Windows 8 - Eleventh Pass: Start Screen Email vs Desktop Email

One of the challenges with Windows 8 is that many of the same apps we use every day come in two flavors for Windows 8. One is the Start Screen, or old Metro style, that runs on the Surface RT, and the other is a full desktop version of the app.

A few examples include Skype, SkyDrive, and Email. So what’s the difference between apps for the Start Screen and apps for the desktop? Do you need both? What about disk space of running the same app twice on your traditional laptop or desktop?

For starters, there is a big difference. Start Screen apps work on a small cache and prefer to be online. Start Screen apps are also the only apps that can provide notification icons on the Windows 8 lock screen. Those are the little icons below the time and date when the computer is locked. However, these apps are also limited in functionality, as they need to be online and designed for touch screen functionality.

In terms of email, you have the default Start Screen email app and you have Outlook. Outlook is my preferred email client however, Outlook (any version) doesn’t have Live Tile that can update to show you recent messages, Outlook can’t update a lock screen icon with the number of new messages you have, and Outlook can’t provide a fade in/fade out notification on the Start Screen in Windows 8. Outlook can only provide a fade in/fade out notification down above the taskbar if you are in the Windows 8 desktop.

Conversely the Windows 8 Start Screen email app can do all of the above but how much disk space does it take up? My Outlook profile is 3-4 GB and I definitely didn’t want to have two PST files containing the same Outlook profile on my laptop.

The default Start Screen Email app doesn’t take up any disk space. I set it up to access the same Exchange account that Outlook accesses and my disk space didn’t change at all. The reason being the email app works online and doesn’t cache very much. The downside to that being if you aren’t online you won’t see much of your email but the Start Screen email app assumes you are always online via a Wi-Fi or cellular connection on a touch screen type device like the Surface.

So my recommendation is if you have a cloud based email account that you run both the Start Screen Email app and Outlook so you can have the best of all the above worlds. That way you can access your email whether you are online or offline, can take advantage of all the Windows 8 notification mechanisms, have easy access on a traditional piece of hardware, and maximize your access to email if you are using a touch screen only or hybrid device.

Oddly enough, the Start Screen app notices pop up several seconds before any Outlook notices.

Similarly, you may want to run both the desktop version and Start Screen version of Skype and SkyDrive. For example, with SkyDrive, the Start Screen app doesn’t download and store anything. It simply provides you with online access to your SkyDrive files. If you want your files downloaded and updated to the SkyDrive folder on your laptop/desktop then you will also need to run the desktop version of the app.

There are also benefits to running both version of Skype especially as Windows Live Messenger will be retired the first quarter of 2013 according to Microsoft.

In other words, with the variety of hardware types available to run Windows 8 and the various methods of interacting with it you will want to research based on the type of hardware you plan to use what the benefits are to running each type of Windows 8 app. This is all part of the fun when you try to combine too many uses into a single platform.

The End of 2012 and the Start of 2013

It seems appropriate that this New Year's greeting is coming to you from a plane at 32,00 feet over the Tennessee/Kentucky line, as a good bit of my time in 2012 was spent in the air and a good bit of my time in 2013 will be spent here as well.

I have much to be thankful for as I look back at 2012. I'm blessed with a great job, friends I can tolerate, and an awesome family. My wife and kids make the many cool things I get to do possible and I appreciate that. They could easily be selfish with my time but they choose not to be.

We are returning home to frozen Indiana having spent the holidays in sunny, warm southwest Florida. We are returning tan, rested and refreshed, ready for another exciting year. 2013 promises to be a great year in ministry as well as for our family and me professionally. It also looks to be an exciting year of technological advancements.

"To whom much is given, much is also required." Take a moment and make some plans for next year. Don't make foolish resolutions but rather make some obtainable goals that you can measure your progress towards. Then when 2013 ends you can look back and see how far you've come. Be specific, loose weight isn't specific enough.

As for me, my goals are set and I'm looking forward to what's next.

See you in 2013!

Windows 8 - Tenth Pass: Driving the Touchscreen

It is obvious that Microsoft plans to drive the touchscreen as being the primary way we interact with a PC in the future, much in the same way we interact with smartphones and tablets now. I agree that it is the future but it isn’t now. Window 8 however is relying on that being the future and those unhappy with not being able to touch the screen of their desktop in their cubicle at work will eventually get over it.

Several times during the launch event, they referred to the start screen as “beautiful” and that it work great with both a touchscreen or with a keyboard and mouse. I found it interesting that during the rest of the demo they didn’t use the keyboard or mouse once, confirming to me that it really isn’t designed for a keyboard and mouse but that if you care to figure it out it will work with a keyboard and mouse. In other words, the intuitive part of it is only for touchscreen-based devices.

Fortunately, for them the second demo did use a keyboard and mouse the entire time. I actually learned a few new keyboard and mouse shortcuts for interacting with the start screen on a non-touch device. While that helps me use Windows 8 on my existing non-touch laptop it does mean I have to remember how to interact with the operating system based on the type of hardware I’m using. Microsoft must think I’m smarter than I really am.

The best part of the start screen demo was when the elephant in the room was finally brought up. The presenter asked if the Start Button worked for people as opposed to the Start Screen. I along with half the room raised my hand. This is what I had been waiting for; tell us why the Start Button was gone forever?

According to Microsoft, the Start Button took too long to use. Think about that for a while and then do some trials comparing how long it takes you to do the same functionality between the Start Button and the Start Screen on a non-touch enabled device. Oh, wait. There it is. A non-touch enabled device. The Start Button is very difficult to use with your fingers and since Windows 8 is all about the touchscreen, you now have your answer, at least according to Microsoft.

As the demo concluded they emphasized that Windows 8 brings work and home together. I look forward to seeing how that pans out. How many work computers will get touchscreens? How many corporate IT shops will allow users to login using personal MSN accounts to access corporate resources and then take those some accounts home? How many supervisors will want users bringing in games from home?

Microsoft admits that the change to start screen is a big change and that there is no legacy mode. They don't admit why.

12-12-12

Today is December 12, 2012, or 12-12-12. This date fascinates me a bit, as the mathematics that makeup our calendar limits the number of times you can have such a date. In my lifetime I’ve been fortunate enough to live through 01-01-01, 02-02-02, 03-03-03, 04-04-04, 05-05-05, 06-06-06, 07-07-07, 08-08-08, 09-09-09, 10-10-10, 11-11-11, and now, and finally, 12-12-12.

Even if the Mayans are wrong there still won’t be a 13-13-13 so as this day fades in my time zone I can’t help but wonder what the world will be like when this pattern starts all over again and we reach the next 12-12-12. In 89 years we will hit 01-01-01, that’s January 1, 2101. Odds are I won’t be around then but when you look back at where we’ve come, it is intriguing to think about where we will be.

Think about the last round of dates, starting back in 01-01-1901. Back then, we didn’t even know how to fly. Now we’re landing small cars on Mars via sky cranes.

In 01-01-2001, we didn’t have Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Foursquare, or iPhones and iPads. Laptops were just starting to become more readily available and email was still something you had to be on a computer with a modem to access. Music was only available on round silver disks or cartridges of magnetic tape wound around sprockets.

By 07-07-2007, Twitter and Facebook were emerging on the scene and we had our first iPhone.

Now on 12-12-2012, the date is trending on Twitter and we are connected to email all the time by small pieces of glass we won’t leave home without.

So, lift a glass to the Mayan’s being wrong and the next 12-12-12!

Windows 8 - Ninth Pass: The Sales Pitch

Last week I attended one of the many official Microsoft launch events for Windows 8. Naturally I arrived with a bunch of questions I wanted to get answered but I was also very interested in how they were going to pitch the various changes I've already discussed here to a room full of several hundred IT Professionals.

If you've wasted any time reading my blog as of late you know I not a big Windows 8 fan, but despite my bias I went in with an open mind to allow them to sway my views. Unfortunately that didn't happen. While I understand the 'why' a bit better I'm still not sold on the 'how'.

It was obvious from the keynote that Microsoft believes that Windows 8 is as much of a game changer as email, the iPhone (they even gave Mr. Jobs a shout out), and even the printing press. They believe they are changing the game in terms of tablets and smartphones now being integrated together for the first time on a single platform - Windows 8. Microsoft is leading with the software of the future as opposed to the software we need today.

I agree with the premise but the implementation is where it fall apart for me. This is a good example of software driving hardware. Windows 8 is designed for the end of the desktop - a future whose ending hasn't been written yet. Microsoft believes the rate of change is going to be fast enough to justify their changes now. I agree the pace is fast but the implementation could have been done in a way that made the changes easier to adopt. From their perspective it is easier to just make the changes and deal with the fall out of user adoption. Speaking of adoption, according to Microsoft it has been low however Windows 8 has only been public for just over a month now.

It was obvious that Microsoft believes they are on the right track with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Time will tell.

Fun with Symantec

At a recent Microsoft event I was at I had the chance to speak with the folks from Symantec at their booth. They were giving away little footballs as swag and naturally I needed one of those. Of course in exchange for said football I had to talk with them and let them scan my name tag.

As I was talking to the rep I told them that I was already a customer. He asked me what version we were using and I told him the latest. Then, as if he didn't hear that I was already a customer and already sold on their products, he started to explain to me how great the latest version was and that it was "killing it" out there. He also explained how their technology was superior because they were moving away from definitions and using signatures to detect infected files which was not only more secure but faster.

What the rep didn't know was that I was looking for just such a segue. You see, the week before the event our latest version of Symantec, the one "killing it", let a bug through from a web link in an email. This gave me the perfect opportunity to point out that while their product may be "killing it" they missed a bug that wiped an entire workstation.

The rep then tried to sell me on the idea that I should have submitted the infected files and they would research it and update their signatures because they had the best team in the world for doing that. Again, I'm already sold on them but I had to explain to the rep the role his company plays in our environment. In the ideal world I'd have plenty of time to send samples to them but most times I'm depending on them to "kill it" and be one step ahead. Otherwise my time is spent fixing the bug that got through as opposed to post infection analysis.

I'm still sold on Symantec and I understand that even with our multiple layers of protection things still get through, especially this time of year, I was just enjoying, perhaps too much, pressing the front line guy Symantec happened to send to the same event I was at. I'm sure he'll go on his break if he sees me coming at a future show.

Windows 8 – Eighth Pass: Official Launch

Even though I’ve been quiet over the past month that doesn’t mean I’ve grown to love Windows 8 any more.

Tomorrow I’m attending the Windows 8 Launch event in Indianapolis. As you know I’ve not been very kind to Microsoft’s latest flagship operating system. I am not anticipating that tomorrow will do much to change my mind however; I’m hoping it at least allows Microsoft to better explain why they think Windows 8 is the best way to go for the future of the desktop, laptop, and tablet. And no, I don’t buy the argument that the desktop and laptop as we know them today are going away anytime soon.

At the Server 2012 Launch, a lot of time was spent talking about the cloud and very little time spent talking about the improvements to the operating system. Part of me wonders if that isn’t also going to be the focus tomorrow. I predict a bit of dancing around the issues and very little addressing of those issues.

I’ll be posting what I learn and maybe even posting that I’ve had a change of heart, feel free to contact your bookies now to place your bets.

Windows 8 – Seventh Pass: The Surface Tablet

For many reasons I’m very interested in the new Surface tablet from Microsoft – that runs Windows 8. This device could perhaps be my dream device. A tablet that can do everything my laptop can do and allows me to dock it at work and at home to use my peripherals but also travel with all my stuff without the need to carry a bulky laptop.

Early reviews are good but the sequence Microsoft is using to deploy the Surface seems to be derailing a bit of the momentum.

The Surface you can by now is the RT version, or Run Time version. This runs on a processor that requires applications to be specifically designed for it. Microsoft says their App Store now has 50,000 apps that will run on the Surface RT. While that may appear to be good news, it really isn’t. For me the issue is can it do everything my laptop can do?

The RT version may have some apps but it is missing several key things. It can’t run Office right now, there is no RT version. You can get to your Exchange mail using the Mail app for the Start Screen but it isn’t Outlook. While there is a version of One Note that works well on the Start Screen it won’t run the current desktop version. It also can’t run Photoshop.

For some this isn’t a deal breaker but in order to replace my laptop it needs to do what my laptop can do. The bad news is right now it can’t, the good news is in January they will release a version that can. The January version, called the Surface Pro, runs on an Intel chip and can do everything Windows 8 on a desktop or laptop can do. The challenge will be whether or not it is powerful enough to pull that off in ways that doesn't make me miss my laptop.

I’ve talked with several developers and others using the Surface RT and they like it. I’m sure for some it will work fine, but for me, in order to replace my laptop and iPad it has to do everything they can do and then some. Will the lack of a Retina display be noticeable? Will it be fast enough? Will the touch keyboard cover be an adequate replacement for my laptop keyboard? Will there be wireless accessories for it?

If the stars align, it may just be the ticket and may just be the only way Windows 8 can show some relevance. If so then Microsoft just has to convince everyone that doesn’t own a Surface that designing Windows 8 around the Surface doesn’t hinder it being used effectively on your current laptop or desktop.

Windows 8 – Sixth Pass: Lenovo T400 Fixes

At long last, I have finally been able to resolve some odd Windows 8 hardware compatibility issues with my Lenovo T400 laptop and Windows 8. I’m not sure if these are related to Windows 8 finally being available to the public or not.

A good bit of internet research revealed that for legacy hardware, like a T400, your best bet is not to use the general Windows 8 drivers come with the OS but rather to revert back to the latest version of the driver for Windows 7.

As I’ve posted here, I’ve been having problems with my display. Areas of the screen will at time fuzz out and become unreadable and I have to refresh the display to solve the issue. I’ve also had issues with my ATI Radeon Mobile 3400 chip overheating. My T400 has switchable graphics and in order to avoid the overheating problem I only used the Intel Mobile Series 4 chipset graphics driver. This created the fuzz out problems. Both of these graphics chips were using the built in Windows 8 WDDM 1.1 drivers.

Lenovo’s website has not been very helpful in terms of Windows 8 so I manually downloaded the latest Windows 7 switchable graphics driver. I installed it and then manually updated each graphics card driver using the Device Manager to the Windows 7 driver.

Presto – success! Not only did it solve my overheating problem but also my switchable graphics is working again and there are no more areas of fuzz out making my computer very difficult to use.

Through a bit more research, I discovered the Lenovo System Update utility has finally been updated and released for Windows 8. I installed it but it didn’t find any updates for my computer. Again, as this is legacy hardware there probably won’t be many drivers released specifically for Windows 8. As such, the Windows 7 drivers are the way to go. I did find it interesting that it didn’t find an update for my touchpad through the tool but I found an update for it manually on the Lenovo drivers list for the T400.

Another problem I had was with the wireless network indicator light. After the Windows 8 upgrade the light was on when the wireless was on and off when it was off. With Windows 7, it would flash to indicate activity. Reinstalling the latest Windows 7 driver, downloaded manually, also fixed that problem.

I’ve been running Windows 8 since mid-August and I’m just now starting to feel as though my laptop can be productive once again.

MediaShout #epicfail

Every once in a while a software program, and those who write it, have the opportunity to really mess with your life. Yesterday was one of those days where my schedule, along with that of our worship pastor, was majorly disrupted by someone failing to do their job with a piece of software we use that is critical for our Sunday operation.

I started the day at the soccer field with our son, 2 sets of grandparents and 1 set of great-grandparents. Eric was playing well and the family was enjoying the game and the sunshine despite the cool, breezy weather. As I’m cheering Eric on our worship pastor texts me a picture of an error message he is getting with MediaShout on his office computer. MediaShout is presentation software that we use in all of our worship spaces for projection graphics, background, lyrics, etc. on the projection screens. As a church we do this quite regularly.

I wasn’t able to figure out his problem via text message so I headed towards his office thinking it would be a relatively quick fix. As any IT person does, I Googled the problem and the first hit I got was this link.

http://www.mediashout.com/pages/support/

The lead story is about the Activation Error that we were getting. The details of this issue, affecting all instances of MediaShout are available here.

http://support.mediashout.com/entries/21312899-alert-error-code-2146762495

Since they don’t go into any great detail to explain the actual issue that gives me license to explain it the way I see it. It would appear that some software engineer somewhere along the way didn’t do this job and then the quality assurance person who is supposed to help the software engineer get it right also failed to do their job. As a result the software was released with a time/date bug that on a Thursday night, software that is used at churches all over the country on Sunday would stop working because it couldn’t tell if the software was legally activated or not.

I understand, to some degree, the need for software companies to have activation routines in order to prevent software piracy and theft. However, when your activation routine prevents EVERYONE, legal and illegal, from using your program then you have completely missed the boat.

To their credit MediaShout did release a patch however the patch was less than simple for many to install. A quick check of Twitter indicates that many ministries opted to forgo MediaShout completely and go old school back to PowerPoint or some other creatively engineered solution as time didn’t allow them to fix the problem in just 48 hours with 24 of those hours being a Saturday. (Some churches even have services where they use this software on Saturday nights.)

In my case I started working on the problem during the rest of the game and realized that this wasn’t going to be a quick fix. The installer would fail at different points each time I tried it on our various presentation and back office machines. Our kids wanted to take the grandparents to a train museum/restaurant for lunch so I stopped working and had a great time with the family before coming back around 4pm to give it another go.

By 10pm we were back in business and things today are working as they should. When you write software for churches it has to work every Sunday. When it doesn’t work those of us who support churches really get jammed up. Unfortunately MediaShout has yet to release a cause or detailed technical description of what happened, why it happened, and what they’ve done to prevent this from ever happening again. Until they do we are all left to wonder what’s going to happen next weekend.

My personal sob story aside, I trust you haven’t run out of tissues whilst reading this, here are some tips for the fix that I hope help anyone else struggling with this upgrade.

1. One of the things that got me into trouble was some old Group Policy Restrictions related to security permissions for the Windows Installer. These permissions have been set for at least 5 years dating back to our Server 2008 upgrade. Until yesterday we haven’t had any problems with them. It would appear, based on a chat with a MediaShout employee on their forum that MediaShout made some changes to the Windows Installer which required more rights. The challenge was figuring out what policies were hindering the install. Being a Saturday while I was working on this no developers were available to help.
   
   As a result I went through our GPO’s and removed everything one at a time until it finally allowed the installer to work. The error message I was getting was that the “Installation was Forbidden by System Policy.”
   
   While I can’t tell you which specific policies fixed that problem I can tell you that your Windows Installer policies from 2008 might need a pass. I was able to allow MediaShout to install without compromising security by updating those older policies. The policies are located here:
   applicable policy name/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Installer
   
   
2. The next issue was related to drive mapping. MediaShout apparently is very fragile when it comes to its installer. MediaShout will say it is Microsoft’s problem as they just use the Windows Installer but again, the only program I’ve ever had an issue with is MediaShout. I would get past the System Policy issue and then get an error that the Drive Mapping was invalid. I could see that the drive map wasn’t invalid however as it was there on all our machines. We use MediaShout on a network so all the users share the same library of backgrounds, effects, songs, etc. I found 2 workarounds for this. First, I disconnected the existing map and manually recreated it. That worked on some machines. On other machines that didn’t work at all so then I would copy the MediaShout 4.ini file from its location and place it on the desktop. Then I deleted the original copy of the file. MediaShout would then install and when it was done I would copy the ini file back thus restoring all my settings and customizations. 

I realize if you had been working on this it wouldn’t have taken you 6 hours but I’m not that smart and a ton of time was spent rebooting and waiting to see if anything had worked.

Despite all this I am a fan of MediaShout as a presentation platform. It works well and is easy for our volunteers to use. I do believe they need to invest more time in their installer and making it more universal and not so fragile. It should be able to work through some of the install issues better than it does. Whether I continue to be a fan will be determined by their honest answers to what they did this weekend and how it impacted their customers. At the least they should send all those affected a Starbucks gift card.

Windows 8 - Fifth Pass: Wireless Network Management

The other night in a hotel room, I stumbled across another “I can’t believe they removed that!” issue with Windows 8. This one has to do with managing your wireless network connections. I wanted to remove an old wireless network connection and in Windows 7 you could easily see a list of all the wireless networks you had previously connected to, their priority, what kind of security they had, and of course their name. This was often helpful if you ended up with duplicates of the same one or wanted to remove all but the most recent connection. It was also useful if you wanted to set the priority for one network over another. This was done from a shortcut in the Network and Sharing Center called Manage Wireless Networks.

No such thing exists in Windows 8. Microsoft believes that Windows 8 can manage this list and prioritize multiple connections automatically much better than you can manually. They also don’t care that you might not want your home connection to be named Network 3 and might want to delete Network 1 and Network 2 and then rename Network 3 to just plain Network. They don’t care about any of that as they removed a valid and very useful feature.

There is of course a rather cumbersome work around if for whatever reason you want to edit your wireless network connection list.

The easiest way is to use the ‘netsh’ command from the command line. Run the command line as the administrator and enter ‘netsh wlan show profiles’. This will show you all of your wireless connection profiles. The simplest thing to do is just to delete the one you don’t want by typing ‘netsh wlan delete profile “SSID-name”’. You can also enter ‘ALL’ instead of the name if you want to flush them all. More details can be found by entering ‘netsh /?’.

You may find that one or more of your profiles can’t be deleted and will always appear in the show list. To remove any stubborn profiles turn your wireless radios off, then reboot, and remove the profiles while the wireless radios are still off and not connected to anything.

Of course, if that’s too difficult Microsoft has provided a harder way.

1. Turn on View Hidden Files and Folders. 
2. Browse to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\Profiles\Interfaces\ 
3. You will find a list of XLM files with GUID names; open each XML file using Notepad to see which connection profile it is. 
4. To delete one just delete that XML file. To change the name edit the XML file however if you want to rename a newer profile the same name as an older profile you must first find the older profile XML file and delete it before you rename the newer one. 
5. Now locate the same ‘Network GUID’ in the following regkey HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WLansvc\Interfaces\[Interface GUID]\Profiles 
6. Delete this as well 

I had to restart to make the show list refresh and any updated names to appear in Network Connections. Simple, right? It’s always nice when technology advances forward and makes things that were easy and accessible more difficult.

Sharing with Those with All the Power

Today I had the unique opportunity to learn and share with IT folks from electrical cooperatives around our state at their fall IT Section meeting in Indianapolis. They invited me to share with them some of the challenges with deploying and using Windows 8 and were kind enough to allow me to stick around and listen to several of the other presenters.

Two things came out of today:

1. It was great to present to those who make IT possible at the most fundamental level. Without electric service providers none of our IT toys and gear would work. Our datacenters would fall silent after the backup power sources ran out, the cloud would dry up, and the sun would come out again.
   
2. If you would like me to present the Windows 8 Experience and some of the challenges associated with it to your organization please let me know. However, hurry, dates and cities are filling up fast. 

If you’d like to read more about Windows 8 click here to view those posts.

TSA Pre is Awesome - Live from the Sky

So this is my first blog post from 37,718 feet flying over the Grand Canyon.  I hope the altitude makes it much more enjoyable for you to read.

This morning I got to use my TSA Pre credentials for the first time at the Indy airport and from my perspective it is totally worth the effort to have. 

The TSA Pre line is at the Concourse A checkpoint. There was no one in the line and all I had to do was let them scan my boarding pass and that verified I was part of the program. No additional ID was needed aside from my drivers license. 

I was the only one one in line and I put my 2 bags on the conveyor and walked through the metal detector with my shoes on. I got through the checkpoint in 20 seconds. 

There were 3 folks who came through after me and they all sailed through just as fast. While some argue that the program is an invasion of privacy I contend that it really isn't. I only provided the TSA information they already had and then proved to them who I was in a personal interview. 

TSA Pre was deployed to more cities just last month making it much more useful and at $100 for 5 years it is well worth it considering the convenience it provides. 

If your on the fence about enrolling in TSA Pre I suggest you do it if you fly at least 6 times or more per year and carry a lot of tech gear.  The only hassle is going to a Custom and Border Protection Office for your interview and finger printing. 

I look forward to using it again on Sunday. 

Someone’s Taking My Spot

My wife has oft compared me to one Sheldon Cooper.  One of our apparent similarities is that I have a spot, a parking spot that is, and don’t feel the world is right if my car isn’t in it.

We don’t have assigned parking spots at work or anything but I’ve been parking in the same spot since 2001 and over the past 11 years, no one has consistently parked where I do.  I think the main reason is because I park away from the doors.  Being of able body, I believe the spots close to the building and doors should be available for others and not for young men like me.  As such, I park a bit out of the way by a landscape island in the parking lot.  If nothing else, the extra walking is good exercise.

Recently though someone has been parking in my spot requiring me to park elsewhere and ending an 11-year run.  My spot is so familiar with my car, yes, I’ve had the same car the entire time, that there are indentations in the asphalt where my front wheels rest as a result of them resting there so often.

Now trust me, I understand how trivial this is but this isn’t the first time my spot has been taken from me.  My original spot, also out of the way and next to an island, was taken away when a building was built, again, bringing a non-issue into my life.

While I could respond by parking where others on our staff routinely park, I’ve just decided to attempt to create wheel indentions in another unused spot.  (I could put my car in neutral in my old spot and it would just roll into place, as if it was more at home there than it is in my garage at home.)  Hopefully I’ll have enough time to create those indentions before someone else starts parking there. 

There is one bright spot here in my pettiness.  My old spot faced south so my dashboard was cooked with the sun.  My new spot faces north meaning my back window is now cooked with the sun.  Maybe the front and back of my car will balance out over the next 11 years.

So there you have it, proof that I am more like one Sheldon Cooper than I care to admit.  I now return you to things that are far more important.

Windows 8 - Fourth Pass: Start Screen

One of the key functions of Windows 8 is the Start Screen. This is key; as it has replaced the Start Menu we are all used to. In early releases the Start Screen was called the Metro Interface and not only referred to the Start Screen but the touch interface that has been baked into Windows 8 to make it more touch screen and tablet friendly.

Just before Windows 8 was released to manufacturing Microsoft stopped referring to it as the Metro Interface and Metro based apps and started calling it the Start Screen. Rumor is that this was to appease a European company that was already calling their software products and interface “Metro” but I think it was an attempt to calm fears over there not being anything in Windows 8 called “Start”, be it Start Menu or Start Screen. Brilliant, release a product and then change the name.

The thinking is that you won’t use the Start Screen much if you are on a desktop while you will use it all the time if you are on a tablet or other touch screen enabled device. So far, I believe Microsoft is very wrong on both accounts.

Somehow, Microsoft got it in their heads that most Windows users don’t use the Start Menu very often but have shortcuts to everything on their desktop or pinned to the taskbar. I’d like to know how they figured that out because this user does most of his work via the Start Menu. I prefer to keep a clean desktop, my physical desktop, and my computer desktop are both kept pretty clean as projects and tasks are completed. As such only common tools and programs are on my desktop. I don’t have a shortcut on my desktop to the Control Panel or to my Network Settings as those are easy to get from the Start Menu. I also don’t have shortcuts to my recent documents as I got those from the Start Menu. The Start Menu is also where I would go for apps I don’t use very often, like say Notepad.

With the removal of the Start Menu in Windows 8, I now have to completely change my workflow, and that is something that most business users are going to baulk at. For example, in order for me to get to the Notepad now I have to press the Windows Key, and then start typing “Notepad” on the Start Screen. I then have to select Apps, Settings, or Files and then I can select the shortcut for Notepad, which will take me back to my desktop and open up Notepad. In what world is that faster? Alternatively, I can start cluttering my desktop with shortcuts so I can avoid the Start Screen completely.

For sake of argument, let’s pretend that I decide to embrace the Start Screen and so I start creating shortcuts to apps on the Start Screen itself so I don’t have to search as often and so I don’t have to clutter up my desktop. This can easily be done however, what you end up with are several pages of tiles you have to click or swipe through and most of the tiles take you back to the desktop where you started from to launch the app in the first place. Am I the only one baffled by this?

The only way this makes any sense is if you are using a tablet or touch device and need to find something. Using the Start Menu with your finger is a bit difficult and from that perspective, the Start Screen works. However, on a desktop using the Start Screen when you are already on your desktop is just as difficult. I get the concept of making Windows 8 a single OS for both touch and non-touch enabled devices but I think the way they’ve done it is wrong. A better implementation would be the Start Screen on touch-enabled devices and the good old Start Menu for those on non-touch devices.

Later this year I look forward to getting my hands on a touch enabled tablet or device with a physical keyboard so I can more fully test out the application of the Start Screen and the lack of a Start Menu.

Windows 8 - Third Pass: Windows Update

Another oddity of Windows 8 is how Windows Update works.  Unfortunately it appears that Windows Update is another app that runs one way in the Start Screen (formerly the Metro Interface, I’m trying to adjust my Windows 8 vocab here) and another way in the desktop environment.  It took me a while to figure out that there was a difference here and unlike Internet Explorer, there is no check box to make the Start Screen version run the desktop version.

Originally, I was running Windows Update by going to the Start Screen, typing Windows Update, which opened the search box, then selected Settings, which revealed a shortcut to Windows Update on the left and allowed me to open it.  This opened the Start Screen personalization settings, which has a Windows Update tab.  While providing a slick interface it does not provide the many features or customization options that the old desktop Windows Update app provided.

After a bit of digging I did find that the original desktop app does exist, you just can’t get to it via the Start Screen unless you create a customized shortcut.  In order to get to it you have to go into the desktop environment, open the Control Panel, and then select Windows Update.  I do that by pressing Windows-X while on the desktop, selecting Control Panel from the menu that opens and then select Windows Update.  This provides you the same features and control you are used to from the Windows Update app in Windows 7.

To say that this is the long way around the barn is an understatement.

Windows 8 - Second Pass: Early Reviews

Today I found several very helpful articles online that mostly support what I've been saying about Windows 8.  My point is not that they have to support my ideas but rather that they show that there is some consensus about the various issues with Microsoft and Windows 8.  I've posted these on my Facebook Timeline and Twitter feed but since I live to make your life easier I've also posted them here.  Check them out, they are well worth the read.

This first article talks about the lack of Start Menu and how Samsung attempted to correct the problem by providing their own third party app to bring the Start Menu back to life.  While the notion is good Microsoft apparently saw this one coming and has blocked it from happening in the final release of Windows 8.

The second article talks about the business concerns with Windows 8 and helping users make the transition in workflow from the Start Menu to the Start screen.  Apparently Microsoft wants to distance itself from calling it the Metro Interface, as I've been calling it, and started calling it the Start Screen.  This is confusing to me as we are going from the Start Menu to the Start Screen.  Regardless, I agree with her business case argument.

The third article refers to some of the great new hardware coming out to support the Start Screen and Windows 8.  I've worked rather hard on my old Lenovo T400 laptop to make it last through the end of the year so I could see what hardware, if any, came out to make Windows 8 and the Start Screen really pop.  Here are some previews and while the concept looks good on paper it is always fun to see if it works out in the reality of IT.

And finally, here is an article I completely disagree with (just to show you what others are saying).  I disagree with the notion that the Start Screen will be beneficial over the Start Button.  That is very hard to quantify. It will take time to get used to but I doubt the business world is excited to retrain everyone on how to get things done. The author also isn't recognizing that it shouldn't be up to Microsoft whether it is better for me to click Start or press the Windows Key. Everyone functions and interacts with the OS differently and here MS is saying they know what's best. Hardly.

Enjoy.

Windows 8 - My First Pass: General Overview

I got my hands on Windows 8 two weeks ago and started playing around with it. Several folks have asked if I like it so here are my initial thoughts having used it for a week now.

My overall impression right now is that I don’t like it. I expect that to change as the OS matures but right now, it is driving me nuts. I’m only using it on a test machine that isn’t mission critical and for the time being can’t imagine putting it on any production machines. The only reason I may put it on my personal laptop would be to force myself to have to get used to it. Right now when it baffles me, I just go back to my Windows 7 machine and the world is right again.

One of the challenges to getting a new OS when the manufacturers do is that nothing is really ready for it. I’m running it on older Lenovo Thinkpads like a T60 and T400. Since Lenovo got the final OS at the same time I did there are no drivers or other specifics ready for my machines. Such drivers and custom programming won’t be readily available until much closer to the public release on October 26.

That also leaves the new Metro interface struggling for usefulness, as there are less than 500 apps for it. I’m sure the app number will grow but up until this point, only registered Microsoft developers were able to get their hands on trial versions of the unfinished software. Now that it’s done, more and more folks will start writing Metro style apps.

I decided my first install would be an in-place upgrade of a laptop running Windows 7 Enterprise to Window 8 Enterprise. This allowed me to keep all my programs, data, and settings.

I installed Windows 8 from a DVD I created from the ISO I downloaded from TechNet. The install took over an hour. This could either be due to the age of the laptop or the fact that it had a lot of stuff already on it. Either way it ran for over an hour before it finished. The install of Windows 8 was quick; it was the configuring that took a while.

During the upgrade process, it warned me of a few things that I should do. First, it stated that my ATI Catalyst graphics card was not compatible and it required that I uninstall the device driver and ATI software before it could continue. Therefore, I did. It also warned me that iTunes may not work and that I should deauthorize my computer in iTunes before continuing the install. I also did that, after the upgrade I ran iTunes, and it came up fine. I then authorized my computer again and all has been well with iTunes.

Next, in order to use the account personalization features of Window 8, including adding your Windows Live account and using any of the sync features, you must activate Windows 8. This proved to be difficult since I upgraded an existing copy of Windows 7, which already had a product key installed. When I went to check activation Windows 8 told me it was not activated and that the key could not be validated. It took me a while to figure out how to enter a new key. I expected a “Change your Key” here button but none was to be found. I ended up using the command line tool 'slmgr' to manually change my key. Once changed Windows 8 instantly activated and all the personalization features were immediately available.

My biggest complaint right now is navigating around without a Start Button. The functionality of the Start Button has been replaced by the Metro interface. It is difficult to explain the Metro interface and how it relates to your desktop. Metro is basically the primary shell for the OS and your desktop is now an app that runs from the Metro interface. From Metro you can launch any of your programs, any of the Metro designed apps (think touch apps) and your desktop. This gets confusing, as right now, there are so few apps written for the Metro UI so when you launch something like Word 2010 for example, it automatically opens your desktop up and you can toggle between Word and any other apps like normal. The one key difference is in the bottom left corner of your screen there is no Start Button.

In order to get used to finding things without a Start Button I’ve began to use more Windows key shortcuts to get around. For example, you used to be able to click the Start Button and then start typing to find anything. Now to do that you hit the Windows key, the Metro interface opens and then you can start typing. Your search results are then displayed in the Metro interface with Metro shortcuts, which for now seems a bit odd.

Apps that are native Metro apps, such as anything from the new App Store (Weather, MetroTwit, Messenger, etc.) can only be run from the Metro interface whereas you can add a shortcut to the Metro interface for any of your other apps. This makes running apps interesting as sometimes you have to go to Metro and sometimes you don’t. If have a shortcut on your desktop for a program then you can run it from your desktop. Otherwise, since there is no Start Button, you have to go back to the Metro interface and click the shortcut or search for it. I have added more shortcuts to my desktop (which remember is basically an app that runs inside Metro) so that I don’t have to leave it and go back to Metro so much.

Another little trick I learned was to put the Desktop app in the top left corner of the Metro interface as a large tile. When Windows 8 boots the Metro interface comes up by default. To get to my desktop all I have to do is hit enter since that opens the top left corner tile.

System settings have also been harder to find. Windows 8 has a charms menu that opens on the right side of the screen when you place your mouse in the upper right or lower rights corners. You can also get this to open by pressing Windows-C. From the charms menu you can access certain system settings, like power, shutdown, restart, personalization, etc. Other system settings like the Device Manager, Control Panel, etc. can be accessed by pressing Windows-X which opens a menu on the bottom left of your screen that contains the majority of system features. Alternatively, you can search for these by going back to Metro. Windows-X is like the old Start Menu but with only system functions and no graphics.

Putting the mouse in the upper left hand corner of the screen brings up all the tiles open from the Metro interface, moving your mouse down the menu shows a graphic of each one. These are only your open tiles. To see all running apps, including those on Metro and in your desktop you can still use ALT-TAB. Putting the mouse in the bottom left corner reveals a Metro start button, a cruel irony as it just takes you back to the Metro interface.

The Metro interface also creates confusion between apps that are normal desktop apps and apps that are Metro designed apps. The biggest problem here is Internet Explorer 10. By default, the IE tile (shortcut) that appears on the Metro opens the Metro version of IE 10, which is designed for a touchscreen device, making it very hard to use with a keyboard and mouse. The URL bar appears at the bottom and only when you right click. The tabs appear as images of the pages across the top when you right click and there are very few settings and configuration, again, this is made for touchscreen devices.

In order to run the traditional desktop version of IE 10 you have to open the desktop app from Metro and then run the IE shortcut from there. I find this to be very confusing and a horrible implementation of both tablet and desktop hardware into a single OS. There is a reason Apple has OS and iOS but I digress. So what if you want to the desktop version of IE10 from the Metro tile so you don’t have to go to the desktop each time you want to run IE10? Glad you asked. After a bit of research I found a small checkbox in IE settings that allows you to change the function of the tile from running the Metro version of IE to the desktop version. I checked that box and now when I run IE from the tile my desktop opens and runs the traditional IE 10.

If by now you are confused between the Metro interface and the desktop then my point has been made. Explaining this clearly isn’t easy so if it doesn’t make sense then you may just have to wait until you get to play with it. I’m also a bit concerned as to how the average user I support at work will be able to handle this paradigm shift from the Start Button to Metro interface. Maybe by the time you get it most of these issues will be fixed. Doubtful, but we can always hope.

Ok, changing gears. I mentioned the lack of driver support earlier. Windows 8 is supposed to have drivers for just about everything. I found that it had drivers for all of my T400 hardware except for my switchable graphics. It found a driver for the Intel part of my graphics cards but it was unable to find a driver for the ATI Radeon HD card. It correctly identified the card but was unable to start the driver. As with most manufacturers who got Windows 8 when I did AMD (owns ATI) does not yet have a driver update. I also noticed that without the driver running properly my processor temps were rather high. I also had various artifacts all over the screen that made working difficult. I could clear them with a refresh but they came back often enough to be a hindrance to productivity.

To fix the heating problem I disabled switchable graphics in the BIOS and am only using integrated graphics. This removed the device from Device Manager and solved my overheating problems. It also resolved about 50% of my artifact issues. That has made using the computer much better however the screen is still a bit goofy and I’m using the latest Intel driver for Windows 8. To resolve these issues I’m probably going to have to wait for a dedicated driver either from Lenovo or from AMD for my Radeon HD card.

Another odd driver issue has to deal with the wireless network card. All ThinkPads have a wireless network indicator that flashes with activity. In Windows 8 the indicator does not flash, it is either on when the wireless radio is on or off if the wireless radio is off. It no longer blinks to indicate wireless activity. Incidentally though all of the other Lenovo ThinkPad features and drivers work, including all the FN keys.

I know this is a rather long post but you asked for my thoughts.

Let’s circle back to IE 10 for a bit. I don’t run it in Metro mode since I am not running Windows 8 on a touchscreen device. I’m waiting for this fall to see if any Windows 8 worthy hardware is released. A small part of me wonders if we should skip Windows 8 and wait for Windows 9 but I think that will be determined by the hardware that comes out and either makes or breaks the need and purpose of Metro.

I’ve found IE10 to not be very compatible with most of the sites I use. There seem to be a lot of basic functionality that is lacking that IE9 had. Everything from airline sites and seat maps to many social media sharing options on sites just don’t work. For a lot of sites I would click links and nothing would happen, no error message, no network activity, nothing. While all of my settings, shortcuts, and layouts came forward from IE9 to IE10, the lack of compatibility is a bit frustrating. Developers only have until Oct. 26 to fix their sites to work with IE10 or hope that Microsoft adjusts IE10 a bit to make it work better with sites that run fine in IE9.

For now, I find myself running Chrome a lot on my Windows 8 machines as everything works in Chrome while on my Windows 7 machines IE9 is still my preferred browser. I now there are a lot of issues with IE in general trying to adapt to standards but I can’t figure out why IE10 messes so much stuff up? It’s almost as though Microsoft wants Chrome to be the preferred browser of Windows 8. Of course, Chrome doesn’t run as a Metro app with a tile but for now, who cares.

Office 2010 works fine in Windows 8 but all the Office 2010 apps run in the desktop as none of them are tile compatible for the Metro interface. While the Metro interfaced does have a tile for Mail and Calendar, (both are compatible with all major email providers including Exchange) all of Office including Outlook run on the desktop from simple shortcuts on the Metro. Why you would want your Exchange mailbox and Hotmail in both Outlook and the Metro Mail app is beyond me but for now if you want to use the live tiles that’s the only way to do it. Rumor is Office 2013, which doesn’t even have a release date yet, will use the live tiles on Metro, and run in the Metro interface but who knows when we will get that? It also begs the question will Office turn into IE where you have a Metro version and a desktop version making it all the more fun?

The Task Manager in Windows 8 is much improved and shows a lot of useful information however another oddity of not having a Start Menu is there is no Start folder on the Start Menu. While the new Task Manager shows you what starts automatically via the registry it does not show you what starts from the Startup folder on the start menu. To find any programs starting this way you have to browse to the two Startup folders located in the user profile. To make this easier I pinned those locations to the File Explorer on the taskbar in my desktop. Clear as mud? By the way, File Explorer is the new name for the Windows Explorer in Windows 7.

One of the few companies that had an updated version of their software that works with Windows 8 is the VPN client we use at work. When I tried using the VPN client after the update I discovered that it didn’t work and had failures at both the hardware and software levels. Much to my surprise there was an update available that fixed the problem but I had to completely remove the old version of the client, reboot, and then install the new version. Regardless of the process, I’m glad it worked and am glad their latest update is Windows 8 compatible well ahead of the public release date. The downside is that in order to support Windows 8 on our corporate network we will have to make a firmware update to our VPN appliance to make the latest version available for our users to update.

Last, but not least, docking. I have a docking station for my laptop and it works fine. It even transfers the little artifacts on my laptop screen to my monitor connected to the docking station. Windows 8 found all the drivers for the docking station hardware, including the integrated storage device in the dock. The only issue was the undocking process. Windows 7 automatically provided an undock option on the Power menu. Windows 8 only provides Shutdown, Sleep, and Restart. This could be due to the lack of driver support from Lenovo but there is a workaround. First, I can push the undock button the docking station itself. This works fine and Windows 8 popped up a notice saying it was safe to undock my laptop. Second, using the Device Connections icon down by the clock I was able to Right Click and select Eject Docking Station with the same results.

So, after 2 weeks there’s my review. I’m glad I’m not running Windows 8 at work yet and only in a non-production environment at home. My next step will be to put Windows 8 on my laptop to force myself to get used to the navigation. In the meantime, I plan to make my old T400 laptop last through the fall to see what hardware is released. It would be ideal if an iPad style device would come out that runs Windows 8, is a touchscreen, and provides all the features of a laptop and iPad combined into a single device that I can dock at home and at work to my existing peripherals. It sounds like a dream but my understanding is that’s the goal of Windows 8 and only time will tell if that goal is made real.

As I have more experiences or learn new things, I’ll be sure to post them.

Thoughts? Comments? Ridicule?

Can Someone Explain the Difference?

As you know if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, I’ve had issues posting to Facebook reliably through every third party app except TweetDeck. While I really like the product of HootSuite, they have a major issue with posting consistently and frequently to Facebook. I’ve been around and around with HootSuite and Facebook and have posted many of those conversations on this blog. I’m happy to report that I appear to finally have answers and workaround for these issues.

The issue, as we thought all long, is Facebook. There are many posts online where you can find that Facebook limits posts from third party apps by both app and person. That means they throttle the app (HootSuite) and the user (me) based on all aggregated activity from both and based on interaction both receive. So, if I’m posting a lot from HootSuite to Facebook and am not getting much interaction in terms of comments and likes then I’m subject to being limited. I have noticed the more interaction I receive the longer I can post before I am cut off.

However, it isn’t just up to me. In their futile effort to prevent spam by punishing everyone else the Facebook algorithm also looks at all content coming from HootSuite so I could be limited quickly even if I haven’t posted in a while because of the activity of other HootSuite users.

This explains the issues with HootSuite and with several other Twitter apps that also post to Facebook that I’ve tried. Tweetings, Tweetcaster, all of them, except TweetDeck. For whatever reason the current web app of TweetDeck, the old Adobe Air version, as well as their existing iPhone and iPad apps don’t have this limit. TweetDeck must connect to Facebook through a different API or they must have an exclusive agreement where Facebook doesn’t throttle their API. I’ve posted to Facebook hundreds of time an hour from TweetDeck without any issues where with HootSuite, I’d have been throttled after 6 posts.

So can anyone explain the difference? Does anyone know why TweetDeck appears to be exempt from Facebook’s policies?

At least we have the answers and for now, we still have TweetDeck so you can post as much as you want to both Twitter and Facebook without fear of being limited. Otherwise, you can always post to Facebook directly from the web or their apps as those obviously have no such limits.

A Funny Thing Happened at Work the Other Day...

I've been working at Faith since 2001 and on August 17, 2012 one of the oddest things happened.

I was sitting in my office hardly working when a knock came at the door. I opened it and one of our volunteers said she needed a man. I asked her to give me a minute while I found one but she insisted that I would do. She told me there was a woman in the lobby with a bug stuck on her.

As I was rushing to aid this damsel in distress, several thoughts went through my mind as to what kind of bug would be stuck to this woman. I soon discovered that a cicada was firmly attached to her apparel and she was rather nervous by its presence.

I knew what I had to do first. The first thing any one of you would do if you were in trouble and needed help. I called the one person who can solve any problem. In fact, we call him the problem solver. That's right, you like him, you love him, you can't get enough of him, I called the one and only Donnie Payne.

The lady informed us that she was getting out of her car in the parking lot when the cicada attached itself to her. She tried to push it off with her iPhone but it wouldn't budge. Due to the location of the cicada on her, I knew it wouldn't be appropriate for us to just grab it. I also didn't want it flying around inside the building. Knowing my luck it would hide out in the auditorium and start buzzing during the Sunday morning sermon.

So while Donnie helped her back outside I grabbed a broom. The plan was to just brush the bug off her outside. Once we got outside Donnie snapped this picture of the intruder. She also snapped a picture from a different angle where I can only imagine the lens of her iPhone camera looking right into the cicada's menacing eyes.

I asked her if she was ready and she crossed her arms and closed her eyes. I gently swept the cicada with the broom and it immediately started buzzing and flew off and landed on a tree about 20 feet away where I'm sure it stopped to update its Facebook status so all the cicada lovers out there would know it was ok.

The lady was very relieved and thanked us for helping her out. I put the broom back in the janitor’s closet and Donnie and I returned to our hardly working, heroes, confident we had saved a lady from a cicada and a cicada from a lady.