Windows 8

The first thing I do when I install Windows is change power options so my power button shuts down the system. I had no trouble with it in Windows 8. It was just the same in the control panel as Windows 7.

I suppose this is probably the best thread to ask about:

So, I was thinking about upgrading my venerable XP to 8, since you can do only so much with it. I'm not quite confident however that my hardware can take it...well, at any rate, since it's above minimum requirements, but we all know minimum requirements are what they are.

My hardware specs are as follows:
1 Terrabyte harddrive, Intel(r)Core(TM)2 CPU 6700 2.66GHz, 2.75 GB of RAM (it's supposed to be full 3, but my XP stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that 0.3 in official settings). Also Nvidia GeForce 250GTS for graphics.

Will it run 8 with some semblance of good performance, or can i expect maximum choppiness and pains until I get new computer altogether?

You'll be fine for now, it's no more than $40 for 4 gigs of ram but 3 will get you by fine in 8. The vm I use to run 8 has similar hardware and it's fine.

It'll run just fine. I ran it with an AMD Sempron 3500+ (1 core clocked at 2.2GHz and 3GB's of DDR 1 ram) as my main and it runs really good... and now that I just finished a new build like literally an hour ago I'm not using that one anymore, lol.

So, I have installed 8, not without some bug fights, and everything seems well. In fact, a very big part of my old stuff was carried over, which makes me happy, and the OS seems reasonably fluid.

Until I plug in my internet cable.

I get a literally instant crash, followed by DCP_WATCHDOG error message.

Any idea on what might be causing this?

Well for one thing, attempting to upgrade your os instead of doing a fresh install will usually lead to odd problems and bugs. Also, did you attempt to download new windows 8 drivers for your ethernet network controller?

No problem running any of my Steam, Windows/Xbox Live and other games on Windows 8. Any of the games that worked on Windows 7 work on Windows 8, only windows 98 and older games have issue same as Windows 7 and Windows XP. I have had Steam crash randomly but I think it's more my ISP playing around since they give me un-metered access to Steam since they host the local server and Valve making steam update every few days. Yes, I know Gabe hates Windows 8, but until more officially supported (Not using Wine) games beside TF2 and a substantial evidence of lower overhead and faster performance I will not switch to Ubuntu or run a dual boot (A nightmare with Windows 8). Netbooks such as my Dell mini 1012 (1.6ghz Intel Atom single core CPU)tend to run better with Windows 8 than Windows 7 Starter!

I also tested Windows 8 in a Virtual Machine (VMWare Workstation 9) with a single CPU core and 2GB ram with no problems for general usage!

In regards to Windows XP unless you have the 64bit version of XP Pro (I used to and it's rare), even if you had 4GB of ram Windows XP Home, Pro or Media Center can only see 3.5GB (Such as my Mum's old PC) and even less if you are using an on-board/integrated GPU or allocating ram to supplement your Graphics cards memory (Depends on motherboard and BIOS Settings). It all comes down to the version of Windows and how much ram your motherboard can support. Note: I did run Windows XP Pro x64 with 8GB which it could fully see.

Yes, I did get the latest drivers for it.

I'm wondering whether motherboard may be the problem, being Asus P5B-BN, and thus quite ancient.

I'm half-tempted to do a complete re-install, and just fuck the files I have carried over.

I've tried a Windows 8 powered laptop (Samsung) at a nearby mall.
I'm not sure if it's the brand but the touch interface feels not as responsive as I thought it would be.

I'd go ahead with a reinstall first. Also, where did you find your drivers for your board?

I had to give up on the board drivers, since there didn't seem to be anything more recent (since Asus is not supporting that type anymore); instead I got my chipset driver from Intel (since the actual chipset installed is Intel's), which came from Intel's web page after some intense searching. It was a driver for Windows 7. Didn't seem to help though.

Currently though, I managed to copy all my really important documents (which was really a bunch of scans and essays) over to an external harddrive, and am doing a complete reinstall, with removal of all older files. So far so good, although it is only halfway there.

On the site though I thought it said it used a realtek ethernet controller?

Yeah, the ethernet controller is by realtek.

It's a real mish-mash board, since the processor/chipset are from Intel, etherboard is by Realtek and motherboard proper is made by Asus.

I had used two drivers before, one being just realtek's ethernet driver, and the other being a driver for the chipset.

EDIT: the complete re-install had failed. It still gets the bloody DPC_WATCHDOG VIOLATION every time I go into customizing my Windows 8 settings at the startup. This is beyond ridiculous.

Well, it's officially been a month since I've started using Windows 8, and I can safely say that I am satisfied with it overall.

I had a play with a computer with 8 on it, in a store... I didn't know how the fuck to get out of the start menu... After a while, I figured out what was happening... Then got my friend to look at it, and was like *press windows button* 'THIS IS THE FUCKING START MENU. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK' he also thought it was stupid. I think I'll stick to my windows 7... Took me a lot of convincing to upgrade from xp to 7, so don't expect me to jump to 8 just like that >.>