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Windows 8 On New Laptop... Not Liking Win 8

player

New Member
So I am not liking Windows 8. I think I will trick it out to look and act more like W7. It is like there is a layer of internet BUY BUY BUY skinned over W7.
A bunch of crap, and I have the navigate these online internet shills to use the laptop. I have found a few options, like getting rid of the new start screen desktop and have the usual desktop show all the time instead. W8 has a new feature when the mouse point goes into the corners features pop out. I will disable this feature. Then I will choose one of the 3rd party W7 start button programs to get the W7 start button functions back.

Some links I found:


http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/10/06/disable-start-screen-windows-8-1/

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2046309/the-best-windows-8-start-menu-programs.html

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33642_7-57496506-292/how-to-get-the-start-menu-back-in-windows-8/

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001374.htm




Anyone else using it?

Like it? Hate it?
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Anyone else using it?

Like it? Hate it?

I personally like Windows 8. I think it makes all the difference though if you are using it on a touchscreen device versus a traditional laptop/desktop computer.

I use it on my Cintiq Companion and it works like a charm. Now granted, I also don't use keyboard shortcuts either, I use the programmable keys to the side and/or I program the pen to do my most commonly used commands. To me it is intuitive to use on a tablet, but I can only imagine how clumsy it is on your more traditional computers.

As much as I do like it, I think they should have come out with two versions. One optimized for desktops and one for touchscreen devices. I think that would have helped out a lot. I still do use Win 7 for my traditional computers (2 desktops and a laptop) and wouldn't think of swapping unless I swapped out to touchscreen monitors (even though I would like to replace my 21UX with a 24HD, I don't think that's going to happen any time soon).
 

player

New Member
With the NSA Snowden spying thing as well as other lack of privacy crap online, the whole idea of giving all these companies all kinds of my personal info is not going to happen. Win8 seems to be there to propagate this harvesting. I find it way too intrusive to have all my programs trying to get more and more personal info, when I am not surfing the web. Facebook is something I am not going to "like" a program on, especially when the program is on my computer and I am not consciously online.

It's like the whole computing online industry is hyper ramped up to harvest personal info, but I am trying to be as invisible as possible, giving out fake names, addresses, birth dates etc. They all need to back off.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
With the NSA Snowden spying thing as well as other lack of privacy crap online, the whole idea of giving all these companies all kinds of my personal info is not going to happen. Win8 seems to be there to propagate this harvesting. I find it way too intrusive to have all my programs trying to get more and more personal info, when I am not surfing the web. Facebook is something I am not going to "like" a program on, especially when the program is on my computer and I am not consciously online.

It's like the whole computing online industry is hyper ramped up to harvest personal info, but I am trying to be as invisible as possible, giving out fake names, addresses, birth dates etc. They all need to back off.

You are going to have those online privacy issues rather you are using Win 8 or any earlier Win OS.
 

Joe Diaz

New Member
I'm getting used to it. I didn't like it at first.... on my laptop anyway. I love it on the tablet I have. It's like using my windows phone that I've had for years now. But on the laptop, I find myself spending the majority of the time in desktop mode. Here is what helped for me. First delete/remove all the "apps" that usually comes bundled with certain brands. Updating to Windows 8.1 brings back the familiar start button in desktop mode and if you right click on that, instead of it taking you into metro it gives you the old classic start menu. There are ways you can actually hide metro altogether, which will essentially make your computer run a lot like Win7. Do a Google search to see how. I'm forcing myself to use it more and more because I don't think it's going anywhere and I might as well adapt.... and honestly I really do like metro on touch devices. Hell I'd say I like it better than iOS on my iPad, which I hardly use anymore.

Also there was a weird memory issue I was having. It kept saying I was running out. At first I thought it was Win8 being a resource hog, but after using the update tools on my Samsung Series 9 it mostly fixed my issues. Just to be on the safe side I made a few adjustments in windows to increase my performance. But I have to admit it hasn't been the smoothest of transitions.
 

SightLine

║▌║█║▌│║▌║▌█
Win 8 is a good tablet OS. You can downgrade win 8 to win 7 if it is a real problem for you.

For free?

ONLY if it came with Windows 8 Pro. If it is just regular Windows 8 (or 8.1) then you cannot legitimately downgrade to Windows 7 for free unless it specifically came with Downgrade Rights, a Windows 7 install disc and Windows 7 product installation key.
 

player

New Member
That's what I thought... It is a lower end laptop and there are no disks. I figure I will be OK by using a 3rd party start and doing the other stuff to make it more like Win7.
 
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