I'm in over my head. Please help.

[Ruwanwij]

Excellent post by Coke Bot.

I would add that adding a control panel and device manager shortcut to the desktop is extremely helpful as well.

Just search in google how to do it.

 

[keithw]

Hi DJJ, I too have a new computer running Windows 8, I am almost 79 years young and I get frustrated by Win 8. So much so that I almost threw the computer in the bin, then common sense prevailed. There were various options from the afore mentioned action to a down grade to XP or 7. Giving it all some serious thought I decided that to down grade to XP or 7 would be a retrograde step that would in the long run be a costly move and that I cannot afford. So I decided to persevere with Win 8 and spend some time learning how to work with it. It is alright for the younger wiz kids, they seem to be able to take it all in their stride and resort to belittling the older generation as being thick. OK perhaps we are in their eyes but, we still become baffled by new technology and I am sorry to say new things take a lot of getting to grips with. So DJJ, please try and give Win 8 a little of your time each day and I am sure you will gain in confidence every time you discover some thing else about it; make notes as reminders for the next time you become baffled. I learn some thing new each day and I am becoming a believer in Win 8 but it is taking a long time, with practice I WILL master it. Good luck to you DJJ, very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[caperjack]

Excellent post by Coke Bot.

I would add that adding a control panel and device manager shortcut to the desktop is extremely helpful as well.

Just search in google how to do it.

why bother ,just right click on the start icon lower left corner and the connections to them are there for them and many others

 

[badcat]

Save yourself a lot of heartache and start with something that you are familiar and comfortable with using, by installing one of the third party desktop menus (these will bring back the familiar). You can then take your time to explore the new, in your own time, and find out if it offers you anything of value.

I agree with this aproach. Download and install one of the utilities that will give you back the start menu and have at it. I personally find the Metro interface terrible on a non-touchscreen device. I use Start 8 to get the start menu back but there other solutions as others have mentioned. After you recover the start menu you shouldn't have any trouble navigating Win 8. Good luck!

 

[Ruwanwij]

Excellent post by Coke Bot.

I would add that adding a control panel and device manager shortcut to the desktop is extremely helpful as well.

Just search in google how to do it.

why bother ,just right click on the start icon lower left corner and the connections to them are there for them and many others

That takes more clicks. I customized everything to my liking. I also pinned a shutdown button and sleep button to the metro start screen.

It's personal preference.

 

[Ruwanwij]

Excellent post by Coke Bot.

I would add that adding a control panel and device manager shortcut to the desktop is extremely helpful as well.

Just search in google how to do it.

why bother ,just right click on the start icon lower left corner and the connections to them are there for them and many others

That takes more mouse movement. I customized everything to my liking. I also pinned a shutdown button and sleep button to the metro start screen.

It's personal preference.

 

[caperjack]

and how are you ever going to get back the time it just took you to make those 2 post

 

[mike912]

Like Coke bot says, you should give a more time.

My first impressions of windows 8 was 'I hate it'. After forcing myself to use it and get use the workflow, I would not go back.

It is soooo much easier to navigate than the previous version, and now when moving back to a older version I now find myself getting irritated


Have a look at this free video tutorials on youtube from cbt nuggets . good luck!

 

[wetibbe]

Absolutely excellent advice. Could not agree more

Just one caveat. I liked Win 8 from the first blush.

It is the best, most advanced of any previous.

 

[quickslvr]

windows 8 is a new innovation so tried to experience the change

 

[azasadny]

I'll be moving back to Win8 as soon as I get more time with it on my test PC. Once I'm thoroughly familiar with it, I'll put it on my main desktop PC. I'm curious to see how it runs on my mew PC...it ran great on my old Q6600-based PC so it should scream on the i7-3770k with 16GB of RAM and GTX-660sc video card.

 

[Wenda]

It should fly!
It certainly does on my 2nd-gen Sandy-Bridge i7-2670QM with 8 Gb RAM.
Wenda.

 

[DJJ]

Thanks to all for the advice.

After working with Windows 8 for a few more days, my sanity has almost returned. My wife says the mumbling and cursing have subsided somewhat but I'm still growling occasionally.

I installed the Classic Shell and now find myself switching often between it and the start screen. I also installed Outlook which, as simple as it is, seems to be much better than the standard Win 8 mail, which seemed to have things missing.

I still need help with something that I haven't been able to figure out. If I click on "People", it says I have no contacts. If I type "contacts" when on the start screen, I get a 'contacts' button, click it and see a list of my contacts. If I go to mail or Outlook, there are no contacts. Are 'people', 'contacts' and an address book all different things?

Thanks again to all.

 

[smurfercom]

Thanks to all for the advice.

After working with Windows 8 for a few more days, my sanity has almost returned. My wife says the mumbling and cursing have subsided somewhat but I'm still growling occasionally.

I installed the Classic Shell and now find myself switching often between it and the start screen. I also installed Outlook which, as simple as it is, seems to be much better than the standard Win 8 mail, which seemed to have things missing.

I still need help with something that I haven't been able to figure out. If I click on "People", it says I have no contacts. If I type "contacts" when on the start screen, I get a 'contacts' button, click it and see a list of my contacts. If I go to mail or Outlook, there are no contacts. Are 'people', 'contacts' and an address book all different things?

Thanks again to all.

Classic shell is a nice starter but is not hard coded into the OS like StartisBack. Believe me try it and I guarantee you will dump Classic Shell in a heartbeat. The contacts/people hub are all tied together so when you go to let's say outlook.com it will sync your contacts/people hub/address book. It will look something like this.

 

[wetibbe]

Thanks to all for the advice.

After working with Windows 8 for a few more days, my sanity has almost returned. My wife says the mumbling and cursing have subsided somewhat but I'm still growling occasionally.

I installed the Classic Shell and now find myself switching often between it and the start screen. I also installed Outlook which, as simple as it is, seems to be much better than the standard Win 8 mail, which seemed to have things missing.

I still need help with something that I haven't been able to figure out. If I click on "People", it says I have no contacts. If I type "contacts" when on the start screen, I get a 'contacts' button, click it and see a list of my contacts. If I go to mail or Outlook, there are no contacts. Are 'people', 'contacts' and an address book all different things?

Thanks again to all.

_______________________________________________________________________________

You do have some strange conditions. But let me say first that I too am always running into those mysterious little gremlins. Most are easily remedied by "settings" of which there is a whole plethora. But some are still not remedied and have stumped the experts so far.

Now to address your question:

People are specifically the names and E-mail addresses that you insert in your E-mail "contacts" list.

When I click on my "people" app on my start screen I opens the list of "people" in my E-mail listing.

I experimented and typed "contacts" on my start screen and it surely did not open any "people" it opened a pane titled "contacts" which looks like the pane that opens from down on my task bar - file explorer.

Instead of typing "contacts" on the start screen type "people".

As is typical of Win 8, you can open your charms and use the change PC settings then search people and your list of names should open there too. People and contacts are not synonymous.

Of course I respect everyone's opinions and input but for my own Personal preference I surely will not alter or modify Windows 8 with extraneous 3rd party modifications. I'm quite a traditionalist and I go to some serious measures to ensue that my OS is carefully the original.
_________________________________________________________________________

 

[smurfercom]

You do have some strange conditions. But let me say first that I too am always running into those mysterious little gremlins. Most are easily remedied by "settings" of which there is a whole plethora. But some are still not remedied and have stumped the experts so far.

Now to address your question:

People are specifically the names and E-mail addresses that you insert in your E-mail "contacts" list.

When I click on my "people" app on my start screen I opens the list of "people" in my E-mail listing.

I experimented and typed "contacts" on my start screen and it surely did not open any "people" it opened a pane titled "contacts" which looks like the pane that opens from down on my task bar - file explorer.

Instead of typing "contacts" on the start screen type "people".

As is typical of Win 8, you can open your charms and use the change PC settings then search people and your list of names should open there too. People and contacts are not synonymous.

Of course I respect everyone's opinions and input but for my own Personal preference I surely will not alter or modify Windows 8 with extraneous 3rd party modifications. I'm quite a traditionalist and I go to some serious measures to ensue that my OS is carefully the original.

The people hub is basically for grouping your closest contacts, and designed for social networking like FB. If your like me and don't use social networks then no worries. Just import your contacts to outlook and then go to the website and sync your outlook settings. As for third party sw like StartisBack it really is a convenient prog avoiding metro all together, the charms bar to me is a kludge and requires more steps involved. When in the past it was simple as drag and drop but that's just my opinion. I'd rather not deal with a two headed monster at tis point and time. When you need serious work done it isn't gong to get done in metro that's for sure.

I respect your opinion and being a purist I can understand your stance on the subject matter, different strokes no doubt.

 

[DJJ]

If your like me and don't use social networks then no worries. Just import your contacts to outlook and then go to the website and sync your outlook settings. .

Outlook has no method of importing my contacts. It doesn't even have an address book like it once did.

It should be a very simple and intuitive task. It's not and it's things like this that make me hate Windows 8.

I'm getting very annoyed with these things that are unnecessary complexity. I WILL be going back to a previous version of Windows.

Thanks anyway.

Goodbye.

 

[wetibbe]

Djj:

Hasta luego. Have a good trip.

It always saddens me to see the losers who can't keep up and cope with the rest of the people.

I wish you the best in your enclave of comfort.

 

[DJJ]

It always saddens me to see the losers who can't keep up and cope with the rest of the people.

Loser?

Now THAT wasn't necessary. You must be one of those young, ignorant, disrespectful punks I heard so much about. It's a shame our future is in the hands of people with your attitude.

Have a nice day.

 

[caperjack]

hi, are you referring to office outlook or outlook.com ,
outlook.com is like another hotmail.com ,not at all like outlook or outlook express