My Experience With Windows 8

lynnemcf

OMG have just watched a few minutes of a shopping channel and they mentioned the "windows button" and suddenly I know how to navigate ... doh!

prowla

FYI, as soon as I've run something I know I'll need again, I pin it to the taskbar (right-click its icon in the taskbar and select the option).

JulyKnot

I bookmarked this page
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/new-keyboard-shortcuts#1TC=t1

Lucero_2

Just a tip, for those who have no idea about some of the shortcuts available to Windows (not just Win8). The shutdown process in Windows 8 is a complete joke. I actually find it quicker to type shutdown -s -t 00 from the run command than to navigate to the charm bar and shutdown that way.

Here are your other options.

Create a shortcut with the following command:
shutdown -s -t 10

This shuts down the PC in 10 seconds. Better than 00 as it allows time for programs to close properly

Pin that to the start menu or task bar. If you right click the shortcut, you can even choose your own icon. There's a power one in there somewhere.

For Restart, do the same, but the command is:
shutdown -r -t 10
Again, allowing 10 seconds before the shutdown sequence starts. You can change that value to whatever you want (00 is instant).

BUT, if you want an even quicker way, just press ALT + F4. You must be on the desktop to do this (ie, no windows open). That will give you this nice little window:

Lum

Here's how I shut down or restart Windows 8:



Yay for StartIsBack

paulsad

Thought the OP smelt a bit spammy but I quite like Windows 8 - well bits of it ... but I think its all a bit clumsy like you have 2 operating systems on the go at once. My old 2nd hand laptop here had a dodgy copy of windows on it and the upgrade to W8 only cost £25 - if I was rich I'd get an Apple as its a far more together and user friendly OS.

Lum

You realise that technically if you upgrade from a dodgy copy of Windows you still aren't licensed?

Or did the seller stick a dodgy Windows 7 on there, while the laptop still had a sticker for XP on it. In that case you're fine as you can upgrade direct to 8 from XP.

As for the two OS thing. I've pretty much completely disabled all the Metro crud now, got myself a nice desktop-orientated OS that just happens to perform a bit quicker than Windows 7 and have a different skin on the windows.

lynnemcf

Sad news for me, my brand new laptop (Toshiba satellite) would not switch on this morning, less than 36 hours out of the box and wouldnt start. So ended up having to do a full system reset ("fresh out of the box" guy on phone support said). I find tech so stressful, wish I understood stuff better.

prowla

Lum wrote: »

You realise that technically if you upgrade from a dodgy copy of Windows you still aren't licensed?

Or did the seller stick a dodgy Windows 7 on there, while the laptop still had a sticker for XP on it. In that case you're fine as you can upgrade direct to 8 from XP.

As for the two OS thing. I've pretty much completely disabled all the Metro crud now, got myself a nice desktop-orientated OS that just happens to perform a bit quicker than Windows 7 and have a different skin on the windows.

Have you figured out how to get Aero back in Windows 8 yet?

Lum

No, because I don't care enough to install further hacks purely for eye-candy. I've got back all the functionality that I need and am happy enough with the flat purple theme I have.

Instead I just set StartIsBack to a flat Win8-style start menu skin and replaced the Win7-style start orb with a Win8 logo.