# Installed Win 8 and made it more like 7



## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

I jumped on the bandwagon and download the Win 8 Pro upgrade from My Win 7 Pro retail OS. Although the install gives you the option to save the file various ways (I saved it as an ISO for backup purposes), I went ahead and ordered an official DVD too, making the total something like $55.

The upgrade takes a while (about two hours, including downloading) but is otherwise painless. However, I immediately didn't like the new interface and wanted to get back to my familiar Win 7 format. Unfortunately after a bit of reading, I found that MS seems to have a thing about forcing people change with Win 8 whether we want to or not. Gone is the Start menu ("How the heck do I even shut down?" I asked myself) and getting to the Desktop took some additional steps too.

It only took a couple of minutes searching to get my "Win 7" back, however. First I bought Start8 for five bucks, which gave me a Start menu. I found an open-source Start Menu replacement too (Classic Shell) and may give it a try it in the future if I find that Start8 falls short, but right now I see no problems with it.

Once I got my Start button back, all I had to do is to make Win 8 boot straight to the Desktop. I read about several ways to do this that worked in the Beta but it seem that MS has blocked them. Other methods were more or less complex and often entailed running scripts or executables, which I'd rather not do if I didn't have to.

Then I went to gpedit.msc and got rid of the lock screen (Computer Configuration > Administrative Tools > Control Panel > Personalization, double click "Do not display the lock screen" and set it to enabled). 

Finally, I found a simple and elegant way to go straight to the Desktop by simply placing the "Desktop" tile at the upper-left corner of the tiles (I just unpinned them all so it's the only one left) and then holding the Enter Key down after signing in -- it goes straight to the Desktop.

So now I have my "Win 7" back with Win 8 internals. I suppose that, over time, I'll learn Win 8's new features but right now I can be use my comp as I'm used to.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

An update to the right to Desktop problem. I've just found that Start8 has an option to do this without any "tricks" -- log into your account and right to the desktop it goes. I'd get there even quicker but this computer is sometimes used by the family and I don't want a non-password-protected admin account on it -- they can use the guest account.


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## undertaken316 (Oct 26, 2012)

Nice trick! will check it soon.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

I wonder if MS will give in to the wishes of PC users and bring back the classical way of doing things. That they thought it necessary to force users into a new way of using an OS is beyond me. Sure, the tile setup and sweep commands work for pad screens but how many PCs have no touchcreen? I'd say the vast majority of them.

That a person would have to resort to a 3-d party program just to make a new operating system usable on a PC is beyond me. I can't say I really am "into" any of the new things Win 8 has and only upgraded because it was relatively inexpensive. Usually I wait until a new OS is very mature before I upgrade. I held onto XP for a _long _time and just moved over to Win 7 a couple of years ago.

I do have to admit that the OS seems stable thus far and it has run all my older software without a hitch. I've read that Win 8 has faster boot times and by a rough count this seems to be so. Going into and out of sleep is also seamless on my system. I've messed around a bit with the tile apps but they are cumbersome to use with a mouse. I have no idea why MS didn't at least give users the option of adding forward and back and close/minimize buttons to the tiles with an official tweak.

Sometimes (or, perhaps almost always) a "vision for the future" falls flat on its face. Take, for instance, the "modern" styles of interior decorating that become dated almost before the paint dries, as opposed to a classical stone fireplace, wood floor and leather chairs, which looked good two hundred years ago and still look good today.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

For the past couple of days, I've been playing around with Windows 8 apps and the new features. While I was quickly won over by the new file manager, other features left me less impressed. While the new “tile” interface might be just the thing for a pad device, it's cumbersome with a mouse. Also, even in the Desktop, the stupid charms bar and switcher were always popping up when I moved m mouse to a corner of the screen, even in games where I was doing that for another reason.

Therefore, I looked around for a way to remove these two unwanted vestiges of Windows8ness and found this article:

How to disable the edge panels (Charms Bar and Switcher) in Windows 8 | Winaero

These tweaks work like a charm and are readily reversible if you ever want the charms bar and switcher back.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

While the Registry change makes the charms menu not activate when the cursor is placed at a right corner of the screen, it _will _still activate if the cursor is placed at a right corner and then moved straight up or down. IMO, this is not a problem and also is a fast and easy way of getting to the Win 8 desktop if one ever wants to.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

An update on the charms bar and switcher: I just found that Start8 has an option to disable these, and do a better job of it, than a Registry change. The Start8 people seen dedicated to producing a good product. I reported a minor bug and feature that I would like to see and got an immediate reply.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

Here is a really nice new feature I found in Windows 8. Many if us do a lot of work from the elevated command prompt, which usually entails either going trough some hoops to set up a shortcut or running "cmd" from the Start Menu then right-clicking on it and selecting "Run as administrator."

Well, no more hassles: opening an elevated command prompt in Windows 8 is as simple as right-clicking the lower left corner of the screen (or pressing Win-X) then selecting "Command Prompt (Admin)."

The Win-X menu can be modified with "shutdown," "restart" and other command too for those who either don't like "Metro" or don't wish to add a third-party Start menu to the Desktop.

Add Shutdown and Reboot to the Windows 8 Win+X Menu - How-To Geek


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

This is just a minor annoyance but I noticed that while Chrome gave me a nice little Tech Support Forums icon, IE 10 did not.

To get it back, I copied an icon picture from TSF then converted it using the handy freeware icon editor from Greenfish. Went to Properties, selected "Change icon," browsed to where I had saved the new icon... and now the TSF favorite shortcut doesn't look so generic.


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## GZ (Jan 31, 2010)

You can also make a shortcut to "shutdown.exe" with the proper switches and pin it to your start screen, desktop and/or taskbar.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

GZ said:


> You can also make a shortcut to "shutdown.exe" with the proper switches and pin it to your start screen, desktop and/or taskbar.


That works well, especially for those who opt not to use a 3rd-party start menu. For those interested in having readily-available shutdown, restart, log-off, etc. commands on their Win 8 start screen here is a good article:

How to Add Shutdown / Restart / Sleep to the Windows 8 Metro Start Screen - How-To Geek

You can also place them on your Win-X menu:

Add Shutdown and Reboot to the Windows 8 Win+X Menu - How-To Geek


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

Here is my new Win-X menu, Note that the free little program, WinXEditor makes adding and removing items to the Win-X menu very simple. A not on using it: Run the program and the hashlink executable one time and let WIndow 8 "learn them. Also, when you change the menu, be sure to click "apply" before exiting so that the changes will take effect.

Here are the shortcut commands I used (sleep required a .bat file):

```
Sleep

%windir%\System32\powercfg -hibernate off
%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0
%windir%\System32\powercfg -hibernate on

Hibernate

C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll,SetSuspendState

Restart

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -r -t 00

Shut Down

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -s -t 00
```


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

An update on my Windows 8 install journey:

I originally did an in-place upgrade, which saved all my program files and settings (quite nicely too). However, I realize that some like to do a "clean" install so I thought I'd do a "refresh" and "reset" to see how these options went.

The "refresh" option will reinstall the Windows 8 OS back to its original condition and will retain your password, settings, and most Windows 8 apps. However, everything that's not a Windows 8 app will be deleted, including Microsoft's own software.

The "reset" option is even more comprehensive -- it will give you a clean re-install of the OS, which will then need to have a product key entered to activate and a password and Internet connection set up. Note that you can chose the "thorough" option to wipe the disk completely too; if you do chose this option, it's best to run the reset overnight as on my system it took several hours to finish.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

Recently I clicked on an e-mail link and the "Metro" e-mail app came up. As my goal is to stay out of "Metro" entirely, I needed a way to set my Hotmail account as the default mail service. Searching around, I found a handy little program, it works like a charm and is user-modifiable too: 

GmailDefaultMaker - Home


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

I've been playing around with a darker theme for my Win 8 desktop's task bar and found that Start8 has several different Start button icons to choose from. I thought that a couple of the members here might like this paw-print start button.

BYW, that file cabinet (for File Explorer) was found on one of the little-known icon caches (pifmgr.dll), which along with moreicons.dll in System32 is chock full of old versions of Windows icons.


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

Here is a list of icon caches in Windows 7/8:

compstui.dll
DDORes.dll
ieframe.dll
imageres.dll
mmcndmgr.dll
moricons.dll
netshell.dll
pnidui.dll
shell32.dll
wmploc.DLL
pifmgr.dll


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