On 05/06/2015 00:04, Chris French wrote:

Youngest daughter has a laptop with Win 8 (well now 8.1, which improved
things). Whilst it certainly has a few oddities with regard to the
interface I certainly don't think it is any sense unusable (as it
happens it does have a touch screen, but it is rarely used). She uses it
all the time and switches between it and the Win 7 desktop quite
happily. I sometimes use it and find it fine. (though I'd not upgrade
any of the win 7 machines to it).

I must admit to being puzzled by people having so many issues with W8.1

Apart from the start tile screen (which you can bypass if you want) the
interface is almost identical to W7. It might take a little practice to
get used to not having a start menu a la W7 but it is actually not
difficult. And if you really need it, then one of the paid or free
add-ons will work fine.

Start Menu Reviver, eg, is a free program that is *much* better than the
W7 Start Menu. http://www.reviversoft.com/start-menu-reviver/

That aside, W8.1 has better features than W7 and is inherently more
secure. I do have a touch screen but rarely use it.

I've tried Win 10 Preview a bit and it does seem to have sorted out the
interface issues

Yes - I like W10 a lot. Some very useful stuff in it.

--
regards andy