Windows 7 or 8.1?

I am sorry if this has already been asked but I need a simple short answer. Is one better than other for Rhino ? I also render in Vray and keyshot…

From a Rhino perspective, they are the same once you’re in the Desktop.
Win 8 supports touch screens which is of no use or benefit to Rhino.
Win8 also has a “tiled” Start Screen that replaces the Win 7 Start Button.

I would generally recommend using the latest operating system available which as of today is 8.1

No problems here with 8.1. I like it better than 7, but that’s a personal opinion.

You can get the start button back with cheap or free add-ons. You can also customize the 8.1 start screen to do all sorts of things.

–Mitch

I just purchased the latest Windows 8.1 Pro and I love it, I use Rhino and VRay it works great! I love how I can customize the start screen and toggle just by hitting the windows key on your keyboard.

8.1!

Don’t let the Win 7 Luddites on the internet scare you.

Thanks guys 8.1 it is!

Actually, I’ve found the touch screen on my ultrabook super useful for navigating Rhino viewports in situations where I’m mouse-less (i.e. coding on the couch or while travelling)…

My Win 8.1 touchscreen setup is a 27" Desktop Dell All-in-One. Perhaps a touchscreen laptop/notebook like the SurfacePro 3 (even with the poorly performing Intel graphics chip), the touch feature of 8.1 might be useful.

I Have rhino 5 on win 7 at work, and rhino 5 on win 8.1 at home. There is no discernible difference. between the two.

Right! So if one is starting anew, especially with new(er) hardware, start with 8.1. Doing so places you that much closer to 10.1. (Yes, skipped over Windows 10.0 intentionally… :wink:)

If you use W7 and not W7 Pro you will have ram limitations. I’ve got 32 GB of ram that was not recognized in W7 thus moved to W8.0 then W8.1 which allows some obscene amount of ram like 512 gb

There is a very nice piece of software called ‘classic shell’ than can make W8.1 feel exactly like 7, even XP.

Good solution for those not interested to adapt.

MS got the message. In 10 users should have built in tools to make 10 either 7 or 8 like.

And they’ll finally integrate various desktops properly, that’s good. TKS for the article.

Just out of curiosity: why would you say that?
I can think of lots of benefits of touch screen input for Rhino.
In fact I would be disappointed if touch gestures (as an option) didn’t play at least some role in future versions of rhino.
Think about the most obvious like 3d navigation, but also more advanced ones like using gestures as tool shortcuts or to invoke popup menus, to name just a few.

Cheers, Norbert

Microsoft has the tendency to make every second or third OS working right. W7 is one of the best so far after XP. For Rhino makes no difference if it is 7 or 8.1. As far as the touch screen option in the future is little out of touch. I mean how would the functions on mouse will work?..not mention the snap points…get real.

Well I imagine it could be a mixture of touch and mouse. Have a look at Wacoms Cintiq Touch tablets. They use a nice mixture of touch for navigation and Stylus/mouse for everything else. Seems to work pretty well. Mind you I’m not convinced enough to go that way, I just ordered a Cintiq 24HD without the touch because i’m an old fart and don’t like changing my ways :wink:

Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.

-Niels Bohr

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I’m a younger fart,however, I’m getting tired of this “iPad-Apple” mania mentality. I really can’t see any advantage to have touch screen for CAD. The idea for mouse is that you can acomplish almost everything with one hand. I can see advantage when the holographic projection gets to the level where you can work in 3D “space” but on flat screen???