WDW 8 - Install program CD

Most of the advice here is good for someone that can understand it, but my CPU knowledge is hit-miss, and most often miss. I try and then usually blow it.

Having said that - I also have several MSWord and Photoshop programs only a few years old that work fine on WDW7 ... Now suddenly, nothing will load on this WDW8, and even when someone sends me an attachment, (A real p...s off here) it converts it to the new one and tells me I need to buy it to open it or download it.

An example: I just got a 300 pages paper after an editor sent it back with edits - now, when I open it, it reads like a foreign language, and it will not download without me buying the new Word program. (HOT, HOT, and Steaming at the moment)

My MSWord program works on the laptop, but Outlook will not allow me to download anything new. SO, now everything that comes in tells me I need new programs. That is the real "mad maker" here because I already bought it once and it works fine - so, now it's making me buy it twice.

I also have Thunderbird, so will try that and see - and if it works, will abandon Outlook completely -

SO, next Q? I have my other laptop with me - A Dell - can I remove this Toshiba HD and install the Dell HD in here and use it? It has all my programs and all my data on it already, including WDW7 - When I bought the Dell, I bought a new HD (faster and bigger) and installed a new WDW7 copy on it (I bought the discs for WDW7) and installed it direct on the new HD.

SO, I would then trash can this WDW8 - I know, maybe some think I should not, and learn it and buy the new versions. But it really, really rings my bell when a company like MS 'forces' me to buy a new program when the one I have does everything I want it to do ... except load the programs I bought once.

One very, very hot Monkey here! Been fighting this battle for more than a month, and most of it on the road, which makes it even more difficult...

Problem: I can change to gmail or whatever, and trash Outlook Express hotmail, but then ten years of contacts will not have my new one. But maybe that's an answer, change to gmail and monitor hotmail. Hmmmmmm that's the trouble I get in because I only know enough about tech stuff to get me in trouble. Microsoft has certainly become annoying ... no wonder they got sued!

monkey44 wrote:


SO, next Q? I have my other laptop with me - A Dell - can I remove this Toshiba HD and install the Dell HD in here and use it? It has all my programs and all my data on it already, including WDW7 - When I bought the Dell, I bought a new HD (faster and bigger) and installed a new WDW7 copy on it (I bought the discs for WDW7) and installed it direct on the new HD.

No! The Window 7 HD is registered to the DELL's hardware and drivers. You could very well get a BSOD installing it into your Toshiba. Worst yet, it may no longer even boot when placed back into your DELL. If you're lucky, a repair may restore the HD. It other cases, it will take a complete fresh reinstall.

You don't have to buy a new Office Suite. Have you tried the free, open source Libre Office? It's compatible of most all MS files. This is what I use even-though I have Microsoft Office 2010 at work.

I do not have my Win 8 system in front of me so will do this from memory.
Open File Explorer by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search), entering File Explorer in the search box, tapping or clicking Apps, and then tapping or clicking File Explorer. Before I clicked on File Explorer, I selected it and pinned to Task Bar. This makes it constantly available on the Windows Explorer App tile. Then I go to the Windows Explorer App tile, open the File Explorer from the Task Bar and can run anything from any file, anywhere, including CD/DVD.

Classic Shell at Cnet.com

Download Classic Shell from the link above or at Classic Shell home page. (I use CNET because they have been a very trustworthy site for me over the years.)

This will restore the W7 desktop appearance and take away some of the frustrations you are having.

Then go to Photoshop.com and ask your questions on their blog site. If you problem is common they should have an answer for you.

On my new W8 machine, I found that I had to tell the disk drive software when to run certain types of CD and DVD disks before it would recognize the disk in the drive and know what to do with it.

The software that uses the drive on my HP machine is Cyber Suite. Yours likely will be different but might need your instructions to begin using the disc drive. Mine did. (Previous new machines prior to W8 just worked without instruction.)