I bought a Lenovo laptop and it came unexpectedly, and unordered, with Windows 8 in September 2013. I contacted them about restoring to Windows 7 to no avail. So, 6 months on, I am still struggling. It stopped working 2 weeks ago and I did a factory restore (that was easy) but as I try to organize it effectively, I am increasingly frustrated.
I am retired. I use a computer for listservs, website building, curating, Facebook, and databases. AND I like to play parlour games (Yahoo's term). Thats all I want. I do not play Xbox stuff, listen to music or play movies and this in-my-face Xbox stuff is increasingly irritating. Had to talk myself out of testing the missile capabilities of this machine last night. So things are serious.
I could buy a second hand laptop with Windows 7 I suppose but it will be too slow and why the ( x word) should I? How retrograde would that be!
So, collective brain, what are some solutions? Change the operating system? Downgrade to Windows 7 (Lenovo says this is not possible), eliminate any trace of Xbox off my machine?
Or is there a simple guide to sorting this?
Help!
- Upgrade to Windows 8.1 update. This makes Windows 8 more friendly to desktop/laptop users. For example, if your computer doesn't have a touch screen then it will log onto the desktop rather than the start screen by default.
- As per John R's suggestion, install a Start menu program, which will then give you a desktop quite similar to that of Windows 7.
- For some functions, you will still need to go to the Modern environment, but you can disable some of the hot corners (throught the settings in the Charms bar) so you don't find yourself switching accidentally too often.
- Ignore the supplied apps and install traditional applications for everything you use. It won't be Windows 7, but it will be very similar, and performance will be even better!