What happened to my PC?

I thought it was fixed but it's acting weird!

     In my first article here I'll address a scenario I've been told about a couple of times now. Well, more of a cautionary tale of sorts. A customer runs into serious problems or becomes a victim of malware on their Windows 7 machine. Both stories I heard involved users who were not power users and unable to diagnose and repair the system themselves. They took them to a service center to be serviced. Upon assessment the user was informed the system was unrecoverable and told they would need to install a new operating system. A brief description of the upgrade was given but NOT of the caveats and system shock they would experience. It was agreed and the service was performed.

     I know first hand that 9 times out of 10 or better the system CAN be recovered. Although there may be some residual damage such as installed application corruption that would require re-installation of that application. In many cases still far more desirable than starting all over. Microsoft pushes the newest version of their operating system very aggressively. This is normal for just about any software vendor.

     Many service centers and in particular several national chains embrace this philosophy. There is a word for this and it is "Upsell". Just the nature of the biz. Rather than trying to recover the system or even using the factory restore discs or partition they nudge (well, sometimes press) the sale of the next generation operating system. It takes far less time, is more profitable, and requires only minimal PC and OS knowledge and effort. Good news for the service center and software vendor but can be very bad news for the user.

     In both instances the user's documents, pictures, and other personal files were lost. Rather than attempting to perform an in place upgrade which would have retained the user's files, applications, and application settings a clean install was performed. A clean install is much faster and there is no post upgrade issues to address such as application compatibility and driver issues. Nearly all of which can be corrected. The in place upgrade does require additional work and testing afterwards whereas the clean install does not. In the end it may have been less expensive for the end user but the losses and what to expect should have been explained in detail before hand. In this way they would have been able to better choose which route to go.

     There are quite a few programs and utilities out there designed specifically to transfer or back up and restore not only the user files, favorites, etc. but applications and application settings as well. I use several and also know how to back up documents and such to an external drive circumventing the file system security settings. There again, it's what I do. Fast forward to firing up the "newly repaired" system for the first time.

The user is well accustomed to and comfortable with a desktop and has resigned themselves to the fact that they are starting from scratch. At least they are able to reset Windows according to their preferences. Or maybe not?
 

Instead of booting to this:

They are greeted with this:

 

     Complete and utter panic sets in as a cold chill runs down their spine. As with the purchase of any Windows product it no longer comes with documentation. Yes, it comes with built in help, but you have to get to it first. Years ago when I was dealing with DOS 5 and Windows 3.11 for Workgroups they came with complete manuals. Not today. If we are lucky we might get a readme.txt or even luckier a basic user manual in PDF format on the install disk (and you still have to know how to get to the PDF). So there they are, a new OS and NO idea how to use it.

     Windows 8 and 8.1 are at the core improvements on Windows 7 with the addition of new mini-applications appropriately named Apps such as you would find for you Android or iOS phone. But, it was a mistake in direction for a desktop OS. It is essentially Windows with a tablet interface that is designed for a touch screen system. Something a desktop user will find alien. It's also cumbersome for a desktop user. Where before they could zip to their shortcuts in the start menu or desktop at lightening speed, they find that warm and fuzzy comfortable start menu and desktop is gone. Just a bunch of animated squares and rectangles blinking at them.

     Fortunately there is hope and a very easy way to correct this catastrophe. A small donationware program called Classic Shell brings back the start menu yet still supports apps and the ability to display the alien start screen if desired. It perfectly emulates the classic Windows start menu for XP, Vista, and 7 as well as some of the Windows Explorer elements. It is free to use and asks only for donations. I have many applications such as this and even just donating a couple/three dollars doesn't break my bank and gives the developers incentive to continue improving the product.

I have my start menu back, but Windows is still UGLY!

     So what about these awful flat pastel colored windows and window borders you ask? Another program I use on my Windows 8.1 machine is Windowblinds and is distributed by Stardock who has been developing Windows desktop appearance modification software for many years now. I'm sorry, but a dull, flat, and worse yet pastel theme just doesn't fit my personality. There was only one picture in existence of me in a pink pastel shirt and it has long since been destroyed. Windowblinds is paid software but I can afford $10 to restore my desktop to it's former beauty. You even get a theme editor with it for the adventurous and a handful of pre-configured themes that you can tweak to your liking.

     As with any software you install it is wise to create a restore point beforehand in the event something doesn't work as planned and the uninstall is ineffective. Do a Google search for creating restore points and there are many great tutorials out there.

     With Windows 10 we see the return of the Start menu but it looks like the flat pastel theme is here to stay for a while. At least until developers like Stardock offer alternatives. I'll post later about the extremely insistent push for users to upgrade, the pitfalls, and ways to counter that pesky system tray icon that's forever nagging and won't go away. No worries though, you'll still retain the ability to upgrade if so desired. I will mention if you are considering upgrading be sure to Google reverting from Windows 10 back to your old version first. You are limited as to how long this option is available.


Coming up:
Silence the Windows 10 updgrade nag
Avoiding garbageware and installing downloaded software safely

Until next time, Happy Computing!