Microsoft announces Windows 8 release date

Yesterday, Microsoft officially unveiled the release date for its next operating system. Looks like Friday, October 26^th is when you’ll finally be able to get your hands on the Windows 7 follow-up. Windows President Steven Sinofsky made the announcement yesterday during Microsoft's sales meeting. This date holds true for both new PCs and upgrades, though there’s still no mention if this includes Microsoft's tablet, Surface. Seemingly, we’ll have to wait a little longer for that...

Source: Microsoft

Tech Tip of the Day: Windows 8 Storage Space

Description: This article is a walkthrough on setting up a Storage Space in Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

A Storage Space is a collection of hard drives or drive partitions that are combined in to one storage device, or "Storage Space". Unlike with a RAID, these drives can be different speeds and sizes and retain all available space. Additionally it provides file duplications options (much like RAID 1) that will ensure your data is stored in duplicates on two separate drives, in case one fails.

1. Beginning at the Windows 8 Start screen, right-click in an open area and choose All Apps.
   
   
   
   
2. From the All Apps menu, scroll to the right and choose Control Panel.
   
   • You may notice that instead of a colored background with a Metro icon, many items have a grayed background with a Windows 7 style icon. This means it will open in the Windows 8 Desktop, which works much like it has in previous versions of Windows.
     
     
     
     
3. Windows 8 will switch to Desktop mode and open the Control Panel.
   
   
   
   
4. In the Control Panel, search for Storage Spaces by entering it in the top right, then click on Storage Spaces in green.
   
   
   
   
5. On the Manage Storage Spaces screen, select Create a new pool and storage space, then grant permission when prompted.
   
   
   
   
6. The next screen will show available drives. Note that the OS drive cannot be used, and that any formatted drives will be erased in the process - so make sure you back up all of your data before proceeding. Select the drives to use and click on Create Pool.
   
   
   
   
7. The next page will give options regarding how to set up the Storage Pool. By default it will mirror the files on both drives, which will reduce the size of the end result (shown here in the Logical Size) by half. You could also choose None as the resiliency type and change the Logical Size in order to create a single disk-spanning storage space. Click on Create Storage Space to finalize the settings and create the Storage Space.
   
   • Since the drives are formatted when you create a Storage Space, don't be afraid to play around here to find the right combination, as long as all data is backed up.
     
     
     
     
8. Once it has been set up, the Manage Storage Spaces screen will appear again. In our case it shows here that it is using 2.5GB of space out of the gate, but when looking at the Storage Space from Explorer, it doesn't. At this point, the process is complete and the Storage Space is ready to use.
   
   
   
   
9. The drive is shown here as Unnamed after completion, at this point it can be used as normal and the process is complete.
   
   

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip of the Day: Windows 8 Consumer Preview Installation Walkthrough

Description: This document is a direct walkthrough of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview installation process. We will assume that you either have a computer to install it on, or a virtual machine set up for installation and begin by booting from the disc.

Note: At various points during the installation, the computer will restart. Don't be alarmed! It's part of the normal process.

1. We are greeted with the newly traditional Windows Betta Fish in the middle of a black screen as it begins to load the installation environment.
   
   
   
   
2. After the fish goes away it will load the Language Select screen.
   
   
   
   
3. Then the Install Now option appears. To repair an existing installation of Windows 8, the
   Repair Your Computer option is available here.
   
   
   
   
4. After a moment, it will prompt for the product key. This key is obtained in signing up for the Windows 8 Beta.
   
   
   
   
5. Review the license terms, accept them and proceed.
   
   
   
   
6. Choose either to upgrade an existing installation, or perform a custom installation. When installing on a blank new machine or virtual machine, it is necessary to choose
   Custom (Advanced)
   
   
   
   
7. Select the drive on which to install Windows 8
   
   
   
   
8. Wait a few minutes as the files are copied and expanded.
   
   
   
   
9. Once completed, the computer will restart.
   
   
   
   
10. A few more minutes with the friendly Betta fish...
    
    
    
    
11. ....and then the user setup begins, starting with a color (theme) selection and entering a PC name.
    
    
    
    
12. Next, the Computer Settings. Using the Express Settings will result in most of the following settings being done for you, but for the sake of completeness we will go through the
    Customize option.
    
    
    
    
13. Choose whether or not to share files and resources with other computers on the network
    
    
    
    
14. Windows Update and Security settings....
    
    
    
    
15. Windows Improvement Program settings.
    
    
    
    
16. Additional settings including checking error reports for resolutions, and app info sharing settings.
    
    
    
    
17. If the machine is connected to the internet, you can enter your Microsoft email account. If you choose to use your Microsoft email account, (@live.com, @hotmail.com, @msn.com, etc) your account will by synchronized between all Windows 8 computers when you log in.
    
    
    
    
18. If you enter your Microsoft email address, you will be prompted to sign in on the next screen.
    
    
    
    
19. Afterwards it will ask for security verification information, or to create it if it hasn't been set.
    
    
    
    
20. Wait a moment as it creates your account
    
    
    
    
21. It will then proceed to sign you in automatically
    
    
    
    
22. After this, you will be presented with the Start screen in Windows 8.
    
    
    
    
23. That concludes our Windows 8 installation walkthrough. Let us know what ideas you have for additional Windows 8 documents!
    

For more assistance contact Technical Support, click here.