So in my contemplation of committing hari kari and backing everything up to my NAS, I thought about what OS to load besides my eventual dual boot setup with linux. I actually had 7 installed to the point it was asking to verify my OEM key. I thought about it and remembered that I had received a free OEM copy of 8.1 and license from Dell. It's not tied to any machine or manufacturer. So I figured, worse come to worse I can always roll back to 7.
Well, I am extremely impressed and a convert. My system has always been fast thanks to the 8GB of RAM and SSD, but it is even snappier now. I had tested it on another machine and it kindly pulled in my settings such as theme, accounts and so on. Very cool.
So I figured I might as well burn that free OEM Office Pro 2013 license also. I am now rocking 8.1 Pro and Office 2013 Pro as opposed to 7 Pro and Office 2010 Pro Plus. Note that all my licenses are legit being either OEM or VLK. I love working in IT, I get so much free stuff. Laptops, software, flash drives. I got an iPad 3 from a client today also. It's technically for "testing" but I was told (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) that if they never see it again it won't be an issue. Wootness.
Back on point though. I thought I was going to have to install the Nvidia driver for my GPU. But after running Windows Update and a reboot later, my GPU was already setup for me. I have had to load zero drivers by hand. I did install Thinkvantage System Update 5 and the fingerprint logon. But I could have used the built in biometric framework. I still have a few more apps to install such as FileMaker Pro 11, Acrobat Pro, etc.
I never thought that I would like 8.1 after running 8 before. But, not only do I like it. I love it. It's faster than 7, I love the new task manager and info bar that's displayed during copy operations and so on. Now I get to dig around in the Microsoft store for goodies!
So happy right now. Just thought I would share a good user experience. Happy computing my fellow 'padders.
