Matthew Starkie

Surface and Surface RT Getting Started Guide

Matthew Starkie — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:22:00 GMT

I came across this guide to the Microsoft Surface and Surface RT so thought I'd share it

Matt

Windows 8 everywhere................

Matthew Starkie — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:41:05 GMT

Time for my third post I reckon, and my first of 2013.

I've had a few technology changes since my last blog post, namely I now have a new Ultrabook running Windows 8, A Windows 8 Surface RT with touch keyboard, a Windows 8 Phone and, as of 9th Feb, a Windows 8 Surface Pro 128GB with type keyboard

Where do I start? - well, I'll start with the Ultrabook that I got just after Christmas. I'm not going to name the make and model but suffice to say it has a 256GB SSD, 10 point touch screen, 2 USB ports, one of which is USB3, TPM chip, fingerprint reader, a dongle for wired network, a dongle for external monitor and, most importantly, backlit keys :-)

Overall, the Ultrabook hardware is impressive and my laptop bag is now considerably lighter than it was. I don't miss the DVD drive and I don't mind the dongles for network and video

I installed our corporate build of Windows 8, took around 40 mins and installed flawlessy, I also went to the manufacturers website to install the latest drivers. I never cease to be amazed with Microsoft IT either, configuring direct access was awesomely simple, as was installing the virtual smartcard cert that it requires. Office 2013 is pretty slick, although I've got to admit, I've been using it for a while, Skydrive Pro (requires SharePoint 2013 on the back end) is also extremely useful. I've also linked my corporate account to my personal Microsoft account - this is encouraged in Microsoft and well worth it

A couple of things caught me out, when I got back home, I was expecting to have to re-setup the password to my home wireless, I didn't, it just worked. the music app, just worked - it picked up my Microsoft account and Xbox music subscription. Xbox smartglass is awesome. The Netflix app is cool (yes I subscribe to that too) the way it works across all my devices.

I read the press, just as lots of others do, and I still disagree with the comments around the New User Interface being a steep learning curve, I just don't find that it is. I'd say I spend around 90% of my time on the desktop and 10% in the fluid touch interface on my ultrabook - its opposite on the RT and I haven't had the surface long enough yet to comment

One thing I have noticed, which is a bit frustrating, is that on each of my Windows 8 devices (phone excluded) it hasn't automatically picked up my installed applications and screen layouts, this may well be my user error though, its been known to happen :-)

Overall, Windows 8 on an Ultrabook with a touchscreen is a very pleasant experience for me - Granted, as an IT Architecture and Planning Advisor in Microsoft Consulting Services, the majority of my work is done in the Microsoft Office Suite, if I was an SME in a technology that required VM's a plenty, I'd need some beefier hardware but the fact that Windows 8 now has Hyper-V built in as well as support for x64 VM's at last, I'd still say Windows 8 is a great evolution from Windows 7

Further reviews will be posted on the other devices

Matt

Windows 8 Shortcut Keys and a few tips on creating your own

Matthew Starkie — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:11:00 GMT

So as promised in my earlier post, here is a list of Windows 8 shortcut keys in a handy downloadable file.

I really cant take the credit for the creation of this list (wish I could) however I cant seem to find the actual author

Enjoy

Matt

12 Months Using Windows 8

Matthew Starkie — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 04:24:33 GMT

So I've been using Windows 8 in its various guises since the first release at Build in 2011. Its been installed on a variety of hardware including an intel based Slate, several laptops, some with touch, some not, I've even installed it on Hyper-V machines. Screens have caried from 11" touch screens to a 47" HD TV.

There has been a lot of press around the lack of a start button and the new user interface and from a personal perspective, I feel a lot of the complaints are unfounded for me - I dont miss the start button when working in desktop mode (windows key + D gets you there very quickly) and the desktop is where I do most of my work - as a Certified IT Architect, I create a lot of documents across the office suite, for the past several months, mainly Office 2013 - In my experience, not having a start button is negligiable - all the programs I use are pinned to the taskbar - I've been launching programs from here for years so my style of work hasnt changed wen launching programs

The new user interface, again, a lot of press interest around this - personally, I have quite a selection of live tiles that appear when I touch the windows key, I get to see some good information instantly on the live tiles - numbers of new emails, messages, new headlines, stock prices, there may not be the number of apps available in other app stores from other technologies but I've found the quality of the apps a lot better - yes I do have an iPad 3 (or is it new ipad still, I'm not sure...) to compare against and to be honest, the iPad interface is, in my opinion, starting to look very dated and wastes an awful lot of screen real estate

In summary, after 12 months of using Windows 8, my experience has been positive - it took a bit of getting used to, as does any change, however, in a work scenario, I dont think its that bigger change from how I used the Windows 7 desktop. Using the new user interface using touch or with a scroll mouse is, I have found, pretty intuitive and the face that from the new user interface, I just start typing and the OS figures out what I'm searching for straight away

One thing I do agree with most press observations I've read and that is that the biggest potential issues in the adoption of Windows 8 in the enterprise are convincing Enterprises to migrate to it from earlier versions of the Windows O/S and actually getting Enterprise users to ask their employers for it. Considering Windows 8 was only officially released on October 26th, its still early days for adoption and there are interesting times ahead

So far so good from this user though

I'll be posting a list of keyboard shortcuts for Windows 8 in another post

Matt