Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Is 10/GUI the Future Replacement of the Mouse and Keyboard?

Here, watch the demo, and it'll be much clearer than my explanation:

http://vimeo.com/7408389

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Windows 8 Developer’s Preview - Remove Metro UI

 

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/tweak-windows-8-to-remove-the-metro-interface/5077?tag=nl.e064

“…First, start regedit. In Windows 8, if you are in the Metro Interface, you can just type r e g e d i t and that application will appear in the search, like you see in Figure A.

Figure A
Just start typing in Windows 8 and the OS will assume you want to search for an application

Inside the registry editor, navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer


Double-click the key labeled: RPEnabled as shown in Figure B.



Figure B




Double-click RPEnabled


When the Edit DWORD comes up (Figure C), change the Value data from 1 to zero and click OK.



Figure C




Change the Value data from 1 to zero


That’s it. Now, when you click the Start Menu on the Windows 8 Desktop you will get the old Start Menu you know rather than the tiled screen Microsoft is hoping you will want to know..”

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts

 

Anywhere in Windows 8

WIN + Q
Find and Application

WIN + W 
Search Settings or Control Panel

WIN + I 
Open Preferences of currently running application and windows

WIN + O
Disable screen rotation (turn off the gyro reaction to the tablets)

WIN + C 
Opens MetroUI Start Menu with taskbar items like time and network connectivity

Windows Explorer Hotkeys; (Press ALT Key + the below combination)

A – to open the “special features”

C O – to copy the selected items.

C P – copy the path to the file / folder.

C F – copy the folder (use the drop-down list)

D – delete the selected.

E – edit the selected files.

H – to show the history of file versions.

M – move the files (using the drop-down list).

N – Create a new folder.

P S – insert label

P R – open properties.

P E – Open With …, select the application again using a drop-down list.

S A – select all.

S N – deselect.

S I – invert the selection.

R – rename a selected file (s).

T – cut

V – to paste.

W – to create a new document, choose the template – using the drop-down list.

How to Create Bootable USB for Windows 8 Developer Preview

“..Like many folks, after watching the BUILD keynote this morning, I couldn't wait to get home and install Windows 8 Developer Preview on my laptop. The instructions for installing Windows 8 are simple enough. The only fly in the ointment is that installing Windows 8 requires a DVD to create an install package…”

So Mount the ISO first lest say it is mounted on I: drive

Here are the steps to format a USB flash drive.

  1. Insert a USB flash drive into your computer
  2. Start a Command Prompt as an Administrator and type diskpart. This starts the Disk Partition tool which you need to use to format the flash drive. Once you see the DISKPART command prompt, type in the following commands
  3. DISKPART> list disk /* shows list of active disks */
  4. DISKPART> select disk # /* # is the number for your USB flash drive */
  5. DISKPART> clean /* deletes any existing partitions on the USB flash drive */
  6. DISKPART> create partition primary /* create a primary partition on the USB flash drive */
  7. DISKPART> select partition 1 /* select the newly created partition */
  8. DISKPART> active /* make the new partition active */
  9. DISKPART> format /FS:NTFS /* format the USB drive with NTFS file system */
  10. DISKPART> assign /* assign a volume and drive letter to the USB drive */
  11. DISKPART> exit /* exit Disk Partition */

At this point, your USB flash drive should be showing up in Windows Explorer and have a drive letter assigned to it, e.g. F:\.

Make the USB flash drive bootable

We just need to make the USB flash drive bootable before copying the files. To do this, you can use the Boot Sector Registration Tool (bootsect.exe) which is located in the boot folder of the Windows 8 ISO image.

  1. Start a Command Prompt as an Administrator and CHDIR into the boot folder of the Windows 8 ISO image, e.g. I:\boot where I:\ is the drive where the ISO image is mounted
  2. Type bootsect /nt60 E: /* where E: is the drive assigned to the USB flash drive */
Step 3: Copy the Windows 8 files onto the USB flash drive

From a command line, use XCOPY to copy the Windows 8 files to the USB flash drive . In the example below, I:\ is the drive where the ISO image is mounted. F:\ is the USB flash drive.

XCOPY I:\*.* F:\ /E /F /H

Source

Windows 8–Useful Links

Windows 8 is the hot news on every technical news portal and blog, here is a collection of links that will help you get more info on anything related to Windows 8. Watch the keynote from yesterday during BUILD Conference. If you just want to watch Windows 8 related bit in the keynote use the link below:

Everything You Need to Know About Windows 8 in Eight Minutes

Download ISO

Download Windows 8 ISOs Right Now

Feature Talks

Windows 8: classic desktop features [video]

Windows 8 requires less power than Windows 7

Windows 8: What's new on the desktop experience

Windows 8: Introducing Windows 8's tablet interface, Metro

Windows 8 app store approval policy outlined

Windows 8 Metro apps and Windows Store [video]

Hands on: Windows 8 input options and pen computing

Windows 8: A look at Internet Explorer 10

Windows Live SkyDrive Integration in Windows 8

Reviews

Welcome to Windows 8 – The Developer Preview

Windows 8 developer preview UX in pictures

Windows 8 really does change everything, it’s mind-blowing

Hands on: Windows 8 review

Microsoft blows up Windows with Windows 8

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Microsoft download from The Garage: Mouse without Borders and Others

Microsoft have released a great little app for users us with multiple PCs. The addin comes from a Garage project at Microsoft which is a program designed to encourage incubations of ideas and projects.

With the application it treats all your Windows PCs as if they were one single desktop, so if you have two machines side by site (as I do at work) you can use the mouse as though they were one PC including dragging files between them. It’s a great idea and if you have a dedicated Media Center machine connected to your TV as well a laptop it would be a great way of controlling it from one place.

Source: link

Download: link

There are other applications that can be used to achieve the same and even better in some cases.

http://inputdirector.com/

http://synergy-foss.org/