Hi I am Paul Madison and I am the TheCOOL_Club Dude. I host the bivio site called COOL_Club which stands for Covered Options Online Learning Club. We have been on a bit of a break but will be back soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in Covered Options you'll find a lot of stuff posted on the www.bivio.com/COOl_Club website including presentations and recordings of our webinars.
But that is not why I am picking up the keyboard and typing today. My topic is Windows 8. In addition to being an investor, I am also a bit of a techy. I usually deploy technology as soon as it is released. I do this for two reasons, one because I enjoy this stuff and two because it gives me information that I have found useful in deciding where my tech investments should or should not go.
I bought a Windows 8 laptop last fall when they were first released and I have been "hating on it" almost ever since. In my humble opinion they tried to do something that just does not work well yet. They tried to implement two totally different interfaces on one machine, with a bit of a mess as the result.
The new interface was called Metro to begin with but because of naming rights they can no longer call it that. It is intended to be like the "App Based" interface that we are all getting used to on smartphones and tablets (iPads). It is really designed to be used on a touchscreen device.
The second interface is our traditional desktop environment. It's the one that we first got used to in Windows XP and then Vista (for the brave) and finally Windows 7. The problem I've found is that the desktop interface takes a back seat in Windows 8. The App based one is the one Microsoft wants us to use and by default it is front and center when you start up your machine. Unfortunately, it does not work well for a lot of the things we traditionally do on our desktop machines ....like Office. Office only runs right now on the desktop. (An app based version of Office is suppose to be coming but I may not be an early adopter on that).
A very confusing thing about Windows 8 is that there are two different versions of some software, one for the desktop and one for the App-based environment. And, the two do not share between each other. So a bookmark in IE for desktop is not going to be in the App Based IE (arrrg).
Now for the good news. If you have Windows 8 and you are pulling your hair out or worse, several people have come up with little utilities that turn your Windows 8 machine into a more traditional desktop interface machine (ala Windows 7). Having tried a couple, my personal favorite and the one I am setting up on my and my extended family's machines is called ClassicShell. It is free to download at www.classicshell.net . If you download and love it as much as I do then there is a place on his website to donate to his cause.
Once you install ClassicShell, you can pretty much ignore the App Based environment and your machine will behave much like your Windows 7 machine. But, it will be faster and more secure which are some of the good things about Windows 8. Eventually the App Base environment might be the way to go, but for now if you don't want to waste your time while they make it more viable, I think having this option to setup the desktop interface as your main interface for Windows 8 is a great way to go.
Hi I am Paul Madison and I am the TheCOOL_Club Dude. I host the bivio site called COOL_Club which stands for Covered Options Online Learning Club. We have been on a bit of a break but will be back soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in Covered Options you'll find a lot of stuff posted on the www.bivio.com/COOl_Club website including presentations and recordings of our webinars.
But that is not why I am picking up the keyboard and typing today. My topic is Windows 8. In addition to being an investor, I am also a bit of a techy. I usually deploy technology as soon as it is released. I do this for two reasons, one because I enjoy this stuff and two because it gives me information that I have found useful in deciding where my tech investments should or should not go.
I bought a Windows 8 laptop last fall when they were first released and I have been "hating on it" almost ever since. In my humble opinion they tried to do something that just does not work well yet. They tried to implement two totally different interfaces on one machine, with a bit of a mess as the result.
The new interface was called Metro to begin with but because of naming rights they can no longer call it that. It is intended to be like the "App Based" interface that we are all getting used to on smartphones and tablets (iPads). It is really designed to be used on a touchscreen device.
The second interface is our traditional desktop environment. It's the one that we first got used to in Windows XP and then Vista (for the brave) and finally Windows 7. The problem I've found is that the desktop interface takes a back seat in Windows 8. The App based one is the one Microsoft wants us to use and by default it is front and center when you start up your machine. Unfortunately, it does not work well for a lot of the things we traditionally do on our desktop machines ....like Office. Office only runs right now on the desktop. (An app based version of Office is suppose to be coming but I may not be an early adopter on that).
A very confusing thing about Windows 8 is that there are two different versions of some software, one for the desktop and one for the App-based environment. And, the two do not share between each other. So a bookmark in IE for desktop is not going to be in the App Based IE (arrrg).
Now for the good news. If you have Windows 8 and you are pulling your hair out or worse, several people have come up with little utilities that turn your Windows 8 machine into a more traditional desktop interface machine (ala Windows 7). Having tried a couple, my personal favorite and the one I am setting up on my and my extended family's machines is called ClassicShell. It is free to download at www.classicshell.net . If you download and love it as much as I do then there is a place on his website to donate to his cause.
Once you install ClassicShell, you can pretty much ignore the App Based environment and your machine will behave much like your Windows 7 machine. But, it will be faster and more secure which are some of the good things about Windows 8. Eventually the App Base environment might be the way to go, but for now if you don't want to waste your time while they make it more viable, I think having this option to setup the desktop interface as your main interface for Windows 8 is a great way to go.
Great info Paul! I can't stand the Windows 8 set up. I am going to check out this solution you've recommended today and get it installed. Goodbye Windows 8. I love it.
Hi I am Paul Madison and I am the TheCOOL_Club Dude. I host the bivio site called COOL_Club which stands for Covered Options Online Learning Club. We have been on a bit of a break but will be back soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in Covered Options you'll find a lot of stuff posted on the www.bivio.com/COOl_Club website including presentations and recordings of our webinars.
But that is not why I am picking up the keyboard and typing today. My topic is Windows 8. In addition to being an investor, I am also a bit of a techy. I usually deploy technology as soon as it is released. I do this for two reasons, one because I enjoy this stuff and two because it gives me information that I have found useful in deciding where my tech investments should or should not go.
I bought a Windows 8 laptop last fall when they were first released and I have been "hating on it" almost ever since. In my humble opinion they tried to do something that just does not work well yet. They tried to implement two totally different interfaces on one machine, with a bit of a mess as the result.
The new interface was called Metro to begin with but because of naming rights they can no longer call it that. It is intended to be like the "App Based" interface that we are all getting used to on smartphones and tablets (iPads). It is really designed to be used on a touchscreen device.
The second interface is our traditional desktop environment. It's the one that we first got used to in Windows XP and then Vista (for the brave) and finally Windows 7. The problem I've found is that the desktop interface takes a back seat in Windows 8. The App based one is the one Microsoft wants us to use and by default it is front and center when you start up your machine. Unfortunately, it does not work well for a lot of the things we traditionally do on our desktop machines ....like Office. Office only runs right now on the desktop. (An app based version of Office is suppose to be coming but I may not be an early adopter on that).
A very confusing thing about Windows 8 is that there are two different versions of some software, one for the desktop and one for the App-based environment. And, the two do not share between each other. So a bookmark in IE for desktop is not going to be in the App Based IE (arrrg).
Now for the good news. If you have Windows 8 and you are pulling your hair out or worse, several people have come up with little utilities that turn your Windows 8 machine into a more traditional desktop interface machine (ala Windows 7). Having tried a couple, my personal favorite and the one I am setting up on my and my extended family's machines is called ClassicShell. It is free to download at www.classicshell.net . If you download and love it as much as I do then there is a place on his website to donate to his cause.
Once you install ClassicShell, you can pretty much ignore the App Based environment and your machine will behave much like your Windows 7 machine. But, it will be faster and more secure which are some of the good things about Windows 8. Eventually the App Base environment might be the way to go, but for now if you don't want to waste your time while they make it more viable, I think having this option to setup the desktop interface as your main interface for Windows 8 is a great way to go.
Thanks for the tip, Paul. That was a BIG one. I installed it on my husband's new laptop this morning. Took 2 minutes - so simple there's no need for instructions. This will eliminate a lot of headaches.
One suggestion to others: Type the URL correctly. I started with classicshell.(com) and it actually brought up and let me download a DIFFERENT program. Make sure you type .net.