Windows XP anyone?

[Soquili]

For those that do get Windows 8 on a new computer or upgrade, if you find you really miss having a start button/menu Stardock has you covered. http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/features.asp

[DOAADI]

As I said, you can turn off the W8 GUI - you shouldn't need to buy anything to do it for you:

http://www.oostdam.info/index.php/se...able-metro-gui

Since the "Metro" interface is primarily for tablets with touch screens, it would seem logical that when it is released W8 will have a more user-friendly way of disabling Metro:

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/08...ws-8-metro-gui

The hack mentioned in that first article may not work on release versions. Any software offered at the moment is likely to have the same problem. However, free utilities are available which execute the hack if you don't want to get your hands dirty.

[Soquili]

Doaadi the Stardock Start8 does cost, a very expensive $4.99 but it is worth that for people that do not like to edit the registry manually and it offers other enhancements. I personally have no relationship with Stardock and prefer to do my own registry edits.

I only posted to let people know they have options without the risk of making their computer unusable if they make an error editing the registry.

[DOAADI]

That's fine - but just remember that all the current hacks (free or paid for) are on the preview version of W8 - not the final release version. They may not work... even some of the original hacks stopped working on later preview releases/updates.

[Soquili]

The release version has been available to software houses and equipment manufacturers for over a month. The release to the public will be on Friday October 26th. Surely the companies flooding my inbox with current releases for Windows 8 have based their wares on the release version and not one of the previous Beta releases.

[DOAADI]

Well, it's a matter of faith, I guess.

Just looking at the various hacks which have been offered reveals that some worked on one version but not on later ones, judging from the number of people who couldn't subsequently get them to work. Most of them have been around for many months (the Dutch link I gave is from pre-March 2012, and judging from the number of "likes" on Stardock, they've had theirs for a while).

I doubt that anyone offering what is effectively a registry hack (whether free or paid for) is distributing Microsoft-approved software - otherwise Microsoft would already have included what is ultimately a simple switch in the W8 user interface.

At any rate - one way or another it will be possible to turn off Metro and revert to a W7-like interface. But personally I'd wait until I had an official Microsoft disk in my hand before I parted with any cash.

[pauland]

I doubt that anyone offering what is effectively a registry hack (whether free or paid for) is distributing Microsoft-approved software - otherwise Microsoft would already have included what is ultimately a simple switch in the W8 user interface.

That did bring a smile to my face - it's essentially the situation we have now with Xara and XaraReg, isn't it?

[DOAADI]

Not quite.

There's nothing wrong with 3rd party software when it applies to stable, released applications. The industry depends on it.

The facts are there, though: some of the W8 hacks stopped working while it was in beta etc. The hacks can only be based on the latest pre-release version at best, and evidence suggests they often date from earlier than that.

Like I say, I wouldn't buy something like this until I had a fully-validated version up-and-running.

Disabling Metro is going to be possible. I think we all agree on that. It just remains to be seen how - and we'll only know for sure once W8 is released. I'm probably wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if it will end up being possible from within W8 itself. Like I say, we don't know.