With humble apologies, Mr Bill Gates, I submit that Microsoft Corporation goofed up when creating Windows 8 start Up screen. I can understand that you might have thought that your initial users had grown as old as the company, and had developed problems of refraction, so that they would see big icons better than small menu items. But to put icons on the screen and ask the users to go through them to find the one they wanted was not a very good idea. I would not use the computer rather than sort through a lot of icons to find the one I wanted. I also can understand these users were getting nearer the time they would get Alzheimer's disease, and the best way to prevent it or at least postpone it would be to solve puzzles or engage in difficult mental activities. You must have meant well for them, if that was your intention. But to search for a way to shut down Windows 8 is not exactly a fun activity, especially if you have to do it with the same degree of difficulty every day. Your start up screen made me think of someone who used to keep his things very well organized, so that he could find them even in dark, until one day a child entered his room and messed up the whole thing so that he could not find anything. Do I need to say I was thinking of myself (not about my room and some child, but the start up screen and my icons and menus).
I would not have upgraded to Windows 8, because I knew this would have happened. But the civic body gave me a PC to work on, and it had Windows 8 as the operating system. After struggling to get used to it and failing miserably at it, I fixed up your Windows 8 so that it worked for me. Google search helped, but the need and efforts were my own. I made the following changes.
I wish someone had advised you to let the users choose between older desktop and newer start up screen when Windows was installed, or later if one got fed up with what you gave us to use. Considering your philanthropic nature, I believe someone misled you rather than you decided that you could decide what the users should have. I have written this post for others like me who want to fix Windows 8. Another reason for writing it is that your BingBot that crawls the net and indexes web pages (including mine) reads this page and someone there informs you what you might do with the next version of Windows. If you insist on continuing with what you have done with Windows 8, I will not upgrade to it. If the civic body forces me to use a PC with that version, I will fix it to my liking. If I am too old to make that effort, I will tell the civic body to get it fixed the way I want it, or convince the civic body to switch to Linux. That last one may sound like an empty threat to you. I don't blame you, because it probably is an empty threat. Many people say that convincing you will be far easier than convincing the civic body. Losing my business may not make any difference to your empire, but what if many others do the same?
I would not have upgraded to Windows 8, because I knew this would have happened. But the civic body gave me a PC to work on, and it had Windows 8 as the operating system. After struggling to get used to it and failing miserably at it, I fixed up your Windows 8 so that it worked for me. Google search helped, but the need and efforts were my own. I made the following changes.
- As soon as the PC booted and showed that start up screen, I pressed Windows+D. That showed me the old desktop.
- I created a shortcut to the My Documents folder on the desktop.
- I pressed Windows+E every time I needed the Windows Explorer (old trick, huh? God be praised that the old shortcuts worked in Windows 8 too).
- I created a new folder on the desktop, called it 'Software' and made shortcuts in it to each software program that I needed from the 'Program Files' folder and 'Windows - System 32' folder. I included everything that used to come up after clicking on the start button in the past, including control panel and system tools. Whenever I needed to launch some software, I opened this folder and double clicked on the shortcut to the program I wanted. This was my substitute for the 'All Programs' of older versions of Windows.
- I created a shortcut on the desktop for launching the login window for logging into the internet.
- I created a new shortcut on the desktop, typed 'shutdown -s -t 0' in the space provided for its location and accepted the name 'Shutdown.exe' that Windows offered kindly. Then I pinned it to the task bar by dragging it to it. This was my substitute for the 'shutdown' button. I just had to click on it once and Windows shut down smoothly.
I wish someone had advised you to let the users choose between older desktop and newer start up screen when Windows was installed, or later if one got fed up with what you gave us to use. Considering your philanthropic nature, I believe someone misled you rather than you decided that you could decide what the users should have. I have written this post for others like me who want to fix Windows 8. Another reason for writing it is that your BingBot that crawls the net and indexes web pages (including mine) reads this page and someone there informs you what you might do with the next version of Windows. If you insist on continuing with what you have done with Windows 8, I will not upgrade to it. If the civic body forces me to use a PC with that version, I will fix it to my liking. If I am too old to make that effort, I will tell the civic body to get it fixed the way I want it, or convince the civic body to switch to Linux. That last one may sound like an empty threat to you. I don't blame you, because it probably is an empty threat. Many people say that convincing you will be far easier than convincing the civic body. Losing my business may not make any difference to your empire, but what if many others do the same?
