Bad Windows 8 experience HELP! Can't adapt. How to make it more Win

[PrincessLuna]

Ok, so firstly, I am primarily a Linux gal so I may be asking stupid question and am not up to date with Windows mods.

I use Windows primarily just for Visual Studio as I develop some Windows stuff. Unfortunately due to bad times (domestic abuse and financial), I only have an old netbook as my computer. Its annoying and frustrating sometimes but gets the job done for now.

At first I had Xp and Vista on the netbook, vista later upgraded to Windows 7. Since Vista and Windows 7 were a bit slow for development purposes, I used to develop on Xp and test on Windows 7 / Vista. Now since VS 2012 was not compatible with XP, I have upgraded to Windows 8. Fortunately Windows 8 is very fast so I no longer need to dualboot Windows and have removed XP and Windows 7.

After playing with drivers and using an ACPI driver of a newer netbook model, I have succeeded in getting all my hardware working properly. Unfortunately the new full screen Apps don't open on the low resolution unless I used a scaled resolution (which looks bad). I can get past this as I have no use for these apps and am against App stores in general.

I seriously hate the colours and textures in Windows 8 and they aren't pleasing to the eye at all. The Windows 8 release preview looked much better. In fact the colour setting is so stupid you can actually set a dark colour that makes the text on the titlebar invisible. Having to mouse the cursor to the corner to use charms is annoying for tasks like shutting down etc. Is there any way to get more vista style textures and tweak the looks?

Also the buttons etc are huge compared to Windows 7 and this gets annoying on the small screen.

If I had a powerful device I would use Windows 7 instead or run Windows with Visual Studio in a VM under linux but the Intel Atom chip is too slow for that.

I don't really like the UI but I am forced to use it over Windows 7 due to performance benefits which are very noticeable on my slow PC.

[jdlarson83]

check your DPI settings and learn the keyboard shortcuts, the come in handy quite a bit on a laptop

[oliver182]

I really like windows 8, but yeah, I can imagine being a pain to use on a netbook, just using a netbook as it is is painful for me.

Check this post for some tips to get rid of Metro/modern UI. http://windowsphonehacker.com/articles/disabling_metro_completely_on_windows_8-12-09-12

[+Warwagon MVC]

I don't know if there is much you can do to make windows 8 look better. The lack of glass, really burns the eyes. Maybe hack it and install a completely different theme if it's possible?

[PrincessLuna]

I don't know if there is much you can do to make windows 8 look better. The lack of glass, really burns the eyes. Maybe hack it and install a completely different theme if it's possible?

That's actually what I am looking for. If there was some msstyle to give it a look of vista without transparency or Xp MCE.

I really like windows 8, but yeah, I can imagine being a pain to use on a netbook, just using a netbook as it is is painful for me.

Check this post for some tips to get rid of Metro/modern UI. http://windowsphoneh...dows_8-12-09-12

Not a big fan of using a different explorer.exe

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

That's actually what I am looking for. If there was some msstyle to give it a look of vista without transparency or Xp MCE.

Not a big fan of using a different explorer.exe

Something like this then? http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/windows8/?order=5#/d5nf0a5

[PrincessLuna]

Something like this then? http://browse.devian...rder=5#/d5nf0a5

Thanks I will have a look, though I prefer vista's look the best actually.

Edit: says windows 64 bit for patch, mine is x86.

[PrincessLuna]

Sorted it out, using a theme from deviantart and startisback. Still need a way to theme the explorer ribbon as that looks out of place with my new theme.