Inside Delphian

Windows 8 - Cantos III

About two weeks ago, in my second article in this series (you can read it at http://dva.delphianva.com/2012/04/windows-8-cantos-ii.html if you're interested), I told you about my day-to-day use of Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I mentioned things like Start, which is no longer a button, but rather a screen, and I talked about how tablet-friendly this upcoming version of Windows would be. This time around, as promised, I want to speak a bit about what I've done to customize my Windows 8 experience.

On initial configuration, I didn't really understand that there were two ways in which to log-in. One way is 'local', in that you don't sign into any account (e-mail or otherwise). The other is that you can sign in with your Windows Live ID. I tried it, using my Hotmail/Live account, but have reverted to a local sign-in for now. For those of you interested in it, there are two important, useful reasons why you might want to go the route of signing-in:

1. You can synchronize all of your files using SkyDrive. So Apple users have iCloud (non-Apple users too, to an extent), and PC users have SkyDrive (or Google if you wish).
2. You can synchronize your personalized settings. This means if you log-into another computer running Windows 8, your settings will transparently be available.

My main area of focus or concern so far has been my Start page. The Start page has icons for Windows 8 apps at first, but you can of course add your own programs (and icons). To investigate a little, you should head over to the Windows Store (shown here), and that has tons of apps you can try, use for free, or buy. Now here's a special note about apps: the native applications used in Windows 8 are "Metro" style (full screen, among other things), but in terms of what programs you can/can't use in Windows 8, almost anything you used in either Windows Vista, or Windows 7 should still work. The app for the App Store is simply called Store in Windows 8. It's actually pretty cool. It's one of the first places I visited once I had taken care of installing, re-installing, or updating the non-Metro apps I normally use (things like Microsoft Office 2010, Firefox, Chrome, and so forth).

Adding an application in Windows 8 is done just like in Vista or Windows 7: pop in the CD. Normally, Windows 8 will add the icon to a blank area on (the) Start (page). To change the order of icons, grab one with your mouse (or finger if you're using a tablet) and move it. Now, a whole new world opens up when you right-click an application's icon on Windows 8 Start: a panel opens at the bottom of the Start page, offering you choices of things you can do with that icon, or with the item (for instance, a program) itself. A picture best describes this, so see below what happened when I right-clicked the icon for the Firefox program.

What you see above is way cool, as I now have the option of simply removing the icon from Start, or from the Taskbar, or actually uninstalling the program if I want.

In my next post on Windows 8, I'll take about some shortcuts I've discovered, as well as let you in on a few Windows 8 'secrets' and tips.

Windows 8 - Cantos II

A couple of weeks ago, I told you I'd downloaded Microsoft Windows 8 Consumer Preview, installed it on the Ripley laptop, and began my adventure with it. For those of you interested in my first article, you can find it here: http://dva.delphianva.com/2012/04/windows-8-cantos-i.html. This, the second article in the series, will begin to discuss my day-to-day experiences with Windows 8.

One thing I noticed immediately, and this is on a moderately powered but six-year old HP Pavilion laptop, is the start-up speed. Nice. On my machine, I see the Startup screen (a pleasant looking screen, with nice wallpaper, a large digital time display, an Internet signal strength meter, and battery meter) in 15 seconds or so. Yep, it's true! It took me a bunch of key presses at first to realize that I had to press an arrow key, or the CTRL key (and I'm sure there are others) to get to the actual Start screen. Now might be a good time to show you what that looks like (I've customized mine at this point, rearranging, removing, and adding icons). What do you think of Start? Anything missing? Anything new?

Answers to the quiz: first, there is no Start button. But believe me, that's not a hinderance. Click an icon, or start typing (very cool), to get to what you want. Second, the desktop has groups of icons on it (changeable and customizable), and if you have more than what you see above, you'd swipe on a tablet, or use your mouse (or right arrow key) to see the rest on a non-touch screen PC (such as the one I'm using now). Oh yes, one more thing: if you want to see your entire Start desktop in one go, you can click or tap the magnifying glass at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. You can't click on an individual icon while it's 'miniaturized', but you can clearly view all of your groups.

Like what you see so far?

As I got more comfortable with the new user interface, I began to explore. That allowed me to customize Start, Unpin from Start the programs I didn't want to see there, and do things like customize my new Weather App, so I could see my city at a glance, even in live tile mode (the small version that you see in my capture above).

I'll talk more about my experiences, and customization, in the next article in this series.

Windows 8 - Cantos I

Been reading about it for a few weeks. At first, I thought, hell no; I'm not doing this. Thought about it some more, and decided to bite (byte?) the bullet, and install Windows 8 on one of the computers.

Both of my laptops, old and new, are running Windows 7, but on the off chance something goes wrong--not so 'off', as it's usually true with preview software--I chose Ripley. She's a little bit older, seasoned, wise, but still beautiful. So Ripley is my first choice to experiment with Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

The first part of this tale, then, begins by my visiting Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumers Preview site. After reviewing some of the FAQs, I clicked the Download link. I filled in my e-mail address, country, and then clicked the big Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview button. In very short order, Ripley had the download link for the setup file. She fired it away, and the rest of the download came in.

The first thing the installation does is check your existing system for potential issues. What it's actually doing is checking your existing software (mostly), and hardware. At least, it's checking what it knows at the moment. My Windows Installation Compatibility Advisor Report showed that--of what it knew about Ripley--I needed five software updates. (For those interested, the updates included Norton Internet Security, Adobe Acrobat Pro, the Click to Call with Skype add-in, iTunes, and a driver for the colour laser printer.) At that point, knowing I'd be able to simply and quickly upgrade or update everything except Acrobat, I took the plunge. The install began.

Stay tuned for my next update, when I'll write about my first couple of hours using Windows 8 (and Internet Explorer 10 Preview).

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 for 64-Bit Systems Released

Most of this post only applies to you if (a) you have a Windows 7-based computer, and (b) you have the 64-bit operating system.

A "Service Pack" isn't a new product; it's a major release of a given software product that offers updates, bug fixes, and/or enhancements. While many such items may be delivered from time to time by way of the regular Windows Update function, a Service Pack, well, packs everything into a single installable file. You install the one file, and all the goodies that come with it are installed. You may/may not notice any differences in your software–be it Windows, or perhaps Microsoft Office–following the installation.

The first Service Pack for the Windows 7 64-bit operating system (a mammoth file, by the way) contains quite a few items, but the following two may be most recognizable to most people:

• The connection between Windows and HDMI audio devices has been made more robust, and a fix has been instituted that constantly maintains the connectivity.
• XPS documents (a proprietary Microsoft format for documents that is similar to PDF) were sometimes not printing properly when the documents were mixed-mode; meaning, that there were both portrait and landscape pages in the documents. This glitch has been addressed.

Other changes made were a little on the exotic side, at least for most users (things like the behavior of “Restore previous folders at logon” functionality and support for Advanced Vector Extensions AVX).

After the requisite reboot, I can't say my 64-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate looked, 'felt', or ran differently. Still, it is highly recommended that you install most recommended updates seen in Windows Update, and especially Service Packs.