Only thing I liked about Windows 8/8.1 was the metro look.  When I had it running, I also used Classic Shell to bypass all the touch screen UI elements.  Don't care about Apps at all.

I rolled back to Windows 7 last year.  Happy with it.  Less hoops to jump and I can generally get all my old stuff to run.  My machine boots in under 10 seconds.  Just as fast as 8 booted.

XP: I remember it.  Liked the Windows Explorer better in that one.  I avoid it as a file manager now.  Remember having to reinstall it far more often than Vista and beyond, which in the latter was pretty much never.  More peformance issues with games than 7, once it matured.

I've heard that 9 isn't going to go full touch or anything like that and MS is going to provide better desktop support.  Don't know if that's changed.  Would love a way to natively skin the UI so I don't have to install a 3rd party service to do it.  Not everyone loves glass or metro, how about some freedom of choice? ;)

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