Micro - Rip Off

[John J]

I am sort of out of the corporate PC applications stuff, but anyway I needed to purchase a PC with the entire MS sweet for her Masters program.

I wanted a Win 7 machine, that was Verbotten, settled for the biggest POS OS I have ever encountered Win 8. (I am a DOS 3.0 guy)

And we have crappy expensive net here, so no operating manual.

The latest suprise is my win 7 machine plays any and all CD and DVD's her 8.0 machine takes me to the MS web page and wants me to pay $12.00 so my wife can watch a DVD on her 8.0 machine.

What a rip.

[yellowsulphur]

Generally a university will offer a large discount on software. California State offers the entire Office suite for free. Not sure if serious but DOS 3.0 came out in the early 1980's things have changed.

[high_revs]

use vlc media player for the dvd. it might be the default program used for watching dvd's on her machine. or search the web for a free player. i have power dvd (a program i remember in the 90s) that won't play bluray on my desktop tower i got last xmas. sucks but sometimes vlc works sometimes not. i don't have bluray players in all the rooms so guess i have to take it out and watch it in the other room.

[SkyHawk]

Upgrade to Win 8.1, way better than 8.0. It is free, here is a guide:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/update-from-windows-8-tutorial

Or you might try Windows 10 - also free

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-upgrade

[stilly]

I am sort of out of the corporate PC applications stuff, but anyway I needed to purchase a PC with the entire MS sweet for her Masters program.

I wanted a Win 7 machine, that was Verbotten, settled for the biggest POS OS I have ever encountered Win 8. (I am a DOS 3.0 guy)

And we have crappy expensive net here, so no operating manual.

The latest suprise is my win 7 machine plays any and all CD and DVD's her 8.0 machine takes me to the MS web page and wants me to pay $12.00 so my wife can watch a DVD on her 8.0 machine.

What a rip.

Dad I told you to not post that question here...

Look, just go to ninite.com and look in the media section under the KMPlayer.

Done and done. No fees needed. MS wanted that money to pay for your ONE drive subscription probably.

VLC player as mentioned is good too, but I am more of a KMPlayer fan, even SMPlayer is almost decent, but KMPlayer 3.6 trumps all because it does those thumbnail files and it does not have all of that advertising crap built in.

Also, I told you that if you wanted any Windows 7 machines that you needed to go to MICROCENTER where they still sell windows 7 platforms...

Worst case scenario, go grab a copy of windows 7 pro and downgrade to it with her computer. I THOUGHT all windows 8 machines came with that option to install winblows 7 instead...

Come on now.

[SkyHawk]

All Volume License products allow downgrade. But if he bought the system preinstalled (OEM), only Win 10 Pro or better and Win 8.1 Pro or better have downgrade rights, and he would still need his own media and a previously used key for Win 7. Retail boxed versions of Windows do not have downgrade rights.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/8/9/68964284-864d-4a6d-aed9-f2c1f8f23e14/Downgrade_Rights.pdf

[SkyHawk]

And here are the DVD playback options for Win 8 and Win 10

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dvd-playback-help

If your computer came with a DVD drive it should have also included some type of licensed playback software - look around on your PC and see if it was preinstalled.

Otherwise, VLC is universally recommended. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

[antiseen]

I never bought anything in Windows after buying 8. As others have said, download vlc player and set that as your default player for everything. Plays anything and everything, including DVDs. Light program with everything you need, just the meat and potatoes. No bloat or fancy eye candy.

Won't play Blu rays though, but that's not a Windows problem.

Windows 8 was mildly annoying, but fast and functional. Took me a week to learn their harder "simpler" interface. Dumbed everything down so you had to dig through multiple menus or look for hidden settings if you were anything above a brain dead user.

8.1 was a lot better. I'm on 10 now and it's even better.

[stilly]

I think it was a microcenter thing actually. They had all of their windows 8 machines coming with windows 7 downgrade rights or something like that I thought the one or two times I was there looking.

In all honesty though, just go the Linux way. I think the Linux way is the better way and then just VM windows 7 or 10...

I got to use windows 10 this past week. Man what a mess. I really hate to see that windows 8 interface still. All of those tiles just irk me. Why should I have to remove them all? Just give me a damn menu properly already.

I kept having to type in everything that I was wanting to run too. I did not know where the menu was located I guess. :\

[Mute]

I think it was a microcenter thing actually. They had all of their windows 8 machines coming with windows 7 downgrade rights or something like that I thought the one or two times I was there looking.

In all honesty though, just go the Linux way. I think the Linux way is the better way and then just VM windows 7 or 10...

I got to use windows 10 this past week. Man what a mess. I really hate to see that windows 8 interface still. All of those tiles just irk me. Why should I have to remove them all? Just give me a damn menu properly already.

I kept having to type in everything that I was wanting to run too. I did not know where the menu was located I guess. :\

Just install Stardock.

[stilly]

Just install Stardock.

STARDOCK is junkfood.

It LOOKS great and seems cool at first, but for some reason, I have ALWAYS been screwed by either a font or theme or graphic that was too big or did not fit right.

Do you mean to tell me they did it correct this time?

God I LOVED those stardock themes for windows XP. The wooden skins were cool as were some of the carbon fiber and red/black plastics...

But yeah, if something goes wrong then it is just a huge mess.

I will have a look, maybe it can sugarcoat the windows 10 experience enough to make it work on a laptop.

Oh dear. That looks as good as the classic shell addon for windows 7...

[Mute]

STARDOCK is junkfood.

It LOOKS great and seems cool at first, but for some reason, I have ALWAYS been screwed by either a font or theme or graphic that was too big or did not fit right.

Do you mean to tell me they did it correct this time?

God I LOVED those stardock themes for windows XP. The wooden skins were cool as were some of the carbon fiber and red/black plastics...

But yeah, if something goes wrong then it is just a huge mess.

I will have a look, maybe it can sugarcoat the windows 10 experience enough to make it work on a laptop.

Oh dear. That looks as good as the classic shell addon for windows 7...

The latest seems ok, but I'm perfectly fine with the Windows 10 start menu and haven't felt a need to modify the start like I did with Windows 8/8.1.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

Sweet = Suite?

[The War Wagon]

I am sort of out of the corporate PC applications stuff, but anyway I needed to purchase a PC with the entire MS sweet for her Masters program...

...What a rip.

I'll bet they even charged EXTRA for the Micro-Insulin...