Fixing Windows 8

So you have a new laptop or PC? How nice 

With Windows 8 you say? Oh...

Microsoft's new Operating System is certainly raising a few eyebrows - and not without reason (check out my review [coming soon] for a proper overview of the controversial issues).
Windows 8 is a conflicted and confused OS, which has a great many changes since Windows 7 - many of which directly impact on usability, making it confusing and frustrating for many people, whether they were previously experienced with Windows or not.

Put simply Windows 8 is half a touch-screen OS and half Windows 7, which makes using it properly on a non-touchscreen device tricky. However there are a few simple tweaks that can be made, and applications that can be installed that will fix this for you. They are all free and easy to do, and shouldn't take more than about 15 minutes. What you'll be left with is effectively Windows 7 - but with better security and more timely updates. So, all in all, a major improvement over stock Win8.



Read through the info below and don't be afraid to pick and choose which tweaks you want to use - not all may be to your taste.

What's up?

No Start Menu here - just a massive bunch of boring blocks and hyperactive tiles

 The Start Screen is the first thing you are hit with when you have finished setting up your new Windows 8 computer.
Where did my Desktop go? How can I open my normal applications? Why am I getting Weather and News updates constantly scrolling on the screen?

Ok, first things first. Some of your installed applications are on this screen. That's right - some of them.
Scroll through them (to the right - not up and down like you might expect) and you'll find loads of junk you don't want, and lots of them have blank single-colour backgrounds and minimal icons.

The most important one to locate is the one titled 'Desktop'. Click on that and all of a sudden you feel like you're home once again - suddenly you have your old Desktop back! Yay for you.

Of course, all is fine until you notice that glaring omission in the bottom left corner. Oh dear. Someone's nicked me Start Menu!

Perhaps the Start Menu's hiding?

Surely no-one at Microsoft is crazy enough to remove the Start Menu. Surely?

No. I have checked. It's gone.
Sorry.

However if you click in the very bottom left corner of the screen you'll be excited to find that you're back in the Start Screen! Hooray. Wait, no. This is dreadful.
And then it dawns on you... the Start Screen is there to replace the Start Menu.
But why? We are left with a full-screen interface with not all the programs on it, and without easy access to the normal options like Shutdown and the Control Panel.

Honestly!!

And then, while you're still reeling from the shock of the missing Start Menu you find yourself in the Weather app, or looking at your Photos without even clicking on anything.
WHAT'S GOING ON?!?!!

Ok, the touchpad is interpreting your normal mouse movements as 'Gestures' and is invoking the Switch Applications option, or the Charms Bar.

Charms Bar?

FYI - the Charms Bar (Swipe in from the right of the trackpad, or push the mouse into the top-right or bottom-right corners) is the place to Shutdown the computer.
All you have to do is select the Settings Cog and then the Power button and then click Shutdown. Simple!

Fixing stuff

Right, so the issues I wanted to fix were that I wanted the OS to work like Windows should.
That is to say that I wanted to be able to open programs in 'windows' and not as full-screen 'mobile phone style apps'. I also wanted to see and customise the Desktop, and have a fully-functioning Start Menu.

I also wanted to fix it so that the touchpad didn't keep doing unpredictable and annoying things.

Replacing the Start Menu

Happily there are a wealth of applications you can install which will bring your good old Start Menu back to Windows.
My favourite is called ClassicShell. It has loads of settings you can tweak, but the default options are very sensibly chosen and so you are very quickly and easily restored to an easily usable version of Windows.

Installing:

Ok, time to install ClassicShell.

Pop over to http://www.classicshell.net/ and click on the 'Download Now' button. You'll be taken to a download page and shortly afterward you should find that your browser has a nice message telling you that you can now install the program. Click through the options and click Yes and Ok and stuff like that.

Before you know it you have a Start Menu.

And with your new Start Menu you can now see and launch any of the programs on your computer. The full-screen ones are listed under 'Apps', and the proper ones are under 'Programs'.
Oh, and you can also shut the computer down in the normal way by clicking on Start > Shut Down
Fixed!

Getting rid of the Start Screen on startup.

While we can't easily dispose of the Start Screen we can at least make the default option to go straight to the Desktop when your computer starts up.
This is one of the many additional options you can tweak once you've installed the ClassicShell program.

To enter the ClassicShell Settings menu just right-click on the Start Menu and select Settings.

Right-click on the Start Menu, not the corner of the screen as that launches a different settings menu

The options you want are under the 'Windows 8 Settings' tab (you may need to activate the 'All Settings' option at the bottom of that window first).
Select the 'Skip Metro screen' option and click OK.

From now on you will come straight to the Desktop when starting Windows.
Fixed!

Touchpad

To stop the scary and unpredictable Gestures from happening you will need to dig further into the settings.
All laptops are different, but your options should look something like this...


Turning off 'Edge Swipes':
Click on Start > Control Panel > Mouse
Select the tab for your touchpad - mine was under Device Settings, then I clicked the Settings button after highlighting the 'Synaptics Touchpad' option.
Find the option to turn off/on the Edge Swiping and deactivate the thing!!

You are now free from accidentally swiping to another application, or one of the other irritating Gestures.

Avoiding the 'mobile apps'

Finally you might want to hide the 'Apps' menu from the Start Menu. This will make sure you don't accidentally go to a fullscreen app instead of your normal Desktop programs.

Hide the 'Apps' menu:
Right-click on Start and select Settings.
Click to the 'Customize Start Menu' tab
Click on the entry in the left panel with the title 'AppsMenu'
Press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Click OK

I hid the Apps menu

Well, that's it really. You should now be all sorted with a nearly-Win7 interface and no annoying Start Screen to get in the way.

Install your favourite programs, change your Desktop background and enjoy a fairly usable version of Windows.

Keyboard Shortcuts - alive and well!

One final point is that when I started using Windows 8 I was very distracted from getting anything done by the weird and intrusive changes to the User Interface. However I was still able to get to everything I needed by use of the unchanged keyboard shortcuts.

Ah keyboard shortcuts - the efficiency-obsessed geek's trump card.

Here are a few that you might consider learning, as you never know when you might need them...

In all of these the following are the rules:
Win = The Windows key - the button next to the Alt button that looks like the Windows logo.
Ctrl+Alt, Del = Hold down the combination of buttons with the '+' between them and don't release them until after you hit the button after the comma.

My favourite Windows shortcuts:
Win = Open the Start Menu

Win+D = Show the Desktop/Show the open programs

Win+F4 = Shut Down menu

Alt+F4 = Close the current Window
Ctrl+F4 = Close the current tab
Ctrl+Tab = Switch to another open program
Shift+Tab = Switch to another open tab in the current program
Win+E = Open Explorer (My Computer)
Win+R = Open the Run box - where you can type in the name of a command to run on the computer, including opening an application e.g. "notepad"
Win+L = Lock screen
Win+X = Advanced Settings Menu
Win+M = Minimise an open program

I hope these help.

If you have any comments - or other features of Windows 8 that annoy you please comment below.
All the best in your new adventure!
Andy