October 26, 2012 It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, and was made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012. Nearly three months after its initial release, Windows 8 finally made its first retail appearance on October 26, 2012.

No. Support for Windows 8.1 is discontinued, but the software will continue to function. However, after January 10, 2023, your computer running Windows 8.1 will no longer receive security updates. In addition, Microsoft customer service will no longer be available to provide Windows 8.1 technical support.

As a reminder, Windows 8.1 has reached end of support on January 10, 2023. At this point technical assistance and software updates will no longer be provided.

As a reminder, Windows 8.1 has reached end of support on January 10, 2023. At this point technical assistance and software updates will no longer be provided. If you have devices running Windows 8.1, we recommend upgrading them to a more current, in-service, and supported Windows release.

In general, some of the findings from different sources are: Windows 10 is faster than Windows 8.1 in some areas, such as waking from sleep and hibernate mode, launching applications, and running real-life scenarios such as writing, web browsing, and video chat.

Windows 7 first launched in late 2009, and extended support for the operating system ended on January 14th, 2020. Microsoft's fixed lifecycle policy mandates at least 10 years of extended support, and it went a little over that.

Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, and was made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012.

With no new security updates, the computer running Windows 8.1 is not protected against new threats and malware that have emerged since the EOL date. Lack of protection means the computer is at a higher risk of getting infected with new types of malware that can evade traditional security solutions.

The Good. <b>Windows 8.1</b> adds many useful tweaks and fixes, including a new version of the missing Start button, better searching, the ability to boot directly to the desktop, and a much-improved app store. Plus, it's free for current Windows 8 users.

At the end we concluded that Windows 8 is faster than Windows 7 in some aspects such as startup time, shut down time, wake up from sleep, multimedia performance, web browsers performance, transferring large file and Microsoft excel performance but it is slower in 3D graphic performance and high resolution gaming ...

While you could continue to use a PC running Windows 8.1, without continued software and security updates, your PC will be at greater risk for viruses and malware.

Windows 7 does have some built-in security protections, but you should also have some kind of third-party antivirus software running to avoid malware attacks and other problems -- especially since almost all victims of the massive WannaCry ransomware attack were Windows 7 users. Hackers will likely be going after ...