Has anyone used classic shell with windows 8 or 8.1
It seems to put back the start menu.
Solved classic shell- is it safe
Also windows 8.1 ...there are some comments on the web saying MS no longer support it?😕 saying only security patches will be issued only after you have downloaded an update.
You have to play don't you..I now have two start buttons on the task bar standard menu and new menu..😀
Regards
M. Gregg
It seems to put back the start menu.
Solved classic shell- is it safe
Also windows 8.1 ...there are some comments on the web saying MS no longer support it?😕 saying only security patches will be issued only after you have downloaded an update.
You have to play don't you..I now have two start buttons on the task bar standard menu and new menu..😀
Regards
M. Gregg
Last edited:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/support
I believe the situation is that in order to continue to get updates a
specific update needed to be installed earlier this year, without it
the updates can't continue.
If you are currently receiving windows 8.1 updates you are probably all set.
I believe the situation is that in order to continue to get updates a
specific update needed to be installed earlier this year, without it
the updates can't continue.
If you are currently receiving windows 8.1 updates you are probably all set.
Yes...within about half an hour after installing 8.1.
I didn't bother trying to get my head around the new UI.
Classic Shell is a must have.
Dan.
It seems like with every release MS keep tying to reinvent an OS just sell it to those who do not need it.
Personally, I got 3 OSs on my computers.........
XP..... Vista..(dual boot) and Win 8 ...........and all are configured to win classic configurations and colors as it easier on the eyes and sanity.
"If it ain't broke, don't *#*# with it" !
Personally, I got 3 OSs on my computers.........
XP..... Vista..(dual boot) and Win 8 ...........and all are configured to win classic configurations and colors as it easier on the eyes and sanity.
"If it ain't broke, don't *#*# with it" !
Last edited:
I haven't even used Windows 8. I can see its too hideous to touch from here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo
And everytime I use Windows 7 it pisses me off too much eventually. The version of Explorer for example is hideous. Its like they are deliberatley trying to make it more difficult to use to slow everyone down, just like with the latest Microsoft Office products.
They should go back to Windows XP x64 and fix what they didn't finish and rebadge it and call it Windows Classic. But they never will this would need to be a croudsourced project and not legal.
I pretend that I can see bird **** on the panes of each window in Windows 8.
Also you guys do know that the NSA coded Windows 7-8? You must assume that there is so many Backdoors in that code it looks like swiss cheese.
Windows XP is just as secure as 7 anyway as soon as you turn on DEP and use a decent Linux firewall. And it runs 10x faster. And modern code doesn't exploit the massive 'features' of w7-w8 which prevent you from shutting down or stopping the code, like bundled spyware that comes along with the installation excutable, sure you can disable it during installation but it always sneaks its way in somehow. With XP I can simply run all of the old versions of software and most if not all of of the newest stuff.
Just goes to show you who to trust when even trusted former news tech outlets sprout ******** like "hackers are now mostly targeting XP computers". Why the hell would they want to do that for? Each Windows installation is just as secure as the user allows it to be, software isn't secure by default. Sandboxie it if you're unsure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo
And everytime I use Windows 7 it pisses me off too much eventually. The version of Explorer for example is hideous. Its like they are deliberatley trying to make it more difficult to use to slow everyone down, just like with the latest Microsoft Office products.
They should go back to Windows XP x64 and fix what they didn't finish and rebadge it and call it Windows Classic. But they never will this would need to be a croudsourced project and not legal.
I pretend that I can see bird **** on the panes of each window in Windows 8.
Also you guys do know that the NSA coded Windows 7-8? You must assume that there is so many Backdoors in that code it looks like swiss cheese.
Windows XP is just as secure as 7 anyway as soon as you turn on DEP and use a decent Linux firewall. And it runs 10x faster. And modern code doesn't exploit the massive 'features' of w7-w8 which prevent you from shutting down or stopping the code, like bundled spyware that comes along with the installation excutable, sure you can disable it during installation but it always sneaks its way in somehow. With XP I can simply run all of the old versions of software and most if not all of of the newest stuff.
Just goes to show you who to trust when even trusted former news tech outlets sprout ******** like "hackers are now mostly targeting XP computers". Why the hell would they want to do that for? Each Windows installation is just as secure as the user allows it to be, software isn't secure by default. Sandboxie it if you're unsure.
Last edited:
There is also the trend of moving away from Microsoft products:
STEVE BALLMER'S NIGHTMARE: How Microsoft's Business Actually Could Collapse - Business Insider
I myself never saw the logic behind needing a new microsoft product like Office 2007 at home especially when you can still give employees copies of documents that have been written or made in Office 2003.
STEVE BALLMER'S NIGHTMARE IS COMING TRUE - Business Insider
And because Microsoft is going to eventually drop support for Windows 7 why should I trust them to not make another turd? Your computer is whatever you use it for, I haven't found a single reason why I should be using Windows 7 over Windows XP x64 yet.
And there is a trend in Apple and Microsoft products (Office 365) to be moving towards the cloud, WHY? Why do that when I can store all of my important data offline in a secure location both here and somewhere else? At least then I know where it is and not that its hosted on a server next to perverts or people trying to steal corporate secrets.
A good example of this is the iOS ecosystem, if you have an apple store account and you join your Apple TV with your Apppe iPhone and your Apple iPad and you allow uploading of your photos to the cloud, your photos are displayed to anyone with access to that account, and those accounts are hacked all of the time, how can I possibly protect against someone stealing ideas or pictures that I've taken if I ever get the opportunity to photograph something which is meant to remain a corporate secret? The only reason why I wanted to take a photo in the first place is so I remember where which wire went where or what the layout of a pcb was or which screw went where or so I could study something at some other time at my lesiure. I didn't expect my phone to be uploading these photos to a cloud service and then allowing anyone with Grade-C hacker knowledge to see them.
I don't want to install Windows 8 and make a Microsoft .net account only to find out that all of my personal documents are now hosted on microsoft servers and are publically available to everyone who can crack/hack an account...
And then there is geotagging, iOS doesn't allow you to turn this off, why not? Is everything in life meant to be public knowledge? Tell that to the US Army who lost brand new helicopters because of Geotagging.
If I want to store things in the cloud I'll do it on my own Linux server, and I do to great effect, and just like every other cloud based service my server provides the same but in this case its under my roof and controlled by me.
Its not hard to tell that I"m a huge fan of Stallman, he does make common sense arguments. Like not having your entire buisness IP and home life protected by a single password and email address.
To me its almost as if they wanted everyone to go to the cloud just so they could get into everyones lives. Almost as if the NSA forced the hand of all the big software developers to do this behind the scenes.
STEVE BALLMER'S NIGHTMARE: How Microsoft's Business Actually Could Collapse - Business Insider
I myself never saw the logic behind needing a new microsoft product like Office 2007 at home especially when you can still give employees copies of documents that have been written or made in Office 2003.
STEVE BALLMER'S NIGHTMARE IS COMING TRUE - Business Insider
And because Microsoft is going to eventually drop support for Windows 7 why should I trust them to not make another turd? Your computer is whatever you use it for, I haven't found a single reason why I should be using Windows 7 over Windows XP x64 yet.
And there is a trend in Apple and Microsoft products (Office 365) to be moving towards the cloud, WHY? Why do that when I can store all of my important data offline in a secure location both here and somewhere else? At least then I know where it is and not that its hosted on a server next to perverts or people trying to steal corporate secrets.
A good example of this is the iOS ecosystem, if you have an apple store account and you join your Apple TV with your Apppe iPhone and your Apple iPad and you allow uploading of your photos to the cloud, your photos are displayed to anyone with access to that account, and those accounts are hacked all of the time, how can I possibly protect against someone stealing ideas or pictures that I've taken if I ever get the opportunity to photograph something which is meant to remain a corporate secret? The only reason why I wanted to take a photo in the first place is so I remember where which wire went where or what the layout of a pcb was or which screw went where or so I could study something at some other time at my lesiure. I didn't expect my phone to be uploading these photos to a cloud service and then allowing anyone with Grade-C hacker knowledge to see them.
I don't want to install Windows 8 and make a Microsoft .net account only to find out that all of my personal documents are now hosted on microsoft servers and are publically available to everyone who can crack/hack an account...
And then there is geotagging, iOS doesn't allow you to turn this off, why not? Is everything in life meant to be public knowledge? Tell that to the US Army who lost brand new helicopters because of Geotagging.
If I want to store things in the cloud I'll do it on my own Linux server, and I do to great effect, and just like every other cloud based service my server provides the same but in this case its under my roof and controlled by me.
Its not hard to tell that I"m a huge fan of Stallman, he does make common sense arguments. Like not having your entire buisness IP and home life protected by a single password and email address.
To me its almost as if they wanted everyone to go to the cloud just so they could get into everyones lives. Almost as if the NSA forced the hand of all the big software developers to do this behind the scenes.
Last edited:
Chris Pirillo... Came out multiple times and stated that Windows 8 Metro interface is good and that he liked it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsZVBY4yj4Q
The only reason why Windows 8 got popular was the "new feel" experience that everybody wants every few years.
This proves that reviewers are full of it and are nothing more than Marketers.
Don't know what your experience has been overall. But I have found it better to upgrade "every other" new OS that comes out. So far w7 has been OK for me, but didn't even bother with Vista. My biggest gripe with new operating systems, is one can go out and buy an uber powerful system, yet it seems to make little difference. That's because they are always ratcheting up the requirements to run the software. I have an older XP system, and was considering switching it to win7, but maybe I'll just put that on permanent hold.
You spoke of running a decent Linux firewall. Just which one of them do you consider decent?
Thats just the thing. There is a 1 FPS difference between Windows XP x64 and Windows 7. So the notion that Windows 7 is all-new-and-powerful is complete bull.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eoChac9sm0
But with the newer OSes they simply add more and more complex bs widgets and gadgets and user interface niceties which do NOTHING and you always turn off.
And I can hear people say "But Freax what about DX10/11??" Well what about it? I can barely notice the difference myself between the two because game developers these days haven't actually improved graphics much beyond DX9. I've done the DX10-11 bandwagon and now I'm bored again, I just want to go back to an OS that I'm happy with and am willing to forego a slight increase in graphics quality to do that.
And you can hack (DX10 at least) it into XP anyway:
http://www.techmixer.com/download-directx-10-for-windows-xp/
Smoothwall or pfSense for user friendliness (both have a web user interface accessible from the LAN interface IP address)
If I were to air what firewall I actually use I would compromise my own security.
Last edited:
The biggest thing that I've found which slows down every single computer out there no matter how old it is or how new it is or what OS its using is Antivirus software, and it doesn't matter what kind of software it is or what brand ALL of them do it, every single one of them.
Even Norton the creator of Norton antivirus products thinks that the product that he sold to a company many many years ago is a bunch of crap.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2150743/antivirus-is-dead-says-maker-of-norton-antivirus.html
And Norton Antivirus (the current company senior-vp) agrees with me...
The OS itself, be it Windows 7 or Windows XP is fast, and efficient, less so for 7-8 than XP (XP is very fast on modern systems but not as efficient as Windows 2K Pro is on older systems). So that is not the problem, its the software that you run on it and the software that remains in memory, its the ******** lies of having a Stay Resident application in memory and eating cpu cycles checking every single file and folder of every single application that you run all of the time that is crippling most systems and serves no useful purpouse.
Virus and Trojan developers take into account the fact that you will be running anti-virus software on your system, so the notion that you are protected by running anti-virus on your system and can go ahead and click on any crack or any application you want to is complete Sandra Bullocks..
Which is why I don't run antivirus or antispyware software, Firefox with the following plugins: noscript, ghostery, adblock plus and a councious effor to not run suspicious .exe files (unless you run them in a Virtual Machine or Sandboxie) will keep me safe for quite a while to come I bet. Especially when you combine this with a Linux hardware firewall.
Where Firefox and the plugins differ from anti-virus software is that they don't allow the attacks to enter your system in the first place, and that is really all an anti-virus software should do, which is why Sandboxie is such a great way of preventing frontline attacks on your system and preventing applications which you didn't download but somehow managed to break through the defences of Firefox/Noscript/Ghostery/Adblock plus and write to your hard drive is so effective. You can simply empty/delete the container in Sanboxie when you're done using Firefox for that session.
If you need an anti-virus which protects you against trojans or cracks that you deliberatley download and run on your own system then you really really ought to be using Sandboxie instead of an anti-virus, an anti-virus is meant to do one thing and one thing only, con you out of your money. The reason why I say this is because of what I've already said before about virus/trojan coders taking into account the fact that you will probably be using an anti-virus package, and they write into their code ways around the softwares defences.
Sandboxie itself isn't even immune to this, which is why its important to keep all software up to date, but at least it doesn't cripple my system by frantically checking every single file in every single folder ad every single program that is running in memory all of the time wasting a massive amount of resources. Sandboxie is based upon the premise of containers and quarantining a part of your hard drive for the applications that you want to run. Every single file that is written to the hard drive by the program that is running in a Sandboxie instance is quarantined and cannot leave the container. Every single change that the program runs can be undone by simply deleting the contents of the sandbox.
Last edited:
I stopped screwing around with antivirus software years ago. I caused more problems than it solved and didn't fully protect the system anyway.
The only thing running on this computer is MS security essentials. Once a week I'll clean things up using CCleaner, then scan it with something like Malwarebytes.
Fixing Slow Computer when Installed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
How can you say that you stopped using antivirus software when you use malwarebytes?
I would suggest that you remove malwarebytes (temporarily) and see if that fixes your speed issues.
A program like CCleaner shouldn't do this, unless the coders have decided to go stupid. (Because its a program that doesn't remain running in the background all of the time.)
Malwarebytes Isn't really an antivirus program like McAfee or Nortons. I started task manager and didn't see anything indicating that it's actually running. I probably don't have this unit tweaked to its full potential. But earlier I wasn't really complaining of having a serious speed issue with this particular system. It was more a general statement concerning how the progression of software, seems eat up any gains in speed that come with more powerful hardware. But I'll try pulling the program and see if it makes a difference. Thanks.
Last edited:
Ahh understood.
Yes I couldn't agree more that less is being done with more resources, but from what I've gathered its a result of the limitations of the programming languages and not of the code itself, the code is translated into binary by compilers, if you coded everything in assembly or machine code you could probably do quite incredible things on even a basic pentium 4. But the gains aren't that amazing, you might gain 5-10%.
There is also the limiit of cpu clock speeds at which we can go to with current technology, there was a brickwall hit in the Socket 478 and Socket A days of how much faster we can go on air cooling and on the wafers that we create. It seems to hover at somewhere around 3.2-3.5 GHz.
So the days of exponential speed increases which we can easily notice aren't going to be changing anytime soon, the human brain simply cannot work that fast.
They may have added some additional wait times to Windows 7's code to slow its performance down a bit just so we can use it at a comfortable speed.
And therein lies the problem, if you use Windows 95 on a modern machine it goes so fast you can barely keep up with how fast windows open and applications launch and error boxes appear. With Windows XP its slightly less pronounced but is still a damn sight faster than Windows 7.
I agree though that the wait times that they've used in Windows 7 is far too slow for me. You should be able to hack it and adjust them, can't see why not!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lITott75L4o
There is always gains to be had with SSD's but I can't justify the cost associated with the small drive space that you get with using SSDs: (I need more space than 128-256GB for a primary partition)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cnRlQFf5X8
When they reach 512-1024GB I might upgrade, otherwise I'm sticking to spinning disks for now.
Last edited:
I use Classic Shell, definitely a good idea. If only it could keep me from accidentally getting to that worthless 'metro' screen (but not too hard to get back -- use the 'windows' key on the keyboard).
It makes Win8 (or 8.1) feel pretty much like Win7 (which I actually like a lot). My problem with Win8 is that it seems to ignore what I use a computer for and how I use it. I also hate any 'improvements' that give zero apparent benefits, but unnecessarily require monkeying with computer setups and dealing with new learning curves.
It makes Win8 (or 8.1) feel pretty much like Win7 (which I actually like a lot). My problem with Win8 is that it seems to ignore what I use a computer for and how I use it. I also hate any 'improvements' that give zero apparent benefits, but unnecessarily require monkeying with computer setups and dealing with new learning curves.
Yes its a bit like the annoying calculator app..
I just mapped the old one with a short cut added to the shell menu and task bar..
C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe
Also surprised the nixie clock still works ..😀
http://www.sb-software.com/nixieclock/
I have no connection I just like it in VFD.
Regards
M. Gregg
I just mapped the old one with a short cut added to the shell menu and task bar..
C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe
Also surprised the nixie clock still works ..😀
http://www.sb-software.com/nixieclock/
I have no connection I just like it in VFD.
Regards
M. Gregg
Last edited:
LMAO,
Oh look the start menu is back in windows 10..😛 and it its got desktops like Linux..😀
Windows 10 Demo (Technical Preview) - YouTube
A few people I know said they wouldn't use the shell menu because they wanted to get used to the new way windows works..🙄
Ok well get the menu then..
PS windows 9 was discretely placed in a doughnut box and sent for trash collection..😀..coasters are available on request from microsoft!
Regards
M. Gregg
Oh look the start menu is back in windows 10..😛 and it its got desktops like Linux..😀
Windows 10 Demo (Technical Preview) - YouTube
A few people I know said they wouldn't use the shell menu because they wanted to get used to the new way windows works..🙄
Ok well get the menu then..
PS windows 9 was discretely placed in a doughnut box and sent for trash collection..😀..coasters are available on request from microsoft!
Regards
M. Gregg
Last edited:
Just found for interest,
how to disable the side bar on the desktop in win 8.1 with classic shell it was driving me nuts..😀
Classic Shell • View topic - Charms not charming - how to disable?
So my mouse doesn't keep triggering the side bar...it still works in the apps screen which is good I suppose if you like it..😀
I quite like this version of win 7 ... I mean 8.1...😀 its much faster than the old one..
Regards
M. Gregg
how to disable the side bar on the desktop in win 8.1 with classic shell it was driving me nuts..😀
Classic Shell • View topic - Charms not charming - how to disable?
So my mouse doesn't keep triggering the side bar...it still works in the apps screen which is good I suppose if you like it..😀
I quite like this version of win 7 ... I mean 8.1...😀 its much faster than the old one..
Regards
M. Gregg
Last edited:
I installed gadgetpack8,
Because I liked the desktop gadgets in Win7..daft I know but..
It seems to work well at the moment..obviously its at your own risk.
From here:
8GadgetPack - Gadgets for Windows 8 / 8.1
I closed the side bar and right clicked on the desktop to install the gadgets..I only use the Microsoft ones..😀..I never trusted the others even in win 7..
Just thought I would mention it..
NB spybot runs well in win 8.1..I haven't tried malwarebytes..and I run a decent Antivirus..
So there you go..just thought you might find it interesting..exit stage left 🙂
Regards
M. Gregg
Because I liked the desktop gadgets in Win7..daft I know but..
It seems to work well at the moment..obviously its at your own risk.
From here:
8GadgetPack - Gadgets for Windows 8 / 8.1
I closed the side bar and right clicked on the desktop to install the gadgets..I only use the Microsoft ones..😀..I never trusted the others even in win 7..
Just thought I would mention it..
NB spybot runs well in win 8.1..I haven't tried malwarebytes..and I run a decent Antivirus..
So there you go..just thought you might find it interesting..exit stage left 🙂
Regards
M. Gregg
Last edited:
Sometime i think i am the only one who doesn't have a problem with Windows 8.1. I hated the very thought of the tile screen at fist until i tried it, then i realized all i ever did was place a bunch of app shortcuts at the top of the start menu and routinely hit the windows key to open it. So why not have all those shortcuts on one screen where i can group them as i please. Works for me.
There were two inexcusable omissions in Windows 8. First being the lack of a start icon so you couldn't actually get to the tile screen. Second was the shutdown option being so buried i had to Google it. To put it into perspective i am an IT engineer who has used every version of windows back to v2.0, and speak fluent DOS, VMS, Unix, and probably a few others i cant think of right now and i had to resort to Google find the bloody shutdown option.
And dont get me started on Windows Server, currently planning a migration of Windows/Exchange 2003 to Server 2012 / Exchange 2013. Short answer is, you cant
There were two inexcusable omissions in Windows 8. First being the lack of a start icon so you couldn't actually get to the tile screen. Second was the shutdown option being so buried i had to Google it. To put it into perspective i am an IT engineer who has used every version of windows back to v2.0, and speak fluent DOS, VMS, Unix, and probably a few others i cant think of right now and i had to resort to Google find the bloody shutdown option.
And dont get me started on Windows Server, currently planning a migration of Windows/Exchange 2003 to Server 2012 / Exchange 2013. Short answer is, you cant
- Status
- Not open for further replies.