Start Screen Color Tuner for Windows 8.1 is the application which i have created to solve the following issue:
Windows 8.1 has changed the color settings for the logon screen, so old tweaks and apps don't work any more. Instead of the color index, it stores now some coded color value. I decided to create the app with attractive and simple UI to change the color of logon screen with one click.
As a bonus, it allows you to play with the Start Screen color and Accent color on the fly from the same window.
Latest version 1.1, see the change log below
Nature HD#13 theme for Windows 8
Gadgets Revived – the best desktop gadgets package + gadget gallery
Here is good news for everyone who loved and missed Desktop Gadgets in Windows 8. Gadgets Revived, a new project is available. It provides a very cool sidebar gadgets package with ALL original features like Control Panel items, Windows Search results and a gadget gallery! Over 900 high quality gadgets are available for download. According to the Gadgets Revived website:
Gadgets Revived is a web site which hosts a third party Desktop Gadgets gallery. All gadgets are property of their respective authors. Similar to the official gallery, they are available to you for free.
All gadgets here were checked manually by our authors and you can be sure that they work as expected. If you have any issues with some gadget, please notify us in the comments.
All gadgets provided on this site are original/untouched and authentic.
How to prevent Windows 8.1 from automatically updating Modern apps
With Windows 8.1, Microsoft has introduced a lot of improvements over Windows 8. One such improvement is the automatic app update feature, which downloads the latest versions of all Metro apps and allows you to keep them always up-to-date. In Windows 8, you had to update your apps manually.
However, some users may prefer to approve app updates manually. There are several reasons which my friends cited for this. The most common reason was: "The new version of the app broke/removed my favorite feature". That makes sense, you certainly don't want an update to delete or break any existing functionality. So for such perceptive users, it's better to simply disable the automatic updating of Modern apps. Let's see how.
Daily Bing #18 theme for Windows 8
Nature HD#12 theme for Windows 8
How to format any drive in Windows 8.1 with ReFS
Windows 8 (or rather Windows Server 2012) introduced a new file system called ReFS. ReFS stands for Resilient File System. Codenamed "Protogon", it improves on NTFS in some respects, while also removing a number of features. You may read about the advantages of ReFS in the following Wikipedia article. ReFS is intended for file servers only. In Windows 8.1, it is in fact locked for server OS only. If you need to unlock and enable full read and write support for ReFS in Windows 8.1, you can follow these simple instructions in this article.
How to prevent Skype from decreasing the volume of other applications in Windows 8.1
If you use the desktop version of Skype, you have probably noticed that every time you call someone or receive the call, Skype automatically reduces the volume of other apps, e.g. your music player. This can cause inconvenience if you do not plan to answer the call and you're listening to something important. Here's a simple tutorial which will allow you to change this behavior of Skype.