Windows 8: Compatibility Issues

Dear Wal,

Gotta love the sad face

I've been having some problems with Windows 8. Namely, compatibility issues. If there is an incompatible program on my computer, it causes the computer to bluescreen, restart, and repeat the whole process over again until I figure out which program is causing the problem. When I first updated my laptop to Windows 8, the program causing the problem was Skype. Fortunately, that was easily fixed as there was an app in the Windows Store for Skype. However, in order to get it I had to go through this huge fenangled process of making a Windows account. It felt a little like selling my soul.
I don't appreciate this, Microsoft. I like having the freedom to download whatever program I want off the internet. I know you like to make money, but this is frankly ridiculous. I spent two hours, I repeat-two hours-trying to sign up to your stupid service, and all I wanted was Skype, a program I could have downloaded in about two minutes on Windows 7.

But this is more like what my face looks like when my
computer bluescreens

The next problem I had was the printer. Granted, this printer has always sucked. We've had problems with it on every computer, no matter the operating system, since we bought the printer. The printer that preceded it sucked too. My personal opinion, all printers were spawned from hell. But Windows 8 feels the need to freak out every time my laptop tries to connect to the printer. I made the mistake of trying to print something yesterday, and lost about a half an hour's worth of work on a story I've been working on. Jason's story, in fact. So you can imagine how panicked/ticked off I was. Thankfully, today I finally managed to disconnect the laptop from the printer.
But besides the compatibility problems and my being paranoid about sharing my personal information (even though basically the entirety of the internet probably has it by now) Windows 8 is fantastic. I don't even miss the start button. The start screen with the tiles is so much easier and so much more elegant. I don't have to dig through a list of names to find the program I'm looking for, I can just find the logo on the right tile. Everything about this setup is just so much easier to use. It took a little getting used to and a lot of help from Google in the beginning, but now I know my way around the system very well. The main reason I upgraded in the first place was in the hope that a new operating system would speed up my laptop, because it was a complete slug on Windows 7 for some odd reason, and it did speed up considerably. I don't have to wait more than thirty seconds for my computer to boot, or for any programs to load. As far as I'm concerned, the benefits far outway the drawbacks.

/endrant

P.S. It's 11:09. I really need to get better with this whole schedule thing.