Win 8 workarounds

For all those frustrated by the absence of any obvious way of shutting down you could try this -

Create two new desktop shortcuts, one named Shutdown and one named Restart. The Shutdown shortcut should contain -

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -s -t 00

and the Restart shutdown is -

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -r -t 01

I'm sure more ideas will soon be forthcoming

 

Nice - thx!

 

Thanks, works well.
Please send them to Microsoft!

 

I found one work around, and that is not use it. As far as the shortcuts, since Windows 8 is based on the same NT version as 7, it does not surprise me that the software is still backwards compatible.

 

Re: Win 8 workarounds - virtual drives

I wanted to install the free version of Alcohol 52%, which runs fine in Win 7 but Win 8 wouldn't accept it - compatibility issues. Then I discovered I didn't need it just to mount an ISO as Win 8 mounts ISOs automatically. Clicking an ISO file creates a new virtual CD/DVD drive and mounts the ISO for you. Neat!

There may be issues with copy protected ISOs of course.

I also wanted to install a really old version of Lotus 1-2-3 which has always installed fine in previous versions, but again I got blocked trying to install from CD due to incompatibility issues with Lotus Approach on the same installation CD. However by mounting an ISO as above I was able to install the 1-2-3 program without any issues. This may be a useful workaround for other old favorites which Win 8 won't accept from original media.

 

Re: Win 8 workarounds - virtual drives

I"ll bet your right there. DRM was a major factor in moving away from the XP platform.

I haven't had time to try 8 yet but maybe next weekend.