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Windows ... Classic Shell disappeared (1 Viewer)

delia todd

If I said the wrong thing it was a Senior Moment
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Scotland
I've had a few issues with my lappy the last day or two with it being extremely slow. But this morning when I started up, my usual screen view which looked like the old W7 screen had disappeared.

I'd no shortcuts on the desktop, there's nothing in the Task Bar and items which should be in the Start Up are not there!!!

You can only imagine what I'm going through.

I'm having to use W10 which is just awful. Back and fro via Task Manager. Unable to minimise the screens, nor re-size them!!! What the heck is going on?

I could weep!
 
are there any recent updates? do you have a rollback option in the updates section?
it is possible you are running out of memory or something is physically faulty and it is in a safemode
backup and backup again while you can of course
what is age and memory etc of laptop?
on taskbar, go to action centre icon and make sure not in tablet mode
 
Hi Jape

I don't understand the 'workings' of windows... always have someone look after it. So I can't really answer your first questions..... and don't really know where to find the answers. Windows updates automatically, so whenever the last one was.

This laptop is less than a year old and last time I found my way to the relevant screen, there was plenty of space.

on taskbar, go to action centre icon and make sure not in tablet mode

No idea... can't see any such option.

Another question... having found most of my frequently used documents, which I can now access via Task Manager; will they all be lost when I shut down tonight, so I have to search for them again tomorrow?
 
ive gone to linux so if what i suggested isnt easy, wait for someone else

otherwise i will fire up a win10 machine tomorrow and run you through step by step
what time zone are you in?

meanwhile at bottom left should be a windows icon, hover over and click settings. in settings use search box and type in tablet mode and see what it says. i suggest this because tablet mode will lose your usual desktop

also at bottom of settings page should be 'update centre' which if clicked on tells you about whate updates you have, rollbacks etc. but check the tablet setting options first please

unless something is developing a fault your files should not be lost but may be mislaid. backup to a usb stick or sd card and later we can look at google drive, one drive, dropbox and similar options. none are perfect
 
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the action centre is where your notifications come up, usually right hand bottom, a square speech bubble. if you click that you will get your notifications action centre open. there should be a box says 'turn off tablet mode' if it is in it.

also check you havent just moved to another desktop view by clicking on the taskview icon which is a square with little rectangles either side in bottom taskbar
 
if you have a smartphone and are in perthshire pm me and depending on how you go we can 'message' or something so i can run you by the obvious things while we are connected. i shall check back in an hour or so to see how you are!
 
Ooooh.... you're brilliant Jape.

Found that option as you said and clicked on Tablet mode.... and Classic Shell is back with everything in place.

Nothing I did caused the problem. It was OK on shutdown and on opening up it was all changed!!

Many thanks lad.

.... and Scotland is the same time zone as you (currently) LOL
 
ok well done hon, you could have been travelling is why i asked about zone
now please go to the settings search bar i mentioned, type in tablet mode
on the page that opens tell it NOT to ever start in tablet mode again!
 
Sorry, we cross posted.

I'll let you know if there are any other issues.

if you have a smartphone and are in perthshire pm me and depending on how you go we can 'message' or something so i can run you by the obvious things while we are connected. i shall check back in an hour or so to see how you are!
 
win10 can really be confusing sometimes

"Sometimes" is a bit of an understatement!

All the 'basic' Windows features no longer work... minimise is inactive even though the minus key is there etc.

You can't click on the title bar and move the window.

You now can't see more than one screen at a times but are constantly trying to go from a web page, to the desk top tablets, finding the one you want... opening that, back to find the tablet you were on before and pasting information into the web page. Email comes in... back to the desk top to find my emails.... absolute nightmare when you're trying to work!
 
.... sorry Mono.... I've really no idea what you mean?

I spent 6 hours trying to do anything on this laptop, until Jape helped me out.

All I had (or started with) was a black screen with nothing on it. The Start menu had been screwed and I had to search for my browsers and Thunderbird.

Fortunately I didn't have to get so far as to try and save an image (usually put it on my desk top for easy upload to the Gallery). I couldn't find my normal images, only had a few that were on the hard drive.

It was quite frightening really!
 
I'm sat in front of a Windows 10 desktop I use for work and leisure, day in day out.

I can click the minimise button and it minimises, I can move the Windows around by using the title bar, I can have multiple windows open side by side. It does everything Windows 7 would do. Sure the start menu looks a bit different but it can be configured to be more 7 like without resorting to add ons. It took me about a week to get my head around 10 after 7.

I think your problems are centred around Tablet Mode, (where the UI is optimised for a small, touch screen use), and running Classic Shell.

First off turn off Tablet Mode, get Windows to ask before switching.

https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht501466

Then try running with out Classic Shell, give it a week and see
 
Thanks Mono.

Goodness - I'd no idea.

I'll study the info in that link.... then I need to find a week with nothing else to do, do I?;) But it does sound as if Tablet Mode is my problem... useless on a computer, isn't it.

Maybe I need to see if there's a class I can go to, to get used to it.
 
you dont need to worry
go to tablet mode settings as i suggested and tell it not to start in tablet mode ever! it will listen, i did it on mine with no problems and have had no trouble.
as Mono says, many of us got used to Win 10 ages ago. it is a great design one you get used to it and flexible too. plenty of google and you tube fixes for this and that. as Mono says, take a week if you have time.

my own problem basically was that microsoft is getting intrusive on privacy and control. that is not a bad thing nedessarily, Macs were always different and many preferred them. it is like google, you either accept the advantages with the intrusion, or you have to learn to 'root' in an entirely unAustralian sense and take control.

for myself and many that have privacy, security and control concerns, the only way is Linux. so before you take that week on win10, i would suggest you dual boot (that means safely install alongside) a Linux dustro. they, distros, are all varied to suit your purpose as they start from open source code. linux today is very usable and covers all but the mist highly evolved and specialist software. so yiu can load up a trial linux designed for ex windows users quite safely and try it.

it is pretty much a given that this is a personal computer and smartphone age and more and more synchronised and interconnected. you dont survive unless you take the time to learn the basics. it is a skill like driving a car, you could do without it but few do.

what i would suggest for you and others in your position of lack of knowledge is that rather than a week on win10, do invest a weekend or a few evenings on reading up on linux distros and maybe some basic stuff on win 10. analogy is you cant always lift the hood/bonnet and fix it, but you do need to know how to drive and hopefully change a tyre/tire.
 
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