2013年4月24日星期三

Turning back your PC's clock from Windows 8 to Windows 7

Q: I recently bought a Windows 8 laptop, and the only thing I don’t like about the PC is Windows 8. I want to replace Windows 8 with the more familiar Windows 7. How can I do this?

Robert Anderson, Bloomington

A: To put it mildly, Windows 8 isn’t very popular. While it makes sense for touch-sensitive tablets, it makes little sense on a PC because it forces people to use the computer in an entirely different way for little apparent benefit.

Not surprisingly, consumers haven’t flocked to Windows 8. Microsoft hasn’t talked about Windows 8 sales in two consecutive quarterly earnings reports. And third-party market research firm Net Applications says fewer people have bought Windows 8 than bought the much-maligned Windows Vista in the first five months after the respective operating systems were introduced.

If you don’t like Windows 8, there are three things you can do:

1. There are several programs that will alter the Windows 8 Start Screen to look and behave more like the Windows 7 Start Menu. See tinyurl.com/boj8ecr. This is by far the easiest solution.

2. Pay a computer repair shop to install Windows 7 for you.

3. You can replace Windows 8 with Windows 7, but it’s not easy.

First, back up your PC’s data (which will be wiped out by switching to Windows 7), then download and back up the Windows 7 software drivers for external PC devices such as printers (you can find the drivers on the website of the manufacturer).

If you have Windows 8 Pro, you can switch to Windows 7 Pro in a way that will let you go back to Windows 8 later if you change your mind. You’ll have to buy a copy of Windows 7 Pro (see tinyurl.com/7cgvxqe, where the prices range from $75 to $310). Then follow the directions in the article “How to ‘downgrade’ to Windows 7” at tinyurl.com/dyqfs2q.

If you have any other version of Windows 8, you’ll have to do a “clean install” using any version of Windows 7. Save your data and software drivers as I mentioned above. Before you start, read section three of the “How to downgrade” article, which explains how to turn off a Windows 8 feature called “secure boot” that would otherwise prevent you from installing Windows 7.

Q: Both my laptop and desktop computers have had their browser home pages hijacked by something called “start.search.us.com” which redirects my browser whenever I connect to the Internet. What should I do?

Bob Jones, Prior Lake

A: “Start.search.us.com” is a browser hijacking program whose purpose is to divert you to shady websites. To remove the program from Windows and from your browser (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox), try the step-by-step directions at tinyurl.com/cpgldyn.

2013年4月10日星期三

Fitbit Windows 8 app now available

Fresh from releasing an Android application to sync with its fitness trackers, Fitbit has now added Windows 8 to the platforms it supports with dedicated software.

The Fitbit Windows 8 app is now available on the Windows Store and can be used to analyse the data gleaned from a Fitbit One or Fitbit Zip wireless activity or sleep tracker.

The free download offers all manner of statistic and graph pages, presented in clean, Windows 8 style. It offers visual representations of your activity levels, sleep and weight charts and highlights health and fitness trends for future reference.

As it tracks your weight, body fat and BMI statistics over periods, you can see instantly how you are doing in each category. You can also rate your performance against your friends on a dedicated page.

Fitbit claims that, with iOS, Android and now Windows 8 applications, its wireless fitness trackers are the most widely compatible in the market.

You can download the Windows 8 application from Windows Store now.

YSU takes a byte out of Windows 8

For the past few weeks in Kilcawley Center, Youngstown State University has offered a demonstration of Microsoft Windows 8 — brought to YSU by Campus Entertainment, a college marketing agency.
Windows 8 replaces the traditional start button with tile- and charm-based navigation. Users can move around these icons as they please to access programs more easily.
One application that stood out among students was a program known as SkyDrive, which allows users to access files from anywhere.
“The whole cloud computing system with Microsoft SkyDrive, the new advances in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint. They’re all tools we, as students, use,” said YSU student Paul Emig.
Emig said Windows 8 is useful to YSU students.
“Being a Windows-based university, most of your projects are done via Word, Excel or PowerPoint,” he said.
Windows 8’s new interface, along with a few other features, caught Emig’s eye.
“We have these things called LivePals here, which can automatically update you whether you’re getting a new email. You can link it up to your Facebook and Twitter accounts,” he said.
Like Emig, YSU student Leanne Johnson said she enjoys Windows 8, especially since it is user-friendly.
“I think it’s really easy to use, and they’ll be able to use the touch screen,” she said. “It’s easy to access it and not have to always use a keyboard. Students can access tiles for research.”
Johnson said the design sets Windows 8 apart from competitors.
“[I like] the interface and also the more modern look with the tiles,” she said. “It also has all your office programs, the Excel [and] PowerPoint, so students can use it in class for projects.”
Even following the demonstration period, Johnson said she wants to continue to spread the word about Windows 8.
“I’m going to promote it more,” she said. “I’m definitely going to recommend it to teachers. In the business school, you can take it on internships.”
Given the plethora of features, Johnson said she almost can’t quite pinpoint the feature she enjoys most on Windows 8.
“There are so many different things it has,” she said. “But definitely the SkyDrive [is] the best. I like everything about it.”

Windows 8 Tablets: Why Microsoft Must Slash Prices

When consumers evaluate personal electronics purchases, one principle can generally sum up the experience: good, fast, cheap - pick two. It's a tried and true business formula, a twist on the notion that customers get what they pay for. Microsoft needs to erase that two-out-of-three strategy from its tablet playbook.

With the first wave of Windows 8 tablets, consumer mileage has varied on the "good" and "fast" fronts. "Cheap," though, has rarely been a blip on the radar, least of all for Microsoft's Surface tablets. With both Windows 8.1 (Windows Blue's current nom de jour) and a new spate of devices on the horizon, this needs to change. Redmond needs to rush satisfying tablets to market -- and they can't just be competitively priced. They need to be downright cheap.

Here's the reasoning: The Surface RT, decried though it's been, is actually a pretty nice device. If Microsoft had charged $250 for the tablet and maybe another $50 for the Type Cover, I probably would have bought one at launch, and I suspect I'm not alone. At that price, I'd have been willing to remain patient while Microsoft developed its lackluster app library. Yes, the iPad would have offered more variety and polish, but the Surface RT would still have been a decent media-viewing tablet that, with its watered-down version of Office, would have featured better content-creation tools than anything on iOS. That's enough use to justify a couple hundred dollars.

Unfortunately, the Surface RT costs nearly twice as much as I am willing to pay. Ultrabooks and even the Surface Pro -- the most thought-through Windows 8 device to date -- are no better. Newer, faster and more energy-efficient models that run on Intel's next-gen Haswell processor are just around the corner, so why should someone buy an expensive item today when a better, and perhaps less costly, alternative is only a few months away?

Windows 8 and Windows RT have struggled, in other words, due only partly to their UI awkwardness, mediocre apps and various rough edges. Cost has been the other culprit; there's a price beyond which customers simply aren't willing to deal with learning curves, impatience and other frustrations that might be more palatable with cheaper devices. For many consumers, the Windows 8 devices evidently cross that discouraging cost threshold, and the result has stuck Microsoft in a holding pattern of bad press.

Microsoft seemed to assume that Windows 8's dual identities would be an obvious game-changer, and that Windows RT's native Office app would trump the iPad. Had Redmond been correct, the story would be different. People deal with learning curves if the payoff is a premium experience. But it's become clear that most customers have decided Windows 8 asks too much while offering too little.

Asking less of the consumer would not only help Redmond stimulate adoption, but also help address its other lingering problem: apps. Where the user base goes, developers will follow. According to MetroStore Scanner, the Windows Store currently has around 57,000 Metro-style apps, and app submissions, which had been on a downward spiral since launch, but have risen steadily throughout March and April. The progress is nice -- but the libraries of iOS, Android and even BlackBerry 10 put Redmond's catalog to shame.

Microsoft allegedly spent $1.5 billion to promote Windows 8. It's an astronomical sum, enough to fund a typical Hollywood marketing blitz three or four times over. All that money was directed at the consumer market, which, as analysts have recently made clear, has the power to determine whether Microsoft remains a leader or regresses into a role player. Imagine if Microsoft had instead tilted its budgets such that an iPod Touch was more expensive than a Windows RT, and a MacBook Air more costly than a Surface Pro. Imagine if OEMs had been incentivized from the start to produce low-cost models, a process that has, according to unverified reports, only recently unfolded. How many millions of additional users might be in the Live Tiles ecosystem? How many more apps might there be?

But there's not much use at this point in criticizing Microsoft's earlier strategy. Hindsight is 20-20, and Redmond has probably reconsidered a number of previous decisions. The point in bringing up the company's earlier missteps is not to pour salt in the wound, but rather to prescribe appropriate remedies.

To its credit, Microsoft already appears headed in the right direction. It has allegedly offered discounted Windows 8 licenses and bundled Office software to OEMs that are making smaller tablets. The iPad Mini has demonstrated that consumers like the 7-inch form factor, and Redmond desperately needs a presence in that market segment. Smaller components should drive costs down, so with Microsoft's OEM enticements speeding new models onto store shelves, consumers might soon have what the Surface RT should have been in the first place. These devices should help.

There's also speculation that Redmond could produce a Surface Reader, perhaps a 7-inch device that could offer a differentiated package due to not only Windows 8.1, but also Microsoft's Barnes & Noble assets.

Even so, the path is fraught with uncertainties. To Microsoft and its partners, a $350 Windows RT tablet might seem like a great deal, especially if it features the original Surface's impressive build quality. I'm not convinced that cost will be low enough. It would barely undercut the just-released Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and rate only comparably to the iPad Mini. Both of those devices run on platforms with entrenched and loyal user bases. If Windows 8 is to attract users with prices that are merely similar to those of the competition, it will need a truly unique hook, some sort of differentiated experience. Neither Microsoft's first round of Modern core app updates nor recent Windows 8.1 rumors have suggested that Redmond will deliver this sort of leap in the short term.

[ Can consumers have too many options? Read Windows 8 Device Choices Baffle Buyers. ]

Even the appeal of Office, the most prominent advantage Windows 8 currently has over its competitors, might be eroding. Google's recent release of Quickoffice for both iOS and Android won't topple Office from its perch atop the market. But as users come to accept this and other alternatives, Microsoft will continue to lose leverage. Lacking any truly magnetic features that could convert those not already in its stable, Redmond must therefore turn to low prices to build momentum.

It will have to do so while maintaining OEM relationships, which could get tricky depending on how Microsoft prices future Surface products. Redmond is also surely concerned about one-time actions turning into precedents; low costs and discounted licenses might be necessary at the moment, but Microsoft certainly hopes to return to high-margin living, and to avoid coming off as desperate. Such hopes put pressure on the company to make major strides between Windows 8 versions. Windows 8.1 isn't a colossal overhaul, but if Microsoft lowers prices now and wants to raise them again later, it will need to offer a superior experience that users recognize to be worth the upgrade. Given that a Retina-equipped iPad Mini is almost certainly in the cards, Redmond could also encounter trouble if it encourages OEMs to use low-quality screens to bring down costs. It's a challenging situation all around.

Even so, Microsoft's future is in the Windows ecosystem, and in the billions of users it hopes to keep plugged into it. Current devices and even Windows 8 are only means to this end. Redmond might have grand plans a few years down the roadmap, but it will have trouble getting there if it doesn't get consumers onboard in the present. That means we need good, cheap tablets, and we need them fast.

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Customize your Windows 8 start screen with Start Screen Animation Tweaker

There are any number of products promising to restore the start menu to Windows 8, but there are not so many to help you customize the tiles that have replaced it. You can give the animations on the Windows 8 grid menu a bit more zip with Start Screen Animations Tweaker. This nice little free portable piece of software allows you to dictate the speed of the animations and the background wallpaper to have it exactly the way you want it.

The portable free Start Screen Animations Tweaker is a neat little tool which adds a bit of liveliness to your Windows 8 animations in the start menu grid.
It may seem like a small insignificant thing to accomplish, but if you are looking the grid and using it all day long, making it go faster will matter. It makes the screen load faster, which enables you to open programs faster. It may only amount to a gain of a few seconds, but add those seconds up over the course of a day or a week, and you will start to see why using this app may prove beneficial. And it's also quite entertaining, pressing the WIN key and watching the tiles fly across the screen.

It's less entertaining when File Explorer crashes after repeated WIN key presses. The developer claims this is not a bug of the software, but a bug from Windows 8.

Since this is a portable app, no installation is required. Just unzip the contents of the downloaded zip file into its own folder. It is worth pointing out that the download link on the website is a bit camouflaged. The gray "download" button sits next to a green "download" button.  The gray one is the one to click.  The green one is a Google Adsense advert. Whether this is an honest error from the developer or an underhanded way to make some Adsense money is unclear. But nevertheless you should be careful and click the correct button: gray, not green.

It is possible to slow down the scrolling of the background wallpaper. This is called the Parallax effect. This setting can either speed it up or slow it down.
Once you have the unzipped portable program in its new folder, open it up and you will see four sliders: two for username and picture animation, and two for tiles animation.  The purpose of the four sliders is to determine how fast or slow you want those elements to go when you activate the grid start menu.  The developer provides recommended settings, and those were good enough for me. If you want, though, you can easily play around with the sliders and see what you prefer. If you don't like it, hit the "reset to defaults" button and what you've just done will be reversed. So nothing is permanent and everything can be put back the way it was. So don't worry, you won't break anything.

The other feature is the "Parallax effect". In a nutshell, this involves either speeding up or slowing down the scrolling effect of the grid menu background wallpaper. Normally, when you have tiles that go off the screen, you need to scroll to get to them. In this instance, you may notice that the wallpaper moves a bit faster than the tiles. With Start Screen Animations Tweaker, you can now slow it down—or speed it up even more if you want.

Simply click "tune up the Parallax effect" and move the slider back and forth (and again, there is a reset button you can use if necessary).  If you try both ends of the slider, you'll see what I am talking about with the speed of the wallpaper scrolling. It's one of those things you need to do yourself to understand exactly what I mean.

As I said, little tweaks like this may just seem like playing and not really "useful". But the speed with which you can open apps is entirely dependent on how fast certain elements of the PC react.  If the grid menu takes time to open up, that affects how long it will take to then open a program.  It is worth giving Start Screen Animations Tweaker a go and seeing if you can tweak your Windows 8 grid menu to go that little bit faster and smoother.