8 on I don't like the 'environment' too dumbed down.....

I have had to revive an older XP laptop recently to act as a printer server. Rather kindly HP and Microsoft between them stopped writing drivers for my perfectly good A3 inkjet. The cynical amongst us might think it's a ploy to force people into buying a new printer (along with it's accompanying 'smart' un-refillable ink cartridges.........).

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redmoo

redmoo

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Are you going to be doing the image processing on this laptop as well or is it just for direct support of the telescope?

Either way, I would go with Windows 7, simply because a lot of the drivers are a lot more stable on that platform.

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lensman57

lensman57

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Win 7 64bit is my current OS of choice. I have laptops with Win 8 on I don't like the 'environment' too dumbed down.....

I have had to revive an older XP laptop recently to act as a printer server. Rather kindly HP and Microsoft between them stopped writing drivers for my perfectly good A3 inkjet. The cynical amongst us might think it's a ploy to force people into buying a new printer (along with it's accompanying 'smart' un-refillable ink cartridges.........).

I use a laptop with XP pro for image capture and a laptop win Pro 7-64 for processing. I had problems with win 7-64 home premium edition on HP laptop. I have stayed away from win8.

A.G

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Aeseir

Aeseir

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Win 7 64bit is best for using the laptop for Astro. It is most stable and management is substantially easier.

Windows 8 is best for processing, as the OS is lighter on the resources, and helps with processing of applications. My baseline (i got Win7 64 and Win8.1 64, found that my most intesive app launches about 30% faster, and processes twice as fast, same spec machines).

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t0ny

t0ny

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Installed Win7 64Bit last night. It's an i5 just for Astro use to do the capture/guiding work. I have a beastly i7 indoors with 8.1 for all the processing.

Now if I can just Polar Align I can use all this stuff!

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frugal

frugal

Posted
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I am imaging on a 9 year old Panasonic Toughbook (£99 quid on ebay). Although it only has an old Intel Mobile processor and 2Gb RAM, it still runs Backyard EOS, PHD2, Carte de Ciel, and EQMOD during an image processing session.

I do have a 16Gb i5 running Windows 8.1 for image processing.

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redmoo

redmoo

Posted
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I acquired a laptop from work that was destined for the bin. It is an old dual core thing, but it has a serial port on it......

I installed Windows 7 on it and it runs fine. It doesn't like stellarium that much, but runs everything else perfectly. 

The only issue I ever had was getting the drivers for a Logitech 4000 to run. After a bit of a faff though, I managed to trick it and now everything runs honky dory :D

Strangely, I find the older laptops have much better battery life on them. I have an i7 laptop as well, but that will chew through a battery in a few hours, where as this old beaten POS will happily chug away for about 4 hours without needing a charge. I do have it plugged in all the time, but it gives me hope if I ever want to image from a dark site that I can at least get some time with it.

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RichM63

RichM63

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If you can upgrade from 7 to 8 then start with 7 as that's well supported with a move to 8 if it turns out better, it will then come down to the cost of the Microsoft software.....

Isn't that back to front (forum politeness)? If you can uninstall Win8 and then upgrade to Win7 Ultimate you'll be a lot less likely to go insane.;)

I've never had a problem with any software under Win7.

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lensman57

lensman57

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Windows 8.1 is quicker more stable more secure and less resource intensive than 7. Takes a day or two to find out where everything is but once you do you won't want to go back.

The point is not whether an OS is faster than the other as most of the issues confronted by users are related to driver behaviour under win 8. I have a planetary camera , quite an expensive one, and the drivers worked perfectly well under XP and quite erratically under win7-64 even though they are claimed to work with even a win8. The issue of the USB band width is something else though and the newer OSs with the newer hardware seem to perform better.

A.G

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pyrasanth

pyrasanth

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Eventually you will all need to go to Windows 8.1 and above if you want to take advantage of the latest developments. Driver authors will withdraw support for earlier operating systems & Microsoft eventually withdraw support & updates forcing your hand. I use Windows 8.1 and have no issues with drivers or stability but my hardware is fairly new. If your happy with what you use & don't plan any major software updates then its probably all you will ever need.

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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I have 8.1 in one computer, and 7 Pro in another. When I first turned on the 8.1, I thought I was in kindergarten. I viewed it as an assault on my optic-nerves and my intelligence. And it had no built-in option to toggle it back to a classic-windows format. But, after some searching, I found a freeware "Classic-Shell" in the net. And it worked. If it didn't, I was considering leaving the new computer on the railroad-tracks and filming the festivities.

As of now, in it's new outfit, it seems to be working fine. But watch out for the updates - they blew out my OS and all my data. I'd be sunk if I didn't have an external hard-drive to back-up my files and programs.

Clear Skies,

Dave

THIS JUST IN:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/windows-10-will-be-a-free-upgrade-for-people-108748128944.html

Take a look!

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