For those who miss the classic start menu in the legacy desktop on Windows 8, this free app works great:
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Windows 8 Start Menu
- Thread starter Steerpike
- Start date
JCFarnham
Dark Lord
The stuff microsoft have removed from the shell... that stuff I could get used to eventually. Though I'm glad there's an app for stripping it back to the classic system.
But for a music technologist like my self the media changes piss me off. The following is ripped from wiki.
It's doesn't get any crapper than that. If I want to do what I thought was standard, par for the course stuff, I now have to buy it, or use a programme (sorry app) that doesn't quite measure up in my expectations. Now a lot of you will probably say the media player was useless, but to that I say all I need is something simple that plays what I tell it to play. I couldn't care less for interactive functions, or something that scrobbles what I'm doing to some mythical cloud somewhere else for no good reason ...
If and when I can no longer have a windows 7 pc, I'm switching to an different OS, bugger the added hassle of struggling with compatibility issues.
Sorry for the rant, but thank you for bringing that start menu fix to my attention. That could make things a lot easier in transitioning. Mind you, I don't doubt that I'm just blowing steam here and will probably love 8 all the same. Any thing that makes things easier to cope with is fine by me.
But... damn.
But for a music technologist like my self the media changes piss me off. The following is ripped from wiki.
It's doesn't get any crapper than that. If I want to do what I thought was standard, par for the course stuff, I now have to buy it, or use a programme (sorry app) that doesn't quite measure up in my expectations. Now a lot of you will probably say the media player was useless, but to that I say all I need is something simple that plays what I tell it to play. I couldn't care less for interactive functions, or something that scrobbles what I'm doing to some mythical cloud somewhere else for no good reason ...
If and when I can no longer have a windows 7 pc, I'm switching to an different OS, bugger the added hassle of struggling with compatibility issues.
Sorry for the rant, but thank you for bringing that start menu fix to my attention. That could make things a lot easier in transitioning. Mind you, I don't doubt that I'm just blowing steam here and will probably love 8 all the same. Any thing that makes things easier to cope with is fine by me.
But... damn.
Chime85
Mystagogue
Wait....there's a Windows 8!!! When the hell did this happen?! Have I been in my cave for far too long? lol
Aidan of the tavern
Dark Lord
Windows 8?!? I've only just got Windows 7!
JCFarnham
Dark Lord
I know right. That got me too! So I read up on it ...
- Thread starter
- #6
JCFarnham:
I hear you re: Windows Media Player. I think we'll see trends moving this way (in fact we already are). Mobile device in particular often don't include optical drives, and Microsoft probably figured why pay for the licensing fee on every installation of Windows 8 when a lot of them will be tablet-style devices that don't even have DVD drives.
It doesn't impact me too much, because I always install my third party apps of choice and don't use Windows Media Player, but it will probably catch a lot of people buying PCs off guard. I'm guessing the PC-makers like HP who like to sell "media center" style laptops will pay the fee and bundle it with their PCs, so that the end user gets it upon purchase.
I hear you re: Windows Media Player. I think we'll see trends moving this way (in fact we already are). Mobile device in particular often don't include optical drives, and Microsoft probably figured why pay for the licensing fee on every installation of Windows 8 when a lot of them will be tablet-style devices that don't even have DVD drives.
It doesn't impact me too much, because I always install my third party apps of choice and don't use Windows Media Player, but it will probably catch a lot of people buying PCs off guard. I'm guessing the PC-makers like HP who like to sell "media center" style laptops will pay the fee and bundle it with their PCs, so that the end user gets it upon purchase.
- Thread starter
- #7
Yes. I've been using the Release Preview for a while now. It boots up a heck of a lot faster than Windows 7. I stay in the legacy desktop most of the time, and with the Classic Shell app I linked it functions more or less like Win 7 for me, with the option to use "Metro" style apps if I want to.
Mindfire
Istari
So Windows 8 doesn't completely trash the desktop? Because there's no way I want a tablet style interface on my laptop.
- Thread starter
- #9
No, while it does boot into the "Metro" style interface that is geared toward tablets, one click puts you in the legacy desktop which looks just like Windows 7 except there is no start menu (which this app remedies).
Mindfire
Istari
Why'd they jettison the start menu?
- Thread starter
- #11
Only reason I can think of it that they want everyone to access applications, the control panel, and the like from the new Metro-style tablet interface. That interface is now called "Start," I think, and if you mouse into the corner of the desktop you can click into it. But it adds a step if you only want to be in the legacy desktop so I like this app. Microsoft haven't removed functionality so much as moved it around to fit the new design, and from the standpoint of the legacy desktop it simply adds a few steps to do the same thing you'd normally do from the traditional start menu.
writeshiek33
Mystagogue
yeah windows 8 is based on the mobile /tablet operating sytem they developed honestly i think microsoft is loosing it but they need to make thier money somehow for that reason i understand mwedia player thing but damn it still pisses me off
- Thread starter
- #13
I doubt they're going to make a lot of money on Windows Media Player for Windows 8. I think they're just trying to avoid paying license fees on each installation when many of them won't be using the DVD playback codecs to begin with.
Some time ago, my friend from Madrid showed me Windows 8 via a remote connection to his PC... He was able to download it for free because he is a university student, and just wanted to show me how awful it was.
To me this new Windows looks like something for Phones, not for computers!! It's really strange...
Anyway, I am very happy with Mac and I will never go back to Windows =)
To me this new Windows looks like something for Phones, not for computers!! It's really strange...
Anyway, I am very happy with Mac and I will never go back to Windows =)
- Thread starter
- #15
I really hate macs. 
Windows 8 isn't bad, but people very overly agitated about change.
Windows 8 isn't bad, but people very overly agitated about change.
FYI to anyone who cares, I use VLC media player. It's free, light weight, and can play pretty much everything. I think it's a legitimate alternative. VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework!
Mindfire
Istari
True but its ugly. Useful, but it needs a more modern look.
Mindfire
Istari
JCFarnham
Dark Lord
Something about the mac system ticks me off. I sometimes do a lot of work in audio manipulation programmes Audition, Logic and the like. Specifically in Audition a right click is a very easy way to edit clips at a macro level. In mac of course you have to find a way to turn right clicks on before you can do this. It shouldn't bug me as much as it does, but in university I was faced with a native mac user who insisted on turning right click off on my usual iMac. Every. Single. Night.
My friends and I have also lost many hours of work for as far as I can tell, no good reason.
That being said mac os' run smoothly enough. I just don't like the packaging fetish companies have at the moment. They need to realise that sometimes it's better if you can get into the innards of the machine (soft and hard.) Any way... 'nough of that.
Microsoft is moving in that direction in an attempt to keep up/being innovative. Apparently we consumers need everything to seamlessly interact, and be fully "interactive" with flashly mouse/finger movements, swooshing, gestures and graphically intensive looks.
I don't know.
Sometimes it's nice when your software doesn't sync all over the place to thousands of different locations, or mine you for information which it uses to "enhance your experience".
yeeeah...
My friends and I have also lost many hours of work for as far as I can tell, no good reason.
That being said mac os' run smoothly enough. I just don't like the packaging fetish companies have at the moment. They need to realise that sometimes it's better if you can get into the innards of the machine (soft and hard.) Any way... 'nough of that.
Microsoft is moving in that direction in an attempt to keep up/being innovative. Apparently we consumers need everything to seamlessly interact, and be fully "interactive" with flashly mouse/finger movements, swooshing, gestures and graphically intensive looks.
I don't know.
Sometimes it's nice when your software doesn't sync all over the place to thousands of different locations, or mine you for information which it uses to "enhance your experience".
yeeeah...
Last edited:
Mindfire
Istari
Actually, I like what google's doing in the sync/cloud department. Google Drive might save me a ton of hassle if decide to start use it as my native writing tool instead of MS Word, simply because I can access my files from anywhere and there's no threat of losing the data. I've had flash drives fail on me before, causing me to lose entire manuscripts, which is why I'm now OCD about backing up my work to Google Drive anyway.