windows 8

Ok...I'll admit. Windows 8 is starting to grow on me. I'm getting used to it now and can kinda sorta stand it. Overall, way less updates than 7. My 7 machine was giving me problems freezing up halfway through the 526 misc updates it did on a weekly basis. I liked 7 but found that half the time the OS was doing updates. So far with this thing it's been pretty much flawless. No freezing up.

Now, I ended up getting the missus a new dell inspiron touch screen a while back with windows 8 as well. We kinda had no choice in the matter. Her other laptop was only a year old but apparently laptops don't like tea as much as she does.

After we dried it out the thing wouldn't even turn on. I tried it again yesterday and the thing finally turned on after a month or so. Only thing now is the keyboard is fried. Only half the keys work. I managed to bypass the login screen using the "ease of access" onscreen keyboard to type in the password and the rest of the system seems fine. I went on ebay and found a new replacement keyboard for it for a whopping $13 including shipping. I figure before we junk her old $800 laptop I'll try replacing the keyboard.

groomerguyNWO said:

Ok...I'll admit. Windows 8 is starting to grow on me. I'm getting used to it now and can kinda sorta stand it. Overall, way less updates than 7. My 7 machine was giving me problems freezing up halfway through the 526 misc updates it did on a weekly basis. I liked 7 but found that half the time the OS was doing updates. So far with this thing it's been pretty much flawless. No freezing up.

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Windows 8 grew on me so much that I literally GAVE AWAY the last laptop I had that it rendered completely useless. Believe it or not, about half of the people passed on getting a free laptop if it came with Windows 8. The internet is now so full of millions of people complaining about Winblows 8 that Microsoft is now HEAVILY subsidizing all ads for computers loaded with Winblows 8 to try and get them off the shelves before they get version 9 out and, they hope, prevents the complete collapse of Windows. Even worse for Microsoft, I've read that version 8.1 is, somehow, even worse than 8! I personally cannot imagine anything worse than 8, but apparently Microsoft screwed up even worse with an attempted quick fix to stop the severe hemorrhaging of customers due to a disastrous OS. Like many others, I'm finished with anything 'Windows' related for life. Hopefully you are able to still use your computer.

Dargo said:

Windows 8 grew on me so much that I literally GAVE AWAY the last laptop I had that it rendered completely useless. Believe it or not, about half of the people passed on getting a free laptop if it came with Windows 8. The internet is now so full of millions of people complaining about Winblows 8 that Microsoft is now HEAVILY subsidizing all ads for computers loaded with Winblows 8 to try and get them off the shelves before they get version 9 out and, they hope, prevents the complete collapse of Windows. Even worse for Microsoft, I've read that version 8.1 is, somehow, even worse than 8! I personally cannot imagine anything worse than 8, but apparently Microsoft screwed up even worse with an attempted quick fix to stop the severe hemorrhaging of customers due to a disastrous OS. Like many others, I'm finished with anything 'Windows' related for life. Hopefully you are able to still use your computer.

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Not a problem using my computer. Runs so much smoother and quicker than my old laptop with windows 7.

Linda won a new Dell laptop w/ windows 8 a couple of weeks ago and gave it to me to replace my 10 yr old Gateway PC w/ XP. I think she secretly wants to put me in a rubber room,LOL!! I have tried off and on all PM and this evening trying to find a Powertoys pic resizer. Finally found one that looked similar to the XP/7 one. Free download and had to start this username and password game with them. After repeated tries using the password I'd written down when I set it, I tried setting a new one. UHUH!! When they asked if this page was helpful and I checked "NO", they asked for comments and I typed they could take all their password BS and shove it up their corporate anus!! I'm kinda getting used to 8 but dealing w/ Microsoft has gotten to be a PIA!! I'm to the point I'm ready to get this gutted out and have 7 installed!! Or maybe better, trade it for a Mac!!
Rant over,
Mike

Mike, I have asked this question but have not gotten an answer. If you figure this out, please let me know. I want to run the App screen (the screen that comes up when you press the Windows key), not as a full screen, but minimized somewhat so I can still see things on the desktop, like my clock, calendar, volume control, etc. So far, if anyone knows how to do it, they have not said.

To me it's a waste to have the App screen take up the entire screen.

Thanks, Bob

RLK, so far I just feel fortunate to be able to get on the web and check E-mail. If I happen to stumble on to the solution I'll let ya know. This is a whooole different cat from XP and 7 for this ol' fart!!
Mike

So far, I haven't had a problem with 8 other than the odd time when it disconnects from the net and I have to manually go back and reconnect. I'm starting to think that problem is more with our wireless router than with 8. Mine has been running smoothly and flawlessly. When I had 7 on my old laptop, the thing would do 137 updates every week and usually freeze up halfway through them. I haven't had a single issue with updates with 8. The speed is much better with 8 as well. My old 7 machine would often freeze up and not work properly. So far I'm satisfied. It does take getting used to. Like going from a dodge caravan to a ford f150. Two completely different beasts.

mla2ofus said:

RLK, so far I just feel fortunate to be able to get on the web and check E-mail. If I happen to stumble on to the solution I'll let ya know. This is a whooole different cat from XP and 7 for this ol' fart!!
Mike

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You can change Windows 8 to the old look and feel that you are used to. the default design is for touch screen and tablets. I prefer the old design for laptop. I can't tell you where to change it though ...i don't remember. I did it for a friend with a new Windows 8 laptop. I still do not have a windows 8 machine of my own.

Doc said:

You can change Windows 8 to the old look and feel that you are used to. the default design is for touch screen and tablets. I prefer the old design for laptop. I can't tell you where to change it though ...i don't remember. I did it for a friend with a new Windows 8 laptop. I still do not have a windows 8 machine of my own.

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Thanks for the info Doc. Knowing what I know about Windows 8, I wish I didn't have a Windows 8 machine.

I'll see if I can find how to change it to the old look. Or, if anyone knows, please chime in.

Bob

This might help you. They call it "classic view".

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/change-windows-to-classic-view

Doc said:

This might help you. They call it "classic view".

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/change-windows-to-classic-view

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Doc your link is for Vista, not Windows 8. I'm downloading Windows 8.1 update now to see if I can find a similar feature.

Bob

rlk said:

Doc your link is for Vista, not Windows 8. I'm downloading Windows 8.1 update now to see if I can find a similar feature.

Bob

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Let me know how you like it. At this point I'm afraid of anything windows 8 that's "new and improved",LOL!!
Mike

rlk said:

Doc your link is for Vista, not Windows 8. I'm downloading Windows 8.1 update now to see if I can find a similar feature.

Bob

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Sorry Bob. My search was for win 8, so i thought I had found it. I did not dig into the link. My bad.

Doc said:

Sorry Bob. My search was for win 8, so i thought I had found it. I did not dig into the link. My bad.

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Not a big deal Doc.

Win 8.1 was downloaded last night (took about 10 hours to download) and installed. Of course it screwed up all my settings, gadgets, second monitor and perhaps a few other things I have not discovered yet. I'll have to spend some time tomorrow getting things back the way they were.

In the installation, Microsoft has everything set to switch my search engine to Bing; and to let Microsoft distribute my personal information and internet usage statistics to their suppliers so they could send me "quality advertisements that fit my lifestyle". In other words, the default is to trust Microsoft to do what is best for me. I caught this and did a custom install where I could uncheck all the things that give up my privacy. Microsoft should be ashamed of itself trying to trick customers like that.

Bob

Thanks, RLK !! I think I'll just stick w/ windows 8. I have enough difficulty w/ it.
Mike

I had some success today getting two apps to appear on the same screen, or one app to appear along with the desktop.

Here's how I did it: When you click on an app and it takes up the entire screen, put your cursor on the left side of the screen, push the left mouse button, and slowly drag to the right. This will re-size the app and allow the app to run alongside the desktop. My laptop will not consistently do this - I have to play around with it to find the sweet spot. Sometimes the sweet spot is the center of the left edge, sometimes it's at the top left corner, so you may need to play around with yours to find the right place on your screen.

Unfortunately this also screwed up the placement of the desktop icons, but I can live with that.

You can't re-size the apps like you can a window on the desktop. On the desktop you can grab the corner of an open window and drag it up/down/left/right or diagonally to re-size the window. Well, so far with Windows 8.1, I can only drag the window left and right, not up and down or diagonally.

If you drag the window from the top to the bottom it closes the window. If you drag the window from the bottom upwards, nothing happens. Dragging it from left to right is the only way to re-size it. So far I haven't found a way to re-size the height of the window.

While this is an improvement over Windows 8, it still seems like a step backwards from Vista & Windows 7.

Bob

Good job. That would be a huge negative for me. I rarely do anything with full screen. I always have multiple windows going. Do you have a copy of win 7 that you could reload? If not you could purchase one on ebay or at your local computer store. But you would most likely have to wipe the drive clean to install an older version of windows. Or add another drive, make it your c: drive then add the win8 drive with all your stuff after the install. A pain but might be better than dealing with an OS made for tablets.

This seems like the appropriate thread for me to ay that I love Microsoft. Couldn't do my business seamlessly without it. I have windows 8 on pc, a windows phone and am currently posting from a surface. Love love love love

Doc said:

Good job. That would be a huge negative for me. I rarely do anything with full screen. I always have multiple windows going. Do you have a copy of win 7 that you could reload? If not you could purchase one on ebay or at your local computer store. But you would most likely have to wipe the drive clean to install an older version of windows. Or add another drive, make it your c: drive then add the win8 drive with all your stuff after the install. A pain but might be better than dealing with an OS made for tablets.

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I'm giving that serious consideration Doc even though my wife does not like the idea. She thinks MS will drop support of win 7 shortly and we'll be forced back to win 8. She thinks we should give 8.1 a chance before installing 7.

I ran into another problem with the upgrade to 8.1 The Samsung display connected to my laptop would not work after the upgrade. After a day and a half of messing with it, we decided to download the Samsung drivers. That solved the problem. Not sure how the drivers got erased/overwritten/moved during the upgrade.

So, if you upgrade to 8.1 and an external device does not work, the first thing I would do is to refresh the drivers for the device.

Bob

I have similar driver issues with Win 7. Every time I do a Windows Update, it erases my printer driver. Happens to others as well.

I now just keep the printer and other device drivers in a directory and re-install after the upgrades.

Was talking with a co worker the yesterday who said he modified his win8 to be much like win7. Searching via google will bring up the links. Some of them were not from microsoft. You have to install one program and modify registry but the instructions were clear and worked fantastic for him. He said it involved about 5 separate steps total.

So far I canèt really copmplain with 8. its different for sure. its microsofts answer to androidand apple based software. I think you have to look at windows 8 with that mindframe instead of comparing it to windows 7. As far as speed and errors. My last computer with 7 was a dinosaur compared to the new one with 8 on it. This one has been running flawlessly so far. With 7, it seemed like there were 187 different updates every week and they would often not install on the first shot.

I hate to see people getting screwed. I'm part of the 75% loss Microsoft has suffered in desktop and personal computers. I stayed loyal to them until the boondoggle of Windows 8, and then I completely jumped ship. Microsoft used to be on over 95% of new computers sold and now they are only on around 20%; below both Android and Apple.

As is no surprise, Microsoft's introduction of Windows 8 only accelerated Microsoft's loss of market share instead, Microsoft hoped, of increasing their market share. As stated in many places, "Despite everyone’s high hopes for Windows 8 reviving the slumping PC market, Microsoft’s operating system has exacerbated its losses instead." An average and reasonable article stating as much can be read here Did Microsoft Kill the PC Market with Windows 8? Microsoft has billions of dollars to spend. Hopefully they abandon their awful new OS and start anew with something that can legitimately compete.

Dargo said:

I hate to see people getting screwed. I'm part of the 75% loss Microsoft has suffered in desktop and personal computers. I stayed loyal to them until the boondoggle of Windows 8, and then I completely jumped ship. Microsoft used to be on over 95% of new computers sold and now they are only on around 20%; below both Android and Apple.

As is no surprise, Microsoft's introduction of Windows 8 only accelerated Microsoft's loss of market share instead, Microsoft hoped, of increasing their market share. As stated in many places, "Despite everyone’s high hopes for Windows 8 reviving the slumping PC market, Microsoft’s operating system has exacerbated its losses instead." An average and reasonable article stating as much can be read here Did Microsoft Kill the PC Market with Windows 8? Microsoft has billions of dollars to spend. Hopefully they abandon their awful new OS and start anew with something that can legitimately compete.

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Interesting. The linked article is from April, 2013. If you bought Microsoft a year ago today and reinvested the dividends, your return would be over 45%.

As for Windows 8, Microsoft bought Nokia's handset division and is poised to increase its already growing share of the mobile market. The PC market has also apparently reached its bottom (from losing share to mobile devices). Intel reports shipping record volumes of its i5 and i7 processors, for the ever thriving high end PC and server markets. What OS will run those processors? Overwhelmingly, Windows 8 (or 8.1).

jpr62902 said:

What OS will run those processors? Overwhelmingly, Windows 8 (or 8.1).

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Actually, most every Mac uses Intel processors now; not overwhelmingly Windows based systems. I would venture to say that the Mac business is far more important to Intel right now than Microsoft's since Windows based systems are quickly becoming extinct. At college campuses across the country, Mac computers are preferred by what seems to be a 100:1 vs Windows based computers but actually is really dominate over Windows by about a 10:1 margin.

Um, you may want to go back and compare what your earnings would be if you bought Apple back around 2005-6 or so when Windows clearly began falling apart at the seams. There has been a huge amount of dislike for Windows with every version after XP. Personally, I really had no problem with Windows until the advent of Windows 8. And, as I've stated many times, (since it cost me so much because I stupidly purchased some Windows 8 products) I have completely and totally abandoned anything Windows based for life.

I sort of like to compare Windows OS to General Motors. For a very long time I was blindly loyal to Microsoft and their OS. Heck, for a while, you really couldn't even find commercial software supporting anything but Windows unless you had a networked Unix based setup. Now the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction after blind loyalty only ended up costing the loyal customers endless hours of headaches due to problems with the MS product and, then, countless dollars to change to something else that would work. My family was so blindly loyal to GM that they honestly NEVER even considered anything else. However, after suffering from a very, very poor end product and zero after the sale support, like me, I have no relatives who would even remotely consider purchasing a new GM product. At least Microsoft did not file bankruptcy and take tens of millions of people for tens of billions of losses in their stock holdings as well has soaking the US government for hundreds of billions in losses for stupidly bailing them out with our tax dollars. I've worked in and around the auto industry for well over a quarter of a century and I could not possibly disagree more with the government bailing out an automaker that went under due to building a poor product, paying wages they couldn't afford and operating under poor management. I simply have no use for Microsoft products; I do not absolutely despise them as I do GM.

Microsoft is hardly falling apart at the seams. And unless you're in the graphics business, chances are your business network has a Windows OS. And once they discontinue support for XP next year, 8.1 will really start to take off.

I sold my computer store, but I'm not aware of hardly any businesses served by the new owners who use anything Windows based. All you have to do is Google Windows 8 and you cannot possibly say that Windows is not plummeting in customer satisfaction and, therefore, sales.

Every larger business we served was networked with a Unix based OS or any number of alternatives instead of paying the high price demanded by Microsoft for their dying Windows based OS. As I said previously, I hope those stuck with Windows 8 can find a way to use what they bought. Like the many long term Windows users, I strongly felt it was best to cut my losses and replace every Windows based computer and tablet with one that works well with Apple or Android operating systems.

I just read an article last week that detailed how to run Android on a Windows 8 machine. They had a step by step. I tried it, it works.

Couple years ago, I set up a completely functional machine for zero cost above hardware using Ubuntu. Think I could sell one? Nope! What Apple has done is to make people willing to learn a new O/S. Android rode in on that wave. Unix is gaining. It doesn't really much matter. With so much going to the cloud and Chrome Books so cheap, desktop, O/S's, all of them are on the way out.

Apple is very much like the IBM PS/2. They tried to make the hardware and software and control the whole product. It didn't work then, it won't work now. Look close, they are already fading.

Windows 8 isn't really all that different. Windows 8.1 will pretty much boot to a similar desktop to Windows 7.

Folks have loved to hate Microsoft for years. They got us here.