Clipboard in Win 8.1. (Distantly related to photography.)

[ameerat42]

Oh let's all be sophisticated and use Win8.1 !!!:

But wait! Did you know there is NO Clipboard viewer in Win 8.1 (and maybe others after Win XP)?

So? you might ask. Well, how do you know what's in clipboard at any given time?

Search Google like crazy, and only after a long time will you find that you have to go and copy it from WinXP (which I still run elsewhere).

In WinXP it's located in:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\clipbrd.exe.

You've got to copy this file (to a USB or so drive) and paste it into the same location in Win8.1.

Then it's handy to make a shortcut to it:
Either - locate it in the new folder and right-click and "Send to Desktop/Create shortcut",
or - right click on desktop and create a shortcut by pasting in the location of the file.

Then it works

[tandeejay]

Bought a laptop with windows 8... upgraded it to Win 7

[ameerat42]

Bought a laptop with windows 8... upgraded it to Win 7

Hmm! I dunno if that was a good move. I'd say Win 8.x still runs heaps better than Win 7 and is more secure.

Mine came with Win 8, and I had a free upgrade to Win 8.1.

OK, there are few silly things in it, but in all it is a good step forward. Also, if you - like me - don't like the opening
Apps screen, set it to start in Desktop mode, viz:

Win 8.1 in Desktop Mode

[Tannin]

Assuming you use Classic Shell, Win 8.x is easily superior to Windows 7, particularly speed-wise. And (still assuming you use Classic Shell) it has a much better user interface too. The good news is that Classic Shell also runs on Windows 7, so you can have a decent interface (combining the best of Win XP and Win 7) on 7 too, albeit not with the snappy speed of 8.

Without Classic Shell (or any of the several decent alternatives), needless to say, 8.x is a shocker.

Sadly, as Amerat highlights, there are three or four stupid little gotchas. I haven't missed the clipboard viewer (tried it once in Windows 3.1 and never touched it since), but I have customers who really, really miss the Windows games. Those too you can get back with a bit of mucking about. And there are a couple of devilishly subtle and obscure networking bugs to do with NTFS file permissions. One of those cost me a full day to figure out. But there has never, ever been a 100% pain-free Windows version. On the whole, 8.x is the best one ever - provided only that you have a way to axe that terrible brain-dead Metro UI.

[ameerat42]

Looking 4-ward to Version 10, which, according to the latest APC Mag, is going to be free to registered users of 7 and 8.
(With the usual rider: Specifications may change without notice...)

[ricktas]

Looking 4-ward to Version 10, which, according to the latest APC Mag, is going to be free to registered users of 7 and 8.
(With the usual rider: Specifications may change without notice...)

I wanna know where Ver 9 went? Perhaps it has some naming issue, like the non-existent VD Commodore..

[ameerat42]

According to an earlier APC mag, it was skipped and they went straight to 10.

[jim]

It's a bit of a shame how they mucked up the user interface of Windows 8, considering how stable and light on system resources the OS is. I know people who will tell you that it's great once you get your head around it, but having spent 17 years learning to do things a certain way, and accessing everything from the start menu, I find I bitterly resent having to start on a steep learning curve just to learn how to use the latest iteration of Windows. I don't want to have to think about the Operating System at this stage for heaven's sake! I want to think about my work.

[ameerat42]

Yeah, but it's not that bad. If you want you can install a 3rd-party start button, but I find I don't use it much anyway.
A few useful icons on Desktop and a couple in the Start bar (or whatever it's called...) See the pic above for what I
mean. My main gripe was that there was no way to know what you had in Clipboard at any given time

[Tannin]

It's a bit of a shame how they mucked up the user interface of Windows 8, considering how stable and light on system resources the OS is. I know people who will tell you that it's great once you get your head around it, but having spent 17 years learning to do things a certain way, and accessing everything from the start menu, I find I bitterly resent having to start on a steep learning curve just to learn how to use the latest iteration of Windows. I don't want to have to think about the Operating System at this stage for heaven's sake! I want to think about my work.

Jim, what part of "Classic Shell" did you not understand? It really is as simple as one single free download. No catches, no cost, (but donate if you wish). Takes 30 seconds to download, 30 seconds to install. Why wouldn't you spent 60 seconds to turn the worst Windows of all time into the best Windows of all time? And it works on Windows 7 too. It gives you, among other things, a proper "up" button on folders (which Vista and 7 brainlessly removed) even if you don't need the start menu. There are others too, Start8, for example ($5), but classic Shell is the best one.

With a single click you can choose between Win 7 style, Win XP style, and Classic style menus, and there is nothing to learn. Select your preferred menu once (with a single click - this ain't rocket science, anyone can do it) and you are instantly on familiar ground. Your system works exactly the way you expect it to. Or, if you like, you can modify it to select any desired mix of behaviour.

The ONLY thing I know how to do in the dreadful Metro interface is install Classic Shell. I don't have to know how to do anything else - and I work on other people's computers for a living. I have to be able to drive them or starve. If I don't need to know anything else about Metro, I can't imagine why anyone else would. It really is that simple.

(OK, I also know how to get out of those dreadful Metro applications which don't have an X to close. (Alt-f4 does the trick.) And I add a small tweak to Classic Shell for best results - select "advanced", then Win 8 settings, then turn off the stupid active corners (one click) and turn off the insane task bar transparency (one more click). But you can get away with out those finer touches if they seem too hard.)

[Mark L]

Like Jim, used to what I'm used to.
So if I'm still stuck on Vista, is there any reason why I should update to Win 8 and do the "Classic Shell" thing??
Or would that just mean I'm doing what I'm doing know? (my better half still yearns for XP)

[ricktas]

For clarity, I am using Windows 7 and I tend not to upgrade OS. I replace my laptop every few years as they wear out, and I just get a new OS with the upgrade. My current laptop is due for replacement in the next 12 months or so. Two of the USB ports are dead (hardware failure) and the fan has just been replaced cause it wasn't working properly. It gets disk errors reasonably often now too. It is just over 5 years old and fairly much gets used daily, cost me $799.00. I tend to do minor repairs along the way and then when it is obvious it needs replacing, do so, rather than upgrade to much along the way.

Desktop editing computer is a bit different, that gets things replaced and upgraded for a lot longer. It may get an OS upgrade at some point (also using Win 7). I find swapping in and out parts from a desktop easier than for a laptop.

But the OS is something that if it is working fine, I don't think about upgrading unless there is so real need to do so.

[agb]

I went to 8 pretty early on with startisback. Never looked back.

[ameerat42]

Yeah. I must admit I had a bit of a gripe over the lack of such a basic feature, but it sure is as good as any other. I just
"upgrade" by default - when I get a new machine with whatever OS it has. I've been reading about Win 10, and as that's
going to be free to users of 8 at least, I might avail myself of the free upgrade.

[arthurking83]

Win 10 looks quite good.

Very similar overall to Win8 .. more so than Win7, which you'd expect.

I'm trialling the beta version on my tablet only, and so far from what I've seen wouldn't hesitate to update the desktop to Win10 either tho.

I trialled Win8 on the tablet when it was beta, but had to initially hack into the registry to fool Win8 to install on a machine with lower than 1024x768 screen .. then when it installed it distorted the screen a bit anyhow.
Caused a bit of pain as it it's a pure tablet, the touch screen is quite important.
Played with it for a bit, but had to let it go as it wasn't as good as Win7(native) on the tablet .. even tho Win7 on a touch tablet is a PITA almost all the time.

What I really like about Windows, is the ability to allow a program to work in compatibility mode.
Obviously not for everyone, as it's rare that most people would use software from 15 odd or more years ago.
But when you need it, it is there.

Just a word of warning tho, as many folks are slowly migrating to 64bit only systems .. some of the compatibility mode options are quickly becoming or have become redundant.
Just the other day I needed to use a program from about 1993 or so .. Win3.1 I think .. which my 64bit only desktop wouldn't roll back to as it required 16bit mode.
you should be ok if you ever require 32bit mode software rollback, but it's probably now impossible to run 16 bit software in an emulation mode(due to the lack of such a feature from the CPU!!)

So I had to install the old software on the tablet(which of course runs a beta version of Win10!) .. as the tablet is 32bit .. this was no problem.

Weird stuff tho. This program is copyrighted in 1993, is 16 bit(why it wouldn't run in compatibility mode on the 64bit desktop), so I assumed Win3.1 as the obvious choice for compatibility .. but it gave an error that this software is not meant to run on Win 3.1.
So of course used Win95 as the next mode of choice and bingo! ..

I can now re-program my UHF radio again

.........................................

I can't remember the last time I looked at or used clipboard viewer.
I vaguely remember Win2K? ..... maybe MS paint? ... possibly a 200+Mb bitmap file .. and a very small inkling of a memory of the the use of clipboard viewer back then.

[ameerat42]

16-bit! I haven't heard that expression for a while. Comes from Ancient Greek, doesn't it!!

I remember, though, when 16-bit was in the distant future - when I had my 8-bit Commodores!

[arthurking83]

..... Comes from Ancient Greek, doesn't it!!

.....

Yeah!!! .... ok, hold up there junior!

I may be getting old, and I am of Greek descent .. but I ain't no Ancient Greek!(that's my parents)



(ps. now that we have 64 bit .. how long before we get 128 bit computing)

[tduell]

(ps. now that we have 64 bit .. how long before we get 128 bit computing)

I think we already have 128 bit processing being carried out in Floating Point Units.
We may not need 128 bit memory address space for a while, and the trend to increase cpu performance has been towards more cores and hyperthreading...so 128 bit instructions may not be seen for quite a while.

Cheers,
Terry

[ApolloLXII]

I wanna know where Ver 9 went? Perhaps it has some naming issue, like the non-existent VD Commodore..

I just want to know who was responsible for Windows Vista! There are not enough expletives to describe the utter pile of crapulence that is Vista. You could compare that OS to taking a blurred photo and then telling everyone that it's a 'work in progress' but it still does the job, except in Vista's case, it actually did the job very slowly or not at all.

[ameerat42]

...I just want to know who was responsible for Windows Vista!...

It was Genghis Khan, didn't you know?