Microsoft Paint Moving to the Store

You have been warned. Microsoft Paint is moving to the Microsoft Store. Egads! This may be part of Microsoft’s ongoing goal to slim down their operating system. But the hallowed “PAINT”, built right into the operating system will surely be missed by many. It has been a quick and easy way to resize images and well, digitally paint. It has been one of the originals for years!

But, yes, the Paint App can always be downloaded from the Store.

Internet Explorer 11 Crashes on Windows 8.1

It’s so shocking when you have a brand new ASUS Windows 8.1 hybrid touch, keyboard laptop, but standard web surfing CRASHES continuously. Who expects this? Probably not Apple users.

Anyway, I have Internet Explorer 11 on this Windows 8.1 ASUS. I love it, I really do.

IE-11

But one thing I noticed is that if I open up a Word Document off OneDrive, for example, and keep that Word document sitting around for a while, then my Internet Explorer will crash!

If I do NOT have Word Documents opened, no crashes. Weird!

So, a workaround is to close Word documents in order to surf the web without crashed. But is that the best solution? No. Word should be able coexist with … Internet Explorer. For the record I am using Word as part of Office 2010. I may try to edit documents online (using Office 365) as the default – this may resolve the issue long-term. At this point, I still prefer using the locally installed Word but I cannot handle IE crashes and restarts. So, another real fix is this: go into Internet Explorer’s Internet options, into Programs – you can see there is an HTML editing option. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY edits web pages in Word [the default]! Microsoft Word is the king of standard and advanced document editing, but it is not used for editing HTML pages. I do not care what anyone says otherwise ;>

So, do yourself a favor and change this to Notepad. This will not eliminate certain other types of crashes, for example, PISS POOR design on websites – something all too common these days. But it will go a long way to stop many crashes.

IE-11b

Silverlight Frozen on Microsoft Site!

I had the strange experience of Silverlight, a piece of … Microsoft software, completely freeze while on a Microsoft site [Azure Portal]. The message informed me that ‘Protection’ mode was there to defend me so I was not allowed to enter, or something similar. Gee, thanks!

I love the idea of protection, but shouldn’t Microsoft know that it’s own services are safe? In addition, why is Microsoft locking my page up completely? I was not able to click the “Allow” button. What a tease! Even “Don’t Allow” was frozen.

I even tried the trick of cascading all pages to see if there was a secret hidden pop up box or page. No go. Or should it (not) know about its own safety? Ok, what do I know? Silverlight is an ‘add on’ to Internet Explorer, a Microsoft product and in fact is now firmly intertwined  with Windows 8.

So, to be more concise: I am working on Azure SQL. I try to get into the Azure or SQL Manager to practice some queries on my new database, but I encounter the following, which you may not be able to verify through the ethernet, but I assure it is frozen stiff.

silv

Regardless, the only way to ‘solve’ the Silverlight screen freeze, is –

1) End the IE process via hard close within Task Manager

2) Completely disable Internet Explorer Protected Mode [restart of IE needed]. Go into IE Options, then Security tab, then remove all 4 checkboxes to Internet, Local Intranet, Trusted, and  Restricted Sites or zones.

Not much help, but you can try downloading the latest Silverlight version: Silverlight page. I already had the latest so I resorted to the 2 steps above.

To me, it is ludicrous that Microsoft Internet Explorer PROTECTED MODE needs to be disabled in order to get a MICROSOFT PRODUCT to work.

I love Windows 8.1 Cortana

It’s becoming a love affair. Once I started actually texting, setting up reminders via Cortana and making calls with her as well, I knew all bets were off. Siri who?!

But seriously, Cortana’s voice sounds surprisingly nice & clear, and the search is extremely fast – you do not even have to click a button after a few words are spoken. As soon as there’s a pause, she is off on Bing finding information or working the Apps per the given commands. Of course, you need to access Cortana in the first place. I was clumsily going through Internet Explorer on my Windows Nokia Lumia 1020. From there you can hit the tiny microphone to begin voice search functions. Basic search and some other functions were all doable with the previous version that was built into Bing. But now there’s a full App for Cortana. However, I either missed the prompt to add to my Start screen upon the Windows 8.1 update (very possible) or it was not offered. The easy fix is to add it: swipe left to open the alphabetized Apps list, go to “C”. Hold Cortana down for 2 seconds, then select “pin the start”. For me, Cortana is downright critical as my Lumia is not only fun, it’s a work phone!

You CAN just hit the search icon itself on the phone (the icon to the right of the Windows Start button), but I do like to have the App on the scree – it has news headlines flashing through periodically, which is useful.

So, after above is done, I held the start screen Cortana for 2 seconds, then dragged the App upward. For me, it belongs on top. Others may want it down further, but consider: Cortana can send texts, make calls, set reminders, set alarms, search for movie theaters or restaurants, and … tell you a joke. And more.

Open Cortana. Press the microphone to start. Before having fun, you may need to answer a few questions (your name, your interests, depending whether it’s been used or not), then that is all – speak clearly and concisely. Happy searching & functioning! Of course, you still type, the old fashioned way. This may be needed, if you’re at a loud concert for example.

Siri may be able to do some or all of this (not sure), especially with the new Apple releases coming out soon, but the bar has been set VERY high.