I don't understand some of the complaints here? Maybe it was W8 that sucked, but 8.1 does everything the same as W 7 ?? I just pressed CTRL /ALT/DEL and the task manager opened. 
Mine opens to a desktop just like any other version. I did nothing to make that happen. 
First a log on Password screen, then a standard desktop which I easily populated just like XP with the standard icons. 
Then all software installs desktop icons just like before. 
You can even pin icons to the task bar just like before. 
Control panel is exactly the same
Device manager, all the admin tools are still the same. 
There appears to be only the one difference and that is the metro screen instead of a pop up start menu. And the weirdness if you cruise close to edges... stay away from the edge Billy, it's a fickle girl ey it is.. 
And like I say, it's around $50 cheaper.. so unless you're pirating your OS then 8.1 will save you money too. I believe a big reason it exists is it will be much harder to pirate. No more 30 day's,  you have to register or it is totally crippled. And there's another thing, authorizing took me only a few minutes with credit card in hand. Micro Snoft is smarter than we give them credit for.  Oh and you need not buy the higher levels anymore. There's just 2 versions, the more expensive version is only for if your on a big network. The basic version is more or less equal to W7 pro. 

I hate Windows 8.  Clumsy. clumsy, clumsy.  The start menu aint half of it. Windows 7 is hard to get unless it's OEM.  W8 Pro has better licensing and virtual OS software.
You could also wait for Windows 10.
 
 There's also driver compatibility.  You may have devices that will not run if the manufacturer didn't develop drivers. 
 
  I have a laptop with W8 and I just don't really like it. 

It's true that you may have a little trouble finding a device driver for Windows 8 or 8.1, but the OEM version of Windows 7 is no longer for sale - it's at the end of life for retail sales - so a vendor is committing suicide if it doesn't have one by now.
 
I never use the Modern UI (Immersive shell) and I find the Class Start Button to be a big improvement over the previous start buttons because it is completely configurable. You can put all your power tools on it if you like.
 
Here is what my desktop looks like when I click on the Start Menu in 8.1:
 

 
 

If I could draw some over simplified comparisons

Win 8 = Sonar X1 a radical change
Win 8.1 = Sonar X2 many of the problems caused by the radical change ironed out
Win8.1.1 = Sonar X3 runs smooth just liked you'd expect fr a mature OS and Daw designed to run together.

"There appears to be only the one difference and that is the metro screen instead of a pop up start menu. And the weirdness if you cruise close to edges... stay away from the edge Billy, it's a fickle girl ey it is.." 
 
thanks Johnny-that`s a glitch i thought only i had-how do you get your screen back without re-launching your browser?

webbs hill studio
"There appears to be only the one difference and that is the metro screen instead of a pop up start menu. And the weirdness if you cruise close to edges... stay away from the edge Billy, it's a fickle girl ey it is.." 
 
thanks Johnny-that`s a glitch i thought only i had-how do you get your screen back without re-launching your browser?

The edge effects can be disabled with the Classic Start Button software.
 
You will see no visual or behavioral difference between 8 and 7 using it.
 
And, you get a better Start Menu.
 

7

I like WIN8.1

The difference Win 8 brings with the Modern UI is that there is a touch interface that is great if you have a small portable device without a keyboard - so everything is tactile and finger-based.
 
But in a desktop environment - even if you have a touch screen - you will mostly be using the mouse and keyboard.
 
So you don't need that big matrix UI of a start screen - it is not optimized for a mouse spacing of pixels it is finger-based - inches.
 
But more importantly - it is not hierarchical - no folders. No organization whatsoever except maybe for big square chunks. And you can't freely move your tiles - Windows decides how to group these for the most part (try to move them about and you'll see what I mean - they are 'sticky' about certain spots in their group and moving one will move the rest).
 
With a good start button, a nice set of frequently used toolbar icons, and a few toolbar folders for some structure you will have a nice control surface for launching all your applications.
 
Here is what I mean by a toolbar folder - I have several of these that I can add to the toolbar - just create a folder of shortcuts, use a Unicode symbol for it's name, and attach it to the toolbar - instant mini-start button.
 

 
Windows 8 seems to start faster, but actually it just has more delay start services that spread the startup time and give preference to a fast UI startup. If you have a lot of cores, there may be a faster ultimate startup, but probably Win 7 is similar.
The scheduler in Win 8 seems better, too.
 
When I say Win 8, I actually mean the latest Win 8.1 update, Win 8 is a different OS kernel from 7 and 8.1 is yet another OS kernel away from 8, so in reality Win 8.1 == Win 9 because the next OS is 10.
 
And, supposedly, Win 10 is a free update for 8.1 users, but not for Win 7 users.
 
Also you can only do an 'in-place' upgrade from one OS to the next. So you will need to do a clean install of all your apps if you go from Win 7 to Win 10 or later. That may not be an issue for those of you who have just a DAW OS and nothing else, but for me it is my major computer with all my other apps installed. With hundreds of VSTs, Komplete 10, hundreds of apps - it would take at least a month to do a clean install of everything and get all the settings correct.
 
I went from Windows XP to Windows 7 and had to face that issue and it was so lengthy and painful I decided I would never skip an OS release again - I would always upgrade in-place.
 
So far, I'm happy I did this.
 
 EDIT: lots of typos...
 

I thought it was incredibly stupid for Microsoft to create an operating system interface for all that really was meant to be used for touchscreens (perhaps they were starting their own revolution) - especially that only a small percentage of pc/laptop users HAVE a touchscreen. It was also sad that they needed a big service release to get some of the functionality back that should have been standard on it.
 
When I bury my FW-1884, and the next MS OS proves to be useful to me, then I will upgrade. I highly doubt that if you have a high level i7 with 64GB of ram, that it truly matters if you have 7 or 8.1. So, I'll stand pat on what I have until the next offering.