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I am not trying to start a flame war here, I would like a list of valid reasons for updating a traditional, non tactile laptop from windows 7 to windows 8.

Apart from faster booting and touch functionality (if your hardware can take advantage of it) I cannot see any reason why one would want to upgrade to this new OS.

UPDATE

OK, downvotes and close votes already. I do not want to open a discussion, I just want some concrete reasons why windows 8 is better than windows 7.

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@TaylorGibb, reposted as a question, care to comment? – terdon Dec 5 '12 at 15:28
Presumably there are some features other than touch included... windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/meet – Smalltown2k Dec 5 '12 at 15:32
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Hyper-V and Windows-To-Go (Enterprise version), would be a few I can think of, even though I have no plans of upgrading to Win8 from Win7. Or Internet Explorer 10? lol I'm writing this all with a bit of sarcasm. Although other OSes could do the Bootable OS on a USB for awhile, the Windows To Go seems pretty cool. – j_bombay Dec 5 '12 at 15:35
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Sorry, but this question is asking everyone to post their opinion. You can look up features of Windows 8 online, and I'm sure there have been countless reviews as well. We expect questions to be based on an actual problem, but this is really just polling for opinions. It'd be a great discussion for Super User Chat though. – slhck♦ Dec 5 '12 at 15:46
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closed as not constructive by Xavierjazz, terdon, Sathya♦ Dec 5 '12 at 15:52

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4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Personally, my favorite changes are the improved task manger, a small speed boost, faster bootup and the new "corners" interface. It doesn't really feel like that large of a difference between 7 and 8.

If you want a full list of features, you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_8 and see if anything catches your eye.

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Sweet, that list is exactly what I was looking for. For some reason I did not stumble upon it when googling. – terdon Dec 5 '12 at 15:52
up vote 2 down vote

I have found that with my power settings set to always on, I have about 40% more life on the same laptop when running in Windows 8 over my Windows 7 install. I went as far as doing time tests on battery life while surfing the web and writing some code, and popped back in the old Win 7 drive and confirmed the battery life difference.

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Ah, OK, that's a good one. – terdon Dec 5 '12 at 15:35
But keeping in mind, this could also be specific to my hardware, but I have heard from others that they see similar response. I am running a Toshiba L775D – DaBaer Dec 5 '12 at 15:36
up vote 0 down vote

Honestly, there is no reason to switch to windows 8 if you are not doing it for the new interface and windows 8 app store.

Being a developer myself my requirements are less fancy then a "normal" user. I need a system to be stable. And windows 7 does that job fine.

I do guess that the new windows 8 app store might be a reason.

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up vote 0 down vote

Windows 8 is essentially Windows 7 with the addition of a tiled start screen (it was primarily developed for use with tablet touchscreens as opposed to desktops). If you want to learn all that the tiled start screen has to offer (and there is a lot to learn) it may well prepare you for future versions of Windows in years to come. If you don't then do not upgrade to Windows 8, stick with Windows 7

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