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Civilizing Windows 8

ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Civilizing Windows 8

Quote from: HPsauce
Having got bored by the silly shutdown process in W8 ...

I'm finding Start8, http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/ , which returns the Start button and associated commands, quire useful to make Windows 8 more workable on computers without a touch screen.
8 REPLIES 8
Steve
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 6,853
Thanks: 336
Registered: ‎13-07-2009

Re: Civilizing Windows 8

That costs money though. Albeit not much but still..
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Civilizing Windows 8

I know, I know, but it's the modern way Steve.  Freeware is being replaced by 'apps' that cost a small amount of money each.  You can at least run Start8 as a 30-day free trial.
rongtw
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 6,973
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Registered: ‎01-12-2010

Re: Civilizing Windows 8

I remember some time ago Stardock was malware  Sad it added loads of adverts on your browser and pop ups  Angry
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Alex
Community Veteran
Posts: 5,500
Thanks: 921
Fixes: 13
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Civilizing Windows 8

Sounds like an iPhone app then - seems to be the trend nowadays.
Either it's free and you get spammed with adverts, or it's a free game and you have ads and have to pay for credits (so essentially a coin-op then).
Otherwise you have to pay.
mxs
Grafter
Posts: 70
Registered: ‎08-12-2010

Re: Civilizing Windows 8

Take a look at Classic Shell - free and open source.
Seems to work pretty well for avoiding metro and adding the start menu back and seemed to have plenty of configuration options.  Only have win8 on my HTPC at the moment and just needed a way to skip the metro screen and get to the desktop from boot (metro will retain focus over autorun apps otherwise) - does the job there just fine (but no idea how it compares to the alternatives or how well it works in normal use).
peterb99
Grafter
Posts: 53
Registered: ‎23-11-2012

Re: Civilizing Windows 8

I've tried quite a few of them and Classic Shell was the best of the bunch in my opinion.
I preferred the beta version where you could change a registry key and it turned off Metro, but they stopped that.
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Civilizing Windows 8

Quote from: peterb99
Classic Shell was the best of the bunch in my opinion.

Agreed, I'm using it.
Quote
you could change a registry key and it turned off Metro,

I wouldn't be surprised to see that return as an option in a future update.  Wink
shutter
Community Veteran
Posts: 22,206
Thanks: 3,769
Fixes: 65
Registered: ‎06-11-2007

Re: Civilizing Windows 8

From the "classic shell" linky above, I found this  page.....
  http://www.askvg.com/download-classic-shell-skin-to-get-windows-7-look-like-start-menu-and-start-but...
might be worth having a read through....
(one of the linkys a t the bottom of the classic shell link)