how do I disable full screen apps in windows 8

"Have you never installed a 3rd party application because the Windows offering was too basic and didn't do the job that you wanted it to do?"

Yes of course, but what you hope is that new releases will progressively reduce the need to do so.

Internet explorer, for example?

This is such basic stuff you can't help think no one at Microsoft has the least idea what their users want.

MS is out of its mind.  I stopped using tiled window managers in the 90s.  I am not going back.  Why on earth would they impose such **** without choice upon us?  This is nothing but idiocy and abuse.  Goodbye Microsoft.   OS X and Linux for me.  This is too much.

Oh, please, if anyone gets a solution, I want to know, too!  I agree; it's not just one app, but all of them, that are the issue!  I cannot read email, play a game, and browse online now, and it's ridiculous.  Windows should have, oh, WINDOWS!  As in, more than one.  All I can run in a real window is the browser (Firefox, which I much prefer), and Yahoo Messenger.  Card games, email, and everything else is all full screen, which makes the whole concept of windows useless.  I used to chat, browse online, check email, play cards, and more, all open at once, and visible.  The only thing that used to be totally full screen was a couple of games, and even those, I can run in a window if I want.  Why is it"Windows 8" if we can't have windows?  At least the option!  At this stage, I want to wipe the HD completely, and install an older version, instead.  Vista, preferably, as I was never a big Win 7 fan, either, though it seems like a wonderful dream compared to 8!  All I have seen so far are programs to buy that supposedly fix the apps, and I don't believe I should have to pay extra for what has always, until now, a normal part of Windows.

Too true.

Software that doesn't know what kind of machine it is installed in? Doesn't adapt?

This software seems to have departed from giving users what they want and moved on to giving users what MS wants them to have and what it wants them to have is things that will cost money.

I found that the games were missing. I tried the online apps and the free games were pathetic versions of the original. Fancy design but so what? Fortunately I was able to load the games from, XP and use those.

But what really annoys is to find that all those customisable features are gone..... the add/remove programs doesn't let you change nearly as much as you used to. Do I want messanger? As for internet explorer it can't now be removed. I have set my browser preferences for Moz and disabled updates but why is so much internet connection dependent?

Why do I need both a desktop app and a mobile app in a laptop?

Then too I can't count the times I have had to wait when Office programs stop responding for no apparent reason. It has all the hall marks of poorly thought out and badly implemented software released on the target get with the idea of fixing the bugs later. That was always the case, but it seems that MS has pushed the boundaries beyond what is acceptably buggy simply to get it out of the door and making money.

MS success has been based on obsoleting the previous generation software and enforcing the installation of next generation in new machines. Time has come to demand that they extend the service life of XP, for example - and I'm pretty sure MS will discover most users still on XP never mind 7, and the culture shock of XP to 8 is just too much and shows up 8 to great disadvantage. And now people are talking about 10? The time has come to fix what there is before trying to sell something else with even more code (50million lines in 8?) IT may be in patrt my machine but going from a 10 year old laptop to a new higher spec with 8 I ought to expect a more satisfying experience and instead its like watching paint dry and watching it fade as fast as it is applied.