Honestly, Windows 8 is not that bad. Granted I have installed Classic Shell and boot directly to desktop and have a real start button, but aside from that, it is smooth fast OS. Boot is faster than my Windows 7 on a higher end machine and I have yet to have any major hiccups from it. The Metro Screen is useless but since I am never there, it doesn't bother me. lol If it wasn't for the sheer terror of trying to re-install and set-up my main system with all my programs and preferences all over again, I would seriously consider switching it from 7 to 8 as well.