Windows 8 Tips, Tricks, Advice And Warnings

Wow windows 8 and 8.1.. Ooooops says someone in a dark corner at microsoft. So what have we got here, well its a scary operating system, especially for those who despised windows xp's "network sharing and login basis in the home os" Windows 8 takes that one level further and begins its walk in the realms of iOS and Android... yes that's right.. windows 8 has a store.. no more are you offered out the box to just simply create a User name and password ON YOUR MACHINE...

You CAN create a "Local Account" if you stick in an email and the wrong password twice (don't click try again, just click create local account)

Here's some Advise (Before you even turn on that New PC or New LapTop)

Hit the net on a different system and create a brand new Hotmail OR Live mail account
On Its "Profile Information" what ever NAME (first and 2nd) will become Your Windows Log On Name  AND the PATH to your Documents & Settings..
you may remember these paths on windows XP as simply
C:\Documents and Settings\Users\Your Windows User Name\.. Private Personal Stuff....

Using Your own personal Email to set up windows 8 will make that path your FULL NAME
Now this is something Websites can Read from your machine...
User Name, Operating System, Browser Type and other info like IP and what not...
So that is why i recommend a NEW hotmail or live account for setting it up.

For the noobs i shall go into more detail about why not to use your normal email or an email anyone has in their book..  and this may scare some of the not so noob'ish too.  Once you log on, you get a folder on the top left of the desk top view, this folder is ALL the storage upon your email account, as you no on windows live you can store around 10gb of stuff, be it photos videos or even EXE files (anyone accesses your email and it happens to many) they can upload a file, that is something you will inadvertently access when opening your "My Documents"  so you NEVER give anyone this email OR use it to mail ANYONE, you don't even add it to your other address books, you just use it to log onto the machine and nothing more (under login options you can log in with a pin) i think the log in with photo is the most pathetic thing ive ever seen so don't use that or even set that up.

Other really bad ideas (network wise) is the fact you can share these SUB Folders with anyone with a windows live account, so your my documents "with a little malware in your system" can make all your personal stuff public (windows gets updates for vulnerabilities ALL the time) Even more oddly you can Share other folders "right over the net like an FTP of sorts" using the hotmail.com  live .com websites as an interface to access them folders.  SO considering how vulnerable we became moving from windows 98 and Windows Millennium to Windows XP, this shift from XP, Vista or Win7 up to Win8 is a risky business unless your on a "hardware firewall" then it certainly isn't an operating system i would recommend, that said wont be long until you don't have a choice... hence this blog post to try and help.

Note, I don't recommend these 3rd party "Start Menus" because just like windows XP, certain updates like the shell32.dll or even implementations to the UAC system can stop you using your system. BUT what you can do is change the start menu you get with windows 8 to better suit what you need.

You can right click on the "Tiles Start Menu" and select open "location" you'll see your essentially inside the folder view of the classic start menus of yesteryear. Renaming and moving stuff around in their will change what's shown on the tiles menu, then you can also right click the tiles and re-size them. So you can organise the start menu "Old School" in the folder, just like always (remember though some are under "Your Login Name"  and others are under the path of "All Users"  just in case you get lost trying remove something that appears to be gone, yet shows up, easy mistake in this new environment. Windows 8 Internet Explorer comes with Flash built in, doesn't include java or shockwave.

What ever the OEM virus killer is, i advise you Don't even open that, and if it opens just hit close, go to control panel, programs and features, and Uninstall the virus killer (be it mcafee, norton, panda or what ever) once installed, reboot, go back into control panel and open "Windows Defender" Updated it, now you have a FREE virus killer.

To avoid confusion here, microsoft past and present had its own antimalware, antivirus and a duel package.

IE...
Windows XP = Microsoft Security Essentials <--this is virus killer & anti malware
Windows Vista = Windows Defender <--this is only anti malware

Windows 7 = Windows Defender <--this is virus killer & anti malware
Windows 8 = Windows Defender <--this is virus killer & anti malware

So the misconception that Windows Defender is not a virus killer is only true within Windows Vista and not the others  :)

I WILL UPDATE THIS MORE WHEN I HAVE TIME
BUT I WANTED TO POST THIS NOW SO PEOPLE STOP ENDING UP WITH BAD MY DOCUMENTS PATHS AND WACKY WINDOWS USERS NAMES