Windows 7 or 8

[RJNorton]

Yesterday afternoon I spent about 3 hours downloading and installing Windows 8.1. I was upset when done as I could immediately tell many of my programs were lost during the upgrade. I thought Microsoft had stated that people upgrading from Windows 8 would have all their programs retained. So I will need to reinstall programs such as Word, Works, Adobe Reader, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Real Player, Quicktime, etc. Very frustrating! All my documents and mail files were retained, but they were in a different location, and it took a while to find them. Also, very frustrating.

As soon as I am done with this process I will be putting this computer back in the closet and return to my beloved Windows 7 computer.

So far the only difference I see between Window 8 and Windows 8.1 is there is an option to go straight to the desktop when the computer starts (rather than going to the Start screen as in Windows 8).