I haven't used windows 8, but there are programs to give you back your start menu if that's what's annoying you.

My parents have a machine with windows 8, and I installed the start menu program, just so I could use the thing.


edit: Classic shell is what it is called. It also sounds like Microsoft have realised they made a mistake.

Windows operates in a cycle. A good and bad cycle. XP good. Vista bad. 7 good. 8 bad.

sn said...

pweedas said..

Is it the computer you don't like or the windows 8 ?

the computer itself I will get used to, I just don't like W8,

Formula Nova's "classic shell" thingummy sounds like it might make it tolerable.

Anyone have any pro/cons or better ideas that a techno-peasant can understand

I'm almost tempted to rip out W8, and stuff W7 into its innards, but will wait for a bit of advice before getting the crowbar out.


stephen

I tried the same a while ago on a cheap vista laptop for my oldies, rolling back to xp. It was a major headache because there were no xp drivers for a lot of the components. It really sucked.

myusernam said..
I tried the same a while ago on a cheap vista laptop for my oldies, rolling back to xp. It was a major headache because there were no xp drivers for a lot of the components. It really sucked.

Is XP a bit long in the tooth for new hardware to use?

With W7 being a bit more recent, would it be better to run than going back to XP?

I don't mind admitting tech.stuff is 95% over my head.

All I want to be able to do is type out, print, and email the occasional document, run Hotmail, and waste time keep in touch on Seabreeze, a 4wd site, and a shooting forum, etc.

All the high tech whizzbang stuff is wasted on me. no downloading of pirated movies or hacking for this bloke.


stephen

I stuck with XP for ages. I even downgraded my laptop to XP from Win7 as it came with a license that allowed that.... but it felt that after you loaded all these service packs and so on, that it ran slower than it had any right to.

So, I went to windows 7, and its close enough to XP that its okay. Windows 8? That's just crazy, but eventually you will find that the support for earlier OSs will dry up, so you may as well use it, and try classic shell. From what I just read, it sounds like Microsoft are reintroducing the start menu.

I'm even running older versions of Microsoft Office, because I think they lost the plot after 2003 with their weird interface that no one needed.

ahem... MAC!

Buster fin said..

ahem... MAC!

Vista was sh1tting me to tears so I made the switch to Macbook Pro 2 years ago, only took a couple of arvos to catch on with the OS differences, but I aint looking back...easy to use like all apple stuff, which was good for me because I am not a techy. Am so impressed that I have just bought another one (MacBook air) for my business.

sn said..

pweedas said..

Is it the computer you don't like or the windows 8 ?

the computer itself I will get used to, I just don't like W8,

Formula Nova's "classic shell" thingummy sounds like it might make it tolerable.

Anyone have any pro/cons or better ideas that a techno-peasant can understand

I'm almost tempted to rip out W8, and stuff W7 into its innards, but will wait for a bit of advice before getting the crowbar out.

stephen

I've been putting off buying any new computers because I wasn't impressed with W8.
I was hoping if I put it off long enough they would realise lots of people dont like it and go back to something like xp, or W7.
It bugs me that everything I need to do works fine on xp, but they want to sell me new software so they progressively put out new operating systems which support less and less of the older programs.
Prucks!

XP: is dead and now it even nags you to upgrade. associationsnow.com/2014/03/come-microsoft-nags-windows-xp-holdouts-upgrade/ Use W7 instead.

Win 7: is honestly fantastic. Stable, fast, looks pretty, very usable, easy to set up, just works.

Vista & W8 to be avoided at all costs. (translation: you can make them work / get used to them, but much better off with W7 if you have the choice)

Mac: easy to use if you like being dictated to, doing everything their way. Works great... until it doesn't. Then you have to queue outside an apple store to book an appointment to see a 'genius' who will iCharge you an arm & a leg to fix your problem. No thanks.

Ubuntu/other Linux: Not *quite* worth the effort unless it's your hobby.

Winner: Win 7 by a country mile.

*** And there's absolutely no reason not to 'downgrade' win8 to 7. General rule is that you can't hurt hardware with software ***

I found Win 8 challenging after upgrading my home vista machine. - couldn't even find how to turn the bloody thing off.....

I installed the "startisback" app, which installed the Win7 startbar - makes it a lot more "normal" to use.

I don't mind it now, but I still prefer 7 - my work laptop runs on it.

I love XP. Still works. Only thing is anything owned by Google they deliberately claim incompatibility so you are forced to use Chrome sometimes.
That's what really sh1ts me - changing things for no reason to make it look like your browser is too old.
But XP is still great

kiteboy dave said..

XP: is dead and now it even nags you to upgrade. associationsnow.com/2014/03/come-microsoft-nags-windows-xp-holdouts-upgrade/ Use W7 instead.

Win 7: is honestly fantastic. Stable, fast, looks pretty, very usable, easy to set up, just works.

Vista & W8 to be avoided at all costs. (translation: you can make them work / get used to them, but much better off with W7 if you have the choice)

Mac: easy to use if you like being dictated to, doing everything their way. Works great... until it doesn't. Then you have to queue outside an apple store to book an appointment to see a 'genius' who will iCharge you an arm & a leg to fix your problem. No thanks.

Ubuntu/other Linux: Not *quite* worth the effort unless it's your hobby.

Winner: Win 7 by a country mile.

*** And there's absolutely no reason not to 'downgrade' win8 to 7. General rule is that you can't hurt hardware with software ***

Windows 7 is OK.

At the risk of turning this into a Mac vs Windows thread:

I've been using Mac in a professional workstation environment. It's never let me down once in 7 years. Using the same workstation since 2008 and works super smooth. I haven't upgraded the OS since 10.6.9 but runs 2013/14 very advanced 3D software perfectly. Never had a single virus, trojan or malware issue and very quick updates, usually no more than a couple of minutes. TimeMachine has saved me several times when inadvertently overwriting files.

I think the beauty of Mac OS is that it just gets out of the way and let's you do work, rather than providing you with endless options for the GUI, the system settings and Classic Desktop or whatever. Plus Mac has some incredibly powerful hardware optimisation features that Windows simply lacks, and that's what counts when running hardware and graphics intensive operations.

If you're just surfing the net or reading emails, probably doesn't matter what you use.

thePup said..

Stephen - do not attempt putting W7 on a W8 system (or vice versa - trust me , you will crash it certainly ..... I lost two lappies , got lucky at a Hardly Normal PC store and snapped a Toshi with W7 installed - been the only win I've had since W8 came out ... it's a rubbish system designed for kids and their bloody phone apps lifestyles

Or buy commercial spec pcs... they even come with win 7 pre-installed (and win 8 disks if your brave) due to downgrade rights.
Crappy thing is the sale of the pc will count as a win 8 sale - even though it was never installed.

Bonominator said..
If you're just surfing the net or reading emails, probably doesn't matter what you use.

All the more reason NOT to use Windoze. For as long as Windoze isn't allowed to connect to the outside world it's safe. As soon as it connects to the outside world it's vulnerable. The above-mentioned situation is precisely where you should be using Linux.

It was not worth finding the vulnerabilities in apple as it is used by 10% or less of the market. All those dickheads that wanted to insert viruses and compromise your machine wanted maximum impact so they attacked Microsoft which was the more prevalent.
Apple is not better it is just that no one could be stuffed bothering with it as it is so insignificant