Win8 Odds and Ends

[Ryu Connor]

General:

1. Deleting files and folders no longer comes with a confirmation prompt.
2. The pagefile.sys no longer uses a fixed ratio size (24GB of RAM = 6556MB Pagefile). Mark Russinovich complained about this bitterly. Seems he influenced a change.
3. The OS will actually shrink the pagefile.sys over time! Original after install size above, current size 3407MB.
4. The hiberfil.sys can be made smaller via an Admin command prompt with the command: powercfg /h /size 50 (Windows 7 also has this option.)
5. There is now a swapfile.sys used by Modern UI apps.
6. The Modern UI Advanced Restart option contains an entry to boot you directly into your UEFI firmware without user intervention. This feature does require firmware support.
7. The OEM version of Windows 8 does not support legacy touch hardware of less than five points.
8. The NTFS Advanced Security Settings menu has been vastly overhauled - for the better IMO.
9. SuperFetch appears to be more aggressive in Windows 8 vs Windows 7.

SSD:

1. Do not disable defrag in Windows 8! The defrag tool is what runs TRIM on SSDs!
2. SuperFetch is used now even if you have an SSD drive.

Activation:

1. The ability to change keys and activate Windows have been removed from the bottom of the System Properties in Windows 8 Enterprise. From an elevated command prompt you must:
   1. slmgr -ipk <key>
   2. slmgr -ato
      or
   3. slui 3

Profiles:

1. Signing in with your Microsoft Account (Formerly Live, Formerly Passport) can result in unusual profile folder names (Hell_000).

Networking:

1. Network profiles can only be renamed via Group Policy or Registry Editing. (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles)
2. Network profiles can no longer be merged. (Registry workaround)
3. Changing Network Locations - such as from Public to Private (aka Home or Work) - is no longer done in the Network and Sharing Center. See here
4. The old Network Location panel still exists, but requires an ugly hack. See below.
5. Windows 8 Enterprise has pieces of the new Server 2012 network teaming options within the OS, but lacks the ability to create the team.

Hyper-V:

1. If your Intel Management Engine Interface driver is too old it will result in Hyper-V failing to install and it will accuse your box of lacking the required hardware virtualization support.
2. The Hyper-V hypervisor does not support Hybrid Sleep.

IE10:

1. IE10 finally has spellcheck built-in.
2. Tabs in the background cannot automatically play Flash video.

Network Location Hack

Code: Select all

Open Regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\NetworkList\Profiles

Each GUID key represents one network and contains the associated friendly name within the ProfileName string entry.

Select the connection whose network location you want to change.  Copy the GUID of that network including the brackets - { } - and paste it into the string below.  You will replace the GUID ID in the string below as that string is simply an example.

"C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe" pnidui.dll,NwCategoryWiz {40087600-D0A0-41C6-B161-AACCD57C9900} 0

Once this string has your GUID copied earlier entered copy it and paste it into a command prompt, shortcut, or Run dialog box.

If done correctly it will bring up the old wizard UI that allows you to define the network location.  Incorrectly doing this has no output.

Before selecting your network location make sure that the network name listed in the dialog matches the network you wanted to change.

[JohnC]

You should probably add info about "classic" Start menu add-ons (free and paid alternatives), I think this will benefit A LOT of the Win8 users

[onlysublime]

a lot of those behaviors have built-in options to switch them.

i'll take the first one:


edit: alright I took my own screenshot and it's in my own account on a picture hosting site? is that okay?

in fact, this was one of the very first options I changed back to the old behavior.

Edit by Ryu Connor: Rule #3 - Do not use image tags to display pictures in a thread if you don't own, control, have permission, or are responsible for the server on which the images are hosted.

[flip-mode]

I'll be bookmarking this thread. Thanks Ryu.

[I.S.T.]

I can't believe MS frigging disabled showing the recycle bin prompt each time you delete a file by default.

That's just... Pretty much everyone who has ran a computer for years or some computing device has accidentally deleted a file and recovered it from the recycle bin only because they saw that prompt. There's streamlining, and then there's carelessly streamlining...

[vandy]

Thank you! Good to see a real informative W8 thread.

Windows 8 Upgrade full clean install still works like it did in W7:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE]
"MediaBootInstall"=dword:00000000

In administrator command prompt type "slmgr /rearm"
Reboot, activate.


Make the Chrome Metro tile to load up desktop chrome:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ChromeHTML\shell\open\command]
"DelegateExecute"=-

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Chrome\.exe\shell\open\command]
"DelegateExecute"=-

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Chrome\.exe\shell\opennewwindow\command]
"DelegateExecute"=-

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Chrome\.exe\shell\run\command]
"DelegateExecute"=-

Create your own metro tiles:
Get your metro icon sets at deviantart
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=31878314#post31878314


Classic Shell:
http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/gallery.html

[Dizik]

How to enable flash support on websites that aren't on Microsoft's whitelist: Link

[superjawes]

Did they change the shift+delete behavior as well? I'm fine not seeing a prompt for recycling bin since things are still recoverable at that point, but taking it away from a shift+delete could be dangerous.

[Ryu Connor]

I added some info about Activating Windows 8 Enterprise. Not sure if that quirk exists on Home or Pro.

Did they change the shift+delete behavior as well? I'm fine not seeing a prompt for recycling bin since things are still recoverable at that point, but taking it away from a shift+delete could be dangerous.

Shift+Del result in a are you sure confirmation prompt.

[superjawes]

Shift+Del result in a are you sure confirmation prompt.

Excellent. Thank you.

[Ryu Connor]

The OS has always had the ability to expand the pagefile and even shrink it back it the defined minimums. With Windows 8 a system managed pagefile can shrink the pagefile considerably in size.

As noted above the pagefile after install started at roughly 6GB. After roughly two weeks of use the pagefile has shrunk in half to roughly 3GB.



This also gives me an opportunity to show the aggressive caching of SuperFetch.

[flip-mode]

I've got a growing list of Windows 8 annoyances:

1. The mail app sucks. It doesn't seem to work right at all. Not all of the apps settings are exposed by going to the apps settings, I have discovered. Some settings can only be accessed in certain ways.

2. The Modern UI is less unobtrusive than I thought. It's kludgy. And I'll tell you what this OS needs is a keyboard shortcut list. Any Google Docs users here? In Google Docs if you press Ctrl + / it brings up a menu of all available keyboard shortcuts. Windows 8 needs this badly. All in all, Modern UI is half backed and does not enhance desktop productivity. This hurts for me to say because I had a lot of hope. Oh, and live tiles are totally distracting, and by the time I cleared all the tiles off that I'll never use there are very few tiles left, making the whole Modern UI essentially worthless.

3. Backup is totally WTF'd up. I did an in-place upgrade from Windows 7. My data backup from Windows 7 is inaccessible by Windows 8. Furthermore, Windows 8 tells me that my disk is in immanent risk of failure, which it most certainly is not. Apparently this is a widespread problem.

In my opinion, if I am frustrated with Modern UI, there are going to be many millions frustrated by it, because I tend to be more forgiving of unfamiliar UIs than most.

[Ryu Connor]

If you don't mind, I'd like to split off your post into an independent thread. I'd like the odds and ends to be for tips, tricks, and changes.

A few things to try to solve the issue.

1. I'd suggest Windows Live Mail or even Thunderbird for the desktop. The mail app is not well fleshed, IIRC Peter Bright bagged on it pretty hard in his review as well.

2. I found that pinning my most commonly used apps to the taskbar was more rich an outcome for me than worrying about the start screen. You can right click on the icons in the start screen and select to pin them to the taskbar. Uncommonly used apps I left pinned to the start screen to access. Rarely used apps I just search for.

win + x, win + i, win + f, win + c

These four short cuts I found to be the most rich in terms of use.

Remember that typing at the start screen brings up search as well.

It took me a day or two to get comfy. Your first thoughts about how to access something aren't typically available. After a week I was ready to transition my laptop over and was settled in.

I do think that more access tips after install would have been a helpful choice from Microsoft.

3. This appears to be an ACL issue.

Right click the WindowsImageBackup folder > properties > security tab > advanced > owner: change

Take ownership of the contents, this should make them accessible. The backups that Windows 7 created used .vhd files so once you have ACL permissions to them you should be able to do things like mount the backups like a hard disk for example.

As for the imminent failure bit, sounds like you found an answer there. Weird stuff.

Ideally for Windows 8 I suggest a transition from an MBR to GPT disk for it (there are a handful of GPT benefits including faster boot, better security, and better fault tolerance). Windows 8 converts disks to GPT by default in a fresh install on a UEFI system, but many people did upgrades instead. To make the change now would require for partitions to be wiped. Unfortunately sounds like you don't have the space for that kind of shuffle at the moment. :(

[flip-mode]

Sure, split it if you like. I didn't mean to thread crap. Heck, you can just delete it since there's not much point in yet another Windows 8 thread.

[flip-mode]

So, on both my main computer and in a virtual machine, I've noticed the following: soon after a fresh OS install and during initial system configuration I run disk cleanup for the first time, the process freezes, I quit the process and then reboot the machine, and during the shutdown process a "Windows is configuring your updates" message appears and then the shutdown process freezes, so I hard-reset, then the "Windows is configuring your updates" message appears again during startup; afterwards, everything seems normal. But this has been repeatable for me on two different "computers" if you're willing to count my virtual machine as a computer.

[tanker27]

I dont know if this should go here but I didnt want to start yet another Win8 thread.

I see a problem with Alt-Tabbing open programs, Its not as smooth as it was before and I dont get the little window that shows open programs like in Win7. When I alt- tab its a luck of the draw of which program I am tabbing to. Also its not as quick as it was before and my screen goes black for about 2-3 seconds before coming 'on' to the alt-tabbed program.

Anyone encounter this and have a solution?

[flip-mode]

I dont know if this should go here but I didnt want to start yet another Win8 thread.

You made the right choice, in my opinion. This thread should be sticky as the general Windows 8 problems and solutions thread, IMO.

I see a problem with Alt-Tabbing open programs, Its not as smooth as it was before and I dont get the little window that shows open programs like in Win7. When I alt- tab its a luck of the draw of which program I am tabbing to. Also its not as quick as it was before and my screen goes black for about 2-3 seconds before coming 'on' to the alt-tabbed program.

Well, I don't have any problem like that. Alt+Tab brings up the programs I can switch between and does so instantaneously without any glitchy-ness. So you definitely have an issue.

[tanker27]

Well, I don't have any problem like that. Alt+Tab brings up the programs I can switch between and does so instantaneously without any glitchy-ness. So you definitely have an issue.

Hmm I wonder what it is....

[flip-mode]

Hmm I wonder what it is....

I've got my list of issues. For instance, Windows 8 keeps dropping my mapped network drives. It's F-ing annoying. Also, every once in a while, it will decide that any file saved or renamed on a network drive needs to adhere to eight-dot-three format. Takes a reboot to fix these.

But, for the most part the OS stays out of my way and lets me get work done.

[Ryu Connor]

Try this for your disappearing network drives.

net use X: \\IP_Address\Share /persistent:yes

That should force shares to stick around. :)

[SuperSpy]

Try this for your disappearing network drives.

net use X: \\IP_Address\Share /persistent:yes

That should force shares to stick around.

I was under the impression the persistent option was by default now. Is that not actually true?

[Ryu Connor]

Not sure. Old habit to use the command line with persistent switch.