Thanks, chaps.
Good to know about the robustness, but Mike, I'm just feet away from the Rivetess' HP. They let many hundreds of their customers down with that poor graphics chip soldering. Really silly way to mount a chip - in fact as one who did the practical C&G soldering test in Regents Street c 1958, I think it's all done with smoke and mirrors. No way could all those little balls find their homes and then flow nicely to perfect connectivity - with the heat that mustn't harm the chip. I'm convinced evil spells make them work until the guarantee runs out.
Now, what about the detritus that's left when 8.1 is loaded? Bust Buy assured me they could Recover the unit back to shop settings, so is that all lurking in my drive or do they port it in? The darn electric drive is now down to 89 gig. Daft. There are so many partitions I have no idea what they are supposed to be doing. My C D E setup obviously has no place in one of these devices.
Making 8.1 operate normally. Certainly, the screen-grabbing of these apps is bizarre. Skype, just takes the screen and then forces you to join some evil MS society before progressing. But is it then the Skype I know and very much rely on, or is it cloud-like in its operation? To get rid of that screen I found myself killing it in Task Manager.
I see 8.1 allows the removal of multiple Apps at a stroke.
Keyboard. I purchased and OEM box of 5 flat full sized keybs some years ago. Two are in the UK. Sadly, the letters wear off them, but that only fazes other people that try to type on my computer and serves me well. If I use the AZUS keyb then it doesn't seem too bad, but I have yet to find out how to action Home End Pg Up etc., The squitty little arrow keys are going to be a challenge if I have to use the on-board keyb.
I HATE the power button being where the Del should be. Are they crazy?
Picking up this shard of black metal this cold morning was painful. Darn thing was freeezing in my Texas office. Probably warmer in Clacton.
How to keep the Windows 8.1 Modern UI out of your way
The labels - in particular, the Windows label, are in poor condition. I see no sign of a Windows license number. I'm getting a bad feel for this deal altogether.
It seems serious users with several machines HAVE to download each upgrade separately. Mine was only just in when the internet connection failed. Phew! AT&T are on my case and are generally very good, but that was scarey. What happens to that data if it's interrupted? Can we rely on it being cleaned up on the next install/download?
Every breath there is a new question. Must have some breakfast.