Win8 boot guide: Your first hour with the new OS

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	TOP STORY Win8 boot guide: Your first hour with the new OS
	By Woody Leonhard Win8 is unique among Windows versions; every experienced Windows user will feel significant disorientation on that first journey into the new OS. I call it “Metro vertigo.” To get you off on the right foot, here’s a one-hour intro to Win8 that will get you up to speed with minimal frustration.

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The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/top-story/win8-boot-guide-your-first-hour-with-the-new-os/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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I appreciated the article and liked Win 8 until I suffered the disastrous consequences of installing Windows Live Mail. The story is in my thread “Installing Windows Live Mail On A Dual Boot System (Win 7 and Win 8))” in the Non-Outlook Mail Forum.

Nobody seems to have a solution, which means that I either have to dump Win 7 to be able to install WLM in Win 8, and I have no intention of dumping Win 7, or give up on Win 8 as it’s too much of a hassle to have to reboot from Win 8 to Win 7 every time I want to use WLM. (Catch 22 anyway, as I can’t install WLM in Win 8, as explained in my above thread)!

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It just feels weird having to go back and forth between the two interfaces.
I broke down and installed the “Classic Start Menu” that most everyone else has been using with W8, and it definitely helps keep
one centered on the desktop a little more. They (MS) should not have gotten rid of it entirely.
I’m seeing the “Classic Start Menu” app as a comfort feature until I can get a better footing in life without a start menu/button.
I may actually end up doing several clean installs in an attempt to “get my mind around” new ways of doing things.

Thanks for the article,
I’ll be especially looking forward to your assessment and evaluation of the potential W8 privacy issues in the columns to come.

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Thanks a lot for the introduction. I would have found most of these in days to come, but all of them at one place makes the life a bit easier. Looking forward to next week’s posting.

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In Australia a handy magazine comes out monthly called APC (Australian Personal Computing). In November’s issue they have provided a link to an app they developed to hobble the Metro interface using a bypass, or a Metro killer (FxxkMetro) and also to provide a Start button using either Classic Shell or Start8. The link to their app is apcmag.com/fix8.html. They have an article in the magazine about the various options this app provides (the options are pretty self explanatory) but I am loath to copy it due to copyright issues. However if you live outside of Australia I am sure you could persuade one of your friends over here to send you a copy or you could contact the publisher to request a copy and if you have an ipad you could subscribe to APC through it. In this issue they also tackle the shutdown and restart of Win8 by creating Metro shortcuts. Hope this is of some help.

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Roy, the answer for you is always check you WLM from just one OS. Checking from both will definitely cause problems. I have never tried a different email client so I have no idea if this will happen with another client. When I was dual booting I just checked WLM from Win 8, but in my case my plan all along was to replace Win 7 with Win 8, which I have done. Win 8 does everything Win 7 did, only better IMO, and then some which Win 7 could not do.

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Having spent several hours with unsuccessfully trying to get Win 8 to install on an HP Touchsmart IQ804 I have learned several things. First Microsoft does not have a compatability checker, but while its support personnel are pleasant they were not really able to solve the installation problem. However they did help narrow the issues, I think. The first is the Nvidia driver which Device Manager says is the latest, but Nvidia has a newer version. It seems, however, that Nvidia support is an oxymoron. The Nvidia software says you need this driver, identifies your Nvidia card (actually on board chip) and then refuses to install it. That could be the answer, but there is really no easy way to contact Nvidia. Then HP has a BIOS which is dated 2008 and which HP does not have an update although AMI might, but HP says do not install from anyone but us. Of course they wont update it. The Touchsmart is really an excess machine which is just hanging around, but I thought it would fun to try Win 8 on it to see what it was like. Alas I will have to stay with Win 7 which is probably what I should have done in the first place.

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Having spent several hours with unsuccessfully trying to get Win 8 to install on an HP Touchsmart IQ804 I have learned several things. First Microsoft does not have a compatability checker, but while its support personnel are pleasant they were not really able to solve the installation problem. However they did help narrow the issues, I think. The first is the Nvidia driver which Device Manager says is the latest, but Nvidia has a newer version. It seems, however, that Nvidia support is an oxymoron. The Nvidia software says you need this driver, identifies your Nvidia card (actually on board chip) and then refuses to install it. That could be the answer, but there is really no easy way to contact Nvidia. Then HP has a BIOS which is dated 2008 and which HP does not have an update although AMI might, but HP says do not install from anyone but us. Of course they wont update it. The Touchsmart is really an excess machine which is just hanging around, but I thought it would fun to try Win 8 on it to see what it was like. Alas I will have to stay with Win 7 which is probably what I should have done in the first place.

You chose one of the most challenging brands and their most challenging model to experiment on with Windows 8. Microsoft does have an Upgrade Adviser which most people think (erroneously) forces you to go the download route to obtain your Windows 8 installer. Especially if you are upgrading a highly specialized computer (which is a mistake in my opinion) run the Upgrade Adviser until it shows you what your potential Windows 8 upgrade hardware, driver, device and software issues may be. If the Adviser can’t run, or if it gives a long list, or if there are no available updates from the manufacturer or vendor, this is a sign you should not try to install Windows 8 on that computer.

-- rc primak

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“Although it hasn’t been around long enough for me to recommend it wholeheartedly, many people swear by Start8 as a Start menu replacement.”

Here in the UK the Computeractive Magazine is covering Windows 8 in a series of articles. In Issue 383, dated 25 Oct – 07 Nov 12, they include a workshop on how to install “Classic Start Menu“. They say ” this restores the traditional Start button and Windows 7 style Start menu, and also lets users log straight in to the Windows Desktop, bypassing the new Start screen entirely”.

I have not dared to experiment with Windows 8 personally, so I speak as a fool, but the information above might help other aged and timid souls like myself.

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Classic Shell has been discussed quite a bit and is my personal favorite.

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Ted, regarding your post #6, I am now using Thunderbird on Win 8 and I am really impressed with the technical support I have received from their support community (can’t say the same for Microsoft forums), which helped me solve some initial problems which were due to my unfamiliarity with the product.

Other software developers produce programs which work in dual boot scenarios, so why can’t Microsoft with WLM?

Regards, Roy

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Don’t know Roy. I have replaced Win 7 with Win 8 Pro and we are both happy with it. But it does indeed have a problem with dual boot if you want to open it from both OS’s.

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For email, I’ve repeatedly advised using a portable client, like Pegasus Mail. This avoids the dual-boot issue, among other things it fixes.

-- rc primak

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*If your utilizing Windows 8 on a desktop computer and have your own desktop installed email client, I recommend uninstalling
the start screen Windows email application, unless you prefer to have two separate clients.

*Windows 8 does appear to utilize the GPU far more than any other MS OS, as I am consistently running a few degrees warmer on my GTX580 card.

*The Window Experience Index appears to be a bit harder on your hardware than Windows 7’s was, your scores may present as lower than in the Windows 7
Windows Experience Index.

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*If your utilizing Windows 8 on a desktop computer and have your own desktop installed email client, I recommend uninstalling
the start screen Windows email application, unless you prefer to have two separate clients.

*Windows 8 does appear to utilize the GPU far more than any other MS OS, as I am consistently running a few degrees warmer on my GTX580 card.

*The Window Experience Index appears to be a bit harder on your hardware than Windows 7’s was, your scores may present as lower than in the Windows 7
Windows Experience Index.

Funny, as my Intel core-i5 Toshiba Satellite under Windows 8 rarely shows any activity of my NVidia sub-unit graphics under Windows 8 RP. Confirmed by GPU-z both in numbers and in graphs. The temp sometimes rises, but there is no actual use of the subsystem evident.

-- rc primak

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Windows 8 is more like an old broken toy at a garage sale than a new high tech operating system. Really? This isn’t a bad dream? There are still serious errors with Windows 7, but it has it’s strengths. I just can’t believe this is happening. I wouldn’t buy it even if it was 5 for $40.

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