> > > * > Been fiddling with a Dell Venue 8 Pro (64 GB) / W8.1* *> for about 6 weeks now. I'm starting to think I like it.* > > > > > > *Installing Classic Desktop and Double Commander from Sourceforge willgiv= e > you a measure of comfort.I have yet to find the popular substitute for 7z= ip > or Windows defender though...* I added a Win 8 PC to my stable late last year. (7.x, XP misc, ... ) I found WIN8 seemed to make it not only hard but essentially impossible to do some regular tasks. I soon sought out 'Classic shell' [ http://www.classicshell.net/ ] based on others' recommendations and it seems to work well enough - ie essentially inisibly. My greatest 'loss' with WIN8 is that it is a 64 bit version and declares itself incapable of running older "unsupported 16 bit applications". I still use enough of these that this is a significant loss. I run an older than latest version of XXCOPY (31 Jan 2001 file date, version 2.44.4) as it serves my need better than alternatives. This program has worked superbly in almost all cases up until now. It runs in WIN8 but functions slightly differently than heretofore in some cases. This may be a WIN8 compatibility issue or is possibly due to Classic Shell or ... - uncertainty about the cause of any obscure problem is one of the prices you pay for installing something that overlays the O/S in some manner*. Experts may know how likely this is to cause problems in any given case. Lesser beings must wonder or spend time seeking out opinions and fixes which may or may not be relevant. [XXCOPY stalls when attempting to copy files with illegally long files names between a SATA connected drive and an external USB connected drive, both of which use the assigned system path names. It recovers to dark blackness (aka DOS box pretence) on escape with no complaint and the OS allows the offending files to be moved away. However, using "SUBST" to rename the destination "subdirectory" as eg Y: allows operation to proceed uninterrupted. It even appears to correctly copy the offending files with unaltered contents or sizes or filenames. Using the arcane and ancient "FC /B ...." returns a claim of integrity for copied files. It may be that other combinations of source and destination work OK or differently or not at all or octarine - I'll find out when I need to know. Hopefully.) Over time I've found it useful enough to assign (strictly "SUBST") paths to logical drive names rapidly and easily that I've made simple batch files (urk!) to assign X: Y: and Z: as desired. These are name WAZON, WAYON and, of course, WAXON**. I did have a WAXOFF but found it unnecessary, simply incorporating a WAXOFF command within WAXON prior to assigning Y: to some new path. This did, of course, slightly decrease the humour of such operations. Russell * Age of program is not the point if it worked OK in a prior OS version - the change of OS or ??? is.. ** Honest ... @echo off cls subst x: /D subst x: . You get a harmless error on first invocation in a new command interpreter due to lack of X: It didn't seem worth bothering about and provides warning that this is the first invocation on this occasion. Very useful for photo processing operations where eg a project can consistently refer to X: based files I have no doubt at all that there are better or vastly better ways of doing this using real OS features. I'm possibly happy to learn them if the say >=3D 1 year cost benefit return is positive and in most cases delighted t do so if the 1 day cbr is. Otherwise ... . R --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .