Windows 8 & 8.1. Questions, and Tips.

[Phoenix .]

Sept 26, 2014 20:40:41 GMT tomj777 said:

Are you sure about that, Phoenix . ?

I'm struggling to find a "coming soon" type reference and v4.1 (latest) seems to get through the first part of the install script on my system without flagging incompatibility (I don't want to go further with that as I'm already running StartIsBack). Where did you see that?

Architecturally, Windows 8.1 is pretty good (more efficient and secure than Windows 7 and a huge improvement on the half baked Windows Vista). However, the whole tile thing is abysmal and best bypassed by any means. Windows 9 looks like it's giving users a little bit of the sense of functionality back, although I think that may prove to be a facade.

Got it tomj777. funny thing is I went for StartisBack but the logo on my desktop is that of Classicalshell?

[Deleted]

I have a simple solution

Old cheap lappy and linux (see distrowatch.com/)

Or get a mac (old variety - mine is 3.5 years old and a beaut!!! New ones are pants)

[leo]

I installed Classic Shell on a customers 8.1 laptop yesterday using this link from classicshell.net:
www.fosshub.com/Classic-Shell.html/ClassicShellSetup_4_1_0.exe


(classic.shell.net is is a holding page for a different website, which is why it says "coming soon" - note the extra 'dot')

[tomj777]

Phoenix .

That's odd - I think you may have been more successful at installing Classic Shell than you thought... I wonder / fear that you ticked or left ticked one of those dreadful `install free Norton scan` / `ASK toolbar` or similar gunk. Or just successful in installing both. leo Do you know if the Classic Shell installer contains sponsored extras?

Phoenix . - using your newly acquired `Start` button go to Control Panel / Programs and Features / Uninstall or using the rather useful Windows 8 top right Search function, type "uninstall a program", using the install date, see if you can spot stuff that came in with Classic Shell and then uninstall as appropriate (leaving either Start Is Back or Classic Shell).

If in doubt about installing anything, ask here first.

[Phoenix .]

Sept 28, 2014 14:53:10 GMT tomj777 said:

Phoenix .

That's odd - I think you may have been more successful at installing Classic Shell than you thought... I wonder / fear that you ticked or left ticked one of those dreadful `install free Norton scan` / `ASK toolbar` or similar gunk. Or just successful in installing both. leo Do you know if the Classic Shell installer contains sponsored extras?

Phoenix . - using your newly acquired `Start` button go to Control Panel / Programs and Features / Uninstall or using the rather useful Windows 8 top right Search function, type "uninstall a program", using the install date, see if you can spot stuff that came in with Classic Shell and then uninstall as appropriate (leaving either Start Is Back or Classic Shell).

If in doubt about installing anything, ask here first.

Cannot see anything untoward downloaded, just Startisback not classicshelI.

Is the Mcafee livesafe internet security free?

I have only downloaded Google Chrome, Startisback, all other downloads came installed.

[leo]

Sept 28, 2014 14:53:10 GMT tomj777 said:

leo Do you know if the Classic Shell installer contains sponsored extras?

No, the DL from the link I posted (from classicshell.net) is hassle-ware free:

On running the setup.exe you will see 3 screens:







After installation I think it asks if you want to enable the Internet Explorer add-on, but I haven't played with that yet... but have installed Classic Shell this way on 5 or 6 machines without issue.

AFAIK startisback is also bloat-free, but many DL sites package up free software with allsorts of hidden 'extras'.... 
Spent all morning fixing a virus laden lappy because my customers brother-in-law installed iTunes for him!! 

NEVER EVER click on the first 3 sponsored links in a Google search (or any other search engine) - that's where majority of this stuff lurks

(EDIT:I should note that while iTunes might a horrible bit of software, but not virus laden on it's own - it's down to unscrupulous DL sites re-packaging it and tricking users into installing a ton of cr*p)

[tomj777]

Sept 28, 2014 15:28:37 GMT Phoenix . said:

 I reckon that's fine - from memory it's a password manager (like Lastpass) and will have come installed with your computer.

 An excellent post, leo. Thank's for that, and the bloat free confirmation.

[Deleted]

Does this work on virtual box as well tomj777? might get it for my mac ...I have windows xp somewhere...does it need disks?

[tomj777]

Sept 28, 2014 21:11:07 GMT @johanino said:

Does this work on virtual box as well tomj777? might get it for my mac ...I have windows xp somewhere...does it need disks?

Sorry - I've no idea. 

[Deleted]

I've tried it on Virtual box....tomj777. Virtual box needed updating LOL

It looks like it's just little bits of windows 7 & 8 and not the whole thing

Might give it a miss but thanks

Jane

[tomj777]

Yeah - what it does is give you the ability to customise Windows distros by packaging various config changes, and scripts (leo please correct me) - the most popular being to restore the start button and some `look and feel` stuff.

[Phoenix .]

Help needed please.

I need to change the screen resolutions , at the moment it is far too large for my screen and I have to scroll across to read all the text

I have tried to find a solution but to no avail, my screen is 1366x768.
Thank you.

[leo]

Sept 29, 2014 8:27:36 GMT Phoenix . said:

Help needed please.

I need to change the screen resolutions , at the moment it is far too large for my screen and I have to scroll across to read all the text

I have tried to find a solution but to no avail, my screen is 1366x768.
Thank you.

You should leave your screen in it's native resolution (1366x768)
Where is the text too large?
If it's while you are browsing the internet you can use the zoom feature of your internet browser to change the size of what's on screen.
A lot of my customers inadvertently change zoom size using an accidentally hit keyboard shortcut (in Chrome, CTRL +, makes things look bigger, CTRL -, makes things look smaller - a zoom control can also be found in the Chrome Menu), and then don't know how to put it back.

[leo]

If you want to change the size of everything in Windows, go to Control Panel/Appearance and Personalization/ and click the following:

[Phoenix .]

Thanks Leo, but it isn't a case of just reducing the text I can do that, but when I am playing Scrabble game ( a facebook app) the screen is not 'locked,' when I move my mouse with it? Never happened with my other laptop as the screen the page, this one doesn't.
If I reduce the text size I can't read it properly, their appears to be no happy medium.
As an example, there are 36 words in the 1st line of this message and it is all on one line!
This cannot be right.