Admin Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 I have been using Windows 8.1 for some time now however I missed the Start menu and other useability features of Windows 7 so I thought I would post what I have done to Win 8.1 to make it like Win 7 for those that feel the same as me. Here is a screen shot of my desktop of Win 8.1 with the Windows 7 start button feature: [ATTACH]47443._xfImport[/ATTACH] Firstly right click on the task bar across the bottom of your screen and select properties, and then click the Navigation tab. Set the settings like this: [ATTACH]47444._xfImport[/ATTACH] Next, download and instal a great addon for the Start Button called Start8 which only costs $4.99, (there is a free trial version), don't worry about any of the other products there unless you want Then use the settings in Start8 to create the Start Button. If you want the default Win 7 desktop picture, I have included it attached to this post. Just simply download that and set your desktop background to it Hope this helps to stop being frustrated with Windows 8.1 [ATTACH]47445._xfImport[/ATTACH]
Admin Posted July 28, 2014 Author Posted July 28, 2014 Oh, also Win 8.1 doesn't come with the Win 7 games. These can also be downloaded and installed into Win 8.1: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9rypo5zxfp5d767/tRhHGG6zys
Admin Posted July 28, 2014 Author Posted July 28, 2014 The 3rd thing I did was to bypass the login screen of Win 8.1. To have Win 8.1 log you in automatically do this: From the Start screen type "run". Click on Run and type "netplwiz". OK that and highlight your account. Like this: [ATTACH]47446._xfImport[/ATTACH] Uncheck "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer". Click Apply. Then enter your password and confirm it. Click OK. Restart your PC and when Windows loads it will automatically log you in.
fly_tornado Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 classic shell is free and my mum (76y/o) can't understand why ppl don't like win 8...
Admin Posted July 28, 2014 Author Posted July 28, 2014 classic shell is free and my mum (76y/o) can't understand why ppl don't like win 8... http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/stardock_start8_vs_classic_shell2013?page=0,1 but there are many on the market however whilst Start8 is slightly better, Classic Shell is free
fly_tornado Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 I didn't mind start8 but classic shell ended the support calls from my mum which was all I wanted
rgmwa Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 It seems to me that Windows more or less peaked with XP and progress has all been downhill from there. More complicated, fatter and less intuitive to use. Some should tell Microsoft that perfection is the enemy of good enough, but I guess that won't keep them in business. rgmwa
Admin Posted July 28, 2014 Author Posted July 28, 2014 MS is rushing through Win 9 due to the heavy backlash against Win 8...suppose to be released some time between Oct 2014 and April 2015
rgmwa Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 MS is rushing through Win 9 .... Doesn't sound very hopeful does it. That wouldn't be April 1, 2015 would it? rgmwa
kgwilson Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 I still use XP &/or (preferably) Linux (various distros like Ubuntu, Mint, Red Hat & even Chrome).
Marty_d Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 It seems to me that Windows more or less peaked with XP and progress has all been downhill from there. More complicated, fatter and less intuitive to use. Some should tell Microsoft that perfection is the enemy of good enough, but I guess that won't keep them in business.rgmwa If you ask me, it peaked with 98 SE service pack 2.
fly_tornado Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 Don't get me started on how awesome MSDOS 5 was
Marty_d Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 And BASIC. How I miss programming in BASIC on my 1985 Amstrad with the green screen and tape drive. If I could have looked forward 30 years and seen what was possible with PC's, it would have seemed like magic. Imagine the next 30...
fly_tornado Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 freebsd 3.2 was a dream. so much power for a pentium and 64 mbytes of ram
rgmwa Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 And BASIC. How I miss programming in BASIC on my 1985 Amstrad with the green screen and tape drive. If I could have looked forward 30 years and seen what was possible with PC's, it would have seemed like magic. Imagine the next 30... The first PC I ever had access to was a Tandy TRS80 that our engineering firm bought. It had a 2.1Mhz 8 bit CPU, 2x87MB floppy drives and 32k of useable RAM after the Basic Interpreter was loaded. Very exciting!! There wasn't really any engineering software around in those days (or much else) so a few of us jumped in and started writing our own. Great fun! I quickly moved on to my most serious project - exploiting this vast computing power to improve my chances of predicting next week's Lotto numbers. However despite a valiant effort, I eventually had to admit that the complex multi-variable algorithm I developed after exhaustive analysis of previous winning results wasn't quite up to scratch. Sadly, I had no alternative but to keep working. rgmwa
bushcaddy105 Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 I still have my Microbee - bought in 1983 as a bagful of parts for $299. 2Mhz Z80 and 32K of CMOS Ram. Many hours with a soldering iron later, it worked! Used a doctored 12 inch B&W TV as a monitor and a cassette tape recorder for storage. It grew into 64K Ram and two 5 1/4 inch floppies, with a professional orange screen monitor. For years I have thought about getting it going again - might get around to it one day. P.S. Am I really that old now??
AVOCET Posted July 28, 2014 Posted July 28, 2014 I'm just plodding along with an I phone My 12 year old sons now 21 computer mad !
Marty_d Posted July 29, 2014 Posted July 29, 2014 I remember spending hours on the TAFE's Commodore 64 playing "Sopwith". Simple yet fun.
fatmal Posted July 29, 2014 Posted July 29, 2014 I'm just plodding along with an I phone The first computer I ever used (32 years ago) was an IBM 370/125, running DOS/VSE - I was a trainee operator at the time. This machine filled up a room bigger than my house. The iPhone I carry round now is more powerful! Mal.
dazza 38 Posted July 29, 2014 Posted July 29, 2014 I remember when the folks took out a 2nd mortgage on the house to buy a Commodore 64 when they first came out. Then the DS80 came out which was the ducks guts. It never ends, technology is always moving forward. Just as well computers are cheaper in real terms today than they were back then.
kgwilson Posted July 30, 2014 Posted July 30, 2014 Gordon Moore predicted in 1965 that the number of transistors on a single chip (integrated circuit) would double every 2 years. This became known as Moores Law even though David House of Intel revised this to every 18 month in 1975. Although it is conjecture this rule has proven true to the present day. In 1980 computer storage cost about $700,000.00 per gigabyte. If this was true now your mobile phone with 16 gb of storage would cost $11,200,000.00. Storage space per unit of cost has doubled approximately every 14 months since 1980.
Gnarly Gnu Posted August 2, 2014 Posted August 2, 2014 Technology just keeps improving each year; governments progressively worsen. Free enterprise rocks! I have a back-up FFT analyser that runs CP/M with 5.25 inch floppies, a clunky keyboard and a small mono CRT screen. Still a fantastic device.... have to remember the necessary commands to run it though. On topic windows 8.1 is easily the best version yet, stable and very fast. I also use classic shell just for familiarity reasons.
rgmwa Posted August 2, 2014 Posted August 2, 2014 CP/M....floppies..... CRT.... Ah those were the days - brings tears my eyes... rgmwa
robinsm Posted August 2, 2014 Posted August 2, 2014 I remember the weather bureau in Melbourne installing as huge 2 gigabyte hard drive assembly in 1991. At that time it was close to the largest in the country. They had to remove part of the side of one floor of the building to get it in. Damn thing was huge. Also remember doing night patrols in Auckland of data centres. Along with paper tape and card programming there was manual disc stacks of 1meg that were removed and replaced in slide out drawers. IBM in Auckland had a mainframe that occupied 2 floors of a multistorey building. My phone has roughly 1000 times the memory of that thing.
rgmwa Posted August 2, 2014 Posted August 2, 2014 You haven't lived until you've punched cards with a manual hole punch. rgmwa
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