Home made oaty biscuits

Variation on a simple recipe for home made oaty biscuits :) http://ref.domstips.info/food/oaty-biscuits

Windows 8 setup tips for desktops/laptops

This weekend on a family visit, I was tasked with sorting out a new Windows 8 laptop which a family member was having trouble using. Time was very limited, and I don't currently have a Windows 8 machine to produce screenshots from, but thought the following notes from memory would be useful for others in a similar situation/my own reference in future (apologies for any mis-namings or steps missing but I think anyone reasonably able at using previous Windows desktops should be able to work things out from this if you couldn't already...).

The problem: If you've used Windows 8 on a desktop/laptop device you'll appreciate that by default, things are rather different to before(!). In this case to the extent of the user having trouble with previously simple tasks like accessing web-based email (which on their old PC was accessed via a desktop shortcut) and shutting the computer down.

The goals: Familiar access to email and web, and straightforward shutdown. Things like needing an (online) Microsoft account for an app store, having to use an app store in the first place, and having applications behave substantially differently to before were neither required, nor desirable, so I was basically aiming to get things closer to previous contemporary Windows usability without undergoing complex re-configurations (given time available, and the possible need to explain this over the phone subsequently) and ideally without installing any 3rd party applications (I believe there are a number available which will make Windows 8 more Windows 7-like but I didn't have time to try any out in any case)

The outcome: The machine was left with the tiled Windows 8 interface essentially acting like a full-screen, prettified version of the old start menu with one-click to open, on the familiar desktop, the desktop version of Google Chrome (with Google Search set as the home page) and one-click to open Google Mail in an application window (ie a web browser window with no address bar or navigation controls present). To shutdown: power button reconfigured from the ever-confusing (to me) default of 'sleep' to, erm, switch the computer off - like what power buttons on almost anything that isn't a computer do! This was achieved in less than an hour, so I haven't explored the advantages of Windows 8 yet...

Following an initial 'Ooh, err, what's this?!', by the time I'd finished I was more-or-less indifferent (tentatively!) to using Windows 8 vs 7 - once I'd configured the tiles as a full-screen desktop start menu it was actually rather nice to use (and I think on touch devices, including 'hybrid' touch/keyboard eg laptops it would be great), and I'm sure there is/will be good potential to adding/configuring 'live tiles' and having an integrated app store available. But that's to explore another time...

The solution/tips

Useful before I started...

The following bits of knowledge/discovery helped me out... (the 'Windows Key' is usually present two keys to the left of the space bar/next to ALT and generally has a little 4-pane Windows symbol on it)

• The old-style desktop can be accessed using the regular shortcut of WINDOWS KEY (held down) + D
• Pressing (and releasing) the WINDOWS KEY will display 'Start', which is the TILED WINDOWS 8 SCREEN
• Another way that you can get back to the 'start' screen is to move the mouse to the bottom-left corner of the screen and click when the mini-start screen graphic appears
• To bring up the 'Charms bar' and hence settings, the mouse can be dragged to the right (top-right, I think) of the screen and 'Settings' selected. While writing this, I did a quick Google and it looks like you can use WINDOWS KEY + C for the charms bar, and WINDOWS KEY + I to go straight to settings. 
• A google search turned up a rather handy blog post listing a load of shortcuts at: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/hyperyash/archive/2012/08/28/windows-8-shortcuts.aspx (NB, I haven't checked this out-was the first one I found and looks good)

Preparing/Clearing 'Start' (the initial/main screen with all the tiles on it)

A tile is basically a fancy icon - click on it to go straight to an application, but also some applications use it to display related information (eg live news feed previews).

By default, this had loads of tiles on it, which you could scroll using a bar towards the bottom of the screen. Apart from leaving some potentially useful/pretty tiles in place, I cleared most of the default ones (from the tiled home screen, I didn't bother to uninstall much). This is simple...

• Right click a tile to bring up some options at the bottom of the screen
• 'Unpin' the tile, and voilà - it's not longer there! 

...leaving 'Start' ready for populating with what we actually wanted.

Installing applications

We just wanted Google Chrome, and then a Chrome 'application shortcut' to load GMail as described earlier. So I:

• Accessed the Desktop (WINDOWS KEY + D)
• Used Internet Explorer (installed by default) to download Chrome (from https://www.google.com/chrome/ if you're interested)
• Installed Chrome (just the regular Desktop version, didn't look for anything to do with Windows 8 tile 'apps', which may well also exist)
• Importantly, the Chrome menu has an option to 'Relaunch...' in either Windows 8 or Desktop mode. We wanted 'Desktop mode' as this presents windows in the familiar Windows manner (resizeable, draggable etc)

Adding shortcut icons to the desktop

This technique can, I believe, be applied to anything that exists as a 'regular' icon or shortcut icon on the Desktop. It also means that if you shortcut to the Desktop, you can just access many things (double-clicking and what-not) like you use to much of the time.

First, I switched to the Desktop (WINDOWS KEY + D), then...

Setting up shortcuts very easy - for GMail, I first needed to create an 'Application Shortcut' for GMail*

• Open Chrome, and go to www.gmail.com
• Via the Chrome menu icon (immediately to the right of the address bar), select TOOLS > Create Application Shortcuts...

*You can do this for any website, although if you want a 'normal' web browser window, you'll need to create a web shortcut - which will open in whatever you're using as the default browser - instead: drag the little icon that sits within the Chrome address bar immediately to the left of the web address onto the desktop and name it as desired

Placing applications/icons on the tiled 'Start' screen

Anything that exists as an icon appears to have potential to be placed on 'Start'. I did this to Chrome itself, and for the GMail application shortcut:

• On the desktop (WINDOWS KEY + D)
• Right-click the icon you want to add, which brings up a menu
• Select 'Pin to Start'
• Repeat for whatever you'd like to add

When you return to 'Start' (WINDOWS KEY), you should see anything you've pinned, accessible via a tile icon. These can be re-arranged to suit. When you click things added via the route above, they will be launched on the Desktop, looking much like they do on my Windows 7 PCs.

Additional Chrome setup

Chrome can of course be configured to suit too, so in this instance I wanted Gmail and the Google Search page to always be available. This involved:

• Make the bookmark bar visible (Chrome MENU ICON > Bookmarks > Bookmarks Bar)
• Navigate to a page you'd like to show on the bookmarks bar (in this case, GMail, then repeated step for Google Search)
• Right-click the Bookmarks bar, and select 'Add page...', ensuring that when you do, 'Bookmarks bar' is highlighted before you click 'save'

Any existing bookmarks in the bar can be deleted by right-clicking and selecting 'delete'

This meant that Chrome, whether launched from the Desktop or 'Start' always had search and email available.

Shutdown/Power

You could add a shutdown button to 'Start' by creating a shutdown shortcut on the Desktop (a Google search should turn up the required info on doing this if you're keen) and pinning it as previously. 

We just wanted the power button to shut down so this, as with previous recent Windows versions, was simply achieved by locating 'Change what the power buttons do' (or similar), which as far as I remember was still under something like 'Power Options', which was under 'Hardware and Sound' in the Control Panel. I switched it to 'Shut Down' instead of 'Sleep'.

What's happening on domstips.info?

So with everything busy busy at the moment (organising social activities, devising games, working on creative projects. Oh yeah, and work!) not much time for updates here!

But...

http://ref.domstips.info/ still holds previous tips/notes, and I'm working on a plan for a slightly different focus to Dom's Tips in 2013 alongside some other exciting projects so hope to share the resulting notes/tips in the new year :)

Non-facebook signup to netflix

Don't want to use your facebook account when signing up for netflix (UK)?

If you're a facebook user, you probably can't see the non-facebook signup option. However, if like me, you don't want to use your facebook account, this can be overcome fairly easily using one of the two methods below:

1. Use a different web browser

On the computer I used to signup, I usually use Google Chrome. So switching to Internet Explorer (which I've never accessed facebook in on this PC) for signup gave me the option to signup using email address just below the facebook stuff.

I was then able to return to netflix on chrome and sign-in using my email address and password via the 'Member Sign In' button at the top-right of the page.

2. Clear your cookies

Alternatively, closing all web browser windows, opening your home page and then clearing all cookies should do the trick. If you know what you're doing, you should be able to only remove facebook ones. This has the disadvantage that you'll need to re-sign in and/or reset preferences on whichever sites have set cookies (which if you're like me will affect many sites you visit).

Android phone app favourites (updated)

My first update for a while (busy with work/plans, and also much fun stuff :) is some more favourite apps that I use on Android phones.

I've added a few tips including links to a remote phone wipe app, text message backup and a selection of alternative web browsers. Hope you find them useful! As usual, they can be found in the reference section of my website at:

• http://ref.domstips.info/technology/mobile-apps-android 

A few useful Android Apps

I've put together a list of the 'staple' free Android Apps I use on my phone for the functionality I need most often/find most useful. Currently this includes:

Photo synchronisation, online maps, ebooks, messaging (Skype), documents and email on the move and scanning of 'QR Codes' (appearing more frequently on posters etc. saying 'scan this code on your phone' etc).

My favourite apps listed at:

http://ref.domstips.info/technology/mobile-apps-android

 

Check out some small updates about using QR codes on your mobile phone, including a great reader by ZXing for Android and iPhone at: http://ref.domstips.info/technology/qr-codes/readers

A list of my favourite Android Apps coming soon...