For me, the problems with Windows 8 centre on the utterly perverse decisions around how some actions pan out. For instance, I take an SD card of photos and plug it in to my card reader slot. Yep, the file explorer window begins to flash - all fine so far. So I open file explorer. There are my photos and I double click one. Excellent, it opens and I browse it.
Now I'd quite like to see another.
Bad luck if you're expecting anything friendly about this. No handy arrows on screen, nothing if you optimistically click a left or right button. A desperate stab at Esc only dumps you in the bizarre start screen with no obvious way back.
Pan around with the cursor while viewing a photo and you'll find all sorts of useful things with nothing to do with what you're actually doing at the moment.
Turns out that your route back into the folder is hidden away in a tiny spot in the top left of the screen. Even then all that gives you is a long-winded chance to double click another file.
It's as though this was designed by somebody deliberately setting out to ignore anything good or useful about previous incarnations of Windows. I suppose it's another example of the corporate mantra that change is good as an end in itself.
I know you can change XBMC to be the shell instead of explorer.exe but I also have SABnzbd, SickBeard and Couchpotato starting up in Windows (once I've clicked 'Desktop').
Dave, I also miss 3D buttons. Buttons are supposed to be 3D. You push them, therefore they are buttons, dammit.
Desktop boots on logon, in the background anyway.
Speculative speculation is speculative.
:-{)
*I know and you don't nyah nyah
more like!
Ah go on, let us in on the secret. Then we can all blab our source and you'll be famous like that Thurott twat chap.
Really? Everything I've ready has said that nothing in your Startup folder will start until you open the Desktop...
Are you sure?
I've done this (replacing the shell with XBMC.exe) and I'm sure I had the exact same symptom Jesus mentions. Entries in the Registry "Run" keys and Scheduled Tasks set to run before/on Login do start, but none of shortcuts placed in the Startup directory are run.
That was with Windows 7, not tried it with Windows 8 admittedly.