Surface Pro 3 Tips & Tricks

[dniezby]

Mine just opens oneNote as well

Are you double clicking it? It works for me too. Maybe you're expecting something else. When you double click the pen, the screen dims for a split second, then you should see it open (quickly) OneNote and go to a shaded view of your screen. There on the top, it SHOULD say, "Select Region to Clip" or a button on the top Right that says, "Clip All" which will paste the whole screenshot in a OneNote page.

If you HOLD DOWN the Start Button and tap the down Volume button it will save the image (whole image) to ThisPC - pictures/screenshots

If you HOLD DOWN on the Start Button and tap the Up Volume it will turn on the Narrator... Another incredible feature.

My, "guess", is that you're not double clicking fast enough or you didn't sync the pen correctly. When I first got mine, it didn't sync correctly. I had to remove it, then re-sync it.

To sync it, hold down the pen button (purple) until the green light turns on. The light will be under the "shirt clip". Bluetooth should find it without a problem. Then try the double click screen cap method.

WHY USE THE PEN FOR SCREENSHOT?
Because it allows you to select specific areas of the screenshot to save. Using the Windows button (on the Surface ONLY) will snap the whole screen then you will have to go in an edit it to select sections.

Hope this helps.

 

[ctitanic]

Disabling Connected Standby

In the registry
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\CsEnabled (1->0)

(change from 1 to 0 and restart)

 

[HarnessTech]

Using the Windows button (on the Surface ONLY) will snap the whole screen then you will have to go in an edit it to select sections.

Yes, and if you have multiple monitors hooked up, you'll get all of them in one big screen shot.

 

[dniezby]

Yes, and if you have multiple monitors hooked up, you'll get all of them in one big screen shot.

View attachment 3443

LOL, That's good to know. I'll bet that was a surprise your first time.

 

[DeltaXray]

For everyone who is unable to double click and take a screenshot, make sure you have updated OneNote. It updates through the store settings rather than through windows update.

Open the store, swipe from right to left then hit settings then app updates.

There is a particular version of OneNote that includes this feature. For me the version shipped with the Surface just opened OneNote when I double clicked but after updating to latest it now takes a screenshot. Finding the App Store update page was a bit of a mission though.

 

[jimaiwr]

Another trick ( pls pin this to the top )

finding it difficult and annoying when you're in picture password mode but you want to type your password in and not touch the screen?

Hold down Home and press enter ,

Voila - your in password mode.

( i don't understand why it's so complicated to switch between sign in options microsoft! It should automatically select the mode...)

 

[bluegrass]

If you are tired of Ads, spyware, and god knows what else your browser is doing while at some web site. I use this host file to block unwanted stuff. I use in all my devices including Mac.

Using a Hosts File To Make The Internet Not Suck (as much)

OK. I followed the link and have read it over several times and I still don't understand what I have to do to make it happen.

I think I'm suppose to add a file to here:
For Windows 7 and Vista use "C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"

I take it the file I'm to add into the etc folder is hosts.

I also take it that hosts is a text file but I'm not sure what I need to paste into the text file that will be saved as hosts without the .txt extension. I than copy that file into the \etc folder. Where do I start & end copying from the link to make the text file?

OK. Maybe I got it. I just selected the whole dang page that opened up following that link. I copied it and pasted it into Notepad. I than saved it out as Hosts and after saving it, I renamed it Hosts instead of Hosts.txt. I than renamed the original Hosts file that was in the etc folder so I wouldn't lose it if I needed it back. Now I copied the new Hosts file to the etc folder. Anything else I need to do?

 

[darkyduck]

I don't know if this has been posted but I couldn't find it, so I thought I share it here.

Windows 8.1 does not 'really' close an app with the Swipe down to the right. It leaves them in 'suspended' state and removes them from the app-bar on the left. First I thought my swipe move was broken because I still could see the "closed" apps in the taskmanager. Then I discovered you have to swipe and hold (3-5 seconds, which is an enternity), then the app will 'flip' and be permanently shut down.

I've found this link on the web how to tweak this hold-delay-time. I've set it to 200ms and now the apps effectively shut down immediately.

*edit* fixed the link.

 

[hd94]

I don't know if this has been posted but I couldn't find it, so I thought I share it here.

Windows 8.1 does not 'really' close an app with the Swipe down to the right. It leaves them in 'suspended' state and removes them from the app-bar on the left. First I thought my swipe move was broken because I still could see the "closed" apps in the taskmanager. Then I discovered you have to swipe and hold (3-5 seconds, which is an enternity), then the app will 'flip' and be permanently shut down.

I've found this link on the web how to tweak this hold-delay-time. I've set it to 200ms and now the apps effectively shut down immediately.

the link is not working. can you pls check it again? thanks!

 

[Englando]

You can also go to desktop or another app and then swipe in from the left and then continue to swipe down in one movement. That would choose the last Metro app you used. Or just swipe from the left to see all open Metro apps. If you want to close one tap and swipe down on the icon.

 

[jimaiwr]

awesome tip for the closing app delay time. it never really bothered me but then again I always have to end up going to task manager and ending all these metro apps.

By the way, it'd be great if someone complied all these tips into one post.. ( i don't have adequate time to do so im a uni student doing a double)

 

[darkyduck]

You can also go to desktop or another app and then swipe in from the left and then continue to swipe down in one movement. That would choose the last Metro app you used. Or just swipe from the left to see all open Metro apps. If you want to close one tap and swipe down on the icon.

That was just my gripe. Win8.1 will hide the app from the left-hand taskbar so it seems closed, but it will stay resident. To really close you must hold for 3-5 seconds until it flips which is annoyingly long.