xpclient

Since you are dealing with AVI files, VirtualDub and another great little known one, AVIUtil would do the job. AVIUtil is Japanese but there's an English translation available somewhere. VirtualDub is easier to use but AVIUtil can do more things like split files at frames which aren't keyframes and then do delta/smart encoding.

for me not. This is my main issue with ClassicStartmenu. Otherwise I would install it everywhere You mean you also prefer a more compact drop down style where the folders expand vertically (Vista/7 style?) Or some other reason?

I *love* that parody, Andre. It highlights everything that's wrong with Microsoft. The UI guys just have no common sense. All of them should be fired for turning Windows into an unprofessional toy OS. "Windows 8 Pro" in the name is a joke. The two editions should be called "Windows for super-dumb people" and "Windows for slightly less dumb people".

Yes that I can understand how it's better in some cases. As a compromise, Classic Start Menu can be compacted very much by checking "Small icons" in Skin options, using a single column main menu skin, changing the column style of sub-menus to single column, removing the caption as well. And the width of the both main and sub-menus can be reduced too. That way, it will overlap very little with what you are doing on the screen. I can't think of ideas to reduce the height vertically if you have many programs installed.

Nope unfortunately that's not possible because by fundamental design, it is first and foremost a classic flyout style menu which Ivo and I believe is a better approach because it utilizes all of your screen when using multiple columns. Classic Shell in fact started as a classic menu because Windows 7 removed it and then "evolved" to become the XP style dual column menu+a little filter box like Vista/7. I know the usability of menus which expand and close by hovering the mouse pointer has been criticized by many usability experts for being inefficient. Classic Shell addresses this with a simple solution. If you find it difficult to navigate flyout sub-menus expanding horizontally because of the menu closing as soon as the mouse pointer crosses its boundary, you can set the "Menu Delay" setting on the 'General behavior' tab to a higher value. This causes the sub-menu to not close immediately but after a while. If you set it to a very high value, the sub-menu will expand and close only by a mouse click, not by hovering. What the non-flyout style introduces is a scroll bar and that is something to be avoided if all the programs can fit on the screen. Still, if you prefer a scrolling menu, you can have that as well with Classic Shell but just not the in-place expanding one. But even if you use a single column layout in the Classic Start Menu, you can use the mouse scroll wheel to scroll up and down the menu. The menu also supports scrolling with the mouse wheel if you place the pointer to the right of the single column so that the folders do not expand unnecessarily as you scroll. Or like I said, set the "Menu delay" setting to a very high value.

The Classic Shell Start button is independent of the Windows Start button so no telemetry will be gathered about that. Maybe a lot of people were using Classic Shell on Windows 7 as well (we started it in 2009 after all after the lack of the real Classic Start Menu). So that explains why few people used Microsoft's Start Menu. No just kidding. I'm sure MS is lying because millions did use the Start menu. Let's all hope they remove Metro in Windows 9 because no one used it.

For a clean install, it should be enabled by default. If you are viewing only Basic settings, scroll down on the Basic settings tab and look for the option called "Skip Metro screen". If you prefer viewing all settings, it appears as the first option on the "General Behavior" tab.

The just released 3.5.1 version by Ivo Beltchev has an option to boot to desktop (slapping Metro on the way).

My opinion on Surface/Surface Pro is: Okay-ish hardware, crappy OS software. I say okay-ish because the Pro model has Intel graphics. Intel graphics are utter s*** despite Ivy Bridge bringing a massive performance gain. If the Pro/x86 model had GeForce or Radeon class graphics, but then it would possibly have crappy battery life. Even if I get the Surface Pro for free (I get these things through promotions and contests), I will put Windows 7 on it, what matters to me is having a usable OS with long battery life. Having the joke of an OS with long battery life is useless. If I get just the Surface, well that will be a nice toy exclusively for playing casual games. I certainly won't pay for either. I will only pay for a super high-end desktop on which I will run a combination of my beloved XP x64 and not-so-beloved Windows 7 x64.

Well good news. The developer of NAA replied to me that it seems to be a bug specific to 64-bit Windows and that he will fix it in the next version.

Sorry I should have been more clear. 1. With IE10 in standards mode, clicking quickly shows the dropdown but before you can do anything, it takes you to the user profile page. 2. With IE8 or IE10 compatibility view, clicking it shows the menu and you can click an option from it.

Just wanted to let the MSFNers who manage the website that this dropdown: is not working correctly in IE10 standards mode and it's causing me some grief. (Haven't tested IE9 but it works in IE8). I don't want to use compatibility view because that makes long forum posts hang because IE switches to the slower JavaScript engine in compatibility view instead of the newer Chakra engine.

The solution to everyone's troubles would be use the Windows editions to differentiate more on advanced-ness of feature set. Windows 8 for dumb people and grandmas. Windows 8 Pro for professionals who want every possible tweak and setting and can't tolerate any lack of customization. Now will the morons in the User Experience team ever get this? It might take a few more releases of Windows to fail before the idiots possibly realize that dumbing down is not good for everyone. As long as current dumb and arrogant management is in charge, I don't see it happening. Sadly, XP or even Windows 7 support may not last that long by the time the idiots realize that computers shouldn't be all about grandmas and less intelligent people who only play Cut the Rope and Farmville.

From the Sound Control Panel, Audio tab, what does setting the "Default device" in the Playback section to "USB Audio Codec" and then checking the option "Use only default devices" do? Or if you want to use a tool that adds "Always on top" to the window menu of every dialog/window, use this: http://www.abstractpath.com/powermenu/ and right click the title bar of the Volume control panel.

@Dogway, Everything is simply awesome if you are just searching for file names. Too bad it doesn't have a 64-bit version, it misses the files in system32 due to file system redirection. They also have an SDK. "Everything" search result integration would be a great addition to the Classic Shell search box provided it's presented in a better, more concise way than Everything currently does.

Tried it, running it as admin still keeps the button disabled.

So as everyone must be knowing by now, Windows Vista removed quick access to the Ethernet connection icon from the sys tray. So on Windows Vista and 7, I use Network Activity Indicator. I don't need the blinking lights so much, I just need quick 1-click access to Network status window and Properties window of the Ethernet and wireless NICs. But when I open the Properties of any NIC from right clicking on NAA icon in the sys tray, the Properties button for TCP/IPv4 and TCP/IPv6 is grayed out. This wasn't the case under Windows Vista as this image illustrates: This kinda makes it useless for me then. But if I open the NIC properties under Windows 7 from Network Connections folder itself, the Properties button isn't grayed out, it is fully functional. So anyone know what may be causing the Properties button to be disabled on Windows 7 when the Properties are opened from NAA icon right click? Or is it just a bug in NAA?

^^ Only side effect is the Network pane also gets disabled when you run FxxkMetro.You would certainly need the network pane. Maybe if someone can develop a Windows 7 Network popup clone for Windows 8 then we can turn off the system network icon.

Here's a 52 KB tool to kill all traces of Metro a.k.a. the Metro kill switch: http://www22.zippysh...pl&key=48981934 To get Metro back, just reboot. Just place this in your startup. Only time you will see Metro is now at startup. Edit: To avoid any confusion, I didn't make this tool, I simply found it on the interwebs.

Btw not a solution to this issue, uninstall the KBs one by one to find out what is causing the hang, but just as a good practice, download and install the user profile hive cleanup service 1.6 (http://www.microsoft...ls.aspx?id=6676) or 2.1 (http://blogs.technet...beta-build.aspx). It will make your XP shutdowns reliable and cleaner. The service was later integrated into Vista/7/8.

Ah, taskbar shuffle! Yes it's in my must-use essential list of apps for XP. I have a question for tomasz86 to which I never found a satisfactory answer whenever I have asked it. If the scroll wheel takes the place of the middle click (and even though you can click the scroll wheel), how do you find it comfortable enough? I own a high end mouse but find it far too uncomfortable to click the scroll wheel to middle click. Get what I mean? Maybe I am using the wrong "high end" mouse. @Dogway, I couldn't say :PerigeeCopy is perfect. It does have a number of limitations like it doens't highlight the files it copied like Windows' native copy does, it shows speeds only in KB/s and many such others. But it gets the job done for me better. I have done extremely long backups with it too and found them all completed in the morning after leaving them overnight.

Here's a better one: http://jstanley.ping...com/pscopy.html Doesn't prompt if you don't want it to, and can queue copy operations (start another only after one has finished). And skips all errors upon copy and continues copying and prompts only for files with errors at the end.And works for delete too. Continues deleting files which don't give errors and prompts at the end only for files in use which may have caused errors. IMO, a first class copier and the UI is the native Windows one, there are TeraCopy etc but I can't stand their UI being someone who obssesses with UI and User experience.

Okay I saw the video. Team BS (Ballmer+Sinofsky) should take a clue from the video, please. Mark won't say anything against Windows 8 publicly but they should be smart enough to understand the troubles at least he is having because they have closed their minds to any outside criticism. The bigger shock for me was reading the reviews of Bob 2 at sites like Engadget, Gizmodo where they were all reviewing it favorably and telling "haters to get along". This s*** might succeed even as bad as it is because most of the monkeys in the world are clueless about productivity, usability and have change blindness. They don't even notice anything's broken, missing or not working. All they do is time pass on Facebook, Pinterest etc and play Cut the Rope. I'm sure Julie Larson Green herself belongs to that group. How else would one explain why she dumbed down Bob 2 to a child's toy?