-1.png?width=350&height=117&name=iuvo_logo_blue_Transparent%20(1)-1.png){kind=logo}
by Bryon D Beilman
Last month I shared my top discoveries while using Windows 8 in the Blog "Top 5 Windows 8 Nuggets" . After a bit more time, I have 5 more discoveries that may give you some insight. I have found some sites selling software to make your Windows 8 behave like Windows 7 by adding the start menu back and other GUI changes. My goal is to try an maximize my use of it and get to a point where I am super productive without going backwards if I can help it, although you will see below that it isn't always possible. I will add that before I went down the Windows 8 path, I seriously considered going to a Mac Laptop, but chose Windows 8, and perhaps in retrospect, the change and pain of moving to a completely different OS might be similar to what I have thus experienced in moving to Windows 8. Nonetheless, here are five more Windows 8 Nuggets.
1) Cisco VPN client:
As IT consultants we heavily leverage VPN technologies and the Cisco VPN client no longer worked when moving to Windows 8. The current movement is to use the Cisco SSL Anyconnect VPN, but we cannot dictate to our clients that they need to change their VPN endpoints for our use. We have tried Shrewsoft VPN client as well, but when that stopped working, I looked deeper into how I could make the Cisco IPSEC VPN client work.
Strangely, the solution was very simple.·
- Open Registry editor by typing regedit in search prompt ( you may want to run as administrator)
- · Browse to the Registry Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> CVirtA
- · Under Name Select DisplayName to modify, and remove the leading characters from the value data up to the "%;"
- For x86, change the value data from something like "@oem8.inf,%CVirtA_Desc%;Cisco Systems VPN Adapter” to "Cisco Systems VPN Adapter”
- o For x64, change the value data from something like "@oem8.inf,%CVirtA_Desc%;Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows” to "Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows”
Get out of regedit, relaunch the VPN client and it should work. Like any registry change, you may want to export the values first before you make a change, but this simple change should work.
2) More on Application Full Screen Mode:
As I discussed in the previous blog, Windows 8 full screen mode is annoying, and draconian. It is as if Microsoft is dictating, you will only do one thing at a time on your computer and I will make it full screen so you cannot multitask. I have a solution to a few of the applications that I use below.
- Google Chrome - I ran into this somehow by accident. Google chrome suddenly went to full screen, but then I found if you go to the upper right corner where you see three graphic bars. There is a line that allows you to choose if you want Chrome to operate in "Windows 8 mode". Change this setting and Chrome will be have normally.
- PDF Viewer - Microsoft has a built in PDF viewer that comes with Windows 8. Normally, I would applaud this as one less app I have to download. However, it suffers from the full screen issue. The solution is to install the 3rd party PDF viewer of your choice. Installing it alone, will not fix this, so you have to go do the following:
- Control Panel -> Programs -> Default Programs -> Set Associations
- For PDF extension choose the new PDF reader of your choice.
- Skype - This one was particularly painful as I might be on a Skype call, while I am bringing up other apps as part of a group project implementation. Each time you bring up another application, the Skype window goes away. While I could hear the audio, I could not see the Chat. There were suggestions to move the window to the side bar, but when you open a desktop application, it goes into desktop mode and out of full screen mode and I spent more time going back and forth. If you cannot make the windows modes work for you, then you can download a different version of Skype which will work and allow true multitasking.
3)Internet Explorer 10:
I am sometimes amazed that there are so many web browsers that speak a common languages ( HTTP, HTML or Javascript), yet they are sometimes so incompatible. I guess it is similar to why some people can't understand the Mayor of Boston when he speaks; same language, done differently. I live in Google Chrome, at one time it used to be Firefox and at one point Internet Explorer. I have a few SAAS apps that only work well in Internet Explorer, so I go out of my way to open that app with IE, and all others with Chrome. My apps that require IE, do not yet work right with IE 10. According to Microsoft article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846773.aspx , "Windows 8 supports Internet Explorer 10. Windows 8 does not support earlier versions of Internet Explorer". What can you do? Beat on your application vendor to make it work.
4) Windows Search:
I was excited that Microsoft went to the search model for finding applications. I was a power user of this concept in Windows 7, where I would go start menu -> search and enter whatever I was looking for. Microsoft took two steps forward and then a step backward. If you used Outlook in Windows 7, it might find emails you were looking for in search. It was much easier than clunking around Outlook search to find any email from someone. The Windows 8 search on the desktop does not search e-mail nor will it ever. The search in Outlook 2013 is better than 2010, but what was once one step is now two.
5) HP LaserPrinter :
I have an old HP LaserPrinter 2100 at my house. It is a work horse, is on my network and I really have no reason to replace it. If you have any old HP Laser Priner, Windows 8 will not print to it correctly by default. Windows 8 carried on the well executed concept of adding printers, wireless networks, displays and other hardware that it sees at various locations and allows you to set defaults wherever you go. For whatever reason, they chose not to put compatible drivers for that printer on Windows 8. With a bit of searching the mighty Interweb, you can find some packages that expand and install the correct drivers for it, but it took a few iterations to find the right one.