Windows 8 Upgrade Troubles

As some of you know, I installed Windows 8 on my computer back in October.  I’ve enjoyed Windows 8 and would recommend it to others.  Unfortunately, I’m also finding out that upgrading to Windows 8 is proving to be quite the challenge for some people.  I help people fix their computers, and I had two recent experiences that made me realize Windows 8 may not be the best for some people.

Yesterday, I had a guy bring me a computer where the Start screen went completely blank on his computer.  He had upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 8.  The computer was running well for about four to six weeks until he went to turn his computer on recently.  When he logged into Windows 8 using his Microsoft Account, he saw the Start screen load with his picture in the upper right-hand corner but nothing else would load.  He could access the Charms, but clicking them did nothing.  I tried pressing alt-ctrl-delete to access the Task Manager and managed to get his computer into the Desktop, but I could do little after that.

I messed around with his computer for about an hour logging into Safe Mode to see if there was any change and trying to do a repair to the OS.  Sadly, nothing worked.  I would have loved to keep working on the computer, but he decided to take it home and give Microsoft a call.  I hope he has luck getting it running again.

Today, I had a couple bring me their desktop that they have been trying to install Windows 8 on.  They want to do the upgrade to keep their programs and files.  When they run the installer, it goes all the way through to 90% then reboots and says the installation failed.  It then restores the computer back to Windows 7.  I tried the install myself on their computer and saw the same thing, which caught me off guard because of how far along it gets before it decides it won’t work.  A quick Google search reveals that a lot of people experience this issue.  Microsoft has a list of things to try prior to the install.  I’ve been slowly working through all of them to see if it will help.   So far, nothing has.

I haven’t given up just yet though.  I have a day off tomorrow then I will take another crack at it on Sunday.  I plan to spend some time researching the upgrade issue tomorrow to see if I can find anything else out.  I just think it’s depressing to see these upgrade issues occur to so many people.  I think more people would enjoy Windows 8 or start out with a better impression of it if they didn’t have to spend all this time just trying to get the upgrade to work.

I’m curious if any of my readers have had issues installing or upgrading Windows 8.  Maybe you are someone who refuses to upgrade to Windows 8 because of all these issues, or maybe you go the other route and just use a Mac or Linux machine to avoid the Microsoft headaches.  I’d love to hear what you have to say about it, so leave me a comment.

Trying Windows 8

Later this month, Microsoft will officially ship Windows 8 beginning the next era of Windows computing.  People have been talking about the upcoming update to the Windows operating system for awhile now.  Some people think the update is a good thing while others think it is the worst thing Microsoft has done yet.  Well, this is the Internet, so I’m not surprised to see the opinions ranging from the really positive to the really negative.  I have actually avoided forming any opinion on the new operating system until I could give it a try, and I have been trying it since last night.

My first impressions of Windows 8 are primarily positive.  I love trying out new operating systems (mainly Linux), so I actually looked forward to giving this one a try.  Once I had it installed, I was surprised to be greeted by the Windows 8 Start screen.  Unlike previous versions of Windows, you don’t immediately go to the desktop.  That happens to be one of the options (apps?) that you can click on in the Start screen.  If you check out my current graphic header, you can see a partial screenshot of the Start screen.  It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on.  This new screen is quite a departure from the usual desktop/Start button interface I have grown used to in Windows, but I was able to start navigating around after a few trial and error clicks.

The best way to explain what using Windows 8 is like would be to compare it to applying a smartphone or tablet interface on top of Windows 7.  Many of the Windows 7 features I have gotten used to do hide within Windows 8, but you have to figure out where they hide.  I realize this operating system has been designed for touch screens, but I don’t have one of those.  However, I was able to navigate the interface just fine using my mouse.  The scroll wheel on the mouse becomes a big part of navigating the interface on many different screens and Windows 8 apps.  Since I have been using a tablet for a few months now, I was able to figure out how parts of the new Windows 8 interface works, which means that people who have not used a tablet or smartphone may find themselves stuck and frustrated when they try to navigate around in the new operating system.

For example, I was completely lost when I first opened the new Internet Explorer (IE).  I wanted to start installing some of the programs I enjoy using, like Firefox.  I liked the fact that the new IE opens up full screen because I like browsing at full screen, but once the address bar (which is at the bottom of the screen) disappeared, I couldn’t figure out how to bring it back for a bit.  Hint:  Press F4.  I’m sure there is some mouse gesture that brings it up to, but I never figured it out.  I’m willing to try pressing buttons to figure things out because that is what I have become accustomed to.  I like experimenting.  However, I know many people will not like the fact that there is no clear directions on how to access things.  Hopefully Microsoft has developed a really helpful FAQ or help area that people can access (assuming they can figure out how to access it).

Once I had my bearings and installed many of the programs I enjoy using, I have been having a lot of fun.  I rearranged and set up my Start screen to meet what I like to do and click on.  I connected the desktop to my Windows Live account to take advantage of the connected features like email, messaging, and notifications.  Much like tablets and smartphones, you can connect Windows 8 to a variety of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to stay connected.  One big feature is the ability to share stuff easily with others.  Once you connect your Windows 8 computer to an account like Facebook, you can easily share photos and post status updates directly from inside of Windows.

Trying to locate things I am familiar with has been a challenge.  It took me a bit to figure out that you can right click on the Start screen to get the option to see all the Apps on the computer.  Once I did that, I found a lot of the stuff that I am used to like the Control Panel, File Explorer, and others.  It is possible to pin those to the Start screen.  Programs that do not connect in with the new Interface flawlessly like IE take you to the Desktop to run, which looks almost exactly like the Windows 7 desktop except for no Start button.  You can access different options like the sharing feature, Start button, and new settings feature by dragging the mouse to the top-right corner or bottom-right corner.

My one complaint is the missing close option in the apps.  That frustrated me for a bit because I don’t want a bunch of stuff running in the background if I don’t have to.  Basically, the interface mimicks a tablet interface by keeping something open in the background after you go back to the Start screen.  This is supposed to make it easier to multitask from one app to another, but what if I am done with the app?  Well, there is no easy way to close an app that I could find, but I did figure out that the key combination Alt-F4 still closes programs.  I found myself using Alt-F4 a lot to close down apps I was done with.  Hopefully Microsoft makes an easier method to do this, but I don’t really mind if they don’t because I don’t mind using my keyboard to do stuff.  Other people may not like this at all, and a computer that does not have a lot of ram could easily be bogged down by multiple apps open and running in the background.  I guess an app killer may become common in Windows now like it is on an Android tablet.  I should mention that programs that run on the desktop still have the usual X to close them down for now, but it will be interesting to see what happens when program developers try to integrate their programs into the new interface and how that will affect what people are used to.

There is still a lot for me to figure out, but I have been fairly happy with the new OS.  It will be interesting to see how others respond especially when the new computers start selling with Windows 8.  People who are uncomfortable with change will definitely not enjoy the new OS.  I can also see how the new OS will frustrate people who have never really tried anything outside of Windows and don’t really use a tablet or smartphone.  People who do use tablets and smartphones will probably pick up the new OS quicker than others.

Windows 8 comes out later this month, so I guess time will tell.

VirtualBox Not Exactly What I Need

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had an interest in experimenting with VirtualBox and running Linux Mint as a virtual desktop on my Windows 7 machine.  I had fun setting up the program, installing the OS, and running it for a bit.  However, I decided today that I would go back to a dual-boot computer.  While running a virtual desktop of Linux Mint was fun, I enjoy having Linux in full control of the system rather than running on emulated hardware via VirtualBox.  I also noticed a few bugs between the way VirtualBox loaded the OS and the way I would try to use it.  It came down to the little problems that made it more annoying to me to run anyway.

The funny thing is, I decided to give it a try, so I could run a few Windows programs in the background while I enjoyed Linux.  Unfortunately, I never ran those Windows programs.  I would just hop into my virtual desktop and do most of my computing there, so I realized that going back to what I had made a little more sense because Linux Mint would have full access to the system and system resources.

I am happy I gave VirtualBox a try because I enjoy experiencing different things when it comes to using my computer.  There may be a time down the road when I use it again.  I am thinking of purchasing a copy of Windows 7 to run in VirtualBox.  If I do that, I can completely wipe the OEM version of Windows 7 off of my computer, install Linux Mint as my main OS, and run Windows 7 in a virtual environment using VirtualBox.  I would rather do it that way anyway because I do most of my computing in Linux Mint.

Related articles

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Finished My Operating Systems Class

Today marks the end of my Operating Systems class at school, and I must say that I really enjoyed the class.  The downside to the class was the material was a little dated.  I was kind of sad by that aspect of it, but we made up for it by researching and writing papers on current operating systems.  Some of the class discussions confused me considering we were asked about stuff that occurred six years ago or sometimes even ten years ago.  In computer terms, six years is a very long time.

I felt that I knew quite a bit about operating systems considering I have been using them since MS-DOS all the way up to Windows 7.  During the last two years I have played around with Ubuntu, openSUSE, Linux Mint, Puppy Linux, and Fedora.  I never considered how major of a role the operating system plays in managing system resources like the processor, memory, and other types of hardware.  I was fascinated in learning how operating system development has changed over the years to take full advantage of processor use and improve memory management.  Those are things we don’t really think about as we open programs and play around on Facebook, so it was nice to understand how that stuff works and what works better than others.

One aspect of the class that I really enjoyed was learning about virtual environments.  I vaguely knew what a virtual desktop was, but I didn’t really understand it fully or had any reason to think about it and consider the possibilities of using virtual environments.  That is one reason why I decided to install Linux Mint on Windows 7 using VirtualBox.  I wanted to see what it was like to run my own virtual desktop.  More importantly, it allowed me to understand how sandbox mode works in some antivirus and antispyware programs to keep the computer safe using a virtual desktop.

Not only did I further my knowledge and understanding of operating systems, but I have also found myself using this information at work to help out my customers even better, which I found to be very rewarding.  We are told all the time that what we learn in school should be applied to our lives, and I find myself doing that almost every day.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I do plan to use this blog to help further my understanding as I continue with my classes at school, so expect to see some blog posts where I basically think with my fingers and write out my thoughts on what I am reading and learning.  As always, I look forward to comments from those who read my posts because some of you may help me understand my material even more.

Tomorrow, I start my database concepts class.  I look forward to this class because I have been wanting to learn more about databases recently.

New Year New Look

Since it is a new year, I decided to take a look at my blog and make some changes.  I tweaked a lot of settings, chose a new theme, and uploaded a new header image.  I even chose a tagline for my blog finally!  Last year I did casual blogging, and I am thinking of blogging more regularly this year about the things that I do on my computer.  I will continue to cover a broad range of topics like operating systems, games, programming, Web design, and anything else computer related that I feel like writing about.  Almost all of it will cover things I am interested in or stuff that I am actually doing on my computer.

I am also open to suggestions as well.  If there is a topic you would like me to write about or if you just have a questions, feel free to add a comment to any of my posts.  I cannot always promise that I can get to your topic in a timely manner, but I will add it to my list of things to write about.

You will probably also see more posts discussing the information that I learn in school as well.  I am progressing in my Web development program, and I am starting to really enjoy what I learn.  Since I am working on a bachelor’s degree in information technology, it will stick with my computer-related topics and ramblings.  I should have plenty to write about throughout 2012.

I am looking forward to the new year, and I hope it turns out much better than 2011.  See you all online!

Enjoying the World of Linux

I have not posted much during the month of May, so I will recap what I have been doing over the last month.  Today, I want to blog about Linux.  I have been using Linux since November of 2010.  Not very long because I had reservations switching to Linux on my computer, but a friend donated his older notebook computer to me in October, and I tried to get it running good again.  Sadly, the computer was so old and there were so many problems with Windows that I wasn’t sure if I could save it.  I wanted to do a clean install, but I did not have a Windows installation disc to reinstall, so my other option was installing a free operating system.  I had considered using Linux before, so it did not take me very long to go that route, but first I needed to find a distribution of Linux that would be good for a beginner.  After some research, I downloaded Ubuntu 10 and installed in on the computer.

I was amazed at how well the computer ran on Ubuntu 10.  The notebook is about 6 years old, and it ran like new.  I was excited to have a notebook running Linux, so I installed a bunch of open-source programs and started using it quite a bit.  I continued to use Windows on my desktop computer for school, but spent the rest of the time in the world of Linux.  Two months later, I decided to partition my Windows machine and install Ubuntu so I could dual boot the computer.  I loved it and was happy.

In February, I decided to venture out and experiment with other distributions of Linux.  Ubuntu worked well for me, but I wanted to see what else was out there, and I quickly found Linux Mint, which I fell in love with.  I thought it ran real well and had a familiar feel to the way it worked.  That is when I learned that Linux Mint is a variant of Ubuntu.  I laughed when I found that out.  However, I still enjoyed using it.

When the new Ubuntu came out earlier this year, I decided to give it a try.  I didn’t like the unity interface too well, so I went back to Linux Mint where I have stayed until recently.  When Linux Mint 11 came out, I noticed that my display on my notebook had some issues when I scrolled.  I did not mind it at first, but it started to affect my computing experience, so I decided to try another new version of Linux.  I heard a friend of mind mention openSUSE, so I went to the download page and downloaded it.

When I installed openSUSE, the first thing I noticed was that Ubuntu and Linux Mint had a more user friendly interface over the openSUSE installer, but I figured it out just fine.  I got it up and running with the KDE interface, and I must say that I am impressed.  I’ve dealt with Gnome since joining the world of Linux, so KDE is a new experience for me.  I think I like it over Gnome.  Things seem to run smoothly, but not as smoothly as Ubuntu 10 did.  Of course, nothing has run as smooth as Ubuntu 10 did for me on my notebook computer.  I’m not sure if that is just me not knowing how to configure Linux real well or what, but I do not mind too much.

First impressions of openSUSE:  The configuration was a little tricky to figure out at first.  I’m not sure if it’s the category setup or where it hides, but I spent about 15 minutes trying to find the screensaver options before going online to find out where it was at.  I have not had to use the online help so quickly before for something as simple as the screensaver options, so I was a little worried about that.  I thought that if I had that much trouble with just the screensaver that I might have even more trouble down the road, but I have not.  The only other hiccup I had was with my wireless card.  Once I had everything installed, I connected to the wireless router and the network manager stated that I was connected, but then nothing would a load.  A simple reboot fixed that issue.

I have not had a chance to spend too much time with the new OS just yet, but I plan to install some programs that I like to use next and see how easy that is.  I’ll write another post sharing my experiences of that and how I am doing at adjusting to openSUSE.  I’m still learning, so I expect some mistakes along the way, but that is all a part of the learning process.

Also I am open to trying other distributions of Linux.  If you have one to suggest, reply to this post and share it.  Explain why you like it and how it compares with the distributions I have tried if you have tried them as well.  I’ll read over the comments and see if there is one that I may want to try next.

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Minecraft Server Setup – Part 1

I wrote on an earlier blog post that I would upload steps for setting up a Minecraft server.  I have two reasons for doing this.  1 – I like sharing how I did things with others because I have discovered that people generally offer feedback in the form of making different suggestions.  Those suggestions usually help me discover a different or better way of doing things.  Therefore, feedback is appreciated.  2 – I have spent some time on the Minecraft forums, and I notice that many people seem to struggle with server setup.  This is understandable considering some knowledge of operating a server makes sense when setting up a game server, however, lots of people still try to run a server even though they have very little understanding when it comes to server setup.  I do not claim to know everything.  I am still learning myself.  The point is, it takes some some learning, trial, and error to figure things out.  If you are unwilling to learn some new tricks just to run your own server, then maybe this is not the best thing for you.

My server setup uses a secondary computer to host the server.  If you do not have a second computer to run a server on, maybe you can check out other online sources for instructions on that.  More people seem to struggle with playing and running a server on the same machine, so I avoid that route to make it easier on myself.  Okay, here is what you need to run a server:

• A second computer with at least 2 GB of RAM and and at least a dual-core processor.  If you have a single-core processor, you can still setup a server, but the server will not handle a lot of players and some parts of the map may take a moment to generate when moving around the world.  I know this from experience because my server runs on a single-core machine, but I deal with it because I only play with my family.
• A router
• Network cables

You need to know how to access your router’s setup.  If you do not know how to do this, I suggest you find the manual online to your particular router model and learn how to adjust the settings.  I will not go into detail with server setup because that is not the purpose of this article.

Once you are ready, I suggest downloading and installing the Linux Mint operating system on the machine that you will run the server on.  Why?  Because Linux Mint uses less RAM than Windows meaning more of your RAM can be used for the server.  Also, I have found Linux Mint to be fairly easy to setup and get a Minecraft server running on.  If you prefer to run your server on Windows, that is fine as well but this article focuses on a Linux Mint setup.  You will need to adjust for your operating system.

You should setup your server computer where you can run a network cable from your computer to your router.  I do not suggest a wireless setup.  Install Linux Mint on the system and install any updates.  Once the computer is fully updated, hop on the Internet and head to minecraft.net/download.jsp to download the latest server version.  You will want to download the minecraft_server.jar file.  Once downloaded, create a folder in the Home folder called Minecraft and place the minecraft_server.jar file in that folder.

Close any open windows you have and launch the terminal window.  To do that, click the Menu button and then click Terminal.  This will open a command line interface.  Switch to the Minecraft folder by typing cd Minecraft and then launch the server using the following command:
java -Xms1024M -Xmx1024M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

You should now see some feedback from the server program as it starts up.  Once your world is generated, you can use Minecraft server commands.  To see a list of those commands, type help and hit enter.  Now it’s time to hop on the computer you will be playing with and log into the game, but first we need to find out what local IP address your Minecraft server uses.  To do that, stop your Minecraft server by typing: stop.  Now, type: ifconfig and you will see a list of information.  You want to look for an IP address that beings with: inet addr.  In my case my system said: inet addr:192.168.1.110

Write down that number that you get from your system which will most likely be similar to mine and then restart your server by using the command: java -Xms1024M -Xmx1024M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

Now get on the computer you plan to play on your server with and open up Minecraft.  Click multiplayer and type in the ip address you got earlier.  In my game I would type 192.168.1.110 and then log in.  If everything worked correctly, you should now be logged into your game.  Have fun!

Note: The IP address may change the next time your router starts up again or anytime it is reset.  You can either look up your IP address on your Server machine every time your connection has trouble or you can setup a static address for your server.  Additionally, if you want others to play on your server, you need to set up your router to route incoming traffic to your server via port forwarding.  I will cover information like that in Part 2.