Windows 8.1 "under the covers"

Picking out the differences between Windows XP and Windows 8.1 or even between Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, improvements have been enormous and have remained unnoticed by a lot of people. So here's a glimpse of new features that are all in Windows 8.1. In sum, the following three unsorted (net even complete) lists of new features give an impressive insight into the innovation thrusts of the different versions starting with Windows Vista to Windows 8.1. Naturally, the list would be much longer - especially if we considered Windows Servers as well, which we won't in this article. Windows Server 2012 R2 on its own provides so many new features that an own list would even be more extensive than the ones provided herein.

It is definitely worth to have a look on the documentation since Windows is simply and even more unbeatable regarding security, manageability, automation, feature richness and customization.

New features within Windows Vista

New features within Windows 7

New features within Windows 8

New features within Windows 8.1

New features within Windows 8.1 Update 1/2

By the way, Windows 8.1 now has a new Start Button which references to the new Start Screen AND much more mouse and keyboard controls on start screen. If you counted the number of required clicks or keystrokes to start a program in Windows 7, you will see you won't need more rather less clicks when using Windows 8.1. Despite, the Start Button is back most people don't miss it anymore as the Start Screen and the underlying application list became so beautiful, meaningful and useable. 

Incidentally, the most important technical features are still accessible in the "Technical Start Menu" with a right mouse click on the new Start Button. This is a massive improvement for Virtual Machine users because on Windows 8 finding the bottom left corner in those machines was a little bit tricky some times. 

Just looking at the touch ability of Windows 8.1 in the new Start Screen and in the new Windows Store applications is impressive and for this I'm likely adapting on a new operation system, which is in my opinion to learn easily within a few minutes. On Windows 8.1 a new user will see some useful hints (one time) while navigating through the Start Screen the first time. 

In addition, the new type of handling opened an unprecedented comfort. Here a quote of a colleague, who appreciates the new Start Screen as much as I do: 

"My personal highlight is the ability to interact in totally new ways compared to other operation systems.

I simply enter a term and Windows 8 lets me know all possible alternatives for it. So it shows you the results Windows 8 finds for the term in "Apps", "Files" and "Settings". What is even more interesting is that Windows 8 tries to process across apps. "Tie" for example is being looked for in Bing and eventually you might see what different types of ties and knots exist. Using an app might lead me to a shop where I find offers. Otherwise I can just search through an auction app for auctions. The "Share" function is just amazing: I may easily share the found ties with my wife and find out, whether she likes the tie as well."  

Looking at how many powerful features inside Windows 8.1 are we can definitely call it an impressive operating system which hadn't been seen by the world before. It's the most feature rich client operating system so far (Windows Server 2012 R2 has much more than the client). 

First of all, Windows itself benefits from these features and therefore reaches a new dimension concerning security, manageability, usability, performance and much more. Furthermore it is extremely energy saving so even with older hardware battery life has been raised a lot. 

Also administrators profit by substantial increases Windows 8.1 had in terms of manageability, automation and security, which results in potential reduction of operating costs. 

Additionally, software developer benefit from those features since many of them may directly be addressed or integrated in their own projects and thereby increasing the quality, safety and performance. Also, development costs can substantially be reduced. 

Finally, all users profit from the new features – no matter if they use Windows 8.1 at home or at work. If the operating system and related apps are secure, reliable and fast, users are the ones to really make use of it. Not to mention that many features are of course available to the user – if he is aware of them. 

There is one question remaining: "Who really knows Windows at all?" 

It would be a pity if the entire discussion about Windows 8.1 would be reduced on a new type of user interface or usability. 

Therefore, I to highlight my favorite Top-10 features in Windows 8.1 as a separate blog series. 

More Information: 

For Developers:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn263113.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/bg182410

For Enterprise

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/dn140266.aspx?ocid=wc-bl-sprblog

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/business/archive/2013/06/03/modern-business-in-mind-windows-8-1-at-teched-2013.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/hh974336.aspx?ocid=wc-bl-wfyb

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/meet

 Oliver Niehus, Microsoft.

Windows 8.1 "under the covers"

Picking out the differences between Windows XP and Windows 8.1 or even between Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, improvements have been enormous and have remained unnoticed by a lot of people. So here's a glimpse of new features that are all in Windows 8.1. In sum, the following three unsorted (net even complete) lists of new features give an impressive insight into the innovation thrusts of the different versions starting with Windows Vista to Windows 8.1. Naturally, the list would be much longer - especially if we considered Windows Servers as well, which we won't in this article. Windows Server 2012 R2 on its own provides so many new features that an own list would even be more extensive than the ones provided herein.

It is definitely worth to have a look on the documentation since Windows is simply and even more unbeatable regarding security, manageability, automation, feature richness and customization.

New features within Windows Vista

New features within Windows 7

New features within Windows 8

New features within Windows 8.1

By the way, Windows 8.1 now has a new Start Button which references to the new Start Screen. If you counted the number of required clicks or keystrokes to start a program in Windows 7, you will see you won't need more rather less clicks when using Windows 8.1. Despite, the Start Button is back most people don't miss it anymore as the Start Screen and the underlying application list became so beautiful, meaningful and useable.

Incidentally, the most important technical features are still accessible in the "Technical Start Menu" with a right mouse click on the new Start Button. This is a massive improvement for Virtual Machine users because on Windows 8 finding the bottom left corner in those machines was a little bit tricky some times.

Just looking at the touch ability of Windows 8.1 in the new Start Screen and in the new Windows Store applications is impressive and for this I'm likely adapting on a new operation system, which is in my opinion to learn easily within a few minutes. On Windows 8.1 a new user will see some useful hints (one time) while navigating through the Start Screen the first time.

In addition, the new type of handling opened an unprecedented comfort. Here a quote of a colleague, who appreciates the new Start Screen as much as I do:

"My personal highlight is the ability to interact in totally new ways compared to other operation systems.

I simply enter a term and Windows 8 lets me know all possible alternatives for it. So it shows you the results Windows 8 finds for the term in "Apps", "Files" and "Settings". What is even more interesting is that Windows 8 tries to process across apps. "Tie" for example is being looked for in Bing and eventually you might see what different types of ties and knots exist. Using an app might lead me to a shop where I find offers. Otherwise I can just search through an auction app for auctions. The "Share" function is just amazing: I may easily share the found ties with my wife and find out, whether she likes the tie as well."

Looking at how many powerful features inside Windows 8.1 are we can definitely call it an impressive operating system which hadn't been seen by the world before. It's the most feature rich client operating system so far (Windows Server 2012 R2 has much more than the client).

First of all, Windows itself benefits from these features and therefore reaches a new dimension concerning security, manageability, usability, performance and much more. Furthermore it is extremely energy saving so even with older hardware battery life has been raised a lot.

Also administrators profit by substantial increases Windows 8.1 had in terms of manageability, automation and security, which results in potential reduction of operating costs.

Additionally, software developer benefit from those features since many of them may directly be addressed or integrated in their own projects and thereby increasing the quality, safety and performance. Also, development costs can substantially be reduced.

Finally, all users profit from the new features – no matter if they use Windows 8.1 at home or at work. If the operating system and related apps are secure, reliable and fast, users are the ones to really make use of it. Not to mention that many features are of course available to the user – if he is aware of them.

There is one question remaining: "Who really knows Windows at all?"

It would be a pity if the entire discussion about Windows 8.1 would be reduced on a new type of user interface or usability.

Therefore, I to highlight my favorite Top-10 features in Windows 8.1 as a separate blog series.

More Information:

For Developers:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn263113.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/bg182410

For Enterprise

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/dn140266.aspx?ocid=wc-bl-sprblog

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/business/archive/2013/06/03/modern-business-in-mind-windows-8-1-at-teched-2013.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/hh974336.aspx?ocid=wc-bl-wfyb

Oliver Niehus, Microsoft.

Overview

One of the design goals for Windows® 8 is that all of the new experiences being created for Windows are designed to be "Touch First." You will see this theme throughout the new features introduced with this version of Windows. Being "Touch First" means that the first and best method of interacting with these new interfaces in Windows is using touch-based gestures on a multi-touch display. Using the mouse and keyboard will still work in the majority of scenarios, but in most cases, these inputs are considered to be secondary.

It is with this concept of "Touch First" in mind that Microsoft created the new Windows Experience for Windows 8. The new Windows UI represents the largest change to the interface of Windows since Windows 3.11 and affects the majority of the Windows user experience. New versions of many of the apps and features using the new Windows UI have been introduced, including the Start screen, PC Settings, and Internet Explorer®, just to name a few.

The theme behind the look and feel of the new user experience in Windows 8 is our design language, which we refer to as the Microsoft design style. The Microsoft design style is very clean and relies heavily on motion, images, and typography using the Segoe font family. You may have seen other examples of other products using the Microsoft design style, such as Zune®, Windows Phone, and Xbox 360®.

Note: During the development of Windows 8, you likely heard the new Windows UI referred to as the Windows Metro style UI, or apps using the new model referred to as Windows Metro style apps. The term Metro is no longer being used by Microsoft, and care should be taken not to use this term when speaking with customers or posting information publicly. The Windows Metro style UI is now referred to as the new Windows UI or the new Windows Experience, and Windows Metro style apps are now referred to as Windows Store apps.

Start Screen

The first thing that you will see after signing into a Windows 8 PC is the Start screen.

Figure 1: Windows 8 Start screen

The Start screen completely replaces the Start menu that existed in previous versions of Windows. Almost all of the functionality from the old Start menu has been replaced and moved to the new Start screen. Instead of each app being exposed to the user as an individual icon, those apps will be represented as tiles instead, which we will go into more detail about in the section below.

Removal of the Start Button

Another major change in Windows 8 is in the way that the Start screen is accessed. Since Windows 95, every version of Windows has had a Start button on the taskbar in one form or another, but that is no longer the case for this release. The screenshot below shows the left side of the desktop taskbar, and as you can see, the first icon is a pinned app icon instead of the Start button.

Figure 2: No Start button

There are still two possible ways to get back to the Start screen using only the mouse:

• Place your mouse cursor in the upper-right or lower-right corner of the screen to show the charms, and select Start.
• Place your mouse cursor in the lower-left corner of the screen, and click on the Start screen preview overlay that appears.

Figure 3: Start screen overlay

Tiles

In the traditional desktop interface, apps are launched using icons that are not much more than a small picture and a link to an executable. In the new Start screen, the concept of icons has evolved into a new concept for representing apps called Tiles. Tiles do far more than act as just a pointer to the EXE for an app. Tiles are an improvement over icons in several ways.

• Live Tiles -A tile can display additional information from the app right on the Start screen, which means that in many cases you won't even need to open an app to get the information that you need. An app can dynamically display information on the Start screen, and does not even need to be open to receive updates. For example, a tile for a weather app would be able to display the current weather in your area, or a 5-day forecast, all on the tile without having to open the app.

Figure 4: Live tiles

• You can turn off live tile updates by right-clicking on the tile and selecting Turn live tile off.

• Pin multiple tiles per app - You can pin multiple tiles from a single app, with each displaying different information. The first tile will typically be the app tile, and you will be able to pin additional content tiles to display different content. The Mail app is an example of an app that can ping additional content tiles. With the Mail app, you can pin a tile for each of the mail accounts that you have configured, or for different folders in those mail accounts. This way you can see a badge on the Live Tile on the Start screen that will show you when you how many unread messages you have in that specific folder. Clicking the content tile will take you to the specific area of the app that the tile represents.

This ability to display additional information in a tile on the Start screen is only available to Windows Store apps, which is the new type of app introduced with Windows 8. We will go into more detail about Windows Store apps in the Windows Store apps module, but for now you should know that Windows Store apps are written explicitly for the new Windows UI in Windows 8.

Desktop Apps

The other type of apps that are supported in Windows 8 are desktop apps. Desktop apps are basically every Windows apps that existed before Windows 8, including apps like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Outlook 2010. Desktop apps can still have tiles on the Start screen, but they will be static, and consist of only the app's icon and title. The tiles for the Office apps in the screenshot below are examples of desktop app tiles.

Figure 5: Desktop app tiles

When a new Windows Store or desktop app is installed, it will get its own tile on the Start screen. These tiles can be unpinned however, and unpinning the tile does not uninstall the app. Similar to the older Start menu, tiles for desktop apps represent shortcuts to the app, and removing the shortcut does not remove the app.

Unpinning Tiles

If you want to unpin a tile from the Start screen, you can do this with either touch or a mouse and keyboard, and detailed in the table below.

Table 1: Accessing app commands for a tile

Both actions reveal a pane at the bottom of the screen with actions that can be performed against the tile. To remove the tile, select the Unpin from Start option. Doing this removes the tile from the Start screen, but does not uninstall the app it points to.

Figure 6: Unpin from Start

You can also select multiple tiles simultaneously, which allows you to quickly unpin several tiles from the Start screen at once. You can do this with the mouse and keyboard two different ways.

• Hold down the CTRL key while using the mouse to select all the tiles you want to unpin.
• Right-click each tile you wish to unpin, one after the other.

Figure 7: Select multiple tiles

Unpinning multiple tiles at once can be useful if you are personalizing your Start screen, or immediately after installing a desktop app, since many of them add numerous shortcuts to the Start Menu. This makes it easy to select all of the new tiles that aren't the main tile for that app that you installed, and then unpin them all at once.

Arranging Tiles

Rearranging the tiles on your Start screen is a very simple process. Just use the mouse or your finger to drag the tile to the new location.

The tiles on the Start screen are arranged into columns and groups.

• A column is two tile squares wide in order to accommodate both large and small tiles. When a column is larger than the vertical space provided for it, it overflows to a new column next to the first one.
• A group is a collection of columns and provides a great to visually sort tiles that are related to each other. Groups can contain several columns, and are separated from each other by a large space.

The Start screen gives you several choices for customizing your tile layout:

• Make app tiles single squares or rectangles (two squares) using the Smaller or Larger commands you see when you swipe up from the bottom or right-click.

Figure 8: Change tile size

Note: Only Windows Store apps for which the developer has provided both small and large tiles can change tile sizes. Desktop apps cannot have large tiles.

• Rearrange the order of the tiles in a group
• Move the tile to another existing group.
• Move the tile to a new empty group.

Note: if you are trying to move a tile to the far end of your screen, you can do this quickly by dragging a tile to the top of the screen, at which point the Start screen will zoom out. From there, wherever you drag the tile to will zoom back in to that area of the Start screen.

In addition to rearranging tiles, the Start screen also provides for the ability to rearrange whole groups at once.

• With touch, zoom out from the Start screen using the pinch-to-zoom gesture.
• With your mouse and keyboard, hold down the CTRL button while using the scroll wheel on the mouse.
• With your keyboard, use CTRL and + or – (plus or minus).
• With your mouse, select the – (minus) button on the lower-right corner of the Start screen.

Figure 9: Zoom button

After zooming out from the Start screen, you can then rearrange groups the same way that you would tiles. From this view, you can also give groups a name using the app command for Name group.

Figure 10: Name group

The name you enter will be displayed above the group.

Figure 11: Group name

Tile Details

• When you install a new Windows Store app, it is automatically pinned to the Start screen.
• When you install a new desktop app, all of the shortcuts that are normally pinned to the Start Menu will be pinned to the Start screen.
• The all apps view mirrors the structure that was used for the All Programs menu in the legacy Start Menu. This is a combined view of the following directories:
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs (For apps installed for all users)
  • %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs (For apps installed for a single user)
• Live tile updates happen through notifications. Apps are able to use notifications either locally from another process or over the Internet using the Windows Notification Service. The Windows Notification Service is hosted by Microsoft and provides app developers the ability to update their live tiles without ever re-opening the app.
  • Live tiles should begin updating immediately after the first launch of an app, and should continue to update from that point onwards. They could continue to display tile updates even across reboots and loss of network connectivity.
  • You can look at the following event log to find information that will assist with troubleshooting.

    Microsoft-Windows-PushNotification-Platform/Operational

Demo: Arranging Tiles

• Show the process for rearranging tiles within a group.
• Show the process for moving tiles from group to group.
• Demonstrate changing the size of Windows Store app tiles.
• Demonstrate arranging and naming groups.

App Commands

When you swipe up from the bottom edge or right-click in an app or on the Start screen, you will see a bar appear with the actions that are relevant for the current selection. These actions are referred to as app commands. The app commands that appear will change related to the view you are in or the tile or item that is selected. The concept is similar to the context menu that you see when you right-click in a desktop app.

Tip: You can access the app commands in an app or on Start with <Windows Key>+Z

For example, on Start, right-clicking on a tile will display app commands related to manipulating the tile or launching the app. Selecting multiple tiles changes the app commands displayed to only those related to manipulating multiple tiles. The sections below walk through the various commands that are available for tiles on Start.

Options for Desktop App Tiles

Figure 12: App commands for a desktop app

Table 2: Description of app commands for desktop apps

Options for Windows Store app Tiles

Figure 13: App commands for a Windows Store app

Table 3: Description of app commands for Windows Store apps

Note: Some tiles, especially the inbox tiles, may have different options than those described above.

The app commands you see will be completely different than those shown above when you are in a Windows Store app. These options will be specific to the app in question.

Also, with Windows Store apps, you may see app commands appear on both the top and the bottom edge of the screen.

All Apps

The Start screen is the place where you can pin tiles for your most commonly used apps, but how do you access the apps that are not pinned to Start? That is what the All apps page provides. You can think of the All apps page as the replacement for the All Programs section of the old Start Menu. You can access All apps through the app command that appears when you right-click on the background of the Start screen, where you will see an option for All apps. When you toggle this command, the All apps page is shown.

Figure 14: All Apps menu

In addition, the All Apps menu supports a Windows 8 feature called semantic zoom, which changes the view as you zoom out to show high-level groupings of your data. In this case, the data is your Start screen tiles in the apps view. You can use this zoomed-out view to quickly navigate to another location in on the Apps page.

Figure 15: Semantic view on Start screen

Charms

Charms provide a consistent way to access the key Windows features, enabling you to either perform actions against the app that is currently running or get back to the Start Screen. There are 5 charms:

• Search
• Share
• Start
• Devices
• Settings

You can access charms in a few different ways:

• Touch – If you have a touch display, you can use your finger to swipe in from the right side of the screen. To do this, start with your finger on the right-hand bezel and slowly slide it left onto the screen. The charms will display along the right edge of the screen.

Note: A bezel is the thin strip of plastic surrounding a LCD screen on things like tablets, monitors, and laptop displays.

• Mouse – Place your mouse pointer in the top or lower-right corner of your display. The charms will appear, but without the black background. Moving the mouse towards the center reveals the black background, at which point you can select one of the charms.
• Keyboard - <Windows Key>+C

Figure 16: Accessing charms with your mouse

Accessing the charms displays a large clock floating on the left side of the screen. In addition to the time, the clock will display the date, network status, and battery status.

Figure 17: Clock displays with the charms

Start Charm

The Start charm is used to open the Start page from wherever you are in Windows. Pressing the Start charm a second time will take you back to the app that you were previously using. Pressing Start repeatedly will cycle back and forth between Start and the last app you were using.

Tip: The keyboard shortcut for the Start charm is just <Windows Key>.

Search Charm

The Search charm provides a quick way to search from anywhere. Search from this charm utilizes the Windows Search service, and the results returned when searching using the Search charm will depend on the scope that you have selected: Apps, Settings, or Files.

• Apps – This will search all of the installed Windows Store and desktop apps on your PC by name, providing a quick way to launch any app.

Figure 18: Search Apps

• Settings – This will search across all of the settings in both the PC settings and the desktop Control Panel.

Figure 19: Search Settings

• Files – This will search across all of the files in your search index, which are typically the files that are located in your user profile and libraries. You can use the indexing options in the desktop Control Panel to add additional folders for this search scope. Because Search is using the Windows Search service, you search across both file names and the contents of those files if they are a supported file type.
• Individual apps – If an app has registered with the Search charm, it can be searched directly without having to have the app open first. For example, if you opened the Search charm from Start and selected the Netflix app, after entering your search string and pressing enter, the Netflix app would open to a search results page showing the movies that match your search terms.

Figure 20: Search app using Share charm

Searching from the Start Screen

The Start menu in Windows provided the ability to click Start and immediately begin typing, which made it very easy to find and launch new apps. This same feature is available in Windows 8. When you open the Start screen and begin typing, whatever you are typing is immediately sent to the text field in the Search charm, and then filtered to Searching Apps. If you know the name of the app, in most cases, you can just type in the name and press Enter and the app will launch.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Search

• <Windows Key>+F will open the Search charm and search page in full screen with the Files search scope selected.
• <Windows Key>+W will open the Search charm and search page in full screen with the Settings search scope selected.
• <Windows Key>+Q will open Search on top of the app you are currently using.

Share Charm

The Share charm is intended to provide an easy way to share content. In order to share content, a Windows Store app must tell Windows that it supports the Sharing contract, meaning that other apps can share content using that app. For example, a Facebook app may register with the Share charm so that when you are in any other app, like watching a TV show in a Hulu app, you can share what you are watching on Facebook directly by using the Share charm without having to open the Facebook app. Other scenarios that the Share charm could be used for include the following:

• Share the page you are reading using the Mail app.
• Share a video you are watching using Twitter by using the People app.

Table 4: Sharing with the Share Charm

Settings Charm

The Settings charm will open a settings bar on the right that shows settings for the specific app that is currently in focus. For example, opening the Settings charm while in Internet Explorer will reveal settings that allow you to configure Internet Explorer‒specific settings.

The fact that the Settings charm applies to the app that is currently in focus is an important one. Within the new Windows UI, Microsoft is recommending that all Windows Store apps use the Settings charm as the main entry point for settings within the app. This should prevent situations where each app has its own implementation of a settings or options page, creating confusion for the user. Now the settings for any app that uses the new model should always be accessible through the Settings charm.

Figure 24: Settings pane for Internet Explorer

The Settings charm will also display additional information and options specifically related to Windows. This view will persist no matter where you open the Setting charm from. The Settings charm displays the following information:

• Network – Name and state of the network that you are currently connected to.
• Volume – Controls system volume.
• Screen – Change the screen brightness or control the screen rotation lock.
• Notifications – Hide notifications for 1, 3, or 8 hours.
• Power – Restart, shut down, or put the PC to sleep.
• Keyboard – Switch between the different languages that you have installed, and bring up the Touch Keyboard.
• Change PC settings – Opens PC settings.

Tip: Pressing <Windows Key>+I will open the Settings charm bar.

Device Charm

The Device charm enables to you send the content you are viewing to certain attached devices. If you are in an app that supports printing, you can print the content you are viewing from the Device charm.

The Device charm will show devices that can perform tasks relevant to the app that you are currently using. For example, Internet Explorer can use the Devices charm to print a webpage, display it on another screen, or share it with another PC using Near Field Communication (NFC).

Figure 25: Devices pane for Internet Explorer

The Device charm can also be used to change your multiple monitor configuration by selecting the Device Charm > Second screen from the desktop. The options that are shown are the same as those shown in the <Window Key>+P interface in Windows 7.

• PC Screen only
• Duplicate
• Extend
• Second screen only

This also provides an easy way to connect your mobile PC to a projector in a meeting or presentation scenario.

Charms Are Context-Specific

It is important to understand that charms are context-specific. What this means is that the options that are displayed when you select a given charm will be different, depending on which app you are in. Opening the Settings charm will show the settings that are available for the app you have open at the time (or for the Start screen if you do not have an app open). Opening the Device charm in Internet Explorer will only show you devices that are relevant to tasks that can be performed by Internet Explorer. This includes things like printing to a printer or sharing via NFC.

Charms Create a Consistent Experience for Apps

Charms will make the experience of using Windows Store apps more consistent from app to app. Microsoft is recommending to app developers that they use these charms instead of creating separate functionality for tasks that are possible with charms:

• Apps should not implement their own Search box or separate search functionality; instead, they should use the Search charm. This has the additional benefit of allowing the user to search for something in an app without having to open the app first. The app will be listed in the list of available apps in the Search charm, unless you disable the app on that pane or uninstall the app.
• Apps should not need to implement their own sharing functionality, but should use the built-in support for Sharing contracts, which allow apps to easily register as an available sharing target for other apps.
• Apps that can print or share with NFC should use the Devices charm instead of implementing the functionality directly with the app. Printing for a Windows Store app should happen using the Devices charm.
• Apps should implement any settings as a pane under the Settings charm.

While these are the recommendations that we are giving to app developers, these are not requirements, so you may see some apps implement this functionality on their own. All of the Microsoft apps strive to follow the guidance for using charms properly, so they should be the best examples of charms in action.

Running Windows Store apps

Windows Store apps are launched from and run in the new Windows UI. Selecting the tile for a Windows Store app causes it to immediately open full screen. Full screen is the default view. Switching back to Start and launching another Windows Store app moves the first app into the background. To bring the first app back, the user can do one of the following:

• Swipe from the left side of the screen to switch back to the previous app.
• Press <Windows Key>+Tab to cycle through the open apps on the system until the desired app is shown.
• Select the tile for the app you wish to switch back to from Start.

Switching Apps

There are several new methods for getting into and out of apps and switching between them. This section will walk though some of those.

Switch Apps Using Touch

Using your finger, swipe from the left side of the screen. As you complete this gesture, you will see a large thumbnail for the previous app slide in and fill the screen, bringing that app back into the foreground. Repeat this swipe gesture from the left to cycle through all of your currently running Windows Store apps.

Switch Apps Using Mouse

The action for switching apps using the mouse is to move your mouse to the top left corner of the screen and click the thumbnail that appears. This will open the previous app that you had open. The desktop is treated as a single app in this case, so individual running desktop apps will not be shown here.

Figure 26: Switching to previous app using corner

Table 5: App switching bar

Switch Apps from the Keyboard

The Alt-Tab and <Windows Key>+Tab keyboard shortcuts still function in Windows 8 but with slightly different results:

• Alt-Tab will show a pane in the center of the screen with thumbnails for all running apps. Tabbing through the different app thumbnails will show the app behind the Alt-Tab pane. You can cycle through both Windows Store and desktop apps using this method.
• <Windows Key>+Tab no longer triggers the Flip3D functionality. Instead, holding down the <Windows key> and pressing tab will open the App Switching bar, where you can switch between all of your currently running Windows Store apps and the desktop. Note that this method will not switch between desktop apps.

Switch Apps from Start

If a Windows Store app is already running in the background, clicking its tile on Start will switch back into that app where you left off.

Snap

Although the default view for Windows Store apps is full screen, the user does have the ability to view two apps next to each other using Snap. Snap allows the user to show two Windows Store apps or the desktop on the screen at the same time. In this mode, one app is a main app and takes up the majority of the screen. The other app is the snapped app and takes only a narrow strip on the left or right side of the screen. There is no mechanism for viewing the apps split evenly on the screen.

Figure 29: Snapped app

To snap an app, that app must be open:

• If you are using a mouse, start by dragging the thumbnail from the upper-left corner of the screen as you normally would to switch to a previous app, but instead of releasing the mouse drag the thumbnail to the side of the screen that you want to snap the app to. As you move the thumbnail to either side of the screen, you will see the app behind jump to the opposite side. Once you see this jump, you can release the mouse and the app will snap.
  • You can also snap an app by right-clicking on its thumbnail in the app switching bar that you see when you press <Windows Key>+Tab.
• Snapping an app with touch is much the same as with a mouse, except you start by dragging the thumbnail from the left edge of the screen instead of the corner.
• When you raise your mouse button or finger while the thumbnail is over the left or right portion of the screen, that app will become the snapped app. The existing app will be the main app on the screen. There will be a narrow divider between the two apps.
• To switch an app from being the snapped app to the main app, drag the divider toward the opposite side of the screen. As you are sliding the divider, you will see the main app become a snapped app. If you continue sliding past the border of the snapped app, the snapped app will disappear and the main app will take up the full screen.

Tip: You can control which snap using keyboard shortcuts.
<Windows Key>+. (period) moves the split to the right.
<Windows Key>+Shift+. (period) moves the split to the left.
<Windows Key>+' (single-quote) changes focus between the apps.

• As you are sliding the divider, you will see the state of the apps on the screen change to reflect what would happen if you let go of the divider at that point. None of the changes are committed until you actually let go of the divider.
• To change the main app or snapped app to take up the full screen, drag the divider in the opposite direction from the app until it reaches the edge of the screen.

Screen Resolution Requirements

In order to open a Windows Store app, your screen resolution must meet certain minimum requirements:

• To run Windows Store apps, you need a screen height of at least 768 pixels, meaning a resolution of at least 1024x768.
• To run Windows Store apps using the Snap feature, you need a screen width of at least 1366 pixels, meaning a resolution of at least 1366x768.

Closing Apps

Windows Store apps are designed so that the user does not ever have to think about closing apps. When users are finished with apps, Windows 8 just does the right thing related to handling resources and saving state. However, there may be scenarios where a user wants to close an app on their own, such as if the app has hung or stopped running properly. With Windows 8, they can do that with both mouse and touch.

With the mouse, they can place the pointer against the top edge of the screen. From there, the pointer will switch to a closed hand.

Figure 30: Mouse pointer switches to a hand

Pulling down while holding down the left mouse button will shrink the app to a thumbnail. Releasing the app will return the app its previous state.

Figure 31: Pulling the app down from the top edge of the screen

Moving that thumbnail to the left or right edge of the screen will snap the app on that side.

Figure 32: Using the close gesture to snap

Moving the medium-sized thumbnail down to the bottom of the screen will close the app and take the user back to the Start screen.

Figure 33: Drag to the bottom to close

With touch, the experience is much the same, except you are swiping down starting from the top bezel past the top edge of the screen.

Note: When the app is closed, it is also removed from the list of previous apps in the App Switching bar.

Additionally, you can close apps by right-clicking on them in the App Switching bar on the left edge of the screen. Simply open the bar and right-click on the thumbnail for the app that you would like to close.

Figure 34: Close app from App Switching bar

Tip: Like desktop apps, you can also use Alt+F4 to close a Windows Store app. Of course, you can also use Task Manager to close an app.

Navigating with Corners

The four corners of the screen are given new significance in Windows 8. For the majority of Windows users who have a single monitor, the corners of the screen are the easiest places to quickly target with a mouse without having to be very accurate. You can throw the mouse pointer into a corner and trust that the pointer will likely make it all the way to the corner you are aiming for. Windows 8 makes it easy to perform some of the most commonly used actions by just moving the mouse to the corner of the screen and clicking.

The exact behavior that occurs when you click the corner will depend on the specific corner that you are clicking.

• Upper-left - Switch to your previously open main app.
• Lower-left - Navigate to the Start Screen or back to your app.
• Upper and lower right - Displays the charms. Activating charms is a two-step process using this method. First, move the mouse pointer to the correct corner to make the charms appears, and then move the pointer toward the charm. If done properly, the charms will stay visible so that you can select one.

The diagram below shows this in more detail.

Figure 35: Navigating with corners

On a touch device, the focus moves from the corners to the edges. Swiping in from the edges of the screen performs a consistent action regardless of where you are in Windows.

• Swipe in from the right edge to reveal the charms.
• Swipe down from the top edge or up from the bottom edge to reveal the app commands.
• Swipe in from the left edge to switch to the previous app.
  • If you move your finger in from the left edge and then back out all the way to the edge, the app switching bar will be displayed.

Notifications

Windows 8 also includes a new mechanism for communicating information and status updates to users in an unobtrusive manner. This mechanism is referred to as Notifications. Notifications display in a small pane on the upper-right portion of the screen and communicate information such as new mail alerts and can ask questions of a user, such as how they would like to handle a USB flash drive that they inserted.

Figure 37: Notification from the Store app

Notifications are an improvement over previous methods of displaying alerts on the desktop in many ways. Desktop alerts are implemented using many different methods including balloon notifications in the system tray, alert windows or dialog boxes, or even opening a whole new instance of an app in order to get the user's attention. The issue with this beyond just the inconsistency in their implementation is that there was no clear single place to disable these notifications.

Windows 7 provided a mechanism for hiding things like tray icons and balloon prompts from the user, but apps that used a dialog box or some other mechanism to get the users attention would be unaffected. These dialog boxes were distracting to the user and in many cases could take focus away from the window that the user was interacting with. For example, a user might be mid-sentence in typing an email message while looking at the keyboard, and when they look up they see that the last several words they were typing were either lost or had been entered into an unintended window.

Notifications in Windows 8 address these issues on many levels:

• For Windows 8, the only way for Windows Store apps to alert a user to important information is to use notifications:
  • Desktop apps will still be able to use the same mechanisms they used in the past for alerts and notifications, but those messages will only ever be displayed on the desktop.
  • If the user is not on the desktop, but is instead in a Windows Store app, those notifications will not be seen.
• These notifications never steal focus from the app the user is interacting with.
• Notifications are automatically dismissed after five seconds.
  • This number is configurable from the Ease of Access Control Panel.
• Notifications can be manually dismissed by swiping them to the right.
• Notifications are configurable by the user in one central location.
  • From the Notification Control Panel, the users can disable notifications globally, on a per-app basis, or disable sounds for notifications.

PC Settings

Windows 8 has relocated many of the most commonly used Windows settings to a new PC Settings app that can be thought of as a Control Panel within the new Windows Experience. PC Settings is not a complete replacement for the desktop Control Panel, and both will continue to exist. The interface for the PC Settings is much simpler than the desktop Control Panel, works better with touch, and in general, there are far fewer options, which makes for less complexity for the user:

• Some options exposed in PC Settings are also duplicated in the desktop Control Panel.
• All settings related to Windows Store apps and UI are only shown in PC Settings.
• The desktop Control Panel can be accessed by selecting the Control Panel link that appears when you open the Settings Charm on the desktop.

Figure 38: PC settings

PC Settings does not have its own tile on the Start Screen. Instead, you access PC Settings using the Change PC settings link in the Settings charm.

Figure 39: Change PC settings link in Settings charm

Lock Screen

The Lock screen is a new interface that covers the Sign in screen in Windows 8. The Lock screen shows a full screen image and other information that is customizable by the user.

Figure 40: Lock screen

The following are some features of the Lock screen:

• The Lock screen picture is customizable in the Personalize section of PC Settings.
• The Lock screen can display the following information:
  • Date and time in a large Segoe font on the lower-left corner.
  • Network connection status icon.
  • Lock screen apps can display information on the Lock screen:
    • One Windows Store app can display detailed status and text on the Lock screen.
      • The Calendar app is configured by default.
    • Up to seven Windows Store apps can display status badges on the Lock screen:
      • Messaging, Mail, and Calendar are configured by default.
    • Apps that are designated as Lock screen apps can display notifications on the Lock screen. All other apps are restricted to displaying notifications only when the PC is unlocked.

Figure 41: Lock screen apps

• The Lock screen slides up to reveal the Sign on screen. There are several methods you can use to slide the Lock screen away:
  • With touch, swipe your finger up the screen.
  • With your mouse, click and drag the Lock screen up off the screen.
  • With your mouse, scroll up.
  • Press any key on your keyboard.

Touch Keyboard

Windows 8 also includes a new touch keyboard optimized for the new Windows UI. The touch keyboard is designed to make text entry on a touch screen fast and fluid, and the experience is customizable based on your specific needs.

The default view of the keyboard shows the most commonly used keyboard keys and fills the entire width of the screen.

Figure 42: Default touch keyboard view

The touch keyboard has the following features:

• You can access additional keys like symbols and numbers using the &123 button in the lower-left corner.
• Hundreds of emoticons are available from the emoticon key to the left of the space bar.

Several different touch keyboards are available, allowing you to pick the input experience that works best for you. You can quickly switch between all of the available touch keyboards using the Keyboard Switcher button on the lower-right corner of the keyboard.

Figure 43: Switching keyboard views

The various keyboards offer the following features:

• The thumb keyboard view optimizes for thumb typing while grasping the tablet from the sides.

Figure 44: Split keyboard

• You can change the size of these keys by placing your finger on the three dots and sliding left or right.

Figure 45: Split keyboard size

• The full keyboard displays all of the keys that you see on most physical keyboards, including the number keys, the F1-F12 function keys and modifier keys, such as the Tab key.

Figure 46: Full touch keyboard

• To access the full keyboard, you need to enable the Make the standard keyboard layout available option in the General section of PC Settings.

• The Handwriting panel enables written text, which makes for a great input experience on PCs that include a stylus.

Figure 47: Handwriting panel

• If you have an alternate input language installed, the touch keyboard will display in that language.

Figure 48: Alternate language keyboard

Accessing the Touch Keyboard

You have multiple options for opening the touch keyboard on a touch device:

• Select any text field in a Windows Store app or from the Start screen (such as in the Search charm).
• Tap the keyboard button in the Settings charm, and select Touch keyboard and handwriting panel.

Figure 49: Open keyboard from Settings charm

• The touch keyboard icon on the taskbar. When the touch keyboard is opened on the desktop, you have the option to unpin it from the bottom of the screen so you can move the keyboard around. This is great for scenarios where the keyboard is obscuring a text field in a desktop app.

Figure 50: Open keyboard from taskbar

Note: Most desktop apps do not report the necessary status to Windows to indicate that a text field is selected, so in most cases, it will be necessary to manually bring up the keyboard for these desktop apps. Desktop apps are given the ability to add functionality that reports this info to Windows so that the keyboard opens seamlessly when needed, but this is not guaranteed across all apps.

If Windows 8 detects that the PC is not touch enabled, the touch keyboard will not be exposed to the user:

• The touch keyboard will not be displayed when selecting a text input field.
• The option to display the keyboard from the Settings charm and the taskbar will not be displayed.

For More Information 

Index of UX guidelines for Windows Store apps

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465424.aspx

ONiehus, Microsoft

Overview

This section explores some of the changes to audio and video functionality in Windows® 8. This doesn't include media-related Windows Store apps, which are covered elsewhere in this course.

Windows 8 includes changes to media functionality in several areas:

• Audio Controls: Standard controls are available for Windows Store apps, to help control background audio apps.
• Windows Media Center: This is now provided via an optional media pack for Windows 8 Pro.
• Media Formats Supported: Windows 8 also introduces a few changes in media format support. This includes changes to DVD playback support, which is only included in the media pack.
• Windows Media Player: This app no longer provides DVD playback capabilities, even when the Media Center pack is installed.

Audio Controls

Playing audio using background apps presents a control challenge. How can you change tracks, pause, and resume play without switching away from your current app?

Windows 8 introduces new audio controls that are shown when you use hardware volume buttons. This can include dedicated hardware volume buttons or volume function keys. When no music app is running or in a play/paused state, you will simply see a volume control.

When an app that supports these controls is in playback mode, you will see audio controls next to the volume control, as in the example below.

Figure 1: Audio controls

The previous example is for an app that supports album art. You may also see controls from apps that do not provide art to the control, or where there is no art available. This is shown below.

Figure 2: Audio controls

What happens in the event of multiple audio apps running in the background? Windows only plays audio from the app that was most recently in the foreground.

Note: Function keys on the keyboard for volume control, brightness, and other functions may require a driver from the PC manufacturer to work on Windows 8. Whether an added driver is required or not depends on the way these keys are implemented on your PC. Check with the PC manufacturer for drivers or other information if these function keys do not work as expected on Windows 8.

Windows Media Center

Windows 8 editions no longer include Windows Media Center by default. The result is that when you install Windows 8 or purchase a new PC with Windows 8 preinstalled, Windows Media Center will not be installed.

This change was made due to the decrease in the number of PCs in use for watching broadcast TV. For more information on the reasoning behind the change, see the Media Formats Supported topic later in this section.

Purchasing Windows Media Center

Windows Media Center is available for purchase in the form of feature packs for Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro. The starting point, feature pack, and resulting Windows 8 state paths are shown in the table below.

Table 1: Windows 8 starting point, feature pack, and resulting state

As shown in the table, there is one pack available for installing Windows Media Center on each main Windows 8 edition.

The installation process for the media pack is discussed in detail in the Activation section of the training.

Other Windows Media Center Functionality

Notes on other Windows Media center functionality are listed below.

• Once installed, Windows Media Center works almost exactly as on Windows® 7.
• Media Center Extenders, and other Windows Media Center hardware is no longer officially supported for use in Windows 8. The devices may work however, there is no official support provided for them.
• Options have been removed from the Settings interface: Always keep Windows Media Center on top and Start Windows Media Center when Windows starts. These options are no longer implemented on Windows 8.

For more information on Windows Media Center on Windows 8, please see the following article:

Making Windows Media Center available in Windows 8
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/03/making-windows-media-center-available-in-windows-8.aspx 

Support Scenarios

Customers may encounter issues related to Windows Media Center on Windows 8 in the following scenarios:

• I installed Windows 8 and now cannot find Windows Media Center.
  • Cause: Windows Media Center is not included with Windows 8. It is available for purchase in a feature pack.
  • Resolution: Go into System Properties and click Get more features with a new edition of Windows.
• I cannot play previously-recorded TV files.
  • Cause: Windows 8 does not include support for playing TV formats by default.
  • Resolution: Install Windows Media Center or a third-party app to play the files.
• I cannot make Windows Media Center start when Windows starts.
  • Cause: This is due to a change in Windows Media Center for Windows 8.
  • Resolution: Windows Media Center must be launched after Windows starts.
• I cannot configure Windows Media Center to stay on top of other windows.
  • Cause: This setting was removed from Windows Media Center for Windows 8.
  • Resolution: If you change to another app and Windows Media Center is no longer visible or displayed on top of other windows, return focus to it when you are done interacting with other apps.

These and other issues will be covered in more detail by a page on Microsoft.com. At the time of the writing that page was not yet available.

Media Formats Supported

Windows 8 supports key playback scenarios for mainstream content such as YouTube video, Netflix video, Amazon audio/video, H.264 web browsing/streaming, Hulu video, MP4 video, AVCHD video from camcorders, Ultraviolet video, and the HTML5 video tag.

The list of supported formats and container types for Windows 8 are shown in the table below.

Table 2: Supported formats and container types for Windows 8

Windows Store apps can use any of these formats. Additional media decoder solutions can be included with an app for additional format support, such as FLAC, MKV, and OGG.

If a Windows Store app includes decoders for format support, that support will only be available in the app that includes it. This is due to the architecture used for these apps. In the case of media formats it will help protect your apps in the event of installing a problem decoder included with another app.

For more information on media formats supported on Windows 8, please see the following article:

Making Windows Media Center available in Windows 8
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/06/08/building-a-rich-and-extensible-media-platform.aspx

Recorded TV Formats

Consumption of broadcast TV programming on the PC has declined compared with online and downloaded video. This trend looks to continue into the future, making the need for TV formats less common.

As a result, broadcast TV recording and playback support is included in the media pack, discussed above. When you install the media pack to get Windows Media Center features, it comes with support for DBV-T/S, ISDB-S/T, DMBH, and ATSC.

Support Scenario

You may encounter customers who have upgraded from a Windows 7 edition with Windows Media Center to Windows 8, and asks either of the following questions:

• Why can't I play recorded TV shows?

• How do I view and record broadcast TV on Windows 8?

In order to return this capability, the media pack should be installed, using the Add Features to Windows 8 capability.

This installation process is discussed in detail in the Activation section of the training.

DVD Decoder

Another format that has been removed from the default set supported by Windows 8 is DVD video. This includes for physical DVD media as well as .VOB files.

Like broadcast programming, the use of DVDs for movie watching on the PC has declined. It is expected to be surpassed by online and downloaded content on all devices the same year that Windows 8 is released.

Added to this is the cost of DVD playback support. The cost of the DVD decoder licensing was added to each Windows 7 license. Based on sales and usage, it is clear that Windows 7 was installed on a large number of PCs that were not capable of playing DVDs or simply did not ever play DVDs. With even fewer people using that feature compared with online and downloaded video, it is clear that this should not be included in the base cost of Windows for most of our customers.

For more details and background on what led to this decision, see the following Building Windows 8 blog post:

FAQ - DVD playback and Windows Media Center in Windows 8
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/04/q-amp-a-dvd-playback-and-windows-media-center-in-windows-8.aspx

Note: As was the case in Windows 7, Windows 8 does not include Blu-ray video format support. Decoder software is needed for Blu-ray playback.

Adding a DVD Decoder

You can add a DVD decoder to Windows 8 in one of two ways:

• Install the media pack. The DVD decoder is provided in Windows 8 Pro with Media Center.
• Install a third-party DVD decoder. This is the solution commonly used with previous Windows versions.

Once installed, the DVD decoder is available to applications just as it was in Windows 7.

Upgrading to Windows 8

If you upgrade your Windows 7 PC to Windows 8, the state of DVD support depends on your previous configuration:

• Started with Windows 7 built-in DVD support:
  • No DVD decoder in Windows 8 after upgrade. This is due to the licensing terms for the decoder features in Windows. The license does not carry forward when Windows is upgraded.
  • Add a decoder using one of the options above.
• Started with third-party DVD decoder on Windows 7:
  • Windows Upgrade Assistant will help determine if it is compatible.
  • If it is compatible, the third-party DVD decoder remains in Windows 8.

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player has one major change in Windows 8 – the removal of DVD playback support. The DVD settings interface, and other features related to DVD playback have been removed from Windows Media Player.

Even when you are running Windows 8 Pro with Media Center, the Windows Media Player app does not support playing a DVD.

More information about this change is discussed in this blog post:

FAQ - DVD playback and Windows Media Center in Windows 8
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/04/q-amp-a-dvd-playback-and-windows-media-center-in-windows-8.aspx 

ONiehus, Microsoft

Overview

Windows® 8 includes improvements to the way users add and configure input and display languages. The main changes are:

• Central location for configuring Languages
  • In Windows 7, users needed to check several locations to understand what language support was installed, and then to install needed support. While input languages were installed through the Region and Language interface in Control Panel, the installation of display languages required going through Windows Update.
  • Windows 8 brings these settings together in one Language Control Panel.
• Display Languages now available on all editions
  • In Windows 7, display Language Packs were not available except on Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise Editions. Limited local language support was available for more editions via Language Interface Packs, but this did not give users access to the full range of display languages available unless they were running on Ultimate or Enterprise.
  • Windows 8 brings installable display languages to all editions. This means that you can install any optional display language, regardless of your edition.

Upgrading with Installed Language Packs

If you upgrade a Windows 7 PC that has one or more display language packs installed, those display languages will be absent from Windows 8. There is a compatibility message shown during setup to inform you of this change.

Figure 1: Upgrading with Language Packs

When you press the Confirm button, setup can continue. This kind of notification is provided to help ensure that you do not find yourself unexpectedly without the language support you expect.

Language Control Panel

The new consolidated Language configuration interface is found in the Control Panel, in the Clock, Language, and Region category. The main interface is shown below.

Figure 2: Language Control Panel

The language selected during setup, or selected by setup based on the previous Windows installation, will be listed in this interface, as shown above. When you add languages, the order in this interface is used to determine priority for use—move your preferred language(s) up and other languages down.

You can also access this interface using the Language icon on the taskbar, which appears when you have multiple input languages installed. This is shown below.

Figure 3: Language Selection

Adding Languages

When adding a language, the user does not need to specify whether they need an input or display language (or both). The user simply clicks Add a language to see a list of available languages, as shown below.

Figure 4: Add Language

If the user selects a language with multiple available regional variants, the Add button becomes Open, as shown when selecting French above.

Then the user chooses the regional variant needed, and clicks Add to complete the procedure.

Figure 5: Add Language Regional Variant

Configuring Languages

After the language is added, the user is returned to the main Language interface where they can then view options for each language. The language options for French are shown below.

Figure 6: Language Options

Notice the language-specific text services which appear here. The options exposed will depend on the language selected.

If there is a display language available for the user's language and edition of Windows 8, it will be shown as available for installation in this interface. This is designed to make display language packs much more discoverable and easier to install in Windows 8.

Keyboard Input Methods

The Preview link provided for a Keyboard input method, as in the French example above, opens a keyboard layout preview. This is shown below.

Figure 7: Keyboard Layout Preview

Input Method Editor (IME)

Languages that use an Input Method Editor (IME) will expose a different choice for the input method. IME configuration can be started by clicking the Options link when viewing the language options for the language.

Example: Japanese

The Language options for Japanese are shown below. The user can click Options to view the IME configuration settings for Japanese input.

Figure 8: IME Example–Japanese

This leads to the Settings interface shown below where the user can configure predictive input and whether mis-conversion problem reports are sent automatically.

Figure 9: IME Example–Japanese options

Click the Advanced button in the Settings interface to view the full IME properties.

Figure 10: IME Example–Japanese Advanced Settings

This interface provides a similar set of configuration options as with previous IME properties. Additions include Predictive Input, enabling a user to type more quickly, and Privacy settings that enable you to remove user-specific information, including auto-tuning information, predictive input history, and mis-conversion error logging.

Example: Simplified Chinese

The default input method for Simplified Chinese is the Microsoft® Pinyin SimpleFast method, which was introduced with the Microsoft Pinyin Input Method 2010—included in Chinese versions of Office 2010. Note that some input methods may not work with Windows Store apps. This is denoted with the Only works on the desktop indicator, as shown for the Microsoft Pinyin NewExperience method in the previous example.

Options for the Microsoft Pinyin SimpleFast method are shown below. These options largely match what was provided by the Microsoft Pinyin Input Method 2010, with some reorganization for ease of use.

Figure 11: IME Example–Microsoft Pinyin SimpleFast

The UI Customization tab provides new options for configuring the user interface, as shown below.

Figure 12: IME Example–Microsoft Pinyin SimpleFast UI Customization

Input Method Editor (IME) in Windows Store Apps

When Windows is configured to use an IME for input, the user will see an icon for the IME when the selection point is in a text input control. An example of this is shown in the image below.

Figure 13: IME Language Interface in Windows Store App

This enables the user to interact with the IME, but it does not expose IME settings. The input language used is based on the order of languages in the Language Control Panel.

IME Compatibility Issues

Due to the user interface changes related to language settings and input language selection, third-party IME software would need to be updated for full compatibility.

While updating the IME software is recommended, IME software that is compatible with Windows 7 should work on a Windows 8 PC for Desktop apps. The Language Bar is still available, as is Taskbar-invoked language selection.

If you have a non-compatible IME selected as the current input language and then switch to a Windows Store app, the input method will shaded gray and unavailable. Changing back to the Desktop or an app running on the Desktop makes the IME available for use again.

For more information in IME changes and any updates required, please read the following article:

Third-Party Input Method Editors
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848069%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Advanced Language Settings

The Language Control Panel has an Advanced Settings link on the left side. This link opens the settings interface below. This is where you can make further changes to the way that Windows handles language.

Figure 14: Advanced Language Settings

The options include:

• Override for Windows display language - This is useful if you want to use one language as your default input language, but another as the main Windows interface language. This is handy because the primary language is one factor used to select the information you see in apps and the Windows Store. So you may want to have a primary that is not your display language.
• Override for default input method - Like the above option, you can select a different default input method so that the primary language is not the default.
• Switching input methods - This enables you to configure language input settings per app, or configure the use of the language bar.
• Personalization date - This setting gives Windows permission to learn your handwriting and keyboard input patterns to help make input easier.
• Language for web content - The last setting in this interface gives you an option to prevent websites from accessing the list of installed languages. This information is available for websites to customize how information is presented. If you disable this option, the date, time, and number formatting configuration will be used instead.

Installing Display Languages

Installing display languages is more connected to the Language input settings than on previous Windows versions. When a language pack is available for a language, you will see a download link in the language properties.

Clicking the link starts the language pack download and installation process, which works the same as it did on Windows 7. This is shown below.

Figure 15: Install Display Language

When the installation is complete, you see the confirmation as shown below.

Figure 16: Install Display Language

With a display language installed, you will see a Make this the primary language link when viewing the options for the language. You can click this link to change your display language. This will also move the language to the top of the list, making it the default for input as well.

Figure 17: Change Display Language

A log off is required to change your display language.

Figure 18: Change Display Language

The Language Options interface is also where you go if you want to remove a language pack. Language packs are large, and they increase the processing required when installing updates and performing other servicing activities. As a result, you should keep only your required languages installed for best performance. Note that the uninstall option is not shown for a language pack currently in use as your display language.

When you click on the Uninstall language pack link, the uninstall procedure is started. This is shown below.

Figure 19: Uninstall Display Language

A restart is required to complete the uninstall.

Figure 20: Uninstall Display Language

Another consideration when removing display languages is that you cannot remove the originally installed language. In the example below, the US-EN version of Windows 8 was installed, and the display language was changed to French. As you can see, there is no option to uninstall the language—only an option to set English (US) as the primary language.

Figure 21: Install Language Not Set to Primary

Troubleshooting Language Packs

Language pack installation and uninstall actions are performed by the Language Pack Installer, which uses Windows Servicing (the Trusted Installer service and related components) to perform the work of the installation.

If you encounter an issue with language pack installation, the troubleshooting approach should be based on the failure scenario:

• Failure during download: Download issues should be resolved using standard Internet Explorer and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) download troubleshooting. These steps are a good start:
  • Check for and resolve general connectivity issues.
  • Check for and resolve Windows Update download issues.
  • Clear the BITS queue and retry the download.
• Failure during installation or uninstall: If the installation progress shows that download completed, but the installation is failing, the troubleshooting should follow what is done for Windows Update installation issues. This is true for uninstall issues as well. Recommended steps include the following:
  • Check for and resolve any existing Windows Update installation issues.
  • Use SFC.exe and DISM.exe to repair the Windows system files and obtain updates through corruption repair if needed. See the Update and Maintenance section of this training for details on this corruption repair mechanism, which is new in Windows 8.

For More Information 

Change the display language

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-the-display-language

Language packs are available for Windows 8 and for Windows RT

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2607607

ONiehus, Microsoft

Overview

This module covers a few of the changes to the Networking experience in Windows 8.

• The new Windows UI version of the View Available Networks interface.
• Better handling of networks with data caps or that charge by the MB with the Metered Networks feature.
• Easily turn off all radios on your device with Airplane Mode in Windows 8.

View Available Networks

The View Available Networks window has been updated to use the new Windows UI, which makes this interface much more touch friendly.

You can access View Available Networks in a couple of different ways.

• From the desktop, click the network icon in the system tray.
• Open the Settings charm and then the Network icon.

Metered Network

The Windows® 8 operating system has a new method for handling networks that implement data usage caps or charge by the megabyte or gigabyte for usage with a feature called Metered Networks.

• Computers with a 3G connection that use the native Mobile Broadband support in Windows 8 are automatically configured to be Metered Networks.
• You can also configure Wi-Fi connections to be a Metered Network to support scenarios like connecting to the Internet using a mobile hotspot device.
  • To configure this, right-click the network connection in View Available Networks and select the option for Set as metered connection. You can then disable the Metered Network function by selecting Set as non-metered connection.
• You can also see the estimated amount of traffic that has been transmitted and received over this network connection by right-clicking the network connection and selecting Show estimated data usage.

Figure 3: Show estimated data usage

When a network is configured to be a Metered Network, Windows will make several changes to the way that it uses the network to reduce overall network traffic through that connection, including the following:

• Only Critical Windows Updates are downloaded.
• Tile updates are limited to 50 MB per month.

Airplane Mode

Similar to the function in mobile phones, Windows 8 now offers an option to enable Airplane mode. Airplane mode automatically disables all wireless devices in the PC, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC.

• You can enable Airplane mode from the View Available Networks interface, and from the wireless section of PC Settings.

Figure 4: Airplane Mode enabled

Checking to see if Airplane mode is enabled should now be a standard step in your troubleshooting when you have a network issue. Luckily, in addition to the View Available Networks interface shown above, Windows 8 shows you that Airplane mode is enabled in several other locations.

Table 1: Locations where it shows that Airplane mode is enabled

For More Information 

Windows 8 Networking

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/jj863133.aspx

ONiehus, Microsoft

Overview

Microsoft® Windows® 8 introduces a new concept called a Connected Account. A Connected Account allows you to sign in to Windows with your Microsoft Account (formerly known as Windows Live ID) and do things like roam your settings between Windows 8 PCs and seamlessly sign in to Windows Live services and apps.

Creating a Connected Account

The default method for creating an account is to create a Connected Account. This is the best experience for the user and enables many of the new features in Windows 8. In this discussion we will talk about four different methods for creating a Connected Account.

• Creating a new account during Windows Welcome
• Creating a new account in the Users Control Panel
• Connecting a local account
• Connecting a domain account

Creating a new account during Windows Welcome

During the Windows Welcome phase of Windows Setup, you can customize the PC by defining things like a computer name, preferred wireless network, and how they would like to sign in. In previous versions of Windows, home users were just asked for a user name and password and an account was created locally with that information. Now the default option is to create a Connected Account.

After the Settings page (or pages if you chose the Customize option) of Windows Welcome, you are asked to enter an email address to use for signing into Windows. The email address provided here should be a Microsoft Account, although if you don't have a Microsoft Account you can create one from this interface. If you want to continue using the old method for signing into Windows, you can create a local account by clicking the Sign in without a Microsoft Account link.

Figure 1: Sign-in screen

After entering your Microsoft Account and clicking Next, enter the password for your Microsoft Account. The email address field will be automatically populated with the Microsoft Account entered on the previous step. After entering the password and clicking Next, you will be signed into Windows 8 using your Connected account.

Figure 2: Password screen

After entering your password on the previous screen, you will be prompted to enter security verification information to help ensure that in the event you forget your password, you have a method for recovering it. This prompt happens on the Enter security verification info screen, which is shown in the screenshot below. After clicking Next, you will be signed in with your Connected Account.

Note: The specific items that are requested will vary depending on your account. Some accounts will ask for a phone number, while others may also ask for a secret question. Additionally, the Microsoft Account team has the ability to change what information is asked for, so you may see a difference in these prompts from time to time after Windows 8 is released to the public.

Figure 3: Keep Your Account Safer screen

Network Connectivity

If the PC cannot connect to the Internet during Windows Welcome, you will not be given the option to create a Connected Account. Instead, the only option you will see is to sign in using a local account. Once Internet access is restored, you can use the Users section of PC Settings to convert that local account to a Connected Account.

Email address is not a Microsoft Account

If the email address that you enter is not a Microsoft Account, Windows Welcome will walk you through the process of turning your existing email address into a Microsoft Account. This does not change your email account at all, and does nothing to the configuration of the account on the email server. The Microsoft Account is effectively just using that email address as a name to identify you, as well as a contact address if needed.

Immediately following the Sign in to your PC screen, if Windows Welcome determines that the email address that was entered is not already a Microsoft Account, it will take you through a series of steps that are designed to gather the necessary information required to create the Microsoft Account. The Microsoft Account that is created is just like a Microsoft Account created at a site like http://accounts.live.com.

First, you will be taken to a screen where you can make your existing email address a Microsoft Account. You must provide all of the information shown in the screenshot below.

Figure 4: Account setup screen

After clicking Next, you must then provide two forms of security verification. Three are asked for, but only two are required if, for some reason, you do not wish to use one particular form of verification. This security verification info will be used in the event that you forget your password and need to have it reset.

Figure 5: Security Verification screen

After clicking Next, the last bit of information that is required to create the account is requested.

Figure 6: Finish screen

At this point, the Microsoft Account has been created and is used to create the Connected Account. After clicking Next above, your account is created on the PC and you are signed in.

Figure 7: Creating Account screen

Creating a new account in the Users Control Panel

You can create additional Connected User accounts in the Users section of PC Settings. Use the following steps to accomplish this.

1. From the Settings Charm open More PC Settings > Users

Figure 8: Users screen

1. Click the plus sign next to Add a user in the Other users section.

Figure 9: Add a user

1. In the wizard that appears, enter the Microsoft Account for the user that you wish to add.

Figure 10: Add User screen

1. Click Next, and then Click Finish on the confirmation screen.

You are not prompted to enter any additional information at this step. We do not require you to know or obtain the password for the other user's Microsoft Account to add their account to the PC. You only need to know their Microsoft Account.

Note: You must be an administrator on the PC to create additional accounts.

After adding the Connected Account for the other user, a user tile for that user will appear on the sign in screen. Until the user signs in for the first time, the user tile will have a generic user tile icon and show the email address for the Microsoft Account as the name of the account. After that user signs in for the first time, Windows will retrieve their user tile and display name from the Microsoft Account servers, and those will be displayed on the Start screen and the sign in screen going forward.

Key Points

1. Although you are not required to be connected to the Internet at all times to use a Connected Account, the first time you sign in to a Connected Account you must be online.
2. Any Connected Accounts that are created using this method are created as standard users. You can convert these accounts from standard users to administrative users using the desktop Control Panel.
   1. Open the desktop Control Panel.
   2. Select Change account type under User Accounts and Family Safety.

Figure 11: Change account type

1. Select the account you wish to change.

Figure 12: Select user to change

1. Select change the account type.

Figure 13: Change user account

1. Select Administrator and click Change Account Type.

1. You can create a Local account from the wizard described above as well. To do this, follow the steps below:
   1. From the Settings Charm open More PC Settings > Users.
   2. Click the plus sign next to Add a user in the Other users section.
   3. Click the link titled Sign in without a Microsoft Account.

Figure 14: Sign in

1. Click the Local account button.

Figure 15: Local account

1. Enter your name, password, and password hint where prompted and click Next.

Figure 16: Add a user

1. Click Finish.

Note: Similar to creating a Connected Account, a Local Account created in this way is created as a standard user.

Connecting a local account

If you are currently using a local account, you can convert it to a Connected Account. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. From the Settings Charm open Change PC Settings > Users.
2. Click the Switch to a Microsoft Account button in the Your account section.

Figure 17: Switch to a Microsoft account

1. The Sign in with a Microsoft Account wizard appears. The first thing you are prompted to do is enter your password. This will be the password for your local account. Enter that password and click Next.
2. Next, enter the email address and password for your Microsoft Account.

Note: If the email address that you enter is not a Microsoft Account, you will see the same message that we described above when we encountered the same scenario in Windows Welcome.

1. Click Finish at the confirmation screen.
2. You will need to sign out and then sign in using the new Connected Account to make the changes take effect.

Note: You can also convert a Connected Account to a Local account. You can do this in the User Accounts section of the desktop Control Panel. The option that accomplishes this is Change to a local account.

Note: You cannot convert a Local Account to a Connected Account using a Microsoft Account that is already being used for a Connected Account on the same PC. This will fail with an error "0xd0000063: We're sorry, but something went wrong. This user wasn't added to this PC." In order to convert the Local Account to a Connected Account in this scenario, the existing Connected Account with the Microsoft Account you want to use will first need to be deleted using Manage Users in the Desktop Control Panel.

Connecting a domain account

Windows 8 also provides the ability to connect a domain account to a Microsoft account. This is a different process for domain accounts however, and we don't actually change the way that you sign in. You are associating your domain account with your Microsoft Account, but it is only used for authentication to Microsoft services and connected features such as the ability to sync your settings.

To connect your domain account to your Microsoft Account, you can perform the following steps:

1. From the Settings Charm open Change PC Settings > Users.
2. Click the Connect button below your domain account.

Figure 18: Connect your Microsoft account

1. The Connect to a Microsoft Account wizard appears as a green strip across the center of the screen. You are asked to choose which shared settings you want to sync between the PCs you use. The options you have are shown below. They are all checked by default.

• Personalization
• App Settings
• Desktop theme
• Web browser settings
• Accessibility
• Windows settings
• Language settings
• Credentials

1. After clicking Next on the previous screen, you are asked to enter the email address and password for your Microsoft Account.

Note: If the email address that you enter is not a Microsoft Account, you will see the same message that we described above when we encountered the same scenario in Windows Welcome.

1. Click Finish on the confirmation screen. The change takes effect immediately and you do not need to sign out.

Note: Administrators will have the ability to restrict or disable this functionality through Group Policy.

Potential Issues related to Connected Account creation

Windows Welcome is not showing the option to create a Connected Account.

• Connected Account settings have been disabled using unattend settings for setup.
• No network connectivity during Windows Welcome. In this case, Windows Welcome will only offer the option to create a local account.

Can't sign in using an existing Microsoft Account

• The password is invalid.
• You may have Network Connectivity issues.

Not able to sign up for a new Microsoft Account

• The account is already in use by someone else.
• Typing user@live.com or user@hotmail.com at an EASI ID sign-up page.
• Birth year is set such that you are less than 13 years old.
• You are entering a user name or password that uses characters in an invalid character set, such as Unicode.

Other known issues

• Can't switch built-in Administrator or Guest account to a Connected account. (This is by design.)

Signing in with a Connected Account

The first time that you sign in with a Connected Account, you will need to be connected to the Internet so that Windows can validate your Microsoft Account and password against the Windows Live servers. After the first signin, the credentials that you used to validate your Microsoft Account are cached locally so that any further attempts to sign in do not need to go back out to the server. You do not need to be connected to the Internet again during signin after that first time, as the credentials are cached indefinitely.

If you sign in to a Windows Live website from another PC and change your password, you will continue to be able to sign in to Windows with your old password. That will be the case as long as you don't attempt to use your new password. As soon as you use your new password while you are connected to the Internet, Windows will attempt to validate that password against the locally cached credentials and that will fail. At this point, Windows will validate the new password against the Windows Live servers, and if it succeeds, it will cache those new credentials and allow you to sign in. This process will be seamless, and you will not be notified that your credentials failed the first check as long as the subsequent checks were successful.

This process is optimized around not only being secure but also to help ensure that we have minimized as much as possible the chance that you will be locked out of their PC.

Sync PC Settings

One benefit to using a Connected Account in Windows 8 is the ability to Sync your PC settings. All of the Windows 8 PCs that you have where you are using the same Connected Account can sync many of their settings so that the experience and configuration that you have is similar regardless of which PC you are sitting in front of. Make a change to your wallpaper or create a new favorite in Internet Explorer, and those changes will roam to all of the PCs where you are signed in with that same Microsoft Account.

The Sync feature is able to sync many of your settings between PCs including the following:

• Personalization settings such as Start screen colors, background, and lock screen image
• Themes such as the desktop background and sounds
• Ease of Access settings such as Speech Recognition, Magnifier, On-screen Keyboard, and Narrator
• Language preferences such as keyboard settings, other input methods, and display language
• Web browser settings such as history, pinned sites, and favorites for both versions of the browser
• Taskbar settings such as pinned items and which side of the monitor the taskbar is attached to
• Folder and Search settings for Windows Explorer
• Mouse settings
• Your accounts picture (user tile)
• Per-app notification state
• Settings for Windows Store apps, including third-party apps
• HomeGroup password
• Saved network passwords (Credential Vault) and Wi-Fi passwords
  • These passwords will only sync to PCs considered trusted by Windows Live. More information on this is provided below.

Note: The list above is not a comprehensive list.

You can configure which items will be synced between PCs in the Sync your settings section of PC Settings. Some of these settings are logically grouped together, such as personalization settings like Start screen colors, backgrounds, and the lock screen image. It is not possible to configure syncing in a more granular fashion than these logical groupings.

Figure 19: Sync your settings

From this section, you can do the following:

• Enable or disable settings sync for the PC
• Enable or disable specific logical groups of settings
• Enable or disable syncing on metered networks

Note:Passwords will not sync to or from a PC that is not a Trusted PC. As you can see in the screenshot above, you can trust your PC by clicking the appropriate link under Passwords.

Simplified Logon

In addition to the new Connected Accounts feature, Windows 8 introduced two new methods for signing in to Windows that make the process of entering your password much easier on a touch device.

• PIN Password – sign in to Windows using a 4 digit PIN.
• Picture Password – sign in to Windows by drawing a specific pattern on a picture that you specify.

You can enable PIN or Picture passwords from Users in PC Settings. After enabling one of these new sign-in methods, it will appear as an additional signin method on the signin screen.

Demo: Simplified Logon

Demonstrate enabling PIN Password and Picture Password on your user account, and then use each option to sign in after locking the PC.

Try This: Connected Accounts

• Try converting your Connected Account into a Local Account.
• If you have access to an email address that is not a Microsoft Account, try using that email address to convert your Local account into a connected account.

Note: You cannot use your Microsoft.com address for this.

• Partner with someone in the room. Have them add your Microsoft Account as an additional user account on their PC. Sign in with that account on their PC as well.
  • Change your Lock screen background, user tile, the position of your taskbar on the desktop, and pin a website to Start.
  • How long does it take for those changes to show up on the other PC?
• Enable both Picture and PIN passwords on your PC, and use them both to sign in.

For More Information 

Your life, connected

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/microsoft-account#1TC=t1

ONiehus, Microsoft

Overview

Windows® 8 includes several new resources for troubleshooting and options for recovering your system from errors or problems. The set of topics covered in this section includes the following:

• Support Resources
• Push-Button Reset
• File History
• Windows 7 File Recovery
• Boot Menu and WinRE
• Other Troubleshooting Changes

Support Resources

There are a number of good resources you can use to get information on Windows 8:

Windows Online
http://windows.microsoft.com

Building Windows 8 Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/

Windows Experience Blog
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/windowsexperience

Answers
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8

TechNet
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hh771457

There is already a great deal of troubleshooting guidance for specific Windows 8 issues. Even when specific resolutions may only apply to preview versions of Windows 8, you can often gather troubleshooting tips by reviewing this pre-release information.

Tip: You can find the resources listed above, as well as several other Windows 8 related resources in the Resources tab in the top-left corner of this training.

Information for Customers: Help and Support

Educating customers on available help resources for Windows 8 is another important support-related task. Consumer-facing help for Windows 8 is available from several sources:

• Microsoft: Help & Support in the product, Windows Online
• OEM Help Content
• Community Content, such as in Microsoft Answers

Windows 8 has been designed to help you find and access relevant help content from each of these sources. The pages that follow show how help content is accessed, and how these various sources are represented in each interface.

Settings Charm

When you are on the Start screen, you can bring up the charms by swiping in from the right on a touch PC, or move the mouse pointer to a right-side corner. Use the Settings charm to access help. Click or tap in the Settings as shown in the image below.

Figure 1: Start Charms

Then, click Help.

Figure 2: Location for Help

Help provided in this interface is focused on key usage tasks for which new Windows 8 users may need help.

Figure 3: Help from Start screen

Links out to help information on the Microsoft website is displayed in Microsoft® Windows® Internet Explorer®, so that users are getting the most up-to-date content.

While in an app, the Settings charm provides app-specific help. An example in pre-release Windows 8 is shown below.

Figure 4: Help in an App

This Help interface is available for use by any app, based on a standard API. As with the Start screen Help, this Help content can be context-specific. This can help guide users on specific actions, based on what they are doing in the app right now.

While at the Desktop, the Settings charm opens Windows Help and Support, shown below.

Figure 5: Help on the Desktop

This interface supports some of the same Help customization and online access as Help and Support in previous Windows versions. Beyond that, it has been updated for Windows 8 with a new look and a better touch input experience.

Search for Help

If you search for "Help" you will see Help & Support as an option. This opens the Desktop help interface shown above.

Searching for a specific keyword in a problem scenario can bring more targeted results. The example below shows the search for "sound." By selecting the Settings option in the search pane, you have access to top troubleshooters related to the keyword.

Figure 6: Search Help

When you search within the Desktop Help interface, you have access to multiple information sources. This includes:

• Windows Help content
• Answers community content
• Help content from your OEM, if the OEM customized the Help configuration

An example of this is shown below, with a search for "security". The Show results from selection lets you choose which type of help content to view.

Figure 7: Search Help and Support

This is particularly useful given the movement to more community-based support content from Microsoft®. Increasingly, you will find targeted, issue-specific troubleshooting guidance in Answers posts, rather than in Knowledge Base articles. In Answers, these posts can be discussed and expanded by the Windows community.

Push-Button Reset

Windows 8 includes a feature called Push-Button Reset that gives you options for returning your PC to a known configuration. You can use this to recover from a problem, or to return it to the factory state. This can be handy if you are selling a PC, or giving it to another member of the family and want to give them a fresh start.

Push Button Reset provides two options:

• Refresh your PC without affecting your files
• Remove everything and reinstall Windows

These options are provided on the General page in PC Settings as shown below.

Figure 8: Push-Button Reset

When you click one of the Get started buttons, the reset actions are presented in system notifications.

In order to use these options, you must have one of the following:

• A preloaded recovery partition on the PC, configured by the OEM.
• Recovery media provided by the OEM.
• Installation media, such as a Windows 8 DVD or USB flash drive.

Each of the reset options is reviewed in the pages below.

Refresh Your PC Without Affecting Your Files

The Refresh option is primarily a repair method. It is a great method of returning your PC to a known good state while preserving your files and a great deal of your configuration.

With the Refresh your PC option, user accounts, data files, and some settings are preserved on your PC without the need to create a backup, or make choices about what to keep or remove.

The table below shows the type of items that are preserved and removed when you perform a refresh.

Table 1: Elements preserved and returned to default state

Note: For additional detail on the configuration elements that are preserved, see this TechNet article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/jj126997

Tip: At the end of the refresh process, an HTML file called "Removed Apps.html" is placed on the desktop with a list of all of the desktop apps that will need to be reinstalled.

Refresh Steps

The Refresh proceeds in the following steps:

1. Open the General section of PC Settings.
2. Click the Get started button under Refresh your PC without affecting your files.
3. Click the Next button at the Refresh your PC step of the wizard.

Figure 9: Refresh your PC

1. You may be prompted to insert installation or recovery media if there is not a recovery image preconfigured on your PC.

Figure 10: Refresh insert media

1. Click the Refresh button at the Ready to refresh your PC step.

Figure 11: Refresh ready

1. At this point, the PC is restarted, and the refresh actions are completed.

Figure 12: Refreshing your PC

There is no further action needed by you until login when the Windows lock screen appears.

Remove Everything and Reinstall Windows

This option, also called Reset your PC is useful when a PC is changing hands, or when you want to get a completely fresh start on a PC, with no previous files or configuration retained.

The Remove everything and reinstall Windows option permanently removes your personal files and apps from the PC and returns Windows 8 to its original state. That original state is either a clean install of Windows 8, or the OEM factory default configuration, depending on the media used for the operation.

Table 2: Elements preserved and returned to default state

Important: Exercise caution when using this option. It is a procedure that causes data loss by design.

Activation State

The only element of your configuration preserved by a Refresh is the Windows activation state. This is to help provide a better post-Reset experience. In most cases, Windows should be activated automatically at the end of Reset without user action.

One exception to this is on a PC where you used the Add features to Windows to install the Pro Pack or Media Pack to upgrade your Windows edition.

Remove Everything and Reinstall Windows Steps

The Remove Everything option proceeds in the following steps:

1. Open the General section of PC Settings.
2. Click the Get started button under Reset your PC and start over.
3. Click the Next button at the Reset your PC and start over step of the wizard.

Figure 13: Remove everything

1. As in the Reset steps, you may be prompted to insert Windows 8 installation or recovery media.
2. If you have multiple drives on your PC, the next step gives you a choice of how you want files removed. You can remove files from the Windows drive only, or from all drives.

Figure 14: More than one drive

1. Next, you will be asked if you want to fully clean your drive. You can choose to Just remove my files or a more complete removal with the Fully clean the drive option. Neither option provides a guarantee that the data will be unrecoverable, but the fully clean option will make it significantly more difficult.

Figure 15: Remove everything file removal

These options are explained in more detail in the table below.

Table 3: File removal options

1. To proceed, click the Reset button at the Ready to reset your PC step, shown below.

Figure 16: Remove everything ready to reset

1. At this point, the PC is restarted into a full-screen progress screen.

Figure 17: Remove everything - resetting

1. The next step on a PC where the Pro Pack or Media Pack was installed is shown below. In these scenarios, you will need to enter your Product Key. Notice that there is a Skip button here. This would enable you to complete the Reset without entering your key. That can be useful if you are selling a PC and want to retain a retail Windows 8 license that you installed on it.

Figure 18: Remove everything

1. The final step is the License Terms. Click Accept in this step to complete the reset.

Figure 19: Remove everything

After you are past the License Terms, you will find yourself in Windows Welcome, with all the same choices as you saw during Windows 8 Setup. At this point, the PC has been returned to the original Windows 8 state.

Troubleshooting Push-Button Reset

In the event of a problem with Push-Button Reset, you should apply the same type of troubleshooting as you would use for Windows 8 setup.

Logging events for the Push-Button Reset features are written to the locations noted in the table below.

Table 4: Button Reset logging

This \Windows\Logs\PBR folder also contains a backup of the BCD configuration, used during the reset procedure. Additional troubleshooting considerations for each feature are discussed below.

Reset

In the event of a failure during the Reset after the first restart, you can expect to see the following message:

Figure 20: Reset Problem

When you click Cancel at the above message, you are taken to the normal startup menu, providing an option to troubleshoot. You can re-start the Refresh by clicking Troubleshoot and then Reset your PC. This is recommended for an OEM Windows 8 PC, where Refresh is the primary method for reinstalling Windows 8 clean. If the PC did not have Windows 8 preinstalled, you could simply clean install Windows 8 by booting from Windows 8 media.

Troubleshooting considerations for issues with Reset prior to the restart include:

Table 5:

Refresh

If the Refresh is interrupted by a power failure or other unexpected event, it will use a rollback mechanism to return you to the original configuration. When you return to Windows 8, the following message is displayed to indicate that there was a problem.

Figure 21: Refresh failed

You can search for solutions to the problem using the link in this message. Windows Error Reporting is used to submit details, and if there is a researched solution available, such as a Windows or driver update, it will be offered. In such situations, you can simply re-start the Refresh, or use an alternate resolution for the original underlying issue.

Troubleshooting considerations for Refresh also depend on the type of issue encountered:

Refresh and Windows Update

One additional consideration with the Refresh procedure relates to Windows Update. Updates that have been downloaded and staged by Windows Servicing in the component store are preserved during a Refresh. This has two consequences from a support perspective:

• Benefit: Updates do not need to be re-downloaded. When Windows Update determines that updates are available, and negotiates with Windows Servicing to install them, there will be no download needed.
• Risk: If you are trying to get a clean Windows Servicing state, due to some kind of issue with the component store, a Refresh may not be the best approach. If the new corruption repair capabilities in Windows 8 have not resolved the issue, you may need to perform an in-place upgrade of Windows, just as was done with Windows 7. Reset would also be an option, but only if it is acceptable for the hard drive to be formatted.

Note: This only applies to Refresh. Reset does not retain the update state.

File History

File History is a new Windows 8 feature that offers a novel way to help protect personal files. File History replaces the Windows Backup and Restore and Previous Versions features on Windows 7.

File History is designed to help protect your data by periodically scanning the file system for changes to files in your Libraries and several other important folders under the user profile, such as Desktop, Favorites, and Contacts. This scan is done every hour, by default.

Every time one of your files changes, File History stores a copy of the file on a dedicated storage device that you selected when you set up File History. Over time this storage device will contain a history of changes made to your files.

Accessing Your File History

Any time you want to locate a file or folder from a specific point in time, open File History. The interface is designed to help you quickly find what you're looking for and restore it with one click (or tap). The innovative restore app offers an engaging experience optimized for browsing, searching, previewing, and restoring files. Finding and restoring a version of a file created in the past is as easy as one click.

Figure 22: File History restore

Configuration

File History is not enabled by default. You can enable File History from Control Panel.

Figure 23: File History

When File History is turned on, the last copied date and time is displayed in the interface, as shown below.

Figure 24: File History

You can also enable File History through Windows Explorer. To do this, open Windows Explorer and click the History button on the Home tab of the ribbon. From the window that opens, click the Turn on File History link, which opens the File History Control Panel.

Figure 25: File History in Windows Explorer

Locations in the File History

File History saves changes to files in the following locations:

• Libraries
• Desktop
• Favorites
• Contacts
• SkyDrive folder: If you have the SkyDrive sync app installed, your local SkyDrive folder will be included in File History.

You can change the folders in scope for File History in two ways:

• Add: To add a folder, add it to a Library.
• Exclude: To exclude a folder, use the Exclude folders option on the left side of the File History interface.

Select the File History Target Drive

You can configure File History to make copies of your data onto either a hard disk or a network share. These options ensure that your data always exists on two physical drives. If one of those drives fails, you will still be able to recover the data from the other drive.

The steps to select a different drive are listed below:

1. Open File History in Control Panel.
2. Click Change drive in the Task Pane on the left.
3. All eligible local drives are shown in a list. The physical disk that Windows is installed on will not be eligible. This is true even if the disk is divided into multiple partitions.

Figure 26: File History Change Drive

1. Select your desired target drive and click OK.
2. You will see a dialog asking "Do you want to move your existing files, too?"

Figure 27: Move Existing Files?

• Clicking Yes moves the existing copies created by File History to the new location you selected.
• Clicking No does not move your previous File History to the new location, but those previous copies will remain available as long as the drive they are on remains attached.

Configuration with a Network Share

To configure a network share to be used for file copies, you can do the following:

1. Open the File History Control Panel.
2. Click the Change drive link in the Task Pane on the left.
3. Click the Add network location button.

Figure 28: File History Add Network Location

1. Browse to the network share where you wish to save your File History copies.
   1. Alternately you can type the UNC path directly in the Folder text field to bypass the browsing mechanism.
   2. If you are unable to access the UNC path directly, try appending .local to the server name. For example, instead of \\server try \\server.local.
   3. Click Select Folder.
2. You will see a dialog asking "Do you want to move your existing files, too?"

Figure 29: Move Existing Files?

• Clicking Yes moves the existing copies created by File History to the new location you selected.
• Clicking No does not move your previous File History to the new location, but those previous copies will remain available as long as the drive they are on remains attached.

Figure 30: File History Network Location

If you don't have an externally attached hard drive, you will not be able to turn on File History by default. You can get around this by first configuring File History to use a network share using the Change drive option described above. After you do this, you will then be able to turn on File History. However, this is a two-step process. First, you must change to using a network share, and then you can turn on File History.

Recovering Files with File History

You can access the interface for recovering files with File History using a few different methods. In Windows Explorer you can select the History button on the Home tab of the ribbon.

When opening the File History window using Windows Explorer, it will show the history for the folder that is currently selected in Windows Explorer.

Another method starts in the File History Control Panel. The Restore personal files link at the bottom of the task pane opens the File History window.

Both of these steps open the File History window where you can view previous version of files that have been saved.

Figure 31: File History

Within this folder, you can perform the following actions:

• Click the Home button on the top-left view all of the folders and libraries that are being protected by File History.
• Use the right and left arrows at the bottom to navigate between days and times.
• Click to select the files and folders you would like to restore. Use CTRL-Click to select multiple items, and use Shift-Click to select a range of items.
• After selecting all the files you would like to restore, click the blue button with the circular arrow at the bottom-center of the window to restore the files back to their original location.
• You can also restore files to a location other than their original location by doing the following:
  • Click the Settings icon on the top left of the window (it looks like a gear).
  • Select File > Restore > Restore To.
  • Browse to the folder you want to restore the files and folders to.
  • Click Select Folder.

File History Details

This topic examines the storage, cache and other details related to File History.

Storage

You can save the File History to any drive that satisfies these requirements:

• File History can be on a Local internal drive, Local external drive or network share.
• You cannot put the File History on the same physical disk as the Windows drive.

When File History runs, it uses the NTFS USN journal to pick up changes in important folders. It then replicates these files automatically to the target location.

After enabling File History on either a local disk or network share, the following folder structure is created at the root of that drive or share.

\FileHistory\<User Name>

The user name is in the same format as the name of the user profile folder. A separate user name folder will be created for each user that enables File History and points to the same location. A user name folder will also be created for Public since the default configuration for libraries includes not only the data folders in the user profile, but also the data folder in the Public user profile. Backing up a library requires that the data in all folder locations that make up the library are saved.

\FileHistory\<User Name>\<Computer Name>

The computer name folder allows users on multiple PCs to use the same storage location for File History without conflicting with each other. This is especially important when the same user name is used on multiple PCs.

\FileHistory\<User Name>\<Computer Name>\Configuration

This configuration folder includes a database with the state of all of the files and folders being protected by File History and two XML files with the File History configuration for the given user. Each XML file contains the exact same data.

\FileHistory\<User Name>\<Computer Name>\Data

The Data folder is a peer with Configuration. This is where user data is stored.

\FileHistory\<User Name>\<Computer Name>\Data\<Full path to user data>

The full path to the user's data is stored starting with a folder named with the drive letter. For example, the path to the documents folder in the Bob user profile would be \c\Users\Bob\Documents\.

\FileHistory\<User Name>\<Computer Name>\Data\<Full path to user data>\<File name> (<Date>).<extension>

The individual files that are stores have the same file name but have the date in UTC format appended to the portion of the name before the extension. For example, you might see a file with the following format: Photo3694 (2011_09_04 19_32_35 UTC).png. This allows all versions of the particular file to be stored in the same folder without name collisions.

Figure 32: File History Example

Note: Unlike Windows 7 backup, File History does not store files in ZIP or VHD files; instead, it stores the files directly in the folder without any special permissions restricting access to the folder. This will make recovery efforts in the event of a problem with File History much simpler.

Offline Cache

If the external drive or network share that you are using for File History is not available when it is trying to save your data, the data will be copied to an Offline cache in the interim until that storage location becomes available again.

That staging area is located at %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory.

Figure 33: File History offline cache

Settings

By default, File History will keep saved versions of your files forever, it will check for and save changes every hour, and it will use up to 5% of the available disk space for the offline cache in %LocalAppData%. All of these items are configurable in the Advanced settings in the task pane of the File History Control Panel.

Figure 34: File History

The options are as follows:

• Save copies of files: This configures the delay between scans for changes.
• Size of offline cache: File History supports network and external locations. This offline cache is used to collect changes when the File History location is unavailable. When a connection to the File History location is restored, the cached changes are sent to the drive.
• Keep saved versions: This setting can be used to limit the maximum age of saved file versions.
• Open File History event logs: This opens the Event Log interface with the File History log selected.
• Recommend this drive: This option is for a HomeGroup configuration. If you click this checkbox, other PCs joined to your HomeGroup will see "<Drive> on <Computer name>" as an available choice in the Change drive interface.
  • Users on another PC in the HomeGroup will see something similar to the screenshot below if there is a drive that is recommended on the homegroup. The FileHistory share is recommended by HomeGroup in this case.

Figure 35: Drive recommended on the HomeGroup for File History

Windows 7 File Recovery

While File History is now the recommended file backup solution for Windows 8, the legacy Windows 7 Backup and Restore functionality is also included in Windows 8. The functionality has not changed, and you can still setup automatic "file and folder" and "system image" backups using the tool. File History is the backup solution that we should be recommending to customers, however.

The continued inclusion of the legacy Windows 7 Backup and Restore has been positioned as a solution that customers can use to restore their Windows 7 backups after moving to Windows 8, which is why it is located in the Control Panel under Windows 7 File Recovery.

Figure 36: Windows 7 File Recovery

Functionality and troubleshooting for this feature has not changed from Windows 7. The existing Backup training in the Windows New Hire course continues to apply.

Boot Menu and WinRE

The Startup menu and Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) interfaces have been dramatically updated in Windows 8. The interfaces are graphical and support touch and mouse input. Many of the options are still the same; however, they are just presented to the user using this new touch-friendly interface.

An example of this new interface on a dual-boot configuration is shown below.

Figure 37: Windows 8 Startup Menu

The WinRE options menu uses the same style, as shown below.

Figure 38: WinRE options menu

Troubleshooting Options

Troubleshooting tools are available from both of the menus above:

• On the Startup menu, click Change defaults or choose other options, and then click Troubleshoot.
• On the WinRE Options menu, click Troubleshoot.

Figure 39: Troubleshoot Menu

The following options are available on this menu:

• Refresh your PC
• Reset your PC
• Advanced options

This last choice brings you to a menu showing a selection of tools similar to what you find in the Windows 7 WinRE interface.

Figure 40: Troubleshooting Advanced Options

The tools available here include:

• System Restore
• System Image Recovery
• Automatic Repair (launches Startup Repair)
• Command Prompt

For more information on the startup menu, see the Startup module in this course.

Other Troubleshooting Changes

Windows 8 introduces a few other troubleshooting tool changes not listed above:

• MSConfig
• Last Known Good Configuration Removal
• STOP Errors
• Windows PowerShell

MSConfig

The Startup tab in MSConfig has been replaced in functionality by the new Task Manager. The features in Task Manager include performance impact assessment, and the ability to disable startup items, just as you could in MSConfig. MSConfig provides a link to open Task Manager to help direct you to the best tool for startup troubleshooting.

Figure 41: MSConfig Startup

Warning: Due to this change, if you use MSConfig in the Selective or Diagnostic startup configurations, Startup items will not be disabled.

Last Known Good Configuration Removal

The Last Known Good Configuration mechanism has been disabled in Windows 8. This was used in earlier versions of Windows to provide a quick return to the state of the System registry hive and limited OS files from the last successful startup.

As Windows has become more complex and implemented other recovery features, Last Known Good has become less useful, while still incurring some overhead during startup.

In Windows 8, you will see this reflected in the structure of the System registry hive under HKLM\System. There is only one ControlSet – ControlSet001. CurrentControlSet remains an alias for backward compatibility.

STOP Errors

As part of the change in style for lower level interfaces, Windows 8 has replaced the STOP error screens with a simpler error message. An example is shown below.

Figure 42: Error

Notice that the text version of the STOP code is displayed in the message (DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in this case), but the numeric value STOP code is not displayed. This text string is the same as have been shown with the error code on previous Windows versions. This makes the text string a useful search term when troubleshooting.

To collect more details on the error, use one of the following methods:

• Open the Error Reporting interface and sort the list of error reports to find the one you are looking for.
• View the Reliability History in Action Center to see a history of error events on the PC.
• Use the Windows Error Reporting events in the System log to source details on an error.

Windows PowerShell

The Windows PowerShell™ environment is increasingly important for Windows management and support. Windows 8 is the first version of Windows where some consumer troubleshooting actions are only possible using Windows PowerShell.

So it's time to start (or continue!) working with Windows PowerShell, and getting familiar with the syntax and usage.

• There is guidance on performing a variety of general tasks with Windows PowerShell on TechNet here:
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd772285.aspx
• There is also a great video series here:
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419.aspx
• And the Windows PowerShell User Guide is here:
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc196356.aspx

Command Line and Scripting

One thing you will notice very quickly when searching for information on Windows PowerShell is that much of the guidance is focused on scripting – using Windows PowerShell as a scripting environment rather than just a command-line interface.

If you have little scripting experience, don't let this worry you. This is similar to how our regular old command prompt can become a script environment when you start creating batch files.

Windows PowerShell is really intended to provide a broad and flexible interface to many Windows subsystems which can be leveraged at the command line or through scripts (or even compiled programs).

How far should you go?

Our focus is on getting comfortable with the syntax so that we can use the Windows PowerShell commands (which are called "cmdlets") in Windows 8 for troubleshooting.

Consistent Syntax

One of the big benefits of Windows PowerShell is that it uses much more consistent syntax than the 20-50 Windows command-line tools you have used.

The power of Windows PowerShell comes from this consistency, and the fact that it returns objects, not just text. This means you can pass output from one cmdlet as input into another.

Examples:

Get-service

Get-service -name wuauserv

Get-childitem -path hklm:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

Get-childitem -path c:\Windows\Logs\CBS

Get-bitstransfer

Get-process -name explorer

Get-process -name explorer -module

If we wanted to collect this kind of information in CMD, we would be using many different sets of syntax rules. You can also start programs and use very CMD-like syntax within Windows PowerShell. So, if you need to open a log file in Notepad, you don't need to step out to a different shell to do it.

When you add the ability to format output, filter, and chain cmdlets together, there is a great deal of flexibility in Windows PowerShell.

Cmdlets in Windows 8

Our ambition in this training must be a great deal more modest, however. The most important thing for us to learn is the existence and usage of several cmdlets that are new in Windows 8 and impact troubleshooting.

TechNet provides a list of cmdlets added or expanded in Windows 8 here:

Windows PowerShell Support for Windows 8 Release Preview
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh994630

Our focus will be on a subset of these – cmdlets for App installation and management and for Windows Servicing.

First Things First: Get-Help

Before we jump into these unfamiliar cmdlets, you should make yourself very familiar with the get-help cmdlet. This is the /? of Windows PowerShell. Need to know how to run that get-process cmdlet above? Just run this:

Get-help get-process

Didn't remember that get-process was called get-process? Search for a keyword:

Get-help process

After you think you've found the right cmdlet, get-help with give you example commands that use the cmdlet:

Get-help get-process -examples

App Cmdlets

See the TechNet detail here:

App Installation Cmdlets in Windows PowerShell
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh856045

This set of cmdlets enables you to interact with the state of the Windows Store apps on the PC. The cmdlets you are most likely to use in this group are listed in the table below.

Table 6: App cmdlets

These cmdlets will give you insight into the apps that have been installed from the Windows Store, errors encountered, the ability to get a log file (try this: get-appxlog > %userprofile%\desktop\appxlog.txt), and the ability to remove a problem app that can't be run or reinstalled using Windows Store.

DISM Cmdlets

See the TechNet detail here:

DISM Cmdlets in Windows PowerShell
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh852126.aspx

The cmdlets in this group largely parallel functionality in DISM.exe. There is a subset that you may find useful, but there is no difference in capability between the cmdlets below and their parallel functionality in DISM.exe.

Table 7: DISM cmdlets

Using these DISM cmdlets, you can enable and disable Windows features – and remove them from the hard drive as well, using an option with the disable-windowsoptionalfeature cmdlet.

You can also get information on the Windows edition, and do a command line equivalent of the Add features to Windows procedure.

Also in this group is the Repair-WindowsImage cmdlet, which exposes the functionality offered by DISM /online /cleanup-image.

Demo: Windows PowerShell

Demonstrate the usage of Windows PowerShell to collect information on the following:

• The state of installed apps.
• The state of Windows features.
• Viewing the contents of the C:\Windows\Logs folder.
• Viewing the contents of the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion registry key.

For More Information 

Refresh and reset your PC

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/01/04/refresh-and-reset-your-pc.aspx

 Create a USB recovery drive

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/create-usb-recovery-drive

 How to restore, refresh, or reset your PC

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

 ONiehus, Microsoft

Overview

This blog explores some of the changes in Windows® 8 related to PC maintenance, installing updates, and other related activities.

Maintenance Tasks

Windows 8 improves the state of performance improvement and maintenance activities with a variety of changes across the product. Some of these changes include the following:

• Improvements in the behavior of background services to reduce overhead and power consumption. One example is Windows Update, which no longer runs all the time.
• Scheduled Defrag updated to support Storage Spaces.
• Trim support across storage types.
  • See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848053%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
• Startup app performance impact assessment in Task Manager.
  • See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848065%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
• Automatic Maintenance – a feature that provides one place for scheduling maintenance activities for Windows and apps.

This last change is discussed in more detail on the next page.

Automatic Maintenance

One of the most important maintenance-related improvements in Windows 8 is Automatic Maintenance. This is a new system maintenance service that can be used by Windows components and apps to schedule maintenance activities on the PC in one scheduled window per day.

Automatic Maintenance is shown in Action Center in the Maintenance section.

Figure 1: Automatic Maintenance in Action Center

You have two main actions available from this interface:

• Start maintenance: This provides you with the option of running all maintenance tasks on-demand.
• Change maintenance settings: This is useful if you want to change the maintenance window.

The Maintenance Settings interface is shown below.

Figure 2: Automatic Maintenance Settings

As indicated in the settings text above, Automatic Maintenance checks to see if the PC is in use, so that maintenance tasks don't impact your activities in Windows. This is a big part of the benefit of this feature – we can have one robust mechanism for determining when to perform maintenance tasks, rather than many separate mechanisms that may make decisions differently.

For more detail on what Automatic Maintenance provides, see the following page on MSDN:

Automatic Maintenance
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848037%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Windows Servicing

Windows Servicing is the infrastructure in Windows that manages system files, settings, features, and editions. There are two significant new features for Windows Servicing in Windows 8:

• Features on Demand
• Corruption Repair

These two features rely on a new Windows Servicing capability – Trusted Installer can now retrieve Windows system components from Windows Update directly. The next few pages introduce these new features.

Features on Demand

Windows 8 lets you install features using Windows Update as the install source.

Background

Windows Servicing maintains a full set of operating system components in the component store (in the \Windows\Winsxs directory). Even when you are not using a feature, it is still in this directory so that you do not need Windows media to install it. When you do install a feature, a virtual copy is created for use, so you only ever have one copy of a particular component. This helps make feature additions and update install/uninstall quick and reliable.

It also has a few limitations in previous Windows versions. Two big ones are:

• You can't remove stuff you don't need or want. So you are keeping components around that you may never use.
• If a component gets damaged, there's no method in Windows to get a good version to replace it. A reinstall will do it, and CheckSUR can do it in many cases. But not all.

Features on demand targets the first of these limitations.

Turn Windows Features On or Off

When you turn Windows features on or off, you're telling Windows Servicing to do some work in the component store folder. On Windows 8 we're breaking out of this folder. Now that Windows 8 can source component files from Windows Update, features can be downloaded based on your action in the Turn Windows features on or off interface.

And that means features can be completely removed from your hard drive as well.

You can see the state of features in your Windows 8 installation using the DISM command in an Administrator command prompt:

dism /online /get-features

You will find that most features are listed with a Disabled or Enabled state.

Example: .NET Framework 3.5

Many Windows 8 users won't ever run an app that requires Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.5. Windows 8 includes it as an optional feature. You can enable it if you need it.

If you find its entry in that DISM output, you will see that it is not even on your PC:

Feature Name : NetFx3

State : Disabled with Payload Removed

This is the state that represents a feature absent from the component store. Windows does have the feature definition information – the package identification. That's the kind of detail that is in \Windows\Servicing\Packages.

You can get detailed information about just one feature with this command:

dism /online /get-featureinfo /featurename:<feature>

So, in our example, the command would be:

dism /online /get-featureinfo /featurename:NetFx3

Installing a Feature

Do you want to install a feature that is absent from the PC? Just check the box in the Turn Windows features on or off interface. When you enable the feature, it will communicate with Windows Update, much like what happens during an update download.

Note: If you are on a Metered network connection, you will not be able to finish the installation. Features on Demand does not download over a metered network connection to avoid incurring charges.

When the download and installation is complete, you will find that the feature changed to an Enabled state, and it is in the component store where you would expect it.

You can do this at the command line using this syntax:

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:<feature>

Removing a Feature

Removing a feature using that Control Panel interface only sets it to a Disabled state. There is not an option to remove a feature completely.

If you want to remove a component from your Windows 8 hard disk, you will need the DISM command again:

dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:<feature> /remove

The "/remove" switch is what tells Windows Servicing to remove the feature files from the drive.

Corruption Repair

That other limitation mentioned for Windows Servicing is what generates support issues related to Windows 7 and Windows Vista® component store corruption. The symptom is that some or all updates can't be installed, features cannot be added, or you cannot upgrade to a later version of Windows.

This corruption can happen due to progressive hard disk failures that may not expose other symptoms. The primary method used to repair this type of corruption is chkdsk.exe to scan the disk, and the CheckSUR update to find and repair damaged component files. This required a significant amount of time, to both download and run CheckSUR.

Windows 8 adds a significant new feature to address this support concern – automatic corruption repair.

Corruption Repair Details

When a servicing action – such as an update installation, update uninstall or feature addition – fails in Windows 8, an automatic corruption repair mechanism is initiated. This mechanism performs a scan for damaged components, and then retrieves replacement files from Windows Update to complete the repair.

Log events for this repair activity is saved.

Important: When corruption repair fixes a damaged file, there may still be damaged to Windows files that are in use. The sfc /scannow command is still relevant, and should be used if symptoms persist after corruption repair has completed.

Note: Corruption repair is disabled while connected to a metered network.

Manual Repair

There is typically no user intervention required to repair such corruption events. When a failure is encountered, the automatic repair mechanism performs the repair.

If you wish to manually scan a system for corruption, you can do so using options added to the DISM.exe utility. This can be useful if a machine is showing signs of a corruption-related failure, but does not seem to be repaired automatically. Using the DISM.exe commands, you can obtain an error code encountered during the repair, to diagnose the cause of the repair failure.

The command help for the new DISM options can be obtained using the command dism /online /cleanup-image /?. This help output is shown below.

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 6.2.8175.0

Image Version: 6.2.8175.0

/Cleanup-Image /RevertPendingActions

WARNING! You should use the /RevertPendingActions option only in a

system-recovery scenario to perform recovery operations on a Windows image that

did not boot.

Example:

DISM.exe /Image:C:\test\offline /Cleanup-Image /RevertPendingActions

/Cleanup-Image /spsuperseded [/hidesp]

Use /SPSuperseded to remove any backup files created during the installation of

a service pack. Use /HideSP to prevent the service pack from being listed in the

Installed Updates for the operating system.

WARNING! The service pack cannot be uninstalled after the /SPSuperseded

operation is completed.

Example:

DISM.exe /Image:C:\test\offline /Cleanup-Image /spsuperseded /hidesp

/Cleanup-Image {/CheckHealth | /ScanHealth | /RestoreHealth}

Use /CheckHealth to check whether the image has been flagged as corrupted by a

failed process and whether the corruption can be repaired.

Use /ScanHealth to scan the image for component store corruption.

Use /RestoreHealth to scan the image for component store corruption, and then

perform repair operations automatically.

Use /Source with /RestoreHealth to specify the location of known good versions

of files that can be used for the repair, such as a path to the root directory

of a mounted image.

Use /LimitAccess to prevent DISM from contacting WU/WSUS.

Example:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

DISM.exe /Image:c:\offline /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

/Source:c:\test\mount /LimitAccess

Note the presence of "/revertpendingactions" in the above help text. This was previously the only option under "/cleanup-image". It was made available to help recover from update installation failures on Windows 7. It still functions the same on Windows 8 – use it only from WinRE, and only if other troubleshooting fails.

Key corruption repair tasks include the following:

• Quick status check: If you want to check the status quickly, to see if the component store is in a problem state, run the command:

dism /online /cleanup-image /checkhealth

• Scan for problems: If you need to scan for not-yet-found corruption issues, use the command:

dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth

• Manual repair: You can perform the same actions as the automated repair feature, enabling you to trigger this repair on-demand using the command:

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth.

• Local repair source: If you need to repair a PC, which does not have access to the Internet, you can specify a local source for repair files. If you are repairing original installation files that are damaged, you can point to installation media. If you are repairing damaged files installed as part of an update, you can download those update files and point to the download location.

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth /source:c:\users\username\downloads

Important: When corruption repair fixes a damaged file, there may still be damage to Windows files that are in use. The sfc /scannow command is still relevant, and should be used if symptoms persist after corruption repair has completed.

Status for the execution of these commands, and the result of each is shown in the CMD window, making it easier to interpret the result compared with CheckSUR on Windows 7. A failure example is shown below:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 6.2.8175.0

Image Version: 6.2.8175.0

[==========================100.0%==========================]

The restore operation failed. Either the repair source was not found or the component store cannot be repaired.

Error: 0x800f081f

DISM failed. No operation was performed.

For more information, review the log file.

Note: This is a pre-release example, which was failing because the files were not available on Windows Update. This is not expected to be a real-world failure case. The example shows the error code, which can be used for troubleshooting. In this case, it indicates that files are missing – expected as they were not yet on Windows Update.

DISM Log

If you do need to examine the scan or repair activity in more detail, use the file C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\DISM.log. This is where DISM.exe logs events. Here is an example log entry showing the same failed repair attempt as above:

=================================

Checking System Update Readiness.

(p)    CBS Catalog Corrupt            Windows-Defender-AM-Default-Definitions-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.2.8175.0

(p)    CSI Payload Corrupt            x86_microsoft-windows-mediaplayer-shortcut_31bf3856ad364e35_6.2.8175.0_none_36610e67da6302e7\Windows Media Player.lnk

Repair failed: Missing replacement payload.

Summary:

Operation: Detect and Repair

Operation result: 0x0

Last Successful Step: Entire operation completes.

Total Detected Corruption:    2

    CBS Manifest Corruption:    1

    CBS Metadata Corruption:    0

    CSI Manifest Corruption:    0

    CSI Metadata Corruption:    0

    CSI Payload Corruption:    1

Total Repaired Corruption:    0

    CBS Manifest Repaired:    0

    CSI Manifest Repaired:    0

    CSI Payload Repaired:    0

    CSI Store Metadata refreshed:    True

Total Operation Time: 395 seconds.

The same summary details, though not the error codes, are also logged in the CBS.log as well, making it easier to see when this command was run.

Windows Update

Windows Update has been changed for Windows 8 with a few improvements:

• Windows Update interface in PC Settings to provide access to basic update actions.
• Change in Restart behavior and notifications.
• Metered network connection awareness.
• Firmware Update Support.

Using Windows Update

As with previous Windows versions, the default configuration for Windows Update in Windows 8 is to download and install updates automatically. This is set when users follow the short path through Windows Welcome at the end of Windows 8 setup, or if users go through the detailed steps and choose the recommended configuration.

In this configuration, the Windows Update interface will typically show You're set to automatically install updates as in the example below.

Figure 3: Windows Update in PC Settings

The Check for updates button starts a check against the Windows Update servers to see if new updates are available.

If a new update is available, but it has not yet been installed automatically, Windows Update displays the status as shown below. Clicking the link text shows more information.

Figure 4: Windows Update in PC Settings – Updates Available

The additional information is shown below. This includes a list of updates, the update size, and a button to start installation immediately.

Figure 5: Windows Update in PC Settings – Important Updates

In the event that an update requires user interaction, a notification is shown, as in the example below. Updates with user interface interaction generally require installation through the full Windows Update interface on the desktop. An exception to this is an update with a EULA, which can be completed without leaving the new Windows UI.

Figure 6: Windows Update in PC Settings – Need Help to Finish Installing Updates

The Windows update interface in Control Panel remains largely the same as with previous Windows versions. This is where the user can configure Windows Update settings, view a list of installed updates, hide available updates, and so on.

Figure 7: Windows Update Control Panel

In addition to the above, Installed Updates in Control Panel is where the user must go to uninstall updates. This matches the behavior of previous Windows releases.

One change in Control Panel is in the Change settings page. This has been updated to reflect the Automatic Maintenance behavior. Windows Update now uses that maintenance window to schedule updates.

Figure 8: Windows Update Settings

New Restart Behavior

Another improvement in Windows Update relates to the way that restarts are handled when updates are installed. Windows 8 includes changes to incur fewer update-related restarts.

Windows 8 also introduces restarts differently to make them less intrusive, while also balancing the need to have important updates installed in a timely manner. When security updates requiring a restart are installed, but the restart is not completed, Windows is still at risk, and may be a risk to other PCs. So the change in Windows 8 gives you more time to decide when to do a restart. At the end of that time, a restart is done automatically.

When you need to restart to complete an update installation task, notification is provided through the login interface from the lock screen. An example is shown below.

Figure 9: Restart Required

The message starts with 3 days remaining before a restart. When you click the Power button here or in the Settings charm, the options will be to Shut down or Update and restart. Both will have the effect of satisfying the need for a restart.

Figure 10: Restart Required – Power Options

While in this state, you can also see in the Windows Update interfaces that a restart is required.

Note: When the only user account has no password set, you would not see the login screen message above. In this configuration, you will see a system notification indicating the need to restart.

The only other restart notification you can expect to see is at the end of the 3-day window, when a 15-minute countdown is shown. To prevent data loss, if any of the following risky scenarios are detected, the restart notification is not shown:

• Open Desktop app with the PC locked.
• Background-registered Windows Store app running with the PC locked.
• Running with a game or movie full-screen.
• Running in Presentation Mode.

When any of the above conditions exist, the restart countdown is not started. As soon as none of the above conditions is true, you will see a restart notice with 15 minutes remaining. This is shown below.

Figure 11: PC will restart in 15 minutes

You can close this notification to close programs and save data. Another notification is displayed at 5 minutes remaining. When these minutes elapse, the PC is restarted.

Updating on Metered Networks

Windows Update uses the metered network feature in Windows 8. Being on a metered connection results in the following changes from typical Windows Update behavior:

• No Download on Metered Networks
  • Automatic download of updates is disabled on metered connections. There is an exception for a super-critical update, such as an update to fix a zero day exploit.
  • Downloads in progress are paused when the PC connects to a restricted network.
• Resume when on Unrestricted Network
  • When the PC connects to an unrestricted network, downloads are automatically started or resumed.
• Notification after 7 days
  • If an update has failed to download for more than 7 days due to constant metered network connectivity, the user will be notified on the login screen.
  • As with the restart notification, if you would never see the login screen a system notification is used.

The Windows Update interface in PC Settings shows the current state as metered to explain why updates will not be downloaded. An example of this message is shown below.

Figure 12: Windows Update on a Metered Connection

Windows Update in Control Panel gives you the option to override the default behavior.

Figure 13: Windows Update on a Metered Connection

If you view the list of updates, there is a warning next to the Install button, but it does not prevent you from downloading updates.

Figure 14: Windows Update on a Metered Connection

Download Details

If you want to examine the details of the download tasks that are waiting for installation, you can use bitsadmin.exe or the Windows PowerShell™ get-bitstransfer cmdlet.

To use bitsadmin for this, run the command:

bitsadmin /list /allusers

To see specific information on a particular job, copy the GUID for the job from the previous command, and then run this command:

bitsadmin /info <GUID> /verbose

Firmware Update Support

Windows Update in Windows 8 now supports the distribution of firmware updates. This is focused on Windows RT configurations, where Windows Update is the only method for updating system software.

This capability enables manufacturers to distribute firmware only to specific PC configurations, rather than the more generic hardware targeting used for a typical driver installation. This is a new level of precision for targeting Windows updates.

When a firmware update is available for your PC, you will see a login screen notification, as well as a system notification like the example below.

Figure 15: Windows Update firmware update

The Windows Update page in PC Settings is where you can go to install the update. It indicates that a restart is required.

Figure 16: Firmware update available

The installation proceeds, as indicated by an on-screen message.

Figure 17: Installing firmware update

When the update installation reaches the restart, another system notification is shown. The restart at the end of the countdown is automatic.

Figure 18: Firmware update restart

During the restart, you will see a manufacturer-specific screen showing the final stages of the update being initialized. After this is complete, Windows is started and the installation is complete.

Troubleshooting Windows Update

Support for Windows Update changes in Windows 8 primarily due to the user interface changes, new corruption recovery feature and the change in restart behavior.

Core troubleshooting is unchanged:

• Windows Update service names remain the same as on Windows 7.
• WindowsUpdate.log and CBS.log locations and formats remain the same as on Windows 7.
• Download is the same as on Windows 7.

Areas that you may need to approach differently are outlined below.

Understanding the Issue

Use the Windows Update Control Panel interface when assisting customers. You can access it easily using search from the Start screen or other methods, and it will provide much more information on the state of Windows Update on the PC.

Figure 19: Windows Update error

As with previous Windows versions, you can use the Get help with this error link to get more information on the failure.

Using the Windows Update interface in PC Settings for troubleshooting is not recommended due to the relative lack of information provided. It is designed to simplify and reduce noise, which is contrary to your needs.

Windows Corruption Repair

If Windows Update encounters an error related to corrupted system files, you no longer need an external tool to make a repair. CheckSUR is not needed, and there is no CheckSUR log.

Instead, you can use the built-in DISM.exe command in an Administrator command prompt to check the health of the Windows component store:

dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

If there has been an update installation failure caused by corruption, DISM should report problem that corruption. Repairs should generally happen automatically, but you can also trigger repair manually using this command:

dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

The results are reported in the CMD window, so it should be easier to determine whether further action is required. If you need to capture the results to a file, use the redirect operator to send the output to a file.

What's Next?

What if there is still a problem? The Refresh option in Windows 8 should provide a good method of returning the PC to a working state without the need to reactivate. See the Recovery and Troubleshooting section of the training for more information on Refresh.

Restarts and Automatic Update Installation

One of the support scenarios we expect to encounter with Windows Update in Windows 8 is related to this restart behavior. When assisting customers in this area, it can help to gauge their needs and concerns to help advise on what might be the best configuration for them.

• For most customers:
  • Configuring Windows to update automatically gives the best experience. This is also the healthiest configuration for the Windows ecosystem in general, as fewer Windows PCs in need of updates means a reduced potential for malware and other attacks to spread.
• For some customers:
  • Configuring Windows to update automatically may be inconvenient given this new restart behavior, but with education, the new behavior might be acceptable.
• For a small number customers:
  • Configuring Windows so that it does not install updates automatically may be the most satisfactory solution. Our customers who are more directly involved and interested in maintaining their PC, timely updates will still happen. So we should help get Windows working the way that works best for them.

The main potential pitfall in this support scenario would be to recommend the last solution for someone who is unlikely to do the work to manage updating Windows. This could leave them vulnerable to future malware or other security issues.

For More Information

Performance & maintenance

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/performance-maintenance-help#performance-maintenance-help=windows-8&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1

Automatic Maintenance

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848037(v=vs.85).aspx

Redesigning chkdsk and the new NTFS health model

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/09/redesigning-chkdsk-and-the-new-ntfs-health-model.aspx

ONiehus, Microsoft

My Top-7: Internet Explorer 10

Overview

This new version of the Microsoft® Windows® operating system also includes a new version of Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer®, which is called Internet Explorer 10. Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 comes in two different versions:

• A touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer
• A desktop version of Internet Explorer

Touch-optimized Version of Internet Explorer

The touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer runs inside of the new Windows UI. Compared to the desktop browser, the browser in the new Windows UI has a much simpler interface that is focused on just the core browsing scenarios. Many of the features that exist in desktop Internet Explorer are not implemented in the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer, including things like support for add-ons like toolbars and browser extensions.

Figure 1: Touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer

Because the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer is a Windows Store app, it runs in full screen at all times (unless snapped). The default view shows the web page on the entire display. Swiping from the top or bottom edge of the screen or right-clicking will reveal the navigation controls for Internet Explorer at the bottom and thumbnails for all of the web pages that are currently loaded in the tab bar at the top.

Tabs are supported in the touch-optimized version of the browser, but the implementation is not the same as the desktop browser. If you wish to open a new tab in the new browser, swipe from the top or bottom or right-click, and then click the plus sign at the right end of the tab bar.

Figure 2: Plus sign at right end of bar

This will open a flyout at the bottom of the screen with a list of your frequently accessed sites, pinned sites, and favorites. You can type an address or search term in the bar at the bottom or select any of the tiles on the screen to navigate to a web page.

Figure 3: Flyout with frequently accessed sites, pinned sites, and favorites

Below the new tab button on the tab bar is a button with a circle and three dots. Clicking this button will reveal a menu below with additional options you can use for working with tabs.

Figure 4: New tab button

• New InPrivate tab. This option will open a new tab in InPrivate Browsing Mode.
• Close tabs. This option will close all tabs except the one that is currently open.

As we can see with the diagram below, Internet Explorer 10 has distilled the number of commands that are exposed to the user down to just those that are core to the browsing experience.

Figure 5: Internet Explorer Address Bar options

Pinning Sites

Pinning a website creates a secondary tile on the Start Screen that is linked directly to that site. With site pinning, you can personalize your Windows Start screen with the sites you use all the time. You can pin any website to the Start screen from Internet Explorer 10, so you have one place to access all the things you care about or need.

The tiles for pinned sites reflect the site's color and icon. Web sites can provide higher resolution PNG file site icon and specify the tile background color. With Internet Explorer 10, sites can provide background notifications for new messages and other account activity on the website.

Figure 6: Internet Explorer tile and three secondary tiles for pinned sites

It also places a link to the site in the list of Pinned sites shown in the flyout that appears when you select the address bar.

Figure 7: Pinned sites in navigation bar flyout

The site can also program additional commands that appear in Internet Explorer navigation bar in a touch-friendly way, the same way that sites can program jumplists for Internet Explorer on the desktop.

Figure 8: Additional commands populated in the navigation bar by the site

For more information about pinning sites in Windows 8, please see the following article.

Pinned Sites in Windows 8
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2012/04/03/pinned-sites-in-windows-8.aspx 

Integration with the Windows Store

Integration with the Store makes it easy to discover and launch Windows Store apps for the sites you visit in Internet Explorer. When you open a site that has an app in the Windows Store, the Tools icon is updated with a plus sign to tell you when there is something "special" about the page. You can tap on it to go to the store to install an app. Once an app is installed, you can launch it directly from the site. For example, here is WordPress.com in Internet Explorer 10.

Figure 9: Site displays notification that app is available

Internet Explorer 10 knows that an app is available for a specific site because the site has added marked to their HTML to indicate this. In the WordPress example, you can see the following code has been added to their site.

<meta name="msApplication-PackageFamilyName" content="AutomatticInc.WordPress.com_9ejavqh8rasr8"/>

<meta name="msApplication-ID" content="App"/>

Snap

Snap makes it easy to use Windows 8 for more than one thing at a time. You can browse in Internet Explorer 10 and have side-by-side access to your mail, music, or any other application. The browser adapts to the narrow "snap" size and automatically undocks when necessary for user interaction. All of the core browsing capabilities are available when snapped – panning, pinch and double-tap zooming, and following links. Web sites will also have the ability to provide an optimized experience when it detects that it is being displayed in the Snapped view.

Figure 10: Multitasking with Windows 8 "snap" lets you put your site side-by-side with other applications like the Messaging app.

Internet Explorer 10 and Charms

Charms provide a consistent way to perform common actions like searching and sharing in Windows 8. Internet Explorer 10 supports the Search, Share, Devices, and Settings charms.

Figure 11: The charms appear when you swipe in from the right edge, press Windows key+C, or move your mouse to the bottom or top-right corner of the screen.

For the Search charm, Internet Explorer 10 uses the default search engine, which you can set in Manage Add-ons in the desktop browser. After initiating a search in the charm fly-out, search results are shown as you type, including the same picture and instant results you see in Internet Explorer on the desktop, if your search engine supports them.

With the Share charm, you can access any application that supports sharing (like Mail). This allows you to send a rich link preview with image, description, and hyperlink so it's easy to share more than just a link.

Figure 12: Internet Explorer 10 and Mail support sending rich link previews with image, description, and hyperlink

The Devices charm makes printing easy and consistent. You can print from any webpage from Internet Explorer – handy for things like airline boarding passes – by tapping or clicking the Devices charm and selecting a printer.

The Settings charm provides quick access to the most frequently used configuration settings for Internet Explorer 10. You can quickly clear browsing history, control location access, and more. Only the most commonly used settings are displayed here, but when you need access all of the available settings, Internet Options is still available with the desktop browser. Many of the settings in Internet Options will apply in both versions of the browser.

Figure 13: Internet Explorer 10 settings in the Settings charm

Flip Ahead

Flip Ahead enables users to fluidly page between web content by simply swiping to the next page. When a user is viewing a page that is part of a sequence (such as a five page New York Times article, images in a slideshow, or blog posts), they can Flip Ahead to the next page in the article, the next image in a slideshow or the next post for the blog. We refer to these behaviors collectively as Next Page. When a user is not in paginated sequence, they can Flip Ahead to other "related" content on the site. We refer to this behavior as Next Article. The overall experience will be similar to flipping through a magazine or catalog.

The term Flip Ahead is used to describe either Next Page or Next Article where either would be appropriate.

Flip Ahead provides an iconic touch-optimized experience for the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer, but it supports mouse and keyboard as well. Flip Ahead does not replace or interfere with the existing Back and Forward navigation. Flip Ahead will only be available when there is nothing otherwise available on the Forward stack.

1. If the site owner has defined what the next content should be, Internet Explorer will always follow the site owner's definition. The site owner can use two tags to indicate what content is intended to be next. (Internet Explorer will use the target of the first tag of this type it encounters as the Flip Ahead link.)

   <a type="next" href="http://foo.bar/nextpage/"> (html5 only)

   <link rel="next" href="http://foo.bar/nextpage/">

2. If the content on the current page is a page of a multipage text article, a slide in a slideshow, an image in a series of images, a page of a web forum thread, a blog post or a video in a series of videos, then Flip Ahead will go to the next page in the article, next slide in the slideshow, next page in the forum thread, next (older) blog post, or the next video in a series. Identifying the next page in content split among multiple web pages will take precedence over identifying related content. If Internet Explorer cannot identify a next page based on the above, then Internet Explorer will proceed to look for Next Article.
3. If the content on the page is the last post in a blog, the last page in a forum thread, the last slide in a slideshow, the last image in a sequence of images, or the last page in an article, Internet Explorer will use rules that leverage page structure and user behavior to choose a link for a Next Article. Internet Explorer will show users only links that are not in the user's history. If Internet Explorer is unable to locate a Next Page or Next Article link then the user cannot Flip Ahead.

The feature is powered by a set of client-side rules, updated via a service. Bing provides the service and rule generation. In order to inform this rule generation and help us scale out coverage, Internet Explorer collects user clicks, site visits, and DOM information. Because this feature gathers data about its usage, Flip Ahead is disabled by default. You can enable it from the Settings charm.

Figure 14: Enable Flip Ahead

No Add-ons

Traditionally add-ons have been a large contributor to performance and stability problems for Internet Explorer, so in order to help ensure the best possible experience on the modern web, these add-ons are not supported in the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer. This includes all add-ons like ActiveX® Controls (Silverlight), toolbars (Bing Bar), and browser helper objects (Skype click to call) and applies both to add-ons from Microsoft as well as from third parties, with the exception of Adobe Flash, which receives special handling in Windows 8. More information about Adobe Flash in Internet Explorer 10 is provided below.

Microsoft® believes that the best experience for websites that previously required add-ons in order to function will be provided through Windows Store apps for those sites.

The desktop browser will continue to allow add-ons as it always has. If a user sees that the site they are accessing does not function properly in the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer because it requires add-ons, they can use the option to View on the desktop from the page tools (wrench) menu.

Figure 15: View on the desktop option

Developers can help ensure their users have the best experience by adding a tag to their site indicating the ActiveX controls are required. If a user navigates to one of these sites, they will see a prompt indicating that a plug-in is required in order to use the site. To address this issue, the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer has an app command for Use Desktop View. This will open the currently viewed page in the desktop browser where plug-ins continue to be supported.

Figure 16: Site uses add-ons that require desktop browser

For more information on our handling of add-ons in Windows 8, please see the following article.

Web Sites and a Plug-in Free Web
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2012/01/31/web-sites-and-a-plug-in-free-web.aspx

Background Audio

By default, Windows Store apps are suspended whenever they are not in the foreground which means that things like audio playback will not work once you switch away from the app. If the app needs to support background audio, they can register for this capability and Windows will handle playing the audio stream in the background for the app. Internet Explorer 10 does not support this background audio capability, so you will see that when you switch away from Internet Explorer while audio is playing, the audio will stop. Stopping audio playback when you switch away from Internet Explorer will prevent unwanted background sounds such as those from advertisements playing back when Internet Explorer is not on the screen, but it will also prevent you from playing music from the web in the background as well.

There are three possible workarounds that you can use to address this if it is causing a problem for your customer.

• If there is an app in the Windows Store for the site, use that instead.
• Snap Internet Explorer to the side of the screen.
• Use the desktop browser.

Key Points

This section calls out additional information that you should know about the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer.

• On 64-bit versions of Windows, the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer is also 64-bit (unlike the desktop browser, which defaults to 32-bit tabs in a 64-bit frame) on 64-bit Windows.
• You can access a new tab InPrivate Browsing mode by pressing and holding with your finger or right-clicking on the plus sign to add a new tab.
• Internet Explorer 10 has new options available in the Compatibility List to make sites render in the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer as Firefox 5 or the Apple iPad. This allows sites that normally require ActiveX controls or other Internet Explorer plug-ins to function when accessed from Internet Explorer. These options configure Internet Explorer to report itself as another browser so that the site will work properly.
  • The option to have Internet Explorer report itself as Firefox 5 is useful when the site normally only offers an experience to Internet Explorer users that uses ActiveX controls or other browser plug-ins.
  • The options to have Internet Explorer report itself as Mobile Safari on the iPad can be useful when a particular site only offers a non-Flash version to that particular browser. Some sites will switch from trying to stream video using the Flash plug-in to streaming video using the HTML5 <video> tag.
• The touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer has no mechanism for manually adding sites to the Compatibility List. Manually adding sites to the Compatibility List in the desktop browser by clicking the Compatibility View button in the address bar (the broken page icon) has no effect on how those pages are rendered in the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer.
• The touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer only supports 10 tabs. When the user attempts to open the 11^th tab, Internet Explorer will reuse the oldest tab to open the new tab.

Internet Explorer for the Desktop

Internet Explorer for the desktop builds on the UI changes that were introduced in Internet Explorer 9 while integrating with the visual style of Windows 8, and as a result it looks very similar to the previous version of Internet Explorer. There are no significant feature updates for this version of the browser from a consumer support perspective.

Figure 17: Desktop version of Internet Explorer 10

Launching the Browser

In the default configuration, the version of the browser that will launch when clicking the Internet Explorer icon or clicking a link will depend on where you were when you launched the browser.

Table 1: Launching the browser

The behavior described earlier is the default behavior, but it can be changed in the Programs tab of Internet Options.

Note: For more information about changes to setting the default browser in Windows 8, please see the Changes to the Desktop module.

Figure 18: Configure how Internet Explorer opens

The drop-down menu has three options:

Figure 19: Choose how you open links

• Let Internet Explorer decide - This option will choose which version of Internet Explorer to open, depending on the context where the link was selected. Selecting a link from a Windows Store app will open the touch-optimized version of the browser. Selecting a link from an application or icon on the desktop will open the desktop version of the browser. This option is the default.
• Always in Internet Explorer - Links from all apps, including desktop apps, will open in the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer icons and Internet shortcuts on the desktop will continue to open the desktop version of the browser.
• Always in Internet Explorer on the desktop - Links from all apps, including Windows Store apps, will open in the desktop version of Internet Explorer.

None of the above options affect how pinned site tiles on the Start screen will open. By default, pinned sites will always open in the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer, though this can be changed by selecting the Open Internet Explorer tiles on the desktop check box shown earlier.

Note on Default Browser Behavior

The touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer is only available if Internet Explorer 10 is set as the default browser. If a user installs a third-party browser and sets it to be the default, the Internet Explorer tile on the Start screen will be replaced with a tile that opens the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10.

Table 2: Different tiles displayed if Internet Explorer is not the default browser

In order to regain the ability to access the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer, the user will need to set Internet Explorer back to the default browser.

After setting a third party browser to be the default, previously pinned sites will open in the desktop version of Internet Explorer.

Adobe Flash

Windows 8 includes a new power-optimized, touch-friendly version of Adobe Flash Player. Adobe Flash content on compatible Web sites will now play in Internet Explorer 10 in the new Windows UI. The touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer 10 with Flash on Windows 8 enables people to see more of the Web working with high quality, especially compared with the experience in other touch-first or tablet experiences.

Because some popular Web sites require Adobe Flash and do not offer HTML5 alternatives, Adobe and Microsoft worked together closely to deliver a Flash Player suitable for the new Windows Experience.

Both Internet Explorer 10 on the Windows desktop and the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer use the same integrated Flash Player, with no need to download or install an additional player.

• Internet Explorer 10 on the desktop provides the same full Flash support as previous versions of Internet Explorer that relied on the Flash Player plug-in, and continues to support other plug-ins.
• The browser in the new Windows UI does not support any other ActiveX controls or plug-ins.

While any site can play Flash content in Internet Explorer 10 on the Windows desktop, only sites that are on the Compatibility View list can play Flash content within Internet Explorer in the new Windows UI. We place sites with Flash content on the Compatibility List if doing so delivers the best user experience with those sites.

A good Flash Player experience is part of a no compromise experience across all form factors of PCs, including touch-centric PCs running Windows 8. We've heard feedback from customers about their experience with sites that do not offer an HTML5 experience. Many sites require Flash in order to function and some sites offer a HTML5 experience but still deliver their best experience with Flash, such as youtube.com.

• Adobe and Microsoft added support for touch gestures – like double-tap and pinch-to-zoom – that work consistently across HTML5 and Flash.
• Adobe and Microsoft worked together to disable the desktop Flash functionality that is incompatible with touch, such as rollovers, within the new Windows Experience.
• Much of other Flash functionality works well with touch.

The Flash Player included with Windows 8 is based on the full PC implementation and not a limited mobile subset, and it will be made available on the new chip architectures that Windows 8 supports. Adobe is committed to delivering this same Flash Player support for Internet Explorer on both x86/64 and the initial delivery of Windows RT PCs (Windows running on ARM processors).

Installing and Updating Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is now being distributed along with Windows, so there is no longer a need to separately download and install Flash on Windows 8 PCs. Attempting to download Flash from Adobe's website will display a warning indicating that Flash is built into Windows. Attempting to install Flash using the installer from Adobe.com will also fail.

Figure 20: Notification displayed when you attempt to install Flash on Windows 8.

Now that Flash is being distributed as part of Windows, it will also be updated as part of Windows, which means that it will be updated through Windows Update.

Flash and the Compatibility List

Adobe Flash in the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer will not be enabled for all sites. Instead, Internet Explorer will use the Compatibility List to determine which sites it will be enabled for, which will include sites that are known to provide a poor experience without Flash. Internet Explorer uses the Compatibility List to change the way that sites are rendered by changing attributes like the user agent string that is reported or the DOCMODE that is used to render the page.

You can view the list of sites where Flash is enabled on the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer 10 by looking at the Compatibility List. This file is located at the path below.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\IECompatData\iecompatdata.xml

Scroll down to the bottom and look for the section labeled <Flash>. You can use this list to identify which sites Flash should work with and which it should not when using the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer.

Identifying When Flash Is In Use

When troubleshooting a webpage in Internet Explorer, it is important to understand what is being used to actually display the content on the site. While traditionally the majority of interactive and video content on the web has used Flash, with the advent of HTML5 Video and HTML5 Canvas tag, it may not be immediately obvious when a site is using a plug-in for its content.

One way to tell if Flash is in use on a particular page is by right-clicking on the video or interactive element on the page and seeing which options are available. If Flash is in use, a context menu will appear, and if you scroll to the bottom of that menu, it will display About Adobe Flash Player.

Figure 21: Adobe Flash Player in context menu

Right-clicking on an HTML5 video in the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer 10 will not yield a context menu.

Right-clicking on an HTML5 video in Internet Explorer 10 on the desktop will display the following context menu. This menu may be customized by the site, but it will not display Adobe Flash Player at the bottom.

Figure 22: HTML5 Video Controls

Troubleshooting Adobe Flash

Adobe will provide support for Flash related issues, but we still have the ability to disable it through Manage Add-ons if needed.

Figure 23: Adobe Flash in Manage Add-ons

Security in Internet Explorer 10

InPrivate browsing

Web browsers store information to make it easier and faster for you to log on to websites or to make recommendations. But when you browse the web on a public network (or even at home), you might not want to store information such as passwords or search and webpage history.

If you use an InPrivate tab to browse, Internet Explorer 10 will delete your passwords, search history, and webpage history when you close the tab.

Do Not Track

With Internet Explorer 10, Do Not Track is enabled in the "Express Settings" portion of the Windows 8 setup experience. The websites you visit often contain content from third parties. In order to load this content, certain information about your computer is sent to each of the third parties. With the Do Not Track feature built into Internet Explorer, you can send a signal to marketers and websites requesting them to not collect data that enables them to track you on the web.

Windows SmartScreen

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not a site is legitimate. SmartScreen helps you identify known phishing and malware sites and helps you make informed decisions about app downloads.

Try This: Internet Explorer 10

• What option do you see in this version of Internet Explorer to open this same page in the desktop browser in two clicks?
• Try pinning a site from the touch-optimized version of Internet Explorer to Start.

For More Information

For more information, please see the following articles: