Windows 8 Pro , my thoughts

After 2 weeks of use I can now make a few comments on it, This is my
experience only and everyone else will have to reach their own conclusions.
First of all I am using the latest version of Classic Shell, 3.6.2 which
is faster booting to the desktop.

First a few things I don't like.

Windows mail would not accept my pop3 mail account. So I switched to
Thunderbird which I am happy with especially for newsgroups.
Some features in Win 8 use side scrolling which I don't like so I avoid
them if possible.
Acronis TI would not install.
A lot of small features have been moved or changed, means more hunting
for things.

Things I like.

Boot up in 40 t0 50 seconds. Shutdown in 4 to 6 seconds. Great!.
full start up Icon and menus with Classic shell.
Can access both Desktop modes with one click or one keystroke.
The Win 8 interface is not half bad as you get used to it, The all apps
display is great.
No trouble installing all my apps and games except Acronis True image
2012 ,So I dumped it and installed Macrium Reflect free which works great.
Made Shutdown and Restart icons for both desktops so 1 click shutdown.
The new Solitaire and Hearts from the new Win 8 not too bad but slower
than the originals.
Steam and all my Half-life stuff works fine.
$69.95 is a decent price for a boxed version.

I guess there are many more things I didn't mention but this will do for
a start.

All In all I am liking it. but your mileage may vary

Regards, Rene

Rene Lamontagne klamont shaw.ca wrote:

First of all I am using the latest version of Classic Shell,
3.6.2 which is faster booting to the desktop.

I will go with putting a tiny script file in the start menu
folder, if necessary. But moving to the desktop is only a single
click from the "start" page. And I usually want to do something
when getting to the desktop anyway.

One thing I like about Classic Shell is that it restores the
ability to navigate in the left-hand folder pane using keyboard
arrow keys. You have to wonder what Microsoft is thinking, by
disabling that. Anybody know what the registry entry for that is?

Boot up in 40 t0 50 seconds.

That doesn't sound good.

The all apps display is great. No trouble installing all my apps
and games except Acronis True image 2012 ,So I dumped it and
installed Macrium Reflect free which works great.

Yes, it sure does. Makes for easy browsing of your archives, too.
The restore from CD seems much faster in the most recent version.

Made Shutdown and Restart icons for both desktops so 1 click
shutdown.

That sounds useful.

$69.95 is a decent price for a boxed version.

Or $40 plus tax for the download that can be burned to a DVD.

All In all I am liking it. but your mileage may vary

For technical reasons, I had to upgrade from Windows XP, not much
choice for $40. Sending less money to Microsoft is one of my top
priorities.

--









Regards, Rene

"Rene Lamontagne" wrote in message ...

After 2 weeks of use I can now make a few comments on it...

Windows mail would not accept my pop3 mail account.

Boot up in 40 t0 50 seconds. Shutdown in 4 to 6 seconds. Great!.

Windows 8 Mail app only supports
Hotmail/Live/Msn.com
Outlook.com
Outlook 365
Exchange
Gmail
Yahoo
AOL
IMAP

The only route to get POP3 at this time (and maybe forever*) is to aggregate the POP3 account into another supported Msft type
account (e.g. Hotmail, Live, MSN, or Outlook.com) or forward the email from a POP3 account to one of the supported email accounts.
* - unlike Windows 8, Windows Phone provides POP3 capability which some have said provides a clue that POP3 will come at one point
in time, but no word from MSFT when that may/may not occur one way or another)

--
....winston
mvp msft consumer apps

"Rene Lamontagne" wrote in message
...

After 2 weeks of use I can now make a few comments on it...

Windows mail would not accept my pop3 mail account.
---------------

"..winston" wrote in message
...

The only route to get POP3 at this time (and maybe forever*) is to aggregate
the POP3 account into another supported Msft type
account (e.g. Hotmail, Live, MSN, or Outlook.com) or forward the email from
a POP3 account to one of the supported email accounts.
------------------

snip

What I have done is install Windows Live Mail 2009 version (pre Ribbon), to
Win8 Pro, as a stand alone mail/news client, I have 14 POP accounts & 5 news
accounts set up in it. I do not sign in to MS with it, and use it SOLELY as
a desktop App'.
Windows Live Messenger still works in that version ATM, (not sure if Skype
will interfere as yet)?
A link is available on Winston's blog:
http://liveunplugged.wordpress.com/c...ive-downloads/
Look for:
Full Version Installer English Language, under version of 2009.
If you do not sign in, then you will not be prompted to update to 2011
version.

mac

Fyi....
WLM09 on Windows 8
1. One might see an option to install Windows Essentials in Microsoft Update
2. Afaics the program is capable of prompting for an upgrade but that is done in conjunction with WLMsgr 09 as opposed to later WLM
versions which appear to have a program updater
3. It would be *wise* to run WLM09 in XPSp3 compatible mode
4. Skype 6.0 installation will remove Messenger
5. Messenger will be discontinued in the future for all regions worldwide except China where it will be administered by a third
party (not MSFT) thus the ability to use Messenger since it does requires a signon could easily be restricted by preventing a
connection to the backend server.

And note...WLM09 is capable of phoning home and installation does agree to allowing MSFT to discontinue or upgrade the software.
Preventing WLM09 on anything but XP is always a possibility that could occur!....i.e. not signing in could prove to be
insufficient.



--
....winston
msft mvp


" mac" wrote in message ...

"Rene Lamontagne" wrote in message
...

After 2 weeks of use I can now make a few comments on it...

Windows mail would not accept my pop3 mail account.
---------------

"..winston" wrote in message
...

The only route to get POP3 at this time (and maybe forever*) is to aggregate
the POP3 account into another supported Msft type
account (e.g. Hotmail, Live, MSN, or Outlook.com) or forward the email from
a POP3 account to one of the supported email accounts.
------------------

snip

What I have done is install Windows Live Mail 2009 version (pre Ribbon), to
Win8 Pro, as a stand alone mail/news client, I have 14 POP accounts & 5 news
accounts set up in it. I do not sign in to MS with it, and use it SOLELY as
a desktop App'.
Windows Live Messenger still works in that version ATM, (not sure if Skype
will interfere as yet)?
A link is available on Winston's blog:
http://liveunplugged.wordpress.com/c...ive-downloads/
Look for:
Full Version Installer English Language, under version of 2009.
If you do not sign in, then you will not be prompted to update to 2011
version.

mac

On 10-Nov-12 5:23 AM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
After 2 weeks of use I can now make a few comments on it, This is my
experience only and everyone else will have to reach their own conclusions.
First of all I am using the latest version of Classic Shell, 3.6.2 which
is faster booting to the desktop.

First a few things I don't like.

Windows mail would not accept my pop3 mail account. So I switched to
Thunderbird which I am happy with especially for newsgroups.
Some features in Win 8 use side scrolling which I don't like so I avoid
them if possible.
Acronis TI would not install.
A lot of small features have been moved or changed, means more hunting
for things.

Things I like.

Boot up in 40 t0 50 seconds. Shutdown in 4 to 6 seconds. Great!.
full start up Icon and menus with Classic shell.
Can access both Desktop modes with one click or one keystroke.
The Win 8 interface is not half bad as you get used to it, The all apps
display is great.
No trouble installing all my apps and games except Acronis True image
2012 ,So I dumped it and installed Macrium Reflect free which works great.
Made Shutdown and Restart icons for both desktops so 1 click shutdown.
The new Solitaire and Hearts from the new Win 8 not too bad but slower
than the originals.
Steam and all my Half-life stuff works fine.
$69.95 is a decent price for a boxed version.

I guess there are many more things I didn't mention but this will do for
a start.

All In all I am liking it. but your mileage may vary

Regards, Rene


I'm using Acronis True Image 2013 perfectly happily. I've even made a
clone image of my W8 installation with it and tested that boots okay.

For Pop mail, I have Outlook 2010 - part of Office Home & Business 2010
that I had before. Works fine on POP and IMAP, and with the outlook
connectors it works fine with hotmail.com and outlook.com webmail
clients too.

A critical problem I have with W8 is that PGP 10.2.1 Whole Disk
Encryption (WDE) doesn't work on the boot drive. I tried it. It'll
encrypt okay and everything looks normal until you reboot, then you get
persistent BSODs on reboot. I reinstalled my clone backup and de-crypted
my SSD, and that fixed the problem. PGP WDE does work fine on external
drives though, just not the boot drive. So for now I'm using Windows'
Encrypted folders for the sensitive stuff, but would prefer WDE if they
ever fix it. Haven't tried Truecrypt on W8 yet.

By "IMAP" do you mean any mail service offering IMAP connections? I ask
because Cox claims to support IMAP but no one manages to get it working.

"..winston" wrote in message
...
Windows 8 Mail app only supports
Hotmail/Live/Msn.com
Outlook.com
Outlook 365
Exchange
Gmail
Yahoo
AOL
IMAP

The only route to get POP3 at this time (and maybe forever*) is to
aggregate the POP3 account into another supported Msft type account (e.g.
Hotmail, Live, MSN, or Outlook.com) or forward the email from a POP3
account to one of the supported email accounts.
* - unlike Windows 8, Windows Phone provides POP3 capability which some
have said provides a clue that POP3 will come at one point in time, but no
word from MSFT when that may/may not occur one way or another)

--
...winston
mvp msft consumer apps

The email account provider has to support the IMAP protocol for Windows 8 to successfully setup and use an account using the IMAP
protocol.

Cox has always been problematic with IMAP. Cox business accounts may provide IMAP support while consumer/residential accounts may
or may not.


--
....winston
msft mvp


"Don" wrote in message eb.com...

By "IMAP" do you mean any mail service offering IMAP connections? I ask
because Cox claims to support IMAP but no one manages to get it working.

"..winston" wrote in message
...
Windows 8 Mail app only supports
Hotmail/Live/Msn.com
Outlook.com
Outlook 365
Exchange
Gmail
Yahoo
AOL
IMAP

The only route to get POP3 at this time (and maybe forever*) is to aggregate the POP3 account into another supported Msft type
account (e.g. Hotmail, Live, MSN, or Outlook.com) or forward the email from a POP3 account to one of the supported email
accounts.
* - unlike Windows 8, Windows Phone provides POP3 capability which some have said provides a clue that POP3 will come at one
point in time, but no word from MSFT when that may/may not occur one way or another)

--
...winston
mvp msft consumer apps

Don wrote:
By "IMAP" do you mean any mail service offering IMAP connections? I ask
because Cox claims to support IMAP but no one manages to get it working.

On the one hand, we have...

http://ww2.cox.com/residential/hamptonroads/support/internet/article.cox?articleId={a8fb24c0-6440-11df-ccef-000000000000}

"The Internet should add convenience, not headaches."

"Note: Cox does not currently support IMAP"

Yeah, that's convenience for you.

*******

The Cox business section on the other hand, offers...

http://ww2.cox.com/business/idaho/support/data/article.cox?articleId={819314d0-6d0c-11e0-4e73-000000000000}

"What are the server and port settings for IMAP?

* Incoming Mail Server: imap.coxmail.com, Port 993
* Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.coxmail.com, Port 465
"

Does that means they offer different services to home
users and business users ? Or, does it mean they can't
maintain a web site worth a damn ?

With my former ISP, credentials were only loaded on
certain servers. That's so millions of customers
weren't running off one machine. I could see the same
happening with cox, with a home user having pop3
credentials, and no setup on the imap server. Maybe
you have to choose one or the other, with the help
of tech support ?

This is almost as bad as trying to find out whether
my former ISP had dialup. You had the suspicion there
were grandfathered dialup users out there still paying
$50 a month, but you couldn't find any evidence on the
web site, that the ISP had ever heard of dialup. They
would have had large banks of dialup gear, from before
the broadband era, so no equipment shortage.

Paul


"..winston" wrote in message
...
Windows 8 Mail app only supports
Hotmail/Live/Msn.com
Outlook.com
Outlook 365
Exchange
Gmail
Yahoo
AOL
IMAP

The only route to get POP3 at this time (and maybe forever*) is to
aggregate the POP3 account into another supported Msft type account
(e.g. Hotmail, Live, MSN, or Outlook.com) or forward the email from a
POP3 account to one of the supported email accounts.
* - unlike Windows 8, Windows Phone provides POP3 capability which
some have said provides a clue that POP3 will come at one point in
time, but no word from MSFT when that may/may not occur one way or
another)

--
...winston
mvp msft consumer apps

"Paul" wrote in message ...


On the one hand, we have...
http://ww2.cox.com/residential/hamptonroads/support/internet/article.cox?articleId={a8fb24c0-6440-11df-ccef-000000000000}

"The Internet should add convenience, not headaches."
"Note: Cox does not currently support IMAP"

The Cox business section on the other hand, offers...
http://ww2.cox.com/business/idaho/support/data/article.cox?articleId={819314d0-6d0c-11e0-4e73-000000000000}
"What are the server and port settings for IMAP?
* Incoming Mail Server: imap.coxmail.com, Port 993
* Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.coxmail.com, Port 465

Does that means they offer different services to home
users and business users ? Or, does it mean they can't
maintain a web site worth a damn ?


Business vs. residential. The former providing both protocols (POP3 and IMAP), the other may* only provide POP3.

* - variation may exist for residential in different geographic locations (both protocols or only POP3) - some of it due to Cox
acquisition of other providers retaining the backend server but replacing the previous provider email address with a cox domain.

From what I've seen in the majority of cases residential users are primarily POP3 accounts.

--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps