Your general opinions on Windows 8.1 Preview Release

[kmint]

Is this what you mean?

View attachment 23858

It's not just that. Now, everytime you want to save some file or choose a folder, the PC tree will be showing all that list of unwanted folders before you reach your D:

Anyway, it's just one more classic unwanted and unpractical annoyance of Microsoft. I wonder if they use their own computers, because these ideas are really bad.

No, not really, what I mean is that now when I want to save or select some file or folder, Windows many times shows a very small window, and the whole list of user folders is very annoying when scrolling for searching.

But how did you do that? I mean, how did you get rid of all the User folders within "This PC"? That's exactly what I want, to have only the drives in "This PC". And how did you get rid of the SkyDrive link on the Navigation Bar?

This is what I mean, in the first image you can see how annoying it is for me to access my drives C and D. In the second one you can see that I moved them up. Not a big deal, but I liked the way it was before. I never asked for all those user folders opening there making the scroll bar necessary to access my drives.

 

[Rickkins]

I can only reply based on anecdotal evidence, as I will not be installing it.

However, without the full desktop experience available as a built in choice, I will dub it a failure. Plain and simple.

 

[vrosa]

Is this what you mean?

View attachment 23858

It's not just that. Now, everytime you want to save some file or choose a folder, the PC tree will be showing all that list of unwanted folders before you reach your D:

Anyway, it's just one more classic unwanted and unpractical annoyance of Microsoft. I wonder if they use their own computers, because these ideas are really bad.

No, not really, what I mean is that now when I want to save or select some file or folder, Windows many times shows a very small window, and the whole list of user folders is very annoying when scrolling for searching.

But how did you do that? I mean, how did you get rid of all the User folders within "This PC"? That's exactly what I want, to have only the drives in "This PC". And how did you get rid of the SkyDrive link on the Navigation Bar?

This is what I mean, in the first image you can see how annoying it is for me to access my drives C and D. In the second one you can see that I moved them up. Not a big deal, but I liked the way it was before. I never asked for all those user folders opening there making the scroll bar necessary to access my drives.

View attachment 23870

View attachment 23871

Good idea !

 

[bulls96]

IE 11 is defaulting to mobile websites. how do I change that? Thanks.
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro

 

[Daf22]

I like it so far. I think having the desktop background display on the start screen makes the two seem linked and not separate entities as before. I am trying to use the metro interface as much as I can and avoid the desktop, but haven't been too successful yet.

 

[sygnus21]

IE 11 is defaulting to mobile websites. how do I change that? Thanks.
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro

Not sure what you mean when you say IE is defaulting to a mobile page, but you can set the home page to anything you want by either visiting a page and clicking the "Use Current" button, or entering/pasting the URL in the Home Page box. You could also try clicking the Use Default button, it "should" set the page back to MSN's home page.



Tools, Internet Options, General.

Good luck

 

[Daf22]

IE 11 is defaulting to mobile websites. how do I change that? Thanks.
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro

Not sure what you mean when you say IE is defaulting to a mobile page, but you can set the home page to anything you want by either visiting a page and clicking the "Use Current" button, or entering/pasting the URL in the Home Page box. You could also try clicking the Use Default button, it "should" set the page back to MSN's home page.

View attachment 23997

Tools, Internet Options, General.

Good luck

I think he means that IE is displaying the page optimized for a mobile device rather than the desktop site.

 

[sygnus21]

That sounds reasonable. We'll see.

 

[alphanumeric]

Anybody that was originally running 8 an SSD and updated though the store may want to recheck some settings. I had system restore and indexing, turned off and they were turned back on.

 

[SIW2]

@kmint

try this:

View attachment HIDFOLX64.zip

 

[jimbo45]

Any way to remove that fake start button?

Hi there
You gotta love this

Users were complaining that there wasn't a start button -- now they want to remove it. !!!! Have to agree though it doesn't (at least in THIS release) seem to do anything sensible at all.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[jimbo45]

After some hours playing with the Preview I'm back to may production environment. Tomorrow I'll start to test lots of programs and games to make a compatibility list for Preview. I installed the Preview in a 200GB physical partition especially to accommodate everything I want to test.

:: To be tested in Preview | from my Windows 8 install ::
View attachment 23637



Today I need to sleep. Since yesterday afternoon I'm stuck in front of the computer because of that release. My wife says that I'm addicted, and I guess she's right.

Hi there
I thought you'd have been watching Brazil beat Spain (Current World Champions) in the football match recently. -- I wanted to watch it too but we seemed to get more pictures from the Police antics harassing innocent people OUTSIDE the Stadium than what was going on INSIDE.

However glad you got it all working -- BTW the old Classic W7 games work fine as well on W 8.1

Cheers
jimbo

 

[tst]

Any way to remove that fake start button?

Hi there
You gotta love this

Users were complaining that there wasn't a start button -- now they want to remove it. !!!! Have to agree though it doesn't (at least in THIS release) seem to do anything sensible at all.

Cheers
jimbo

Users were complaining that there was no Start MENU. Start button is all for nothing.

 

[kmint]

@kmint

try this:

View attachment 24023

OK, this patch works. Thanks SIW2!!

 

[Wenda]

Any way to remove that fake start button?

Hi there
You gotta love this

Users were complaining that there wasn't a start button -- now they want to remove it. !!!! Have to agree though it doesn't (at least in THIS release) seem to do anything sensible at all.

Cheers
jimbo

My first impression was that it was pretty useless, and that we'd been well-conned by Microsoft.

But with it set to go to All Apps, not the Start Screen, and with All Apps set to display desktop items first, and to display items by category, it does work. I am running All Apps as a start menu with no problems operationally (there are a few bugs, but that's to be expected). A bit more customisability, and there's the perfect replacement for the old start menu.

If the reason you don't like Metro is the Start Screen, give this method a try, it works. You don't need to even see the Start Screen if you choose not to, and the All Apps screen can be used as a half-decent Start menu substitute. I have nothing on the Start screen at all apart from apps, and an app-launcher is all it's used for.

I have deliberately refrained from installing a 3rd-party start menu in Win 8.1 but a bug prevents some (not all) programs from being pinned. To compensate, I have enabled the old Quick-Launch toolbar for these programs, as I do not like pinned shortcuts on the desktop or taskbar.

I was never a fan of the Start Screen in Windows 8. For me personally, (and I don't pretend to speak for others) if the start menu is not destined to return, this setup is an acceptable alternative. Refine it somewhat in the 'final' and I'll be satisfied. But do leave the Quick-Launch option there.

Yes, there are things I do not like about Windows 8.1 and some are fairly serious. This new Start screen/menu setup, however, is not one of them. I actually quite like it as is, and can see plenty of potential for improvement. Good one, Microsoft.

Below are a couple of screen-dumps showing my current setup...


Wenda.

 

[pparks1]

Thank you for sharing some of the positives. I do like 8 overall, but have to make sure tweaks and changes to really enjoy it.

 

[vrosa]

Yes, there are things I do not like about Windows 8.1 and some are fairly serious. This new Start screen/menu setup, however, is not one of them. I actually quite like it as is, and can see plenty of potential for improvement. Good one, Microsoft.

Good to see you're starting to have a good time with the preview !

 

[brummyfan]

CPU utilisation was very high in my IE11(more than 50%) but after increasing the page file size it's back to normal (<10%), I don't know this was coincidence or actual remedy for the high temps and continuously spinning fan, I might try reduce the page file size and see how it responds.

 

[sygnus21]

CPU utilisation was very high in my IE11(more than 50%) but after increasing the page file size it's back to normal (<10%), I don't know this was coincidence or actual remedy for the high temps and continuously spinning fan, I might try reduce the page file size and see how it responds.

I seriously doubt if IE11 had anything to do with the issues you describe. You might want to check your cooling, perhaps go through the system with a can of compressed air.

 

[bulls96]

IE 11 is defaulting to mobile websites. how do I change that? Thanks.
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro

Not sure what you mean when you say IE is defaulting to a mobile page, but you can set the home page to anything you want by either visiting a page and clicking the "Use Current" button, or entering/pasting the URL in the Home Page box. You could also try clicking the Use Default button, it "should" set the page back to MSN's home page.

View attachment 23997

Tools, Internet Options, General.

Good luck

I think he means that IE is displaying the page optimized for a mobile device rather than the desktop site.

u are correct sir. Any suggestions or solutions are welcome thanks.