Excerpted From PCWorld
Windows 8 may not be the easiest operating system to use, but no one can accuse it of being stingy. If you poke deep inside the new OS, you’ll find a generous assortment of software tools, many of which make third-party utilities redundant. One built-in tool helps you calibrate your PC’s display. Another helps you investigate system-stability problems. And yet another lets you record on-screen actions to create tutorials for Windows applications. All of these utilities are free and come preloaded in Windows 8, with no hidden add-on costs. (You should be aware, though, that the Hyper-V virtual machine manager requires Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise, not the standard version of Windows 8.)
And here they are
Windows reliability history
In the Windows 8 Start screen, type reliability, click Settings, and then select View Reliability History. You’ll go to the Windows desktop, and a window with a timeline will appear.
Reliability Monitor doesn’t just report problems. It also keeps track of when you’ve installed or updated applications and drivers, so you can pinpoint exact dates and use that knowledge for troubleshooting and system repair. For example, once you know the precise date of a troublesome driver installation, you can roll back your machine via Windows System Restore to a date before that driver started wreaking havoc.
DirectX diagnostics
While I’m on the topic of troubleshooting, let’s take a look at the DirectX Diagnostic Tool,
also known as DXDiag. In previous versions of Windows, DXDiag was installed whenever you
installed DirectX, which usually occurred when you installed a game. But now that DirectX is
part and parcel of the Windows 8 operating system, DXDiag is included from the get-go.
DXDiag pops up a wealth of useful information for evaluating DirectX problems. Under the Display
tab, you’ll see the installed GPU, the display interface (DVI, HDMI, or the like), your graphics
memory allotment, and so on. The Sound tab gives you information related to the audio device and
drivers. DXDiag offers a deeper level of detail than you might find in Device Manager, and it’s
all specific to DirectX-capable devices.
Display calibration
Out of the box, your PC monitor is usually too bright, and the colors are typically
over-saturated. That may not be an issue if all you do is spreadsheet work, but if you’re editing
photos or video, or even just watching movies, you’ll want to fine-tune the colors for accuracy.
Sure, you could spend $60 or more for color-calibration software and hardware, and that might be
money well spent if you’re a graphics professional or a movie buff who’s finicky about faithful
color reproduction. But the color-calibration tool built into Windows can give you most of what
you need, and you don’t have to shell out the cash for additional software
Application steps capture
Through Steps Recorder you can capture screenshots with every action you perform: each mouse
click, key press, and so on. If you’re typing in a text editor (such as Microsoft Word), only
the complete text will be shown, not every keystroke. After you stop the recording, you can
review what you’ve captured and do simple edits. The tool saves the whole affair in a .zip file,
but saves the actual content as an MHTML (Mime HTML) file, which combines different types of
content into a single HTML file.
Steps Recorder is no replacement for a sophisticated screen-capture tool such as Camtasia, but
it’s useful for quick-and-dirty tutorials when you need to communicate a small set of simple,
discrete Windows actions.
Task scheduling
Task Scheduler is just what it sounds like: It helps you set schedules for running specific
Windows applications. A typical example might be when you want to schedule a backup to run.
However, Task Scheduler also lets you create complex scripts of tasks, which can run in order
and at particular times.
For example, Microsoft uses Task Scheduler to set up the daily upload of information on how you
use Windows to the Windows Experience team. You run Task Scheduler by typing Schedule, selecting
Settings, and then clicking Schedule Tasks.
Some third parties misuse Task Scheduler to load and run apps on startup, when simply tapping
into the Start-up folder might be a better approach. So even if you don’t plan on ever creating a
task script, it’s worthwhile to visit Task Scheduler on occasion to see what applications may
have touched it.
Virtual machine creation and management
The Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise versions include the Hyper-V virtual machine manager that was
originally built into Windows Server. However, it isn’t installed by default. If you want to use
Hyper-V, go to the Control Panel, click Programs, and select Turn Windows Features on or off.
Choose Hyper-V and click the OK button. After Hyper-V is installed, you’ll need to reboot the
PC.You end up with two applications: Hyper-V (the virtual machine manager that runs the VM
software) and the Hyper-V Manager, where you create or remove virtual machines and .VHD (virtual
hard drive) files. Once you’ve created a VM, you can install any OS you want, including Windows
3.1 through Windows 8, Linux, BSD, and others.
Note that the Windows 8 version leaves out a few features built into the server version,
including GPU vitalization (no 3D acceleration in Windows 8 VMs) and some exotic networking
features (such as fibre channel support). If you were a user of the Windows XP Mode feature in
Windows 7, which used the older Windows Virtual PC, then Hyper-V can fill in the gap. However,
unlike with XP Mode, you’ll need a valid Windows XP license key to install Windows XP into a
virtual machine.
For system questions and concerns, call the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us.
-Bryan