This is how you De-suckyfy the Windows 8 interface.

**adrianh** · 26-Jul-13, 09:06 PM

This brilliant bit of freeware creates an alternative interface for Windows 8 that looks and acts exactly like Windows 7. You can set it to boot directly to the Windows 7 interface and if you really feel the urge to annoy yourself then you are able to switch back to the Windows 8 interface. You are able to switch between the two interfaces with no problems.

I've installed on two of our laptops and it works really great.

http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php

I give this software 100000 stars...

**Dave A** · 27-Jul-13, 06:27 PM

The Windows 8 project may be salvable after all, then

**adrianh** · 27-Jul-13, 06:46 PM

We purchased 4 laptops, 2 with Windows,7 and the others,with 8. The machines on 8 were bought for the kids. My girls really hate the interface so it was either change to 7 or make another plan.

I think that Microsoft is heading down the same slope as Apple, their arrogance catching up with them and showing on their bottom line. Samsung now outsells Apple and Microsoft is forcing people to switch to Linux.

**Hermes14** · 30-Jul-13, 09:06 AM

I think that Microsoft is heading down the same slope as Apple, their arrogance catching up with them and showing on their bottom line. Samsung now outsells Apple and Microsoft is forcing people to switch to Linux.

I got tired of having to upgrade every few years & switched to open suse & Libre a while ago & haven't looked back.
I does take a little bit longer to configure everything.
The advantage it you can configure it exactly the way you want it.
If anyone is interested in switching I would suggest reading at least the start up manual first.
http://doc.opensuse.org/
You will also find the guys on the forum are very friendly & will help with any questions you have.
https://forums.opensuse.org/forum.php

**irneb** · 30-Jul-13, 08:05 AM

You mean with this it might be possible to actually open a program if you've got a list of 20 (or more) installed? The W8 interface tends to hide those which weren't used as much. Tends to be a pain for us having these programs running all in one day (some at the same time): AutoCAD, AutoCAD MEP, AutoCAD Civil, Revit, Word, Outlook, Excel, Access, 3d Studio, Inventor, VirtualDub, PhotoShop, Impressions, InDesign, Power Point. Because all of them are used in conjunction to generate the presentations.

We've tried W8, it does start up quicker than W7 (though that's true for any new formatted install of any Windows anyway - even W95). But figuring out how to open one of those hidden programs means it takes longer for the user to get his job done! And sorry, touch simply does not work in my line - I'd have cramps within 2 minutes. MS should definitely have made at least a reversion to W7's interface possible as a single setting, preferably a button / shortcut key, if they wanted they could have redesigned something specific for the desktop, but re-using a phone interface is brainless. I don't mind new interfaces, I actually like Fedora's Gnome 3 and Ubuntu's Unity Desktop, I've even found Mac's OSX Cocoa not too bad, but I prefer KDE when on Linux (just so much more you can fiddle with to make it exactly as efficient as you need it to be, without the need to install 3rd party apps or learn to program in the command-line interface). I'd even go as far as to say I feel easier in KDE than I did in XP. Yet W8 is simply stupid, it might work well on a phone/tab, but on a desktop it's a no-fly-zone!

**irneb** · 23-Aug-13, 08:23 AM

I thought this might be of interest: http://blogs.computerworld.com/windo...tore-windows-8

So at least Lenovo's noticed that their users don't like W8's interface that much!

Edit: Not to mention, in my mind an even worse thing about W8: http://investmentwatchblog.com/leake...links-the-nsa/

**adrianh** · 23-Aug-13, 08:56 AM

Wow, interesting reading....

Seems that Microsoft has shot itself in the foot with Windows 8. I think that many people are going to switch to Linux. If I am forced to choose between Windows 8 and Linux I would definitely take the plunge and learn Linux.

**irneb** · 23-Aug-13, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by adrianh

Seems that Microsoft has shot itself in the foot with Windows 8.

AFAICS it's a situation of they've shot their own left foot with the UI design, then handed the gun to NSA to shoot the other one!

But as the usual US citizen can't simply shoot only one bullet, the NSA went and took another shot just so they could make a hash of their own feet:

Perhaps even more ominously, he added: “The other realistic scenario is that TPM chip manufactures don’t sit within reach of the NSA, but in China….”

If you read further in that 2nd link:

Another option would be to switch to Linux machines, something that the city government of Munich has started 10 years ago; the changeover should be complete before the year is up.

**irneb** · 27-Aug-13, 09:57 AM

<RANT>Nope, I've had similar issues before. Everything since Vista gave huge network problems, prior to that it wasn't as bad. To the point where we had to scrap a wide-format printer (i.e. something which cost in excess of R 200 000) simply because its controller was in fact a WinNT 4.0 machine and couldn't "talk" to any Windows newer than XP.

Even now I've got network problems with Windows 7 / XP. At home I've stopped using them together. As soon as they need to connect with each other you loose hair. And yes, it's constantly inconsistent (yes oxymoron intended) - one day works, the next it doesn't: no reason, just because it doesn't "feel" like it. I've even had situations where you run the Trouble Shooting wizard, it "fixes" the problem and suddenly you can "see" the various PC's on the network - then an hour later the same problem crops up (you haven't even restated any of the PC's).

Now I've turned my main PC into a Linux server which also handles my internet share, printers & shared folders. It never gives issues, I can connect to all of it from my W7 laptop as well as one of my old XP PC's. A friend of mine's even connected his MacBook without any extra configs to it over WiFi at one stage. I can even turn on my phone's hotspot and have the server automatically share that across the wired network without any other input that to turn on the hotspot on the phone. I've tried that with XP and with W7 - neither works well (always needs some "click-here", "beg-there" to happen on the PC as well), and also works one day but not the other.

If I can get away from any form of "Windows" I'd jump at the chance! Not only is it inconsistently crash prone / non-connective, it uses the network very inefficiently. I've tested this between 2 W7's and 2 XP's - on my 1G LAN I've never gotten throughput of more than 40MB/s, usually no more than 20MB/s (even from an SSD which regularly does local throughput of around 120MB/s). But when I do the same between 2 Linuxes (or even the BSD I used to make my own NAS) I find throughput around 80MB/s (which is very close to max for a 1G LAN, and at the HDD's max speed).</RANT>

Sorry, had to get some vitriol out of my blood!

IMO: The way to "de-suckify" windows is to uninstall it.