Hi Guy’s, please can anybody help me with this problem, first of all I know nothing about the technical side of computers so any layman’s terms would be greatly appreciated.
I bought this H.P. Pavilion 20 Windows 8 desktop about two years ago and about two months ago I started getting messages saying “upgrade to Windows 8.1 now/ ask me later”. I kept clicking on the “ask me later” box for a few weeks and then one day it just came up “up grade to Windows 8.1 now” which I didn’t want to do but it was the only way that I could close down the page.
In the past I have been able to download “My Photos” and music on to a D.V.D. with “Windows Movie Maker” but since I did this 8.1 upgrade it keeps telling me this function is not available on this computer and that I must pay for an upgrade.
Now my questions are, is this normal and if I do have to pay for an upgrade could anybody recommend something that will let me put photos and music onto a D.V.D. which I can also copy and is not too expensive.
Windows 8 is that bad that Microsoft is ditching it and and going back to the windows 7 platform and improving on it.
They are giving everyone on windows 7 and later a completely free upgrade this year sometime in the autumn I think.
So if they think it’s crap it must be crap.
As for your problem ,do a system back up and restore to an earlier date before the upgrade to windows 8.1
I don’t use Windows 8 because after using the preview I refused to downgrade from Windows 7, however as far as I can tell Windows Movie Maker is not shipped as part of Windows you have to install it yourself, the likelihood is that you had it before because it was installed by the Laptop manufacturer.
As far as I can see Windows Movie Maker is part of Windows Essentials which I believe is free to download and free to use.
The other good news is that later this year you will have a free upgrade to Windows 10, well free for the first year anyway and it’s expected to be cheap after the first year, and so far it looks good.
Thanks lads for all the replies and the help from everybody. I don’t know what I did or what I pressed but I have now managed to download the slide show with the music onto a D.V.D.
Now the D.V.D. will play on the desk top with Windows 8.1 and the lap top with Windows 7 but it won’t play on the television D.V.D. so could anybody explain the reason for this and is there a solution. B.T.W. That’s great news about Windows 10.
mushroomman:
Thanks lads for all the replies and the help from everybody. I don’t know what I did or what I pressed but I have now managed to download the slide show with the music onto a D.V.D.
Now the D.V.D. will play on the desk top with Windows 8.1 and the lap top with Windows 7 but it won’t play on the television D.V.D. so could anybody explain the reason for this and is there a solution. B.T.W. That’s great news about Windows 10.
Many thanks Steve.
If your DVDs won’t play now, have they been inadvertently region coded? That is each part of the world has a region code and I think the UK is region 2 so it may have converted them to region 5 (USA). Look/click in the properties box of a file and the region code should be set at 2 - you may need to re-code the file.
Hi Fred, many thanks for your help. I clicked on to the file properties box but I could see nothing that mentioned an area code and I couldn’t see anything that resembled any kind of code. So my problem is still ongoing but thanks again.
mushroomman:
Thanks lads for all the replies and the help from everybody. I don’t know what I did or what I pressed but I have now managed to download the slide show with the music onto a D.V.D.
Now the D.V.D. will play on the desk top with Windows 8.1 and the lap top with Windows 7 but it won’t play on the television D.V.D. so could anybody explain the reason for this and is there a solution. B.T.W.
Many thanks Steve.
Sounds like it may not actually be written and encoded as a DVD but rather a file that has been written to a DVD.
A DVD has folders called Video_TS and Audio_TS. These folders have the files in them for the movie.
If your DVD is not like that, then your DVD player on your telly can’t read it, because it can’t decode it.
If it is like that, then your DVD still cannot decode it, because it doesn’t understand it.
Thanks Colingl, I shall have to read up on this a bit later. It’s all a bit baffling for somebody like me who had trouble with his first night heater and that only had an on and off switch and a thermostat.
Deeireland:
Just thought I’d put this up.
Windows 10 available 29 July for windows 7 onwards for free.ive reserved mine
Hope I’ve done the right thing.
Yup reserved my upgrade so I can get off this windows 8 rubbish.
It’s not bad on a touch screen like my lad has but my laptop is not a touch screen and it’s a right pain using the track pad added to that I hate the format
I don’t know what I did or what I pressed but I have now managed to download the slide show with the music onto a D.V.D. 
