Database Users

[Q] A few questions about what microsoft might have forgotten inside windows8

Hi,
First of all, I didn't try windows8 until now, I just downloaded the ISO but I still have to work for 7 hours so there's a lot of time left till installation.
Most of you might have already tried it, so I thought you could give me a few hints about things the internet doesn't seem to care to much.
1. Keyboard usability
I am an hardcore-keyboard-guy. I prefer using ALT+KEY and things like that for lots of shortcuts to work faster... It depends on what program I am, I touch the mouse once an hour.
Since the new UI seems to be very touchscreen related, did microsoft miss some keyboard-only-workflow stuff inside windows8 or is it still like in 7?
2. Drivers
As far as stated on various different german websites, there should be a good driver compatibility between windows 7 and windows 8, can you agree with that? I have a few devices that must work on every OS I am currently sitting on, maybe some of you have the same and can tell me:
- AMD Radeon HD 7770 (already found catalyst for win8, should be no problem)
- Refine Cutter (never worked under win7, using it inside an XP VM, would be awesome if re-usable in win8, also I am not beliving in it.)
- HP LaserJet 5 P (Printer, old as dinosaur... still works under 7... I hope support won't be dropped in windows8)
- Xerox WorkCentre M128 Pro (Another old printer, still working under windows7 with some issues...)
- LightScribe device (I belive, it will work.)
That's it, maybe I am lucky and there is some random people here using the same hardware...

I have an HP Deskjet 1050 and there are no drivers for it in Windows 8. I only got it a few months ago so it's a bit frustrating, but I imagine once it's officially released HP will get on top of it... or at least I hope so. I can't really comment on the others, but my 6970 is running along happily on the latest catalyst drivers. I can only imagine a newer card would be as well supported.

firstly drivers, most drivers will work ok, Win 7 drivers will in many cases work, the only thing I have found to be a pain just now is Audio drivers. I cant get my sound card to work at all despite the several different avenues ive tried.
If you have issues with win 7 drivers its usually because Win 8 version number doesn't appear in the INF files, in the past ive just added a new entry in to the INF file for Windows 8, then point that new entry to the windows 7 driver files. Its fairly straight forward stuff.....except for the bloody audio driver that is!!! GRR!
as for your first question
Keys are key in win 8 ( get it?!)
no seriously, everyone keeps banging on about Win 8 being touch this and that, but actually its fine without it, the whole concept of using a mouse is so cumbersome as you probably already know, If anything Win 8 has added to the keyboard abilities, using them makes it even better.

Knowing your keyboard shortcuts makes using win8 much easier to use. Mouse gestures like hovering over the side of the screen is more of a hassle compared to keyboard shortcuts.
I installed all the drivers I have on windows 7 to windows 8 and experienced no problems.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

[Q] Run Minecraft in windows 8?

Hey guys,
Can anyone help me run minecraft in windows 8? i just get the 'bad video card' error
what do i need to do?

Try to reinstall java.
Sent from my HTC Sensation using xda premium

midgetman7782 said:
Hey guys,
Can anyone help me run minecraft in windows 8? i just get the 'bad video card' error
what do i need to do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Answred your own question, If it is a laptop, Take it to the nearest PC parts shop.

If it's an AMD card, make sure you download the Windows 8 beta drivers from AMD, I think Nvidia has them too but I'm not sure.

Cheers I will try that tonight
Sent from my Wildfire S A510e using xda app-developers app

Install the Windows 7 version of your display drivers. The default Microsoft Display Drivers do not have OpenGL support.

Hi!
If you have an old ATI Video Card
Check This
If you have a newer ATI Radeon HD
Check This
Otherwise if you have Nvidia do automatic detection

minecraft in w8
I have a hp probook 4520 s with an intel hd graphics and when i tried to run minecraft it gave me a error related to drivers... i tried to install intel drivers but nothing D:
so i came back to windows 7

With Intel, either run the driver installer in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode or if your manufacturer packages them in a SFX package, extract it and run the installer in compatibility.
In some rare cases, you'll have to manually install it via Device Manager

I have an HP Pavilion dv7, the one with the switchable graphics, all I did was change the switchable graphics mode to Fixed in the BIOS, then installed the latest leshcat modded ATi drivers under Windows 7 compatibility. I didn't even have to install the Windows 8 drivers from ATi.
EDIT: The LESHCAT modded drivers are for AMD/ATi Radeon models WITH switchable graphics. If you do not have switchable graphics, don't use this. This applies to most HP Pavilion DV series notebooks.
This actually solved a Minecraft issue I had myself. It would always crashed mid-game, screen would flicker and tell me that the drivers stopped responding. These Leshcat drivers fixed that problem.
I hope this was in any way helpful to you, but if you have issues like this, please post your PC's specs so you can get a quicker and more reliable answer.

Problem graphic card windows 8

Hi everybody, i have a big and noisy problem! Today i installed on my desktop pc the ultimate version of windows 8! It'a all great, but here is the problem: i have a ATI RADEON HD 4850 graphic card. I don't know why its fan speed is always at 100% unless i use softwares like speedfan and ohter... so after the installation of the new OS i download speedfan but the graphic cards there isn't.... so i tought it was a problem of drivers, and i installed the last catalyst center (it is possibile decide manually the speed fan even from it) but it can't work!!! it doens't open!!! what can i do???it is too noisy!
i've red somewhere that AMD drop the support for HD4000 series on windows 8... it mean that i ve no possibilities to regulate the speedfan???

no one??? (((((((((((

You made sure you have the right drivers? For my 5750 I think I have w7 drivers but they work find but on my C-60 APU (6290) they're windows 8 ones and CCC looks totally different.
X10man
Sent from my U20i using xda premium

can you try this link..it may help you..http://www2.ati.com/drivers/legacy/amd_catalyst_12.6_legacy_win8.exe

Ok i didnt have the fan problem, but i know how to get Catalyst open . what you have to do is uninstall ALL the drivers. Then, go installing drivers until you find one that catalyst works on (i think it was 9.11 or something). Once that is done, you can update the drivers WITHOUT updating catalyst. If you just update drivers, catalyst still opens perfectly

[Q] Will Windows 7 driver and ccc will work on windows 8?

I am using ati mobility radeon 5650 on a vaio VPCEB46FG and running windows 7 home premium.
When i checked with the Official Windows 8 upgrade tool from microsoft it said that ccc have to be reinstalled, but it showed that device is compatible. The problem is i cannot use the drivers provided by the AMD bcoz of switchable graphics, have to rely on sony for that driver for windows8 compatibility, and they are not releasing the drivers.
So will the drivers for windows 7 and catalyst control center work on windows 8.

gowthamachandran said:
I am using ati mobility radeon 5650 on a vaio VPCEB46FG and running windows 7 home premium.
When i checked with the Official Windows 8 upgrade tool from microsoft it said that ccc have to be reinstalled, but it showed that device is compatible. The problem is i cannot use the drivers provided by the AMD bcoz of switchable graphics, have to rely on sony for that driver for windows8 compatibility, and they are not releasing the drivers.
So will the drivers for windows 7 and catalyst control center work on windows 8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had problems with that on the CP and RP, id might be possible to force the AMD drivers to accept your graphics card as one of their own.
I don't have time just not to go through it all but basically if you look at the amd drivers, you will see an INF file with a list of supported devices and their device IDs, essentially you will replace the device ID of a similar card with your device ID, uninstall the drivers you have, and when you install the AMD ones it should think your device is now supported....
In Theory :laugh:

dazza9075 said:
I had problems with that on the CP and RP, id might be possible to force the AMD drivers to accept your graphics card as one of their own.
I don't have time just not to go through it all but basically if you look at the amd drivers, you will see an INF file with a list of supported devices and their device IDs, essentially you will replace the device ID of a similar card with your device ID, uninstall the drivers you have, and when you install the AMD ones it should think your device is now supported....
In Theory :laugh:
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Click to collapse
I would love to hear more about this method. My laptop too has the AMD switchable graphics & for the moment am stuck on the Intel HD graphics as the AMD drivers are not installing.

sidthegreatest said:
I would love to hear more about this method. My laptop too has the AMD switchable graphics & for the moment am stuck on the Intel HD graphics as the AMD drivers are not installing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, we know it is a AMD/ATI chipset, do you know what its based on?
Download the latest AMD drivers for win 8
When you run it, it will copy all the guff it needs to a folder, for example
C:\AMD\AMD_Catalyst_12.9_Beta\Packages\Drivers\Display
you should have two folders
W8_INF
W86A_INF
one is 32bit one is 64bit
lets take the 32bit one, the same applies to 64 anyway
you will see 3 INF files, these are for different versions of windows, id change all three but you should be able to get away with changing
CE146933.INF which is Win 8 version
this file is EPIC in size, the first bit you are looking for looks like this
(This is an example, until I know which card you have I cant be sure which to use)
"%AMD68B8.1%" = ati2mtag_Evergreen, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68B8&SUBSYS_30001002
Note the bold black on the left and the bold red on the right, the red one is a unique ID code for a piece of hardware, the bold black code is a number that is tied to that hardware ID and assigns it a Name, the Green is the important bit and tells it what it install. In short, if that hardware ID was detected it would load the driver settings for the device "AMD68B8.1" using settings ati2mtag_Evergreen
if you look at the very bottom of the INF you can see a list of what those codes mean, in this example it translates to
AMD68B8.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series"
What is happening at the moment is that the driver is loading, and not detecting the hardware ID, because its not listed it fails to install
what we want to do is to fool the driver in to thinking that your hardware ID IS in the driver.
in theory its simple, in practice there can be a number of things that stop it working, like getting CCC working may be an issue but there you have it, that's the basics of what you can try, it may not work though so don't hold your breath

I had to jump through a crazy number of hoops to get AMD's drivers working on my notebook's 5650 with switchable graphics - and it's unfortunately all because AMD insist on running pre-installation checks. The drivers work, but they don't let you use them.
It eventually worked when updated my notebook from 7 to the RP, and chose to keep drivers installed during the process. I then reinstalled CCC, as the update wiped it out. My driver version is 8.692.1.0, and is dated 22/01/2010.
Switchable graphics works, but I can't right click on the desktop to open the program. I need to run CCC, and then navigate to switchable graphics.
I highly recommend this approach of using switchable graphics - if it works for you. AMD drivers for this are an unmitigated disaster, and any attempts to get a better situation may leave you worse off. Expect lots and lots of 'Install was successful' messages - even though nothing was actually done at all.
If your Windows 7 GPU drivers are working in Windows 8, you'll see the following in Device Manager:
-When GPU is disabled, "Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator HD" appears in Device Manager.
-When using the GPU, "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650" and the above Intel graphics appear under Device Manager.
Remember that your Intel drivers must be working too - they're part of the switchable graphics. If you see 'engineering sample' or anything next to the driver name, then something is probably wrong.
Anyway, this is just confirming that W7 drivers do work perfectly, if you bypass the OS version check.
If you manage to get W8 drivers to have switchable graphics, that's excellent.
I'll be happily updating my notebook to the full W8 release in about 2 weeks. I am expecting great pain.

The CCC I used was the CCC pro off of their website. I ran all the apps in w7 compatibility mode. Took about 1-2 days. I'm running a never released ati 4600 series so I designed my drivers.... it was very fun
Sent from my SGH-T989 on Jelly Bean goodness!

same probleme here with my sony vaio e series vpcea36ff
cant find the driver of my graphique card 5650 hd

sahhar1993 said:
same probleme here with my sony vaio e series vpcea36ff
cant find the driver of my graphique card 5650 hd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also couldnt update my drivers when switched from Win 7 ultimate to Win 8 pro.
SOLUTION :- go to device manager and right click the desired device to click " update drivers" and it will automatically search interne tfor the drivers and everything will work fine !!
I tried this method after installing all the available updates from the microsoft through windows update service !!
Running DELL Vostro 1550

aayush_neov said:
I also couldnt update my drivers when switched from Win 7 ultimate to Win 8 pro.
SOLUTION :- go to device manager and right click the desired device to click " update drivers" and it will automatically search interne tfor the drivers and everything will work fine !!
I tried this method after installing all the available updates from the microsoft through windows update service !!
Running DELL Vostro 1550
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you using ATI MOBILITY RADEON graphics 5650 card?
I think your solution will work, bcoz windows is saying that graphics card is compatible with windows 8, but only thing it says is ccc has to be reinstalled..
I ve not bought windows 8 for now. So those who use the vaio VPCE series please try windows update or install the drivers from sony and report back..

Resurrection of the HTC Shift

I resurrected my HTC Shift to something noble in this pandemic: platform of old strategy games.
Running beautiful.
https://youtu.be/V9AadusOpMk

Very nice. Are you going to make any more videos?
When I get Windows 7 back on my Shift it's also going to be a dedicated retro games machine.
I have Windows 7 and Windows 10 on bootable USB sticks. In the past these have worked with my HTC Shift, but ever since I installed XP they boot and start but then reboot again. I suspect the HDD partitions are incompatible. I don't have an external DVD drive. Anyone know a solution to this sticky situation so that I can get Windows 7 back on my HTC Shift?

Recreate as partitions for Linux (a Live CD) and try to reinstall with USB.
I install on HTC via USB with Windows 7. I preferred the performance of it with the 7 over the 8 or 10.
About videos, yes, I'll post other videos of retro games. The idea is to use it as a platform for RPG and strategy games from the 90s. I'm solving some classic Starcraft problems, but other games are running very well. It together with the GOG is guaranteed success.
We only need to test Vampire the Masquerade now, but I believe it will have performance problems. I wanted to get a 2Gb memory for him, but in Brazil we can't find 214-pin memories.

I have finished re-purposing my HTC Shift as a dedicated offline retro games machine by installing Windows 7 on it.
I posted a few videos on youtube demonstrating it's capabilities.
Search youtube for "htc shift grand prix legends" or "htc shift halo" to see them.

which working windows 7 build are you using? Everytime I install Intel VGA driver(7[1].14.10.1461) over the newer version that's already installed I get a BSOD. Thanks in advance and nice video!

Hmm. I think I have seen that crash from time to time while doing a reinstallation of Windows. I don't think it is down to the specific Windows build. From vague memory, I think it can be avoided by disabling aero before installing the driver that is crashing. This can be done by going to windows themes and choosing a basic theme that doesn't have the graphicial effects. Either that, or find a particular sequence of driver installations that works. There definitely will be one. Once installed, aero can be reactivated with no problem. Another thought - I think screen resolution might also be a factor. Try running the HTC Shift control centre to change resolution, or run the ResolutionSwitchLauncher.exe directly, which installs as part of the HTC Shift Control Centre.