Windows 8 and touchscreens

[Chris Breeze]

I've been doing a lot of testing on Windows 8 recently and haven't found any problems running our software on Windows 8. So far everything I've tested that works on Windows 7 also works on Windows 8. However there is a problem if you want to run a photobooth on a Windows 8 system with a touchscreen because users can display the charms bar by flicking the top right hand corner of the display. Obviously this is bad news because the charms bar gives the user access to the start window, computer settings, desktop etc. Fortunately the charms bar can be disabled using a free utility called "Skip Metro Suite" which can be downloaded from:
http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.103
This allows you to disable the charms bar when the mouse is moved to the corner of the screen and when flicking the top right corner of the screen. You can still display the charms bar by typing Win+C.

[apples]

Very interesting Chris. How about flicks etc - can they be turned off like in Win7 ?

Also, is your DS40 working with Win8 ?

[Chris Breeze]

Windows 8 doesn't appear to have the same flicks and gestures that caused problems on Windows 7. There's no reference to them in the help files or the "Pen and Touch" settings in Control Panel.

The DNP DS40 printer doesn't appear to supported on Windows 8 yet. The PC I'm using for testing was upgraded to Windows 8 from Windows 7 and had the drivers for Windows 7 loaded when it was running Windows 7 but these don't work on Windows 8. The Mitsubishi CP-D70DW/CP-D707DW printers have the same problems. I also have two HP laser printers, a Canon inkjet and a Brother inkjet which all work on Windows 8.

[apples]

Thanks Chris,

I thought that would be the case with the printers . . . . .

I'm guessing that by the time I need a new laptop that the 8 drivers will be released - but in this business, you never know when that will be . . .. . gone through 2 laptops this year in one booth (hard disk failure and carpark driver failure).

We'll only really find out about any 'tapping' or flicking issues in an 'event' environment, I could never repeat the 'changing iso' business when bench testing, but it happened in 1 in 3 events.

[Woodster74]

Thanks Chris,

I thought that would be the case with the printers . . . . .

I'm guessing that by the time I need a new laptop that the 8 drivers will be released - but in this business, you never know when that will be . . .. . gone through 2 laptops this year in one booth (hard disk failure and carpark driver failure).

We'll only really find out about any 'tapping' or flicking issues in an 'event' environment, I could never repeat the 'changing iso' business when bench testing, but it happened in 1 in 3 events.

Those of you using the Hiti P510 printer should hold off on win 8 too. No driver support as of yet.