My Dream Windows 8 Tablet

I am a huge fan of the Windows Tablets.  I have owned HP TC1100, ASUS EP121/B121, HP Slate 500, Dell Latitude ST, Samsung Series 7 Slate, and now Samsung /build/ (Series 7) Tablet and with each one it is missing something.  ***Update (missing from photo) Dell Latitude 10 Tablet.

So I decided since I have such great pull with the hardware vendors, I would put together my must have specs.  This way they can start building it.

MY DREAM WINDOWS TABLET
Wacom Pen/Digitizer with silo in Tablet
Detachable Keyboard with touchpad (with additional battery)
Removable Battery
i5 Core CPU (x64) & 4GB Ram (More would be nice)
128GB SSD
10.1 Screen (Not GMA, also wish it wasn’t 1366×768, I like 1024×768)
Gorilla Glass
Full Size SD Card
HDMI (mini ok)
USB 3.0 on Tablet
USB 3.0 on Keyboard
At least 5 hours of battery life
Decent Front & Rear camera
Hardware button: Start/Windows Button and Keyboard Button
Optional Dock with Ethernet, full HDMI, More USB 3.0, maybe some nice speakers built in. (dream big!)

Is there a Windows Tablet that has all this?  Close, but not yet.

What are your must haves with the new Windows 8 Tablets?  Here’s your chance to speak up and let those vendors what you want.

Dell Latitude 10 Tablet

I am a pretty big fan of Windows Tablets and have been for some time.  I am especially excited with all the new stuff that is coming out.  One such Windows Tablet that I have been drooling over is the Dell Latitude 10 (here).  It is currently retailing for $900, but currently on a special price for $650.

I was recently visited by one of our Dell representatives at work and he had brought the sister tablet Latitude XPS 10, which is the Windows RT version.  I was able to play around with it for a bit and loved the touch, the responsiveness, and the fact that it had detachable keyboard with touchpad.  It was a very solid fit.  Unfortunately, I later found out that the Latitude 10 will not have that same keyboard.  Big disappointment if you ask me.  The Dell rep said that he would send me one when he got them in stock so I could give it a spin.  Well I just got the email and have it coming my way to give it a run. 

LATITUDE 10 SPECIFICATIONS

• Intel® Atom™ processor Z2760 1.8GHz with Intel® Burst Technology, 1.5GHz HFM, 600MHz LFM
• Windows 8 Pro, 32-bit
• 10.1" IPS (1366 X 768) Wide View Angle LCD, Corning® Gorilla® Glass, Capacitive 10 Finger Touch
• 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz
• 64GB of Solid State Storage, enabled for mobile broadband (HSPA+)
• Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (533MHz)
• 1.47 lbs
• Full Size SD Slot
• USB 2.0 Slot
• Mini HDMI
• Removable Battery
• 2MP Front Facing Camera
• 8MP Rear Facing Camera
• Wacom Digitizer (optional pen)
• Productivity Docking Station (optional) (2) USB, Ethernet, HDMI and Audio Output

I will have it for about 30 days to test it out and will blog about it more.

HP Slate 500 N-trig Input Control (Touch) Workaround

One of my biggest complaints with the HP Slate 500 on Windows 8 is the lack of decent touch control with N-trig.  N-trig has decided that they aren’t going to fix their drivers.  That’s fine, this will be my last device that has N-trig digitizer.  My dollars will be spent elsewhere.

So, what’s the problem you say.  My problem with the N-trig drivers is the lack of support with the input control (Digitizer Settings, see screen shot below).  This is what allows you to change how the touch and pen act (see picture).  Pen Only, Touch Only, Auto Mode, Dual Mode.

This Input Control (Digitizer Settings) do not work in Windows 8 and N-trig is not going to fix.  Shame.

So, what does this mean.  Well, for me I get the palm rejection or false touches when I write and my hand (palm) touches the screen.  The current setting is Dual mode, concurrent Touch and Pen input.  Think of it like the touchpad on your laptop.  You are typing and your palm touches the touchpad and causes the cursor to jump to a different spot on the page.  On a laptop you have the touchpad control that allows you to turn off if it senses a mouse plugged in or when you are typing.  Well, with N-trig, you don’t any longer on Windows 8.  No workie & No fixie.

I was browsing the internet the other day and happened on a blog post where the blogger found a workaround.  You will have to forgive me that I can’t find the blogger’s post or the blogger’s name.  When I do, I will definitely give him/her credit.

What is this workaround going to do?  This will temporarily disable the touch control on the Slate.  This would be similar to selecting Pen Only above.  This will allow only Pen touch only and the touch is temporarily disabled.  This isn’t going to be for everybody, but for this is golden for me.  Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way similarly to Auto mode.

Going to download a program that is a that when run connects to the Device Manager like view that allows you to enable and disable devices.  However the steps below will create a shortcut or command line that will be used to disable the touch.  You can also pin the shortcuts to the Task Bar for easy use.

STEPS:

1. Go out to www.Nirsoft.com and find a program named DevManView (direct link).  At the writing of this post the current version is v1.27.  Scroll down to the bottom and download the (x86) version (or x64 version for Samsung Series 7 or ASUS B121)

2. Create a directory on the root of your C Drive called TouchControl

3. Unzip the file you downloaded in Step 1 into the C:\TouchControl folder.  There are 4 files that are extracted.

4. Create a shortcut in that directory using the following command.

a. Open Device Manger | Devices | N-trig DuoSense(R) Digitizers

b. Locate “N-trig DuoSense MultiTouch HID Device” and double click.

c. Click on the Events Tab.  Copy the value that is highlighted in yellow.  This value will be added when you create the shortcuts.

d. Open Windows Explorer, browse to the C:\TouchControl and right click in the folder and select New | Shortcut

e. Copy and paste the Disable command below into the path, but using your value that you got above.

DISABLE
C:\TouchControl\DevManView.exe /Disable “HID\VID_1B96&PID_0001&MI_01&Col02\7&24205bb2&0&0001”

f. Click through and give the name of the Shortcut “Disable Touch”

g. Now Create another shortcut but use the ENABLE command below and name it “Enable Touch”, also using your value that you got above.

ENABLE
C:\TouchControl\DevManView.exe /Enable “HID\VID_1B96&PID_0001&MI_01&Col02\7&24205bb2&0&0001″

5. Add the shortcuts to the Task Bar just right click on the shortcut and select Pin to Task Manager.

6. To give it a little flair right click on the Shortcut | Properties | Change Icon, browse through the list and select an Icon that you like for Disable and Enable shortcuts.  I picked the Green for the Enable and Red for the Disable.

 

**Please note that the device that controls touch may not be the same on your tablet.  I was able to get this to work using the information below on my HP Slate 500, Samsung Series 7 Slate, and ASUS B121 eSlate but using the 64bit version of DevManView.  I have not found anything about the downloaded software that would cause any alarm.  It is not installing any software it is extracting several files that launch as a separate program.

EDITED (11/10/2012)
Found that the HID value is different on every computer.  Updated blog post to reflect that.

Also, this does require the elevated permissions when doing so.  I haven’t found a way around this.  You are actually disabling a device so I don’t think there will be a workaround.  I run my as a standard user and then another account that has Admin and just pop in the credentials when prompted.  I have run this so long that I don’t give it a second thought.

What is your favorite application, program, or utility for your Tablet?

 

I have been installing Windows 8 on my tablets and it reminded me of a post that I did way back in the day.  What is your favorite application, program, or utility for your tablet and why? I have several that I can’t live without.

 

1. Microsoft OneNote 2013

I am a huge OneNote fan and have been when it first came out.  This was the first program that I used on my tablet with the Stylus pen, on my HP TC1100.  I became much more organized because of this program.  For me it is the most used application\tool that I use.  Love the inking, search capabilities, converting ink to text, the integration with the other Office products.  I send a lot of emails to OneNote for projects that I am working on.  I can immediate start writing notes, next actions, etc.  All time favorite.

2. PDF Annotator

I love the ability to load a PDF file and mark it up using my stylus/pen.  The ability to print any document to PDF using their printer tool.  Brilliant.  Absolutely a must have.

3. Dropbox

My cloud storage that is available to me where ever I am.  On my phone and my computers and assessable through the web as well.

4. Snagit

The screen capture tool that is a must. 

5. Notepad++

This free utility is a great tool for loading all kinds of different text files from TSQL files, to XML files. 

Updated Windows 8 N-trig drivers are finally available or are they?

So N-trig finally posted Windows 8 drivers on their site (August 13th, 2012), you can download them here.

http://www.ntrig.com/Content.aspx?Page=Downloads_Drivers

So I have been very critical with my comments toward N-trig and most of it has been warranted.

Time to climb up on my soapbox.

My biggest beef all along has been the lack of input control.  The ability to control the how the digitizer handles touch and pen.  In the Windows 7 there was the N-trig DuoSense Digitizer Settings that allowed you to control the Input mode (Pen Only, Touch Only, Auto Mode, and Dual Mode), this has been lacking since Windows 8 Consumer Preview (February 2012).  Still missing…

Brief history.

Windows 8 Developer Preview (September 13th, 2011)

There was a hack that could be followed that you could install the N-trig drivers, the DuoSense Settings, and Calibration tool and input control.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview (February 29th, 2012)

The hack no longer works and the digitizer and touch had serious issues.  Ghost clicking and touch issues.

UPDATE:

N-trig did finally put out a beta v1.0 (March 3, 2012), but they didn’t really help.

Windows 8 Release Preview (June 28th, 2012)

The hack still doesn’t work and the digitizer and touch still have issues.

Windows 8 RTM (August 1st, 2012)

The hack still doesn’t work and the digitizer and touch still have issues.

UPDATE:

N-trig did finally put out beta v2.0 (August 13th, 2012).  They included the calibration tool, which does seem to help with the ghost clicking, however it is still missing the DuoSense Digitizer Settings.  UGH!!!

NOTE:

Did you all notice the wording in their install instructions.  Look at step 1 on page 2.  Some interesting wording.

So I read this as you can’t install these on a fresh Windows 8 Install, that it has to be a Windows 7 upgrade to Windows 8.  So I emailed support to clarify this and they replied back that it was true that you needed to be on Windows 7 to ensure the latest DuoSense Software was installed and then upgrade to Windows 8.  Once on Windows 8 you can follow the instructions in the v2 beta drivers.

Seriously, come on N-trig, you’ve had over 6 months to be working on these drivers to make them compatible with Windows 8.  Your latest v2 beta try is flail at best.

I feel for any computer manufacture that is producing a Windows 8 Slate/Tablet with these N-trig drivers.  Beware!  I sure won’t be purchasing another N-trig device…  No way!!!

I suggest that you email their support [esupport@n-trig.com] and voice your displeasure on the lack of functionality with these drivers.  In my opinion the HP Slate 500 is unusable in Windows 8.  The palm rejection and false touches when writing are horrendous.

Ok, stepping down from my soapbox.

Questions:

What do you think?

Are you happy with these updated drivers?

Did you upgrade to Windows 8 or fresh Install?

Did you use the DuoSense Digital Settings in Windows 7 and Windows 8 Developers Preview?

Do you have issues with false touch when writing?

Installing Windows 8 CP on Samsung Series 7 Slate Part 2

In my previous post we installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview on the Samsung Series 7 Slate.  Now we are going to continue where we left off and install any missing drivers.

Now let’s look at is the Device Manager to see what drivers we are missing.

1. From the new Windows 8 Start Screen, click on the Desktop icon.
2. Right click on the desktop and select Personalize.
3. Click the link in the upper left named “Change desktop icons”
4. Put a check under Control Panel and click Apply and then OK.
5. Double click Control Panel
6. Click on the the Hardware and Sound link.
7. Under Devices and Printers click on Device Manager.

This is a list of the drivers that Windows is unable to find.

I am assuming that you configured wireless to your home network.  Run Windows Updates and get the latest Windows 8 CP updates. As of 03/17/2012 these are the the specific Windows 8 CP Updates (8).

OTHER (MISSING) DEVICES:
1. Windows Update will resolve PCI Simple Communications Controller.

2. Download and Install the following Chipset driver from Samsung site here.

Click on “Manuals & Downloads” (Located 1/4 the way down the page)
Click on Driver link
Select Chipset (Driver) (ver.9.2.0.1019)
Download, unzip, and install.

NOTE: Please note that the “Unknown device” is the rotation driver which there currently is not a driver that works on the device.

UPDATE: (3/28)

On Monday (3/26) Samsung released W8 drivers for their Series 7 Slate for the Touch Screen Sensor and the Rotation Sensor drivers on their site.  Check out their great Windows 8 Customer Preview page here.

Installing Windows 8 CP on Samsung Series 7 Slate Part 1

In a continuation of installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview on the different Tablet/Slates this is a step by step install process of installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview on Samsung Series 7 Slate.

PRE-STEPS:

1. Download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit here (3.3GB)

*Note: Be sure to grab the Product Key from the download page. Key is required for installation.

2. Create a bootable USB Stick. Download Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool here. This allows you to create a bootable USB stick with the downloaded iso file. This makes the process so easy. Click, click, walk away and boom, you have a bootable Windows 8 USB drive. I used a 8 GB USB stick that you can get for $10 at Walmart. Note: A 4 GB will work for both 32-bit and 64-bit.  See full post here.

BACKUP:

Run Windows Image Backup and take a backup of your Windows 7 system so you can restore back if you want.

INSTALL:

1. Plug USB stick into Slate and start. Click the Front Windows button and the Power Button at the same time.

Note: I am also using a USB hub so I can run USB Mouse, Keyboard, and USB Stick.

2. Go through the usual installation options. I selected fresh Install (not an upgrade).  I also left the 21 GB Recovery Partition in tact as well as the 100 MB System partition.  Is it necessary, I don’t believe so since I took a full Windows Image Backup before starting.

3. Once complete this is the lock screen. Love the blue…

This is the main screen.

In my next post I will go through getting drivers installed and configured.

Install Windows 8 using USB Stick

Use USB Stick to install Windows 8.

What you need:

1. USB Stick, a minimum of 4GB for Windows 8 (x86 or x86).

2. Download and Install the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool here.

3. Download the latest version Microsoft Windows 8 beta (DP, CP, RP).

Steps:

1. Plug USB Stick into the Computer.  Note the drive letter associated with the USB Stick.

2. Launch the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool

3. In Step 1 browse and select the ISO file you download above.

4. In Step 2 click on the USB device button in the lower right.

5. In Step 3 select the USB stick you plugged in and click “Begin copying” button in the lower right.

6. You will get prompted to erase USB stick, after confirming that it is the correct USB device click “Erase USB Device”.

7. You will get another confirmation.  Click Yes to erase.

8. In Step 4 it will format the USB stick, make it bootable, and extract the ISO files to the USB stick.

9. Finally after about 8 minutes you will get successful message.  Click the upper X in the right corner to close.

Note: Depending on the type of Tablet/Slate you have you will want to enter the BIOS and change the boot order.  I did not have to do this with my Asus EP121, it automatically booted from the USB Stick.  However my HP Slate 500 and Samsung Series 7 Slate you had to enter the BIOS to change the boot sequence.

Happy computing!

Windows 8 Consumer Preview – Feb 29th

If you are a geek like me you were probably pretty excited with the recent news that Windows 8 Consumer Preview (CP) is slated to be available on February 29th.

I have been playing around with Windows 8 Developers Preview (DP) on several of my Tablet PC’s (HP TC1100, HP Slate 500, Asus EP121, and Dell Latitude ST) since September and have been really impressed how they have all performed.  I am excited about the new touch features in Windows 8.  Looking forward to the CP.

I find it interesting that in recent software releases by Microsoft they are not calling things Beta any longer. You have the Community Technology Preview (CTP), Release Candidates (RC), and now with Windows 8 they are calling it a Consumer Preview (CP). I guess the word Beta has the stigma of being buggy. Anyway, I must say that I have been more than happy with the Windows 8 DP version.

Well, I am anxious to download it and to get it on my machines. Why you say, because that is what we geeks do.

Installing Windows 8 DP on HP Slate 500 part 2

In my previous post we installed Windows 8 Developers Preview on the HP Slate 500.  Now we are going to continue where we left off and install drivers.

The first thing that we are going to do is configure the wireless and connect to your home network.  Run Windows Updates and get the latest Windows 8 DP updates.  As of 11/15/2011 these are the the specific Windows 8 DP Updates (7).

Now let’s look at is the Device Manager to see what drivers we are missing.

1. Click on Control Panel Tile and scroll down the list and select More Settings.
2. Click on the the Hardware and Sound link.
3. Under Devices and Printers click on Device Manager.
4. Click on

This is a list of the drivers that Windows is unable to find.

4. Create a folder on the root of your C Drive named SWSETUP.  Go out to HP’s site (here) and download the following drivers to C:\SWSETUP.  This is also the order that I install the drivers.

SP50501 – Broadcom Crystal HD Video Decoder Driver (2010-10-22) [DM]
SP50503 – Intel Chipset Installation Utility and Driver (2010-10-22)
SP50504 – Intel High-Definition (HD) Graphics Driver (2010-10-22)
SP53663 – Broadcom Wireless LAN Driver for Microsoft Windows 7 (2011-06-27)
SP51650 – HP Quick Launch Software (2011-01-24) [SEE INSTALLATION NOTE BELOW]
SP50505 – N-trig Touchscreen Driver (2010-10-22) [DM] [SEE INSTALLATION NOTE BELOW]

[DM] = These are the specific drivers that will resolve the missing drivers above.

When I say to install in W7 Compatibility mode = To install these drivers you will need to right click on the file, select Properties, click on the Compatibility tab. Put a check in the Compatibility Mode (Select Windows 7), Click ok and then double click on the file to install.

NOTE there are two drivers above (51650 and 50505) that will need special installation steps to get installed and configured, so follow the instructions below for installing those drivers.

SP51650 – HP Quick Launch Software (To get the Auto rotate to work)
Before installing, from the Windows 8 Tile Main Menu click on Control Panel and select Uninstall a Program and then select “Turn Windows features on or off”.  Put a check in “Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1” and click OK.  This will also connect to Windows Update to install software.  Then execute SP51650 (in W7 Compatibility mode).  Once completed browse out to “C:\Program Files\Hewlett Packard\HP Quick Launch”, and execute HPWMISVC.EXE (in W7 Compatibility mode).

SP50505 – N-trig Touchscreen Driver (To get the multi-touch to work)
Execute SP50505 (in W7 Compatibility mode).  Once the installer opens you will need to browse out to your profile %temp% directory (this will be located in your profile directory typically “C:\USERS\<NAME>\APPData\Local\Temp”.

Note: This directory by default is hidden so you will need to enable hidden folders to see this.  Open Windows Explorer and then go up into the menu bar at the top of the screen and select “File”, select “Change folder and search options”, click on the View tab, under Advanced settings check “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” under Hidden files and folders.  While in there I also uncheck Hide extensions for known file types so I can see the file extensions.  Click “Apply to Folder” button above and then click Apply and then Ok to accept the changes.

In the %temp% directory you will be looking for a folder where the date modified column will be around the exact time you executed the file.  The folder will have a GUID name (long name with numbers and letters with dashes in the name like this.

The name will be different of course.  Open up the folder and you are looking for a folder in there named Disk1, if its in there that is the folder you want.  Copy contents of the GUID into “C:\SWSETUP”.  Rename the GUID folder to “ntrig”

Now open Device Manager

1. On the Main Windows 8 Tile menu click on Control Panel Tile and scroll down the list and select More Settings.
2. Click on the the Hardware and Sound link.
3. Under Devices and Printers click on Device Manager.
4. Right Click on the DuoSense and select Update Driver Software.
5. Select Browse my computer for driver software.
6. Browse to C:\SWSETUP\ntrig and put a check “Include subfolders” and click next to install the driver.
7. Now physically open C:\SWSETUP\ntrig\Disk1\x32 and execute DPInst.exe (put in Vista SP2 Compatibility mode, yes Vista).

The above two steps to install SP50505 and SP51650 were taken from the Tablet PC Forum by other forum users (here).  This is a great resource for other tips and tricks and problems.  Highly recommend this site.

This gets you at the point of a working Windows 8 DP operating system on the HP Slate 500.  I highly recommend that you create a Windows Backup Image at this point.

In part 3 I will go through some additional tweaks to Windows 8 DP on HP Slate 500.