The new HP W8.1 PC

In message , R.H. Breener
writes
It's running 8.1 which was already installed by HP.

Well, that's what is running on a machine here, although not an HP
machine. Mine is 64-bit, for info. You didn't identify the machine
model, although that may not matter.

If I hold the Windows key down and press Enter, it toggles Narrator on
and off.
Here, I'm in the desktop with the basic Control Panel on the screen, so
there is something for it to read.

I still think that there are 2 different times when Narrator can be
enabled, one being before the machine logs on, the other within Windows.
--
Bill

R.H. Breener wrote on 3/3/2015 10:21 AM:

There is no tile of any kind in the lower left corner.

There is nothing but tiles all over the desktop. I can't get past them. I
can't do anything but move them around.

Win-D maybe?

"Bill" wrote in message
...
In message , R.H. Breener
writes
There is nothing but tiles all over the desktop. I can't get past them. I
can't do anything but move them around.

If you move the cursor to the bottom of the screen, do you see a down
arrow in a little circle. If you do , click it and it should open the
official Win8.1 start menu.

This should give you a list of programs. This may give you desktop under
D.


--
Bill

The little arrow just moved down to another screen full of useless but
smaller advertising tiles. I tried a few things another W8 user suggested
and it worked. I hit the Window's key twice and the desktop reverted to
Classic Shell. W8 doesn't come up with CS like W7 does. It still comes up
with the tiles but no start button on the bottom left. I can't mess with W8
tonight. Have to get some work done.

"Alek" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote on 3/3/2015 10:21 AM:

There is no tile of any kind in the lower left corner.

There is nothing but tiles all over the desktop. I can't get past them.
I
can't do anything but move them around.

Win-D maybe?

Hitting the Window's Key twice seems to have worked. I'll try that at next
boot if the other fails.

In message , R.H. Breener
writes

"Alek" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote on 3/3/2015 10:21 AM:

There is no tile of any kind in the lower left corner.

There is nothing but tiles all over the desktop. I can't get past
them. I
can't do anything but move them around.

Win-D maybe?

Hitting the Window's Key twice seems to have worked. I'll try that at
next boot if the other fails.

I feel I have to say again. Restart rather than just close down and
reboot.

Later on you can examine the tribulations of "Fast Startup" in the
bowels of Control Panel.
--
Bill

In message , R.H. Breener
writes
The little arrow just moved down to another screen full of useless but
smaller advertising tiles.

Assuming that the machine is actually working, this is a crucial thing
about Windows 8.1. These "advertising tiles" are the start menu laid out
horizontally rather than the vertical lists that are the start menu in
Windows 7.
The concept may be (is?) completely misguided, but it is the way Windows
8 was intended to work, and it is possible to adjust to this.

I have spent quite a bit of time with people who had to adjust to Win8.
I would say that about half of them installed something like Classic
Shell, but others just carried on and got to grips with the "native"
Windows 8.

I don't make any excuses for Win 8, and there are huge annoyances that
appear as one starts trying to do anything creative beyond the basics. I
think the concept was totally misguided, but if you have it on a
machine, it is sensible to make a solid attempt to understand what it is
trying to do.

If I were trying to get some work done on the machine, I would either
muddle through and hope that the potential free upgrade to Windows 10
helps, or I'd be contacting HP to see if there is something that they
can provide to take the machine back to Windows 7 (after taking an image
of the W8.1 installation).
--
Bill

On 3/4/2015 4:49 AM, Bill wrote:
In message , R.H. Breener
writes
The little arrow just moved down to another screen full of useless but
smaller advertising tiles.

Assuming that the machine is actually working, this is a crucial thing
about Windows 8.1. These "advertising tiles" are the start menu laid out
horizontally rather than the vertical lists that are the start menu in
Windows 7.
The concept may be (is?) completely misguided, but it is the way Windows
8 was intended to work, and it is possible to adjust to this.

I have spent quite a bit of time with people who had to adjust to Win8.
I would say that about half of them installed something like Classic
Shell, but others just carried on and got to grips with the "native"
Windows 8.

I don't make any excuses for Win 8, and there are huge annoyances that
appear as one starts trying to do anything creative beyond the basics. I
think the concept was totally misguided, but if you have it on a
machine, it is sensible to make a solid attempt to understand what it is
trying to do.

If I were trying to get some work done on the machine, I would either
muddle through and hope that the potential free upgrade to Windows 10
helps, or I'd be contacting HP to see if there is something that they
can provide to take the machine back to Windows 7 (after taking an image
of the W8.1 installation).
I was one who started out completely against Windows 8. Then along came
Windows 8.1. After making the changes to boot to the Desktop, things
became much better. I boot to the desktop and spend all of my time
working through the desktop interface.

Being older than most I like the Windows 8 start menu. I find it much
easier to scroll the Start page, rather that squinting to find the
program I am looking for in Programs on the old Start menu with its
multiple levels of grouped programs.

Of course you have to get rid of the garbage so it only shows the
programs you will potentially use. Next you have to clean up the apps
menu, and uninstall any thing you don't want. This is no different than
any computer I have ever purchased, Even my old DOS computer had
programs for subscribing to AOL, and other nonsense.

For research I like the Jumplist. I can bounce into an out of files
using the Jumplist. They help me keep the open windows down to a
reasonable number. Normally I have the browser, wordprocessor,
spreadsheet, and Adobe Reader open each with several files in each.

I hope that Windows 10 does not remove these features that have proved
so useful in Windows 8.

On 3/4/2015 4:49 AM, Bill wrote:.

If I were trying to get some work done on the machine, I would either
muddle through and hope that the potential free upgrade to Windows 10
helps, or I'd be contacting HP to see if there is something that they
can provide to take the machine back to Windows 7 (after taking an image
of the W8.1 installation).

My HP machine is a little over 2 years old and HP doesn't have any
Windows 7 drivers for it. Windows 8 and 8.1 drivers only.

On 3/4/2015 12:43 PM, Ron wrote:
On 3/4/2015 4:49 AM, Bill wrote:.

If I were trying to get some work done on the machine, I would either
muddle through and hope that the potential free upgrade to Windows 10
helps, or I'd be contacting HP to see if there is something that they
can provide to take the machine back to Windows 7 (after taking an image
of the W8.1 installation).

My HP machine is a little over 2 years old and HP doesn't have any
Windows 7 drivers for it. Windows 8 and 8.1 drivers only.


Have you tried this site.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/

On 3/4/2015 1:19 PM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 3/4/2015 12:43 PM, Ron wrote:
On 3/4/2015 4:49 AM, Bill wrote:.

If I were trying to get some work done on the machine, I would either
muddle through and hope that the potential free upgrade to Windows 10
helps, or I'd be contacting HP to see if there is something that they
can provide to take the machine back to Windows 7 (after taking an image
of the W8.1 installation).

My HP machine is a little over 2 years old and HP doesn't have any
Windows 7 drivers for it. Windows 8 and 8.1 drivers only.


Have you tried this site.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/

Of course I have. That's how I know there are no Windows 7 drivers for
this machine.

"Bill" wrote in message
news
In message , R.H. Breener
writes
It's running 8.1 which was already installed by HP.

Well, that's what is running on a machine here, although not an HP
machine. Mine is 64-bit, for info. You didn't identify the machine model,
although that may not matter.

It's 64-bit. It's a HP Envy. I've been searching for making a boot disk and
Recovery disk and can't find it. There's been no popup either.



If I hold the Windows key down and press Enter, it toggles Narrator on and
off.

On mine, doing that does nothing. And it looks like the blue rectangle that
makes reading some of the text impossible is back.

Here, I'm in the desktop with the basic Control Panel on the screen, so
there is something for it to read.

I still think that there are 2 different times when Narrator can be
enabled, one being before the machine logs on, the other within Windows.



--
Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
...
In message , R.H. Breener
writes
The little arrow just moved down to another screen full of useless but
smaller advertising tiles.

Assuming that the machine is actually working, this is a crucial thing
about Windows 8.1. These "advertising tiles" are the start menu laid out
horizontally rather than the vertical lists that are the start menu in
Windows 7.
The concept may be (is?) completely misguided, but it is the way Windows 8
was intended to work, and it is possible to adjust to this.

I'm learning that. We pay for the OS and get spammed to death. They reappear
as fast as I unpin them.What a diappointment this PC is. I don't know if
Best Buy would take it back like WalMart does - no questions asked.


I have spent quite a bit of time with people who had to adjust to Win8. I
would say that about half of them installed something like Classic Shell,
but others just carried on and got to grips with the "native" Windows 8.

I installed Classic Shell. It helps but now that Blue Rectangle is back
messing up the screen. If you Google Blue Rectangle you'll see how many
people have a problem with it and can't get rid of it.


I don't make any excuses for Win 8, and there are huge annoyances that
appear as one starts trying to do anything creative beyond the basics. I
think the concept was totally misguided, but if you have it on a machine,
it is sensible to make a solid attempt to understand what it is trying to
do.

It appears to be trying to SPAM the **** of the user. To sell us crap. What
else is it good for?


If I were trying to get some work done on the machine, I would either
muddle through and hope that the potential free upgrade to Windows 10
helps, or I'd be contacting HP to see if there is something that they can
provide to take the machine back to Windows 7 (after taking an image of
the W8.1 installation).

I'm going to have to call HP tonight when it's quiet and I can hear on the
phone.

--
Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
...
In message , R.H. Breener
writes

"Alek" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote on 3/3/2015 10:21 AM:

There is no tile of any kind in the lower left corner.

There is nothing but tiles all over the desktop. I can't get past them.
I
can't do anything but move them around.

Win-D maybe?

Hitting the Window's Key twice seems to have worked. I'll try that at
next boot if the other fails.

I feel I have to say again. Restart rather than just close down and
reboot.

Later on you can examine the tribulations of "Fast Startup" in the bowels
of Control Panel.
--
Bill

Hey Bill......... I have both PCs open on my desk. I have control panel
open on W8 but don't see Fast Startup. And that Blue Rectangle blocks out
text. I thought got rid of it - it's back again.

On 3/5/2015 4:22 PM, R.H. Breener wrote:

"Bill" wrote in message
news
In message , R.H. Breener
writes
It's running 8.1 which was already installed by HP.

Well, that's what is running on a machine here, although not an HP
machine. Mine is 64-bit, for info. You didn't identify the machine
model, although that may not matter.

It's 64-bit. It's a HP Envy. I've been searching for making a boot disk
and Recovery disk and can't find it. There's been no popup either.

You can make recovery discs using the HP Recovery Manager. It took 6
blank DVDs for my HP. You also have a recovery partition.

On 3/5/2015 4:38 PM, R.H. Breener wrote:

"Bill" wrote in message
...
In message , R.H. Breener
writes

"Alek" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote on 3/3/2015 10:21 AM:

There is no tile of any kind in the lower left corner.

There is nothing but tiles all over the desktop. I can't get past
them. I
can't do anything but move them around.

Win-D maybe?

Hitting the Window's Key twice seems to have worked. I'll try that
at next boot if the other fails.

I feel I have to say again. Restart rather than just close down and
reboot.

Later on you can examine the tribulations of "Fast Startup" in the
bowels of Control Panel.
--
Bill

Hey Bill......... I have both PCs open on my desk. I have control panel
open on W8 but don't see Fast Startup. And that Blue Rectangle blocks
out text. I thought got rid of it - it's back again.

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\System Settings