[iceman (Mike)]

I've tried to like it - I've tried to persist.

But this laptop and Windows 8 don't mix. Maybe it's the laptop, or a faulty hard-drive or something. But Windows Explorer, especially with Dropbox, and any sort of photo editing (lightroom and Photoshop) are sooooo slow with Windows 8.

I always run in desktop mode, never use ANYTHING from metro.

Just opening and click through folders takes forever.

The specs of the machine are probably double my previous laptop (with the exception of the SSD), but almost everything is slower.

So, I'm going to downgrade to Win7.

Will I have to buy a Win7 key, or should I be able to use the key on the bottom of my old Toshiba Laptop?

There's no Win8 key on the bottom of this laptop - it was already "installed". Not sure how I'd upgrade in the future.