Making Your Windows More Friendly...

Windows 10 is waiting in the wings, I know, and is getting its final "fluffing up" before its big debut - but maybe you'd like to continue with what you have, until the wrappings are all off, and the First Act is over, and the audience reactions are in...? OK - here's a couple of things you can add into Windows 8 or 8.1 to make them a little more "user friendly" and more like our beloved old Win-7, or our newest Win-10....

To find this one, click or tap this link. This program adds more gadgets into Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 than we ever had in Windows 7, and it runs fine in all of these operating systems. I've tested them to make sure.

Another "freebie" if you want the "Start" button and its included attached menu like we had in Windows 7, or Vista, or even Windows XP, try Classic Shell. 

It adds more than just a Start button and those menus with it - there's also other tweaks included as well.... so have a look at it.  

  Another handy "freebie" for cleaning up the system and removing unwanted stuff, is Glary Utilities. This one optimizes several things in your system with just a one-click on its little window, and it won't hurt the stuff you really want to keep. 

I've used this for a long time, and I like it better than "CCleaner" because it isn't quite as invasive, and yet it covers all the main bases for you. It's fast, it's reliable, and it's also another "freebie" ( unless you wish to go Pro, but you shouldn't need to.)

With these programs, you'll probably enjoy your Windows more, and have more fun with it. And speaking of "fun", if you like taking digital photos, (and who doesn't?) then you should get Image Composite Editor from Microsoft Research.

Not only is this another magnificent "freebie", it's also the absolute best program for assembling multiple overlapped images into really seamless and huge panorama images, and it also works with other programs they've developed for even more special kinds of displays - so do check this one out and download a copy for yourself. It's wonderful, because unlike many other programs for splicing images or making panoramas, this is completely automatic once you add into it your batch of images. There's no lining them up or manually repositioning them like we did with those older Canon programs. This does all that for us, and does it much better than we ever could. The results speak for themselves, and loudly too! I love this program, and you will too.

So take a few minutes when you have some spare time, and tune up your Windows to make it more loveable. You'll be glad you did. And enjoy your day!