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Thread ID: 135817	2013-12-15 07:59:00	First impressions of Win 8.1	Terry Porritt (14)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1362658	2013-12-15 07:59:00	Following the long thread "Classic Shell" I thought I'd take a look at what all the fuss was about. So I built up a new computer and yesterday installed the full retail version of Win8.1, 32 bit. Aomei Partition Assistant boot CD was useful for getting the new drive(s) partitioned. During installation I thought I'd turned off all the MS crapola of "phoning home" etc, but found the Start page full of said live tile crapola like weather, finance, news etc all presumably gobbling up data cap behind ones back, and supplying personal data on the side to NSA. So they were the first things to go, and The Start page looks much neater and slimmed down now with just 4 tiles. Before then, loaded in the motherboard drivers from the Gigabyte disk, and found the Intel HD Graphics program didn't work, tried uninstall/intall a couple of times, then found a later driver dated 13 November, just a month old. That worked ok. Once in the desktop, have to agree with wainuitech, it is all very much like Win7, except some of the names have been changed to protect the innocent as they used to say on Dragnet, and I used Google a bit to find out about things. I couldn't quite get the same shade of solid background colour I've used since Win3.1 so settled for the default background :) Had a bit of problem getting network access to and fro the other Win 7 machine, but having the same user names and passwords on each machine and setting permissions cured those problems. Had a bit of a computer problem on the way, it would shut down randomly, but found the BIOS had memory voltage of 1.5v and 1333MHz instead of 1.65v for the 1600MHz RAM. Resetting voltage cured that problem too. Installed VLC and Winamp and tested out on some .mp3, .mp4 and .rm files. When I clicked on an mp4 something called Xbox player sprang out at me. I killed that and made VLC the default. Have to try and find where this Xbox thing is and see if it can be removed if it is taking up much room. Slowly building up a useful Utilities folder and made shortcuts to System Restore and to Create Restore Point. It takes forever and a day to install the same programs as on the old computer, but it is a good time to sort out the wheat from the chaff. It seems fast, but as it is still lean and mean it isn't a fair comparison yet with Win 7.	Terry Porritt (14)
1362659	2013-12-15 08:05:00	During installation I thought I'd turned off all the MS crapola of "phoning home" etc, but found the Start page full of said live tile crapola like weather, finance, news etc all presumably gobbling up data cap behind ones back, and supplying personal data on the side to NSA. God I love this paranoia :lol: When I clicked on an mp4 something called Xbox player sprang out at me. I killed that and made VLC the default. Have to try and find where this Xbox thing is and see if it can be removed if it is taking up much room. That's just the default video player - it shouldn't be "in your face" if all you're doing is playing a video.	pcuser42 (130)
1362660	2013-12-15 08:22:00	On the subject of Media Players for 8.1: :2cents: The ones I use a lot are Media Player Classic (mpc-hc.org/) and Freesmith video-player-freeware (www.freesmith.com) - Plays just about any other format as well as DVD/Blu-Ray MPC has one feature that I haven't seen in other players, the numeric keys can alter the size of the movie, - hate those black lines above and below the movies,:yuck: so by tapping the 8 key on the keyboard you can stretch it out, the other keys 2, will shrink it 4 & 6 widen, etc. Works well in full screen mode, did'nt go full screen but below is an example: 53805381 Depending on your TV / Monitor you can fill in the black to suit, but you have to be careful other wise everything is to much out of shape. Free Smith plays Blu-Ray as well. Both players have many options from the right click menus. :2cents:	wainuitech (129)
1362661	2013-12-15 08:48:00	God I love this paranoia :lol: ............. . Don't like things connecting to the internet without a by your leave.............:) As I had to add a password the same as on the win 7 machine to get network working, I then modified the registry for auto logon to remove the irritation of typing a password each time.	Terry Porritt (14)
1362662	2013-12-15 09:08:00	Don't like things connecting to the internet without a by your leave.............:) As I had to add a password the same as on the win 7 machine to get network working, I then modified the registry for auto logon to remove the irritation of typing a password each time. When installing sounds like you may have set up an account that MS trys to force on people. The option to boot up with no password to the local account is not made obvious. But you can change it to a local account quick enough, then change it back ( sign in) when required. NO REG HACKS REQUIRED> TO change to a local account, ( this is one way) from the start tiles, type in Your : Select Your Account Settings 5386 Then click Disconnect ( Mines set to Local already thats why its not showing Disconnect) 5385 It will log you out, you click the screen, it will then log you automatically back in. Re the password for networking that can be in the advanced network settings.	wainuitech (129)
1362663	2013-12-15 09:13:00	Networking doesn't require the same password. But, hey, yours is working.	linw (53)
1362664	2013-12-15 09:22:00	Adding to above, timer will have run out :) Type as shown, select Manage Advanced ---- 5387 Bottom Option, turn off password protected sharing: (W8 is basically W7 in many settings) But in W7 theres more steps to get to it. ;) 5388 Have a look through the other settings to change as you want.	wainuitech (129)
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