A Windows 8 Caution - Think a Bit before You Leap

I'm a bit bemused by the posts from those who have upgraded (if that's the right term ) to Win 8 and then find that some program or hardware no longer works properly.

Folks - it's a new version of the OS. Some things in the internals have changed from earlier versions of Windows.

So, before you change, check your software to see if it ​explicitly​ is said by the vendor to be compatible with Win8, or if there is an upgrade that is said to be Win8 compatible. Don't assume, unless it's software that you really don't care whether you continue to use or not.

The same with hardware. Check to see if there are drivers for Win8. Don't assume that Win7 drivers will work. Some do, some don't.

Another way of checking is to look on Microsoft and search for sw and hw compatibility with Win8. The only caution there is is that, in the case of Win7, the info was almost always correct, but I did have a few surprises, both pleasant and not. So for mission-critical sw and hw, I'd check both MS and the vendors to be sure.

Finally, you can try installing/running a program in a compatibility mode for an earlier version of Windows, assuming that feature is still available in Win8. In Win7, on my system, this works for some but not all programs. And I haven't found a way to use this option with hw drivers.