Technology Ramblings

Friday May 29th - MS released their latest Windows 10 Tech Preview - Build 10130. As always I installed on 2 devices - a traditional desktop PC and a 8" Atom based tablet. So one piece of good news with 10130 versus the experience with previous builds was that there was not nearly as much drama with the tablet install this time.   No Windows update errors - relatively smooth download and update.  The only complaint on the tablet is that as soon as the screen went out - the install appeared to pause.  So the day I installed - I started Windows Update at 6:45A and ran some errands.  Every time I would stop back there had been some progress but it seemed to be very slow.   The upgrade on the tablet did not finish until 3P and only because I monitored it.  Not 100% if this was a power saving configuration - issue - but the update would only run when I activated the screen..   But most importantly it did complete successfully without errors - so a big yea there... So some new v

During the week of May 18 - MS released their latest Windows 10 Tech Preview - build 10122. As always I installed on both a traditional desktop and an 8" tablet.   Once again from an installation perspective the desktop was a breeze and the tablet was a pain in the ass. The tablet especially.  First it took several attempts just to get the build to download with Windows update showing multiple errors. After some due diligence within the Windows Insider Community site - where several Surface Pro users had been complaining about their installations stalling at 18%, - I did perform what seemed to correct the problem which was using the Disk Cleanup utility to remove old windows build, temp windows installations and drivers.  So as I expected - the work around Windows 10 builds now is all about Universal Apps and cleaning up the UI.  Build 10122 contained universal versions of the MSN apps - so News, Weather, Finance Sports, etc as well as updated versions of Music, Video and XB

This week MS released Windows 10 Tech Preview build 10080 for phones - officially 10.0.12562.84.  I updated 1 device - a Lumia 635.   In a word - it's junk.  I don't see why MS even released this build.  It has as many if not more issues that the 10056 build released a month ago. I had to go through the same - install the update - then reset my phone to allow the build to applied again for most of the functions to work correctly.   As with 10056 - all of the MSN apps showed up as older Bing versions - then tried to update themselves via the Store - Beta app - but then failed for one reason or another. In fact some stated this app is not valid the phone. One nice surprise I got this week was I received WP 8.1 Update 2 via Fast Ring after I recovered by Lumia 735 via the Phone Recovery Tool.  In fact I like it so much I will probably not update it to 10080.   I see no reason to.  In fact I am considering using the tool to return the Lumia 635 back to 8.1 and see if I get 8.

I had been trying Windows 10 Tech Preview for Phone (build 10056) on a couple of Nokia Lumia 635s I own and after some fits and starts - did get them working relatively well.     So I took a gamble and decided to upgrade my daily driver a Nokia Lumia 735 to the same build.  The results were not very good... Even though the spec differences between the 635 and 735 are not that huge, the result was.  In fact the 735 has 1GB RAM versus the 512MB of the 635 - yet Windows 10 runs slower and it is much more deliberate between screens.   Yes I do have some additional apps on the 735 including Good Messaging - which is absolutely horrible I might add - but not enough to crimp the device the way this build has. The 735 has been experiencing many more complete hangs than I ever did with the 635.   The device will become completely unresponsive and requires a battery remove/replace and reboot to get back working. And as I described in my post on the 635 - I am not a huge fan of the new M

Some off-shore news groups have recently posted specs for two new Windows 10 Phones that appear to be pretty legitimate. With both phones - the one thing that is very clear is the increase in processor and RAM.  With 6 and 8 core 64 bit processors and 3GB of RAM, these phones are dramatically more powerful than any previous MS/Nokia flagship phones.   Screens will be 5.2 and 5.7 QHD (2560 x 1440) and both will have 20MP rear and 5MP front cameras with the rear supporting a triple flash configuration for improved image quality. Both devices will have 32GB of local storage + SD support. So while it is nice to see some new higher end MS phones coming out - it raises several questions. Will they still carry the Lumia name ?   This is going to be a tough choice for MS.  On the one side MS has had some success with the Surface brand of device - So not sure if Surface Phone makes sense or not...  On the other hand MS in some countries has done well with the Lumia brand - so ......

Back in 2007 I was asked to get involved in a new offering that MS was ramping in the Unified Communications space called Office Communications Server (OCS) which later became known as Lync.   While there had been a predecessor called Live Communications Server - OCS was a new animal and a bold move for MS. The goal was ambitious - provide a singular client and server capability that could support multi-modal communications including instant messaging (IM), voice/video and collaborative meetings as well as integrate with MS Exchange to support scheduling and voicemail.  MS also developed its own codecs called RTAudio & RTVideo that MS claimed allowed you to not have to implement demanding QoS capabilities on your network to get high quality Audio and Video In 2007, OCS 2007 primarily focused on introducing the concept of "presence" and the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) control and IM along with some some basic collaborative meeting capability.   But it quickly gre

MS today confirmed that the Windows Media Center app will not ship with Windows 10, effectively putting a final dagger into a product they stopped developing some 6 years ago...  Almost two years ago now I posted an article titled HTPC - RIP when I finally killed off the last of my Windows Media Center devices and sold my extenders and TV Cards off on Ebay...    MS has had a really mixed past when it comes to playing basic media files, from Music to Movies, to DVDs, etc.  In Windows XP, you had Media Player, then Media Center came along with a lot of ambitious plans around TV and Movie Libraries, etc - that peaked in about 2008 or 2009...   and it's been downhill ever since.  I remember reading MS Blogs about Media Center where MS folks themselves were saying go buy Plex or some other software.    I bought into the hype back in 2005 and like so many tried to make Media Center and Media Center extenders work as a whole home media streaming solution only to be horribly disappoint

MS on May 4 released a public preview of Office 2016.   Versus some of the previous releases this seem pretty complete.    I installed the 32 bit version on my Dell Venue 8 Pro Tablet running Windows 10 Tech Preview 10074.   I will install it on my desktop once I return from a business trip.   This is for PCs only - MS had mentioned a few weeks back a version for Windows 10 for Phones coming by the end of April - but nothing yet.... So first off - again installation problems.  Much like the IT Developer/Pro release back in March - MS does not provide a full ISO version of Office.  Instead you get a 20Mb or so executable that "streams" Office down to your machine. The problem is that it's just not very clear about what it's doing.   First you get a background notice that shows a level of progress that seems to stall around 65%.   Then a pop-up that says Office "streaming" - but the progress bar never moved....   It took two attempts to finally get it to

MS in pretty quick order released two builds of Windows 10 Tech Preview - 10061 on April 22 and then 10074 as a part of the Build Conference on April29. As always I installed Tech Preview on two different devices - a Standard Desktop and an 8" Atom based tablet. And I experienced what has been the case with practically all builds - the desktop was a breeze and the tablet a disaster.  10061 on the tablet especially.  It installed with no errors, but upon reboot I suddenly got a notice from Windows to enter my Bitlocker Recovery Key.    The problem was A) I had not even configured Bitlocker and B) even more problematic was the screen that requested the recovery key - would not allow the on-screen keyboard to pop-up to enter the key.... What a mess.   MS should be embarrassed by this.   First - who automatically turns on Bitlocker without the users knowledge and Second, who in their right minds, codes an entry page and then doesn't understand the context they are in and