windows 8 question

[Larry Edgerton]

I have been having computer issues, and on my third in 4 months. Two HP's lost the hard drive, now on a Dell. Here's my question. When I am typing a post on this forum I can not hit enter to drop down a line or two, and can find no other way to do it. Makes it hard to communicate properly without paragraphs. It was the same way with the HP's with Windows 8 on this forum, works fine on other things. This is the only forum I have tried to post on so not sure it is just here or universal. I am not by any means a computer guy, so keep that in mind. Larry

[Tim Fulford]

mmm very odd i have Windows 8 and I do not have this problem neither have I or any of my technical team heard of it.

[Larry Browning]

Are you using Internet Explorer or a third party browser like Firefox? If you are using IE please give Firefox a try. It has been known to heal many IE ills.
As to Win8, are you running the browser from the Metro interface(the tiles) or the desktop? I believe IE come in 2 flavors (metro and desktop). So you might also try running it from the DT.

[Keith Outten]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?204011-Pressing-Enter-Return-not-creating-new-paragraph

[Larry Edgerton]

This is a test, you will be advised where to tune in your area............... Still will not work for me and I can not find that torn paper thingy, Larry

[Larry Browning]

This is a test, you will be advised where to tune in your area............... Still will not work for me and I can not find that torn paper thingy, Larry

Have you tried Firefox yet?
Also, please answer my question about Windows 8. Are you running IE from the metro interface or from the Desktop? That will help us help you.

[Larry Edgerton]

Firefox works fine..........

Thanks, Larry

[Pat Barry]

Hi Larry,
How do you disable the Windows 8 Metro version so as just to use the old fashioned desktop. More specifically, how do you disable the metro interface entirely? It is very annoying for it to always pop up on the screen just because i moved my finger over the mouse tablet from right to left.

[Larry Browning]

Hi Larry,
How do you disable the Windows 8 Metro version so as just to use the old fashioned desktop. More specifically, how do you disable the metro interface entirely? It is very annoying for it to always pop up on the screen just because i moved my finger over the mouse tablet from right to left.
I purchased a program called StartIsBack. It puts the start button back on the desktop right where it belongs. It also has a feature that allows you to boot directly to the desktop. It virtually eliminates the need to see those stupid tiles ever again. This little program was a game changer for how I felt about Windows 8. It has many very nice new features once you don't have to see those stupid tiles. It doesn't eliminate the Start Screen, it just puts the focus on the desktop rather than the start screen. It is very configurable and I am sure you can disable most, if not all, of the gestures. I haven't actually seen the start screen in months!
It only costs $3 for a 2 PC license. It was probably the best $3 I ever spent! Here is the link: http://startisback.com You can download it for a 30day trial. I downloaded it and sent them my money about 10 minutes after I installed it. I put it on SWMBO's computer the next day.
There are several others that do the same thing, Start8 may be the most popular, but this one was about half the price and does a fantastic job.

[Curt Harms]

Hi Larry,
How do you disable the Windows 8 Metro version so as just to use the old fashioned desktop. More specifically, how do you disable the metro interface entirely? It is very annoying for it to always pop up on the screen just because i moved my finger over the mouse tablet from right to left.

What Larry recommends seems pretty popular. There's at least one other option that's even cheaper - as in free - Classic Shell. This is an open source project.

http://www.classicshell.net/

Which one is better? I have no intention of buying Windows 8 just to find out. A far bigger issue with me and Windows 8 is their 'secure boot' but that's another story.

[Larry Browning]

What Larry recommends seems pretty popular. There's at least one other option that's even cheaper - as in free - Classic Shell. This is an open source project.

http://www.classicshell.net/

Which one is better? I have no intention of buying Windows 8 just to find out. A far bigger issue with me and Windows 8 is their 'secure boot' but that's another story.
So $3 is a problem? It is worth $3 (actually I would have paid more) to avoid all the extra crap that might be installed on my PC.

What is the issue with "secure boot"? I hadn't heard of that one.

[Curt Harms]

So $3 is a problem? It is worth $3 (actually I would have paid more) to avoid all the extra crap that might be installed on my PC.

What is the issue with "secure boot"? I hadn't heard of that one.

No extra crap like 'browser enhancements' from Sourceforge or github. Download.com et. al? That's another story.

Try booting a less popular linux distro like bodhi on a Windows 8 laptop. You can't, at least not easily. I'm not even sure about Windows 7 or XP. There are efforts to work around this. It's not expensive, ($99) to get a key to 'sign' a bootloader but it seems that sometimes a signed boot loader works as advertized, sometimes it doesn't. How much of the problem is poor design and how much is poor hardware manufacturer's implementation I don't know. The thing is that a few weeks after secure boot was released, it was cracked. Anybody who wants to load a root kit or other malware is barely inconvenienced by secure boot.