Windows 8
may not be the easiest operating system to use, but no one can accuse it
of being stingy. If you poke deep inside the new OS, you'll find a generous
assortment of software tools, many of which make third-party utilities redundant.
One built-in tool helps you calibrate your PC’s display. Another helps you
investigate system-stability problems. And yet another lets you record on-screen
actions to create tutorials for Windows applications. All of these utilities
are free and come preloaded in Windows 8, with no hidden add-on costs. (You
should be aware, though, that the Hyper-V virtual machine manager requires Windows
8 Pro or Enterprise, not the standard version of Windows 8.)
Have we left out any worthy built-in utilities? Read our list, and let us
know in the comments section of this article.
Windows reliability history
In the Windows 8 Start screen, type reliability, click
Settings,
and then select View Reliability History. You’ll go to the Windows
desktop, and a window with a timeline will appear. You can also access the Reliability
Monitor from the Windows Control Panel, by going to System and Security
> Action Center.
You can narrow down dates and specific apps for troubleshooting
when you use the reliability history.
The chart is interactive. If you click a column, you’ll see detail
text below. In my particular case, the reliability history let me know
when my Asus AI Suite stopped working—and, in fact, that one program
was the source of many of my Windows 8 app crashes. I have to note that
I never once saw an error message when the apps crashed, and when I
uninstalled AI Suite, I suffered far fewer stability issues.
Reliability Monitor doesn’t just report problems. It also keeps track of
when you’ve installed or updated applications and drivers, so you can pinpoint
exact dates and use that knowledge for troubleshooting and system repair. For
example, once you know the precise date of a troublesome driver installation,
you can roll back your machine via Windows System Restore to a date before that
driver started wreaking havoc.
DirectX diagnostics
While I'm on the topic of troubleshooting, let’s take a look at the DirectX
Diagnostic Tool, also known as DXDiag. In previous versions of Windows, DXDiag
was installed whenever you installed DirectX, which usually occurred when you
installed a game. But now that DirectX is part and parcel of the Windows 8 operating
system, DXDiag is included from the get-go.
DXDiag gives you detailed information on the state of your
DirectX-capable hardware and drivers.
DXDiag pops up a wealth of useful information for evaluating DirectX
problems. Under the Display tab, you’ll see the installed GPU, the display
interface (DVI, HDMI, or the like), your graphics memory allotment,
and so on. The Sound tab gives you information related to the audio
device and drivers. DXDiag offers a deeper level of detail than you
might find in Device Manager, and it's all specific to DirectX-capable
devices.
And, hey, if nothing else, it’s useful if you need to talk to tech support.
Display calibration
Out of the box, your PC monitor is usually too bright, and the colors
are typically oversaturated. That may not be an issue if all you do is spreadsheet
work, but if you’re editing photos or video, or even just watching movies,
you'll want to fine-tune the colors for accuracy.
Sure, you could spend $60 or more for color-calibration software and
hardware, and that might be money well spent if you’re a graphics professional
or a movie buff who's finicky about faithful color reproduction. But the
color-calibration tool built into Windows can give you most of what you
need, and you don't have to shell out the cash for additional software.
Checking the color cast of the grayscale settings is just one
of the steps in calibrating your display.
Type calibrate into the search box, and select Settings.
You want to pick Calibrate Display Color, which is usually the
top option. The color calibrator’s welcome screen includes a link to a help-center
tutorial. All you really need to do, however, is walk through the steps
and read the explanatory text. The first time you do this, don’t skip any
of the steps. The steps are, in order: gamma settings, brightness adjustment,
contrast adjustment, and color balance. (For more detail, check out “How
to Calibrate Your Monitor.”)
Application steps capture
Steps Recorder lets you record each individual step of a particular Windows
task. You can't record actions inside a game, but you can capture steps
in standard Windows applications this way.
In earlier versions of Windows, this utility was called “Problem Steps
Recorder.” Apparently, Microsoft viewed this program mostly as a tool for
packaging up user inputs for troubleshooting. The Windows 8 version, however,
lets users view the steps and keep a record. To run Steps Recorder, type
Steps in the search box, and select Steps Recorder.
You’ll get a very simple, small window.
The user interface for Steps Recorder is pretty sparse, and
reflects the basic nature of the tool.
Through Steps Recorder you can capture screenshots with every action
you perform: each mouse click, key press, and so on. If you’re typing in
a text editor (such as Microsoft Word), only the complete text will be shown,
not every keystroke. After you stop the recording, you can review what you’ve
captured and do simple edits. The tool saves the whole affair in a .zip
file, but saves the actual content as an MHTML (Mime HTML) file, which combines
different types of content into a single HTML file.
Steps Recorder creates an MHTML file containing screenshots
and descriptive text of the Windows user steps it records.
Steps Recorder is no replacement for a sophisticated screen-capture tool
such as Camtasia, but it’s useful for quick-and-dirty tutorials when you
need to communicate a small set of simple, discrete Windows actions.
Task scheduling
Task Scheduler is just what it sounds like: It helps you set schedules
for running specific Windows applications. A typical example might be when
you want to schedule a backup to run. However, Task Scheduler also lets
you create complex scripts of tasks, which can run in order and at particular
times.
For example, Microsoft uses Task Scheduler to set up the daily upload
of information on how you use Windows to the Windows Experience team. You
run Task Scheduler by typing Schedule, selecting Settings,
and then clicking Schedule Tasks.
You can create scripts of tasks, and then run them at specific
times, using Task Scheduler.
Some third parties misuse Task Scheduler to load and run apps on startup,
when simply tapping into the Startup folder might be a better approach.
So even if you don’t plan on ever creating a task script, it’s worthwhile
to visit Task Scheduler on occasion to see what applications may have touched
it.
Virtual machine creation and management
The Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise versions include the Hyper-V virtual
machine manager that was originally built into Windows Server. However,
it isn't installed by default. If you want to use Hyper-V, go to the Control
Panel, click Programs, and select Turn Windows Features on
or off. Choose Hyper-V and click the OK button. After
Hyper-V is installed, you’ll need to reboot the PC.
You end up with two applications: Hyper-V (the virtual machine manager
that runs the VM software) and the Hyper-V Manager, where you create or
remove virtual machines and .VHD (virtual hard drive) files. Once you've
created a VM, you can install any OS you want, including Windows 3.1 through
Windows 8, Linux, BSD, and others.
Note that the Windows 8 version leaves out a few features built into
the server version, including GPU virtualization (no 3D acceleration in
Windows 8 VMs) and some exotic networking features (such as fibre channel
support). If you were a user of the Windows XP Mode feature in Windows 7,
which used the older Windows Virtual PC, then Hyper-V can fill in the gap.
However, unlike with XP Mode, you’ll need a valid Windows XP license key
to install Windows XP into a virtual machine
The Last but not LeastTechnology is dominated by
two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt.
Ph.D
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