Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Surface Pro 2 Windows 8.1 Issuies and Tips

This article explains my specific situations. Yours will likely different but you may find this useful.

Well, I had the Surface Pro 2, 512 GB for about a month now so I would like to share my own experience with it.

Overall, this move was great and now it is set up to the point that this is the only PC I will need, and over time, I will no longer need iPAD. If you are a developer or a planning to use it for mostly business, this is going to be a perfect laptop replacement for you. It is compact and also convertible to a desktop environment with an addition of an external monitor and a bigger keyboard (Bluethooh or USB). I have Visual Studio and SQL Express running on it so I can develop all my work software on it too.

Do not Install Juniper JUNOS Software. It Disables Wireless Hardware

This is one of the most fatal flaw in the whole situations I've encountered. If you install Junos VPN client from Juniper, it will disable the wireless hardware on the Surface Pro 2.

I am working around it by installing VirtualBox and then running Windows 7 on it. When I need VPN I use that to access the remote.

Using RDP or Desktopping a Lot? Fonts Too Large? Create Two Accounts.

If you RDP to "your account" you will find that fonts are way too big. If you adjust  it the font size, you will find that next time you log in as a tablet user you will find the desktop fonts be too small. You can readjust them but it's not very convenient. So what I did was to create two accounts and use one for desktop work (with monitor connected or via RDP).

Cannot RDP from Mac?

This has to do with certificate negotiation and you will need to download the latest version that's available on the Apple AppStore on the Mac. There is a new version out that will take care of it.
Upon login you might find the cursor to be in odd shape. If you go to the control panel and change the pointer type from the default large to default small it will fix that issue.