I needed a new laptop recently and could not find one without Win8. So I bought one with Win8 and the first thing I did was to install "Classic Shell". It's a free program that gives you back the Start Button and Start Menu, It even lets you boot directly to the desktop and you can also turn off the annoying Win8 "active corners". After installing Classic Shell and changing those few settings it works just like Win7. I don't even know that the "Metro" Start Screen exists.

I must admit Win8 does seem to be faster. The boot time on my dual core i3 laptop with 4GB of RAM is way faster than the boot time on my Quad Core 8GB desktop - and the desktop even has a much faster hard-drive than the laptop.

Ive had zero program compatibility problems so far with Win8.

So with a few easy and free tweaks, you can get Win8 to work like Win7. No, we shouldn't have to do that, but at least it's an option. Too bad M$ doesn't give us those options out of the box.

Originally posted by drhanaba:

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Originally posted by ronatola:

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I cannot imagine rolling this out to our Corporate population where I work.
The IT deployment/support team would be lynched.
The C-Suite consists of people of 50+ years old on average. They don't have the desire or time to unlearn what we've taught them over the years.

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Ok! So you don't like doing something a little different. You like red xs vs right click and close. And for this, windows 8 is a POS????

Now speak for yourself: I am 67y/o (a couple months from 68) and I don't have a problem with Windows 8. And, by the way, no one taught me. I taught my self how to use computers more than 30 years ago when I bought a Commodore Vic 10. Since that time, I have used every version available, and they all had their little differences. I found the same to be true with the various Linux Distros I've played around with. I have two computers upgraded to windows 8 and my family has not found any show stoppers, even though they just picked up the key board and mouse and started using the thing. You do not like the thing, that is fine but keep in mind that you are a majority of "one." I am a majority of one who like, but unlike you I won't be found daily beating the drum for everyone to like it. Of course, using the thing and not liking it is one thing, but not using it and not liking it is pathetic. Just one old geezer's thoughts. Peace and Love!

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That's quite a chip you've got on your shoulder old man.
You are definitely NOT a majority, and are not in a position to comment on my Corporate Environment.

Originally posted by Ofnir1:

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My old laptop was having issues, and I figured why not try Windows 8 again since I have to re-install Windows anyway.

Let's just say I don't hate it. It's not as bad as people keep saying it is, but this is from a user who's laptop is not part of a big environment. I actually do like it, but installing Start Menu 8 was mandatory.

The only issues I have with Windows 8 are the exclusion of the Start menu out-of-box, MS's wanting Windows 8 to become a closed platform, and most of my portable apps won't run. There might be something I can do about the portable apps, just not sure yet.

Funny thing is, Windows 8 works best with my old laptop, so I'll probably end up keeping Windows 8 longer than a month when I had first installed it. Windows XP Media Center Edition also works great with it, so I'll probably make Norton Ghost backups of both installations and switch between the two every few months.

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Just do dual partitions on the laptop and switch operating systems whenever you want. Instead of start 8 I used Windows Classic Shell (Open Source) which I liked better. However, both seem to accomplish the same thing making windows 8 more user friendly for users without a touch screen.

I have found that Windows 8 seems to be slightly faster than Windows 7 or Windows Vista for that matter, and seems to be just as stable. However, Windows 8 does have several downsides such as active tiles that require some amount of internet bandwidth to continually update their displays or the practice of leaving the apps running, some say they are in hibernation, which consumes some amount of processor and memory resources. Still I have found that Windows 8 is not as bad as some people claim.