From experience, I'm STILL trying to figure out WHY people think Apple's OS is BETTER the Microsoft OS.
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From experience, I'm STILL trying to figure out WHY people think Apple's OS is BETTER the Microsoft OS.
Mac equipment costs way too much for what you get. Stick with a reasonable Windows solution, and use Win 8. It's not that hard to figure out 8, people!
so many people are trying so hard to dislike Windows 8. It is faster, more secure, and offers features and utilities that are not available in Win7. I have been using it for 3 months and would not now contemplate going back to 7, I am 61 years old and have only had a home computer for around two years, so if I can manage the change there is hope for you yet.
If you really want to have it look and feel as much like 7 as you can it is not necessary to download and install free/paid apps to achieve that, so before you go to the trouble and expense of doing that or even downgrading to 7 I urge you to try the following three steps first.
1. If you don't want to interact with the start screen at all, simply drag the desktop tile to the top left position of the first group of tiles (if it's not there already) - then went you boot-up/log-in press enter and you go straight to the desktop.
2. Enable the Desktop toolbar - right-click on Taskbar>Tools and click to enable - then create desktop shortcuts for your documents, pictures, music and video folders. (right-click on the folder in File (ie Windows) Explorer, click create shortcut, click yes to place on desktop.
Now create three or four desktop folders for your favourite/most used programs - eg Tools, Security, A/V Apps etc., (right-click on desktop, New>folder, name it, then drag and drop shortcuts as required to these folders. Along with the default desktop icons for computer, control panel etc. you now have the equivalent of the first part of the old start menu.
3. To recreate the all programs part, create a new toolbar for the taskbar as follows - right-click on the Taskbar, select Toolbars, and then go to New Toolbar. You'll be prompted to choose a folder. Instead, paste the following.
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
in the filename line and click select folder - you now have a programs toolbar which replicates the all programs part of the old start menu.
Hope you, and maybe others, will consider this before giving up on Win8.
Good luck
the guy wants windows 7, and you all reply telling him why he is wrong. I don't like windows 8 either, and i shouldnt need to install crap to make it look like a normal freakin computer... And btw, even if u do install the shell program, the metro interface still uses system resources. Maybe windows 8 is nice if u have a touch screen computer. But otherwise, i too prefer to stick with windows 7. To the op. Just insert windows 7 install disk, format your drive and do a fresh install.
I would take your point, but it's not, it's a forum in which members are invited to express their opinions on the topic posted. The presumption is that Gary chose this forum for his question to elicit those views, though since they seem to be evenly divided, I don't know if he will be any further forward with it. He doesn't seem to have settled on an answer yet, at any rate.
I'm puzzled as to why you posted your comment as a reply to mine, since I have not told him he is wrong, merely asked him to consider other options before taking the steps to downgrade.
Bear in mind, too, that others, as yet undecided on the issue, will be reading these comments to help them with their problem, which is why I posted the tips above as a kind of half-way-house between adding third-party apps (or installing crap as you say) to alter the look of 8 and going the whole way with a downgrade. I am gratified that at least four members have found that helpful.
I am a Software/Hardware QA Engineer with 40+ years experience in the industry. I buy my Sirloin and Prime Rib with what I make from doing my job. By every measure I have in my testing tool kit, I can't see how ANYONE can say Win 8 is faster. It just ain't so! Maybe faster than Win 2000, but not XP or 7. If anyone has a qualitative test that will prove me wrong, give it to me with your results. If I can duplicate your results, I'll say so. Otherwise, don't say another word about 8 being faster.
Adrian Kingley-Hughes over on ZDNet did some tests and 8 is marginally faster in a number of areas. No huge differences, but if you're timing everything closely, slightly faster in some areas.
I have had 7 and 8 on the same hardware (thanks to a crash ...) and it seems that copying a large group of files sometimes has a slightly faster throughput with 8. It does boot slightly faster. But with an SSD you're talking maybe 3 seconds faster--so who really cares?
Thanks for answering a question and not trying to force a person I something they don't want with a bunch more crap. Just ridiculous!
"File (ie Windows) Explorer" - so, has Windows 8 renamed the File Manager to "File Explorer?" The most aggravating aspect of Microsoft is their penchant for renaming and rearranging the file system with each new version of Windows. For years we had CHKDSK, which they renamed that to something else for a few years before going back to CHKDSK. For years the file system manager was called FILE MANAGER, until someone got the idea of making it more like Internet Explorer by calling it just plain EXPLORER. Now they are half-way back to FILE MANAGER. (?) I never understood the rationale for substantially rearranging the file system in Windows XP Pro from what was used in the non-Pro version of XP. I barely got started in Vista when Windows 7 came out, again with what I consider unnecessary large changes in the file system. I swore I would never upgrade to a new Microsoft OS after Win 7, and 8 is consolidating my resolve. When Win 7 is no longer supported, Linux here I come!
Seems to me that jumping through a bunch of software hoops, just to make Windows 8 more like Windows 7 is an exercise in dumbness.
Just stick with Windows 7 for crying out loud!
THERE is why you got used to it so quickly, you've not had the experience, and don't have to unlearn fifteen years of Windows with a Start button. New users, surely, will adapt more quickly than users who've been doing the same things SINCE THEY GOT a computer in, say 1998. New users have had to learn recently, and don't have to unlearn as much.
I threw the baby out with the bathwater, anyway, and just installed Linux. With that, you can easily customize your user experience the way you want, making your system look and feel like any version of windows, or mac, or anything you want. That, I was willing to learn, it didn't require unlearning windows, simply learning new things.
To the original questioner, I'd say, install Linux, leaving a dual boot, and that way you have a windows install if you really have to use it for a program or two (probably no more than that) that won't work on Linux without a lot of trouble.
Then, you can decide what you want, you can even get a 3-D taskbar, several floating tool menus, multiple desktops and monitors, easily, and for the most part, it's all free, and much more secure than a virus-laden windows environment, which had critical updates within THREE days of release!
I have to jump through all these hoops to make it work...It's the job of MS, not me, to make this easy to operate. I'll be damned if I have to create and recreate to get it to be a decent system. I'll give it months before they pull the plug on it and spare us from our misery. I have worked with Windows since before XP and I have never seen such a mess as this.
You actually answered this persons question with your answer but in a backwards way. It's just too much trouble to try and make Windows 8 look like Windows 7. He doesn't say but if he doesn't have a Touch Screen computer then it's downright flustrating to use with the mouse.
I don't want to hack the registery, and create toolbars to make it look like Windows 7. I don't think being faster for the mormal user is a factor. If you want it to boot faster then get an SSD Drive for Drive C and your Windows 7 will boot like magic in 10 seconds.
I have 3 registered copies of Windows 7 and 1 of Windows 8 but I've already removed Windows 8 and gone back to Windows 7.
My advice to anyone who bought a pc with Windows 8 and doesn't like it, just purchase an OEM Copy of Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, about $89 at Fry's, and do a new install. Load all the updates get any drivers you need from your hardware site, HP, Dell, etc.
Your new pc should have a reserve partition with Windows 8 on it so you can reload it if you ever want to sell it or something.
Why would anybody put an operating system on a PC that is designed for touch screen They get filthy dirty with fingerprints, smudges etc. and require you to either have a low desk or have sore shoulders from having your arms up all day. If your using a program like Lightroom to digitally edit pictures the last thing you need is a dirty smudged up screen. Touch screens also make large screens hard to see since you have to be so close to the screen. If I want a tablet computer I'll buy a tablet and If I want a Desktop why in heck would I want a touch screen!
Steve Balmer needs to understand that If a customer wanted an Apple computer they'd buy an Apple. Like the stupid visually junked up "ribbon" interface of Microsoft office this is just change fore change sake. It's Like "NEW!" Tide in detergent marketing. For example word still is missing useful features like being able to draw on an illustration embedded in a document, a feature that Ami Pro had twenty years ago on their version for Windows 3! And it didn't have all that stupid automatic formatting that drives one to insanity in Word and so many useless features that you can't find the basic features you use everyday. So Steve Balmer spends millions on an operating system upgrade that is literally used by billions of people at work that is designed for playing not working. Duh!! Steve Jobs is laughing his *** off in his grave!
I would hesitate to take the advice of someone who has only two years experience with a home computer, and that with Windows 7. Maybe I am a snob, but I have a different view of the change because of being around PCs since before Windows 1.0.
isn't it. Unless I am a grizzled old campaigner with years of experience my opinion is not valid and my experience is not relevant - or is that being too sensitive?
I didn't dream up those tips myself, you know, I got them from some old campaigners at the likes of Cnet/Lifehacker/Makeuseof and, having tried them, passed the info on - that's how a knowledge community works.
Yeah, Windows 8 takes a little getting used to. It is radically different, far more different from Windows 7 than Windows XP was from Windows 98. It may even be more different than Windows 95 was from Windows 3, which was barely usable unless you were one of those patient sorts who saved their work frequently and could tolerate a crash every ten minutes or so.
But although I will criticize the Metro UI until I'm blue in the mouth (at least for desktop use), it is virtually irrelevant on the desktop, and the desktop is familiar enough that it only takes a few hours of use, and occasionally googling your particular question or issue, to become comfortable with it.
And everything's faster, cleaner, crisper, and more secure, with Windows 8. It boots up so rapidly that you can actually use it for little, momentary things like looking up an actor's name on a TV show or something during an ad break.
Give yourself a little more time with it. It is not particularly sensible to resist change in the IT world, because it is unavoidable, rapid and inevitable. And Windows 8 is DEFINITELY a change for the better.
For someone thinking of using Windows 8, after reading this answer I conclude that it wouldn't give something easy to use unless you go through a great rigmarole befoore you can get to something convenient. So why go with Windows 8 in the first place?
I am 72 years old and have had home computers for 25 years and I hate Windows 8. Why? Because it appears to be for kindergarteners. That's fine for newbees and young children, but for those of us who are used to having a lot of control over the system, it's very irritating. Microsoft should understand that and offer two versions. One for us control freaks and another for all the rest.
Ruth
We could disable the Meto theme in Windows 8 DP but we cannot in the later versions and not in Windows 8 Pro. But not being able to disable the Metro theme has had no effect on Windows users. Because you can install Classic Shell or Start menu 7 to get the Windows 7 or Windows XP start menu and start button in Windows 8.Which is what most Windows 8 users are doing.
Also Classic Shell enables you to boot straight to the desktop by passing the start screen and you can also disable the Charms Bar in Classic Shell.
Have you not tried to use Windows 8 with a start menu software instead of the Metro theme?
I have three machines on Win 8 as of the end of 2012. Gary, I urge you to not make a mistake and try to go back to Windows 7 from what you have already purchased. None of my computers are touchscreen and they all work just like XP or Win 7 machines (no tiles).
Try instead a Start8 ($5) or free Classic Shell Startup program instead. (I recommend Start8 because it is faster and there is sometimes hesitation in Classic Shell.)
There are security advantages to be had with Win 8 that you will need in the future. My view of software companies is that the brightest folks will be working on the newest security software fixes. Why not stay with the new software platform you have?
Best of luck!
I was turned off with the Windows 8 upgrade on my non touch screen computer. Then I downloaded a program that gave back to me a lot of the earlier features I had gotten use to. There are several, but Pokki is what I used and it is a free download.
www.pokki.com
Agreed. W8 is a nightm are. The Start screen is a joke when compared to the iPad for touch uses. Plus, the programs are a cut-down-version of the real ones, i.e. Internet Explorer. The old Start screen is still much better. To make W8 similar to W7 get START from Stardock Software. I have been using it for the past month and it eliminates most of the user issues with W8.
However, my mouse cursor still jumps all over the place when typing/keyboarding. Who knew that this would be a benefit of W8![]()
1. For all PRACTICAL purposes Windows 8 is a faster, SAFER version of Windows 7.
2. Yes, as usual, they made a few setting harder to find, but other than that, there is just the start screen and hidden right and left side bars.
3. ALL you usual program icons can be put on the desktop and accessed by clicking on the start page desktop icon.
4. IF you are in a full page app, just hit the windows key for the desktop view.
5. I have YET to discover a LEGITIMATE argument for NOT using Windows 8 on ANY system with a gig of memory and a video card capable of 1024X768 (though I use it on my netbook with only 1024X600 resolution.
6. I NEVER recommen UPGRADING from Windows 7 but for anything else, it is a no-brainer.
Gary G.:
I've been wondering the same thing and talked to my computer store people (computer-related items are the only items they sell, so they should know) and I was told that it can be done, but it requires not only changing the OS from 8 to 7, but also the drivers and other matters so compatibility is not a problem. So, I will still try to find a computer with Windows 7 and upgrade later if I feel the need or want to. Upgrading is always easier and simpler than going "backward".
Use programs like "Start8, Classic Shell, Pokki. these programs will allow 8 to look like the Windows 7 desktop so you don't have to reinstall everything.
Submitted by: Mark Goldman
Source information: Kim Kommando.com
Windows installers (all of them, actually) guard against installing an older version of Windows on top of a newer one.
You CAN install it, however, you will likely want to contact your PC's maker and ask if they have the option to downgrade to Windows 7. More often than not, PC makers do give the option of doing this for free or a lower cost.
You can go out and buy a copy of Windows 7, but why spend money on it if you don't have to. You will likely get a full version disc from whomever you got the system from. There IS a way to install using an upgrade copy - but I do not think Microsoft would be too happy with me if I posted this information. The information, by the way, is already on the web - search for "install Windows upgrade clean"
Be sure to back up any important documents (if you've got any) on the new PC before installing Windows 7. You may need to consult your owner's manual to see how you can make your PC boot from the optical drive (DVD or Blu Ray) instead of booting from the hard drive/SSD.
When you're ready, simply insert the disk in the drive, boot and follow the instructions for a CLEAN install. There's not too much more to it.
Wolfie2K5-
Yes you can install Windows 7 or even windows Vista on a windows 8 PC,the same as you could install Windows Vista or Windows XP on a Windows 7 compute. As long as you have a copy of Windows 7 to install on the computer,and you need the full install version of Windows 7,NOT an upgrade version.
Yes there is secure boot on all Windows 8 PCs, but you can disable secure boot in the bios settings.Then you should be able to do a clean install of Windows 7.
The only thing that may be a problems is the drivers,as some drivers may not work on Windows 7,for example,webcam or wireless drivers etc. In which case you will have download the appropriate drivers from the manufacturers website.
I have used all of the Beta versions of Windows 8 which I installed on my Windows 7 netbook. I was using Windows 8 RP until it expired 2 weeks ago.I have not got round to installing Windows 8 Pro yet though I have bought the upgrade install DVD. But when I do install Windows 8 Pro 32 bit (as I have a netbook) I will install it on one of my Windows 7 netbooks.
I personally would not buy a Windows 8 computer,I would have just bought a Windows 7 laptop which they still sell.Then install Windows 8 over it. It's better that way,as then you get a clean install of Windows and also if you ever want to go back to Windows 7, you can do.
The one big disadvantage is that Windows 8 is only being sold as an upgrade install and not as a full install like Windows 7 is. Which means you must already have Windows 7,Windows Vista or Windows XP installed first before you can install Windows 8. Where as with Windows 7 you can buy it as a full installation DVD and install it on a computer that has no operating system on it.
That's the only problem with Windows 8,that it's only being sold as an upgrade and not a full install.Which means I will have first uninstall my Windows 8 RP, as it has expired now,then re-install Windows 7,then upgrade to Windows 8. Instead of doing a clean install which I would have preferred and would be less time consuming.
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Of course it is possible but you have to format your computer before you install Any Operating Sysytem
and it is a very easy and simple process
As a service manager at a renowned national computer chain, I have to remind you of an important detail. As you know, when you buy a brand-name computer, it comes with an operating system [mostly Windows]. In your case, of course, you can remove Windows 8 and install whatever system you want; however, a problem will happen if you have to make a claim under warranty for any defect. Specifically, here is how it goes: your new pc came with Windows 8. You don't like it and want to run Windows 7. If, for example, the graphics card or the hard disk go kaput and you take it in, the service center will replace the defective part and will reinstall Windows 8 because that's how the computer was originally sold. The warranty is for the pc to work under Windows 8. If you have problems with another o/s but the computer runs fine under Windows 8, then it is your problem and this is not covered under the warranty. Good luck.