Microsoft paranoia

This time they really have overstepped the mark. I use a third party boot manager which makes it simple move different OSs, including both Windows and Linux, in and out of whatever partition I want. Booted Win 8 this morning to find that Win 8 has removed my boot manager and set up a MS standard BCD (Boot Configuration Database), ensuring that unless I modify the BCD the only OS I can run on this machine is Win 8.

I was already getting pretty fed up with Win 8 but this is the last straw and it will be entirely removed from this comp today and my boot manager and Win 7 will be restored from disk image.

I have a real concern now that at some point in the near future they will disable Win 7 too but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. In the meantime it's good riddance to Win 8.

 

Are the win 8 annoyances mostly related to how it works alongside Linux?

I'm still building my new machine so I've put off deciding between 7 or 8 until the very end. I really hate to leave XP (it will still run my notebook) but I want the new desktop to have 7 or 8's multimedia capabilities.

I'm pretty sure I'll end up with 8.....but I still think there's something about it I'll regret buying it for.

 

I doubt I would actually have given it the boot had it not been for the removal of my Grub4DOS boot manager, but I found I was having to convince myself more and more that it was satisfactory. The jarring discontinuity between Desktop and Start screen was really starting to irritate and when I finally resorted to installing Poggi - a nice start app btw - I realised that what I was actually trying to do was get it to work exactly like Win 7, only faster. And I was consciously avoiding using any of the Start screen apps because when in those, because they are full screen you effectively lose access to the easy desktop multi-tasking that has helped make Windows such a massive success.

The boot manager thing is nothing to do with Secure Boot - this comp is several years old and has never had a pre-installed version of Windows on it. Just retail disks and Linux so I was massively offended when MS simply removed it and configured the BCD for 8 only without any warning at all. Anyway it's gone now and for the present at least Win 7 is purring along and feeling just like an old friend

 

EDIT - The reference to Poggi above should have been Pokki.

 

No problem.

I am aware of the third party 'rollback helpers'. If I end up getting 8 I will probably use one.

I picked up a Win 8 book at the library. Is it true that w8 is capable of writing to common CD-R's while being able to rewrite over them again and again? The book calls it 'Live File System'?

I don't see any reference to this capability on the internet.

 

It can format disks as Mastered or Live File System. Mastered you have to erase to re-use; Live File System you can add and delete files as with a flash drive. For both I think you have to use CD-RW but not 100% sure as never use disks now. I believe both 7 and XP could do the same though possibly using different terminology.