Gatt's Ramblings

Thought I’d try the Remote Desktop tile from within Metro UI…

Everything went as exptected in that it asked me for the computer name (or IP) of the remote machine and it connected fine, after bibbing about the lack of a certificate..

First thing I noticed was the lack of the bar across the top of the screen – not that this is much of an issue.
Moving the mouse to the top or bottom of the screen and right clicking brings up the new App Bar, and allows you to change to another Remote PC..

Now for the annoying bit.. Don’t try using any WIN+<KEY> commands – they wont work on the remote PC..

Pressing the WIN key on its own, suspends the RDC and takes you back to the Metro Start Screen..
Win+R? Forget it – doesn’t work… Win+M (Minimize) – not a chance…
Win+C brings up the charm and you can change the RDC preferences (by that I mean change Display preferences or the RD Gateway address..

If you really want to use the Remote Desktop Connection, then I would strongly suggest switching to the Desktop first then running “mstsc.exe” which behaves like Windows 7, etc…

Microsoft have finally given those of us who use multiple monitors the ability to extend the Taskbar across monitors!!

From what I can gather you can simply extend the Taskbar across (start button on one – and clock on the last..) or  you can have a different taskbar for each monitor!

I haven’t yet tried this, but it sounds like you can have a different taskbar for each screen, with different sets of pinned apps on each one..

I’ll need to have a play and post the results…

Windows 8 finally allows you to mount ISO files to a virtual CD drive without the need for a 3rd Party utility!

It’s a feature that Windows 7 should have had but never did – it only allowed you to burn an ISO image..

As always, I’ll post more info and appropriate screenshots over time..

A few quick screenshots of the new Metro UI in Windows 8, which replaces the Start Menu ..

1.. The “Start Screen” as Microsoft

2.. When you press Win+C together then “Settings” on the Charm it allows you access to the properties for the screen, app or tile..

3.. Right clicking on a tile allows you to resize the size to a smaller tile (like the Firefox Tile) or a larger tile (like the Desktop tile). You can also unpin the tile or uninstall the app itself.. Different options are available for different tiles..

It looks like Homegroups now have some sort of grouping by Username:

As the above image shows, all the users currently logged into the homegroup are shown, but unlike in Windows 7, expanding a username lists all the PCs that user is logged into and then under each PC, the expected list of their shared libraries on that specific machine.. This is much more organised that in Windows 7 where there was a separate entry for each computer that the user was logged into…

Also, it would appear that a users Desktop is now a visible share in the homegroup…

If, like me, you have given the Metro UI a try in Windows 8 and have developed an instant dislike towards it then the folks over at ghacks.com have, kindly posted an article on how to get rid of Metro UI but keep the new Ribbon interface in Windows Explorer…

http://www.ghacks.net/2011/09/17/metro-controller-disable-metro-ui-ribbon-explorer-in-windows-8/

Well, I’ve downloaded the latest build of Windows 8 and installed it on a laptop and a spare PC and testing a few of the features out.

So far I have mixed views about the Metro UI and have disabled it on the laptop as it was beginning to “hang” and was a tad frustrating.

I’ll post my findings here periodically and I’m open for suggestions on what to try…