Make Windows 8 look like Windows 7

I know this topic has been discussed many many times, but I would just like to throw in my two cents.

I tested many different ways to incorporate the Start button many users are used to into Windows 8, including ViStart, StartW8 and others, but Classic Shell provides the best start button. It is multilingual, which means it adopts to almost any Windows 8 UI language, it provides drag-ability to items that are inside it, search bar shows items in real time, basically every feature you'd want in your Start button is present here.

Now, Windows 8.1 already comes with the Start button, which in my opinion is far from what the Start button should be - it simply throws you back into Start Screen (the one with the tiles).
In this case, Classic Shell doesn't create a secondary Start button but simply replaces the current one:

It is, of course, programmed to start up right into desktop like Windows 7 would. So now, the Start Screen is simply an optional feature that you can use when you feel like it, and your default interface closely resembles Windows 7. This, in my opinion, is what Windows 8 should be like - you choose your default interface depending on your device. There is no need for touch interface on a desktop computer - same as it's quite hard to use the Desktop with the icons on a 7-10 inch tablet.

Anyway, the desktop is still draggable downwards like it used to be, which will bring you back into Start Screen, and you can also access it via the Classic Shell Start button, its right up there on top of the recently used apps.

For those who'd want their Gadgets back - there's a program called 8GadgetPack which brings back all of the old gadgets plus some new interesting ones, and it even comes with the sidebar for the Vista die-hard fans.

Now, all that's left is modifying the default way your files are opened, because by default most picture files will open with the default photo app which is in full screen. Granted it now looks better than it did in Windows 8, it may still be burdensome for those who want their picture in an actual 'window'.
So to make sure our files aren't opened with Apps but rather with Programs - we should modify our Default Programs inside Control Panel. Click on Set Default Programs, scroll down to Windows Photo Viewer and set it as the default program for opening pictures and photos.

Same can be done regarding PDF files (after you've installed Adobe Reader), music files, videos, etc etc.

Windows 8 Single Language edition can have its language changed

When you buy a cheaper laptop you may have Windows 8 Single Language installed on it, which means there is a preinstalled interface language (or sometimes a few languages) and there is no official way to change them as you would in Windows 8 Core (the regular Windows 8).
This is similar to what happens when you buy a laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium preinstalled.

So, there is a way to change the Windows 7 Home premium (or Professional) interface language, and turns out it is the same for Windows 8 Single Language.

You need to have a language pack lp.cab file ready. You may find language packs distributed online for Windows 8, download one for your language and extract the lp.cab file.

The method for Windows 8 is as follows:

• Put the lp.cab in some folder on your hard drive. Let's put it in C:\lp for example.
• Open command prompt in elevated mode and type:

DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\lp\lp.cab

Windows 8 will recommend restarting after successfully adding the package.

After restarting, go back to command prompt in elevated mode and type:


bcdedit /set {current} locale xx-xx (where xx-xx is the language and locale code, for example english US would be en-US)


And the last command:


bcdboot %WinDir% /l xx-xx (again xx-xx will have the language and locale code, for example en-US for english-US)

• Now without closing command prompt type regedit to launch the registry editor and navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MUI\UILanguages

and delete the folders that have language-locale codes different from the ones you need. For example ru-RU or es-ES.

Restart the machine and the UI language will be changed to the one you installed. You may still see the remnants of the original language in the tiles or other Windows features, that will go away once you change the region to your locale inside Control Panel.

----
*(Update 15.10.14)
Method for Windows 8.1:

• Download the appropriate (for your version of Windows 8.1) language pack listed further down in this post.
• Rename the cab file to lp.cab
• Put the lp.cab in some folder on your hard drive. Let's put it in C:\lp\
• Open command prompt in elevated mode and type:

DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\lp\lp.cab

Windows 8.1 may recommend restarting after successfully adding the package.

If returning from a reboot - go into elevated prompt again.

Now we need to remove the reference to the old language pack. To do that we need to find out the exact identifier of the language pack installed. For this we need to run:

DISM /Online /Get-Packages > C:\pack.txt

Because the list of installed packages is long, the command sends it to a file called pack.txt located in the root of the C: partition. Open the file and look for:

Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package........
Status: Installed
Release Type : Language Pack

Make sure you find the identifier for your old language pack, so if we're getting rid of the English language - the identifier will have "en-US" in the name.
For example an English language pack that comes with your English based system will be something like:
Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~en-US~6.1.7601.17514 
Note the en-US in the name.

Now let's run a command to remove the old language pack (listed in the above example):

DISM /Online /Remove-Package /PackageName:Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~en-US~6.1.7601.17514

After the removal procedure is done, you will be prompted to reboot the computer. After the reboot you should be faced with the new language interface.


A big thank you goes to Irina Likhter for pointing out this method!


*Update (25.04.14):
I have uploaded language packs for certain languages for Windows 8 64bit here -

English (US)

Arabic (SA) (العربية)
German (Deutch)
Spanish (Espanol)
Finnish (Suomalainen)
Hebrew (עברית)
Korean (한국어)
Polish (Polski)
Portuguese (Brazil) (Português)
Romanian (Românesc)
Russian (Русский)
Thai (ภาษาไทย)

*Update (05.05.14):
More language packs for the following languages are available for download:

Bulgarian (български)
Czech (čeština)
Danish (Dansk)
Greek (ελληνικά)
Estonian (Eesti)
French (Francais)
Croatian (Hrvatski)
Hungarian (Magyar)
Italian (Italiano)
Japanese (日本語)
Latvian (latviešu)
Lithuianian (lietuvių)
Norwegian (Norsk)
Dutch (Nederlands)
Slovak (slovencina)
Slovenian (slovenšcina)
Swedish (svenska)
Turkish (Türk)
Ukrainian (український)
Chinese Standard (中国语文)
Chinese Hong Kong (中國語文)

*Update (07.05.14):

Working LP for Windows 8.1 will be uploaded in the near future.

*Update (02.08.14):

Here are the Windows 8.1 Language packs direct from Windows Update:

Windows 8.1 32-bit (x86) MUI language packs
Arabic	lp_e761356c4e6d5d283e091eab04e69b6dee881058.cab
Bulgarian	lp_94a9ddf1da45e81fbe20285c2c9fa9a3bbd64073.cab
Chinese - Simplified	lp_69bfd811cc93570647c30dfd0d71575d8a8eec84.cab
Chinese - Traditional	lp_95a28511857d5f0a7891d970285f0218ae65faf1.cab
Croatian	lp_86244fc9eedea6d481fe3810f665f4cf872766cb.cab
Czech	lp_a0fb72f641958b6cd66e6d7a158023d8eeb17728.cab
Danish	lp_6a3d5a95346cf22c5c1d2ab6965a917e7c0e0ff1.cab
Dutch	lp_8d0e05eabb3c9693c891f2b9aa884d0362a439be.cab
English - United Kingdom	lp_43e709fc9932e26431ff87e163daaaeae15677eb.cab
English - United States	lp_45b0cfb6b0bfd5984faa3cd64b7b8f2b2a72465e.cab
Estonian	lp_69b4fc896dc65d2624dc9485af6f7c35d682c84b.cab
Finnish	lp_109ddcdc69622ff51c761226c65cf3e987bc0d97.cab
French	lp_6588a26cdd1f53395b8f3e6ae0f256fc080df570.cab
German	lp_2fe6973480b70f891baf54cfdb08cc0ba86aba59.cab
Greek	lp_7538e8c96ea74579df6743dcf0e6acfa4ccca8fa.cab
Hebrew	lp_86f74045fc553118f94a779854c6a22a5a02840e.cab
Hungarian	lp_7f0359c16b1465d52c3354fb997d19b851803dd9.cab
Italian	lp_d42d8df2cfd2cab55d6cc17c5582a79df3366243.cab
Japanese	lp_1816a277746d350dea3eaf2d88c2b2786e8aa185.cab
Korean	lp_cc5d9260de340263736f1de0b54b38990f2383bd.cab
Latvian	lp_e51af7f3ebc66c8f6eb5800ea79b075291fea111.cab
Lithuanian	lp_48ca5ac09481b50ff3e481900089796a35742850.cab
Norwegian	lp_d62663d1994a307dfc317aca9503d46532e220d6.cab
Polish	lp_768e177d1e63ba64b52bb38104df3d98fdc91c79.cab
Portuguese - Brazil	lp_4298fe588435ae43178ed6b286f4a6aafb19ae72.cab
Portuguese - Portugal	lp_0bb880c2594c8022b3b4dd0bcaf52deae05a9495.cab
Romanian	lp_429b16c585a6f76dc0060fd3b7a317df442ab4a0.cab
Russian	lp_a71c5ab9addddab6d0a2e4cea90626ee2cae5439.cab
Serbian - Latin	lp_93bb359594ab7ed30834bff0aae4c06d1d649621.cab
Slovak	lp_e2a755cdf7be2c51072957bddc2a933f3a5761c2.cab
Slovenian	lp_13abc2f402540524d7fbd1de5c36df40730bbba9.cab
Spanish	lp_676ad62e977f0e940c4d84499175c0f773277496.cab
Swedish	lp_2bf19fcb885a0b677945a258c967cbe5b928851a.cab
Thai	lp_e2092129743a6d6a3d39427b8e773f7420d32796.cab
Turkish	lp_bfe26c9e748b1a2638471a46836e3bba8e39c745.cab
Ukrainian	lp_49e2dd1554ae4cd0e00097405ec3e14d4ce48f07.cab
Windows 8.1 64-bit (x64) MUI language packs
Arabic	lp_245dc9426d4367a0530772f895fafca096eaa114.cab
Bulgarian	lp_3e4ed0536c56c486985d7ee728611eab7aea56b5.cab
Chinese - Simplified	lp_839bf07c4bfb849c8de488007a283a427aa5a2db.cab
Chinese - Traditional	lp_dca32648111293955a9051f5f3f731f7a9897244.cab
Croatian	lp_48415f4c0392c21705c70c3ea2258eb2c10e99be.cab
Czech	lp_6a22345f1f0b4b604d06de373432c1a2e9098745.cab
Danish	lp_90e2877d46a338c8865f3281e07a031fba4d16e9.cab
Dutch	lp_5593930aa453139484f6a5b2214669d7225ff81f.cab
English - United Kingdom	lp_55c5ff4da1d83ae6f4ebd1f8c020cb80ceda7da8.cab
English - United States	lp_8fa033dd9ab61a528192eaa696088d582f112e68.cab
Estonian	lp_fba45e3a552db3b5ef08194a609aaed6249657ed.cab
Finnish	lp_e8e1f24cb17f98ae9d9a7b386be052efa7f712b9.cab
French	lp_57ba398b9875a01656ae6bd9fee53b4717f7612e.cab
German	lp_552a782c0628bc393ca2eaa6510561a390ab3bb8.cab
Greek	lp_0b2d690e1a9a4b4dce173b8ce73fd35bc34f91a4.cab
Hebrew	lp_c06e792bdf64255af698e558249dddbff164969d.cab
Hungarian	lp_9c5c4bde620a4541ead2d797a5f2195adac5223c.cab
Italian	lp_43e31d0dce2ed26bc3d52713f154a1acf92c0365.cab
Japanese	lp_da2ecd336d37c67ffaf9158a8ba4d10c15b00abe.cab
Korean	lp_dcfcc005120d35f97ad179d3d748b6df6605d448.cab
Latvian	lp_0c5681349cd5f361ed995a941d3f7c3887633c0f.cab
Lithuanian	lp_7e5d2cb48b37ef76a034503ee11a51a88dda9e98.cab
Norwegian	lp_f51bfbc94960eba5d1621dd77ffdc0222257c4d3.cab
Polish	lp_4da671077a32d022bc449aaf84ce5eccaceb8b28.cab
Portuguese - Brazil	lp_c1584a113e985cdf557bba78fe3a8d23f0c3fe8d.cab
Portuguese - Portugal	lp_f91504b9bb08af601b0acb33c1088c6ab3ca9202.cab
Romanian	lp_06c4f3bc6d3733e9fb8f327e82587be814d1610c.cab
Russian	lp_da274f576f778d986bc0a7ff14ef0af357b59274.cab
Serbian - Latin	lp_3116c97d620dc732f75f67d0ac30f27078d5ff2a.cab
Slovak	lp_407ffe64bc8e9b61c1fcdaddaf199001452b5068.cab
Slovenian	lp_dd64d4905f4ba5166f6fc86d49ea2e7186a60970.cab
Spanish	lp_8bfb4f60803481f9a25a7740ce306fbad45408a8.cab
Swedish	lp_461bfbe130f47d7cfc2e67b3b888d5364ecdc062.cab
Thai	lp_9e2467ca9fcec4ad63715d58a6f022f153332393.cab
Turkish	lp_0d45ec56c1ab4c85c450b56b040bd886eaba78b1.cab
Ukrainian	lp_78029b73c07ed66b7df0f6182af61d7ed4cb9e03.cab

How to recover Windows 8 product key when it's too late

When you buy a Windows 8 based laptop, it will not come with a Windows 8 product key sticker anymore, so finding your product key becomes more complicated. Especially when your hard drive becomes faulty and you can't boot into Windows anymore.

If Windows 8 is not booting, and the drive's health is low - you can always send your laptop back for warranty repair. But if warranty is not available anymore - you might have to replace the hard drive yourself. But you will need your product key to reinstall Windows 8 back onto a new hard drive. So to recover your product key you will need to take out the faulty hard drive (assuming the data is still accessible) and connect it to a working computer as an additional hard drive. You will then need a tool called ProduKey by NirSoft - available here free of charge. Run the tool and point it to the windows folder on the faulty drive. It will then recover and show your Windows 8 Product Key, all that's left is obtaining the installation image and using this product key to reinstall your OS.

Rogue script ulbloqmeed.vbs removal

This is a rogue VBS script that uses flash media as its primary method of spreading. I stumbled upon it today and decided to write about it because it's not detected by most antivirus software and malware cleaners. It's not a real virus, it's a VBS script that messes with the data on your flash media by making all files and folders hidden and creating shortcuts with the same names as your files and folders. The shortcuts basically start the script that then gets inside the registry and creates keys for itself. The script may have different names, but the removal procedure is the same for all.

The removal itself is quite manual and I will describe the steps.

• First off, kill the wscript.exe process that is running in the background, using Task Manager. 
• Then start regedit in elevated mode and find any entries with "ulbloqmeed" and delete them. 
• Close regedit. 
• It is also wise to start msconfig and look for startup entries of this script here. Uncheck those entries and restart the computer. 
• Now search the entire system partition for "ulbloqmeed", it will mainly be found inside %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp - delete the file here when you find it.

This should get rid of the script running in the background and clean the system. Now all that's left is cleaning the flash media that brought it here in the first place.

• Turn on the ability to see hidden files in windows explorer. 
• Open the flash media drive to see the files and folders, you will now see two sets of files - the ones you originally had there that are now "hidden" and their visible shortcut duplicates that were created by the script.
• Delete all of the shortcut files. 
• Open CMD in elevated mode and run this command:

attrib -r -s -h /s /d [flash drive letter]:\

Assuming the flash drive letter is E: - the command will look like this:

attrib -r -s -h /s /d E:\

This will force the removal of the "hidden" attribute off of the files and folders inside the flash drive.

Promotional video of my CPU table

This is a video I made on YouTube to promote my CPU table.

Internet Explorer shows a white page instead of a website.

This happens on Windows 7 64 bit running the 32 bit version of IE9 or IE10. This is a very rare problem and not many solutions are given online so I decided to post my own solution that works.

First off - let's eliminate malware and viruses, the system is clean and updated.
Second - a lot of people seem to have a problem with "Hardware rendering" in IE - so we should enable software rendering.

Third - resetting the browser, cleaning temp files and cookies, uninstalling and downgrading to a previous version should be done.

If none of this helps - then come the big guns.

Most people in this case would do a repair installation of Windows, which I think is like killing a mosquito with a shotgun. A repair may bring other problems to your already installed and configured software. So this problem should be dealt with directly using the following method.

The root of this problem is a corrupt DLL file called d2d1.dll which, in this case, is located in the %systemroot%\SysWOW64 folder.
To confirm this we should scan the system for corrupt system files by going into elevated command prompt and running:

sfc /scannow

If the above file is in fact corrupt - SFC may repair it and the problem goes away. But in many cases it does not repair it because the backup copy of this file may also be corrupt. In this case we need to replace it with a "healthy" version.

I have posted a healthy version of this file here. (Use at your own risk, it may not be compatible with your system). This is for Windows 7 Pro 64bit SP1.

Now the tricky part is to replace a system file in a protected system folder. In this case inside the aforementioned SysWOW64 folder. The key to this is to first take ownership of the file inside and then change the file access permissions. So we right click d2d1.dll and go into Properties > Security >Advanced > Owner > Edit. Make your user or the administrators group the owner of the file. Then, while still inside the file properties window, under Security click on Edit and click on the Administrators group or the current user and click Allow: Full control check-box.

This will now enable us to edit or replace the file. Now we rename the file's extention to something like ".old" instead of ".dll" for it to be easily recoverable in case something goes wrong.
Once it's renamed - we can now copy the "healthy" file here. After that's done, no need to restart, just run your IE and it should all go back to normal.

Word 2013 crashes on startup

If Word 2013 crashes right after it's finished starting up - usually the reason is an add-in that is causing this. Most of the time it's the ABBYY Finereader add-in that loads automatically, and your best bet is to disable it.
To do this we need to start Word (or Excel, or any other Office app that crashes this way) in its safe mode by bringing up the Run box by pressing [Windows Key] + R and then typing:

winword.exe /safe

This will load Word in safe mode which will let you disable the add-in. To do this click File > Options > Add-Ins. On the bottom where it says Manage: [COM Add-ins} click Go. This will bring up the Add-in list where you uncheck the add-ins you need to disable (again, usually by Finereader). Once it's done, click OK and restart Word in normal mode.