Anyone got any Windows 8 tips?

Good morning peeps, or whatever it is where you are...

I took the plunge to "upgrade" to W8 yesterday. Quite a long winded affair, as per usual, and it's only when you come to upgrade your OS that you realise how much "stuff" you have. Oh, I should explain that I opted to get a new, larger SSD and so I've gone for a clean install, hence it is taking me ages to get back to where I was with W7.

I could do with some tips though, specifically on colours and themes. I tried one of the high contrast themes and then tweaked it to suit my requirements. When I ran Sonar I wasn't that happy with some of the contrasts between window borders and text.

Is there a particular theme that works best with Sonar. I hasten to add that I am one of the few that actually like the "out of the box" Sonar colours so I don't intend messing around with those much, if I can help it.

On the subject of licensing, everything has gone fine so far although I only managed to register Sonar, and its many add-ons, plus all of my Native Instruments stuff. I've yet to register any of my Overloud, BDF Eco, A|A|S, Fabfilter and u-he stuff, so there's a few more hoops to jump through yet.


cheers

andy

Hmm. I'm not a big color theme kinda guy.

I think the Windows 8 tricks I use the most are

- Windows key plus arrows to dock windows left right max and min (you can move between screens on an extended desktop with this too)

- Windows + X (followed by B) on laptops to turn on Presentation Mode (disabling screen savers)

- Windows + X (followed by M) this opens device manager for quick enabling and disabling of devices. For me I'm usually disabling the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery

- Windows Key - type 'Scan for Malware' - it shows up under the Settings Group... When it opens, I cancel the scan, click the Settings Tab and uncheck 'Turn on Real-Time protection'. Then click Administrator group and uncheck Turn on Windows Defender. (This makes it so that Windows will not try to scan all your WAV files every time you hit stop in Sonar. You can also go to Settings Excluded Files and Locations to exclude locations specifically, but I find that just disabling it works best. I leave it enabled when I'm not making large multi- track recordings.

There's also Classic Start Shell for free at http://www.classicshell.net/ 

Tip 1: On the desktop at the bottom left place your mouse there in that corner and right click. A quick menu should appear for accessing system and other programs. 

Tip 2:To end an app in metro drag it from the top to the bottom of the screen. It will close. 

Tip 3: You name groups of apps and desktop programs in the start screen. Use the mouse scroll wheel with ctrl to show an overview of all the apps and programs on the start screen Right click on a group and you should see at the bottom a name group icon. Click on that to name a group. 

Tip 4: In the start screen right click on an empty space. Look at the bottom towar the right. An icon will appear to show all apps. Clicking on this will give you an list of all your apps and programs in alphabetical order. 

I love it too. LOL 

new to windows 8

Apologies for the late reply... Twelve hour days at work and the need to re-register a million VSTs is giving me little time to call back here.

Thanks for the many tips, there's plenty to go at there. So far I am liking Windows 8, despite its bad press. I'm not too bothered about losing the start menu to be honest, and even in Windows 7, or even Ubuntu, pressing the windows key and typing is a method I'm familiar with.

And for my MP3 playing needs, I'm using Windows Media Player, or there's even the XBOX player application, that seems to work okay in my limited test a few minutes ago. I've not had a chance to test any video files or DVD/Bluray movies.

Regarding the theme "issue." I dumped my "high contrast" theme reverted back to the default windows theme and tweaked that to suit, like replacing the background picture with a solid black and made the window borders a grey colour (ahem... I'm a fan of the Sonar scheme I'm afraid LOL). So now that I've done that Sonar is looking great again and I'm not going to mess much more with that.

I'll keep coming back to this thread, taking on the tips and updating you on my Windows 8 adventures.

many thanks

andy

Been using w8 for about a year now.  I have it installed on 5 computers in the office/house.
And a bunch of clients have upgraded/purchased new machines.

As for tweaks:  There are a number of scheduled tasks that can interfere with happiness. 

The defragger starting late wed night was an interruption that was not obvious at first. Definitely disabled now.

The computer assessment tasks should be disabled. 

Windows updates disabled.

Only auto update I have running is for the anti-malware application.

Change all defaults to use the desktop versions: PDF reader (I use Adobe reader), windows media player,...

change the taskbar to never combine: combining adds extra clicks and time


A number of stupid windows 8 tricks are included: 

cannot copy shortcuts from taskbar to desktop.  So, have to right click on the start-wall icon and choose to open file location and then copy a shortcut to the desktop.

changing some of the wireless profile data requires command line knowledge (e.g. changing encryption type) This is the best stupidity so far.

can only add/change user password on with the user panel accessed from the charms bar

My music computer shows nearly 90 icons on the start-wall when I choose to show all apps.   This is a way stupid approach compared to the start menu.   

I used the windows explorer to add folders to the "start menu" folders to have the start-wall not be so arbitrary.   I have a shortcut on the desktop to open the start menu folders.

Also, I have folders on the desktop containing shortcuts by need: audio tools, windows tools, instruments, documents (links to the server computer that holds all the support docs),.... 

Well, I decided to spend all my spare time last night exploring W8 rather than working in X2. It was fun, although that will wear off shortly and I'll get down to some proper work.

I've unpinned almost everything from my Start screen. I'm not into all the live tile stuff and don't do "people" things. I've left the weather up, cos I'm british and we are obsessed with the weather, or so I'm told.

Shutting down the apps is easy. I just stick the mouse pointer up into the top left hand corner and right click on an app thumbnail and select "Close." Or I simply press Alt+F4, which has been around since at least Windows 3.0

My touchpad behaviour is a bit different... Scrolling is reversed, but I'm getting used to it and I actually believe it will become natural soon enough as I realise that it now emulates the expected action if I were using a touch screen.

There's more, but time is tight and work is beckoning.

I'll be back  

+ Eleventeen for Classic Shell

Then 8 is like a zippy 7