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Windows 8.1 - Things you have noticed...

Quick question about 8.1 and two monitors:

What happens if I have two monitors and I want the Start Screen on both monitors without mirroring screens? What I notice is that while I can have the desktop displayed on one screen, I can have the Start Screen on the other. Alternatively, I can have the desktop on both screens (again without mirroring).

But I can't seem to have the Start Screen on both monitors. When I attempt to do so, I get the Start Screen on one monitor and nothing on the other - only a coloured screen (the colour is the same as the background colour that is on the Start Screen but with nothing else - none of the whirls or whatever those designs are called etc.). I don't seem to recall how this used to work before I updated to 8.1. Edit: Can the Start Screen be displayed on both monitors at the same time? If yes, how?

Btw, I have "extend these displays" enabled.

Thanks in advance.

Alternately, if you found my question too muddled, then can you tell me the various options for how to use dual monitors using Win 8.1 (so, for instance, if I want to primarily desktop bound, how would I optimally set up a dual monitor set up; Or, if I wanted to primarily be in the Metro space, how would a dual monitor set up work best? Or, if I wanted to use the desktop and the Metro environments, what would be the best set up?)? Thanks.
 
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You can have Modern UI Apps on both Screens but not the Start Screen, I've docked Twitter in its 1/3 Mode, had Modern IE next to it with Desktop and the PDF Reader next to it in 50/50 :)
 
You can have Modern UI Apps on both Screens but not the Start Screen, I've docked Twitter in its 1/3 Mode, had Modern IE next to it with Desktop and the PDF Reader next to it in 50/50 :)

Thanks. Can I have the desktop on one screen (secondary screen) all the time while the other has the Modern UI screen?

Why am I getting the impression that 8.1 (on a desktop machine) wants the user to use a single screen - be it the desktop environment or the Modern UI?
 
Sure... you can do that. On my 1080 display I can have 3 or more Modern UI apps snapped and one of those can even be the desktop.
 
Both my type and touch covers have stopped working. the track pads work but not the keys. I spent two hours online with MS last night and they cant figure it out. unfortunately I didn't create a recovery usb from windows 8.0 so cant go down that route. MS will exchange it for a new one if I cant resolve over the weekend. Will try the local currys to see if they will let me create a usb recovery disk from on in the store

Sent from the SurfaceForums.net app for Windows 8
 
Both my type and touch covers have stopped working. the track pads work but not the keys. I spent two hours online with MS last night and they cant figure it out. unfortunately I didn't create a recovery usb from windows 8.0 so cant go down that route. MS will exchange it for a new one if I cant resolve over the weekend. Will try the local currys to see if they will let me create a usb recovery disk from on in the store

Sent from the SurfaceForums.net app for Windows 8

Strange. My Type cover works just fine - if anything it seems to be a trifle better (which I am dismissing as being a placebo effect).
 
Strange. My Type cover works just fine - if anything it seems to be a trifle better (which I am dismissing as being a placebo effect).

Under keyboards in Device Manager it is showing two HID Keyboard Devices instead of Touch cover. Is there a driver for the touch and type cover that im missing? If so anyone know where I can get one?

I can get a new surface on exchange but it would mean a week without it :)- so I would rather sort this one out.

Sent from the SurfaceForums.net app for Windows 8
 
Under keyboards in Device Manager it is showing two HID Keyboard Devices instead of Touch cover. Is there a driver for the touch and type cover that im missing? If so anyone know where I can get one?

I can get a new surface on exchange but it would mean a week without it :)- so I would rather sort this one out.

Sent from the SurfaceForums.net app for Windows 8

I could be completely wrong on this, but my Type cover does not show up in Device Manager. I always use the TrackPad settings app from the Store to enable or disable the trackpad on my Type Cover. So, I am not sure that the Type Cover would ever show up in Device Manager. Note that I am using a Surface RT and not a Pro.
 
One thing I noticed as far as the lagginess of swiping back and forth in Metro IE. Although it is still laggier than it should be (i.e., any more than none) it is better if you turn off all Privacy Options that check things.
 
Before 8.1, I was getting 55 to 60 mbps down on my WiFi. Now most I can get it 18 to 25 :-(. If I plug in my D-Link USB Adapter I still get 55-60. So they have done something to screw up the Marvell Adapter. I even uninstalled it and flashed back to the latest Marvell release and still same problem. There is something else they have screwed up somewhere to break things.

I'm downstairs right now directly beneath my WiFi router. My D-Link Adapter gets 5 bars, my Marvell gets 2.

This is just inexcusable.
 
One thing I noticed as far as the lagginess of swiping back and forth in Metro IE. Although it is still laggier than it should be (i.e., any more than none) it is better if you turn off all Privacy Options that check things.

The lag in swiping back in IE depends largely on the site your viewing. For example, this site works great but other sites like gizmodo take a bit to refresh after swiping back.

As for WiFi, the 8.1 is better for me. After connecting at work, I would always be limited to ~1MB down (still get 14MB up) until I opened the wifi adapter settings, toggled some setting and re saved it. Then it would work fine. After the 8.1 update, this is not required anymore.

Finally, a big change that I noticed is that 8.1 remembers where you were at when you close a metro app. For example, if you are on the desktop and you view a jpg, the metro photo viewer opens up. In 8.0, when you swiped down to close the viewer, you went to the start screen. With 8.1, you go back to the desktop. This is very welcome.

Also, it turns out my printers were there after all. They just don't appear unless they are actually connected.
 
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