I give up! Several weeks ago, or maybe it was a few months ago, I said that I hadn't yet figured out how to justify buying a Microsoft Surface tablet. After all, I have a desktop system and I'm not likely to replace it with a notebook or a tablet. I have a notebook computer that's powerful enough to run applications that need a lot of processing power. An Android tablet serves as a book reader and Wi-Fi communications link. Yet here I am, the owner of a Surface tablet.
Overall, I'm impressed. That's not to say that the Surface is perfect, because clearly it isn't. But it is impressive.
It's light. Screen resolution is incredible. If you're looking for a Windows computer that's about the size of a paper notebook, the Surface is what you're looking for. The CPU options remind me of Goldilocks and the Three Bears: i3 (too small), i7 (too big), and i5 (just right). If I needed to use the tablet regularly to run Adobe applications, I'd be willing to spend more for the i7, but Adobe apps are more at home on the desktop and the notebook computer.
The screen is what really got my attention: 12.3-inch 2736 x 1824-pixel touchscreen display. The desktop has 2 27-inch monitors, each 1920 x 1080 pixels. The display on these large monitors looks rough when compared to the display on the Surface.
The display is incredibly detailed, which is something that the image shown here can only approximate.
Older applications, though, can be unreadably small on the high-res screen. By default, applications are set to be 200% of their standard size, but programs like The Bat and MediaMonkey have interfaces that don't work well. There are workaround for some applications, but they're just that -- workarounds.
Notice how the text under preferences is crammed together vertically.
I love the portability. This tiny computer fits in a tiny space. It has an astonishingly good audio system. Speakers that couldn't possibly put out rich sound actually do. If you spend a lot of time with your current notebook computer on your lap, the Surface might not be a good choice, though. There's a keyboard, but it just doesn't lend itself to use on a lap.
I have identified 3 primary dislikes. Even combined, these were insufficient for me to return the Surface Pro 4 for a refund; they are annoying, though.
If portability is important to you, the Surface is an incredibly useful computer. And it's tiny.
The original Surface Pro was 13mm thick. The Surface 3 crammed a lot of power into a box that was just 9.1mm and the Surface Pro 4 cuts that to 8.4mm while simultaneously offering a larger screen. The weight (2.5 pounds with the optional keyboard) is low enough that it won't wear you out as you walk from gate A1 to gate Z400 at the airport.
If you're considering the Surface, you need the (optional) type cover. It uses a magnetic hinge along the bottom of the tablet to connect, folds shut over the tablet's screen for protection and easy transport, and folds back in tablet mode. But you'll spend an extra $130 to add it. Microsoft really (REALLY!!!) needs to include this as standard equipment. Omitting it just to make the price seem lower is absurd, particularly in light of the abysmal on-screen keyboard implementation.
Have I mentioned the pen and handwriting recognition? I haven't, but I should. Even without training, handwriting recognition is surprising. The pen that's included with the Surface 4 (as the optional keyboard should be) offers 1024 pressure levels to make the response more like a real pen on paper. There are after-market swappable tips for the pen, but I've seen reports that some of these don't work as intended.
I also bought the docking station, which offers video outputs for dual monitors, 4 USB3 ports, and a network cable port. I haven't yet attached external monitors or used the wired network connection, but I have attached a USB wireless mouse to the docking station. At the office, I use the built-in Bluetooth circuit for a mouse.
Microsoft insider Andy Share, who has a Surface Book that exhibits many of the same issues the Surface Pro 4 does, says that he talked with the lead tech at a Microsoft store. See the full conversation on the Microsoft Support website.
"The update today is a general upgrade to the Windows 10 OS with new features, so the 1511 (build 10586.3) may not correct all of our issues. But the lead MS designers are in fact preparing a firmware update for the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. They asked the techs to instruct people to keep responding on the forum posts so they get a full spectrum of how our machines are performing or failing."
The display problem is apparently being investigated. Share writes, "It is present in the Surface Pro 4, new Lenovo Yoga 900, and new Dell 13 XPS so Intel must come to the table with a corrected driver for everyone."
If you're seeking perfection, don't buy a computer; if you want a highly portable device, the Surface 4 fits the bill.Perfection would be nice, but it's an unreasonable expectation. The Surface Pro 4 comes close and, despite some fairly substantial annoyances, it looks like the perfect hardware for people who need portability and power in a single package.
Additional details are available on the Microsoft Surface website.
The new build of Windows 10 was released on November 12 and your computer may already have been updated. The update had the codename "Threshold 2" and Microsoft publicly calls it 1511. The more accurate term is 10586, which is the build number.
To find out what version of Windows is running on your computer, open a command prompt, type winver, and press Enter.
Click any of the smaller images for a full-size view.
Press Esc to dismiss the larger image.
The first big change you may notice is the application window top bars are no longer all white. Many users, including me, found that it was all too easy to click the close button on an inactive window that was behind the active window. Now that the active window has an accent color, it will be harder to make that mistake.
One of the features that I saw weeks ago in a fast ring build has made it to the general release. Initially, the Start Screen allowed only 512 tiles. That has now been increased to 2048, but the real improvement allows medium-size icons to be grouped 4 across instead of 3. The icons are slightly smaller, but a 4-across grid is far more useful than 3-across.
Users can choose 2 wide icons, 2 medium icons and 1 wide icon, 4 medium icons, or 8 small icons.
Users must enable this function, though, and there's another setting that you may want to change when you visit the Personalization > Start section of Settings. Turn "Show more tiles" on to enable the 4-across grid and turn "Occasionally show suggestions in Start" if you'd like Windows not to suggest apps that you might be interested in.
Another improvement on the Start Screen is the addition of more features to the context menu for icons. You can unpin an icon from Start, pin an icon to or unpin it from the Task Bar, change the size of the icon, run the application as administrator, open the file location, or even uninstall the application.
Some applications in Start have additional functions in a section called "Tasks". In fact, you'll find lots of updated context menus. Right-click everything you see to find them.
Until now, using Cortana required a Microsoft account, which is something that worried some users. Linking information to a Microsoft account allows multiple computers to be synchronized and I consider that to be an advantage. If you don't, you can either disable Cortana or use the feature with a local account. Handwriting recognition has also been added to Cortana's growing bag of tricks. The Windows key and S (as in "Search") will awaken Cortana if your computer has no microphone or if you've turned off the ability to wake up the service by saying, "Hey, Cortana!"
If you'd like a plain background instead of what Microsoft refers to as the "Hero" image, you can turn it off while in the Personalization section. It's in the Lock Screen section. If you'd like to use your own image instead, check out the Login Changer at My Digital Life. You must create an account to view the content or download the application, but it's free.
Among the least important changes you'll find: Icons on the old-style Control Panel have been updated to conform with Windows 10's style.
If this update hasn't yet been installed on your Windows 10 computer, check the updates section of the control panel. The update process will take half an hour or more depending on the speed of your Internet connection, the computer's CPU, and overall speed.
Note that you will need to reconfigure some applications following the update.
Microsoft's Executive Vice President for the Windows and Devices Group, Terry Myerson, points out several other improvements in this first major update to Windows 10:
Microsoft Edge offers improved performance and security, along with tab preview, which allows you to hover over your open tabs and get a preview of what’s on those websites without leaving the page you’re on. Microsoft Edge now syncs your Favorites and Reading list items across devices so you can easily get back to the content you’re interested in most. And, Cortana will now notify you of the best coupons from retailers when you're shopping in Microsoft Edge.
IT managers largely refused to implement Windows 8 and Microsoft is trying to turn that around with Windows 10. Myerson writes: Our IT Pros know they can offer more. With this first major update to Windows 10, we’re empowering them to do so—with the first platform which spans all device types, enables management of both corporate owned and BYOD, and upgrades existing devices. Windows 10 is already actively running on more than 110 million devices including 12 million business PCs, and is compatible with the past while embracing our new way of working.
And Microsoft is taking security very seriously. According to Myerson, "Every week we see in the news another major data breach – costing organization’s productivity, customer’s trust and driving a real impact to their business. We know these breaches often take 200+ days to detect and we see the tremendous costs of them."
Security experts are giving Microsoft (almost grudgingly, it seems) some respect for getting security right. Myerson says that more than 2 million new malware apps will exist by the end of the year and Windows 10 was designed to protect against these threats. He cited several specific enhancements:
If the podcast sounds a bit different this week or the overall look and feel of the program are off just a bit, there's a good reason: Last Sunday, the desktop computer suffered a catastrophic failure that rendered it unbootable. This week's program was prepared using the setup shown here. Just a single monitor on a notebook computer with data on an external backup drive. The setup isn't what anyone would call well organized, but it works in an emergency.
I took the it to TCR Computers, hoping that the BIOS might be recoverable. It wasn't, of course. In the old days, BIOS chips could be pulled out of their sockets and reprogrammed. Now they're soldered in. That's a better method most of the time, because you don't have to be concerned with connections the pins make in the sockets. In this case, though, the fact that the BIOS chip wasn't removable means that the main board was just as much toast as the BIOS.
Was I high-pressured into buying new computer? Well, I could use an upgrade, I suppose, but no. Maybe I was sold a high-priced motherboard to replace the one that I fried (yes, it was my error). Again, no.
In true TCR fashion, Warren Mitts located a main board from a reseller on Amazon.com and suggested that I order it and have it shipped to them. Finding a new copy of a board that's no longer being made saved some money. The board will have arrived by the time this program goes live, but I won't have the computer back until at least Saturday. That's one day later than when I'd need it to complete this week's program. In the old days, radio stations had alternate backup studios that they could use if the main studio went off line for some reason. That's effectively what kept things going here: A spare computer and good backup.
This is a day of joy and a day of sadness. My mother was born on November 22nd. John Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd. It's a few days before Thanksgiving (in the US; Canada celebrated Thanksgiving last month) and 3 days shy of my wedding anniversary. Franklin Roosevelt and Elanor Roosevelt were engaged on this day in 1904. Elijah Muhammad formed the Nation of Islam in Detroit on this day in 1930. Four years later, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" was first heard on the radio. In 1968, Captain Kirk kissed Lieutenant Uhura in episode 65 of Star Trek; it was the first interracial kiss on television.
Other people born on this day: Robert Vaughn (1932, star of Man from UNCLE and I Spy), Terry Gilliam (1940, animator for Monty Python), and actress Mariel Hemingway (1961).
Next week TechByter Worldwide will take its annual Thanksgiving break and we'll be back on December 6.
