Interesting. Most people have had the opposite experience. In fact, HP has had to
bring back Windows 7 "by popular demand". The only problem I have with Windows 8/8.1 is that you cannot roll back Internet Explorer. Some hospital portals just barely started support IE9 (out since 2011). We tried multiple workarounds including developer options and registry changes but they were futile.
I would make sure that everything you use works/works well with Windows 8 before moving.
They also removed XP Mode from Windows 8. But they added a few things like Client Hyper-V and Bitlocker Disk Encryption (previously only available on ultimate/enterprise versions). Throw on something like classic shell or Start8 and the interface is virtually identical to Windows 7.
Also one thing that often gets overlooked is all the peripherals (printers, scanners, etc.) that won't have 64 bit drivers when upgrading from Windows XP. Check your printers for support for Windows 7/8. We've been mainly selling Windows 7 32-bit machines here since it tends to be compatible with older printers and scanners. Windows 7 32 bit or Windows 8.1 64 bit are our biggest sellers.
I know some people are still installing just OEM versions of Windows 7, but the downgrade method is the best approach since you can always go back up to Windows 8.
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