From my experience with W 7 & 8...I would google Classic Shell and see if it is compatible with W 8.1, if it is I would go with it. I think every computer I have had except ME has been faster than the last one. Classic Shell is a great software that converts the W8's into a computer more like the version we are use to. My Acer laptop is very fast and the monitor part moves to comfortable positions for your vision, especially if you have mid range vision. It converts from a laptop to a tablet, a very large tablet.

Yes, they are installing all the windows and the front door. My contractor, who is the one that referred them to me, said they would charge a lot to install the sliders cause you have to cut into the stucco. Since he is working with us on various projects, including replacing some facia board before we paint, he said he would do it. I have to call her today and let her know which hardware we want as well. She gave me the Emtek catalog and they have some amazing prices! I will let you know and post pics! Toodlse, L

Careful about painting vinyl windows/doors. I had the same dilemma, and carefully read the manufacturer's information about painting (Andersen in my case). It clearly stated that you can use lighter coloured paint, but never to use paint that's a darker colour than the vinyl. The reasoning for this is that a darker colour will absorb more heat than the lighter vinyl window is designed for, and may cause problems with the glass. I understand your problem, the Andersen french doors I ended up purchasing didn't have exterior colour options that fit into my planned exterior colour scheme. I want a medium-blue exterior, and I find white vinyl trim to be a little harsh against the blue. So I chose to go with the sandtone colour for the vinyl French doors, and will modify my exterior colour scheme to medium blue, with cream/beige and burgundy trim colours. Gee I hope it works out ;-/ Good luck with your windows, your vision for the space sounds great !

Support has been, or will be dropped for all versions of XP except for service pack 3. However, XP remains my favorite windows version. My wife moved to Vista on her laptop and hated it. She now has Windows 7 and says it is an improvement over Vista. Some day, I plan to move to Windows 7 and skip Vista. This requires a complete clean out of the system - reformat of the disk. I dread that move, and expect some applications and hardware will no longer be compatible. If certain applications become incompatible, I'll resist the move as long as I can. These would be applications that are too expensive for me as a retiree to replace. I have an old finite element analysis program that is no longer compatible. To buy a new version is $16,000 the last time I priced it, so that will not be done unless I land a consulting job that needs it and can pay for it - not likely in my remaining life. If you are having difficulty in finding your pictures, use the "Find" command to search your hard drive. If your disk has been subdivided into logical drives, you may have to search each logical drive. The find comamnd does not need the entire name of the file to find it, just part of the name will do. It will, of course, list all files matching the same fragment. For example, if you searched for all occurences of *.jpg, you'll get every file having extension " jpg", not necessarily an efficent thing to do. Suppose you have the followiong files: 1998 Joey 1.tif 1998 Joey 2.jpg 2000 Joey 1.doc You could locate all these files by searching on "joey" and very likely would not get many extraenous hits. File names that contined the string, joey, would also appear such as jumpjoey.tif . Recommendation: In the future, create folders with meaningful names in which to store your images. That way, you'll know where they are. Folder names such as: Vacation Jun 2000 Year 2001 pic Year 2002 pic 110Canon 111Canon are examples. Tip: Its a good idea when you set up a new computer to set aside a data drive for documnets and images. If you have one hard drive, a logical drive could be created on it. You would have 2 logical drives: one for the system files and the other for your personal files. I have 2 physical hard drives in my computer which becomes a natural thing to do. This separates your data from the system and application disk, and makes for more efficient use fo the "Find" command. On first pass, you need to search only the data drive, and if not found there, search the other drives. System and application files are humungous these days and requires much needless search time.