Making Life a little easier in Windows 8

Screenshot: Vista VS with Classic Shell enabled, using a Windows 7 Canada theme background.

So, yeah, recently I had a friend who was kind of "forced" to use Windows 8. Most people I know find Windows 8 to be a pain in the rear, but there's some programs you can use to ease the pain.

Note that I did not upgrade to Windows 8.1, for 2 reasons:

1) I am using the Enterprise evaluation version currently - which I downloaded before 8.1 was released - which for one reason or another seems to have Windows Update disabled - still trying to work on fixing that.
2) My CPU just does not support it. Windows 8.1 (and later) requires a more modern CPU, and my system is just too old for that.

So - to the list of programs!

1) Classic Shell: (Usability)
http://www.classicshell.net/downloads/

This program, quite simply, brings back the start menu. It does a whole host of other things too, but if you're transitioning from any older version of Windows to Windows 8, you want that start menu back. It also plays around with your Explorer settings and brings back a few bells and whistles so that you can get some classic Windows functionality back. On Windows 8 itself it also enables boot-to-desktop, so that you don't have to find the silly Desktop tile on the Metro screen. Basically, as far as usability goes, this is a must.

2) 8GadgetPack: (Optional, Usability)
http://8gadgetpack.net/

This program brings back the sidebar gadgets introduced in Windows Vista (and included in 7 as well). 

3) WinFlip: (Optional, Usability)
http://winflip.en.softonic.com/

Remember the Windows+Tab key flipping through your windows? This will bring it back. This program was made for Windows XP but works fine on 8.

4) Glass8: (Eye Candy)
http://glass8.eu/download.html

This program re-enables the "Aero effects" from Vista/7. It does so with a simple tweak to the DWM. Note that your video card still has to support the blur and transparency if you want to get those back, but this is needed for the themes.

5) UxStyle
http://uxstyle.com/

This program allows the use of custom themes in Windows 8. (And other versions, obviously) If staring at Windows 8 vector arts make you sick, installing a custom style will help, and this program is needed for that.

6) VistaVS (Optional)
Windows 8.1: http://simplexdesignsart.deviantart.com/art/Windows-Vista-538265110
(no adfly)

This makes Windows look and feel more like Windows Vista. Installation is simple, just read the included files. You will need to use Administrator access to drag the files into the proper place.

7) Aero Glow (Optional)
Windows 8.1: http://mrgrim01.deviantart.com/art/Aero-Glow-8-1-415317318

This seems to be the closest I can find to making Windows 8 look more like Windows 7.

8) Royale (Optional)
Windows 8.1: http://xxinightxx.deviantart.com/art/Royale-417858455
(no adfly)

This is a Windows XP-like skin.

Author's note: The links have been updated as of June 25, 2015. "No Adfly" links are included for users who do not wish to download things behind compulsory Adfly links. If such links are intentionally broken, the listings for each project will simply be removed entirely; I do not support compulsory Adfly downloads and never will. If a user decides to support your work, it should be of their own good will - not because you forced them to.

Alright Microsoft - let me spell it out for you.

(Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2824443/microsoft-updates-skype-for-windows-mac-with-new-chat-interface.html)

Now - I know some people think that new looks and feels makes everything feel fresher and less boring. I'll admit - to some extent, you're right. We do occasionally need a little newness every now and then. Even the most stubborn of us could use a little change every so often.

But - why, why, why would you ever change an interface so completely? Why would you remove so much of the familiarity and replace it with something that so many people have never tried before? Switching up the layout to make it look worse than it ever did before? With so much clutter in one space, and so much empty space in another?

Microsoft - let me spell it out for you - PC's are not phones. PC's are not tablets. I know I don't speak for everyone saying this - but I know I speak for more than myself - We don't want monstrously giant buttons with no gradients on them. We don't want two-color vector art to replace the pretty 3D buttons we've had before. I'm even going to go out on a limb and say the new interface looks like crap. Just as Windows 8 did.

Not only does it feel boring and stale, it feels like a trip back to the 70's - from back before computers even had the mystical magic that they did back in the 80's. At least with the DOS prompt we had more than 2 colors to play with! Even Windows 95 looked better than this.

Did you not learn from the massive disaster that was Windows 8? This isn't the future. It's cardboard cut-outs that a kindergartener could imitate with crafting paper. With unwelcome layout changes, to boot.

I am sorry for such a strongly worded post, but when they change programs that I use frequently (such as Skype) in the name of "easier to use" and "to be more like the phone", it really upsets me.

I'm done now. I hope Microsoft realizes their mistake and - if they insist an interface change is in order, they do something a little bit better than this.

Google Android - The Mobile Phone's Linux

Love it or hate it, every computer comes with an operating system. It needs one. In fact it has an operating system before it even loads one off of the drive - in the old days it was the BIOS, nowadays it's an EFI chip.

Luckily you don't interact with the start-up system for long, unless something goes wrong, so if you hate it, you won't have to even remember it's there when you're doing your nitty gritty tasks. Its only function and purpose is to configure and test your devices and then load the real operating system that you actually use.

Ah, but there's where your choices for the computer really shine. Are you using Windows 7? 8? How about Ubuntu? Ye olde Windows 2000? Oh sheesh that one's old school. I'm sure there are those of us who remember Windows 95 and 98. Now that's real old school. Hehe! But we haven't even gotten to DOS yet. Oh that one was a computer geek's dream back in its day. Except that it frequently crashed, and you had to configure every single game to use the same settings for your sound card, oooooh what fun it was. Windows 3.1 was pretty much the same story!

For the real geeks, there was always Linux. Or even UNIX. Some even used OS/2. The point is, if you had a special need for your computer, chances were there was an operating system that could support it. Some were expensive, and pretty much the only one that was ever free (and almost still is the only one nowadays, at least for the usable ones) was Linux.

So where did all these new operating systems come from? Mac OS, iOS, and .... <drumroll> Android!? Well they were operating systems too, except they were never written for IBM-compatible PC's. But to this day, they are still widely available and used.

I'll tell you the truth. I grew up on Windows. I am no Microsoft fanatic but it's been the bread and butter of my daily tasks since the 90's. There's just one simple truth that no matter what operating system you use, you will have to face: Windows has by far many more applications written for it, than any other operating system, possibly even all of them combined. That doesn't mean that the other operating systems are ignored, unused, forgotten about, or even not worth it. It just means that if you want to get going with your computer quick, and get things done without worrying about a bunch of extra crap, you're probably just going to have to go with Windows. Sure - Linux and Mac OS both have a lot of software written for them too. And they really truly are GREAT operating systems - don't get me wrong. And they can even run Windows programs, with the right components! But when it comes down to the willy nilly of things, Windows is king. Only Windows can run Windows programs like Windows can. And it knows it.

So that was one insanely long intro to get to the point of this post - Google Android.

So recently, I got myself a tablet PC. A Curtis Klu LT7033. The old version, unfortunately, not the D style. What can I say? I paid 15 bucks for the damn thing. And am darn glad I didn't pay a dime more.

It's great for what it is, and what it does. But that's where the Google Android comes in. As I use it, more and more and more, I realize just how much I dislike Android. I really feel like the tablet is out of my control. Okay, that is typical for mobile PC's and phones, but really, I want a device where *I* know what is going on. Notifications? It bugs me CONSTANTLY about updates. The apps even give notifications. And if I don't use the task manager to kill those apps in the background, they'll slow the entire unit to a crawl. Who ever thought that this stuff is what I would want?!?!

That doesn't even bug me as much as what some of the free apps do - they include advertisements in them! Yeah, that's right, I open up my notepad to take notes for school and there's a little bar at the bottom of the screen encouraging me to download a new app. Oh, swell. Yeah, right away, I'll get right on that ...

I'm surprised the damn thing doesn't just pop up advertisements right on the desktop. And if it starts doing that you can bet I will no longer be using it, I'll be giving it to my nephew instead.

I have a lot of gripes about Android - and apps for Android. I am surprised it has such a market following, even going as far as having apps developed exclusively for it. I am not a fan of that at all. It's great for what it does but it is not an intuitive operating system at all, at least not for me.

That's probably why I'll never have a smart phone - or if I do, it'll be nothing more than a phone, for me. Why do I need a bloody smart phone? A phone is used for two things: Checking the time, and calling someone. Text messages? I'm reluctant but I'll do it, occasionally ... Facebook? FORGET IT. I ain't putting that snuff on my phone. There's a time and a place for Facebook and in my pocket during an 8 hour shift isn't it. Yahoo? Skype? Same thing. I *MIGHT* go with Skype simply to .... you guessed it, make calls ... oh, the novelty!

Maybe I wasn't meant for this "mobile and connected" world. I liked computers that came in a big giant box where you could turn it on and it'd tell you exactly what it is doing and you could load whatever games and programs you wanted on it and it didn't nag you or give you any troubles. Sure, you might have to change a few settings, tell it how to use the sound card, but the point is - the computer worked for you. Not the other way around. And the best part, really? If something went wrong I could edit the raw files and fix it, maybe even with enough knowledge of machine code. I guess I am just old fashioned.

A Captain's Choice: Being Decisive.

One time I was watching Star Trek Voyager episode "Nightingale" (s7.e8) and I remember a scene that was in Voyager's mess hall while she was on the planet for repairs. Ensign Kim had just taken an assignment as the captain of an alien ship - an assignment he really wanted because he had envisioned being the captain, himself. The thing that stuck out to me in this scene, and what made it so memorable, was when Neelix asked Kim whether he wanted plomeek soup or eggplant parmesan. When Kim said "either is fine," Neelix gave Kim a very firm lesson in decisiveness as a captain and basically told Kim that the response was unacceptable now that he shouldered such an important responsibility. Well, why is this relevant to anything? What was just a line in a TV show is actually a very important life lesson - and it's actually a very true thing what Neelix said to Kim, even if it was just a TV show.

I have noticed in a social setting a lot of times people look to me to make choices. Perhaps because I'm one of the few who do. There are others, though, who do it far more than me, and said people will follow their lead much sooner than mine. But when those people are gone, I am often looked to.

And this comes my biggest flaw as a leader: My lack of decisiveness. I like to defer to others, myself. I have a habit of it. I am a follower who leads others to follow another leader. I'm the sergeant, but never the captain or the general. It's a very poor choice for a captain to let others take the lead.

It's a hard habit to break, though. Throughout the early stages of my life I've been reprimanded for being "too bossy" - it's made me fear taking the mantle ever again, even though now I realize that back then I had done it for purely selfish reasons. Now I am suffering the consequences of not being "bossy" enough - even if the decisions I make are often for the benefit of others. And even worse, when I am "boss" I often leave very little of the pie for myself - in fact I will often divvy out the rewards at my own exclusion so that everyone benefits except me. But it doesn't feel right taking a bigger slice of the pie just because you are captain. And sometimes it doesn't feel right taking any of the pie at all - even if you did earn it.

Is my guilty conscience the reason why I do not lead a major social group? Why, when the few times I do step up to the plate, I always come short of my own expectations? I took on a major position in one of my MMO guilds once, only to resign because I was unhappy with my own performance. (In essence, I really fired myself)

It's something to ponder - and it's a very important concept that I think should be shared with others - particularly those who are or will be leaders of any team, small group, or even a major group. You cannot forget the most important rule of being larger than life: and that is, to actually be larger than life. Sure you are just a human being, but the people you lead never see you that way, until you screw it up by asking them what they want right after they've already asked you. You're the leader - you're supposed to know what they want. And if you guess incorrectly then they will tell you - that's when you can correct it. Self-confidence is not optional. You must make the choice, you must be the one to make the choice, and you must make it - right now - and with minimal time spent deciding.

What it comes down to is the most important job as a leader is to make choices for other people. It's not about power. It's not even about responsibility. It's about being a smart figurehead.

Bet you never knew ...

Did you know you can enter URL's directly in the common dialog boxes in Windows?

When you open a file with any application that supports the standard "Common Dialog" interface in Windows (the one that shows your files in a miniaturized explorer-like view), you can copy and paste a URL. Want to try it? Right click on the pretty background picture of this blog, copy its location, and open it as a file using Microsoft Paint.

Go ahead, give it a try!

If you're as amazed as I was when I first tried it (completely by accident, mind you), just keep in mind that you're not actually opening the file directly from its location. What's happening is, the integrated Internet Explorer component of Windows is fetching the file for you, and storing it in a temporary location. When it finishes downloading, it then passes that temporary file to the program requesting you to choose the file. So if you modify it, of course you'll need to save it where you can find it. But - still - that's less work that you have to do!

An update has been released for this blog. Please click here to view it.

OMG! Yes, I got around to an update.

Today's topic? Mandatory software updates!

Nothing grates my nerves more than mandatory or automatic software updates. They consume system as well as network resources, and often for no other reason than a programmer forgot a line of code in some silly place.

Some software is better by actually "notifying" you of updates instead of nagging you or just outright performing the update, but it's really not a whole lot better in the long and short of things, it's still annoying as hell and I want to update on MY terms and MY schedule.

One big concern many of these software developers seem not to care for is the fact that many people, even today, are still on metered connections. Consuming network resources, no matter the cause, is a big deal. And they do so without asking you if it's okay to do so, first. And even if they do, if you say no, they'll nag you endlessly about it.

Okay, okay, yes, there are viable reasons to update software. Security is a big concern - I get that. I don't like some script kiddie on the other side of the world using my computer to hack into or shut down the FBI. Not cool, yo? Last thing I need is the super police busting down my door because I forgot to update Windows.

But on the other side of that, updates often introduce new vulnerabilities, themselves, and sometimes the trade-off is not much of a trade-off. That, added to the cost of system and network resources, makes automatic updates a pretty poor case, at best. That, and I come from an age when software updates came in floppy disk form, and were something you were actually excited about, rather than nagged about.

You know what would be neatest? When I stop using my computer, I have the option to update all my software at once, go to sleep and forget about it - it does all the restarting it needs to automatically - even better would be is if it starts up the programs I was using before it did that. It updates on my terms, my schedule, and caters to my own needs, and not to the needs of some software developer who forgot that my own time and resources can so often be constrained.

QUICK! Someone tell Microsoft! Before Desktops are gone completely in Windows 9!

A new blog - And Yahoo! Mail

I guess if you've ever watched TV in the 90's you probably heard about Sienfeld - the TV show about nothing. And that's what it is. Except it's a TV show about 4 friends who are constantly doing fun shenanigans and having a wonderful time together, but ultimately it's about nothing, right? :) God, that was a fun TV show. They really should make more like that. I don't watch TV hardly at all anymore, but if it were a show like Sienfeld I might watch it again.

So, this is going to be a brand new blog that I am writing mostly as a creative output to various rantings and ravings that I have, occasional tech tips, and ... well, I don't know, other things I feel like blogging about. I probably won't put much of my personal life in here except for things that I think relate to other people - who knows, I guess.

I may post here often, I may post here rarely. I know I want to try and keep it straight and relevant. So, enjoy.

Today's topic? Yahoo Mail.

Yeah, one time, I used that. I actually loved it. It was a fun service, and I could get a lot done and I was very productive with it. It was so great that I actually subscribed to Yahoo! Mail Plus. But, today, it's nothing like it once was. It started out as an email service I used specifically as part of a volunteer customer service organization for a game that I really loved, but with how much I loved it and its features in general it grew way past that, and it has become the email service that I have used for pretty much all aspects of my life - both online and off.

About a year ago I ended my subscription with Yahoo! mail. A lack of money was the main motivation but they were also undergoing massive changes to their infrastructure which really put me off. For several years by that time they were purporting a new AJAX webmail client that was really neat but unusable for me because it demanded a lot of system resources. (I use old computers - don't ask)

But that was not the worst of the matter. In the intervening year (up until now) I have started seeing many reasons to dislike Yahoo mail, and after the way the company handles their affairs, both internally and with their customers and prospective bug hunters (HELLO, SECURITY, riiiight?), I've finally decided that it's time to call it quits.

What it comes down to is this - the first and foremost is that they tried to force a change on me that I did not like. I do not want to use their AJAX client - it's slow and resource consuming. Luckily, I had an option to keep using the old web mail interface, but it was completely changed and foreign to me and nothing like what the old one was. And worst of all - it's highly unstable. I get very frequent temporary errors, especially when using the search functions. It may have something to do with how old my account is.

And if that's not bad enough ... *cue dun dun DUNNNN...* then there's the aspect of security. You know how old Yahoo!'s bug bounty reward campaign is? Not even a year old. The entire Yahoo! infrastructure has more holes in it than an average politician's credibility, and I think it took some professional security researchers not more than an hour to discover a password-stealing cross-site vulnerability. This, after being plagued with repeated reports of people finding and exploiting these bugs. You want to know why that concerns me? Yes, I am a victim of some of those vulnerabilities. My email account has been used to send out malicious emails - not because of my password, not because I was phished or scammed, but because someone was able to steal my session id through a fake site. To think that so many banking and other high-security institutions rely on email as a means to verify a person's identity is shocking, especially with a service as insecure as this.

Then it comes to how they treat their employees. They used to treat them really well. I am not an employee of Yahoo so this should not concern me, right? Wrong. How a company treats their employees directly relates to how they will treat their customers, and even more so influences how those same employees will also treat their customers. I won't get into too many details but some of the benefits they used to have, have been taken away, with the CEO of course keeping her own pie while everyone else under her suffered.

And last but not least? It's next to impossible, if not fully impossible, to get in touch with the company. I've tried submitting tickets about some of my issues with Yahoo before. The only way to get help is to post about it on their Answers website. I don't even know if that site is frequented by Yahoo representatives or not, but it's a whole can of worms and, if it's improperly moderated (I don't know if it is or not), it's open to trolling and other childish behavior that is common on the internet.

So all in all? I think I'll start using GMail, thank you very much.