Windows 8

Classic Shell is fantastic for restoring the Start Menu and everything it came with. Start8 has some extra bells and whistles but it's not free.

I was using Start8, but it, uh, started acting up on my laptop. I've switched to Classic Shell, running just the start menu portion, and I've been happy with it. It has an overwhelming amount of customization if you enable all the settings and dig in, but you can run it in simple mode and it's straight forward.

I actually installed classic shell for a client's terminal server environment (they upgraded to server 12 and they're kind of backwards, I figured it would help them be comfortable).

It works great.

I just installed Classic Shell on my Yoga to help my wife out, who likes to use the touch screen, but constantly gets in weird states I have no idea how she manages to get into. It seems pretty decent.

I suspect that whatever comes in 8.1 Update 1 will do whatever we need, though. I can already turn off a lot of the side swipe stuff she goes into by accident.

I've been using Start8 and ModernMix for quite some time now. They are not free, but are well worth it in my opinion.

Thanks. I installed classic shell and will see how that goes. I think I'll try start8 at home. Not sure what I'm using currently but the 8.1 upgrade overwrote it and I need to update it anyway.

Looking for some advice on the April discontinued support of XP, hope this is the best thread.

I have an older AMD 64 processor that is running XP. I ran the windows 8 compatability program and got a thumbs up. Went out to buy Windows 8.1 and after many tries, it would not load past the initial splash screen on a clean install.

Called MS and they said my computer model is not supported for Windows 8. So I have an opened software package for Windows 8.1 and was told I could try and send it into Microsoft and get a refund.

Anyone have any experience with trying to get a refund from MS? License key was never used, but since it is opened I think I am limited on my options. I may just try and get a Windows 7 and delay a new computer purchase for another few years. Would it make sense to try and trade someone for an unused Windows 7 for 8.1? That makes me nervous as who knows if they key I will get is valid and such.

Thanks all.

Which Windows 8 license do you have? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a Win7 'downgrade' license is included with some Win8 versions/licenses.

Yeah, you may be able to use that license to run Win7, and then use it to run Win8 if and when you have a computer that supports it.

Interesting. It's just a retail license from a copy of 8.1 that I bought at best buy, so it is not an OEM one. Microsoft said I had to buy a copy of Win 7. I wonder if this is a case of getting someone on the line who did not understand that part. Would another call to MS be fruitful?

Edit - I did some searching and is this only available for 8.1 professional? I just bought the standard 8.1.

I believe neither retail nor OEM has downgrade rights. Only volume licenses or if you buy a PC with Win 8 pre-installed.

Could be wrong, though.

MannishBoy wrote:

Could be wrong, though.

Kind of.
Pro OEM has downgrade.
IMAGE(http://support.microsoft.com/Library/Images/2833505.png)
Trying to hotlink graph from here.

Thanks all for the info. Sounds like an attempt to get a refund for Windows 8.1 and buy Windows 7 is in my future. I had thought about trying to build a cheap PC, so maybe I'll head over to the build thread.

Thanks again everyone!

Anybody signed up for Bing Rewards? They've got a 100 credit deal for a year of 100GB OneDrive storage. Yesterday you could stack them, but today they seem to have stopped that

I think if you sign up you can get 200 credits immediately if you're referred. So if anybody needs a referral, let me know.

Since OneDrive is the Xbox One storage, along with all the rest of the MS storage stuff, might as well have it.

Looks like that only last a year, so I probably won't bother. I use an outlook account as my primary email and switched the Sky Drive thing to One Drive recently. I have 30 GB of storage which is nice. Not sure how I ended up getting that.

What do they allow you to store via Xbox One out of curiosity? Do videos get uploaded to that? I imagine space could go quickly if that is the case.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Looks like that only last a year, so I probably won't bother. I use an outlook account as my primary email and switched the Sky Drive thing to One Drive recently. I have 30 GB of storage which is nice. Not sure how I ended up getting that.

What do they allow you to store via Xbox One out of curiosity? Do videos get uploaded to that? I imagine space could go quickly if that is the case.

I posted that it was for a year I wished I'd realized yesterday it was allowing stacking, as I probably would have stacked about 10 years worth

As I understand it, SkyDrive is used for vids and screenshots. You can also watch vids and view pictures from your OneDrive account. I'm not sure if your Xbox recordings are counted against your OneDrive space or not.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to say that you didn't mention it. I didn't word that correctly. I didn't realize the stacking was for time not space. Yeah, that would have been rad to get set up.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I have 30 GB of storage which is nice. Not sure how I ended up getting that.

Be default OneDrive offers 7gb for free. I got grandfathered in at 25gb for using it from way back when. 30gb is an odd number though...

PaladinTom wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I have 30 GB of storage which is nice. Not sure how I ended up getting that.

Be default OneDrive offers 7gb for free. I got grandfathered in at 25gb for using it from way back when. 30gb is an odd number though...

It says I have 27.8 available, so I assumed I'm at around 30. I know I managed to get some space by signing up early for something at some point.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I have 30 GB of storage which is nice. Not sure how I ended up getting that.

Be default OneDrive offers 7gb for free. I got grandfathered in at 25gb for using it from way back when. 30gb is an odd number though...

It says I have 27.8 available, so I assumed I'm at around 30. I know I managed to get some space by signing up early for something at some point.

I've got an extra 50 GB already since I subscribe to Office 365 now that I've been doing some contracting and don't have access to my old job's cheap licenses. They also gave you some free space if you set up photo sync on your phone (Android for me). So I've got the grandfathered space, the photo sync space, and Office 365 space. Now the extra 100GB for the next year.

Kurrelgyre wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Looks like that only last a year, so I probably won't bother. I use an outlook account as my primary email and switched the Sky Drive thing to One Drive recently. I have 30 GB of storage which is nice. Not sure how I ended up getting that.

You have 25GB as an early adopter (I do as well), and you get 3GB if you also allow your device photos to automatically upload. Are you just not using much of it? https://onedrive.live.com/options will show you how much you have and if there are any time limits on the capacity.

That's it! I had a Windows Phone for awhile, and I just checked and have 28 GB.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Looks like that only last a year, so I probably won't bother. I use an outlook account as my primary email and switched the Sky Drive thing to One Drive recently. I have 30 GB of storage which is nice. Not sure how I ended up getting that.

You have 25GB as an early adopter (I do as well), and you get another 3GB if you also allow your "camera roll" to automatically upload. Are you just not using much of it? https://onedrive.live.com/options will show you how much you have and if there are any time limits on the capacity.

Kurrelgyre wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Looks like that only last a year, so I probably won't bother. I use an outlook account as my primary email and switched the Sky Drive thing to One Drive recently. I have 30 GB of storage which is nice. Not sure how I ended up getting that.

You have 25GB as an early adopter (I do as well), and you get another 3GB if you also allow your "camera roll" to automatically upload. Are you just not using much of it? https://onedrive.live.com/options will show you how much you have and if there are any time limits on the capacity.

Boom! Extra 3gb of storage for activating this on my iPhone. Thanks for the tip!

Now I have to decide if I should leave this on and turn off iCloud - which has been very dodgy for me.

Dropbox also gives you more free space (how much I'm not sure) if you let the desktop sync app or on-device app automatically back up the camera roll. Which I find easier to do than manually invoke Windows' import wizard and then track down the folder it mentioned.

I think I have an odd OCD in that I'm at 128gb of OneDrive storage and I don't want to add any more storage because 128gb is just a nice round number (in powers of 2). Plus I'm only using about 5% of that right now anyway, even though I've used it for years.

I know that the OEM license says it's for preinstallation on a computer and not transferrable to another computer, but how does this work in practice? Like if I get the OEM version for my home PC and upgrade it later on, could I transfer it for free? does MS require some sort of license fee? Or would they expect me to buy a new version of Windows. I'd like to save by getting an OEM copy but don't want to get burned when I inevitably swap in new hardware.

The OEM version is tied to the motherboard you install it on. Unless you're replacing a broken motherboard, you're supposed to pay for a new license. This applies even if you're not going to run Windows on the old motherboard anymore. The only acceptable transfer is a repair.

Now, in practice, Microsoft would have no way to know that you're still using the old motherboard for something else, but it most likely means you'll have to call in to activate the license, and you'll probably have to lie to the CSR.

Yup, super easy. Just tell em you had a warranty replacement for the motherboard and you're set. Or your hard drive crapped out. I've had both happen and they've never complained. It's an absurdly quick phone call when you'd expect it to take forever.

I've had to call the clearinghouse quite a bit for MSDN licensing and it's always been super painless. I'd be really surprised if it even flags, to be honest. I'm pretty sure it's an activations over time system, not just total activations. That was the case for MSDN at least.

8.1 will be out April 8th.