Venue 8 Pro arriving on monday any things i need to do when i first get it?

[cammykool]

i just bought a venue 8 pro on Swappa

i have a windows 8 desktop but is there anything i should know about a windows 8 tablet? i realize that i will only get about 12 gigs of space. I've seen people moving their recovery partition to a flash drive and removing it from the system and eleting the page file on the surface. will that work for us? is there a way i can keep my programs on the 32gb sdcard i bought for it?

Thanks!

 

[poken1151]

Run windows update. Run windows update. And Run windows update.

Personally, I'd also recommend getting a nice micro SD card for it. You mentioned 32GB, but I'd go for at least 64GB, safe bet and cheap if caught on a sale.

I'd also recommend this utility: TouchMousePointer - virtual touchpad (on-screen mouse) it basically turns your screen into a touchpad. So instead of tapping tiny buttons/icons you can switch this on, and then move the mouse cursor as needed (similar to using teamviewer on you phone). May or may not be your cup of tea, but I'll wager you will find it useful).

Get Calibre if you're into ebooks. On your desktop it's the best ebook application, on the tablet.... I'd still highly recommend it even with nook, kobo and amazon metro apps. It's got a full screen mode and way more options, and the ease of access via desktop is nice.

If you decide to get the pen check very carefully you find the newest one and update the venue firmware asap.

That's my few cents. Gl and enjoy.



I own one, refurb from ebay for 170$. I like it and use it occasionally and walk with it on off days, I think it's a wonderful lil device to have. I was thinking of doing an iPad mini first, as the form factor was more my speed (I still prefer laptops for most things or my desktop), but this Venue 8 won out from sheer functionality.

 

[cammykool]

the virtual trackpad sound like an awesome idea but i could see that kinda ruining the metro interface too.

 

[poken1151]

Nah, it very much so doesn't. It's only supplemental when you'r eon the desktop. Remember this is a full Windows tablet, not RT. You can stay almost completely in Metro if you want, but once you realize some games/applications are nice on the desktop side you flip over there, and a tool like that is useful.

For the most part I have it off, and turn it on if I need to (it's next to the keyboard in the start bar). That said, once you go into the modern interface, even if it's on, it's inactive. This is a desktop only thing.

Also, another addon if you want, is a usb host cable, so you can plug other things into the micro usb port.

Oh, and you can give Bluestacks a whirl too, if you're so inclined to get Androig/Google apps. I've yet to use it really, but it's there as an FYI (the wonders of a Full OS tablet I think)

 

[cammykool]

i have a powered OTG cable from when i rooted my chromecast last year (its a USB y cable that allows me to charge while having a usb device on

 

[RumoredNow]

I download install files to my SD card... But programs/Apps all install to device memory, so with 32GB you do want to recover some turf.

Things I thought I'd want or need right away that are desktop specific included: K-Lite codec pack, CloneDrive virtual CD/DVD drive, WinRAR, Adobe Digital Editions (I have a large eBook library tied into that), Avira AV and this project (mainly because I can): Utility Spotlight: Screenrecorder

Metro/Modern Apps I felt I needed include: YouNote and Bamboo Paper (for Active Stylus utility), Here Maps, Box, my favorite Browser and... Hill Climb Racing (LOL) which plays very nice when wasting time...

I really do recommend the Active Stylus. I found rev02 (latest) at a good price. The tip is nicely fine, not like those squishy pad styli and the two button configuration gives mouse-like function... Also the Dell Folio and BT Keyboard setup seems to be working well for me... Again, shop it hard and you'll find deals. I think my Folio/Keyboard was $60 from Wmrt Online. And, like poken, I say at least 64GB on the memory card so you can load it with all the media types Media Player will run after you install K-Lite...

 

[LockOnTech]

i have a powered OTG cable from when i rooted my chromecast last year (its a USB y cable that allows me to charge while having a usb device on

Your powered otg cable should work with your venue pro 8, and a good sized usb flash drive or a mid sized hard drive; you would be good to go. Like mentioned above just do windows update.

 

[cammykool]

I can point desktop installs to the SD though. I'm pretty sure I've installed stuff on flash drives and such. The only reason I have a 32gb SD is because I used it on my android tablet. (Side note. This will be awesome because ive been trying to put Linux on the damn thing for a year. Yay for windows and Intel!) The seller included a pretty high quality otg cable and a case. But I don't think I will use his cable because I can use hard drives with the Y cable. Out of curiosity: what would happen if I plugged my tablet into another computer? (Would the world implode or something?)

 

[RumoredNow]

One of the first things I did was plug in to my laptop. No drivers install or anything... It's automatically null.

You could network, WiFi / Home Network / enabled sharing would probably be most convenient in the long run...

I almost forgot to mention Leef Bridge. Works great. Fast and handy for swapping files to/from tablet. I need to get some .ISO files on mine for use with the Virtual Clone Drive. I'll get around to it. Maybe rather than a new SD card, you might want to try a Leef Bridge. I've seen them up to 64 GB. http://forums.windowscentral.com/ge...on/303126-anyone-using-leef-bridge-3-0-a.html

 

[bigeduck]

For the most part I live off of Onedrive. There was a nice how-to on moving your libraries to Onedrive, and my Onedrive folder is located on my 64 gig SD card. While only the Documents folder is set to autosync, my pictures, videos, and even my downloads folders are available to pull down files if I need them. While getting them "off" of your SD card becomes an exercise in "removing offline files" from time to time, I've really found this the best way to go. My music library is managed by Xbox music, but for the most part I just play that off of my phone which I always have with me anyways, and mostly use PlexApp for all of my videos, only needing to download them when no wifi is available.

Not that Leef Bridge doesn't look nice, I'm just lazy and inevitably forget to manually sync stuff before I leave. So it's nice to be able to find a connection on the road and pull down whatever I need. Also makes moving to another Windows 8 machine stupid easy as logging in autosyncs all of your files and preferences.

Also of note, this mostly works for me because I grabbed the 100 gig bing reward upgrades for onedrive a while back and also have an Office360 subscription. So Onedrive is 1 of my backup resources as well as my new version of the old "sync tool" which I still use on my server.

 

[cammykool]

just got the tablet... typing on it now. a couple things ive noticed is a large sum of programs dont ask if you want them on C or another dfive so rsguardless it is filling... what can be done about that?

also do we have any voice to text engines lime Siri or Google now? tjose would help! thanks.

 

[RumoredNow]

This http://forums.windowscentral.com/de...-removing-recovery-partition.html#post2703602...

...and the post below it. I host my Recovery on Leef Bridge. I keep it, along with my bitlocker key, in my laptop bag so I know exactly where they are. Freed up over 4.7GB of internal storage.

I'm hoping Cortana comes to Dell V8P. She is supposed to be included in Windows 9... If the upgrade cost is $0 - Cheap, I'll get it on my tablet.

I've not tried any of these: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/search#q=voice+to+text&s=Store

 

[cammykool]

so your Leef bridge is just a flash drive with the recovery partition? i was thinking about soing that or getting one of the drives from Dell

 

[RumoredNow]

Leef is a flash drive with two fittings... USB A 3.0 and microUSB B 2.0. Fits full sized slot on PC or micro port on Dell.

The problem with the Dell Recovery Flash Drive is it needs to be powered. Some glitch in their setup.

I followed the directions in the link and had Windows set up Recovery on my Leef. Works without asking for power and the Leef is so dang small. No OTG cable needed, no split cable to power tablet and supply OTG. Just plug n play. Extra storage on the Leef does not go to waste as I easily shuttle files back and forth between PC and tablet thanks to the two sizes of USB male connector.

After including Virtual Clone Drive on your Dell V8P, you can host .ISO files on the Leef and "play" them on the Dell's virtual DVD drive.

 

[RStock521]

You may want to check out this accessory, a full size USB and charge dongle.. I guess Dell just finally released it. The dongle allows you to use external HDD's that require power. Took them a year and I think once 3rd party solutions started popping up, Dell realized the want in the marketplace.
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Dell Micro USB Dongle for Data and Charging : Tablets & Mobile Accessories | Dell

 

[cammykool]

my Y cable doesnt work anyways