windows 8

[EarlyMon]

LOL I love the title of this article:

Make Windows 8 Suck Less With Classic Shell

We just went with this for mum's pc, works great.

Tried and liked Start8 but it left a button to easily switch her into Metro, something that we didn't want.

 

[mikedt]

LOL I love the title of this article:

Make Windows 8 Suck Less With Classic Shell

Ah yes, make Windows suck less...

Sure...go to a store that sells a Windows get genuine Gunuine kit.... in China.. LOL... OK!
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas any more." or Redmond for that matter.

 

[andruoid]

We just went with this for mum's pc, works great.

Tried and liked Start8 but it left a button to easily switch her into Metro, something that we didn't want.

Right click the Start8 button, then hit Configure Start8..., select Desktop and disable all Windows 8 hot corners, also select Hide Modern UI Apps and Automatically go to Desktop when you sign in.

 

[EarlyMon]

Right click the Start8 button, then hit Configure Start8..., select Desktop and disable all Windows 8 hot corners, also select Hide Modern UI Apps and Automatically go to Desktop when you sign in.

Did that. Still recall that the start menu had a Metro button. Might have missed something in config though.

 

[sfbloodbrother]

Ah yes, make Windows suck less...

Sure...go to a store that sells a Windows get genuine Gunuine kit.... in China.. LOL... OK!
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas any more." or Redmond for that matter.

Where did you get that copy? I got mine on Amazon.

 

[lunatic59]

Where did you get that copy? I got mine on Amazon.

Mike is in China which means he cannot activate MS products (legitimately).

 

[mikedt]

Mike is in China which means he cannot activate MS products (legitimately).

Yeh, I think legitimately is about right. What I've found is that one can't actually buy Windows as a stand alone OS in China, except in Hong Kong. I was only able to activate it in the end, because I have a UK Visa card from a UK bank, and gave a UK address for the registration. Normally one only buy and activate it if comes with a new PC or laptop, and even then it's usually only the crippled Home Basic edition from what I've seen.

I can buy MS Office in China, but not Windows, or so it seems. The new laptop I was using Win 8 on, came with pirated and hacked Win 7 Ultimate, it originally would have with some crappy Linux based OS called Linpus or Meego, which was horrid. The local Lenovo dealer thought they were doing me a favour when I bought the laptop by "giving" me Windows (Welcome to China ). Since then I've wiped all Windows completely from it, and just go with Linux Mint now.

EDIT:

A couple of days ago a friend, who keeps my mail, told me there's a package arrived from Microsoft addressed to me in the UK. It's probably the license sticker and product key to stick on my Linux Mint laptop. LOL.

 

[sfbloodbrother]

Yeh, I think legitimately is about right. What I've found is that one can't actually buy Windows as a stand alone OS in China, except in Hong Kong. I was only able to activate it in the end, because I have a UK Visa card from a UK bank, and gave a UK address for the registration. Normally one only buy and activate it if comes with a new PC or laptop, and even then it's usually only the crippled Home Basic edition from what I've seen.

I can buy MS Office in China, but not Windows, or so it seems. The new laptop I was using Win 8 on, came with pirated and hacked Win 7 Ultimate, it originally would have with some crappy Linux based OS called Linpus or Meego, which was horrid. The local Lenovo dealer thought they were doing me a favour when I bought the laptop by "giving" me Windows (Welcome to China ). Since then I've wiped all Windows completely from it, and just go with Linux Mint now.

Well that's a bit strange. Maybe the country wants to get rid of Windows, and move to Linux.

 

[EarlyMon]

Well that's a bit strange. Maybe the country wants to get rid of Windows, and move to Linux.

It's just really hard to find a real copy of Windows for sale separately in a lot of Asia.

Took me days to track down a real copy, not counterfeit, in Taiwan.

 

[lunatic59]

It's just really hard to find a real copy of Windows for sale separately in a lot of Asia.

Took me days to track down a real copy, not counterfeit, in Taiwan.

Aren't MS's authentication servers also blocked in much of Eastern Asia?

 

[EarlyMon]

Aren't MS's authentication servers also blocked in much of Eastern Asia?

That I wouldn't know. I've only had occasion to install on machines not netting to the outside world.

Mike may know.

 

[mikedt]

Well that's a bit strange. Maybe the country wants to get rid of Windows, and move to Linux.

It seems MS has a policy of not selling retail Windows and "Get Genuine Kits" in emerging markets. Apparently it's only supplied and can be activated if it comes with a new PC. And then it's usually the crippled and restricted Home Basic version, from what I've seen on new laptops here.

That's why I made The Wizard of Oz crack about me not been in the United States, when I saw the original notice.

 

[mikedt]

That I wouldn't know. I've only had occasion to install on machines not netting to the outside world.

Mike may know.

You can activate the Home Basic edition, if it comes pre-installed on a new PC and it has a valid license key. And you can upgrade HB to Ultimate for something like equivalent of $200-$300.

HB is a restricted and crippled version of Windows that MS distributes in emerging markets and third world countries, rather than the regular Home Premium one. Although I believe with Win 8, there isn't a crippled HB edition and a normal HP one, like there is with Vista and 7. There is regular, Professional and Enterprise, as well as RT. I haven't actually seen any Win 8 machines here yet, but AFAIK they're considerably more expensive than their Win 7 Home Basic counterparts.

From what I've seen, backstreet PC assemblers and DIY'ers just pirate Windows and don't really care. But I didn't really want to go down that particular avenue.

 

[mikedt]

Windows 8 China edition confirmed by Microsoft employee? | WinBeta

A PRC edition of Windows 8 .... hmmmm...I bet that's got government back-doors and censoring, like with PRC edition of Skype. Think I'll be sticking with Linux(non-Chinese) for the moment.

EDIT.

This might have been why I couldn't activate the regular Windows 8 I had, and had to basically pretend I was in the UK. Microsoft wants to ensure everyone here is using the special PRC edition to keep the government happy, I guess. That's what MS does with Skype.

 

[andruoid]

Start8 and ModenMix are quite possibly the best apps if you want to see 1 interface when in Win8.

With Start8 I've disabled all the hotkeys that lead one into the Modern UI. ModernMix lets you run Modern apps in the normal desktop and have the ability to resize them.

Very much worth the $5 each.

 

[pastafarian]

Been using Win 8 on a Lenovo Y400 for about 4mo now with no major issues. I use classic shell to avoid the not metro interface. a little more than a week ago we started seeing the machine go to automatic repair when left idle for a length of time, usually over night. The repair always fails. All the repair/refresh options fail too. When I went to system restore, the only point is a windows update on 4/21 (when this all started?) . The system is very slow to reboot too. I've given up saving the install and am backing up the user stuff in case the incremental bu missed anything as I'm typing this (and as my house is being torn up around me in major repair from Sandy). I was liking 8 up to this point, but getting squashed by an update and then having every avenue of repair short of a full wipe and re install fail with no clue as to why is a major fail in my mind.

 

[sfbloodbrother]

Been using Win 8 on a Lenovo Y400 for about 4mo now with no major issues. I use classic shell to avoid the not metro interface. a little more than a week ago we started seeing the machine go to automatic repair when left idle for a length of time, usually over night. The repair always fails. All the repair/refresh options fail too. When I went to system restore, the only point is a windows update on 4/21 (when this all started?) . The system is very slow to reboot too. I've given up saving the install and am backing up the user stuff in case the incremental bu missed anything as I'm typing this (and as my house is being torn up around me in major repair from Sandy). I was liking 8 up to this point, but getting squashed by an update and then having every avenue of repair short of a full wipe and re install fail with no clue as to why is a major fail in my mind.

Hopefully this issue for you will be fixed in Blue.

 

[andruoid]

Been using Win 8 on a Lenovo Y400 for about 4mo now with no major issues. I use classic shell to avoid the not metro interface. a little more than a week ago we started seeing the machine go to automatic repair when left idle for a length of time, usually over night. The repair always fails. All the repair/refresh options fail too. When I went to system restore, the only point is a windows update on 4/21 (when this all started?) . The system is very slow to reboot too. I've given up saving the install and am backing up the user stuff in case the incremental bu missed anything as I'm typing this (and as my house is being torn up around me in major repair from Sandy). I was liking 8 up to this point, but getting squashed by an update and then having every avenue of repair short of a full wipe and re install fail with no clue as to why is a major fail in my mind.

As well as backups of files, photos, etc. I have 2 complete system images; I make the first system image once all the main programs and windows updates + system settings are configured. The 2nd is with all the other less important apps installed + my files. Recovering this way is much faster as it's done with far less effort on my (and computers) part.

 

[pastafarian]

As well as backups of files, photos, etc. I have 2 complete system images; I make the first system image once all the main programs and windows updates + system settings are configured. The 2nd is with all the other less important apps installed + my files. Recovering this way is much faster as it's done with far less effort on my (and computers) part.

I have similar. Relatively easy, but still a small pain in the butt to wipe and come back. Shouldn't be necessary on a relatively young install. That with all its recovery options win8 is unable to be repaired and doesn't even report why it's incapable of repair beyond "repair(restore) failed, try again later" is very disappointing.

 

[pastafarian]

@#$%! So I installed my clean image and ran windows update with the intention off making a new post update image (since the update seemed to be the root of my problem). Argghh...after 3 hours of preparing it finally started installing. It stalled out on the malicious software removal tool and after 6 hours of no progress, I ended up canceling and rebooting. Which left me with a slow booting machine that can no longer repair or update. I decided to start fresh and used Lenovo's one touch to restore to a fresh image. I'm trying to update the malicious update tool tool first, but it's now hung on preparing for over an hour. ARGHHHHHHH! I officially hate Win 8!!!!!

 

[pastafarian]

Again!!!! Three hours and no install! If I stop it, i'm left with a broken system that will no longer update at all.

 

[andruoid]

Again!!!! Three hours and no install! If I stop it, i'm left with a broken system that will no longer update at all.

That is frustrating. Are you doing a repartition and complete reinstall? If so that will take hours as the drive gets a secure wipe. Also, you didnt change anything in the BIOS, maybe reset that to defaults just to try.

Im an OS flip-flopper and linux is giving me a hard time. Ubuntu loses WiFi and Mint if I minimize a window it just disappears. lol

Im finding Linux runs better in virtual than native, at least on this laptop. Win8 is going back on as we speak.

Good luck to the both of us

 

[Mehta23]

I found something similar to Start 8 (can't remember what it was called exactly, classic start 8 or something) which was free. Seems to work ok

 

[MacFett]

I found something similar to Start 8 (can't remember what it was called exactly, classic start 8 or something) which was free. Seems to work ok

Probably is classic shell. It is close to start 8 and the start orb, but not quite for my taste.

 

[SamuraiBigEd]

Again!!!! Three hours and no install! If I stop it, i'm left with a broken system that will no longer update at all.

That is starting to sound like a potential hardware or bios issue.