Fix Windows 8 -- bring back Start Menu, etc

[Prudence (imported)]

Found a very nice program for Windows 8, which makes it function much more like Windows 7 or Windows XP. It adds the Start Menu (you can choose Classic/Win2K, Windows XP, or Windows 7 style), and allows you to make the "Explorer" windows (folders, drives, etc) look like they used to. It also allows you to change when the default Windows 8 "Start Screen" comes up or even disable it (almost) entirely, and set the "windows" key to either bring up the Start Menu or the Start Screen. It is called "Classic Shell", you can download it from here:

http://www.classicshell.net

Also, as an added bonus, it is both open-source and free (the author does accept donations). This program has really helped at work, it has "rescued" a few new computers which would have sat un-used because people don't want to deal with the default Windows 8 user interface (I don't blame them). So far it is working with no problems at all (been used heavily for about a week). If I get a new computer, I am definitely adding this.

I found one other program which helps "de-suckify" Windows 8 -- It is called "Modern Mix", and allows you to run "Modern" (aka "Metro") apps in a Window on your Desktop. Could be very nice if you use any "Modern" apps (I don't have Windows 8 yet, and no one at work uses any "Modern" apps). It isn't free, but is fairly cheap ($5.00): http://www.stardock.com/products/modernmix/

Also this same company makes thier own program to add the Start Menu, to Windows 8, called Start8: http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

It is also $5.00. Not sure if it is better or worse than ClassicShell.

[Wolf-Pup (imported)]

I found after a month of solid use. missed the elegance of Windows 7. I missed Aero. I missed lots of little things that I never had to think about for years or how to find them.

My final solution afte 2 solid months of all Windows 8 was to restore my system to go back to Windows 7 and really have no reason to look at 8 atain in the near future.

[ukdesexed (imported)]

Windows are bringing out an update called windows blue which will apparently fix a lot of the issues later this year

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22446754

[fhunter]

Windows are bringing out an update called windows blue which will apparently fix a lot of the issues later this year

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22446754

It is funny, cause the older users do surely remember the "Blue Screen of Death".

Win 8 just didn't fly, the next one will turn blue just trying ?

[janekane (imported)]

In January, I found it useful to get a small, lightweight minimalist notebook computer, and chose an Acer running Windows 8 that has a DVD-Super-Multi drive, USB3 connectivity and satisfactory, for my uses, connectivity.

While I can understand Microsoft wanting to reach the tablet market with Windows computers, I found the standard Windows 8 interface sickeningly awful to use. So, almost immediately, I fixed that Acer Windows 8 computer so it was useful to me, with Classic Shell, and have been using it for most of the past 4 months. I have never had a hint of a problem with using Classic Shell (which can also make Windows 7 behave much like XP).

I a glad that Classic Shell has been mentioned again, sooner or later, people may recognize that a Windows 8 computer can actually be made usefully functional for people who are actually capable of using an actual computer.

[kristoff]

I'll just pay a friend to strip 8 off any new box or laptop and replace with 7 ultimate. No more problems.

[Paolo]

When I first saw Windows 8, I thought that it was stupid to change everything around. This is like taking a car and putting the driver on the other side, or even worse, all the controls to the car on a touch screen. If we're used to it, and work with it, and understand most of it, why change it?

If you've got a successful business running selling donuts, then you switch to turnip-stuffed pastries, you'll soon go OUT of business, I think.

[Wolf-Pup (imported)]

I understand WHY they put the interface change into play. What doesn't make any sense is taking away the Start Menu as an option. It isn't like it would have hurt the Desktop interface, and they'd still have had the new interface as well. Best of both worlds. I also don't know why Aero was a part of Windows 8 through all the public preview versions only to be pulled from the release.

OTOH I don't like the new interface on a desktop machine or on a device. I don't see the appeal of it vs IPhone or Android. Let alone on a Notebook or Desktop.

[Losethem (imported)]

This is like taking a car and putting the driver on the other side, or even worse, all the controls to the car on a touch screen. If we're used to it, and work with it, and understand most of it, why change it?

Driving a car from the other side isn't so hard from my experience. It was the driving on the other side of the road that was difficult.

The problem with Windows 8 isn't this simple - they've not only put you on the other side of the car, driving on the other side of the road, but they've also teleported you to a galaxy far far away, filled with 13-year old girls that giggle all the time.

Or put another way, Windows 8 makes you want to stab yourself in the brain.

--LT

[gareth19 (imported)]

Driving a car from the other side isn't so hard from my experience. It was the driving on the other side of the road that was difficult.

The problem with Windows 8 isn't this simple - they've not only put you on the other side of the car, driving on the other side of the road, but they've also teleported you to a galaxy far far away, filled with 13-year old girls that giggle all the time.

Or put another way, Windows 8 makes you want to stab yourself in the brain.

--LT

Or to put it in yet another way, a typical Microsoft product: intellectually ill-conceived, poorly engineered, and commercially over-marketed to drive out useful products that might actually benefit the consumer. Only a venal Supreme Court would have overturned the original appellate court ruling ordering the dismantling of the electronic logjam that is Microsoft.