Ian Moulster's blog

Beautiful Cornwall with the Nokia Lumia 920’s Camera

2013-05-09T08:22:03Z

On a recent short holiday to Cornwall I used my Nokia Lumia 920 as my only camera. Two things impressed me about this:

Cornwall is really beautiful
The Nokia Lumia 920 has an amazing camera :-)

Here’s a selection. What do you reckon?

Buy a Windows 8 app once, use it in multiple places

2013-04-22T13:10:13Z

Here’s a thought. Let’s say you find an app in the Windows Store that you like, but isn’t free. Take “Hydro Thunder Hurricane” as an example – it’s a really fun 3D game. Now, let’s say you decide to buy it. You may have a couple of questions:

Does that mean only I can use it? What about my spouse? Or the kids? Do they have to buy it again?
Does that mean that if I buy it on my Windows 8 (or Windows RT) tablet, that I need to buy it again on my PC, and again on my laptop?

The answer to all of these questions is “no”. That is, you only need to buy it once and you can use it on multiple devices, and across multiple accounts.

Here’s how:

The first thing to realise is that you can install a Windows 8 app that you buy from the Store on up to 5 different devices. So buy it on your Surface tablet for example, and install it on your PC, and on a laptop. And you’ll still have two further devices you could install it on if you want to. See here for more
Secondly, let’s say you have a Windows 8 tablet that the whole family uses (eg a Microsoft Surface). And let’s say that you have set up separate accounts for everyone in the household so that all of their apps, settings etc are kept private and separate. Well the good news is that you can install your paid-for apps into each of these accounts on the same PC. For example: Assuming you’ve bought the app using your own account. Log out of this account, and onto one of the kids’ accounts, and open the Store app. Swipe the charms and choose the Settings Charm, then “Your Account”, then choose “Change User”. Enter your own account details, then find and install the app. When it’s done, switch back to the original account.

With this approach you can make sure that you only pay once for the Windows 8 apps that you buy, whether it’s on a different machine or on a different account.

PS to change accounts on Windows 8 (or Windows RT), get back to the Start screen and click or tap on the user name & picture at the top right. You’ll see a list of users, just select the one you want to log in.

How well do you know Windows 8? The answers

2013-01-25T18:07:43Z

Yesterday I posted a set of 10 questions to test your knowledge of Windows 8 (and Windows RT). I promised I’d post the answers so you could see how you’ve done, so here goes.

1. How do I get a list of all Windows 8 Store apps I have ever downloaded across all of my devices?

Answer: Open store app, swipe from top of screen (or right-click with mouse), select “Your apps”. Change the drop-down to show “All Apps”

2. How do I take a screen shot on the Microsoft Surface?

Answer: Press “volume down” and Windows key at the same time. Screenshots are saved in a “screenshots” folder in your picture library

3. How do I get Function keys to display on the on-screen keyboard?

Answer: Settings charm, “change PC settings”, General, set “Make the standard keyboard available” to “on”. When in use, press Keyboard button at bottom right of keyboard, then select full keyboard (second from right). When it displays, press FN to see function keys

4. If the on-screen keyboard is obscuring something on the screen, how do you make it disappear for a while

Answer: Press keyboard button at bottom right of on-screen keyboard, then press the right-most icon (rectangle with arrow down beneath it)

5. How do I prevent Windows 8 from syncing my browser history across my PCs?

Answer: Settings charm, “change PC settings”, “Sync your settings”, set “Browser settings and history” to “off”

6. How do I increase or decrease the number of apps that are shown when you use the Share charm?

Answer: Settings charm, “change PC settings”, “Sync your settings”, “Share”, change “Items in list” setting

7. How do I move left and right on the start screen a page at a time when using keyboard and mouse?

Answer: Use PGUP and PGDN keys. You can also use HOME and END keys to move to left hand side and right hand side of start screen

8. How do I “zoom out” (known as “semantic zoom”) on the start screen or in an app when using a keyboard and mouse?

Answer: Move mouse to right-hand side of scroll bar and press the “-“ sign. Click anywhere to zoom back in

9. How do you send a friend a link to install an app that you have on your PC?

Answer: On start screen, right-click on the app tile (or pull down slightly with finger if you have touch), bring up the charms and select the share charm

10. How do you do the equivalent of pressing “Alt+F4” to close an app when you’re using a Microsoft Surface that doesn’t have an F4 key?

Answer: Press Alt + Fn + Play/Pause

How well do you know Windows 8?

2013-01-24T10:10:13Z

Are you one of those people who already knows Windows 8 (or Windows RT) pretty well? Do you like a bit of a challenge? Then try my 10 question quiz and see how you get on. There are no prizes other than a warm smug glow if you get them all right. And while prizes would be nice, frankly a warm smug glow is kind of nice too.

Here we go, see how you get on. I’ll provide the answers later. Oh and cheap plug: A short perusal of my recent tweets will provide a few of the answers, see www.twitter.com/ianxx.

How do I get a list of all Windows 8 Store apps I have ever downloaded across all of my devices?
How do I take a screen shot on the Microsoft Surface?
How do I get Function keys to display on the on-screen keyboard?
If the on-screen keyboard is obscuring something on the screen, how do I make it disappear for a while
How do I prevent Windows 8 from syncing my browser history across my PCs?
How do I increase or decrease the number of apps that are shown when I use the Share charm?
How do I move left and right on the start screen a page at a time when using keyboard and mouse?
How do I “zoom out” (known as “semantic zoom”) on the start screen or in an app when using a keyboard and mouse?
How do I send a friend a link to install a Windows 8 Store app that I already have on my PC?
How do I do the equivalent of pressing “Alt+F4” to close an app when I’m using a Microsoft Surface (that obviously doesn’t have an F4 key)?

Anyone have any better ones?

Sharing your DVD or Blu-ray Drive across your home network

2013-01-22T10:19:38Z

Remember when every computer you bought had a CD drive? Then a DVD drive, and maybe a DVD writer? And these days, a Blu-ray drive? Well as you know things are changing and many of the newer form factor PCs such as tablets, convertibles and ultrabooks no longer include a so-called “optical” drive. Microsoft’s Surface being a case in point.

Now most of the time this isn’t really a problem. You can download most of what you need, or put it on a USB stick and get it from them, or even boot from it. But sometimes it would just be really nice to have a good-old DVD drive to get data from. One solution is to buy a separate external DVD drive of course and attach it via the USB port. Which is fine, but actually you might not need to do that if you already have another PC on a home network that has a DVD drive. Or a Blu-ray drive for that matter. You just share it over the network and any of your PCs or Windows tablets can use it.

It’s really simple to set up too:

Using the PC that has a DVD or Blu-ray drive, open file explorer (via the desktop, or just search for “file explorer” on the start screen) and right-click on the DVD/Blu-ray drive you want to use on another machine
Choose “Share with” then “Advanced sharing…”

On the next screen, choose the “Advanced Sharing…” button
Check the “Share this folder” checkbox
In the “Share name” box, type something to help you recognise the drive. For example, call it “DVD Drive on Office PC”
Click “Ok”. If you want to, make a note of the network path but it isn’t strictly necessary (see below for more detail)

That’s it. If you now use the machine that doesn’t have an optical drive (such as your Microsoft Surface), as long as it is on the same local network as the machine you’ve just been setting up you should see the machine name in File Explorer under “My Computer” and be able to drop down to get to the DVD drive.

If you’re going to be using it regularly you may find it more convenient to map it to a drive letter. To do this, open File Explorer again, click on “computer” on the left, then select “Map Network Drive” from the ribbon at the top.

Ensure “Reconnect at logon” is checked then either choose the “browse” option and navigate to the relevant PC and its drive, or paste the network path if you noted it above. Then choose a drive letter, and you’re done – the DVD drive will be available all the time just by using the drive letter you selected.

Getting a vinyl skin for your Surface RT

2013-01-21T10:20:05Z

I recently bought a vinyl skin for my Surface RT and wanted to share the experience. I admit I was in two minds about whether it was a good thing to do. I’ve had previous experience with this kind of thing before and have found them to be difficult to fit with the result looking very messy with air bubbles and unaligned fitting.

I’m pleased to say though on this occasion it has really worked out well. I bought a vinyl skin from DecalGirl.com and the result is great. DecalGirl have lots of designs (and I mean lots, currently the site is showing 2060 for the Surface) to choose from and you can also provide your own designs.

There are a few things that make this work really well in my opinion:

The vinyls are actually easily removable and don’t seem to lose any of their stickiness if you take them off and reapply. This means that you can have a few tries to make sure you get them applied dead straight and lined up correctly. It’s also quite easy to squeeze out any air bubbles
As you might expect the skins already include cut-outs to ensure that they fit the Surface, such as for the cameras, light sensor, Windows button, etc. BTW I have only tried this on a Surface RT. I have no reason to think they won’t fit a Surface Pro but I’ve only tried on the RT
When you receive your vinyl you also get a code and URL to download an image that you can use to go with them. I put mine on the lock screen and it matches perfectly with the surrounding vinyl as you can see from the photo below. It’s a nice touch and is pretty eye catching

You can choose from matt and high gloss finishes. I went to high gloss and it really does look beautiful. Shipping to the UK starts from $11.51, which is the option I choose. It took 12 days to arrive from the date of placing the order which isn’t bad.

This is the front view showing the lock screen with its matching graphic. As you can see because the vinyl skin on the surround matches up with the lock screen picture it looks like the screen runs right to the edge of the device:

Note also the two holes for the camera and light sensor, and the cut-out for the Windows button at the bottom.

This is the rear view showing how the vinyl fits on the kick-stand when it’s deployed. Note the cut-out for the rear camera:

And here is the Surface lying flat, showing the rear covering with the kick-stand folded in:

By the way, I am happy to confirm that I have no relationship with the fine folks at DecalGirl. I found the site and placed my order and that’s it. If you have tried other suppliers let me know how you get on. I admit my views on these kind of skins has been changed by my experience and I think it can make your Surface even more personal and eye-catching. Certainly worth a look.

Increasing the Text message font size on Windows Phone 8

2012-11-22T10:55:09Z

My eyes are getting worse. Not sure if it’s old age or spending half my life staring at computer screens but it does mean that, especially at the end of a long day, I can struggle to read things without digging out my glasses. Happily Windows Phone 8 lets you bump up the text size for text messages, email, people and the lock screen with a simple slider under the “Ease of Access” settings option.

As if this wasn’t enough you can also turn on the screen magnifier via the same “ease of access” setting. When switched on, if you double-tap with two fingers anything shown on the Windows Phone 8 screen is zoomed up, even the start screen. You can pan around with two fingers and double-tap again to zoom out.

Pretty useful stuff for my failing eyesight. Especially on the way home from the pub :-)

Using offline maps on Windows Phone 8

2012-11-16T17:00:06Z

One of the really useful features in Windows Phone 8 is the ability to use maps offline. I recently had the opportunity to road-test this feature in a trip to Lisbon in Portugal. It works like this:

Before leaving home I downloaded the map for Portugal (more on this below). It’s about 140MB in size so not too large
When I got to Portugal I made sure that roaming was switched off so that I didn’t incur huge data fees
Normally this would mean that maps wouldn’t work which is annoying because, frankly, one time you can really do with maps is when you’re in a foreign country
However, because I had downloaded the map for Portugal I was able to use the maps as usual, and the phone uses GPS (which is of course free and requires no data plan) to locate you on the map

It works fantastically and was incredibly useful. It even worked fine in the tiny streets in the old quarter of the city and meant we could find our way around easily without worrying about running up data bills.

Setting it up is simple: Go to Settings, then swipe across to Applications, then select Maps, then "download maps".

Press the “+” option, choose the area of the world you’re visiting, and then the country, and it kicks off the download.

And that’s it. When you visit the country you’ll find that maps work and GPS is able to locate you as you move about.

Adding a tile for a desktop website to your Windows 8 start screen

2012-11-01T13:15:00Z

The version of Internet Explorer 10 that runs on the Windows 8 start screen is fantastic, running full-screen and great for touch. And it's really easy to pin a tile for your favourite websites to your Windows 8 start screen - simply swipe from the top of the screen (or right-click) and select the "pin" icon. However as you may know the Windows 8 start screen version of Internet Explorer 10 doesn’t support plug-ins, something that may or may not be an issue for you if one of your frequently-used websites relies on a plug-in (clarification: Internet Explorer 10 on the Windows 8 start screen does support Adobe Flash for some sites). However the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10 does support plug-ins, just like previous versions of Internet Explorer.

So you might be wondering if you can pin a website to your Windows 8 start screen but get it to launch in the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10 so that it can run with plug-ins. The answer is yes you can, and it’s pretty simple. Here’s how:

Open your website using the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10. Then choose the “Tools” menu option (if menu isn’t showing, press the ALT key to display it), then select the “Add site to Start Screen” option.

Your site will appear on the Windows 8 start screen and, when you click or tap it, will launch in the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10.

Turning on email notifications in Windows 8 and Windows RT

2012-10-31T13:45:56Z

Do you want Windows 8 to pop up a “toast” message every time you receive an email? If so you’ll need to switch the option in the mail app, but it’s pretty simple to do.

First open the mail app, then bring up the charms (swipe from the right of the screen, or right-click with mouse); Then choose “Settings”, then “Accounts”, then tap or click on the account you want to set notifications for.

Move down and select the “Show email notifications for this account” option and you’re done – from now on, Windows will notify you when you receive email from this account.