JorgeA

Not a Start Menu replacement, but I came across a very attractive desktop theme for Windows 8 that's designed to work with Tihiy's StartIsBack. Makes the Win8 desktop look almost tolerable! --JorgeA

Hi Laurence, They're fixed now, great. I also updated the URL for Power8. AFAIK, Tihiy's StartIsBack didn't yet have its own website when I created the list, so it's good to see that it's striking out on its own. I'm leaving in place the link to the MSFN discussion for the benefit of those who'd like to trace the history and details of the project. BTW, I loved that signature. Reminds me of the guy who used to tell me every November that, "Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday this year, so plan accordingly!" --JorgeA

Yup. I concur with every case you mentioned that I know something about (had never even heard of PlaysForSure!), with one quibble. We do like Windows Media Center. I know that it's crippled for use in Canada, which s*cks, but in the U.S. once you get past the complexities of CableCARD setup it's a pretty nifty system, IMHO. It's replaced the cable company DVR completely in our family room, with 6 times the storage (and no practical limit if we want to keep expanding it). I can even offload recorded programs to outside storage and burn DVDs of them, both of which are impossible with the DVR. So we're definitely happy with that part of Microsoft's offerings. If only they hadn't neglected WMC for so long and (apparently) decided to let it die on the vine in favor of its one hardware success, the XBox. So despite (and even because of) our like of WMC, MS is still on the hook for its frustrating product decisions. --JorgeA

Apropos of this, the Wall Street Journal just had an informative article on the subject of online tracking. For a boost to private browsing, I recommend using Ixquick's option to open a search result link through a proxy. Now it works such that every link you click on while on the website you're visiting, is also processed via a proxy server. --JorgeA

LOL Yeah, for some (a lot of?) people it's going to take some large, destructive, and well-publicized data breaches to make them stop and think if that's really what they want to do. --JorgeA

It all depends on where you are located, which store you go to, etc. The apple store was full when I bought my iPad, and there were lots of people at Best Buy when I went to buy a cover for my iPad a couple days ago. The thing I don't see is people buying anything that runs Windows 8. I've seen more people buying Android tablets (and even Blackberry Playbook tablets) than Win8 tablets. I believe it, that especially Apple products are selling better. If memory serves, Mac sales haven't dropped as steeply as Windows PC sales. The area where we live wasn't hit by the recession as badly as many others, but lately any computer store i visit is like people forgot it existed. Yesterday I got another coupon for $100 off on any Windows 8 PC (not just for specific models). Used to be they'd send out one of these big discount coupons every six months or so, but this is the second one for Win8 systems in 2-3 weeks. --JorgeA

Glad to see that they finally got back to you. We'll take off the disclaimer about Wentutu and see if anybody else tries it and reports the bug in their new version. --JorgeA

Amazing. If I ran a magazine website, I'd have redundant copies of multiple backups at the office and in my house and in all my relatives' houses. But this horror case does still speak to what we're talking about, in terms of entrusting your digital life to the Cloud. --JorgeA

After actually using Windows 8 for the first time yesterday on a non-touchy screen, I'm surprised that MS didn't implement better alternative mouse controls. When using any Modern App, the mouse behaves the same as it always has. You should be able to drag the screen around rather than having to rely on scroll bars and what not. Just go look at how the mouse behaves in Google Maps. That would have made a world of difference for non-touch if you ask me. Yeah, mouse click+drag would be the nearest thing to "natural" finger touch+drag. Maybe the idea was too sensible for Steve, Steve, and Julie. Or maybe the idea is that real PCs are on the way out and eventually most people will be using lobotomized toy terminals, while an elite class of experts and technopriests stay on powerful machines to design and control the cyberworld for the rest of us. (Sound like a 1950s sci-fi "B" movie?) --JorgeA

Amen, bro! I think that I reported in one of these threads about a discussion I had about the Cloud with a computer salesman who was pushing Windows 8's cloud-centric focus. Yeah, like I'm going to leave my e-mail, documents, tax spreasheets, and even MP3's in the Cloud permanently. I'm stocking up on TB-sized external HDDs while they're still available. Sadly, it's going to take a certain number of prominent Matt Honan-type total hacks before the Cloud lemmings wake up to the dangers that they're gleefully jumping into. --JorgeA

Pretty funny!! --JorgeA

The scoop on Windows 8 is starting to get out to the professional communities: --JorgeA

Where have we heard that kind of argument before? --JorgeA

That was an interesting analysis. They're running a classic propaganda campaign -- "we do much the same thing that you do, but the topic is what YOU do, not what we do, so don't change the subject..." --JorgeA

Pretty amazing, isn't it? It's almost a tribal thing -- attacking Apple not because Apple has a different approach or philosophy (let alone because that approach might be less good), but simply because they're the other guys. Not "because of X or Y reasons," just "because." We might expect this sort of thing from company employees and PR contractors, but from users?!? --JorgeA

How strange. But thanks for checking, it sounds like this is somehow the intended behavior and not a case of malware or program corruption. But still, this means that my IE8 is more useful than IE9. --JorgeA

Joseph_sw, Oh yeah, THAT key! I completely forgot about it. The only key that gets used less on my PC, is the Pause/Break key, or the Scroll Lock for that matter. Anyway, here's what happened with the various different links when I tried using that key on IE8 and then IE9, on the Ars Technica homepage: IE8: Right-Click with mouse: Left Column, Middle Column, Right Column [isn't there a way to do a table on the forum software?](Picture) full menu, [n/a], full menu (Headline) useless menu, full menu, useless menu App key: Left Column, Middle Column, Right Column(Picture) full menu, [n/a], full menu (Headline) full menu, full menu, full menu IE9: Right-Click with mouse: Left Column, Middle Column, Right Column (Picture) useless menu, [n/a], full menu (Headline) useless menu, full menu, useless menu App key: Left Column, Middle Column, Right Column(Picture) useless menu, [n/a], useless menu (Headline) useless menu, useless menu, useless menu (Notes: "useless" menu for my purposes. The "full" menu is the one containing the options to "open link in new" tab/window. [n/a] = there's no picture to click on in the middle-column items. Differences in results between "mouse right-clicking" and "app key" are color-coded.) What do you think? --JorgeA

This is a bit late, but here goes anyway just in case -- I use and recommend Steve Gibson's SpinRite. Notwithstanding some scattered grousing to the contrary around the Web, this little program has repaired two hard disks for me; it might do the same for you. If nothing else, if the disk is ready to kick the bucket, it could patch things up for long enough to get the data off it. It's not freeware and it's not cheap ($89), but it sure has worked for me. Another possibility: the DEKSI Hard Disk Manager won't cure your HDD, but it will give you a fairly extensive diagnostic report. It's even more expensive to buy, but it does come with a 30-day trial period which is all you need if a crisis is impending. Works on every PC I've tried it on, including my Win98FE system, and it's brand-agnostic. Good luck! --JorgeA

While researching for a post in another part of the Forum, I discovered something odd. I'm in the process of transitioning my work to a new PC, and so I'm in the awkward situation where I'm doing some things on the old computer and other things on the new computer -- sometimes the same thing on both of them. This is one such case. The new PC is running Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9. When I opened the Ars Technica page, I right-clicked on a certain story, but the context menu didn't give me an option to open that link in a new tab or window -- just some irrelevant options to go "back," "forward" "select all," etc. This was surprising because over on my Vista PC running IE8, the same right-clicking action gives me the expected context menu to "open link" in a new tab or in a new window, to "save target as," etc. To be precise, on the Ars Technica page, with IE8 on Vista if I right-click on the headline, I get that useless context menu, but clicking on the picture associated with the story I get the desired context menu. With IE9 on Win7, clicking on either the headline or the picture yields the useless context menu. This seems to happen with the main features in the left column on the Ars Technica page, but not with the side stories in the center column. To add to the confusion, the "recent" feature stories in the right-hand column behave the same way in both Vista IE8 and Win7 IE9 as the left-column stories behave in IE8: I can get the desired context menu if I click on the picture, but not if I click on the headline. What could account for these differences, and is there any way I can recover that "open link in new tab" functionality in IE9? I'd rather open new tabs to get to a derivative page on a website, than have to click the Back button to return to the homepage. Any ideas? --JorgeA

Paul Thurrott's take on the 21% decline in PC sales year-over-year since the launch of Windows 8 (and a 24% drop in portable computer sales). And he's still blaming the book's cover for its failure to become a best-seller: This argument does not and cannot get Win8 off the hook: the decline in PC sales has accelerated since Windows 8 came out. And as we know, orders for the Surface have been scaled back. So there appears to be NO segment of the market (desktops, laptops, tablets) where any kind of success is occurring that could be credited to Windows 8. My ongoing localized, anecdotal observations jibe with these general trends: despite it being the Christmas shopping season, the computing departments (including tablets) at a variety of stores are looking like ghost towns. --JorgeA

This was true with previous versions of Windows. Microsoft has changed how licenses to OEMs are distributed. Instead of ordering in bulk lots, license is purchased by an OEM on a per install basis. This change in how the OEM license works would mean that the figures should be lower, not higher. But another important thing to note is that Downgrade Rights sales would definately count, even if the end result is that an end user received a PC with Windows 7 installed on it. It is possible that they are counting at least those 2 million Surface tablets... Wouldn't this suggest, then, that 40 million retail copies + individual OEM installs have been sold? (Assuming that the 40 million figure is accurate.) --JorgeA

Hi Laurence, Thank you for following up on this! Let me know if they ever reply. I'll keep their listing unchanged pending verification (from them or from a user) that the bug has been fixed. --JorgeA

Hi Laurence, Start 4 Seven is one of the more unusual ones -- a Start Menu that floats above the taskbar. Added to the list. --JorgeA

Reorganization of the list has begun -- it's now alphabetized. Some items that otherwise would seem to be not in order were kept in consecutive listings because they're intended to work together. As the organization of the list improves, I may put these together on the same line/entry. A future (next?) step will be to break out the Start Menus and Buttons from the Metro bypassers. --JorgeA

Great! I've added in to the list. --JorgeA