Windows 8 - 16 hours in ... Questions

Subliminal Aura

Subliminal Aura

Subliminal Aura

Soldato
Joined
27 Oct 2006
Posts
7,572
Location
London
Hi chaps,

I'm going to be running Windows 8 on a test bench until I fully commit and so far so good.

Only issues I have were with an SSD stall (possibly fixed with the Intel drivers and windows updates) and aggressive CPU scaling (this may actually be a good thing for those on a laptop)

Here's my desktop at the moment

desktop-1.png


Modifications made

- Classic shell installed - all hot corners disabled metro is still running accessed via shift-windows key. Windows key goes straight to classic shell search

- Pagefile moved to separate partition, hibernate disabled - all these files removed

I was wondering if someone could help me with the following ?

Problems

- Fn function keys for sound do not work but other keys work

- Taskbar is set to autohide but I would prefer it to be quicker - Is there a regedit or something that I can use ? (IMPORTANT)

- Need a systray widget to show cpu usage and memory usage

- Systay clock - how the heck do I change it from 24hour to something else ? // EDIT: sorted via Regional Settings


Any help or pointers would be warmly welcomed
 
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Personally, I wouldn't use a 3rd party Start Menu tool, but that's me.

Although it looks different, I use the metro screen the same way as I used the W7 start menu.

Press Winkey, type program name, hit enter


I assume you're on a laptop if you're on about FN keys. I also guess it's a Sony laptop if the other keys aren't working. This is because Sony have mental 3rd party tools that you need installed in a specific order to get them to work.
 
Yep you're right and I'm all for the new start but it just does my head in having a full screen switch that that. Classic start will do the same in as many keystrokes

I've got windows 8 preview on the desktop and I use that exactly as it is meant to be used without classic start but on the laptop I'm use to a different layout and UEX that I'm trying to replicate.

I'll try to fudge some windows 7 drivers in there for the keys :o

......

So one issue left .... An app to show me cpu and memory usage ? :o

Argh - autohide !
 
Hi
you can pin the Resource Monitor to your start screen?
I like using the Disk Clean up too and have pinned that to my start screen instead of using CCleaner.
I'd like to know how to disable hotcorners in desktop too.
 
shuffle said:
Hi
you can pin the Resource Monitor to your start screen?
I like using the Disk Clean up too and have pinned that to my start screen instead of using CCleaner.
I'd like to know how to disable hotcorners in desktop too.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've seen this trick.... Ugly to say the least. ;) Surely there's an app somewhere to do this ?

Disable hotcorners via the frowned upon classic-shell :D

What about autohide guys ?
 
I think the OP should admit that he uses that silly menu about once a month at most. Seriously, who needs CPU-Z and SpeedFan et al on "speed dial"?
 
Nope I use the silly menu all the time to launch and find apps / settings. No way would I follow the tree hierarchy to find stuff but it's there nonetheless.

Yep install is only a day old so cpu-z etc will be there until the install settles and I can remove them
 
Metro does everything that menu does, but better, cleaner, more elegantly and less with friction. It perplexes almost all Win8 users how anyone can think a dated legacy Start Menu is a better day-to-day workflow.

At least try the new workflow for a week before ruling it out. And if you still want to rule it out, try it for another week. Seriously. It's very very very good.


PS: I didn't know people still used SVN :p
 
NathanE said:
PS: I didn't know people still used SVN :p
Click to expand...

Yes that's better .... stop jumping to conclusions mate.... I expected better from you :p ps I also still maintain CVS 'yes I did say CVS' repositories going back 15 years. Don't judge too quickly :p

.... and if you read above I do use metro exclusively on my desktop without any third party apps. The work flow on my laptop however needs to be different thanks.

Rather than critique my setup ... back OT, anyone know how to tweak the autohide timeout ? Cheers
 
okey dokey got a new question on here.
I have a 'Hotmail' account, now its to be 'Outlook' with the lovely new Windows 8 and I've just received invitation to swap over now I've been on Win 8 a week.
.. does it need me to change my beloved Hotmail address? Is there any way of keeping this and moving over to Outlook? Or is that a stupid question?! I'll probably figure this out over the weekend, but If anyone can make it so obvious to me I'd be grateful.

Update* got it sorted, created an 'alias' account. Thanks
 
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Being a laptop, I would have thought you'd create a hibernate partition the same size as your ram so you could use intel rapid start.
 
thenewoc said:
Being a laptop, I would have thought you'd create a hibernate partition the same size as your ram so you could use intel rapid start.
Click to expand...

That would be nice if my chipset supported it ;)

I have tried rapid start on other machines and found it more beneficial for desktop where BIOS init can take ages.... it skips all that and gets to loading the image file straight away. However on a laptop the BIOS is done with in a very short period of time and boot via an SSD commences so in all fairness for laptops it's not a big gain.

The only benefit of it is to store system state.... Again habits curb me towards shutting down apps cleanly or suspending to RAM
 
Honestly NathanE, I thought more of you before Windows 8. You're basically reeling off your own opinion and using it to bash other users? :p
 
down like a lead balloon, shot for less!
still, back to Windows 8.. I'm still trying to figure it out. But love using it.
On Sky drive. can you download an album as from your pictures in My Documents? It only seems to want me download the individual pics?
 
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