MS goes back to the future

Where's my ferkin' Start button?

"A TWEAKED version of Microsoft's Windows operating system which restores the "Start" button missed by users and updates other features will be available from late on October 17.

Windows 8.1 will be offered as a free download to those already using Windows 8, and comes in response to a lukewarm reception to the operating system introduced last year aimed at serving both mobile devices and PCs."

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My youngest spent her tax return on a new laptop and printer, but needed Dad to set it up for her i.e. make her desktop look exactly like her old one. Trouble is that Windows 8 is now the standard OS with all non-Mac PCs. Windows 8 is pretty snazzy, with lots of useful shit (Skydrive is particularly good) but MicroSoft dropped the traditional "Start" button. Consequently it takes some getting used to, and much toggling between the Tiles touch desktop and a standard desktop is required while you do that getting used to.

The lack of a "Start" button really IS hard to get used to. To turn the PC off you have to swipe up a Charms bar, go to Settings, find Power, touch Power, touch Shut Down and OK. Not really a labour saver!! Also, no applications have the red "X" to shut them down, so you can end up with dozens of applications open (if you are like my daughter), which can be a real RAM drain. Opening Task Manager and ending the application is the only way to shut them down, other than turning off the machine, which is a bit of a pain-in-the-arse.

Another con is the touch screen becomes absolutely filthy with fingerprints, no matter how clean your hands are.

The new Windows 8.1 tweak by MS looks a good idea.

I thought this thread would be a crack at Mick Sawyer's Billyness

Where IS Mick?

embee wrote:I thought this thread would be a crack at Mick Sawyer's Billyness

I didn't think anyone would open the thread if it had Microsoft in the title.  

Big Dog wrote:Where IS Mick?

He last posted on May 26, well before the Vulture got the arse. Perhaps he moved to the Canary Islands to nurse his Super fund back to health?  

agree entirely Skully re some painful features of 8.0...am looking forward to the update as well...still have not figured out much with skydrive

Mick is posting regularly on another board I frequent. Maybe he just got bored shitless with all the politics.

there are lots of programs you can download to get the start button back. i've been using one for over 6 months now. i dont have the stupid tiles home screen, charms, etc. just the classic start button

this is what i use - http://download.cnet.com/Start-Menu-8/3000-2072_4-75852660.html

taipan wrote:Mick is posting regularly on another board I frequent. Maybe he just got bored shitless with all the politics.

...really?.....maybe it was the banjo jokes....btw Taips I have been meeting a few saffie ex pats here..yesterday I got to sit in on an African Union/UN Women conference...a bit shambolic but interesting nonetheless

AU/UN = FUBAR

Hopefully MS is just resting.

taipan wrote:Mick is posting regularly on another board I frequent. Maybe he just got bored shitless with all the politics.

You'd think it would be easy enough to just not read it.

G.Wood wrote:

taipan wrote:Mick is posting regularly on another board I frequent. Maybe he just got bored shitless with all the politics.

You'd think it would be easy enough to just not read it.

It's like rabbits. Seems to breed everywhere.

He could just put Dan on ignore then

iDon't know what you mean Woody.

^ See what I did there? iAm just too good.

Bring back Mick!

Brass Monkey wrote:iDon't know what you mean Woody.

^ See what I did there? iAm just too good.

iThink it might catch on.

embee wrote:I thought this thread would be a crack at Mick Sawyer's Billyness

I actually thought this thread would be about Monty Panesar returning to Northants.

Gary 111 wrote:

embee wrote:I thought this thread would be a crack at Mick Sawyer's Billyness

I actually thought this thread would be about Monty Panesar returning to Northants.

I thought it was about multiple sclerosis and how they'd found a cure for it and that Michael J. Fox had been cured of it.

Then I remembered he has Parkinson's.

Whereas, bizarrely, Parkinson himself just has 'i'm a boring old fart' disease.

Excuse me, but Parky's one of those institutions that you can't barrage. ESPECIALLY on a cricket forum.

But yeah, he's a gibbering caricature.

I think its his relentless attempts to sell me life insurance that have turned me off him.

Funny, because it made me go and wrestle some medieval-mace-wielding crackhead crocodiles