What are /r/windows8's favorite Products & Services?

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Link to the actual real article by Mary Jo who actually researched through primary sources and wrote the original content, instead of this shitty add-nothing article.

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-to-deliver-windows-threshold-tech-preview-around-late-september-7000032668

Fuck this Computer World blog spam.

Some objective advantages of 8.1 over 7 are:

• better Task Manager.
• better overall performance and startup time.
• integrated security: while many prefer a non-MS antivirus/firewall software, Windows Defender (Security Essential on 7), comes with the s.o. and it's not bad at all.
• driver recognition working as intended
• energy saving on laptop is slightly better

Some other subjective advantages:

• IMO Start Screen is actually useful: it let you size apps according to how much they matter to you. As a plus, Live Tiles act like a pseudo-widget, displaying useful information (I barely open MSN News or Meteo app, but those are an essential part of my start screen). Also by resizing the Tiles, I find myself doing the same common tasks I did on 7 far more quickly (because by customizing size and location of a Tile you can reach quickly with a simple clic).
• IE 11 in "Modern mode" is awesome.
• MSN (formerly known as Bing) Apps.
• Microsoft Store, Modern Apps & Notifications: while not perfect (yet), the ecosystem is growing.
• I don't like the "Aero" theme.

Finally:

• It's basically the same: install Classic Shell or one of the many Start Menu replacement app and it cant be told the difference.
• It is no more a comparison you should concern with, since Windows 10 is coming as a free upgrade from 7 and 8.1. So wait for the next version instead.

I bet this is the offender - you can either disable the scheduled task or not allow maintenance tasks to wake the computer in the Action Center. Also, you can confirm what woke the computer by going to the Windows\System area of the event log and filtering on 'Power-Cfg'. It should show entries when the computer woke from sleep and what the wake source was.

http://superuser.com/questions/497500/disable-automatic-maintenance-in-windows-8

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2799178

McAfee, the only antivirus that behaves like malware....

Uninstall programs doesn't allow you to uninstall the firewall separately? Unlocker lets you force-end processes.

http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/

Go to process details in task manager, then right click to find the location of the .exes. Then unlock, delete, and KILL IT WITH FIRE

But Halo and Halo 2 are already on the PC? That and Halo was originally programmed as a Mac exclusive before Microsoft bought Bungie. The difference between the programming between the 360 and Windows DirectX is not all that huge, especially for the ones who created the actual framework. Pretending like this is a huge undertaking for Microsoft is a fallacy. It's obvious that it's purely a political decision just so Microsoft and push a product.

Also, you may want to see how many downloads this file from 2003 gets on a daily basis.

https://ninite.com/

1. Chrome or Firefox instead of Internet Explorer
2. Malwarebytes for cleaning up cookies
3. Avast or AVG for antivirus (although ESET is a great paid option)
4. Notepad++ is nice if you're a programmer, otherwise it's just a nice notepad replacement.
5. VLC to play basically any media file imaginable
6. You may want to install the runtimes listed to save yourself some headache later
7. 7zip
8. qbittorrent
9. Paint.NET or Inkscape for some basic photo editing
10. Team Viewer has saved my ass several times by just being able to log into my pc from anywhere
11. PDF creator
12. Steam
13. Everything - better search through all files
14. Media Monkey is a nice Itunes replacement
15. TeraCopy seems to handle files better than the default windows settings

Things not on ninite.com (google em)

1. Handbreak
2. Plex
3. Playon
4. Kodi

If I were you, I'd save all my media to a drive that's NOT my C: drive and go program crazy, see what you like and what you don't. Then, nuke the OS from orbit, reinstall, and just install what you have a taste for.

Good luck.

It's a Store app now, yes, but it's not compiled for ARM. Meaning no VLC for Windows 8.x RT just yet.

http://i.imgur.com/9XXcQ5S.jpg

To answer OP's question, it seems that it's still a WIP as of April.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1061646928/vlc-for-the-new-windows-8-user-experience-metro/posts/810477

> And we're working, of course, on the ARM compilation.

So clarifying, what you really want is just to be able to snap windows into 4 columns rather than just 2?

Edit: although it's paid, would something like this be what you're after?

>The Runtime Broker is responsible for checking if a Metro app is declaring all of its permissions (like accessing your Photos) and informing the user whether or not its being allowed. In particular it is interesting to see how it functions when paired with access to hardware, such as an app’s ability to take webcam snapshots. Think of it as the middleman between your apps and your privacy/security.

It seems like it has a memory leak, but it is a critical app made by Microsoft. They will fix it eventually, but if you didn't do a clean install then it has a conflict with one of your previous exes. Try finding a way to send microsoft information about it so they can fix it sooner. Contact their tech support if you have the time.

They can't fix it if they don't know. :D

Foobar is my go to player on all my machines no matter what version of windows. Incredibly lightweight, very customizable and handles very large media libraries with easy. Out of the box, its ugly and doesn't do much beyond play music but there's a massive amount of customization that you can do with skins, plugins, etc.

MusicBee is what i've been using lately. Ton of options and features built in, lots of themes/skins you can use and it's not nearly as heavy as Winamp/Mediaplayer/iTunes(you bloated POS). Does pretty well with large libraries as well

First, I will give my obligatory "Get off XP" advice. There are no more security updates so the stability that you are referring to is not a guarantee.

I don't think the Photo's app will go, or most apps. I could see it happening to the Movie app. I would assume that the music app was depreciated was because on Windows 10 it was merged with Xbox music. My best guess is that anything that has cloud connections might break.

Further, I expect Windows 8/8.1 to be buried in a similar shallow grave that Vista ended up in.

Oh and if you need programs that will not break go to https://ninite.com/

WinKey+L will send you to the lock screen, then in the control panel you can change the amount of time until the screen turns off while at the lock screen to something like a minute, and if you want or need to, you can bump up the time until it goes to sleep.

That's just my initial thought, does it help? You've got me wondering if there's a "screen off" command.

Edit: just realized that with the flip computer, you probably don't have keyboard access? What about swipe from right, hit windows button, at the start screen hit your username and select "lock."

Edit2: this might work: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/create-a-shortcut-or-hotkey-to-turn-off-the-monitor/

“N” and “KN” editions follow the upgrade path of the parent edition (e.g., Windows 7 Professional N upgrades to Windows 10 Pro). as per this page https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq

Not sure what you're asking:

1 - have multiple audio devices, such as speakers, headphones and a usb headset plugged in and setting a single output device through the audio control panel. Yes, this is supported in Windows 7 and above. Just right click the speaker in the tray, go to properties, select the device you want sound to go to, and hit "Set Default". Most games will need to be restarted to pick up the new priority.

2 - Have multiple audio devices, such as speakers, headphones and a usb headset all plugged in and audio being output through all devices simultaneously. No, this is not supported out of the box in any version of Windows to date (including Windows 10). There's a couple of workarounds such as "Virtual Audio Cable" or using patch cables and splitters, but it's generally not very well supported.

3 - Having multiple audio devices, such as speakers, headphones, and a usb headset all plugged in and audio from different applications going to different devices. This is supported in Windows 7 and above if the application supports the extended Core Audio API. Applications such as VLC and Windows Media will have a "Audio Output Device" in their settings that you can change. There are also applications which extend the Core Audio API and wrap legacy apps for you, such as IndieVolume: http://www.indievolume.com/ These simply make it possible to change the output device that a specific app plays to. You still cannot play to two output devices from the same app.

There is software that makes it easier to do #1: http://soundswitch.codeplex.com/

If I understand your question correctly and you want to remove the Metro, or Modern, apps from your Taskbar, here is how you do it. First you right click on a blank portion of the task bar and select "Properties." Then you un-select the option "Show Windows Store apps on the taskbar." This should get rid of them and return your taskbar to how it was in Windows 8.0 and 8.1 before the update.

One could write a book on licensing, but here's the skinny version:

OEM/OEM System Builder: Per-machine license. The license is not transferable, meaning you cannot install it on another machine(and yes, a new motherboard technically constitues a "new" machine per OEM license terms). The license must move with the hardware it's originally installed on. (This is all according to the license agreement. Would an OEM key activate on another machine fine? Sure it would, but it's technically against the OEM license terms) The difference between OEM and OEM System Builder is that once upon a time, OEM licenses were not intended for personal use. It's what you bought if you were building a PC to resell and needed to license it. Microsoft re-did their OEM terms and came up with OEM System Builder, which allows for personal use on your own built machine. But then they reneged on it between 8 and 8.1. Read here if you want to jump down that rabbit hole.

Retail/Full: The same thing. (XP/Vista/7=Retail, 8.x=Full).. This is the license that may be moved from one machine to another per the license agreement, provided that it's removed from the previous machine. The license may also be transferred to another party/user one time.

> I would need the capability of having the OS be able to act as a home server as well, but not limited to just the home (setting up FTP if necessary) and utilizing Remote Desktop from time to time.

You may want to look into buying Windows 7 Pro or Windows 8.1 Pro. Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 8.1 cannot act as a Remote Desktop host, only a client.

> Back when Win8 first launched, you would be presented with the lock screen, with no explanation of how to move on.

That's not true. Windows 8 came with an extensive tutorial.

Yes it is possible. Officially only with Windows 8 Enterprise, but it can be achieved with any version of Windows 8.

This link has a great tutorial

Also worth mentioning that Windows will realise that it has been installed to a USB drive and it performs a few tweaks to increase performance. I've tried it for gaming and it works surprisingly well.

Try this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753659.aspx

Edit: also after searching it I found someone else with your problem and they said they could run it through steam link

I saw this on CNET, and the 1GB of ram concerns me. If it had 2GB I might have been interested in getting one to play with.

You're going to need a disc of some sort to boot from since you'll have to do a clean install to get up to 64-bit.

But there's good news: you can download an ISO using these instructions, and yes, this is completely legal to do. The big trick is if you bought an upgrade license, as opposed to a full OEM/system builder license.

There are some features included in Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 that are not included in Client Hyper-V. These include the following: the remote FX capability to virtualize GPUs (software GPU in RDP 8), live migration of virtual machines, Hyper-V Replica, SR-IOV networking, and virtual Fibre Channel.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh857623.aspx

It's listed in the Details tab. From the process tab, you can right click on the 'Process' and click 'Go To Details'. That will give you more information about the process, more like the traditional Process tab in previous versions of Task Manager.

Also, Process Explorer ftw: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Are you sure about that?

According to this, pro does not have the features I mentioned. And according to this, the only way to upgrade to enterprise is via VL editions of Windows 7 which do not include ultimate.

I'm on my phone so resources are limited, but a control panel item (.cpl) may be crashing it. Just a guess, it could be other things too. Make backups, but maybe try removing control panel items with these instructions? http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28919/remove-or-hide-unwanted-items-from-the-control-panel-in-windows-7/

Just a thought. Do at your own risk. If you do, I'd only recommend removing non-ms entries.

Other guy did give you the right answer but didn't tell you how to actually do it.

http://www.howtogeek.com/122404/how-to-block-websites-in-windows-8s-hosts-file/

Bear in mind that this can be easily un-done by someone that knows how to go edit the line out of the HOSTS file.. So you may want to look into blocking the domain in your router settings if that might be the case.

Although these links are about Windows 7, the steps should be identical to what you would do under Windows 8. The first solves it by booting into Safe Mode, then enabling the built-in administrator account. The second starts a command prompt from the Windows Installation DVD, then enables the built-in administrator account.

Edit: I forgot how to link, oops.

Other commenters have no idea what they are talking about (as usual). Heres a guide to "downgrade" to 8 pro. You need to hack up the registry a bit but should be doable.

http://superuser.com/questions/479292/downgrading-windows-8-from-enterprise-to-pro

http://www.blogsolute.com/windows-8-upgrade-downgrade-tool-switch-between-versions-easily/24043/

I can confirm that this works, with one caveat (for me at least).

I used the upgrade utility, purchased the upgrade, then created a bootable flash drive from the installation program and did a clean install on a brand new SSD i had for the occasion.

Everything worked fine, but it wouldn't activate.

After some looking, i figured out that there is another activation utility, and that one gave me the message that i cant activate a clean install of and upgrade version of windows.

Theres a workaround explained here:

http://www.ghacks.net/2012/10/27/windows-8-upgrade-clean-install-possible/

Give it a try if your having similar problems... or am i the only one?

For future reference, you may want to try a program called Windows 8 Product Key Viewer. Run it and it instantly displays the MSDM key.

To skip entering a key on installation of windows 8.1 do this:

Get Ultraiso or put the win8 installation on an usb stick.

Open notepad and add the following:

[EditionID] Professional [Channel] Retail [VL] 0

Now save it as ei.cfg (check that you didn't save it as a txt)

Copy the ei.cfg to the sources folder on your iso/usb.

Install win 8.1, when asked about product key click skip.

After installation go to Settings - Change PC Settings - activate windows. Enter your upgrade key.

Firstly, download Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder here.

Then download the correct Office .exe here and copy it onto external media.

Then clean install Windows 8 and reinstall Office 2007 afterwards.

Nirsoft also has a free utility to help get lost product keys; "ProduKey v1.70 - Recover lost Windows product key (CD-Key) and Office 2003/2007 product key"

however

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-install-latest-itunes-on-win-7/9e8767da-1d1e-474f-a69e-62968778c0be

summary: If you go here: https://www.apple.com/itunes/ you'll see a big "Get it from MICROSOFT" button which, as you've discovered, takes you to the Microsoft Store where the only available iTunes is an app that only works for Windows 10.

If you scroll down the page past the image of the laptop and below the line that says " Windows system requirements," you'll see a line that says, "Looking for other versions? macOS > Windows >"

Click on the "Windows" link there and you'll get to a page with downloads for old Windows

(currently still supports 7 & 8)

Yes, yes it is. I followed the steps in this article and discovered that it's completely false--IE is the default desktop browser when doing these steps: http://www.tech-stew.com/post/2012/07/12/How-To-find-Metro-Internet-Explorer-with-Windows-8.aspx

So, it seems to me that it's impossible to launch Metro IE if it's not your default browser for all of Windows 8.

EDIT: Found this Super User question which states the same thing: http://superuser.com/questions/490415/is-it-possible-to-use-the-ie10-app-without-making-internet-explorer-the-default

In this case, if you want free, which free is always good. You can install a virtual router program on your laptop and setup an ad-hoc network between the two devices and share files that way. This method ignores your building's Wi-Fi and connects the two devices directly. Ex: http://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/

I just installed it a couple days ago, and now I'm kicking myself for having taken so long to get it. Download the Windows file and get the app. Sign in, and I think it just starts working. I don't recall much set up. I get a little pop up that when I double click it allows me to respond to texts. I also get all of my notifications popping up and you can dismiss straight from your computer. Really handy.

I didn't turn off any features or anything. But I did make the following adjustments:

• Bypass the lockscreen curtain thing
• Boot straight to desktop instead of start menu
• Set desktop wallpaper as my start menu background

Those make a big difference. The lock curtain will be gone, you'll immediately begin on a screen you recognize and the start menu won't seem to take you somewhere completely different anymore.

If you don't know them already, learning keyboard shortcuts will change your life. If there's any time to master the Windows key, it's while getting used to Windows 8.

Finally, if your OS is 64 bits, snag Chrome 64-bit.

why not just use office online? Its free, and there are apps for tablets and smart phones. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/compare-microsoft-office-products-FX104165233.aspx

Open Office is a good alternative, though its not in the windows store https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

I'm sure there is a registry key for enable/disable that icons, maybe you can add more. Try creating the folder on c:\users\ your-user \and read this: http://www.howtogeek.com/168081/how-to-remove-the-folders-from-my-computer-in-windows-8.1/

I think all keys for Win 8 obtained that way (including mine) have been updated to be Win 8.1 keys. This is definitely the case for me since I recently reinstalled Windows 8.1 on my machine using the same code as Win 8.0. Check your Microsoft store key or contact customer service to have them email it to you after you provide your proof of purchase.

Edit: I basically followed these steps and reactivated my windows key via code on the telephone

http://www.howtogeek.com/187525/how-to-perform-a-clean-install-of-windows-8.1-with-a-windows-8-key/

I think there are ways to hack the application so it will Run As Admin even if Standard user is executing it.

http://www.howtogeek.com/124087/how-to-create-a-shortcut-that-lets-a-standard-user-run-an-application-as-administrator/

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/193743-elevated-program-shortcut-create-standard-user.html

first check your sata emulation mode , sometimes an update (eg: hp bios auto update) might change it from ahci/raid to ide

next boot up without any usb thumb drives/storage plugged in

there is a chance u formatted the boot partition

http://superuser.com/questions/548207/how-to-create-windows-8-boot-partition-on-drive-that-never-had-one

If you put upload a kernel memory dump on skydrive or dropbox or something, I'll tell you what's up. I'm not 100% sure how to do it on a running system, but I think you can run livekd and do a .dump command.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897415

Basically the nonpaged pool is a memory pool allocated by drivers, because some operations can't use paged memory.

Your best bet is to install Vista 64-bit on it's own and then do the upgrade from there.

Here are the upgrade paths for Windows 8: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj203353.aspx

You can also try to upgrade Vista to 7 and then 7 to 8, but that is a longshot if you want everything to work 100%.

Dual-booting is your best bet though.

There are no OS limitations Windows 8.1 with Bing is just Windows 8.1 with Bing set as the default search engine.

http://www.howtogeek.com/195934/what-exactly-is-windows-8.1-with-bing-do-i-have-to-use-bing/

I had 3 of these laptops with "tablet" processors on my desk and they are very capable for general computer usage. The ones I had on my desk were Dell's with with a Baytrail Celeron N2830 and these X205 are Baytrail Atom Z3770 but they are about 20% faster cpu wise according to cpubenchmark.net most likely due to 4 versus 2 cores.

The greatest limitation on the X205 is that it only has 32gb of "hard drive" space. If you need more space there are a few laptops that come with 500gb hard drives now and during Black Friday.

These machines are great for people that only browse the web and use office on their laptops.

Don't listen to the people that have never had one of these units in their hands they don't know what they are talking about. I am deploying my 3rd laptop with a tablet processor and they are more than fine for general business usage.

Most store have pretty good return policies so if you don't like it return it.

I am going to buy one to replace my wife's full size laptop. All she does with her laptop is within a web browser or office application. This is great because its cheap, light, and gets 10+ hours of battery life. This beats her current cheap, 5#, 2.5+ hours battery life laptop.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a good value. Do you research and stop listing to the retards.

There are ways of locking the keyboard, but they'll lock the on-screen keyboard as well. Short of some serious programming or physically disconnecting it, uninstalling is probably your only real bet. That said, if you don't need a keyboard at all, use this.

On the plus side, reinstalling just requires you to scan for new hardware in the device manager; it should pick it up and reinstall it. All things considered, that's a pretty harmless method.

You could probably work out a script that would uninstall/reinstall the hardware keyboard when you ran it, if you wanted to avoid having to open the device manager every time.

Looks like most all your other questions got answered, but in regards to the All Apps menu, you can clean it up and make it look quite nice by following this: http://www.howtogeek.com/172042/how-to-organize-the-all-apps-list-on-windows-8/

You might try changing the page file settings found under Control Panel --> System and Security --> System --> Advanced system settings --> Advanced tab --> Performance settings --> Advanced tab --> "Change" Ref http://superuser.com/questions/759152/windows-8-1-update-1-disk-usage-100

As far as a laptop defect I doubt it, I think this is a systemic issue in Windows 8.1 - my Win8.1 box has had similar issues. Someone at MS must have been high on crack or something and forgot to do an algorithm efficiency analysis on the core system and local service impacts on disk usage.

I hope Windows 10 fixes this because it can't be good on the hard drive life.

This is why I prefer linux.

Oh, I read the last sentence and thought that was the problem.

Not sure you can have different behaviour depending on location/wifi connection - but maybe a PowerShell script is available (or could be written) that reconfigures your Power Options depending on some recognisable aspect of your home network. You may have more luck posing the question in a powershell group (if you can track one down) or over at SuperUser

If you have a Linux USB Stick set up, just boot to it and use this method: http://superuser.com/questions/637971/how-do-i-get-out-my-embedded-windows-8-key-from-a-linux-environment

Worked great for me.

Will it preserve it? Good question, but doubtful.

You used an xml file? That xml file has to be driven by an application, can you elaborate a little bit more? I assume you used sysprep to create an unattended installation of Windows7. Yes that exists in Windows 8.

The tool to create this is Windows System Image Manager, its typically used for doing deployments at corporations. info: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766347(WS.10).aspx download: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30652

Download EasyBCD. Rewrite the MBR. Delete the Windows 7 partition. Fold the now empty partition into your Windows 8 partition. I'm looking for the guide I used the other day. I'll update when I find it.

Edit: Okay, here is the guide I used to remove my Ubuntu partition. Should work the same for W7.

same here, NOW, google later bought the rights to the name:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2007/01/8741/

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/14/google-finally-gets-right-to-gmail-trademark-in-germany/

Use this link to download the installation file. Once the download is done, head to this link to download Rufus. Once you install it, burn the installation file to a spare USB drive, using Rufus. Then you'll have to shut down your PC and open it up again. As soon as you start up your PC click the Bios key for your PC model (search it up if you don't know what your bios key is) and boot up from the USB drive that you burned Windows to. It will load the Windows 10 setup afterwards and you can choose to install both Windows 8 and Windows 10 or just to install Windows 10 in place of Windows 8. If you chose the second method, note that you'll lose all your files so back them up if you have anything important.

If it's that important to you, the only way I can think of is kind of convoluted.

1. Use SyncToy to generate a copy of your pictures folder on start up (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155)
2. Have a .bat file load up on login that randomizes the file names for all pictures in the copy of your pictures directory (http://www.howtogeek.com/57661/stupid-geek-tricks-randomly-rename-every-file-in-a-directory/)
3. Set it to cycle on the directory we created.

Complicated? Yeah, the randomizer seems to be lazy and just sets the first picture in the directory as its initial conditions.

Just used Clonezilla today from live USB(LinuxLive). Migrated to a 120gb Kingston SSD. Worked very well. Only problem was I had to restore the master boot record, which is a common issue with cloning.

Be familiar with how to repair/rebuild the boot files.

Make sure you have a means of getting into recovery console.

Edit: I used this guide, and went the clonezilla route: http://www.howtogeek.com/97242/how-to-migrate-windows-7-to-a-solid-state-drive/

Also, if the OS is 64bit make sure you use a 64bit cloning program.

Did you try /rebuild bcd with these switches?

BCDboot c:\windows /s c: /l en-us

I ran into this once and this worked for me.

This might work too, just be VERY careful using diskpart, seriously triple check every command before running it.

http://superuser.com/questions/642276/how-to-unlock-a-hard-drive-and-refresh-pc

Do it like this and you'll have original and activated windows.

If you need the iso you can download it from any page like thepiratebay (it's completely legal because you've purchased the license).

If your key is from the normal W8.1 version you can't install an original and activated pro version.

I assume that it's not a new laptop, so it's been tested at your home network before (after being connected to the university network), correct?

Going abit blind into this, as it's hard to really test different stuff. But something I could guess is an IP conflict. So either change your internal IP adresser (or reset it might do something. Doing usual stuff as doing a restart on computer aswell as router can always do tricks, atlest here at my home

If you're talking about games check if it supports borderless or windowed fullscreen. If not you can force it with this application http://westechsolutions.net/sites/WindowedBorderlessGaming/ but of course it comes with some bugs, in that case check their Steam Group's forums.

Our current mobile app actually gives pricing comparison data (similar to ShopSavvy) http://scan.me/apps/ - we want to put this into the Windows 8 app as well. Our biggest fear with having barcode support in the app is that most webcams are really crappy quality. The worst thing is having to hold up your barcode to the camera and never have it detect. We're going to see if we can do anything to make it easier for lower quality cameras to detect those tiny barcodes.

There would be no way to emulate the multitouch even if you wanted to. With the Core i5 processor in it, Windows 8 would work fine on the machine. It is a convertible so you have the benefit of a keyboard to type on (resistive typing is a major pain when you can't have 2 fingers on the keyboard). The 1280x800 res won't support app-snapping (2 modern apps side-by-side) but if that's not an issue (shouldn't be) then it will work.

>Bottom Line: If you don't have the money for a new ultrabook like the Dell XPS 12 or similar, the I would say buy it, you might have to cut some features but this machine would be worth upgrading.

Compromises + Suggestions:

• Single Touch: I recommend that you use the pen to write on the screen for text input without the keyboard

• No app snapping: No workaround

• Upgrade to an SSD for super-fast performance on the Core i5

• Upgrade your RAM for better multitasking (if it's not already)

• Make sure you are comfortable with the new interface before upgrading. Install a virtual machine or dual-boot the preview or the 90-day trial to make sure its what you want.

I hope this answers your questions.

Source of specs

I used to use Avast Pro, but then they did this...

http://www.ghacks.net/2014/11/16/latest-avast-reportedly-deleting-firefox-add-ons/

You can do a clean install with the upgrade version of Windows 8. Here is a registry trick that is supposed to fix it if it decides to tell you that you are only allowed to do an upgrade with your upgrade key. Some people don't have to use this method at all and the clean install works perfectly fine.

http://www.ghacks.net/2012/10/27/windows-8-upgrade-clean-install-possible/

There are a few solutions to allow the vista/win7 gadgets to work on win8. 8 Gadget Pack will do it. Also some info here.

Edit: Link and name looks like it changed for 8 gadget pack.

I used Doppler for the longest time, but now I use the inbuilt feature with Zune.

I should say that I haven't tested Doppler with win 8, but it should work just fine, I know at least that Zune does!

The error is related to corrupt media.

Best thing to do, if you have access to another computer, is to download and burn an ISO copy of Windows 8.1 (download links for the ISO files can be found here), (use imgburn to burn your ISO to a disc, unless you have an alternative software) then activate using the same product key supplied in the box for the 8.1 you bought.

The link above says Windows Enterprise, but it will automatically activate to whatever copy of Windows your license key is for.

Cleartype doesn't work if the pixels are rotated 90 degrees, so Microsoft chose grey-scale rendering for the Metro UI and IE10. As a result, this is great for tablets (since they're often used in horizontal and vertical orientation), but anti-aliasing suffers. Regular PCs and laptop screens are stationary, so Microsoft stayed with Cleartype RGB subpixel rendering for the "desktop" UI. There's currently no setting to change this.

More info here and official Microsoft response here.

A) Short of manually re-doing every single icon on your own, you'd need a 3rd party app that handles icon customization.. something like IconPackager from Stardock. Not specifically this, since I don't think it supports 8.1, but something like it.

B) Don't pirate Windows and you won't have this problem.

This program will turn your entire screen (or a portion of it) into a virtual trackpad. It should get the job done, more or less. Very useful for touch-only Win 8.1 tablets.

http://www.lovesummertrue.com/touchmousepointer/en-us/index.html

First use a key extractor like this, then see here on how to get Windows 8.1 iso from Microsoft if all you have is an OEM key.

Here, for example... but you will need to have Grub2 somewhere. Also if you want to use it for Ubuntu, you can use Wubi, which installs Ubuntu inside a file on your windows partition, so nothing complicated.

Windows 8 is pretty much Windows 7 in drag. I would upgrade because it's free and because there are improvements (that we don't see) that fix issues and make windows more efficient. You don't have to learn the new interface if you choose not to do so. There are several utilities, free and paid, that bring the start menu/button back to Windows 8. I'm not a fan of the new interface, so I'm running Windows 8.1 with a (paid) utility called Start8. My desktop looks just like Windows 7 and allows me to be more productive.

I've had no issues. It's, on the whole, functionally no different from 7 for me with the Start8 menu, just maybe a little faster. On the other hand, FUCK CHANGE. SHIT. ASS.

CCleaner with CCEnhancer Should be able to take care of that if you check the option Notification Cache under the Applications tab and Windows section.

Edit: BC will always be easiest but it could be worth a look at this: http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/

The reason everyone keeps pointing you in the same direction is because it is your best bet.

Yes apple machines are Intel PC's but the boot loader is very specific to Apple and Bootcamp is the way to dual boot. You will also need the driver pack and the easiest way to get it is via bootcamp.

Reduce the OSX partition until you've got about 10-20% free space.

Now boot into windows and set it as your default.

Now just forget about OSX being there.

You still could have recovered your documents before re-installing windows. Using something like this http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html to boot the computer and then copy the files to another drive.

A little late to the party, but take a look at nircmd. I used it on a bosses pc a couple years ago to create batch files to switch audio from speakers to hdmi port for his tv and back. Works great! http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

Your best chance is to find some task manager alternative. I just tried this one (I downloaded the portable version) and it has it.

Weirdly enough, Process Explorer (the best one around) doesn't seem to have that column.

Just download the .ISO (Windows 8 x64) and put it on an EMPTY USB stick (Preferred USB 2.0) using Universal ISO to USB tool

Then make sure you change ur bootorder to boot from USB, install Windows 8, reboot, install all the latest Windows updates, go to the Windows Store and upgrade to Windows 8.1

When all else fails, try these instructions. I have only ever made bootable usb keys the manual way, and never used a all in one tool unless it was for a Linux distro. I have never had this method fail me, and it even works for the Windows 8 ISO's.

EDIT: Changed the link

EDIT again: Also if you want to try another installer instead of the slightly complicated manual way, you can try the Universal USB Installer I have never used it for Windows, but it does have the option for Windows 7 and 8 installers.

There's two that I can think of, Nimi-Places and the more popular Fences. I haven't tried Nimis but I have tried a pro version of Fences and it was pretty awesome too use with way way more features than I've ever need while still feeling slim and light on my system. Also, I realized that all the icons on my desktop was just there for the purpose to try out Fences and that I really didn't any desktop organizing as I normally don't use icons so I uninstalled it. There is a free older version of Fences but the pro version is needed if you wan't to have your icons stay put during resolution changes on your screen or more dual-screen options.

Nimi-Places: http://mynimi.net/Projects/Nimi-Places/Features/

Fences: http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

I can't think of anything that will provide seamless pop-up folders like Android, but Stardock Fences came to mind regardless. I know it's not exactly what you asked for, but I thought it'd be worth mentioning since lots of people like it for desktop icon management. It does have a few neat features like scrollable desktops.

I'll keep poking around and see if I can find something more like what you're asking for, because now I'm genuinely wondering if something like that exists.

If you download Process Explorer you can find the process that's causing it easily. There's an I/O graph and in there you'll find another graph for network. Hovering over that will show you what application is consuming it.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Startup programs are now controlled through Task Manager. If you right-click on the taskbar and select "properties", you'll have a few cool options that are mostly self-explanatory.

Use Classic Start to give you your start menu back. It, and a ton of other useful/essential programs can be downloaded and installed through Ninite. https://ninite.com/

Edit: Also, if you don't want the Start Menu back- though I do recommend it, simply because Windows 8 doesn't offer any decent way to access program file trees natively- you'll be able to access a fair number of useful tools and commands by right-clicking in the lower left hand corner.

Adobe Reader XI lets you do that, it has really matured over the years. You can draw with your mouse/pen, type/superimpose text, draw shapes, place electronic signatures, embed audio notes, make word bubbles, and lots more.

If you're on Windows RT, ignore this advice, as it won't run. If you are, then you're pretty much limited to Store apps, so I'd recommend OneNote in that case.

MS's approach to this, sadly, is to let individual programs handle this. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, VERY few programs implement any kind of audio device selection.

Here is a support thread with people bitching about this, and MS doing nothing useful about it: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/multiple-simultaneous-audio-outputs-in-windows-7/af25defc-7559-4c8d-9480-2ee7790492f1

Windows xp handled this well, and easily, but they changed the audio stack for Vista and fucked that up.

There IS a program that will do exactly what you want, even when applications do not implement it, but I can't remember the name of it, and it's paid. And I am not talking about that crappy workaround virtual audio cable. Hopefully someone will remember it and chime in.

EDIT: I FOUND IT: http://www.indievolume.com/ but it looks to only support 32-bit apps? Not sure if that applies to the functionality you're looking for. free trial though, so you can see if it solves your problem.

My experiences were with Win 7, but Win 8 is similar in this respect to the best of my knowledge.

Don't have Windows Media Player? It comes with Windows 8.

Use foobar2000. You'll probably need the Audio CD Writer plugin and the LAME MP3 encoder.

This is indeed a result of not having a password. This thread has a variety of options, mostly registry edits which are probably your best options:

http://superuser.com/questions/481106/windows-8-how-to-stop-auto-login

Take a look at this thread for Intellimemory: http://superuser.com/questions/538151/how-to-speed-up-windows-8-on-samsung-laptop

You can also use VMMap to see which process/service is consuming all the memory

Is the only place you actually see your username is in that particular group? That is very strange. Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to help you much further. I would highly suggest putting a password on that admin in account for security purposes. Also, I would repost your question at http://superuser.com/ and see if someone better can help you out.

If I were in this situation, I would reverse enabling the admin account, see if I can log into my regular account. Then make a backup to an external drive and reformat. Sorry I couldn't help you any further.

A mouse or a keyboard with volume controls on it. I'm not sure how else you would think it could be accessible. A key binding, maybe?

You could always set up hotkeys for the volume control. Here's a few options for different methods

If you have an extra partition you can do it like this: http://superuser.com/a/490477/146694

Otherwise I think you can just mount and go, in my experience it did copy the installation files but I've heard other users had trouble if they were trying to do a full clean install.

In that case I'd give this a try as a last resort http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/main.html I have successfully use it to remove passwords from 7 and I don't see why it wouldn't work with 8. Make sure you follow the instructions and have another pc with a cd drive to hand

If you're unable to draw on the live recording, use this small utility called ZoomIt (link below) that lets you zoom-in on important parts of the website, and gives you drawing tools to emphasize stuff. You can remove your lines and circles and whatnot as you move on to explain other parts of your site.

ZoomIt utility:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx

Demo and how-to (video):
http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Defrag-Tools/Defrag-Tools-31-ZoomIt

I haven't searched for other screen recording tools - if Office Mix is all together too much for the thing you need, you could maybe find a free screen recording utility and combine it with ZoomIt.

Maybe this can help: https://appuals.com/use-android-flash-drive/

Ah, it needs a rooted (Android) phone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwarebakery.drivedroid&hl=en

Personally I would try to get to safe mode. Reset the PC during the Windows logo, for two times. The third boot it should go to safe mode.

Does it happen in safe mode?

Does anything in this post sound familiar?

http://superuser.com/questions/709052/active-window-program-unexpectedly-looses-focus-in-windows-7

Or could be a shell extension that's causing the issue

http://www.tenforums.com/general-support/7009-file-explorer-extremely-slow-unstable.html

this helped me:
>That might be similar to your situation.. >Under Security disable Secure Boot Control

>Under Boot disable Fast Boot, then enable Launch CSM, then enable Launch PXE OpROM

>Save changes and restart and press the esc key and choose boot from USB. >If that doesn't work...at least you have somewhere to start looking.

found on: http://superuser.com/questions/692821/how-to-boot-from-usb-on-asus-x551ca

Thanks for the info. I've been using W8CP and WDP for a while now on an HP Folio 13. I was mainly asking how it performs on that particular hardware. I'm hoping there are relatively low cost tablets like this available when W8 launches. I would love something like this or the ASUS Transformer or even something like the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga