Windows 8 pro review (upgrade XP to Windows 8 with Classic Shell)

PeaceByJesus.net ^ | 1/30/2012 | Daniel1212

[daniel1212]

Windows 8 pro review (upgrade XP to Windows 8 with Classic Shell)

I am writing this hasty and imperfect review of Windows 8 for fellow Freepers (etc.) in case someone is looking into buying it, and as the 39.99 (about 42.00 with taxes) upgrade ends tonight. Better late then never i suppose. And the the media center upgrade is only fre till then ($10.00 afterward) which should be standard. And no, I have no affiliation with MS.

My review is on how W/8 runs this old PC (used mainly for Christian ministry). This is a 2005 Sony VGC-RA840G (Asus P5LP-VX 64 bit. mobo), 2.8ghz Intel 945p dual core cpu, 3gb ram (total cap. 4gb), and A new PC is not affordable, and I am trying to get more life out of this one, as XP would use up most of my 3gb of ram after a while due to 80+ tabs open on Firefox (Chrome or Opera is not an answer, nor Linux), and with many documents open in various stages of completion. And since 64bit can handle more ram and I heard W8 was better on older PCs than Vista and even W/7, and I could try it for free, I installed the W/8 preview/evaluation (here) off a USB (using the MS W/7 USB installer).

The short review is that W/8 does well on an old PC as this (and should enable me to use more ram), and is more stable than XP and also fairly responsive, if not as quick as XP for basic tasks on this box. But it boots to usability quicker (it puts the kernel in hibernation) and launches apps quicker. Ram use seems about the same (or less after some tweaking).

For me its value is that of providing a better social networking or a better interface, and in fact the “metro” interface seems more fitting for a school yard, and I have long used hot keys to get to where I regularly go to, or to launch main programs/apps. Nor do I follow many of Windows defaults for things like documents, pictures, graphics. Therefore the attraction is because it has some improvements and it is not bloated and unduly interrogative (Vista), and with the help of 3^rd party apps you can option out of the defaults and customize it to fit your needs.

Almost all my software works under W/8 pro, but I have no real use or desire for the playground type metro, and so Classic Shell is critical. Also Right Click Extender allows you to add a lot of things to the right click menu (like Shutdown,Standby, Reboot, etc.), while Windows key and Q will bring up all your apps and the search bar (hit Esc twice to get out) and Windows key and I will bring up PC Settings (images coming below), and Windows key and E will bring up Windows Explorer and your drives.

Because of its qualities bought the W/8 pro upgrade DVD (30.00 at NewEgg last Dec, with the 40.00 Visa reward card rebate, but which takes over a month to get, and you have to use it in 6), as well as a 2gb stick of DDR2 667 memory (15.00 on Ebay). However, it turns out that unlike later Intel 775 socket boards, the Intel 945 will not map memory beyond 4gb, and only 3.37 is available under W/8 64 bit, although now I can use the ReadyBoost feature. And unlike past OS licenses (ex$ept retail) , the W/8 one allows you to remove it from one PC and put it on another.

Installation

I found out that to get the 64bit download of the evaluation copy, you need to download the W/8 file from a 64bit machine. Having done so the install went well, but I unplugged all my XP drive just to be safe and installed W/8 on a different drive, then reconnected the XP drive (but for the upgrade version you need to have XP, or Vista or W7 installed, and not just a CD/DVD OS).

Surprisingly, when I installed the full W/8 pro off the DVD, although I kept the XP drive plugged in so it could see I have a valid upgrade path, it did not place that in a Windows.old folder and erase things so that you cannot use it, and instead it left it alone, and put the evaluation copy in the Windows.old folder. As I know that I cannot go back to it, I erased that partition myself, after having copied the Documents and Settings folder and other things first.

Hardware

I needed some updates to fix some issues, [a shortcut for launching Windows update is to just hold down the Windows key and tap the letter “r”, then let go and paste C:\Windows\System32\wuapp.exe in the Run box and hit OK, or move your mouse to the far right of the Taskbar, and hit the gear icon “settings,” and then PC info and then look in the lower left] but most everything works, even my old Lexmark Z32 printer. But the USB faithful powered Canon LIDE30 scanner (a very good buy at the time) will not, despite hacking attempts to get another 64bit driver to work, while no sound would come out of the jacks. However, I remembered I had bought a “USB sound card” for a buck (total) on ebay (from Hong Kong) because I thought I could use it, and sure enough that provides sound.

The ability to go on Standby was missing until I or MS installed some more updates (we both did).

Programs and Services:

I copied my profile files from Firefox and OpenOffice and Bible and other programs from their respective folders in XP to W/8, and installed both programs, and they work well. Most of my programs I use under XP work in W/8, though it is best to look for 64 versions for them. One of my favorites is PhoneTrayFree (now shareware), which uses your modem (if you have one) and caller ID to let you know who is calling in, and to keep unlimited record of calls, and even to zap the telemarketers, play messages, etc. and to my surprise that worked though it is only 32 bit (I have a US Robotic PCI modem).

What I miss is TclockEx (customizable, shows seconds and free ram, etc.), which was an improvement on the Windows clock, but under 64bit it would not work even in compatibility mode, and I have yet to find one as good as it.

A big plus is that AutoHotKey works, and with a little adaptation of paths from W/7 I was able to have my shortcut keys working, which is a big plus for me (see below for some examples), and which helps in what follows.

Task Manager is improved, and replaces the Start up tab functions in the System Configuration utility.

Two issues I had was that of Windows Defender, which I always found too independent for me, and using Process found it running too often and too much, and as I can usually hear my PC working I also would hear my HD being written to constantly when I was not working on it, though I disabled both Defender and Search in Services.msc. So I right clicked on each drive (save one) and deselected “allow files on this drive to be indexed..” and now there is peace.

I also found livecomm.exe using a significant amount of resources sometimes, so I uninstalled mail. I use an email client instead.

Interface:

Along with some others, I had and have no real use for the Metro, but the free Classic Shell took care of that, and gives back the Start Menu (not that I use it a lot, but I have lot of programs and it helps).

Per usual with other OS installs, I also quickly went to folder options and changed the default view to Details, and enables viewing of all the things MS thinks (with some warrant) most should not see. I also found where the Quick Launch folder was and made a New toolbar in the Taskbar for it, and found the location for the Send to folder, and made a shortcut to it, and placed the shortcut in it. I then made shortcuts for things like the Startup folder, the Quick Launch folder, the Desktop, Favorites, Program Files, and certain applications, etc. and sent them to the Send To folder. By so doing you can place a shortcut to anything in the Send to menu, and send whatever is appropriate to it, which can be more what Windows offers by default.

Note that if you want to reduce the size of things on the Desktop, hold down the Ctrl key and mouse scroll.

And I imported my non flashy custom theme from W/7 which I have on a Desktop. Thank God for both units.

The TaskBar is improved from XP, as it does a better job of showing you what is open, and you can move the icons around, which in XP requires a freeware app like the taskbar button manager, but unlike that, you cannot move items to a different order in the list that pops up. And like as in some Linux distros, you can pin things to the TaskBar.

All for now.

[Lera]

I did not like that at all myself and uninstalled most of them even before I shut the computer off for the first time.
It’s all about data collection for them .

[TChad]

Right click Extender and WinPatrol ought to be standard also.

I don't use either, but it looks like I should use both. Thanks.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/right-click-context-menu-extender-for-windows-7-released

http://www.winpatrol.com

[ShadowAce]

[ShadowAce]

[ShadowAce]

(Firefox This is the Orange Fox theme, but the NOIA theme is better, with Colorful Tabs and TabMixPlus extensions, so you can get multiple rows and reduce tab width)

heh--I run the Noia theme with TabMixPlus and Colorful tabs! (as well as Adblock Plus, NoScript, and Yet Another Remove It Permanently).

I only see what I want to see.

[usconservative]

Great write up. Are you able to download the update WITHOUT installing over WIN7? I want the upgrade bits, but don’t want to install over my current Win7. Microsoft is characteristically unclear if downloading the bits overwrites the current install.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I’m waiting for the “Windows 8” Gnome 3 theme.

[HomeAtLast]

I tried adjusting to Win8. Googled “alternatives, start menu, windows 8” or something like that, and found classic shell and a half doz other apps to do the same thing, all reviewed on one page by some kind soul.
None of them quite did what I was looking for, and Win8 still had other annoying features.
I did get the desktop arranged so I would rarely have to go to that silly Start thing that Fisher Price designed.
Put all the important stuff on the taskbar and put the taskbar on the left, trying to make it look like a start menu.
But, still...
Windows 8 is like this: You have a ten-room house you’ve been in for many years. One day someone takes ten rooms of furniture and all the contents of every last drawer, and puts them in a house with twenty-five rooms. You move in there one day and have to find your stuff. Are you very, very patient? Because it takes a while just to find stuff, never mind make it a habit to go to them in new places.
It is a certifiable PITA. And when you log out, there is almost nothing you can do without a degree in programming, to get rid of that %#@$*! World’s Fair Space Needle image. A parting poke in the eye.
There are plenty of computers around here so I finally staked out an old xp that is far more to my liking.
Advice: avoid 8. The only thing worse is 7 starter edition.

[roamer_1]

Hi daniel1212,

Great post.

I saw no mention of a graphics card in your attempts to improve performance. If you are using on-board vid, it is probably sharing some of that precious and limited 4g of RAM... And the on-board is likely to be a 512mg card.

If you were to add a vid card, not only will you gain the RAM the on-board vid is using back to the system, but if you get a 2g vid card (off-brand should cost you in the $40 range), you will be astonished how much faster the machine will render to the screen. I believe you will see what feels like a 25% improvement on top of what you have already done...

[hattend]

BTTT

I just bought a new laptop with Win8 installed and I almost took the thing back.

Win8 is not intuitive at all (I just came from XP)

Looks like I need to get Classic Shell

If I use the touchpad, Win8 is very aggravating. Looks like I may need a mouse as well.

Thanks for this thread!

[hattend]

Wow! Thanks!

I was going to ask if anybody knew if you can send a new PC in to downgrade to Win7.

Guess I’ll try to get my Win8 operating correctly (I hope the mouse fixes most of my problems...touchpad alone is frustrating especially if you are scrolling using a finger swipe.

[for-q-clinton]

Did you try start8 from stardock?

[hattend]

I’ve been out of town so I haven’t played with it for 4 days....I’ll check that out tonight.

Thanks!

[daniel1212]

Windows 8 is like this: You have a ten-room house you’ve been in for many years. One day someone takes ten rooms of furniture and all the contents of every last drawer, and puts them in a house with twenty-five rooms. You move in there one day and have to find your stuff. Are you very, very patient? Because it takes a while just to find stuff, never mind make it a habit to go to them in new places.

I do understand the consternation and the outrage, though for me it was not much of an adjustment because it was already my practice to streamline things with shortcuts and hot keys. Right off the bat i hit Windows key and E to get into my drives and Windows key and Pause/Break to access other things, besides engaging in customization. Let me know what is a problem for you and i will try to help, i will elaborate on some of the basic things that helped me .

As navigation should be fast and informative, and as i often "travel," taking time to set up a under a new install has been worth it to me. You can save your settings under W/7 and transfer them in W/8, but that is another tutorial due to the variables that should be considered,.

Not using that, one of the first things to do with a new install is to open up the C drive and change from the default view to Details, and reduce the column width as needed in order to see name, date modified, type and size all in a half sized vertical window. Then hit View>Option>Change Folder and Search options, and under General deselect all that is under the Navigation section if you a more compact window, then under View deselect all the "hide" options, except choose to Show hidden files.... I also choose Show Full path... Then i hit Apply to all folders up top. However, as in the past, this does not mean windows necessarily will . In Control Panel to change the view to small icons.

Making places I often access to be quickly but compactly reached is important, and while "pin to taskbar" is nice, space is limited, and vertical in the Quick Launch bar is the way to go.

But in order to add things to that, or to you Start Menu, or wherever, then taking time to to make a shortcut to your SendTo folder helps.

To do so, , paste %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows in the Run command box (Windows key and the R key) and hit Enter. Then look for the SendTo folder, and R. clk. on it and make a shortcut, and then drag or copy and paste the shortcut into the SendTo folder . Now wherever you are you can r. clk. and send shortcuts to or frequently used places (the Quick Launch bar being one of them) or programs (the .exe file) to the SendTo folder, and send wherever is appropriate to them.

To get the Quick Launch bar in W/8, R. clk, on the Task Bar and point to Toolbars>New Toolbar, and then paste %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, then hit Choose Folder. Now you have your Quick Launch bar. You can try to drag it to the left side of the Task Bar but that does not always work it seems.

Then go to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer and make a shortcut to the Quick Launch folder and send that to the SendTo folder, and then you can add what you will to it from whatever folder you are in.

Likewise to the Start Menu (which path is%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Startup) I have certain folders which i can reach quickly (using the Classic Start menu under Classic Shell). Although i actually use hot keys for these. Which is another lesson.

Note that using the same Toolbars>New Toolbar method you can also add a toolbar to the Task bar to places like My Documents, and which will add a pop up menu for all that that is therein.

To find the name of your user folder in W/8, paste %USERPROFILE% in the Run command box and hit Enter, and it will open it up and you can see the name in the address bar.

Note also that %windir% takes the place of C:\Windows like as %USERPROFILE% replaces C:\User\user name

Here are more path to folders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_folder

And here are some commands for the Run command that you may find helpful (do not paste the description in parenthesis):

wuapp.exe (Windows update) powercfg.cpl (power configuration) services.msc (services) control.exe (control panel) eventvwr.msc (see windows error messages) control printers (printer folder)

Then there is Firefox with extensions, from which MS could learn some things about customization. See the BBCodeXtra which provides scripts useful for posting, or make your own.

Hope this help some to do good for God.

[raybbr]

Great post! Thanks for the info.

I kind of like 8. It’s not that hard to learn the new stuff. Also, MS has provided plenty of videos to learn about W8. If people would watch them and use the help function they would learn but they are too, well, lazy.

Do you know what the main differences between W8 and W8 Pro? I have a copy of Pro and my system just says “Windows 8” in the system description. I was going to put 8 on my HP laptop but if it would be better to put it on my main office box I would. Thanks.

[daniel1212]

As i described in my case with XP, it did not, but normally it overwrites the OS but first places most of it in a Windows.old folder in the C drive. In my case it was the evaluation copy, 23.5GB.

However, by upgrading you loose the license to use the former OS, and to use both would wrong and illegal. Some people write books for a living, and some others write code.

“The software covered by this agreement is an upgrade to your existing operating system software, so the upgrade replaces the original software that you are upgrading. You do not retain any rights to the original software after you have upgraded and you may not continue to use it or transfer it in any way.”

The OEM license that you got with a preinstalled Windows 9x to W./7 OS marries the OS to the mobo, and the reason the upgrade is about half the price is because you are replacing one with the other, and also receive free MS support (for 90 days anyway) .

“Each upgrade license applies to only one PC and you can install the upgrade only on PCs that have a valid base license and one of the following operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP (SP3).

When you buy an upgrade to Windows 8, it includes 90 days of no-charge support from Microsoft. The 90-day period begins after you install and activate Windows 8.” - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-NZ/windows-8/terms-conditions

If you qualify and had the 100.00 OEM System Builder License product you could keep both, but cannot transfer it to another PC, and the installer provides support.

Only the retail license of W/9x-W/7 allowed you to transfer the OS other PC.

Under W/8, as this http://www.zdnet.com/how-the-new-windows-8-license-terms-affect-you_p2-7000003028/ says

“If you buy a new PC with Windows 8 already installed, your OEM Windows license is permanently bound to that computer. The only way you can transfer the license to another person is to sell or give away the computer itself, with its copy of Windows....

If you purchase the software separately, in a package or as a download, the rules are much more liberal. Note that the text for the following rules is identical for retail upgrades and for System Builder software that you install on a PC you build yourself, or in a virtual machine, or on a separate partition.

” You may transfer the software to another computer that belongs to you. … You may not transfer the software to share licenses between computers.”

If you buy a System Builder copy, you can move (not share) that license from an old PC to a new one.

You may also transfer the software (together with the license) to a computer owned by someone else if a) you are the first licensed user of the software and b) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement. To make that transfer, you must transfer the original media, the certificate of authenticity, the product key and the proof of purchase directly to that other person, without retaining any copies of the software....”

“In either case, one ironclad rule applies:

Anytime you transfer the software to a new computer, you must remove the software from the prior computer.”

[daniel1212]

That is better than IE for sure. But does going to http://www.zdnet.com/how-the-new-windows-8-license-terms-affect-you_p2-7000003028/ spike your CPU for long? It does mine, but i use the MVPS host file which blocks a lot of ads.

[daniel1212]

Yes, i recommend and thank God for both.

[daniel1212]

I would opine that there is no real functional need for 90% of Windows users to upgrade from XP, unless they do gaming, most of which is a poor use of time, but with support running out (no more security updates) then it would leave it more vulnerable, but again, pray and press and seek to be good and wise.

As for hitting alt and F4 since you installed Windows 8, yes, and for me it just closes whatever window is before me. You did them together right? Perhaps it is because you are using a laptop.

Try using Windows key and D so that you are on your desktop, then click on Alt+F4 to bring up the shutdown dialog box. But the Right click extender can add a dialog to do this, while the old slawdog shutdown will run in your system tray and give you the same options. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/smartshutdown.html

Also, to shutdown the metro apps, i read you can click on and and drag the top of the app to the bottom of the screen.

[daniel1212]

Sure VueScan works, for about the price of a new scanner. Thanks, but that is not reasonable.