8.1 gives you back your start button, though I use classic start menu , never liked metro. 8.1 also has better stability than vanilla 8. To my recollection you have to instal 8.1 from the windows store though you might be able to get it from windows update now. Check both.

Have you tried running the games using a different DOSBox installation? I always just play my GOG games with my own DOSBox set-up.

Trade "down". I bought a newish 2nd H PC w/ win7 and all's cool in computerland!

Yea, i tried the Windows store already a long time ago and could not do it for some reason i cannot remember?.... I think it was because i was lost in a jungle of irrelevant rubbish and couldn't find the right page,,,,, i know that sounds so amazingly unlikely for the Windows website (extreme sarcasm alert).

I so know what you mean. That whole metro thing is for the birds unless you are using your thumb on a smartphone

I dunno? If you offered me a million dollars to either learn how to use a smartphone or discover cold fusion, well i would have to think very seriously about my answer, very seriously!

I would try launching the graphic mode setup tool included with the games and try switching the graphics mode. That may or may not help.

I don't know, it was remarkably easy on my PC. I just clicked the Windows Store button on the Start screen (the thing with all the tiles) and it opened the Windows store and there was a giant pane that took up a quarter of the screen that said something along the lines of "Upgrade to Windows 8.1 for free now". I clicked the start or download button or whatever, and several gigs later it was installed. Its not available on Windows update, but you do have to make sure you have all the updates you can get from there before you try to install. To my recollection the upgrade doesn't even appear in the Windows store until you get all the updates.

Maybe I'm just easy to please, but on 8.1 when you click the start button it brings up a start screen. All the icons I want are there. Its just the start menu, but bigger. I got rid of all the extraneous junk that Windows puts there for you automatically, though.

Nicest thing about 8.1 in my experience is I have yet to see a blue screen of death. First Windows that's been true of for me, and I've been running the thing for a year and a half.

Is that because it is actually handling things better or is it like John West - the best because of what it rejects?

Running dos box on windows 10 preview and it works like a charm so far just ran only into one problem with a game going full screen but meh that just one :P