Windows 8 Lower Left Popup Icon - Switching To Desktop Does Not Show Anymore
Nov 3, 2012
When Windows 8 boots up to Start menu I position mouse cursor to lower-left corner. But the popup icon for switching to desktop does not show anymore. I have to right-click and choose Desktop. I have Windows 8 about a week, and I'm not sure what I changed so that the popup icon does not show anymore...
Today, for the first time, when I started my computer, the icons on the desktop (I use the old-style desktop) had shifted such that there was nothing in the top left corner. And I cannot drag anything up there anymore - there's this blank spot where I always used to keep my "My Documents" user profile folder. I turned off the option to be able to point up there and switch apps, and it didn't work.
Windows 8.1 on a Samsung laptop, still waiting for my recovery disk...
I'm getting confused about the new start button that was supposedly to come with the Win 8.1 update. I cant' find anything different from Win 8. Is the start button the icon found in the lower left corner of the screen?...or on my computer keyboard?...it looks like a window. I was expecting that I would get a dropdown start menu with Win 8.1 like I get with Win 7 when I click on that button. I would really like to have the Win 7 dropdown start menu when I click on that button in 8.1.
I have installed Classic Shell in an attempt to eradicate as much of Windows 8 as possible. I managed to get the word "Desktop" onto the right side of the quick launch taskbar. I have to click on a tiny arrow next to that word. That brings up a desktop menu but doesn't go to the desktop itself.
How can I get a desktop icon (not the word "Desktop") on the left side of the taskbar next to the start button? In Windows 7 the icon was on the right side but I somehow managed to move it to the left side.
I know about Win D and Win M. Those are okay but I'd rather have an icon to click on to eliminate extra keystrokes.
Ever since I have been working with Windows 8 I have received error messages stating "There was a problem sending the command to the program". It will be a document that I have created in word or excel on the exact same computer. I click on the folder in my library, find my document, double click on it, word or excel appears to start to open as a box displaying one or the other appears and then the error message appears. I click on "OK" in the error message and see the word or excel icon in my lower tray - click on that and there is my document. Not a huge deal but definitely not the way things should work..
In the MUSIC folder I have 1 folder for each artist. In each Artist folder I have 1 folder for each Album. And in each Album folder I have all the songs, with the cover art embedded in them, in every single .mp3 I have.
In folder options I've set folders to show thumbnails, not icon. So, each Album folder's icon is the album art of the .mp3 files it has inside. BUT in the MUSIC folder, all the Artist folders don't show the album arts they have inside. Their icon is not a folder's icon neither, it's like thumbnails of folders:
And I'd like them to show the thumbnails of the albums they have inside. Well, the maximum amount of images that a folder icon can show is 2, so if I have more than 1 album in an Artist folder, then the icon should be 2 random thumbnails (of 2 albums).
An example here:
I put a song (with embedded cover art) in the desktop. The archive's icon is the cover art.
Now I create a NEW FOLDER (the icon is a default folder icon) called "Album". I put there the .mp3 file. Now, the "Album" folder's icon is the cover art of the .mp3 file.
Then I create ANOTHER new folder called "Artist" (default folder icon), and I put there the "Album" folder. And here, the "Artist" folder's icon is NOT the cover art, but the icon of the image above, and I want it to show the cover art.
Notice that all album's folders have only .mp3 files, not hidden images like "folder.jpg" or anything else, just .mp3 files.
What drives me crazy is that like a week ago, Artist folders were showing cover arts of the albums they had inside (they picked up 2 random images, cause folders can show up to 2 thumbnails).
I am using Windows 8.1 on a laptop. When Windows was first installed, it would boot up to the tile view. Since I would switch over to the traditional desktop, at some point Windows started booting up to the traditional desktop.
How do I return to the tile view from the traditional desktop view?
My issue is that I'm working on a machine that is continuously switching between Desktop and Metro several times a second. It does it in clean boot mode (only Microsoft services enabled, everything else disabled), but not in Safe Mode. I'm running SFC /scannow at the moment, and I already ran linux badblocks /sv and CHKDSK (no errors). SMART status is okay, no triggers have been popped and the quick test passed.
I just installed mouse software on my 8.1 Pro laptop. The software starts every time I start my computer and shows an icon in the taskbar. There is one very annoying thing that it does, when I first login to my computer the notification icon for the mouse software pops up a window saying that it's running:
I opened Customize Notification Area to see if I could turn off notifications BUT keep the icon there (so I can right-click it and open the software).
I noticed there is no option to "Show Icon And Hide Notifications".
So the only way i can keep that annoying popup message from appearing every time I login is to hide everything. But then, as I said above, I won't be able to right click the icon and start the software.
Is there a way I can show icons but hide notifications?
I noticed when I was looking at the custom notification area window that there were entries for programs that I no longer have on my machine:
I have an Asus N550JV touchscreen laptop that I use primarily as a desktop replacement with my external monitors. I have set everything up to use the desktop interface and desktop versions of all apps where possible. Today I decided to take the laptop out and am now using the touchscreen. I am looking for a way to have the interface automatically switch to a Metro interface for everything once it recognizes that I am using the touchscreen for a bit. Is there any way to set up this behavior?
I have Windows 8.1 on my HP Pavilion Laptop. I have this problem where after starting my PC, logging in and being dropped into the Panel view, I wait for about 10 seconds... and then the PC starts thrashing and constantly flicking between the traditional Desktop and the Panel view without me touching a button / clicking on anything!
The only things I can access on my laptop are:
Task ManagerGoogle Chrome (by clicking on the icon very quickly in Panel View before it flicks back to traditional Desktop)
This problem literally prevents me accessing anything else. As soon as I start opening something in traditional desktop mode, the pc flicks straight back to Panel view and it is lost! Even if I am quick enough to click on an application, it doesn't even load it!
I am almost certain it is some piece of software that I must have picked up along the way. I've been trying to use my Norton antivirus to scan and detect it... but I cannot even open that to scan, due to this very problem.
I even tried using the Trend Micro Home Call service, which I could access through Chrome of course. Unfortunately as soon as I tried downloading it I was told it had failed as there is no access to the internet(!?) very odd indeed.
My laptop has an HD screen, 1920x1080 to be exact. Some of my desktop icons are out of focus and blurry, but others aren't. At first I assumed that those icons were not compatible with an HD screen or something, but then some of them fixed themselves. Others are still blurry.
I noticed yesterday that there is a very fine thin line on the left side of my desktop. In the screen shot you can barely make it out, but you will be able to once you see ot from the left corner of task bar. it does not appear when i open a browser or a folder or even start menu. It only shows on the desktop screen and is really annoying. I tried disabling some odd services and restarted the computer as well, but still no luck.
The new Windows 8.1 option "Show my desktop background on Start" is not available on my system. Actually, it was until I had to change my motherboard (and had a lot a crashes). Now that my PC is running normally again, that option is greyed and therefore unavailable. All the other options on the tab are functional.
I tried with other backgrounds to no avail. I don't know where to start digging.
Every now and then as I use the computer, all windows disappear and only the desktop is showing. I know this is supposed to be useful somehow, I find it incredibly irritating and want to turn it off. I think it's got some gimmicky name, but I can't recall it right now. what I am talking about, and how to turn it off....
I quite often place files on my Windows 8 desktop while im working on various stuff and have a problem with icons I cant fix, for example: I have a number of PDF files currently on my desktop and my pdf program is foxit. I DONT WANT TO CHANGE THE PROGRAM ICON, just the icons of the files it makes. I had the same issue on win7 and i know I can change folder view options to "show icons and not thumbnails" but unfortunately that screws up my image icons.
In windows 7, "types" and "nirsoft files type manager" allowed you to change the file type icon from the thumbnail to whatever icon you wanted. These 2 progs plus another I've tried don't work in win 8pro?
I have a Home group icon on the desktop that I can't remove -- normal desktop icons can be deleted via right mouse click --no option for this. On the Home group icon the delete option doesn't appear on right mouse click.
As I'm running Windows 8.1 ENTERPRISE I don't want or NEED Home-groups.
I sent my computer to the repair shop and they apparently reinstalled everything. For some reason they put the "Homegroup" system icon on my desktop and I don't want it there, I don't even use that. When I right click it, there is no delete option at all. How to delete this? Its annoying. I really get tired of Windows 8 trying to force me to use things that I don't wish to use.
I noticed when I click on the icon it has the option of "Leave the homegroup". I don't know if that would get rid of the icon or not but I am afraid to click leave the homegroup because they said my windows was corrupted and they fixed it. I am afraid to do anything drastic on my computer for fear it might corrupt it again. It seems like any little thing you do messes up this Windows 8.
I finally found a "problem" with the Windows 8 desktop. Its a problem in Windows 7 too but I had never started a Homegroup. The darn icon won't move and you can't delete it. There is a Windows 7 fix for the problem at HomeGroup Desktop Icon - Add or Remove - Windows 7 Forums and it works with Windows 8.
If you want access to the Homegroup shortcut be sure to pin it to the start menu (I guess we call that the Start screen now) before you delete it.
I have been trying to put my Bank Of America site as an icon on the desktop, in the past when I chose to do this I right clicked on the program and got a scroll down with the option to " Create Shortcut", now when I try I do not get this option. I have Win 8.1, it has always worked previously with 8.1..
Is there a way to put an icon for the desktop in the taskbar? I just want to get to my desktop easily with one click.
The only way I know to do it now with one click is to left-click in the extreme lower right corner of my screen. The only problem with that is that the area I have to click in is so small that I'm always getting the clock. I can't do it quickly.
I upgraded to the CP a few days ago and just noticed a huge problem. The "Show Desktop" tile that is normally on the start screen be default has gone missing. I can't figure out how I got rid of it in the first place, but is there some way to add it back?
I have changed the title to more accurately reflect the problem. A bunch of the features that come with Windows 8 CP (the tablet friendly Settings page, Remote Desktop, the show desktop tile, The Windows Store, etc) all vanished shortly after I installed Windows 8. I tried reinstalling and the same thing happened again.
Windows used to show all nearby WiFi hotspots in the same way that my phone does. You could also "rescan" to do a better job of seeing weak ones.
I don't know how to do this on my Win 8.1 Update1 desktop PC.
It just seems to show my own 2 connections and not all the 10 or so I see on my phone. I left click on the bar graph in the N.A. - a blue bar pops out from the right but it does not show all the nearby connections.
What algorithm is it using to make this selection? How can I control that? Do I have to buy an "app" or a program?