I don’t want Windows 8. I don’t want the smartphone interface. I don’t want cloud computing. I don’t want to buy any apps. All I want is to buy a new computer that can do all the same things my other computers did, before one died its final death.
Given this, what are the new OS’s most substantial limitations?
Lack of a Start Menu. I Googled “how to make Windows 8 work like Windows 7,” found a CNet article recommending the freeware program Classic Shell, downloaded it and installed only the menu option, and bingo! Soooo much better now.
@Ferret Herder: Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll probably have a look at 8 straight out of the box, but Classic Shell definitely looks like something I’d want to use.
@The Vorlon: I’ll see if the store I’m going to still has any Win 7 boxes, but I’d rather have the computer tomorrow afternoon than order from the US.
Just move the “desktop” icon first in the start screen, ignore buying apps (as they all suck), and put all the important shortcuts on the desktop, and it basically is Windows 7 without a useable start menu. The only real gotcha beyond that is that you have to hover in the top right corner, click settings (gear), and click power to turn off or restart the computer. I understand why they tried to force the tablet interface on all their users (similar to Sony with Bluray and the PS3), but why they tried to force tablet usage patterns like “you never need to turn it off or reboot” into a desktop I don’t know.
I hated Windows 8 when I first tried it, but it’s growing on me quite fast now.
The lack of a Start menu in the Desktop environment is a mistake, IMO, but easily remedied with a third party add-in. I used ViStart and it seems OK.
I also found that on a laptop, I kept accidentally edge-swiping the touchpad, causing the charms to pop up and steal focus and this was annoying, but easily tweaked in the mouse/touchpad settings.
I don’t currently have much use for tiles/apps, but maybe that will change over time - I guess I can see the utility of seeing at a glance how many new emails I’ve got in each of my different accounts, for example.
Gateway must have read some of the complaints as they have made it very easy to find some things by already pinning them to the desktop taskbar for me like the file explorer and a power button (gives the same options as before: shutdown, restart,etc) and they put a desktop icon on the start screen.
After uninstalling most of the bloatware and apps and playing around with it some, I kind of like Windows 8. I have it on a desktop (Gateway ZX series All-in-One). One thing I do hate is the way games are now.
One important change that may or may not matter to you, depending upon how you get email, is that Windows 8 does not support POP3 mail servers anymore.
If you have a mail address through your ISP, say something like user@comcast.net or whatever, and it is a POP3 then you are out of luck using that address.
What you have to do is ask the provider if your account can be changed to IMAP or EAS. Or you will need to set up an email account on a web based server, like Outlook.com or gmail and then instruct that account to pull the mail from your old POP3 address.
It’s not hard to do, but still, this will be a surprise to some people who move to Win 8.
Use your Windows key. It’s right there between the CTRL & the ALT.
WIN - brings up the start menu. You can scroll it with the scroll wheel on your mouse. Start typing to search for stuff. Ignore the apps, except maybe if you want solitaire or something.
WIN+D - brings up the desktop
Win+E - explorer menu
WIN+F - advanced search menu
Win+C - charms menu. It’s the one on the right hand side, when you want to quit.
Rightclick in the bottom left corner of the start menu or desktop to bring up the Pro Menu, with useful links.
Why do you need to move to Windows 8? Any computer than runs Windows 8 should be able to run Windows XP. So either buy a copy of Windows XP (off eBay for example) or download a warez copy.
Well, a new computer is going to have hardware for which Windows XP drivers don’t exist. So getting Windows XP working on a new system will take a good deal of work. Also, no security patches are being offered for XP after a date soon to arrive, so I would not recommend trying to keep it running.
The way I read the linked article, this only applies to the Win8 Mail app. If you use another email client such as Thunderbird, you should be okay as long as you’re using “full” Windows 8 and not RT (RT only supports Windows Store applications).
Furthermore, XP probably won’t be able to make best use of the new hardware - for example, if the machine has more than 4GB RAM (unless you install 64 Bit XP, which isn’t a great idea for other reasons)
I’ve discovered my first reason to hate the new computer - in particular HP. Between the use of a vertical HDD caddy and riveting one side panel in place, they have made it physically impossible for me to install my old HDD in the empty HDD slot.
It would be better, but probably still not great. Win7 is still in main support, so there are good reasons why people might still prefer to choose it, but if you’re going to install a pirate copy, you’re probably not so interested in support.
Still, I was able to resolve the problem by checking six different computer stores until I found one that sold external HDD enclosures. I’m currently in the middle of transferring everything onto the new computer’s hard drive.