Topic: Windows 8 Live Tiles are no fun - use Classic Shell!

[BranDonk Kong]

I just found out about this today - http://classicshell.net basically it brings the Start Menu back to Windows 8 (or 8.1). There are a lot of customizations, but I didn't have to use any to get basically exactly what I wanted. As soon as it's installed, the Windows button on the keyboard (or on the task bar if you have 8.1) will launch the old Start Menu (well, at least an essentially perfect clone of it). Samsung was going to include a widget like this on all of their Windows 8 PCs, but I believe Microsoft made them nix those plans, so I just wanted to share this.

[UncleBob]

Bah.  I remember back in the day when folks thought the Start button was the worst thing ever and that Microsoft was insane for getting rid of PROGMAN.

[BranDonk Kong]

But Live Tiles are truly annoying and make it harder to find things that are not Metro Apps (Apps > All Apps, then swipe through several pages). I see their use, but it's pretty absurd to force you to use them and have no start menu option. It's a good Tablet UI, but a pretty horrible PC UI.

[UncleBob]

How many shortcuts does the average person need?

Create icons on your desktop.  It's pretty simple.

Heck, create a shortcut for a folder, and put more shortcuts in it.

I worked on PCs without a start button for about 15 years.  I'll survive just fine without one now.  Heck, I use multiple applications on my work PC and I access the Start button on it about once a month - if that.

[shingi_70]

Live Tiles are pretty good if you use them as they're supppsoed to be. They're infomation conduits living somewhere inbetween an Icon and a Android Widget.


They do tend to suck if tour on a PC though.

[azeke]

It's really interesting how much Microsoft stumbles around constantly changing interface on their most important software packages in the most drastic ways.

Remember Windows 98 and that web desktop thingy? Yeah...

[BranDonk Kong]

I hate Desktop shortcuts though.

[BranDonk Kong]

Also, what's the deal with Windows getting rid of...Windows. If you accidentally double click a photo, you have to wait 5 seconds for the stupid fullscreen image viewer "app" to open. If they're gonna keep going this route they need to change the OS to Microsoft Fullscreen.

[azeke]

Just came from a meeting with Microsoft official. They started reaching for out all kinds of companies (including ours) promoting Windows 8 products and providing assistance should we want to convert our IT systems to Windows 8.

[Ceric]

Come on.

Personally I find All Apps a lot easier to find stuff in then the traditional Start Menu.   Also since Windows 7 how I interact with the start menu is Windows Key and Type what I want.  Also know as the exact same way I interact with the Window 8 Start screen.

[BranDonk Kong]

I have access to both - I just don't see the point of ditching the start menu altogether.

[ShyGuy]

Bring back the Vista Sidebar!

Not Really

[BranDonk Kong]

I think you can still use Gadgets in Windows 7 and 8, not tied to the sidebar anymore. Those were pretty lame though.

[Ceric]

I think you can still use Gadgets in Windows 7 and 8, not tied to the sidebar anymore. Those were pretty lame though.

Gadgets always are.  Great Idea but, in actually not that great.  OSX been doing it for a while but, I've never seen anyone actually use them.