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Enabling the Windows Store

Technology, Tips and Tricks, Windows No Responses »

May 032013

If you are a user of the new “Windows to Go” feature of Windows 8 Enterprise edition, which enables you to boot and run the Windows 8 operating system off an external USB device, you may have noticed something odd when trying to use the Windows App Store:

In a nutshell: “Windows Store isn’t available on Windows To Go workspaces”.

How to fix?

This seemed odd to me, I can’t think of any technical reason why this might be the case, especially given Windows to Go still has the full formerly-known-as-Metro user interface. Then I stumbled across this blog article on the MSDN blogs site which pondered the same question.

It appears that the Windows Store is locked down by Group Policy for unknown reasons, I suspect due to paranoia (key term here is ‘Enterprise’, after all).

I don’t want to steal the thunder of the original article, but for brevity – the steps to unlocking require a change to the system’s group policy. Here’s a paraphrasing of the steps outlined in the original MSDN blog article:

Open the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) – for local policy
Go to Computer Configuration/Administrative templates\Windows Components\Store. Go to the “Allow Store to install apps on Windows To Go workspaces” policy.
Enable & Apply

Sometimes you might want to make this apply right away, to do so open a Command Prompt and gpupdate /force

This worked for me Smile

Note that this applies to the local Group Policy and may be superseded by a domain-level Group Policy.

Still no joy?

If you still have issues, perhaps you may need to make a registry change, first noted here. This may have unintended consequences but I can’t think of any off the top of my head, so why not give it a try (worst case, you can restore the registry value to the default):

Open the Registry Editor (regedit), you should be prompted for permission elevation (under UAC)
Navigate/expand to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Find the following DWORD value: PortableOperatingSystem
Change the value from 1 to 0 and reboot the system

If you’ve made these changes, of course you will be able to download the Sanders Technology Digest application – here’s a handy link.. Or why not try the Windows Store directly?

Introducing a Sanders Technology App

Free and Fun Stuff, Site News, Windows No Responses »

May 012013

Last month I submitted an App to the Windows App Store. The App, Sanders Technology Digest, is a Windows 8 App which uses articles from this site and provides full screen article views, content searches and better sharing support.

The inaugural version (1.0) has now been published! Click here to see the App on the Windows Store. If you are running Windows 8, you can use this direct link in the App Store.

The App provides a somewhat useful amount of functionality and depending on how popular it is, I’ll consider putting more effort into extending the app to establish deeper functionality. Here are some screen shots of the new app!

Main application / Share view

Article view / Category view

Content search

I’ll be posting another article with an overview to the App submission process, including copious amounts of screenshots.

The App is now live, and it’s free, so please download!

Microsoft Surface Tablet: RT model is almost here

Gadgets and Phones, Technology, Windows 1 Response »

Oct 232012

A front view of Surface, shown with a cyan Touch Cover, one of five colors available.

As you my or may not know, Microsoft has been touting its long awaited answer to the Apple iPad – the Microsoft Surface – for some time now.

This is Microsoft branded, Microsoft-built hardware which will come in two distinct flavours being a version running Windows 8 RT (on an ARM processor) and one running Windows 8 Pro running a 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 Processor (model not listed).

There’s a bit more info on Wikipedia, but the salient points seem to be:

The RT model has a lower screen resolution (1366×768 vs. 1920×1080)
RT model also has lower storage capacity options (32/64 GB vs. 64/128 GB)
The Pro model is slightly heavier at 2 lbs (just under a kilogram) and not as thin as the RT model
RT model only runs Windows Store apps whereas the Pro version will run normal Windows apps

“Works exclusively with apps available in the Windows Store.”

It seems that pre-orders have been exhausted, but those who have should receive their Surface around November 6th or later. The Pro version is set to ship about three months later according to some sources.

Technical Specifications

Windows Surface RT Specifications
Windows Surface Pro Specifications

Surface Overview

Links/Further Reading

Surface vs iPad 3 – http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2012/10/17/microsoft-surface-vs-apple-ipad-3-a-quot-hard-quot-comparison.aspx

Surface Pre-order (Australia) – http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msaus/en_AU/pdp/productID.257917600?WT.mc_id=FY13WinHH

Surface (US) -
http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/surface-with-windows-rt/windows-rt

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