I recently responded in that thread.

You can do either. Personally, I never reinstall and try to keep files. Windows develops issues over time as it is. To do that is just asking for a shorter time before a reinstall is necessary. Just my opinion.

I don't know whether an upgrade install will retain optimizations. I doubt it.

If you do a clean install, make sure you either create a new partition over or format the existing Windows partition/drive, because otherwise the install process will retain certain files, even from 32-bit Windows.

Good luck

I went all in with Win8 earlier this week.

First thing I did was buy Start8 from Stardock, now I don't even see Metro/Start unless I want to.

No probs with Cubase and my old Presonus Firebox. Also use Adobe CS6 and that works as it should as well.

System is: 2600k @ 4ghz, 660 Ti, P67a Mobo, 12gb Ram.

Some hints: Stay away from VISTART!
Classicshell works well but doesn't look as integrated as Start8.

I installed Vistart and got hit with snap.do and other random spyware even though I was sure to cancel out of all the toolbars that vistart tried to install.

This failure let me try out the "Refresh Windows" option - worked well, so long to full reinstalls, can reset to the beginning without OS disc or bothering with an image.

Just 2 more cents but... I re-animated an old Q9450 desktop recently by downloading the $40 win8 pro upgrade. Yeah, it's a little different and I really have no use for Metro but beyond that it was a good deal for $40 ($30 at a few place on Black Friday I see). No real issues at all... loaded up my old apps after a clean install and everything just seems to work. The new features included in the Pro version are nice too. Definitely a "to each their own" deal but for me not bad (and definitely worth it for $30 on Black Friday).

I did a test install on my laptop - all looks ok except W8 doesn't seem to like Synchrosoft for Cubase - get all kinds of error messages when I boot up Cubase. Anyone else get this?

Start8 is buggy... uninstalled it after some minutes. IMO this tools are completely crap and unnecessary.

No issues here, probably best to screenshot/dump the error and hit up Steinberg support, it is likely to be a non os related error, are there any specific codes that are popping up?

steinberg recommend Win 7 though so may be out of luck for the immediate future.
Last edited by Chickenman on Sun Nov 25, 2012 12:19 am; edited 1 time in total

Hmm, I'm using Win8 with Start8 on a laptop and my desktop... no problems.

When you say buggy, what do you mean?

Start menu/defaulting to desktop is personal preference, definitely not a "required" item.

Buggy means, it doesn't work as expected. I had GUI problems and stuff.
It's definitely a tool I don't need and will not install anymore. This Win8 start screen in combination with the keyboard shortcuts works great for me.

I've updated to Windows 8 Pro. First at the desktop computer and second my studio because it's just a fine OS. I agree that the Metro Interface is not that nice if you don't have a touchscreen. At this moment the apps are not really something I really use, but it has so many new nice features (copyinfo f.e.) and a different (better) interface than windows7.

As soon as I saw the updated drivers for the UM-880 and the low update price to Win8PRO (29 euros) I was sold. I've also installed a SSD, so that helps a lot to be positive about it

Something not meeting your specific expectations doesn't mean it's buggy.

I was curious and as the Win 8 upgrade is cheap I had to give it a try. I like the clean graphic design but not the way it works. The start window is ok as long as your apps are pinned there. If you want to open an app that's not pinned (yet) you have to click the "all apps" button and here you get a terribly cluttered view. It would have been better if the program folders were closed as default like on the old start menu but in Win 8 they are all fully opened.

I tried a cool alternative to a touchscreen monitor. I have an iPhone 5 with TuioPad installed and TouchInjector on my Win 8 PC. This is more like a remote control for Win 8 as you don't have a view of the desktop on the touch surface. Otherwise it seems to work the same way as if you had a touchscreen monitor. The iPhone 5 screen is way too small though so it's not usable but maybe an iPad?

Oh the irony of using extra software on Win 8 to make it possible to navigate the Start screen via an Apple iPad. Was this what MS was aiming for?

Nope, it's aimed at touchscreen monitors and you don't need any extra software as far as I know. Tuio that I was talking about is used for customized applications and the TouchInjector is just an experimental alternative. As I said it's more like a remote control as what you see on your PC monitor isn't cloned on your touch device

That's my point. They want to compete with (and defeat) Apple by me-tooing with touch stuff. So they design a poor catch-up environment for their legacy OS, making those who don't have touch screen computers suffer, or use Apple devices(!!), and they fundamentally don't grasp that touch screens work on tablets better than computers for ergonomics reasons.

You'd think they'd pay to get a law passed forcing people to trade in
computers for surfaci, before assuming people would do so on their own,
just because they saw tv commercials made by choreographers, that were
better than the new OS made by their coders.
(not that I could stomach the dancing surfaci for more than the time it
takes to locate the channel change button )

Would have been better to have kept Win 7 a separate product, and dropped
the '8' from the title of the tablet version.