Do you've a source that scientifically proves that, in general or during gaming, Windows 8 is better than Windows 7? You made the claim, bring the proof. :p

To the OP: Did it work with any of your games to install in a different folder, check admin rights, disable themes and desktop composition?

I own Star Wolves and Outcast and I recall the first one is buggy as hell (crashed a lot for me, I gave up with it) and Outcast might need some tweaking due to the voxel engine, you could take a look at the sub-forum and try the res patch too.

Nevermind :-P

Right now the Windows 8 market share is like a fly trying to take over all the empty space in a church hall, so....

Which kind of says something about user perception at least as to whether Windows 7 or 8 is the superior operating system. Thus far the voting with wallets is on Windows 7 and earlier.

Without bothering to study the subject in any real depth because i like 7, it works well and therefore I do not care to give M$ more money for what to me is just a secondary OS used only for gaming purposes, it seems to me that Windows 8 offers minor improvements from a gaming perspective that are not of any substantial consequence. That's fine and all but unfortunately they went with a tablet/phone UI on desktop operating system and the vast majority of users have soundly rejected this. If it did not come preinstalled on newer hardware, sales would be even worse and some analysts blame Windows 8 actually for at least part of the continuing downturn in PC sales overall. I'm not interested in taking up that argument but it's interesting it has even been made was the only point I wanted to add in mentioning it.

There is no question that the launch of Windows 8 has been an abysmal failure, regardless of whatever improvements may have been made aside of the UI changes. The proof is in the adoption and sales data. There's nothing to argue about there. That said, I personally don't consider Windows 8 superior in any meaningful way that would make me spend a nickel on it nor my time to install and my point of view here is purely from a gaming perspective. Why invite potentially more compatibility issues with games for improvements I doubt I would find perceptible and a UI I could not stand? That is superior? Okay, in terms of beauty being in the eye of the beholder I can buy that I guess but only as a purely subjective assessment by any particular individual.

MS could probably improve interest in Windows 8 if they released a service pack that got rid of Metro interface and return to the old desktop design. They probably won't though cause current MS management is all TABLETS TABLETS TABLETS and they hate desktop PC users.

Guess what? I use Microsoft software since, well, the beginning of times as Personal Computing is concerned, and I don't need a tablet. So Microsoft hates me now? Well, note taken....

No, but it has a Start Screen key (on the keyboard). Just think of the Start Screen as a glorified Start Menu, and you are all set.

I think Windows 8.1 (free update) is supposed to add also a Start Screen button on the desktop.

The main thing I currently still find irritating in Windows 8 is how most default programs are full screen WinRT apps: web browser, PDF readers, media players etc. But I guess the workaround around that is to install desktop replacements for those and set them as the default programs whenever you want to view a PDF document etc. Otherwise it is still a bit disorientating how Windows 8 jumps between desktop mode and the simpler and less useful "Metro" mode.

Oh, and if your PC came with Windows 8 preloaded, I personally think it is an overkill to replace it with Windows 7. As I keep saying:

- If you currently have Windows 7 installed, there's probably not that much reason to upgrade to Windows 8.
(One exception to this: if you are going to use Netflix. apparently it works better with Windows 8. I haven't tested it yet, but at least according to reports I read, in Windows 7 (and I think also in e.g. XBox360) you will only get 720p output from Netflix for some reason, while with the Windows 8 Netflix app, you get the full 1080p output).

- If you have Windows 8 already, no reason to switch to Windows 7, really. Just learn to live with the new quirks of Windows 8, and that's that.

I run a dual boot Win8 64/ WinXP on my gaming desktop. The idea was to use Win8 for new stuff requiring dx10+ and keep around XP for compatibility. Win8 has been fine in practice though some old 2D Windows applications can be slow.

I have Outcast and Haegemonia. Outcast seems to work fine on my Win8 install. I'll have to test Haegemonia.

Edit:

Haegemonia crashes on my Win8 install when the game launch reaches the menu screen. A quick tinkering with the compatibility settings didn't fix things.

It's interesting that if you follow the instructions below, you can get to the menu screen. You will then be stopped by a prompt for a CD key however. :( I wonder if Haegemonia itself is the problem or if GOG just needs to update their fix?

http://www.gog.com/forum/haegemonia_gold_edition/will_not_run_on_windows_8/post3

!! It's worth repeating that GOG does not list Haegemonia as being compatible with Win8 in their storefront.

Interestingly GOG says Outcast is compatible with Win 8. So it either should run out of the box or the solution should be displayed somewhere prominently on GOG. Otherwise the support would be a bit poor.

Anyway since it runs I feel like there is no reason to not switch to Win 8. I just don't do it because I want to save money and Win 7 is still quite good.

Btw. Star Wolves is marked as compatible with Win 8 by Gog, while Haegemonia isn't. So I guess that it is quite save to buy Star Wolves too.

With Heagemonia we would need to check with somebody else who has it and Win 8.

And in general, in the long run, I expect a considerable amount of good old games on GOG to be lost because they are so specific to the OS of their time that new OSs will not be able to support them.

Damn it, I guess I will test those three games too on Win8.

If I understood Fenix right, he ran the game in hires mode, as the game would for some reason not run in the lores mode.

I don't really see that as the problem, as who would want to run the game in lores mode anyway? The game looks worse then, and the lores mode was originally only for those people who didn't have beefy enough PC to run the game in "hires". That's probably not relevant nowadays.

No matter what Fenixp says, I would also advise you to get rid of Windows 8 if you can. Unless your new computer is a tablet. Win 8 was written for tablets and phones alone. For a desktop Windows 7 is by far the better system. You avoid a lot of compatibility issues (even with Microsofts own software) and you avoid that awkward touch-screent interface.

Dear lord, stop suggesting OP to install a different OS because you like it better. The best success rate I've had at running GOG games was, ironically, on Linux, and I'm not running around, suggesting people with issues to install the newest release of Linux Mint.

I understood that it doesn't run out of the box. Of course there seems an easy remedy, but some people just might not find them for whatever reason and then GOG could improve the situation maybe by setting hires as standard starting method or by telling people in a message during the installer.

The problem would just be that supported should mean that in most cases the ways to make the software run should be clear.

How did you find out that these games are a no-go? After all GOG says for two of them that they are definitely running on Win8.