Windows RT 8.1 Preview with Outlook 2013

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Kevin

I got the Windows RT 8.1 Preview for my Surface RT mainly because of the irrational belief that new is better. This tablet for me is an experiment in the first place and the update is just more opportunity to experiment. Plus, I wanted a look at Internet Explorer 11.

Installation

You get the Preview by going to the Windows 8.1 Preview Download Page assuming that you’re reading this article on your Windows RT device. If you’re not reading this with RT, then the page you get will not have what you need, nor will you get so much as a hint about what’s wrong. Ignore Microsoft pages that say that you get the Preview from the Windows Store, because you can’t just go to the Store and search for “Windows 8.1 Preview.” After following the link preceding on your RT device, you will find a big button clearly labeled for the Preview. When you click that, an update is installed on your tablet, the computer reboots, and you are shown a prompt which links to the Store where you can then download and install the Preview. The download is 2.19GB in size.

One of the requirements for installing the update is 10GB of storage free. That’s a lot if you have the 32GB model Surface like me. You can free up 3.5GB by removing the recovery partition. Insert a 4GB or larger USB flash drive. From the desktop go to  settings, then control panel, and search for “recovery.” Select “Create a Recovery Drive.” It creates a recovery flash drive, and instead of clicking “Finish” at the end, click this little link to delete the recovery partition. Viola, more storage! All the Microsoft pages about this process say to keep this recovery drive safe. Ignore that because once you install the 8.1 Preview, you can’t recover using that backup. There is no going back, at least not with anything published.

Big question for a storage hog like Windows RT: how much is left over after this installation. I ended up with 16.9 GB (this with a fair number  of apps, and no recovery partition).

New Stuff

It took maybe 3 hours to download and install (I didn’t time it). After typing in my Microsoft password and accepting the Terms, it started right up and I noticed a new icon on the Desktop, a folder with an “O” on it—yes, Microsoft Outlook 2013. I hooked it up to my email account. Woo hoo! I’ve never been a huge fan of Outlook, but I used it for years at work, and it gets the job done. That’s more than can be said for that silly Mail app in the original release of Windows RT. Now the Surface RT is a serious contender.

I noticed for the first time a “Help and Tips” app on the Start screen, but it’s just “Coming soon.” Sounds interesting anyway. And there was a “Start-ish” button on the Desktop. If you tap it, the familiar Windows 8 Start screen appears, but if you tap and hold it, a pop-up menu appears with a fair number of options, including File Manager, Event Viewer, Device Manager, Disk Management (this is administrative stuff mostly), Computer Management, Task Manager, Search, Shut Down and Run.

Run? What can you run? Well, try Notepad for one, or CMD, or MSPaint (all these were there before). WOW, is that exciting or what?

Things seem to be different on the Start screen. Before you could give a little down-flip to select the tile and bring up a menu of things you could do, like uninstall it. That’s now a tap-hold (or a right-click with the mouse). Also you can now scroll up the whole Start screen (left side) to show the All Apps view.

A huge new feature in Windows 8.1 preview is that SkyDrive is integrated in Windows Explorer. Yea! That alone was worth the time to do the upgrade several times over.

At this point, I’m a happy camper.

Update:

It’s been over a month since I installed the update. I continue to be an enthusiastic user. Internet Explorer 11 doesn’t seem to be different from IE 10, except one popular web site (and I forget which) doesn’t work with it, giving a message that the browser isn’t supported–the site’s problem, not IE. Some of the Apps don’t yet use the new selection (tap-hold) method and stick to the down flick. I assume that will get worked out by general release in October. Also there are some bugs in XBox Solitaire Suite. Other than that, things are running fine.

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Windows update error 8024402C

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Kevin

I finally did figure out the Windows Update failure that I’ve had forever. I was getting Windows Update error 8024402C and I tried every suggested solution I could find (Microsoft Fixit, Windows Upgrade Preparedness Tool, editing registry entries, deleting xml files), everything short of re-installing Windows.

Rather than re-install Windows 7, I thought that upgrading to Windows 8 would surely do the trick.  Windows 8 couldn’t check for updates either!

I don’t remember exactly what the little note on the Windows 8 Update dialog was, but it gave me enough of a hint to find the solution. The Windows 7 laptop in question had been joined to a corporate domain at one time, and received (unbeknownst to me) a group policy setting that it should get its updates from a corporate server rather than from Microsoft. Of course after being removed from the domain and disconnected from the corporate network, it couldn’t find the updates any more. The Windows 7 error messages were useless in locating this simple but obscure problem. All I got was a notice that I needed a new version of Windows Update and error 8024402C when I tried to get it.

To fix this, go to the Control Panel and search for "Group Policy". Select “Edit Group Policy.” Expand the tree to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update and remove any configurations there, especially one for “Configure Automatic Updates.”

A decent error message would have saved me many hours of frustration; I hope this article helps you to avoid that.

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Confused about Windows RT?

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Kevin

If you read the tech press, you’ll find lots of people criticizing Windows RT, and more likely than not, they will say that they are “confused.” OK, I admit that I was initially confused when I got my Microsoft Surface RT, but I’m not a professional tech writer and have an excuse. If I can figure it out, why can’t they?

The first thing to do in understanding the Microsoft Surface and Windows RT is to forget Windows. OK, forgotten? What you have is a tablet computer. Some tablets run Android; some run iOS and some run Windows RT. All of these operating systems run programs you download from a store (apps). They support local storage, network connectivity, provide a touch-screen display and support some hardware or other. Windows RT on the Surface has variable-sized rectangles to run apps, iOS had little rectangles to run apps, the Kindle Fire (Android) has this horrible Carousel to run apps, and other Android devices have other user interfaces. Pretty much all of them have cameras and microphones that let you run Skype, web browsers, and software to play videos. You can read books, listen to music and do social networking on pretty much all of them. This is very familiar territory!

So what’s so complicated? If you want to compare tablet computers, consider if it has the apps you want, how much storage you get, how much it costs, the screen resolution, processor speed and stuff like that. This is not rocket surgery.

Now in addition to being a tablet like all the other tablets out there, the Microsoft Surface RT does some other stuff that other tablets might not do or might not do well or might not do without spending some additional money on an app. The Microsoft Surface RT has these additional features, and adding features is not confusing either. Let me mention some of those additional features:

  • An alternate desktop interface that looks like and in many ways operates like Windows 8.
  • Network file sharing of files from other Windows machines, and the familiar Windows File Explorer to browse them.
  • Ability to use wireless Windows-compatible printers and printers connected to other Windows computers on your network
  • Run Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote (Outlook reportedly coming soon).
  • Run many Windows command-line utilities like tracert, ftp and ping plus familiar Windows programs like MS Paint and Notepad (yes, they’re in there).
  • Internet Explorer 10 with Flash.
  • Supports a wide range of USB and Bluetooth devices: headset microphones, keyboards, mice, headphones, flash drives.

With virtually no setup, you can remote desktop to your Windows Pro/Ultimate machine in the other room and on it you can run all those Windows desktop programs, compile software, edit video and create music. This does take a free app (Remote Desktop) that takes a minute to install. I can show you a screen shot showing the Surface with Firefox browsing the Internet.

wrt

One of my gripes about modern software is the lack of documentation, or the difficulty of finding it. One extremely useful document is the Surface RT User’s Guide. I found it on the Internet. Maybe it was on the Surface somewhere. It’s there now.

So how many tablets have standard USB ports you can plug a flash drive into, or a 500 GB USB portable hard drive? Can you put a 64GB micro SD card in your iPad to up the internal storage? Does your tablet have HDMI output (some do)? Will your Kindle work with your Bluetooth headset/microphone? How about that Blue Yeti microphone?  The only thing so far that I haven’t been able to hook up to the surface is a ten-year-old flatbed scanner.

These people who are confused are just trying to make the Surface into a Windows laptop, and that’s just not what it is. Now you can get a Surface Pro and that is a Windows laptop with a touch screen, but it’s $400 more. Besides, I already have a laptop.

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DAGI Capacitive Stylus Pen P602 for Microsoft Surface

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Kevin

Naturally I wanted to try out drawing on my new Microsoft Surface RT. I have some fat rubber styluses, but I wanted something better, but I wasn’t willing to buy the pricey styluses just for the Surface.

I tried eBay and hit upon a winner, the Dagi Accu-Pen capacitive stylus. It’s advertised for the Kindle Fire HD and iPad, but it works great with the Surface.

image

That fuzzy-looking thing at the end is a plastic disk, mounted to the pen by a tiny spring that allows the disk to lie flat on the screen whatever the pen angle. It comes with a spare tip. There’s a ballpoint pen at the other end. The pen has a rough metallic surface that feels like quality. There is a rubber grip on the ballpoint end. The caps on each end are firmly attached.

The tip, I guess, is the same size as the “crayon” styluses you usually get, but the clear disk lets you see where the center point of the stylus actually is. Your writing and drawing is really better with it. Small and precise writing is easier.

So far it works great. I got this one for $9.93 plus $3.99 from seller “electronics-deal” on eBay.

Finding the stylus you want is a challenge on eBay with no less than 26,304 auctions tagged “capacitive stylus.” Fortunately for me, this one was on the first page.

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Allant case for Microsoft Surface

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Kevin

I went down to Staples to look for a sleeve for my Microsoft Surface RT. The touch cover is fine, but I tend to drop things. If it take it somewhere, I want protection.

I picked up this “Allant sleeve for iPad/Tablet/netbook.” It’s well-padded and about the right side (a touch wider than it has to be). It has an outside accessory sleeve.

The one I bought isn’t on the allant web site, nor on Staples.com.

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Kindle Fire HD vs. Microsoft Surface RT tablet

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Kevin

I’ve been enjoying my Kindle Fire HD 7” for a few months now. I’m a fan of this compact device. I put it in a nice leather case where it always stays. However, on the occasion of installing Windows 8 on my laptop and the desire to see what Microsoft has going for it, I got a Windows Surface RT 32 GB. This is not exactly a product review, but some observations of the things that struck me comparing the Kindle to the Surface.

Kindle Fire HD 7”

Hardware

imageThis is a very nice device. The display is gorgeous. It does a good job streaming Netflix videos, browsing web sites, and of course reading books. One really cool thing is that you can use a micro HDMI cable to connect the Kindle to an HD TV, and the output is stunning. On the negative side, there is one screaming omission: no expansion memory slot—you’re stuck with the memory you bought.

Software

While the Kindle uses the Android operating system, it’s locked out so that you can only get apps from the Amazon store. You can supposedly hack your way out of this, but I haven’t. The really sucky thing about the Kindle Fire is that klutzy navigation interface, the Carousel. It mindlessly displays things you don’t want and all you see is unnamed icons. You may end up with 3 items in a row, all with the same icon and no way to tell which is which. Dumb, dumb, dumb. There is supposedly a way to install a different user interface, but I haven’t gotten any of them to work. The Windows Metro interface on the Surface RT is a clear winner (plus you can get to the regular Windows Desktop).

The Kindle Fire HD comes with a Microsoft Office document display app and you can buy an upgrade ($25 I think) so that you can update Office documents also. I have the upgraded app (it was on sale once) but I don’t use the editing capability. I do that on a desktop computer.

Accessories

You can accessorize the Kindle Fire with a Bluetooth keyboard. I have one, but never use it—the things I do on the Kindle really don’t need a keyboard. To charge the Kindle, you really have to buy a charger (or wait forever to charge it from your PC’s USB port). It uses a standard mini USB cable to charge but most USB power adapters cannot supply the 1.5 A it draws. It burned out two iPhone chargers.

On sale today, you can buy the Kindle Fire HD 7” for $179.

Microsoft Surface RT

Hardware

imageHaving my expectation level set by the Kindle Fire, here’s my take on the Surface RT. First reaction: It’s heavy. The Kindle Fire is a mere 13.8 ounces! Compare that to the larger Surface RT at 24.4 oz. Believe it or not, even with the much larger screen at 10.6”, display resolution is about the same (Kindle 1280 x 800 vs. Surface RT 1366 x 768).  The Surface RT comes installed with a good deal of software, including Microsoft Office. An advertised 32GB computer leaves the user with only about 15.3 GB free (after allowing it to install updates), but you can put up to 64GB additional memory from a micro SD card and these can be had on eBay for around $25. That’s a major plus. The same standard micro HDMI cable that works with the Kindle also works with the Surface RT. There’s no reason to plunk down $39.95 for a special adapter from Microsoft; just buy the right cable.

The Surface RT has a standard USB port. I plugged in a wireless mouse dongle and the mouse just started working. That’s impressive. One can, of course, plug in a USB flash drive and there are inexpensive adapters for full-sized SD memory cards. I even plugged in a 500 GB hard drive, no problem!

Both the Kindle and the Surface have Bluetooth, but I know that the Kindle is severely limited in what you can hook up, and how much you can hook up at the same time (you can’t hook up a Bluetooth microphone / headset, for example). With the the Surface RT I just added my Bluetooth hands free phone microphone / headset and it worked perfectly with Skype. My HP Inkjet printer with Bluetooth paired easily, and now I have a printer.

The surface RT uses a proprietary charger connector. While just about everything under the sun these days uses either a mini or micro USB cable for charging, only specially designed chargers work with the Surface RT, meaning you have to carry a separate charger when traveling just for the Surface RT. Even the iPhone, which uses a proprietary connector, can plug into a standard USB charger.

The surface RT has two cameras, one facing front and one back. You’ve probably seen folks taking pictures with an iPad and this works the same way. The single Kindle Fire HD camera faces the user, making it great for video conferencing, but not for taking pictures.

Software

The Surface RT comes with Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (licensed for personal and student use–no business, and no non-profit organizations). I’ve used OneNote for many years, and am really glad to have it included. You can draw with a stylus with OneNote, making it great for a tablet. You can only get software for this tablet from the Microsoft Store, and it won’t run standard Windows applications, even though this is very much Windows 8. (The Surface Pro runs regular Windows programs.) Just as the Kindle integrates with the Amazon cloud, so the Surface RT integrates with Microsoft Sky Drive. The concept here is that you can save your content in the cloud and view it on any device. There are Sky Drive apps for the iPhone, Windows Desktop, Windows RT and the Kindle Fire HD. Dropbox also works on that same list of devices.

The Surface RT comes out of the box with Office 2013 Home and Student Preview edition. You have to run Windows Update to get the final version, which introduces the issue of Windows Update. Yes, you have to run (manually or automatically) Windows Update and it will take a while during which time your device is not usable, just like the big version of Windows.

One of the sucky things about Windows RT is that the Calendar application can’t sync with your Google Calendar; the Kindle calendar can. You have to find another app for that (try gmail calendar). [Update: Now that Windows RT 8.1 is available for the Surface, they’re including Microsoft Outlook in the package. The original Mail App didn’t work very well, but Outlook is solid.]

A cool thing you can do is set up your desktop Windows PC as a DLNA server, then you can play music from it on your Surface (I also have a Blu-ray player that can play these, and there are Kindle apps.)

The supplied browser with the Kindle Fire cannot play Flash content. The Surface RT can play Flash content from trusted sources.

I am disappointed not to find Microsoft Live Write! in the Store; however, Microsoft Word provides blogging functionality that does almost everything I need (it doesn’t allow setting tags).

One thing that the Surface does really well is to stream Netflix videos. With it’s built-in stand, it can be set up anywhere to stream a video. It makes a nice streaming appliance with a 16:9 aspect ration.

Accessories

Microsoft is currently (December 29, 2013)  running a promotion that includes a touch keyboard with the Surface RT 32 GB for $399.

I opted for the Touch keyboard, a nice-sized one with moving parts. First impressions of this keyboard are very positive. It basically turns the Surface RT into a laptop and protects the screen when it’s closed. It does add another 7.5 oz. to the package making the combination over 2 pounds now. Another accessory is a stylus. There are $40 styluses available, but I found a nice one for $10.

Comparison

Book reading

When it comes to reading a book, the Kindle HD is the hands down favorite. Because of the aspect ratio and resolution, type on the Kindle looks solid, and type on the Surface RT running the Kindle app is grainy. The comparison is stark and it only took a couple minutes reading a book on the Surface RT before I put it down and got out the Kindle. Also page turns were slower on the Surface RT. Also, because of the aspect ratio, Surface RT pages were very long (vertically). The Kindle app on the Surface RT looks much better in landscape mode with the pages 2-up, but I still don’t like it for book reading.

Surfing

The Kindle Fire comes with the Silk browser; the Surface RT with Internet Explorer 10. As I mentioned, only IE 10 does Flash. I went to a complex and graphically intense web site, Disney.com and IE 10 on the Surface RT was hugely faster. Having commented negatively on the Surface RT display for book reading, I have to say that the colors on web pages were starkly better on the Surface RT than they were on the Kindle. I have also always found that the controls for web browsing were very tricky to get right and things often got out of control, searching before I was through typing, or erasing things I was typing before I was done. For web browsing, the Surface RT wins hands down.

Video

Both support Netflix. Streaming seems smoother on the Surface and the video quality is also better.

Blogging

I have successfully blogged using the Surface RT through Microsoft Word, including embedding a photo. It worked fairly well, except that WordPress tags are not supported and have to be added manually with the WordPress web interface. I wouldn’t even try this on a Kindle.

Summary

Comparing these two devices is not easy. In many ways, they do the same thing, but at different sizes and price points.

The Surface RT is over twice as expensive as the Kindle and nearly twice as heavy. (Even the 8.9” version of the Kindle Fire HD is just a little more than half the Surface RT cost, with much higher resolution.) Both are solidly made. The question is whether the Surface RT will do things so much better than the Kindle to justify the price difference.

I have a keyboard for both devices, but I never use the keyboard with the Kindle. On the other hand, I plugged in a mouse and the Surface RT is being used like a laptop. In fact, I’m going to have to intentionally try to use it more without the keyboard to get a better feel for it.

If all you want to do is read books, get a Kindle because the display for text is much sharper. If you want to do photography or surf the web, the Surface wins. If peripherals beyond headphones and a keyboard) are important, you really have to go with the Surface RT. My initial feeling is that productivity apps will be much better on the Surface RT.

After using the Surface RT as my primary computer for a week while on vacation, I got the impression that it doesn’t quite make sense. What I had been trying to do was to use the Surface as a laptop, and Windows RT is not really a laptop operating system. It is a tablet with some additional productivity features. I eventually worked through my confusion.  I will be really interested to see what Microsoft does in Windows 8.1 in response to the issues folks like me have with the new system.

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A tale of two interfaces

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Kevin

I’ve been a Microsoft Windows user since Windows 3.1 (and I briefly tried out Windows 2). In the evolution of Windows from 3.1 to Windows 7 we’ve seen a few things. First, Windows has become more powerful and it has become much easier to set up and maintain. It’s much more reliable too. (And if you don’t know what Trumpet Winsock is, you can’t appreciate how much better things are today). At the same time, Microsoft has come up with more and more innovative ways of hiding things you used to know how to find in out-of-the-way places (both in Windows and in Office), and there are obscure settings that can ruin your day, settings you never dreamed existed. (Search your Control Panel for the word “policy’).

A few months back, my wife got a Nokia 920 phone running Windows. It’s really pretty nice, and the user interface (which is Windows 8) works well for the phone, an on-the-go device, keeping the current status of things up front. It’s convenient and well-suited to a portable device.

I installed Windows 8 as an upgrade on my laptop and it became immediately obvious that the Windows 8 “Start” page, while suited for casual use, is wholly useless for a power user. It’s nothing but a toy compared to the standard Windows desktop. Of course the desktop is still there in Windows 8, just tap the Desktop “app” on the Start page. But the desktop lacks the start button, and that really messes up productivity on the desktop.

I am in the process of exploring (and usually deleting) the apps that come with Windows 8. The stupid calendar won’t work with Google Calendar, for example. Chances are 1 in 100 that what Bing says is trending will interest me. The Sports app is now deleted. There may be some good apps out there, but the built-in ones are more demos and toys.

It’s great that Microsoft has developed one user interface that works across desktop computers, tablets and phones. What is not great is that they messed up something that was working well, and with which lots of folks are familiar.

So, there are two things I would suggest for desktop users of Windows 8:

1. Remember that the hot keys that work under Windows 7 generally work under Windows 8. So you can get to the desktop with Win-D. You can close an application with alt-F4. A new hot key, Win-C brings up the “charms,” the little icons on the right that provide access to settings and search, etc. so you don’t have to try to get your mouse way over into the corner. Just pressing the Win key will get to your start page.

2. Get your start button back on the desktop with one of the start button replacement applications. There are several such solutions, but I chose StartIsBack, which costs $3 for a two-PC license. (I hope they guy sells millions of them.) It’s an exact replacement. It has many options, the best of which is to start the desktop when you start the computer (the default after installing). You never need to look at the start screen again. There is a 30-day free trial, but you probably only need 30 seconds to see that it does exactly what it’s supposed to do, bring your old Start Button back.

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