Category Archives: Software

Microsoft Windows, Tips and Tricks, Windows 8

Battery Drain on Surface RT Running Windows RT 8.1 Preview? There’s a Workaround

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Surface RT

If you own a Surface RT and you are a tech geek, most likely you got it installed with the latest Windows RT 8.1 Preview. While it’s fun to play with all the latest features, there is a pretty annoying issue with this preview on the Surface RT, particularly on the battery life. With the Windows RT 8.1 Preview, the battery drain extremely fast even though it is kept in Sleep Mode, and I have tried different ways trying to stop the draining (turning off Bluetooth, Uninstall apps etc.), it doesn’t seems to work at all.

Luckily, there is a weird workaround to stop this battery drain issue – turn on the Bluetooth, rather than turn it off. Sure, it sounds really strange, but apparently it’s a bug in Windows RT 8.1 Preview and below is quoted from someone worked in Microsoft:

Powercfg /sleepstudy reports any issues that are preventing the CPU from entering its lowest power state during Connected Standy (e.g. screen is off).  In this case, the state of the specific UART controller is preventing the CPU entering its lowest power state.  This UART happens to be connected to the Bluetooth radio on Surface. Unfortunately, the bug that causes this bad state occurs exactly when the Bluetooth radio is turned off in PC Settings.

It is reasonable to want to turn off the Bluetooth radio to conserve even more power, but be aware that the major contributor to drain on battery is overall system power use, not just an individual radio.

Microsoft teams are aware of this issue in the preview build of Windows 8.1.

It works for me pretty well since I turn on the Bluetooth radio, so if you have a similar issue, give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Microsoft Windows, Tips and Tricks

Font rendering issue in Chrome? It could be Helvetica Neue.

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If you have just recently found out that Chrome in Windows seems to render some texts in a very weird way, check if you install Helvetica Neue fonts family recently. If you did, you can either uninstall the font, or use the fix that mentioned in this blog post.

Microsoft Windows, Software, Tips and Tricks

[How To] Save Fillable PDF Form

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While it seems to be a pretty simple question, but if you are using Adobe Reader AND you are filling a fillable PDF form (with the above warning), most probably that you are scratching your head and ask yourself ‘How do I save this darn thing?‘. Of course, if the fillable PDF is created in an appropriate way, Adobe Reader user will be able to save a copy of the filled form.

What if that is not the case? You have the option to go back to the author and ask for a proper version, but sometimes it just doesn’t work that way. Solution? You will still be able to save the form, only in other PDF readers. Here’s some PDF reader alternatives that can be used to save any fillable form:

  • Nitro Reader – A pretty new PDF reader and it is impressive since first release. You can save fillable form as normal form or flattened version.
  • PDF-XChange Viewer – A long time third party PDF reader with a lot of features – saving a fillable form is one of them.

What are the alternative if a new PDF reader is not a preferred solution? You can try any PDF printer. Fill the form, print the form using PDF printer, and you will have a PDF filled with your information. My recommendation for PDF printers:

  • PrimoPDF – Highly recommended. Easy to install and easy to use.
  • CutePDF – Simple and easy application.

So that’s it! Happy form filling!

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Microsoft Windows, Tips and Tricks, Windows 8

[How To] Run Windows 8 Developer Preview in VirtualBox with Full Resolution

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So now you have the Windows 8 Developer Preview installed as a virtual machine using VirtualBox, but you found out that the guest addition of VirtualBox doesn’t work properly in Windows 8 Developer Preview, which means that it won’t auto-adjust the resolution when you resize the window, and have to stick with the resolution available by default.

No worry. There is an alternative solution to force the desired resolution to be available in the VirtualBox guest OS, so if you have done it correctly, you can now run Windows 8 Developer Preview in VirtualBox with your screen native resolution. Instructions after the jump.

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