Laptop advice

[Suff]

here we go again. Seems like I have nothing to do but write an epistle. I hope it's useful although most will probably want to skip the Windows8 stuff at the top. It's more for WM anyway.

Ah the "I know what you want to do" factor. Bloody annoying isn't it. I've managed to disable a lot of that. It get's royally dischuffed when I tell it NOT to use smartscreen filter, something I always used with IE, because it throws up a full screen stupid message and then gives me no way to stop if for that particular item. So, gone....

I've managed to get most of the stupid "Interface formally known as metro" apps out of the way. I remove them from the start screen and uninstall then where I can. Windows8.1 seems to catch on eventually. Also 8.1 allows me to boot into the Desktop and to restart my machine from the right click jump list on the bottom left. However I now have 3 icons on the desktop for shutdown, reboot and hibernate and it's just faster than the jump list. Go figure.

I created a hard link for the apps directory and added it as a link into a folder I call More Icons. More Icons is a Toolbar on the task bar so I have direct access to the apps without going to the stupid start screen.

I've installed VLC media player and made it default for movies, DVD and Blu-Ray. That's sorted the "Hey I've got some shoddy Microsoft Software that will take over your whole screen" messages. I use MediaMonkey for the Audio, ditto for that.

As VLC and MediaMonkey are both free and OK to use, things just tend to work. Oh I've also stuck the task bar on the left side of the screen and re-enabled the Quck Launch Toolbar on it. Most of my quick action stuff is on there.

I also have Office on it. Sadly 2013. I'm seriously peeved with apps which demand to go full screen when you open a file and simply refuse to obey the last sizing of the window. If MS don't stop that silliness they will, eventually, drive users away. Oh and I hate flat apps with no defined border you can grab hold of.

All in all, it just works and it's faster than Windows7. So I put up with it and spend time learning how to override what MS did and make the OS mine again.

This is an interesting path. Since Windows95 I have always bought into the new Microsoft interfaces. I've never tried finding interfaces to "skin" them, I've just worked with what Microsoft has provided because it's almost always been an improvement. Until Windows8. Much of what they are doing is a huge regtrograde step. However, help is on the horizon. I've downloaded and installed and played with Windows10. The "Start" screen is now a sidebar on the start menu and you can get rid of all those stupid bloody tiles.... Roll on Windows 10.

I know I'm not exactly mainstream in my views on computers. Apart from Laptops I build my own. This is because computers are not a fashion accessory. They are not perfume and they are not pretty. They are tools to do a job. If you want pretty colours, flashy styles or pretty lights, you are going to either get very poor performance for the price or you are going to have to pay significantly more to get what you need in performance.

So long as you can read the screen, type on the keyboard without messing the mouse around, use the trackpad, if you can't plug in an external mouse, hear the speakers and, basically connect to the internet and run applications in a reasonable timeframe, it doesn't matter whether it is the style, shape or consistency of a house brick.

One thing I have learned over the years. There is a basic level of specification on which manufacturers want to standardise. They can give exceptional deals on them and will almost always beat similar configurations you can create for yourself.

Until.

It comes to when you want more than just mediocre or middle of the road performance. Then every thing you buy from them is going to push the price up beyond the true price of the parts. So you need to start with a liveable specification and then boost it up.

For instance, My Alienware (made by Dell).

The base machine cost £2,900. That gave me the fast processor and the 18" screen and the fast graphics cards. Simply put you could not buy that for anywhere near the price just for the components.

Next it came with 4GB of RAM (2x2) and I specified a 500GB hybrid drive.

I bought a 240GB SSD, £450 at that time. It was quoted as £750 installed by Dell.
I bought 16GB of RAM (4x4) for £120. That was £600 extra from from Dell.

I fitted the SSD as the C drive and relegated the hybrid drive to D. I took out the RAM and replaced it with the 16GB. I now have a very, very fast machine at £780 less than the cost from the manufacturer.

Later, when availability was good and prices were down, I replaced the 16GB of ram with 32 (4x8). Those 4 dims cost me around £180. Yet the original cost from Dell for 32GB of RAM was well over £1,000 , or more. I don't recall just how much as I just laughed at the price.

So my machine which would have cost well over £4,500 to buy, actually cost me £3,650 ish and I have a spare 20GB of RAM to play with on the families machines.

Simply put, you need to know what you are doing and either have the skills or have the availability of someone who can do the work cheaply in order to get a decent deal nowadays.

£299 machines abound. But when you try and use them for anything more than you would use a tablet for, they fall down at the first hurdle. In fact, in many cases, they are not even as good as a Tablet.

[Workingman]

I hadn't realised how often I parked the mouse cursor in a corner and the pop-outs drive me to distraction. Eventually I found out how to turn them off.

With hours of playing about I had got W8.1 Pro looking and working a bit like W7, but with the speed. I have no Aero, glass or desktop peek. I am one of those people who never uses the desktop so I always hide/remove desktop icons. It boots to the (clean) desktop, so I do not have all those tiles and things. The corners are gone, I have a locked Taskbar with my own shortcuts folder pinned to it, and, and, and I managed to temporarily stop Windows opening things in apps rather than dedicated software. All of my Windows explorer views, and I do mean 'all', are in list view because that is how I like things.The problem is that W8.1 doesn't like what I keep doing.

Every damned update will change something back to how Windows wants to work, and as I am a religeous updater it happens pretty often. The worst things are, were, the Explorer views and the default app/programs. Ah well........ it's gone now.

I remember the days of building computers for myself and other people. There was a time, long ago now, when I could build a high spec system for a mid spec price, and make a few pennies for doing so. Screaming hot video, sound cards, motherboards, memory, CPUs were always available at computer fairs, remember them(?), and six for the price of five was always a hope if you were prepared to barter. Happy days.

As for today, I couldn't justify the sort of money you are prepared to spend - not for what I am doing now. What I will say is that what you are saying about upgrading parts of a laptop is available to most people if they want to go that way. Having said that I do agree that stuff at basement prices is not worth throwing money at. However, go to the mid range of popular models, say £500-£800 and a lot can be done for only a little money. Things such as CPUs, memory banks, hard drives and CD/DVD combo drives can, on many machines, be upgraded. I think that is because manufacturers who are offering a range of machines in that £500 - £1500 bracket use the same chasses and motherboards, it is only the bells and whistles which change. And as you pointed out with the costs of some of these things the manufacturers charge an arm and a leg.

[debih]

Can you still buy laptops with windows on that aren't windows 8?

[Workingman]

Still plenty here...... and there could be one or two in your price range. http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/st/windows-7-laptops

[Suff]

Interesting what you were saying about things changing in W8 WM.

I have been using 8.x for over a year now and I've never seen it. I, like you, have my Explorer set to list view, all files and I suspect although you didn't say it, all system files and file extensions too.

I didn't use a MS account. Did you? You need to go to the "create new account" page and then tell it you don't want to in 8.1, in order to use a local machine account. I'm wondering if it had done a one time settings backup to the cloud and was restoring them every time it updated?

I'm a serial updater too. Even though I know I don't need most of the patches to be secure, I install everything anyway including optional...

My first boss in IT used to say "God protect me from Forgiving Systems", because you never know what they "thought" you meant. At least you can deal with "Syntax Error", you have no hope of dealing with "Send two and sixpence we're going to a dance".

I'm finding that I can't install all the 8.x stuff. I now have W7 skype installed and W7 Onedrive. If you want to use the W8 versions it absolutely insists that you are logged in with a cloud account. I'm hoping that with W10 they will have extracted head from orifice....

[Suff]

Still plenty here...... and there could be one or two in your price range. http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/st/windows-7-laptops

I'm looking forward rather than backwards. I'm not going to revert anything to 7 (I have a netbook and Laptop on 8.1), but will probably move my machines to 10 as soon as I can get a release version, some time in late 2015.

[Workingman]

I didn't use a MS account. Did you? You need to go to the "create new account" page and then tell it you don't want to in 8.1, in order to use a local machine account. I'm wondering if it had done a one time settings backup to the cloud and was restoring them every time it updated?

Now, there's a thing. When I was on W7 it was running on my account. The upgrade to W8 and then to W8.1 Pro was through my son's .edu account. He is allowed three licences in order to work from home, mobile and Uni. My update is his home version - totally allowed as I am his dad and he sometimes stops here - he uses his mobile account everywhere else. Could it be that it is the way his lead account, Uni, is set up?

As for Explorer everything is in List View....in all five of the folder options MS has decided we look at things. I change them all to List.

[Suff]

Yes it could be the way the lead Uni account is set up.

Are you interested in trying it out on a different key? Or have you given up on the whole thing?

[Kaz]

I am not keen on 8.1, I preferred 8

[Workingman]

Are you interested in trying it out on a different key? Or have you given up on the whole thing?

I have given up TBH. Windows OS now seems to be trying to be all things to all devices. I won't even bother with W10. I will stay with W7 till support stops then I will swap to a Linux distro. There is some information about Unix lodged somewhere in a neuron. I have my other laptop doing not much and it has an i3 with 4gig memory and 380 gig HDD so I will use it as a testbed.