I kept my Win 7 installation and installed Win 8 on its own partition, but I couldn't update from the Release preview to the RTM, meaning I had to do a clean install and not keep anything.  Oh well!!!  You're right about "don't call it Metro anymore" being unresponsive and a pain to use/get rid of.  It really is a cumbersome, frustrating and patience testing POS.  Thank goodness for 3rd party ingenuity.

Like you, I found Classic Shell to be the best of the apps to disable metro and place a start button/menu on the taskbar, Though I hope Start8 gets a bit more love and eventually meets our needs.  In addition to Classic Shell, though, I use WinStep Xtreme, which provides a ready made start button and menu in NextStart that gives you access to everything the standard Windows one does and more.  I use both because Winstep does not exterminate Metro as yet, though I hope Jorge considers it for future builds/updates.

I still haven't installed everything I'd like in the RTM, but the programs I have installed went in flawlessly and function as advertised, so it is a good OS in that respect.  Moreover, it installed ALL my device drivers without a hitch, something that Win 7 promised but didn't deliver... I still had to manually install my soundcard drivers and some drivers from the motherboard.

Another thing I like better in Win 8 than 7 in the UAC.  It seems nowhere near as intrusive or persistent in Win 8 it takes just one click to give permissions... unlike in Vista and 7, where in most cases it took two.  Unlike in Vista and Win 7, when I couldn't wait to install the Tweak apps to reduce/eradicate its presence, I don't feel as bothered by it in Win 8.

All in all, once you get past "don't call it Metro anymore", Win 8 is a pretty good OS.  It's just a shame that MS forces us to use 3rd party apps to make it that way.  For mine it should be good straight out of the box [with Metro as optional] and not be dependent on 3rd parties to make it functional.  Instead of busying itself with Start8 to make Win 8 usable, Stardock could be focusing on the elements of ObjectDesktop, etc, but no, it is doing Microsoft's job of making an OS functional instead.

Sounds like you're having a lot of fun starkers! UAC is definitely not intrusive on my system either, as I turned the damn thing off completely!  

Vincennes, perhaps?

Nope, Peru (Circus City). 

Ah, yes.  Nice little berg.  Where the traitor Kyle Macy played HS ball.

I don't know about fun, but I am finding things interesting in Win 8, that's for sure.  I am enjoying the speed and responsiveness of the regular desktop, though I do feel it needs some love from WB to give it a more aesthetically pleasing appearance.  As it is now, the desktop appearance is totally missing something. MS took a giant step backwards when it snuffed out Aero for Win 8, so here's hoping Stardock isn't too far off releasing a WB edition for it.

As for the UAC, I couldn't wait to disable it in Vista and Win 7, but in Win 8 I find it nowhere near as intrusive.  It only only takes a fraction of a second to give a permission and you're done, so given all the nasties out there trying to invade your PC these days I might just leave it activated as another line of defense.  I like that Windows Defender has been beefed up to cover more nasties as well, so for all that MS has messed up in Win 8, it has done something right.  I know that nothing beats safe web surfing, and I try to surf as safely as I can, but a little extra help doesn't go astray.

Hey, Oddski, you have your fun thread for all that pony stuff, and that's fine, so please, how about you leave it out of the more serious threads and keep pics like the above over there.  Thank you.

Cool! But can you go fishing from your front porch? j/k

I got the Eval version, thirty days...ninety days....whatever. If I can pretty it up like Win7 then yeah...I'll play with it but...I'm keeping Win7 either way. Wonder it it'll play nice with Ubuntu. Still have that one. lol

kyle a traitor? no way. if you're talking about his transfer from purdue, blame the players who conspired to keep the ball from him. after he set a big ten record for scoring by a freshman early in the season, he rarely saw the ball.

kyle is living in the lexington, ky area these days and doing well. he's still a stand-up, very friendly guy. he was a great guy in high school and he hasn't changed in that regard.

and no, tom can't fish from his front porch but if he crosses the road .......

+1

Well, I am not a native born Hoosier and I don't follow college sports at all, so I had no idea who Kyle Macy is until you explained it John, thanks.

But I could fish off my front porch with a helluva long line, it's only about 100 feet. I imagine cars going by might be a problem though!

What do you mean by 'does not exterminate Metro as yet'? What would you like to see?

Anyway, I intend to give the NextSTART component of Winstep Xtreme a lot of 'love' in the coming times, as Windows 8 obviously turns it into a 'key'  component of Winstep Xtreme.

I mean that currently WSX does not disable Metro at boot and I would like to see it become a feature in upcoming editions/updates, thus killing two birds with one stone... I'd have a great start button/menu and one less 3rd party app to take up disc space.

That's great news, Jorge, I await with bated breath to see what you come up with.  Yes, Win 8 is certainly lacking as a desktop OS, so hopefully firms like Winstep and Stardock can remedy what MS should have done to begin with.

Hope to you saw the smiley, MD.  Small joke, there.  I'm a Macy fan, too.  Spent 5 seasons here with the Suns.

But surely you remember the brouhaha when Mr. Basketball 'defected'.  You a Hoosier, past or present, too, MD?

let's just say i've known kyle since his first year at phs. his dad was one of the best people i've ever known. i miss the man.

And I enjoyed watching him play.  Even at Kentucky.

I wonder what kyle thinks of Windows 8?

Hi. First cup of the day so......carry on or off. Whichever floats your boat.

Have to wait until the end of the month so I can burn the ISO to a dvd. Then let the headaches begin. lol

Why d'yer gotta wait that long?

Orright, I get it, there's a queue for the burner... and it's your turn on the 31st.

Seriously, you know that you can put it on a flash drive and install it that way, don't you?  As I recall, there's a tool put out by MS to enable/help you do that... it's worth looking into.  Here's a link to a download and instructions.... LINK

Hope this helps, mate, and good luck with it.

    Sorry, starkers.  You know how it is.  Threads end up with many branches and pollution is everywhere.  Like this reply. 

No worries, mate, we all get distracted at times and go off course a bit.  Anyhow, I wasn't having a dig as such, just trying to elicit more responses to the topic at hand.  For me, Win 8 is a bit of a love hate relationship [some of it good, some atrocious] and I'm interested in what others think and what they do to make the Win 8 experience better.

Anyhow, carry on.