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Windows 8 Help

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Windows 8 won't load properly

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TOFF

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Posted December 1, 2012 at 10:59PM

I installed 8 successfully about a month ago and all went well. The only recent change I have made is to install Startmenu8 to get a more normal Windows look. Yesterday my computer screen went dark blue and the mouse seemed not to function. I changed batteries and rebooted. However all I get is my desktop with no task bar and no icons. The programmes show up along the bottom but will not open maximised so I can't use them. I have a Dell desktop and have run the diagnostics on F12 at start up. All is ok according to that. I want to restore to a previous point but cannot get at Windows to do this. Any suggestions gratefully received.

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Marg7

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Posted December 2, 2012 at 9:05AM

There's a good video tutorial on youtube click here

which will show how to boot into windows 8 startup menu using F8 key and get access to different options, including system restore.

I did a system restore from within windows and it took about 40 minutes compared to XP (5 minutes) so it may not seem anything is happening for ages

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Marg7

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Posted December 2, 2012 at 9:23AM

I found that windows 8 is very thorough in what it removes. As well as removing any installed programs for that time period (which is what I expected)it removed the .exe files from programs in the downloads folder and another location they were copied to. So I had to re-download them - luckily not too many.

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Jock1e

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Posted December 2, 2012 at 10:30AM

Safe mode you have to hold down the Shift button and keep tapping F8 on start up for it to work.

It works on most computers but not on mine.

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rdave13

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Posted December 2, 2012 at 5:52PM

Safe mode by tapping keys isn't available I think. Does your keyboard work?

If so, in desktop press the windows key and the C key. That will bring up the Charms bar on the right. Use the tab key to move to the settings icon and press enter. In the blue bar that opens use the tab key to navigate to the 'Change PC settings' link. You'll get an App window up. In this Window use the tab and arrow keys to navigate to the GENERAL link on the left list. Press enter. Use the arrow keys to navigate down to 'RESTART NOW'. press ENTER. I shall follow my own advice and do it now to see if I can still use the TAB, Arrows and ENTER keys to navigate to the 'fresh install' or repair or even restore to remove that third party app you've installed. Will post later.

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rdave13

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Posted December 2, 2012 at 6:06PM

OK. I can navigate to these app windows but can't use the top left arrow in a circle to go back to the previous app page. Otherwise I can navigate to 'refresh', 'reset' or 'advanced'. I selected 'advanced' and here you have choices including system restore (my preferred option) or auto repair.

Possibly the reset option might be better.

This is academical if you can't use the keyboard of course.

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TOFF

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Posted December 2, 2012 at 10:37PM

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Unfortunately I cannot bring up anything using F8 or any win key combinations. All I get is a task bar with two icons - Internet Explorer and File Explorer. The latter works to some degree but if I open, for example, Control Panel, all I then get are task bar icons with minimised progs/apps which WON'T maximise so I can use them. In desperation, I tried to reload W8 with the CD, but to no avail. It won't boot on start up and even though I can get the set up file through File Explorer, nothing happens. My mouse sort of works as does my keyboard. In File Explorer the desktop shows all my old icons but the Library tree won't show any of my docs/photos. I just can't get it to restore. I have backed up a system image on another drive but don't know how to get it to run. Any ideas?

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rdave13

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Posted December 2, 2012 at 10:52PM

Hopefully you're image doesn't include Startmenu8. If you've created an image the program you used to create it will have asked you to create a bootable recovery CD. I hope you remember where the image file is. If on an external usb drive connect it to the PC. Start the PC so you can insert the recovery CD to the optical drive. Press and hold the start button on the desktop case. That will safely shutdown the PC. If you can reboot to bios then change the boot order to CD first, save and exit. It might be already set to this but check your mobo's documents if you have any. On rebooting 'press any key to boot from CD' should show so press any key. If you use Acronis or Paragon then follow instructions to find the image. Once found select the image to restore.

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TOFF

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Posted December 3, 2012 at 8:34AM

Thanks Dave. I'm away till the end of the week so will have to try then. I did try to change the boot order after pressing F2 at start up but couldn't identify the CD drive, There was a list of SATA this, that and the other. BTW - mobo - what is that?

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rdave13

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Posted December 3, 2012 at 9:16AM

Mobo is short for motherboard. That's me being lazy. It looks like it's F2 to enter the bios. Hopefully someone with a Dell PC can identify the drive for you from the list.

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flashfaint

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Posted December 6, 2012 at 4:13AM

Iam also facing same problem but in dell laptop

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