gshaw

Force yourself to learn enough Powershell to get through the script-based tasks and it'll serve you well in the future, it's a very powerful tool

I've done something vaguely similar with my Windows 7 machine, altered the Documents library to point to the C:\Users\username\SkyDrive Pro folder and removed all other locations. This assumes you have the SkyDrive Pro client installed and then in theory you push out the custom library.ms files (assume this would work with Win8 as well) and remove any other folder redirection policies. The thing to watch out for at that point is that each user syncs the entire contents of their SkyDrive Pro to the local machine. On a shared device, especially with SSDs you can run out of room fast. Also note if you reset profiles after each logoff you'll be wiping the cache so in theory you'll get loads of sync traffic as each user has to download their library at each logon \ new machine. Seems like unless you're using it with true 1:1 BYOD devices SkyDrive Pro still needs a bit of work to make it a truly usable solution on a network. Some elements of the consumer Win8.1 SkyDrive would help e.g. only show stubs of files then sync on demand rather than downloading the entire contents of SkyDrive Pro (e.g. does the user need all the files to get to one of them that could be the last one to be downloaded?)

The ModernUI apps are slowly turning back into standard ones; close button, minimise button, title bar, taskbar... all it needs is the maximise / restore control and the backtrack is complete The Start screen improvements just go to show common sense isn't that common, how the power and search buttons weren't in 8.0 in the first place is a mystery to me - normal users were never going to find their way with them hidden from view. Interesting about boot to desktop possibly being default, is Metro a dead duck? Just as I've grown to kinda like it... typical haha

The quality of the mobile Office 365 experience leaves a lot to be desired, the lack of dedicated tablet apps is bizarre as well

That's a good idea, we've got a few bits of software that really don't like IE9+

I think we may have just agreed on something

A desktop would be something that classes itself in WMI as not a laptop, has no touch input device and doesn't have a battery Nope, it's being sensible and realising doing a second rate version of Apple isn't a good idea and MS target market (especially in business) don't appreciate having choice and control removed for no apparent reason. Again some sense won out on the 8.1 release and better GPO support etc became available so more of that type of thinking and less Apple In some places it was simply poor design e.g. MS telling us it was technically impossible to put a graphic wallpaper behind the Start Screen in 8.0, that's the sort of choice I'm talking about. Same for the stupid full screen search remedied in 8.1 and so on. As I said MS got back on track with 8.1 and simple additions like a visible power button (and battery for mobile devices) will help the user experience if they make it into Update 1. I hated 8.0 but now use 8.1 on desktop, laptop and after finally seeing some decent tablets at BETT will probably go for one of those too, attention to detail is what makes the difference between those two releases. That leaked screenshot has to be either a desktop enhanced version or very early pre production as the cascading menu on a touch screen would be a nightmare to navigate!

All Win8 has needed since its release is the ability to optimise the UI based on the hardware running it. That means on tablets enable Metro by default, large easy to hit menus like it has now and so on. When a desktop with large display detected use more of the classic Win32 UI etc but have the pure tablet option there as an option if the user wants it. Hopefully MS have realised that forcing one way of using their OS on users isn't what people want, 8.1 gave back some control now they need to continue that with 8.11 (so much more snappy than update 1 ) Was just thinking earlier on how to combine the Start Menu and Start Screen if you wanted both, something like press the Windows key on the desktop for Start Menu, double press for Start Screen or something similar perhaps? 8.1 on the newer tablets coming out is finally getting towards a competitive product, just hope MS don't got too OTT and change everything again with the Win9 announcement...

Those right click menus seem an odd thing to change, maybe it's just because it's an early build? Makes it much less touch friendly on the Start Screen, unless MS are splitting it and this is a desktop only version? Finally an obvious power button though, amazing how such simple things were missed out for so long.

Web Apps are OK for basic editing but still not as good as desktop, even basic things like pasting images much more clunky than on the desktop. MS even say as much with their hybrid marketing approach. 1:1 doesn't scale with the number of students we have (in the thousands) so not sure what we can do with that one. Interesting point around sync corruption though, we're a long way from having even 50% of the classic Win32 apps changed to Metro style. Was reading that SharePoint article the other week actually, would definitely have to keep file shares for some document types. How we can make best use of the 25GB SkyDrive Pro is going to be interesting as users have to start thinking about where their files are going when they hit Save.

Speaking to MS on their BETT stand today it's confirmed there's no way to do what I'm hoping for at present although they are looking into it. Will take a look at that 3rd party software though, thanks for the suggestion

Using some of MS heritage it should clearly be 8.11, maybe with an enhanced tablet management add-on called 8.11 for Workgroups

Just make sure you get decent sized ones, minimum 128GB if you're using anything hefty like CS6 otherwise they fill up very quickly! Performance wise it's the best upgrade you can do, machines fly with SSD system drives

The funny thing is after the 8.1 update I don't mind it at all now, even on my desktop. Problem is they made such a mess of the 8.0 original release with some shockingly poor design mistakes and it's never really recovered. Also the hardware the OEMs have produced tablet-wise hasn't been good enough either, far too expensive and generally not that great in terms of design when compared to some of the Apple / Google stuff. Surface had the design right but the RT version was a mistake (although I think that was more down to Intel not getting low power x86 chips done in time, forcing MS to go with ARM). It works OK on an iPad but the browser controls and various other bits of screen estate get in the way. Also annoying multiple logins if you move between, say the SkyDrive or Office app to go and edit a document. It all needs to be brought together into a single app, could use the web apps code but just skin it into a full screen dedicated browser and pass credentials to it based on what the user signs into the Office app with. Alternatively look at the OneNote app for iPad and imagine Word and Excel using the same interface, that would work well imo. The other thing MS need to do sharpish is sort out their awful product naming and create business only versions of certain apps. For example I was trying to use OneNote to save to my Office 365 account but I have to make a consumer MS account to even log into it! The 365 account has to be tacked on after and all new Notebooks default to the consumer SkyDrive, horrible user experience that ruins what would otherwise be a good product.

Would it be so hard to include it in both SKUs as an option so *shock horror* people can choose what they want to use?! If it means I get my Start Menu jump lists back I'll be happy The arrogance MS showed in some of the Win8 UI design decisions is where they really wound people up in the last year or two. Maybe that's the Sinofsky influence but what Windows always gave you was flexibility, if you want a limited experience and being told what to do and how to so it you go for Apple (and so it proved with 8.0 flopping and 8.1 giving some choice back) The phone / RT platform sounds a bit odd, will developers really go for yet another OS if MS do a clean sweep on mobile again after WP7.5, 8 and RT unless it's app-compatible with a least one of them?

Not necessarily, Apple don't really seem to care about business (if they did they'd still make server hardware, proper server OS and official management tools for iOS etc) As long as Apple continue to sell to private consumers at huge markups they'll be happy. When the tide of fashion changes and the fruit logo is no longer the flavour of the day that's when they'll worry. Will be interesting to see how MS tablets do this year as the hardware is finally getting better in terms of design and affordability (about time too)

Painful reading for MS executives there, barely any growth for Windows tablets to make up for the drop in desktop and notebook sales

Would be interesting to see how much of a sales increase there was over the Xmas period as Google had a pretty large advertising campaign this time round (TV ads, billboards, tube posters etc) Still think for the price you pay for an average Chromebook many of the target demographic would rather add £50-100 and have an iPad instead

We're looking at implementing SkyDrive Pro \ SharePoint as a replacement for network storage (Documents redirection and Shared Drives) but wondering if anyone else has got around the potential issues of how the sync works? Our new machines all come with SSDs (first gen ones had 60GB, this year's batch are 120GB) so not as much space as when you'd get 160GB+ per desktop. In theory each user could store 25GB on their personal drive and a lot more on shared drives (staff). Problem being SkyDrive Pro isn't exactly intelligent and syncs the entire contents of each location into your local user profile. With a couple of users signing into the machine I can see drives filling up pretty quickly if users take advantage of the increased limits. If you don't install SkyDrive Pro there's no quick and easy way to save to the online storage outside of Office 2013 (I don't see manual upload via the web afterwards as an acceptable solution personally). What would be ideal would be a similar method to the Windows 8.1 Smart Files feature i.e. present everything to the user but download files as and when required. That way you get easy save to cloud but without massive amounts of sync traffic. Alternatively has anyone found a different way?

Bit of a thread revival but I had to Google this to check I wasn't the only one who thinks the current credential system is incredibly stupid! I'm working with a Surface RT and Office 365 yet everywhere I go the default cloud location is the personal SkyDrive, with my Office 365 account being treated like a second-class citizen in comparison. In some apps it doesn't even work properly (e.g. OneNote Metro version) Why can't Microsoft couldn't add basic Microsoft account functionality to their Office 365 IDs, just enough to use the Store but with no SkyDrive and so on. I can see many users saving to the wrong place if they use a Windows 8 device...

Thanks for trying it, much appreciated and glad to know it's not just me! If that is is the replacement it's basically useless as it only works on the default Team Site and we'll be making multiple site collections (one per department so quotas can be enabled etc) Found an interesting article that gives away what goes on behind the scenes and may be getting closer to getting it working - if you get a chance check two things - is your account in the "Members" group for the site - come back in 24 hours and try again (seems there's a timed sync involved to pick up changes)

For anyone who's got Office 365 and the Office 2013 desktop apps was wondering if you can try something and let me know what happens? Imagine you've set up Team Sites e.g. for staff or classes and a user wants to save into one of those sites (rather than the default organisation-wide team site or your personal folder) You've already signed into Word with your Office 365 account You create a document in Word then go to File > Save As and you should see SharePoint @ Your Organisation as the top option You should see two locations, the overall shared site and your SkyDrive Pro library At that point you should be able to do this... Login to Office 365 and go to Sites Navigate to a Document Library within a Team Site When you get the click the Library tab Click Connect to Office At this point the theory is that you should get that location added to your SharePoint locations list in Office but it doesn't seem to work at all Using the “Connect to Office” Button to connect to a SharePoint document library in Office 365 Bizarrely sometimes I get the SharePoint Sites folder created within my user profile but other times I don't. Seems like the only way to get the Team Site location to appear is either to paste in the URL manually or open a document from SharePoint. Either way it's not exactly user-friendly as a shared-drive replacement; I'd really want to be able to pre-populate the list but having found the location in the registry it doesn't seem something that's easily modifiable either.

Apple, sounds exactly the kind of thing they'd do

As trolls go it was a pretty good one, some thought gone into those examples

Go with Alpine or Pioneer if you replace the HU, both known for good quality sound