I’m writing this less than a week after the official launch of Windows 8. Lots of people are excited about the OS and enjoying the new experience, but as with any new product, there are glitches. Already I’ve been called on to help several people troubleshoot the worst case scenario for any operating system upgrade: the endless loop that prevents you from booting into the OS. We saw it happen with service packs on some XP and Vista computers, and it seems Windows 8 – despite its many improvements – isn’t immune.
This time it’s related to the first update released for Windows 8, that addresses some of the “post launch issues” people were having. It shows up in Windows Update as “Update for Windows 8 for x64-based Systems” (KB 2756872). I installed it on October 27 on my HP Pavillion HPE Core i7 machine with no problems, and it seems to have fixed a problem I was having whereby the screen would go black for a second and I’d get the “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error message at frequent intervals (a couple of times per hour).
However, I started hearing from some friends who had installed the update and found themselves stuck in the dreaded loop, with the update installation getting hung at 13% and going no further. Restarting just throws it back into the update installation, which again gets stuck at 13%. Big ouch.
Some investigation indicates that it’s happening to people with newer HP computers (mine is about a year old and apparently that accounts for its being spared this fate) and that it has to do with a driver. Folks were advised to uninstall the audio drivers and try the update again – but wait a minute. How do you do that when you can’t boot into the operating system?
Of course, if you’ve been around Windows for a long time, you know that driver issues used to be fairly easy to deal with. You just start the computer using the Last Known Good (LKG) configuration, or boot into Safe Mode, which disables most drivers. So what’s the problem? Well, you got to those options by hitting the F8 key during the startup process, thereby invoking a menu of advanced boot options from which you could select. So that’s what a lot of people tried to do, and that’s how they discovered that the F8 boot menu functionality has been removed. Oops. Welcome to Windows 8; it’s a brave new world.
We all hope Windows 8 will be a lot more stable than its predecessors (and so far, it seems to be) but this update incident proves that there are going to be times when we aren’t able to reach Windows . Why, oh why would they take away this trusty troubleshooting technique that we’ve relied upon for so long? Well, there’s actually a good reason for that – the bootup process on Windows 8 computers is so blazing fast that there’s not time to press a key and invoke a hardware interrupt. Okay, that makes sense. Heck, I’ve missed the short window of opportunity more than once when attempting to get into the boot options on a Windows 7 machine – unlike back in the not-so-good old days of running XP on a single core computer, when you had all the time in the world.
Windows 8 replaced the F8 boot menu with a new, graphical Advanced Options menu styled to match the TIFKAM (The Interface Formerly Known As Metro) look, shown in the screenshot.
Ah, but how do you get to this nice new options menu, and where do you find the options you’re looking for once you get there? There’s the rub.
If you do a web search for “Windows 8 Advanced Startup Options,” or “Windows 8 Safe Mode,” you’ll find plenty of documentation for this feature. However, most are like this article; they will tell you that to get to the menu, you need to start by using the Search feature in Windows 8 to find “Advanced Startup” and click “Restart now.” Ummmm. How are you going to do that when you can’t boot into Windows to begin with?
At this point, some folks were getting pretty frustrated. Fact is, there’s more than one way to do most things in Windows, and this is no exception. You can configure the UEFI settings on your computer to display this menu at startup, and in many cases Windows detects when you’re having trouble booting the OS and brings it up automatically (this is supposed to happen if Windows fails to launch properly twice in a row).
Some people were still confused after they got to the menu. There are lots of options there, such as System Restore and Automatic Repair, but these weren’t working to fix the update hangup for some of my friends – and they didn’t see Safe Mode anywhere in sight. Well, that’s because it’s not actually in sight; it’s hidden in yet another menu. The Windows Startup Settings selection at the end of the list doesn’t give any indication of what’s hiding behind it, but if you go there, you’ll see options that include enabling low-resolution video mode, debugging mode, boot logging, and – yes! There is the option to Enable Safe Mode.
Problem solved. Or is it? Well, maybe not, if you have a newer system that has a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of a traditional BIOS. When I showed my screen shots to some of the friends who were having problems, they responded with the news that the Startup Settings option didn’t exist in their Advanced Startup menus. Instead, theirs looked like this:
Instead of the Startup Settings option, they have UEFI Firmware Settings. “Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (if you don’t recognize that quote, just move along). According to what I’ve read, you should be able to change those UEFI settings to display Safe Mode, but that’s going to depend on what the hardware vendor has provided in the UEFI interface for that computer.
The good news is that System Restore is working for at least some of the “hung up update” victims, but the inability to access Safe Mode when you’re locked out of the OS seems to me like something that’s going to cause some serious problems. I’ve already received a lot of “customer not delighted” feedback on this one.
Tell us what you think. Did Microsoft go wrong by making Windows 8 boot so fast that no one can get an F8 in edgewise? Do you like the new “Don’t worry; we’ll decide when you need the advanced options and give them to you then” philosophy, or does it seem as if things are getting a little too dumbed down and Apple-like for those of us who want to be in control of our systems? Let us know about your thoughts, opinions and experiences relating to this topic in our forum or email me.
UPDATE: It seems my display driver problem is back after a reboot. I’ll be delving into that problem further and reporting back here if and when I find the solution. Meanwhile, let me know if you’ve experienced this with Windows 8 and if so, what video card(s) are you using? I have a pair of AMD Radeon HD 6570s installed, and I didn’t have the problem when running the Windows 8 Consumer Preview or the Release Preview on the same hardware.
Point of View: The Microsoft mobile dilemma
I’ve upgraded my Windows 8 computers to the final release and for the most part, I love Win8 on the desktop. Oh, I have a few gripes – I miss the elegant look of Aero and I want my gadgets back – but it’s fast and smooth and fun and after working with it for a while, I find my productivity is up.
Windows 8 was designed for touch screens, and I love using it on our HP TouchSmart kitchen computer. Windows 8 phone is the best Windows Phone yet, with an exciting new look and some great features, and it corrected a number of the gripes I had with Windows Phone 7. A whole slew of Windows 8 tablets and convertible laptops are either already released or coming soon, and a nice assortment of Windows 8 phones have been announced and will be available through most of the major wireless carriers for the holiday season.
You might be wondering, then: Why did I just buy a Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet running Android, and why am I planning to upgrade my phone to an Android-based Galaxy Note II when it becomes eligible for another upgrade next month, instead of one of those new Windows devices? It’s a fair question and my answer is that, like so many of my friends’ relationships on Facebook, it’s complicated.
Full disclosure here: As a Microsoft full time employee, my husband gets a free Surface tablet, so I’ll have access to one of those soon without having to shell out the dough. My son went out and bought a Lenovo Yoga 13, which is a Windows 8 convertible laptop/tablet, a few days after they were released. I’ve played with the Lenovo and it’s a pretty impressive machine. And it’s not only my family members who are impressed. A friend and fellow tech writer, Donovan Colbert, described his initial reaction to the Yoga this way: “I hate to be an Internet teen girl about this … but … OMG <3<3<3 :D.”
There’s a lot to love about the Yoga. Windows 8 runs beautifully on the powerful hardware (i5 or i7 with 4 or 8 GB of RAM). It’s fairly thin and light for a laptop (a little under three and half pounds) and has all the bells and whistles – both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out, an SD card slot. The 1600 x 900 display looks pretty good and battery life is around 8 hours – not bad for something that runs the full version of Windows.
Lenovo isn’t the only company that has been tempting me with its Windows 8 mobile offerings. Samsung will soon release the ATIV “smart PC,” also a Core i5 tablet/notebook. Its main attraction is the S Pen, which was the reason I bought the Note 10.1 and which makes precise drawing and masking in graphics programs a breeze. (Other Windows 8 Pro tablets, such as the Yoga, also support use of digital pens but the ATIV comes with one built into the device).
Another advantage of the ATIV is that its keyboard is detachable. That means you can lighten the load when you want to use it only as a tablet. The Yoga’s design is interesting but a little odd; the keyboard folds all the way back under the screen for tablet use. That means the keyboard is exposed on the bottom of the device, which is a little disconcerting (although it automatically disables itself when in tablet mode). I worry about the keyboard getting dirty and/or damaged in that configuration. The ATIV claims the same battery life as the Yoga, but it’s not available with the i7 processor or the 8 GB of RAM. Display resolution is better, though: 1920 x 1080.
One big reason I haven’t bought a Windows tablet is because I’m waiting to see what else comes down the pike for the holiday season. Will someone come up with one that combines what I like about the Yoga with what I like about the ATIV? Past experience says that will inevitably happen the day after I make the commitment and buy one. One way or another, a Windows touchscreen laptop and/or tablet is almost certainly in my future; I just don’t know at this point which one it will be. As for a Windows 8 phone, well … I’m not so sure about that.
Microsoft has made great strides with the latest version of Windows Phone. It has become a little less “Apple-like” now that you can use swappable microSD cards and the phones have multiple core processors and better screen resolution. Of course, 4G is the biggest deal for many people; no way was I going back to a slow 3G connection for a Windows Phone 7 device after tasting LTE on Android. Months before Windows Phone 8 was released – but after the specs were announced – I wrote up an article for TechRepublic giving 10 reasons I wanted a Windows Phone 8 device.
Nokia, Samsung and HTC have come out with some gorgeous WP8 devices. They’re sleek and fast and feel good in the hand. Why not get one as my primary phone, then? Here are my reasons:
- Ecosystem investment. I’ve been using Android phones for the last several years and I’ve purchased apps that I reinstall on each new ‘droid I get. Some of those apps are also available now for Windows Phone and some aren’t, but even for those that are, I’d have to buy them all over again. Sure, the cost of most phone apps is only a few dollars, but it’s a few dollars I don’t have to spend if I stick with Android.
- Still-missing features. Although Microsoft is catching up, and indeed offers some features that other platforms don’t, it’s still missing some of those that I like most about Android. For instance, although they advertised “turn by turn navigation” built into WP8, it turns out that doesn’t include voice directions. Say what? I’m supposed to peer at the screen while driving to figure out where to go? Google Nav is one of the functionalities I depend on most, so that’s something of a deal-breaker for me.
- All about the apps. As mentioned above, the ecosystem is important. Too many of the apps I use on Android aren’t there yet for WP8. This could (and I hope, will) change, now that Microsoft no longer has reason to withhold the SDK from third party developers in order to keep the phone features secret. But will there be apps for Google services (G+, Gmail, Google Voice, etc.) that many of us use on our Windows desktop and laptop machines?
- The freedom factor. The garden in which WP8 lives doesn’t have walls nearly as high as those of the iDevices. You can add storage via microSD and you no longer have to connect to Zune (shades of iTunes) to update your software. You have choices between different hardware configurations from different vendors and you can get a Windows Phone 8 (Samsung ATIV S) with a removable battery. But it’s still difficult to sideload apps, and you can’t browse the file system on the phone as you can with Android.
- Final Note. The biggest reason I’m not getting a WP8 phone right now is the Note II itself. It’s not the right choice for everyone, but for someone who really wants the “phablet” form factor (a device big enough to function pretty much as a tablet that also makes phone calls and is still small enough to fit in a pocket or fanny pack), it’s “the one.” I love my current Galaxy S III but there is a possibility that I could be persuaded to trade it in for a WP8 device (assuming a third party app adds voice navigation) if the Note weren’t on the horizon. But after careful comparisons of all the feature sets, that’s the phone that best fits my own personal needs.
The takeaway here is that, even though I haven’t rushed out and bought myself a Windows 8 tablet or a WP8 phone (and in the latter case, probably won’t, at least for a long time), it’s not because I don’t think they’re excellent products, and I still recommend them whole-heartedly. Many of my own preferences don’t apply at all to consumers or “semi-geeks” – only to people like me who want a phone that is basically a small computer on which I can have the same level of control I have on my “real” computers.
If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would go out and buy myself a shiny new Windows 8 laptop/tablet immediately, and I’d get myself a WP8 phone to carry along with the Note. The odds of that are low (especially since I never buy a ticket) but I do believe Microsoft is getting there, and will most likely eventually win me over in the mobile space. What do you think about Microsoft’s new mobile devices? Will you be buying one this holiday season, or are you waiting for the platform to mature even more? Do you prefer iOS or Android on mobile devices? What are the must-have features that Microsoft needs to add in order to lure you away? Share your thoughts, opinions and experiences in our forum or email me.
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