Windows 8... worth an upgrade from 7? - Page 14

Or in desktop, right click lower left corner (start corner). Select run command prompt as admin.

Just use the WinKey+X Menu that's what its there for.

Just to be extra clear, when you right click on the start icon, included in the choices are two choices:

Command Prompt
Command Prompt (Admin)

I can't imagine it being any easier than that, because that's exactly where you would look to run a command prompt if you were at all familiar with Win8.

Why would you say this? I like change, but when change means using an interface designed for tablets when you're not using a tablet, it's ludicrous. If I want to use a tablet, I'll pick one up and use it.

If win8 had a boot screen to totally avoid the "metro"/whatever it's called now interface, I'd consider it. As it is, I RAN out and bought a laptop with win7 on it.

There is some strange groupthink with the pro Win8 at any cost crowd. There is nothing to indicate that most of the people responding in this thread abhor change or are computer illiterate, yet the responses continue to be glib.

want your start button back?

http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

free software to get it back...

just found it today, so far so good...

Back to the question on whether or not win8 is worth it? jury is still out on that... I like some things about metro. (the kids like the hokey games!) so far it seems a little snappier than win7, but all new builds are fast before you bog them down with a bunch of apps...

Windows 8 will be made or broken in the corporate space. Enterprises adopted XP, they didn't adopt Vista. They adopted 7, they won't adopt 8. It's simple really. No corporate is going to deploy an O/S that requires extensive user re-training, full software compatibility testing and purchase of extra hardware just to make the damn thing work, and then watch productivity fall like a stone. You may see Windows 8 tablets in companies, and probably Windows phones due to the way they work with company systems, but 8 on the desktop will be few and far between.

If I may hijack the thread for a moment since I don't think this deserves a new posting- I just got an HDHomerun and I'm running WMC on my Windows 8 machine with an NVidia GTX670. There is pretty obvious interlacing on TV programming and I'm trying to figure out how to address it. It seems like the older Nvidia Purevideo decoder would have done what I want, but it is for XP only. How do you enable deinterlacing on television programming in Windows 7/8 Media Center?

when you see all the mistakes and just plain wrong information that the anti-Windows 8 people are spouting, you'd realize this is not being glib but correcting mistakes and helping people from getting the wrong information.

you may choose to use forums as a soap box and that's totally your prerogative. i go to forums to find answers to problems and tips for better performance.

Windows 8 is not a touch screen OS, its an OS designed to work as good with mouse, keyboard and touch. Together or alone.

The mouse don't differ much from previous version. Just move the mouse to the lower left corner to start a program.

And its not very hard to click on a tile compared to an icon.

I'd check the Nvidia control panel and adjust settings there first. After that, then start checking the settings in WMC.

Thanks. I did enable use inverse telecine deinterlacing in the NVIDIA Control Panel, but it did not appear fix the interlacing. Noone else on here is running media center and getting issue with interlacing watching their TV programming?

I think it has something to do with the fact that most of what is being complained of, the lock screen and the Metro screen, each go away with a click. Not a huge deal.

The lack of a start menu is more bothersome, but you quickly get used to it and then don't miss the start menu.

No. There are settings in WMC that adjust it to different types of displays. Maybe you accidentally did that, or set it up before for a different display??????

I re-ran the media center setup wizard and made sure to specify that I had a monitor. It is a 30 inch Dell hooked via by DVI btw. I am still getting the below type of interlacing on panning shots, and during scene transitions, it is a full frame "jail bar" style interlacing. If other people are not getting this then I'm not sure what could be wrong with my setup.

You chose "a monitor" in the WMC setup? That's for an old-style CRT display (WMC even shows you a picture of one). Surely you need to choose the LCD Panel for the Dell?

I don't know if this is a change from Win7 to Win8, or just from Vista to Win8, but one thing I don't like is that with Vista you had a few seconds after your screen went blank (or screensaver) to move your mouse without having to enter the password. With Win8 even if you get it immediately you have to enter your password.

make sure you choose flat panel, not monitor.

but what content are you viewing that causes this problem? or is it every channel?

Yup, I did go back and make sure I selected flat panel after I noticed the "Monitor" option seemed to depict a CRT monitor. I still seemed to get that issue with some recordings even after changing that setting, but it could possibly be just that channel. It's just an HD TV show. Not really noticing the issue on other channels. I'll see if I get it on any other channels, and if not, I'll just chalk it up to something funny going on with that one.

It could be. I was watching a CBS show last week that started with jerky motion half way through. It started at the exact same spot, so it was only that show.

I've switched out three of our four computers in the house to Win8 Pro using the "free" WMC key activations. I started with my gaming laptop and then the old laptop my children use. I installed StartIsBack and have them all booting directly to the desktop with a typical Start button. I did my wife's laptop over the weekend and the only thing she noticed and complained about was when she opened a photo. That threw her into the Photo App and she was lost since I had hid every trace of the Metro interfacing. After I changed the default Open With to the regular Picture View then things were back to normal (Win7 like). Her laptop is from the Vista era and is showing its age so I figured Win 8 would be the best to squeeze more performance out of it. Plus I got an optical drive caddy and swapped out her DVD drive for a SSD.

Now the only remaining PC in the house is my HTPC (and my WHS 2011 server). I see that Ceton has Win8 beta drivers. The only other issue seems to be Media Browser, but there appears to be a work-around for getting that up and running. Anything else keeping WMC from working similar to Win7? I'll probably switch during Christmas break since I have about 15 Win8 Pro WMC licenses that need to be used before they expire.

This is not my experience at all. You can't move the mouse to the lower left corner to start a program. You move it to some hidden spot on the top right to reveal charms, then start typing. Point and click is gone. As I said before, in Win 7 I could start any program with 2 mouse clicks. This can't be done in Win 8 out of the box without typing, using hot keys or creating shortcuts. This is a big productivity killer and creates a steep learning curve since things that used to be easy with a mouse are now a game of hide and seek. I have at least 300 programs on my PC. I can't remember all the names, so typing is out. I'm not going to create 300 shortucts, so that's out. I need to be able to browse lists, categories and menus with my mouse to find what I want. This works fine in Win 7, but not in 8.

I understand a lot of people love keyboard based navigation. I did too, 30 years ago. I'll even use keyboard shortcuts to speed up repetitive tasks, but in general I think it's a big step backwards and non-intuitive to take away mouse functionality from the GUI. I just wish Win 8 gave me the option to use the OS the way I want and not force me to switch to keyboard navigation. I don't like it at all.

one shouldn't brag about stealing...

and too bad, you're missing out on some nice metro apps, many free even.

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/02/upgrade-to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx

how do you buy this ?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/download-shop

How is it stealing? You go here and get a free WMC key:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

ahh. it was a matter of how you phrased it. you said you installed Windows 8 using the "free" WMC activations. this is the backdoor way the piraters are getting legitimate licenses.

my apologies for misinterpreting.

Quick question. I have a Windows pro upgrade and WMC keys from this past offer. Can I use these keys to upgrade a new Win8 computer to Win8 pro? And to answer the question before it is asked, the computer that is currently activated using these keys, will go back to Win 7.

Your WMC Win8 free upgrade key has expired. You were supposed to use it by the end of January. Your Pro upgrade doesn't expire, you were just supposed to claim the upgrade by the end of January (I think). So it looks like you did that so that will work. I don't know if you can do the in-place upgrade from Win8 to Win8 Pro, but you can install a clean copy of Win8 Pro onto the PC.

As I said I did use it. Those keys are currently in use on a htpc I have. However I have a new Win8 computer and instead of spending $100 on the win8 to win8 pro upgrade, I was wondering if the keys would work on the new machine.