I’ve managed to avoid Microsoft Windows 8 like the plague, up until now.
My friend Armyn has had foisted upon him a Win 8 John Lewis in London.
I’ve seen a few programs that can change Window’s 8 interface to be useful to me, a dumb human. Has anyone used any and are they any good.
Note to mods I realize this maybe the wrong part of the SD and apologize, however a friend, in his 90’s is in need with win 8, is a friend none the less.
So basically a win 8 to win 7 User Interface conversation?
The Start screen is the same thing as the Start menu anyway, the only difference is that it’s full-screen and you can add widgets other than launch icons to it.
Just spend a few minutes removing the default items from it (which you probably don’t want) and adding the programs you use most to it, and use it the same way you used the Start menu in Windows 7.
I didn’t want an eye-searingly tacky Start Screen, I wanted a Start menu over top a very subtle desktop of my own choosing. I get that MS is vainly flailing about at an attempt to be relevant in tablet computing, but I don’t want that on my non-tablet laptop, and my elderly neighbor who suddenly didn’t know where anything was on his new computer sure as hell didn’t either.
Another vote for Classic Shell. Install only the menu changing-part and Bob’s your uncle.
^^Example of some of the common gripes 8.1 *will *be addressing. You’ll be able to boot directly to the desktop while bypassing the Start screen, or have it boot up to a slideshow of pictures of your choosing.
I’ve concluded that MS hates seniors. I have just about gotten myself weaned from XP to Win7 and it goes away. My wife has a computer bought in 1999 and upgraded to XP that is now running short of memory, but she won’t let me get her a new computer.
It hasn’t gone away, it’s still supported and available for purchase. And a lot of businesses still use Win7. (My employer won’t even allow Win-8 on their network yet because they haven’t vetted it for security.)
But Win-8 is a great improvement in many ways, and IMO worth getting used to. If you insist on a start menu, use Classic Shell as others have already mentioned.
I find the plusses associated with marketing-driven revamps (bite me, MS Ribbon) to be generally underwhelming. I did pay for a program to improve multi-monitor support, and I do use Acronis for backup, but otherwise Win 7 has never given me a thing to raise an eyebrow at. What do I have to look forward to?
Faster startup and resume. Better handling of updates (doesn’t nag you constantly, and allows you to reboot without installing updates, etc). Full-disk encryption standard on the Pro version (on Win7 it was only available on Ultimate and Enterprise editions which were pretty expensive). Storage Spaces, which allows you to group drives into a single volume, with parity checking option (sort of like RAID but much more flexible). These are just the things I’ve noticed and take advantage of or appreciate.
Get your hands on HyperV and virtualize your old PC.
Thanks to virtual tech, old computers will never die, they’ll just run as programs on whatever platform you chose to install and bypass.
My wife runs XP and Office 2003 (the last ones to install without asking Microsoft’s permission every time to activate). It runs on Fusion on a Mac Mini with 2500x1600 cinema display, and a Airbook. Why? because she has spreadsheets with specific pivot tables that she can’t just swap back and forth between Office versions… thanks again to Microsoft.
I know of a few businesses where the expensive key software cannot run on new servers, and why pay $10,000 for updates to custom niche industrial software to do what the Windows 2000 server and software will do forever as a zombie server in a virtual environment.
It will run forever unless Microsoft figures out a new improved Windows that does not cooperate with Windows 2000 (Like they did with NT and WIn98). I’m sure there’s a whole department at Microsoft working on that.
I even got Windows 98 to install on VMware once, up to the point where it hung up looking for gigabit network card drivers. I have made DOS virtual machines, but never cared enough to figure out the network drivers.
For the same reason that you’re looking things up on the internet now instead of going to the library and hauling out the Encyclopedia Britannica. The ways of doing things change. I dare say that there would be a lot of complaints if they still had the Windows 3.1 interface but HAD to keep it because people just couldn’t deal with Windows 95.
So, buck up and learn a few new things. I had a minor culture shock when I went to Windows 8 as well, but I got over it. It’s really not that difficult to learn.
Still having difficulty finding the calculator, though …
Bad analogy!
The internet is a vast improvement over the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Win 8 is NOT a vast improvement over anything.
A better analogy:
Using Win 8 is like telling somebody who knows how to use the Encyclopedia Britannica in his local library that they have moved it down to the basement, to save space.
And, oh yeah,there’s one more thing: the light switch in the basement has been moved to someplace he won’t be able to find it, so it’s totally dark down there.
But–no problem!-- he can still find what he needs…just carry it up to the reading room on the ground floor, one volume at a time…
And every time he wants to look up something in a different volume, he has to walk back down the stairs, find the new volume, and the lug it back upstairs again.
And everytime he enters the library, he should kneel down in front of the Gates* and bow his head in respect to the genius who decided to move the books to the basement.
And he has to pay extra for the privilege.
*get it? that’s a pun, on Bill Gates. I’m really clever, heh?
