Consumer Reports recommends Windows 7 in most circumstances

Consumer Reports recently weighed the pros and cons of upgrading to Windows 8 and came to the conclusion that it’s probably best in most circumstances to stick with Windows 7 or even buy a new machine running Microsoft’s previous iteration of Windows. They offer plenty of reasons to back up their advice, too.

The publication points out that Windows 7 was generally well-received when it launched in 2009 and there still haven’t been a ton of complaints about it. For this reason alone, they say if you have been happy with Windows 7 or even Windows XP, there’s no compelling reason to upgrade to Windows 8 just yet.

The magazine also highlights the fact that Windows 8 is primarily geared towards touch. In the event that you don’t have a touch-based system or aren’t buying a new computer with a touchscreen, the reasons to pick up Microsoft’s latest become less compelling. Sure, you can still use a Windows 8 system with a mouse / trackpad but that’s not the initial instinct, they say.

Furthermore, and perhaps most obvious… if you don’t like change, then you probably won’t want to upgrade. Consumer Reports cites the missing Start button as a key example of things that have either been removed or are different in Windows 8.

Finally, driver maturity is called into play in the article. There are a bevy of drivers that haven’t been updated just yet which could lead to instability or in a worse-case scenario, the inability to use a program or peripheral at all. Windows 7, of course, doesn’t have this issue as developers have been coding drivers for it for several years now.

It’s not all doom and gloom for Windows 8 in the eyes of Consumer Reports, however. If you do plan to get a touch-based computer, Windows 8 might be for you. Also, if you like the idea of live tiles that update based on new emails or social network updates then they say you will probably appreciate the Windows 8 UI.