Woody Leonhard's no-bull news, tips and help for Windows and Office
RSS icon Email icon Home icon
  • Minimize Metro!

    Posted on October 26th, 2012 at 22:22 woody 12 comments

    How desktop fans running Win8 can reduce the intrusiveness of the Metro interface.

    There’s a handful of tricks that really do minimize the amount of Metro intrusion, but still let you use Metro whenever you really want to.

    InfoWorld.

     

    12 responses to “Minimize Metro!”

    1. You slide show nicely illustrates why Windows 8 won’t appear on my work-gets-done-here desktop computer any time soon. And using a slide show was the right medium for your presentation. For that is what Win 8 “Metro” seems to be…. an extended slide show to entertain the masses but a clumsy place to get real work done.

      But just in case Win 8 is a great operating system improvement and just what I need, I give it a deeper look by purchasing a Windows 8 book. When will the book be out, Woody?

    2. @Ax -

      It’s out! It’s out!

      I’m told that every Staples in America has a box end display that includes copies of, ahem, “Windows 8 All-In-One For Dummies.”

      I just got my copies yesterday. Biggest book I’ve ever written, and a whole lotta stuff to cover.

    3. And both because Woody’s books are great and as a thank you for this site, I quickly ordered it on line. One of the few books I order as physical books as the diagrams are hard to read on an e-reader.

      I don’t take Woody’s books though on airplane rides I’m not that strong to carry such big books.

    4. Amazon.com will release the book on Monday, October 29, 2012. Pre-Orders being taken now. It doesn’t quite add up to free shipping, but I’m sure Amazon has other interesting offerings, so the shipping would disappear with just one more little purchase.

      The Staples price is a bit higher than Amazon with free shipping.

      Woody, will you be posting a link at this site for the book, so that you can benefit from our click-throughs?

    5. Thanks, Herb!

    6. @RC -

      Here it is – and thanks for thinking of me!

      http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1118119207/askwoody-20

    7. I see the link is now posted in the column on the right-hand side of the page here. I’ve ordered mine with another item at Amazon, to get their Super Saver free shipping. Thanks for the link.

    8. Thanks, Bob!

    9. Book arrived looks great and thorough but now how do I carry it upstairs, it’s really big :)

    10. @Herb -

      By far the biggest book I’ve ever written – and I tend to write long ones!

      Thanks.

    11. Error in Slide 11. I can do all my additions,changes and troubleshooting of wired or wireless, local or Internet Connection Networks and Sharing functions from the Windows 8 Legacy Desktop. Right-click on the Networking Tray Icon and it works almost the same way as in Windows 7.

      Add a User works from the desktop Control Panel, but you may have to enter Add A User as a Search Term. From there it’s just about like in Windows 7, but with more options listed, including going out to Metro Control Panel for final adjustments of an account picture or login type. Some Desktop Control Panel links send you out to the Metro Control Panel. So what — it isn’t as though you can’t get these things done and return to the Legacy Desktop.

      I pinned to the Taskbar an Item which is labeled Desktop. When clicked, it presents, jump-list style, all the contents of my Legacy Desktop, from the taskbar. Folders and Libraries become flyout menus and sub-menus. Very handy when an App or browser window is at Full Screen or nearly that large.

    12. Correction: What I really did was to activate the taskbar Desktop Toolbar. Otherwise, it’s just as I posted above. All in one place on the taskbar.

    Leave a reply