# Windows 10 desktop - what the hell happened? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691 "2019-10-12T20:06:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/1 "2019-10-12T20:06:53Z")
You know how, in Windows 10, if you click on the Start menu it will show a bunch of large, ugly icons such as photos, the weather, a few games, etc.? These icons, for reference, are the ones that occasionally spin randomly to show you different photos, for example. Well, somehow my desktop has been taken over by these things. I want my old desktop back, with the small, non-spinny icons that line up where I want them and stay put. I’m not sure…maybe these are “app” icons? How can I restore my old-school desktop? Thanks much! ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/2 "2019-10-12T20:27:57Z")
somehow “tablet mode” got turned on. I’ll boot up my Win 10 PC and look for where that setting is. edit: turn the circled setting to “off.” [![](https://i.imgur.com/removed.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/removed.png) ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/3 "2019-10-12T20:37:37Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > You know how, in Windows 10, if you click on the Start menu it will show a bunch of large, ugly icons such as photos, the weather, a few games, etc.? These icons, for reference, are the ones that occasionally spin randomly to show you different photos, for example. > > Well, somehow my desktop has been taken over by these things. I want my old desktop back, with the small, non-spinny icons that line up where I want them and stay put. > > I’m not sure…maybe these are “app” icons? > > How can I restore my old-school desktop? > > Thanks much! I’m scared. I’m going to have to get Windows 10 soon for a new video editing computer build. Is there any way to make the thing run in “grown-up” mode? I completely avoided Windows 8 because I didn’t want any part of a Playskool “My First Computer” OS. Please tell me there is a way to turn off the cartoons and any smart-phone type uselessness. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/4 "2019-10-12T20:43:29Z")
When I very recently upgraded my desktop from Windows 7 to Windows 10, I used [this website](https://www.howtogeek.com/277448/how-to-make-windows-10-look-and-act-more-like-windows-7/) to help me get Win10 to a place that was a lot more familiar. I also downloaded and installed Classic Shell as shown in the site above. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/5 "2019-10-12T20:49:31Z")
Oh my yes. Classic Shell is a must. I’m glad to hear it works for Windows 10, too. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/6 "2019-10-12T21:24:07Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > somehow “tablet mode” got turned on. I’ll boot up my Win 10 PC and look for where that setting is. > > edit: turn the circled setting to “off.” > > [https://i.imgur.com/4Nf75p6.png](https://i.imgur.com/4Nf75p6.png) That wasn’t my precise answer, jz, but you led me down the proper path. I owe you an adult beverage. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/7 "2019-10-12T21:45:17Z")
Classic Shell’s author has quit updating it. There is a new open source replacement Open Shell: > **[Open-Shell (Formerly Classic-Start)](https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/classic_start.html)** > > Open-Shell continues the Classic Shell Open Source project giving you access to the classic style Start Menu for Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. Customize your Windows 10 Start Menu look to like Windows 7, and more. ---
**Author:** ![albino\_manatee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/albino_manatee/32/2_2.png) [@albino\_manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/albino_manatee)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/8 "2019-10-13T12:08:21Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > _" That wasn’t my precise answer, jz, but you led me down the proper path. "_ same as **jz78817** offered you knowledge … perhaps you could state exactly what you did to resolve the issue? tomorrow or the next day … someone is bound to come across the same situation … and you will have helped him in turn … full circle. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/9 "2019-10-13T12:10:14Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Classic Shell’s author has quit updating it. There is a new open source replacement Open Shell: > [Download Open-Shell (Formerly Classic-Start) - MajorGeeks](https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/classic_start.html) It is very hard to adapt such a program to each release of Windows 10 when MS seems to be deliberately modifying things to throw such programs off. It takes a lot of effort to do things like find out where/what is that registry setting _now_? I recently did an update/refresh install and an amazing number of tweaks and settings were lost. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![albino\_manatee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/albino_manatee/32/2_2.png) [@albino\_manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/albino_manatee)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/10 "2019-10-13T12:23:02Z")
agreed … two weeks after buying my win-8 laptop … ended up installing **classic-shell** … been using it ever since _(upgraded to win-10.1903)_. if not for classic-shell … i’d probably have gone mac-osx or linux. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/11 "2019-10-13T14:04:34Z")
> [@albino\_manatee](#): > > same as **jz78817** offered you knowledge … perhaps you could state exactly what you did to resolve the issue? tomorrow or the next day … someone is bound to come across the same situation … and you will have helped him in turn … full circle. 🙂 The quickest way to toggle between desktop and tablet mode is to click on the action bar (the rightmost icon in the taskbar) and click the tile for “tablet mode on/off”. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/12 "2019-10-13T14:50:31Z")
Honestly, what’s all the drama? If you unpin the tiles from ‘start’, you get a rather conventional-style start menu with no tiles and no empty space where tiles might have been. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/13 "2019-10-13T15:23:32Z")
> [@albino\_manatee](#): > > agreed … two weeks after buying my win-8 laptop … ended up installing **classic-shell** … been using it ever since _(upgraded to win-10.1903)_. if not for classic-shell … i’d probably have gone mac-osx or linux. See, I don’t get this. You can’t deal with Microsoft making some changes to the Start Menu, so you think moving to a platform with a significantly different user interface will be easier? > [@Mangetout](#): > > Honestly, what’s all the drama? If you unpin the tiles from ‘start’, you get a rather conventional-style start menu with no tiles and no empty space where tiles might have been. people don’t like having their cheese moved. ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/14 "2019-10-13T19:12:21Z")
I think your second response might answer the question you raised in your first: a user who switches to Gnome or KDE is moving one’s own cheese, which is much more palatable than the alternative. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/15 "2019-10-13T21:33:46Z")
> [@albino\_manatee](#): > > same as **jz78817** offered you knowledge … perhaps you could state exactly what you did to resolve the issue? tomorrow or the next day … someone is bound to come across the same situation … and you will have helped him in turn … full circle. 🙂 Of course. The key, for me, was realizing that it was “tablet mode” that I was looking at. Once I was made aware of that, I searched within settings to find where the Table Mode settings lived. There are options to have it activate when using a tablet, or to never activate (which is what I selected). Sorry, don’t remember exactly where in settings this is located; just search for Table Mode. ETA: The toggle jz directed me to was already in the off positin. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/16 "2019-10-14T00:04:45Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > See, I don’t get this. You can’t deal with Microsoft making some changes to the Start Menu, so you think moving to a platform with a significantly different user interface will be easier? While Macs have a completely different interface, Linux distros have very close approximations of the Windows interface available, and are the default in most. And it’s not the interface that is the problem for most people. It’s the extra widgets and the horrible search. The former can indeed be removed, but the latter is built in. I mean, people will type the exact name of the program they want into search and Search won’t find it and will instead show a Bing search result. It’s ridiculous how bad it is. Not to mention several updates (including a very recent one) that can break the start menu. What used to be the most stable part of Windows is now loaded with junk that messes things up. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/17 "2019-10-14T05:32:05Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Honestly, what’s all the drama? Here’s the drama in a nutshell: 1 - MS announces new UI geared towards mobile devices 2 - MS announces same UI for desktop 3 - The entire planet vomited in unison (except for about 8 people) ---
**Author:** ![mjmlabs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mjmlabs/32/69_2.png) [@mjmlabs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmlabs)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/18 "2019-10-14T07:20:18Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Here’s the drama in a nutshell: > 1 - MS announces new UI geared towards mobile devices > 2 - MS announces same UI for desktop > 3 - The entire planet vomited in unison (except for about 8 people) Actually, that estimate was updated to “about 8.1 people” almost immediately. “About 8 people” is no longer supported. [d/r] ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/19 "2019-10-14T08:54:56Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Here’s the drama in a nutshell: > 1 - MS announces new UI geared towards mobile devices > 2 - MS announces same UI for desktop > 3 - The entire planet vomited in unison (except for about 8 people) No they didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691/20 "2019-10-14T09:11:13Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > No they didn’t. That’s true. I didn’t. I just laughed at all the idiots who bought 8 or 8.1. Now I might vomit a bit because soon I’ll have to get Windows 10 on a new computer and I’m scared that it has some stupid shit for phone-swipers that’ll either be a pain to workaround or not possible to work around. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-desktop-what-the-hell-happened/841691.md?page=2)