Archive for Windows 8.1

Windows Store App Won’t Open in Windows 8.1

imageRecently I installed some new Windows 8.1 computers, and joined them to the local domain. One of the users informed me that the Windows Store app wouldn’t work. It would just flash for a moment, sitting on the Windows Store “green screen”.

There are a ton of posts from people with this problem, and just as many “solutions”.

Most of the solutions involved making sure that the “ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES” group name had read access permission to some or all of the Windows Registry hives (example), and/or read access permission to the Users, Windows, and Program Files folders (example).

I wasn’t ready to make those types of changes.

After more research, I found several suggestions that utilized a single Powershell command to fix the issue. Now, that’s a solution I like!

David Dixon’s blog post on the solution was the first of these that I found, and also the clearest in explanation.

Here are the steps:

  • Open an elevated command prompt
  • Type or paste:
    powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.xml and press <Enter>.
  • Type or paste:
    start “” “ms-windows-store:” and press <Enter>. Be sure to include the quotes!

image

In the feedback section of David’s blog page, there are several comments that offers a similar version of these steps for the Windows 10 Technical Preview. Once Windows 10 is released to the public, I will post those steps, if applciable.

Connecting Windows 8.1 to a Shared Printer

With every iteration of Windows, it seems that connecting up printers gets easier and easier. Generally speaking, that is.

I was at a client site installing a new Windows 8.1 workstation. They had a printer directly connected to a Windows 7 workstation, and it was configured as a shared printer. In fact, all of the other workstations were setup to access this printer.

But I was unable to add this shared printer to this new Windows 8.1 workstation. The shared printer was not showing up when I selected Add a Printer. I tried to add it manually (using \\computername\printername). It kept giving me either a Connect to Printer error, or the network could not find a driver. And that’s with me downloading the correct Windows 8.1 driver for this printer.

I then discovered a blog post from Brian Hitney that addressed this very issue. His blog post includes great screen shots and step-by-step directions. So, I will not repeat them in detail here. I’ll simply summarize the steps required:

  • Go to Control Panel –> Hardware –> Devices and Printers, and select Add a Printer
  • Select The printer that I want isn’t listed
  • Select Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings
  • Select Create a new port, and then set the type of port to Local Port
  • In the dialog box that displays, enter the UNC of the shared printer (\\computername\printername)
  • Next, you can choose the driver to use. I would suggest that you first click on the Windows Update button, and download the latest selection of printers and drivers.
  • You can now search for and select your desired printer driver.

A big “Wahoo” to Brian for this information!

Samsung Data Migration and Dell Workstation

I’m working on a new Dell XPS 8700 that was just delivered, with Windows 8.1 pre-installed and a 1TB SATA drive. I ordered a Samsung SSD 850 Pro 500GB drive to use as the system drive. I’ve used the Samsung Data Migration cloning software successfully on a scratch install of Windows 8.1, but this is the first time to try it with Windows 8.1 pre-installed on the computer.

You install the Samsung Data Migration utility onto the computer to the existing hard drive. I then connected the SSD drive to a USB3 port using a USB3 data & power connector.

Note: Do not connect the SSD drive until the Samsung software has been installed.

  • Attempt #1: I ran the Data Migration wizard, and it came back saying that there was an issue with defragging the source disk.
  • Attempt #2: I install Piriform’s Defraggler and did a full defrag (about one hour). I reran the wizard and this time it reported that there was an issue with the source disk. I rebooted the computer and tried again, and received same error.
  • Attempt #3: I then do a sfc /scanow followed by a chkdsk /f c: – both had no issues or errors. I rebooted the computer and tried again. Same issue. I tried plugging the USB3 cable into other ports. Same issue, again.
  • Attempt #4: I then proceed to uninstall all the Dell add-on stuff (data protection, etc.) and then rebooted the computer. Voila! This time when I ran the wizard, we successfully clones the hard drive to the SSD drive.
    image

After powering down the workstation, I unhooked the SATA drive and connected the SSD drive in its place. I powered up the system and it successfully started up Windows 8.1