[rockerchick]

It's on the laptop i bought for my daughter. Shes playing games online then that silly app screen keeps popping up when shes in the middle of using it and i have to keep going over to her to get it off every ten mins, and there is no task bar either. Has to be the worst operating system ever.

[IvanIV]

The taskbar is on the desktop where it always were.

[John259]

Have you tried one of the utilities which revert the user interface in Windows 8 back to that of previous versions of Windows? Not only can they restore the Start button and its menu, they can also make the computer boot up in desktop mode instead of Metro mode, and they can stop the Charm icons appearing spuriously. Some are freeware, some are payware. Many people feel that they convert Windows 8 into a usable product. There's a list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._for_Windows_8

[John259]

One of the Metro tiles (the large coloured squares and rectangles) can be clicked to switch the computer to desktop mode, which is similar to previous versions of Windows except it hasn't got the Start button. It does have the Taskbar.

[anniebrion]

Originally Posted by rockerchick

It's on the laptop i bought for my daughter. Shes playing games online then that silly app screen keeps popping up when shes in the middle of using it and i have to keep going over to her to get it off every ten mins, and there is no task bar either. Has to be the worst operating system ever.

Oh no it is not the worst!

It's just new and you have not spent enough time to get used to the new ways, people are reacting the same now than when XP changed to Vista and Windows 9x/ME changed to XP

[rockerchick]

I meant it doesn't have a start button don't know why i said taskbar.

[rockerchick]

Originally Posted by anniebrion

Oh no it is not the worst!

It's just new and you have not spent enough time to get used to the new ways, people are reacting the same now than when XP changed to Vista and Windows 9x/ME changed to XP

No, i don't think that is the case at all as i am good with computers. Never had a problem with any of the operating systems.
The fact that the app screen keeps coming on in the middle of using the internet is nothing to do with not been able to get used to it.

[anniebrion]

Originally Posted by rockerchick

No, i don't think that is the case at all as i am good with computers. Never had a problem with any of the operating systems.
The fact that the app screen keeps coming on in the middle of using the internet is nothing to do with not been able to get used to it.

I don't have that issue

The only time I get the start screen is when I choose to go there

[TheBigM]

Originally Posted by rockerchick

No, i don't think that is the case at all as i am good with computers. Never had a problem with any of the operating systems.
The fact that the app screen keeps coming on in the middle of using the internet is nothing to do with not been able to get used to it.

Someone must be accidentally hitting the windows key.

[John259]

Originally Posted by rockerchick

The fact that the app screen keeps coming on in the middle of using the internet is nothing to do with not been able to get used to it.

Here's another possible explanation: moving the mouse into the bottom lefthand corner brings up a square which when clicked will switch the computer to Metro mode. I don't know of any way to disable that behaviour other than by installing one of the user interface utilities.

[anniebrion]

Originally Posted by TheBigM

Someone must be accidentally hitting the windows key.

If that's the case then hitting it again will go back, simples!

[Anjomo]

Originally Posted by John259

Here's another possible explanation: moving the mouse into the bottom lefthand corner brings up a square which when clicked will switch the computer to Metro mode. I don't know of any way to disable that behaviour other than by installing one of the user interface utilities.

Very likely. I've done exactly that a few times and it does appear to have done it all on it's own at first until I think for a second and realise what I did.
I don't think it can be disabled.

[tealady]

Originally Posted by John259

Here's another possible explanation: moving the mouse into the bottom lefthand corner brings up a square which when clicked will switch the computer to Metro mode. I don't know of any way to disable that behaviour other than by installing one of the user interface utilities.

Yep, she is playing a game, the charm bar pops up and is clicked on when trying to perform an action within the game.

[John259]

Originally Posted by tealady

Yep, she is playing a game, the charm bar pops up and is clicked on when trying to perform an action within the game.

Can the game be run in a window, and the righthand side of window dragged leftwards away from the righthand edge of the screen? A bodge I know but that's all I can think of unless you install a utility to disable the Charms or use a registry tweak to do that job. Annie might well know of a superior solution.

[noise747]

Originally Posted by anniebrion

Oh no it is not the worst!

It's just new and you have not spent enough time to get used to the new ways, people are reacting the same now than when XP changed to Vista and Windows 9x/ME changed to XP

I don't know why people reacted when when windows 9x changed to Xp, apart from the fact that XP got rid of dos, which for a lot of people meant nothing. the reason why people did not like vista was because it was rubbish and also the hardware was not powerful enough at the time, more or less the same thing when XP came out.

From windows 95 to windows 7, they all shared more or less the same UI. a start menu and a taskbar. But windows 8 have changed that.

i agree with rockerchick, the modern UI seems to poke itself in your face even when you are not using, silly apps seems to take their place of software which I set up on the desktop to do certain things.

the amount of times I got VLC to play videos and for some reason the modern UI app pops up and plays it instead.

Thank goodness for Ex7forWin8, the metro don't even load up now and with startisback, all is calm.

[John259]

Originally Posted by noise747

Thank goodness for Ex7forWin8, the metro don't even load up now and with startisback, all is calm.

Does that one kill the Charms?

[anniebrion]

Originally Posted by John259

Can the game be run in a window, and the righthand side of window dragged leftwards away from the righthand edge of the screen? A bodge I know but that's all I can think of unless you install a utility to disable the Charms or use a registry tweak to do that job. Annie might well know of a superior solution.

You can snap apps to the left or right of the screen without running in a window

When I run a desktop game in full screen mode, Charms etc... are all disabled.

[max99]

Just install the free Classic Shell and choose the 'Vista/Windows 7 Start Menu Style'.

Charms can be disabled via All Settings / Windows 8 Settings / Disable Active Corners / All.

Quick and simple.

[noise747]

Originally Posted by John259

Does that one kill the Charms?

ex7for8 kills it all, but it don't give you a start menu, you need to use something like startisback for that.

startisback will also kill the charms, but the difference is that the metro ui is still in memory. Ex7forwin8 is free, startisback is a few dollars

worth paying to get rid of that horrid mess that Ms tried to force on us.

[JeffG1]

I've not played much with Windows 8, but from all the negative vibes it is a step change away from anything that has gone before. So no wonder people are complaining more.

I didn't hear any similar UI concerns when XP morphed into 7 via Vista.

[Pencil]

I wish there were more desktop OS alternatives.

I'm surprised Google haven't released an Android OS for the desktop. I know there's Chrome OS, but that's not Android and from what I've seen, it's very unappealing.

[John259]

Originally Posted by JeffG1

I didn't hear any similar UI concerns when XP morphed into 7 via Vista.

There were some mild rumblings, but nothing on the same scale because the UI changes then weren't so huge, fundamental and controversial as with Win8.

[cnbcwatcher]

Originally Posted by noise747

I don't know why people reacted when when windows 9x changed to Xp, apart from the fact that XP got rid of dos, which for a lot of people meant nothing. the reason why people did not like vista was because it was rubbish and also the hardware was not powerful enough at the time, more or less the same thing when XP came out.

I always thought Windows XP was fairly close to 9x in a lot of ways but also different in others. The Luna interface was unique to XP and then of course the redesigned Start menu and the fact it was based on the NT kernel rather than built on top of DOS. I didn't have too much trouble using XP. It was the last version of Windows I used and I used it for 7 years.

[NewWorldMan]

Originally Posted by Pencil

I wish there were more desktop OS alternatives.

There are plenty of desktop alternatives. It's just that so far they've not been able to dislodge Windows.

[max99]

Originally Posted by Pencil

I wish there were more desktop OS alternatives.

There are plenty.