Make sure you do a Windows Update. There's an update that makes classic desktop mode the default.

You also google on how to remove the "swipe" nonsense. I've set up my 8.1 now in a way that makes it pretty much the same as 7. The only thing that's not the same is the start menu, but I like the new start menu (if you can call it that) better, at least if you set it up to show applications by default, rather than the weird widget-thingies it normally shows.

There's a free program called Classic Shell that adds the old Start button and functionality back to Windows 8.x. I hate literally relying on a third party application to navigate my operating system, but without Classic Shell I'm lost.

They want everyone to buy the Surface and throw away desktops...forever. I understand that there's a way to make 8.1 look like 7. How is it that you could wait a month to use a new computer? Whenever I get a new toy like that I'll stay up way late hooking it up and messing with it.


THE
JUST ONE MORE INSTALL
AARDVARK

I bought an Avatar gaming computer because I could buy it with no interest if paid over a number of months from Amazon.com.

Since Watch Dogs requires at least a quad core, I decided to go a little ahead of the curve and buy a 6-core.

I've had it about a month but hadn't hooked it up until yesterday because I really had no reason to since there isn't really that much i'd want to do and my current computer is already set up.

So I plug the KVM into the VGA port, boot the machine and nothing happens. Then I figure maybe it's using the DVI port so I try that and still nothing happens. Then I realize it has an add-in card and that has a DVI port.

So, using the same DVI cable I bought months ago to connect to the Macintosh, I was able to see the system and start it up, and I was able to accept the terms and conditions of Windows 8.1.

I don't like Windows 8.1. It's like they're trying to turn the desktop on a standard tower computer into a tsblet. You have to select the desktop as if it was another app. Finding where anything is, is a real pain. I liked the older Windows 98/XP/7 navigation mode and I wish they offered it. It was much easier for me to find things when pressing the Windows key brought up the Start Menu instead of an App list.

And Windows is hinting the serial number is invalid, suggesting either to verify the number off the box or buy a license. Yeah, right, I'm going to spend $145 to pay full list price for a Windows 8.1 license when it should have been included.

The way Windows 7 works or the method most X-Windows systems on Linux support multiple desktops was fine, I think this apps shit is ridiculous and unwieldy.