Won't Timestopper work?

harpo

Agreed. I hear someone complain about win 8, and when i ask them what they don't like, its almost always metro UI.

I think MS did not do enough to make it clear that the whole metro UI is nothing but a glorified start menu, just one that's on the whole screen instead in a pop-up corner window, and with more customization options.

That being said, there are some things i don't like. For instance, win 8 has a control panel almost identical to the win7 one in looks and functionality, but try to add a new user, and you're unceremoniously dumped into a metro-like interface. Inconsistent.

Probably...as would altering the system clock....but they both would breech TOU/copyright as forms of warez use.

There appears to be a lot of nutters out there still using 98 ...and providing solutions to all its current shortcomings.

Back to win8 and its crap GUI......one of my early plays with GUIs....AFTER the Dos ones was Calmira ....it went to great pains to make thw Win 3.11 gui look and function like win95/98 in particular...and later even like XP .....

....so there's hope for 8 yet....;p

If you're ever going to run 98 in VirtualBox....do it in VMWare instead.

I'm posting this via 98 in VMWare ...using Opera 10 .

Pretty sure the boot time will be faster...as is the OS ....the best I got out of VB was 2.30 for a boot ....clearly was having network issues on load. 

Boot time in VM is more like 40 seconds .... says a lot.  Currently 7 is putting up with 3 guests running....XP, Vista and this 98 .... was about time I updated them all.

Even logged into Litestep for a while.....one of my old themes....;) 

It is funny that some say the UI looks like crap and compare it to windows7.
:3 overall we are a community about skinning and altering the look of the GUI ! ( true )
But keep in mind windows95 windows98 those were not pretty in the eye of a skinning community! and without additional software or the PLUS package you could hardly change nothing even with it the options were pretty low as I remember.
Then there was ME, NT,win2000 and after the whole  road of numbers and letters finally  came up XP and it was-UGLY still -without additional software  
But we need to keep in mind that the interface never did change during all those years back to 95´! 
So we waited for additional software to make XP pretty...
Same with Vista aka Longhorn and Windows7.
While windows 7 and vista was liveable with for that period of time until additional software arrived for our needs. SO we had 1995 till 2009 to make that one UI and that old-school Startmenu pretty correct me if I’m wrong :3 
And now we bash on Plate 8 ( totally understandable !?) that has the new interface and to me represent way more opportunity in terms of skinning since the start menu is way bigger and you can draw more than just 4-5 pixels in it? Because it has a sidebar a tile like feature included and a hidden start button that is not visible all the time and only becomes when you mouse over it? because all these parts could be potentially skinned lol lets continue shall we, it has a taskbar that can handle each for its own per Monitor where hopefully multiple skins will work in the future( one different skin via screen )
it still has window frames but is missing Aero currently ( Ohh nooo ). It has all the other buttons that existed in windows7. Don’t see where it is inferior in terms of the skinning possibility’s compared to windows7...since it has almost equal amount of parts to skin or even a bit more, it’s just not yet doable :3 
´However i can understand the point that it is currently not acceptable for a customizer that wants to have a completely skinned desktop.
We will see what windowblinds8 will bring ( new features hopefully ). And then you can bring your pitchforks up in terms of how ugly it still looks but please do not compare a never been before on a desktop screen UI with an interface that exists since back in 1995 :3 

 Interesting interpretation of skinning's history there.... NQR though.  People were skinning way before 95 or win 95 ....I was skinning Dos....even as far as hex editing the graphics of xtgold.

Each generation of OS was 'acceptable' [mostly] for its time.  The first to positively make an aesthetic critic cringe was XP.  Fisher Price was OK for children who need bright colour stimulation but is horrible to stare at [in a work environment] day after day.  Vista was the first to get grudging nods for style...and 7 added to that.

 8 does absolutely NOTHING for creative artistry....it's about as cerebral as paint-by-numbers. 

I think that when I load 8 on the laptop I'll simply see what can be done to use Litestep instead of that look-I'm-a-big-sized-mobile-phone. 

Oh, and Opera 10.1 stop trying to tell me how to spell 'colour'.  

you are very wrong with about that "having to wait" part. people were always and are now changing the look and feel of windows. during Windows 95 i was hacking the Marlett font were all the glyphs were stored for example. changing the visual style in Windows 8 works almost the same way as it does under Windows 7.

that is not the point. personally i'd even prefer that flat look over almost any WindowBlinds skin. i call it ugly because on a desktop or laptop you have to work with two interfaces that follow two completely different higs. that charms bar has no business on the legacy desktop for example.

while the kernel is probably good and i like some ideas of Windows Runtime a lot, the UI is such an unfinished beta product it as almost laughable.

in the meantime the MS Office team does not seem to like Windows 8 that much. there are rumours about Office for Linux in 2014 already

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/microsoft-office-linux-port-first-for-the-os-coming-in-2014-1130055

and i am willing to bet there will be Office for iOS and Android long before a Metro version.

i know there was skinning before 95 the thing is u cant go and compare a interface that improved over a period of 14 years into what you have in windows7 without service pack...with a interface that was not there a couple of months ago for desktop.
win8 does absolutely nothing in a creative aspoect ??? what the... Ok as i said before vista and 7 were exeptable ,but you if you want to transmit a feeling that looks new in a visual way for a new release or OS the flat new look does it,  it has the flat square look and is also a design, sure it doesnt look like its much work but its sharp and crisp to the eye for a day to day use. You could also alter certain things but i was focusing on windowblinds abilitys here not on Litestep or styles or HD.
Im speaking of Stardock software.
The thing is that it will have to add additional stuff to realy skin windows8 the way you did the old interface in win7 and possibly even more, while at that point the question summarize up - how fast and well will that be done and what will be possible for the developers to make/implement so that it gets awesome visualy including START UI.
The thing with the mobile phone Jafo i dont have a new smartphone never had i have seen the desktop or the screen of some modern phones sure they have a similar look but whats so bad about it?
Phones are made to easy navigate why would that not fit to a desktop pc that has touch or future touch-motion input that is not even done via screen input in the near future? Personaly i dont mind if the input gets easier No i embrace it.
The UI in windows8 isnt perfect never said that... i also think there is lots and lots of things that can be improved to make it better like the adjustable size of live tiles metro apps that will continue working and loading in the background,multiple metro apps that can be bound to the desktop all at once and more.
@ moshi i cant understand why someone would want a metro Office in the first place  

Edit: should have added that i respect you for skinning dos applications i have no clue about that i simply wasnt old enough at that stage and not interested enough into computers as iam now.While i do know DOS inputs and commands i have certainly no knowledge about skinning those or where to start.
but i expect it was all done in 8bit- correct me if iam wrong, i think it wasnt easy to make graphics out of those sine when i look at things like wolfenstein or doom all those effects had to like like actual effects. I do remember playing Indiana Jones when i was younger aswell back then the FX rocked but the sounds were annoying lol

Not having/using one probably says it all... What they have is a [comparative] small screen interface where a person's fingers are the limiting factor on what you can do with them.  Multi apps on one screen eventually become utterly unworkable...so the trend is to switch out of them...more like hide lateral [virtual] desktops and only ever see one thing at a time.

In simple terms there are computer users out there for whom that is utterly pointless and unworkable as an interface in which to work.

More-over ...optimizing a GUI for a touch-screen suits the phone, certainly...but will never suit all PC use.

Touch screens are handy for POS transactions .... but finger-painting in Photoshop will not happen.

Re skinning in Dos...that's all about 'earlier' history than 16 bit or 32 bit windows..... my first bought PC had 3.11 on it.  First gifted PC had Dos 4.... and it was that which I first modded [can't recall hacking/modding the Commodore....but I was silly enough to maybe].

There's always been a desire to alter the default...one way or another...when it comes to computers....even aschii codes to change the dos prompt....;p

Stardock's origin wasn't even Windows at all...it was OS2 [also re the GUI]...;)

That is what i don’t like about the UI and many apps for metro while some are pretty useful i hate the fact that you can only display one at a time in full screen
or i drag a metro application to my desk but can’t launch another one on top of it.. I love the live tiles i can see if i got mail how the weather will be news that i like my shared files or shared incoming files updates all in one window but the ability to not have at least 2 of the metro apps displayed even while i have 2 screens is a riddle even to me since you mentioned that with the phone and Multi apps. Maybe that is the reason why and would explain it...but the pc version should be able to do so even if a phone cant, that is also why i wrote that i can’t understand why someone would like to have Office as metro app... The whole metro idea is still on shaky ground like moshi said and looks sort of beta but with improvements to it it could become pretty sweeet ( starting with a keep on top feature for example lol )---- hope you meant that with 

That's probably happening because color is spelled without a "u".:)

tomato tomatoe.

The americans to piss off the british after the independence changed a few words, such as colour (UK) to color (US)

Like the British really gave a flying f**k.   They're like me, don't give a toss how Americans spell this or friggin' that.  In fact, I don't care so much that I even ignore their damned spellcheckers and spell colour any damned way I like...  coulor, coloure, colouer, culler.

In fact, colourise.

Or how about vapourise.

And epitomise.

Lobotomise.

and I ALSO dislike the ILLITERATE american'ts and their failure at spelling, most especially the word 'COLOUR'

harpo

I just love being called names.

Ditto. I went to school in America and the schoolbus I rode in had tires, not tyres, and was colored yellow. That extra vowel was something the Brits borrowed from the French. Well, they should have given it back and saved on wear and tear on their pencils.

colour, flavour, harbour, honour, humour, labour, neighbour, rumour... bah, screw "u"....too muuuuuch extra typing.

Don't forget how to spell aluminum.

M-e-t-a-l

unfortunately, Americans

who's illiterate?

OWNED!

+1

I put it on the wife's PC.. was on there about a month, neither of us could get used to it.. I found it clunky, flat, ugly and imo.. any speed improvements over 7, I didn't notice.

Just ZERO reasons for us to keep it on there.

Her camera wasnt supported neither was her printer..

reformatted, put 7 back on..

Everyone happy again now.

Consensus, yes.. Win 8 does, truly suck. (and yes, we gave it 'time')