Like all previous versions of Microsoft’s operating system, Windows 8 is highly customizable, so if there’s something about it you don’t like -- something fairly minor that is, rather than the entire OS -- you might be able to change it by installing a third-party app, or making some registry tweaks.
There are a lot more than eight ways to improve Windows 8 of course, but these are some of the ones I’ve found the most useful.
1. Add a Start orb. After you’ve used Windows 8 for a while you soon get used to the absence of a Start button, which is exactly what Microsoft is hoping for. That doesn’t mean you won’t necessarily miss it though. If you think its absence is dumb, you can reintroduce it using
Start8 from Stardock.
2. Bypass the Metro version of Internet Explorer. The Metro version of IE is pretty limited. Fortunately, you can link the Metro tile to the desktop version of the browser instead. Open the Search charm and find
inetcpl.cpl. Click the Programs tab and under “Choose how you open links” select “Always in Internet Explorer on the desktop”. Also check “Open Internet Explorer tiles on the desktop” and click OK.
