Windows 8 Linkage: A Bit Behind the Ball

CC attribution: behind the eight ball by Ed Schipul on flickr.

OK. Confession time. I’m more than a bit exhausted this weekend. Besides a particularly busy week at work, for some crazy reason I kept myself up till past midnight every night this past week watching a PBS run of Wagner’s Ring Cycle opera production: GP at the Met: Der Ring des Nibelungen - PBS. From a technical staging perspective alone it was stunning, but this was the first time I watched all the operas straight through. It takes an emotional toll.

Beautifully punishing.

Apparently I’m not the only one suffering a Wagner-induced hangover, A short post after a lot of opera « From the Hatchery

So please bear along I untangle myself mentally from it over the weekend.

Also, if you are running Windows 8 under VirtualBox (I’m currently using VMWare), Oracle released VirtualBox 4.2.0 just this past Thursday. See the changelog. I’m mentioning it as this version is said to include improved Windows 8 support.

Outstanding Windows 8 Link of Note

• Windows 8 productivity: Who moved my cheese? Oh, there it is. - Scott Hanselman

While my decision to stick with Windows 7 for the near-term remains intact, Scott’s above post has been hands-down the most powerful and well written post I’ve yet encountered to convince me that I will be upgrading to Windows 8 sooner rather than later. I agree that Microsoft has a serious “usability” hurdle to get past to encourage consumers and enterprises to pick up this new OS iteration. That said, the blood, meat, and bones of Windows 8 is quite remarkable. Scott’s excellent post goes a long way in simple terms to communicate that progress, while painful, has its own set of rewards.

Win8 - Start Here - Get It

• nothing new of note since last post.

Win8 - Related Products and Services

• nothing new of note since last post.

Win8 - Install It

• How to install Windows 8 on VMware Workstation - BetaNews
• How to install Windows 8 on VMware Player - BetaNews

Win8 - Under the Hood

• nothing new of note since last post.

Win8 - To Go

• nothing new of note since last post.

Win8 - Tweaks

• Start8: Classic Start Menu, Skip Start Screen & Disable Hot Corners - Addictive Tips
• How To Skip Entering Password After Waking Up A Windows 8 Computer [Tip] - Windows7hacker
• Creating a "no hypervisor" boot entry - Virtual PC Guy's Blog
• Samsung brings Start menu in Windows 8 PCs - Caschys Blog (Google Translated)
• What Is Fast Startup In Windows 8 & How To Disable It - Addictive Tips
• Pin Files, Folders And Shell & Library Locations To Windows 8 Taskbar - Addictive Tips
• Get A Hint Of The Old Aero Glass Effect Back In Windows 8 Using Areo8Tuner - Addictive Tips
• Three tools to tame Windows 8 - Betanews
• How To Change User Profile Location in Windows 8 without Registry Hack - Windows7hacker
• 3 Ways To Add Shutdown and Restart Shortcuts to Windows 8 - Windows7hacker
• How To Change Default Photo Viewer on Windows 8 - Windows7hacker
• Get A Slimmer Windows 8 Start Screen That Opens Within Desktop - Start Menu Modifier - Addictive Tips
• ViStart 8 gives back what Microsoft took from Windows - BetaNews
• 5 Customization Freeware for Windows 8 - The Windows Club

Win8 - Deeper Insights

• Windows 8 productivity: Who moved my cheese? Oh, there it is. - Scott Hanselman
• Pinning Useful and Obscure Stuff to the Windows 8 Start Menu - Scott Hanselman
• Windows8 Desktop Keyboard Shortcuts - Internet Infomation Services (IIS)
• Windows 8 Forensics - A First Look - YouTube by ForesnicFocusVideos
• My Crazy Adventures with RemoteFX, Part One - Within Windows
• Links, Tools, Etc. - Windows Incident Response Blog

Win8 - Usage Tips

• Disable Uninstall Option For Windows 8 Modern UI Apps - AddictiveTips
• Show or Hide Data Usage for Wireless Networks in Windows 8 - The Windows Club
• Disable, Enable Lock Screen in Windows 8 - The Windows Club
• The Improved Disk Defragmentor and Storage Optimizer in Windows 8 - The Windows Club
• Enable, Disable Delete Confirmation Box in Windows 8 - The Windows Club
• My favorite key in Windows 8 - Next at Microsoft
• Windows 8 new features – The complete list (updated) - 4sysops
• How To Access The BIOS On A Windows 8 Computer - MakeUseOf blog
• How to boot into Advanced Boot Options in Windows 8 - Windows7hacker
• How To Boot to Safe Mode in Windows 8 - Windows7hacker
• How To Open Command Prompt As Administrator Window to Any Folder in Windows 8 - Windows7hacker
• Windows 8 Tweak: How To Open Start Screen NOT in Full Screen - Windows7hacker
• How to Disable Hibernation In Windows 8 To Gain Disk Space - Windows7hacker
• Windows 8 wireless networking - 4sysops

Win8 - Miscellanea, Rumors, & General Grumblings

• Windows 8 privacy complaint misses the forest for the trees - Ars Technica
• Thoughts on the Windows SmartScreen scare - Within Windows
• UX expert says Windows 8 UI is confusing on a PC - The Windows Club
• Ha ha, the "Windows 8 start menu" is back! - Borns IT & Windows blog (Google Translated) 
• Samsung Start menu app shows why Microsoft is going its own way with Surface - Ars Technica
• Windows 8 has usability issues - BetaNews

Windows 8 - GSD Previously Posted

• Windows 8 Linkage: “Majestic Metro” version - GrandStreamDreams blog
• Windows 8 Linkage: “Passage Public Metro” version - GrandStreamDreams blog
• Windows 8 Linkage: “Metro Santiago” edition - GrandStreamDreams blog
• Windows 8 Linkage: “Metro at Nightfall” edition - GrandStreamDreams blog
• Windows 8 Linkage: Product Name “Something or Another” - GrandStreamDreams blog
• Windows 8 Linkage: In Which a Name is Chosen - GrandStreamDreams blog

Hoyotoho! Hoyotoho! Heiaha! Heiaha!

--Claus V.

attribution: Robert McLaws - as spotted on ComputerZen