Windows 8 Tips and Support

[Foxfyre]

And the best Windows 8 advice so far goes to:....

Dualboot Windows 8 with Linux Mint 14 Nadia by AvoidErrors - YouTube

Except that this is way over my head as I am about as untechy as they come. I don't know why I should want a Linux Mint 14 or what it does. I seem to have reasonable aptitude to run any computer program either intuitively or with some rudimentary instruction. But when you start getting into the techie stuff, I'm clueless. Which is why Windows 8 is so user unfriendly to somebody like me.

 

[Foxfyre]

Tasks such as I describe? Unplugging the external drive to put it away should be a no brainer I would think. Used to be the simplest of tasks. Thus the frustration level.

Other simple things like checking the disk capacity or defragging or accessing what used to be "my computer" are still mystifying. I don't think adding unfamiliar 'cheat keys' would reduce my frustration level any.

Exactly...on Day 5 with my sons laptop, and I agree 100% with you - a modern OS should be designed to be intuitive and tasks logically and well organized.
Windows 8 is far from this, that is if you want to do anything beyond social media or look at pictures.
For instance I downloaded a small wav file, I opened it up to listen to it - and instead of merely opening Winmedia and playing it - hell no - it opens up this "music app" in the Win 8 format that took me a little bit to figure out just how in the hell to get out of it - and when I did - I really didn't - over 100MB of the systems memory was still in use - because the entire "music" application was still running in the backgroud...stupid. I mean Jesus Christ, you have to go through all of this just to listen to a wav file???
I too wanted to go to the C drive...ok...where is it....no not there...no not there either...ok let's click that...no....oh wait here it is....again stupid as f*ck. Getting to the harddrive should be extremely easy, one of the easiest things to do - but it isn't. Dumb.
I already know what 95% of non-touchscreen people will do - login and immediately go to the desktop "app" which puts the computer back to familiar territory....that is until you want to launch a program - which takes you back to the Win 8 tile format and you once again have to click several times to get back to the desktop - dumb.

You're so right. I spend most of my time on the desktop--which took awhile to figure out how to get to it--and little by little I am pinning critical thngs to the task bar so I can access them more easily. But if I should ever have a chance to visit with whoever thought up this cruel and unusual punishment for their customers, he or she will get an earful. I'm just hoping I'm smart enough to uninstall Windows 8 and install Windows 9 when they go back to the old system.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I found this to be a useful shortcut.

You can bring up the Power User Menu with your keyboard by pressing the WIN

(Windows) key and the X key together.

Doesn't work for me.

Me either...hitting that button jumps to the Win8 home tile screen

 

[alan1]

I found this to be a useful shortcut.

You can bring up the Power User Menu with your keyboard by pressing the WIN

(Windows) key and the X key together.

Doesn't work for me.

It does work for me.

 

[Bleipriester]

I found this to be a useful shortcut.

You can bring up the Power User Menu with your keyboard by pressing the WIN

(Windows) key and the X key together.

Doesn't work for me.

Right-click in the lower left corner.

 

[Foxfyre]

Okay, now I got it to work for me. That will be helpful IF I can remember how to do it.

Iam, that windows key is right next to the Control key lower left of my keyboard. I was trying to use the one on screen. But the one on the keyboard plus the X key does bring up that list of options.

 

[Bleipriester]

Tip:
People who want a start menu without having any disadvantages should try startisback.
You get a 30 day trial version here:
StartIsBack - real start menu in Windows 8

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Okay, now I got it to work for me. That will be helpful IF I can remember how to do it.

Iam, that windows key is right next to the Control key lower left of my keyboard. I was trying to use the one on screen. But the one on the keyboard plus the X key does bring up that list of options.

Yeah...I wasn't reading his instructions properly...I was just hitting the windows icon key alone rather than in conjunction with "X".
Thank you Connery.
One more gripe - what is the use of the beginning screen?? On mine it is a picture of the Seattle space needle, the sun and a giant clock...why is this here? You have to hit a key to get to the login screen...why the heck not put the login in this screen. Waste of time and a useless step.

 

[Foxfyre]

Okay, now I got it to work for me. That will be helpful IF I can remember how to do it.

Iam, that windows key is right next to the Control key lower left of my keyboard. I was trying to use the one on screen. But the one on the keyboard plus the X key does bring up that list of options.

Yeah...I wasn't reading his instructions properly...I was just hitting the windows icon key alone rather than in conjunction with "X".
Thank you Connery.
One more gripe - what is the use of the beginning screen?? On mine it is a picture of the Seattle space needle, the sun and a giant clock...why is this here? You have to hit a key to get to the login screen...why the heck not put the login in this screen. Waste of time and a useless step.

Ditto. Waiting to hear the answer for that one. It is a very minor annoyance, but it IS an annoyance. And is there any way to configure it so that the start up screen is bypassed and the desktop appears when the computer is started up in the morning?

 

[Foxfyre]

Tip:
People who want a start menu without having any disadvantages should try startisback.
You get a 30 day trial version here:
StartIsBack - real start menu in Windows 8

No offense but there is absolutely no info re this site offered. How do we know it is safe? Apparently you have to buy this miraculous start button they are offering? Am I paranoid about this?

(Thinking I probably should have left that last question off.)

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Tip:
People who want a start menu without having any disadvantages should try startisback.
You get a 30 day trial version here:
StartIsBack - real start menu in Windows 8

No offense but there is absolutely no info re this site offered. How do we know it is safe? Apparently you have to buy this miraculous start button they are offering? Am I paranoid about this?

(Thinking I probably should have left that last question off.)

The answer to that question is - no. You can never be paranoid enough when downloading from a site that is not well established.
I would not download this - as with many, many, many windows add-ons - you get more than what you bargained for as a plethora of these programs are also loaded with trojans.

 

[Bleipriester]

No offense but there is absolutely no info re this site offered. How do we know it is safe? Apparently you have to buy this miraculous start button they are offering? Am I paranoid about this?

(Thinking I probably should have left that last question off.)

I understand your doubts but I am very sure there are no bad intentions. The programmer made another solution before: ex7forW8. That´s free but not without disadvanatges. No metro, using Windows 7 explorer shell. So it could be unsafe.

If you just don´t trust him, you can try this, but it also costs:
Start8 for Windows® 8 - Bringing back the Windows Start menu

I tried startisback and ex7forW8.

 

[Bleipriester]

The answer to that question is - no. You can never be paranoid enough when downloading from a site that is not well established.
I would not download this - as with many, many, many windows add-ons - you get more than what you bargained for as a plethora of these programs are also loaded with trojans.

Using paypal or simply the domain-provider its possible to find out his identity in case of intentional spread of malware. So, why should they be such idiots?

 

[Foxfyre]

I am really reluctant to use even Paypal with a site that has http (not https) in its address. I probably really am paranoid, but I think I have been spared a lot of uglies over the years by being cautious.

But for that matter, we don't know what spyware Microsoft installs in any of its products either. I just haven't heard of any negatives coming from that after all these years.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I am really reluctant to use even Paypal with a site that has http (not https) in its address. I probably really am paranoid, but I think I have been spared a lot of uglies over the years by being cautious.

But for that matter, we don't know what spyware Microsoft installs in any of its products either. I just haven't heard of any negatives coming from that after all these years.

I just now read about this application on PCWorld, a renown computer magazine, and this application is legit. I am not familiar with Stardock - but I doubt very seriously that PCWorld would highlite them if it included trojan spyware.

 

[Foxfyre]

I am really reluctant to use even Paypal with a site that has http (not https) in its address. I probably really am paranoid, but I think I have been spared a lot of uglies over the years by being cautious.

But for that matter, we don't know what spyware Microsoft installs in any of its products either. I just haven't heard of any negatives coming from that after all these years.

I just now read about this application on PCWorld, a renown computer magazine, and this application is legit. I am not familiar with Stardock - but I doubt very seriously that PCWorld would highlite them if it included trojan spyware.

Well, if you guys try it, let me know how it works out and how much it actually costs you. I'm not gonna try something that might actually increase my frustration level as I'm pretty well maxed out on that already.

 

[Bleipriester]

Here is the forum thread with the prog:
Start Is Back - 1.3 Final - MSFN Forum

And yes, the payment is save (https).

 

[thanatos144]

From reading this I will stick with windows 7. I dont have a touch screen cause I am not so fucking stupid that I cant use a mouse so the tiles would do nothing but piss me off.

 

[Foxfyre]

From reading this I will stick with windows 7. I dont have a touch screen cause I am not so fucking stupid that I cant use a mouse so the tiles would do nothing but piss me off.

Well that's the other thing. I can see advantages to a touch screen on your laptop if you're sitting on a plane or in the airport or other places it is difficult to use a real mouse and I'm not too proficient with the one built into the laptop. But I sure as heck don't need it on my PC which is where I have Windows 8, and the touch screen feature doesn't work with the PC, so I'm stuck with all the negatives of Windows 8 and absolutely none of the advantages.

Grrrrr. . . . .

(And bless Alan for giving me a thread where I can legitimately whine. )

 

[Ringel05]

Worked on the (user) beta version of Windows 8. Hated it. I'm sticking with Win 7 and Linux.