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Do you own a Surface device

  • Yes I own a Surface Pro or Surfacebook - it’s great

    Votes: 165 51.2%
  • Yes I own a Surface laptop - it’s great

    Votes: 36 11.2%
  • No - i’m not a fan

    Votes: 69 21.4%
  • Not anymore I had a bad experience

    Votes: 52 16.1%

  • Total voters
    322
What was this about?

Good question. If it is just about a recovery drive, then a thumb drive would do.

I must have gotten recovery drive and disk image confused then. I thought they did the same thing (allowing you to restore the machine to a previous version). If it's just a recovery drive, then we both screwed up.

No big deal. I'll investigate. I just did not want to put another $75 on a hard drive right now.

I am typing this on the SL2. I like the machine.
 
I must have gotten recovery drive and disk image confused then. I thought they did the same thing (allowing you to restore the machine to a previous version). If it's just a recovery drive, then we both screwed up.

No big deal. I'll investigate. I just did not want to put another $75 on a hard drive right now.

I am typing this on the SL2. I like the machine.

Recover drive is different than a restore point. Where a restore point will go back to an incremental point, the Recovery Disk will allow you to recover the computer back to the beginning, even if it won't boot in some cases. There is also a recovery partition on the computer, but if you create a recovery disk, you can delete that partition if you need the hard drive space. Recovery Drive only requires a 4GB thumb drive.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026852/windows-create-a-recovery-drive
 
Recover drive is different than a restore point. Where a restore point will go back to an incremental point, the Recovery Disk will allow you to recover the computer back to the beginning, even if it won't boot in some cases. There is also a recovery partition on the computer, but if you create a recovery disk, you can delete that partition if you need the hard drive space. Recovery Drive only requires a 4GB thumb drive.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026852/windows-create-a-recovery-drive
Oh wow. Yes, that was on me. :oops: Thanks. I CAN make a recovery drive now. :) Thank you!!!! :)

I really like my Surface Laptop and Windows Hello is nice (facial recognition bothers me, but that is very cool to have).

Sadly, I just remembered why I never used laptops full time: Using trackpads (touchpad) causes the arthritis in my wrists to flare up. I am more open to workarounds now though, especially since the Surface gives me several input options. So I should be fine with the wheel mouse, touch, and maybe a Surface Pen. I like that I can turn the touchpad off too.
 
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Oh wow. Yes, that was on me. :oops: Thanks. I CAN make a recovery drive now. :) Thank you!!!! :)

I really like my Surface Laptop and Windows Hello is nice (facial recognition bothers me, but that is very cool to have).

Sadly, I just remembered why I never used laptops full time: Using trackpads (touchpad) causes the arthritis in my wrists to flare up. I am more open to workarounds now though, especially since the Surface gives me several input options. So I should be fine with the wheel mouse, touch, and maybe a Surface Pen. I like that I can turn the touchpad off too.

I am a trackball person myself. Me and mice don't get along so well. I am not sure why. Too much moving them about maybe? I have been told I am all thumbs. It might be true.

But there are plenty of options within MS such as their mice, pen, dial, etc. Also, without with Logitech and others making some nice devices. My wife really likes her Logitech MX Master S2, I use the Logitech MX Ergo trackball. The adjustable tilt angle really helps my wrist. I am sure you will find a combo that works :)

I like facial recognition, it is fast and MS doesn't require Apple silly "You have to use your password every time you reboot/restart" nonsense :)
 
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Wow, Logitech still makes trackballs? That is great.

You are right about so many options for input. That is a sweet difference between PCs and Apple. Makes me think MS and various OEMs put a lot more thought into folks’ needs.

The facial recognition on the Surface is less worrisome to me.

I am happy to keep the Surface laptop. It’s a vastly superior experience to the Acer: I want to use it. And it’s gorgeous too.
 
Wow, Logitech still makes trackballs? That is great.

You are right about so many options for input. That is a sweet difference between PCs and Apple. Makes me think MS and various OEMs put a lot more thought into folks’ needs.

The facial recognition on the Surface is less worrisome to me.

I am happy to keep the Surface laptop. It’s a vastly superior experience to the Acer: I want to use it. And it’s gorgeous too.

Yeah, don’t know what I will do if they stop. I have been using Logitech Trackballs back for maybe 20 years? Not sure what I will do if they stop. Is there a 12 step program? hahaha

My wife uses her laptop 80% of the time attached to an external monitor and keyboard, but prefers it over a desktop because she has the freedom to unplug it when needed and take it with her
 
I recently picked up a Surface MS Precision Mouse and it doesn't disappoint as long as your fine with righthand only. I also like Trackball's however difficult to find one with the DPI range I want, although I noticed Logitech has a new one so I might have a look, or maybe not.

:( My old Logitech Wireless Trackball M570 Just 540 dpi
:( Logitech MX ERGO Minimal and maximal value: 512 dpi - 2,048 dpi
:) My Microsoft Precision Mouse minimal and maximal value: 400 dpi - 3,200 dpi
:p My Alienware AW959 Mouse minimal and maximal value: 100 dpi - 12,000 dpi

I've also got an ROG SPATHA Mouse, unfortunately it doesn't play so well with the newer ROG notebooks as it predates them. The SPATHA is one of my favourite mice, little too big to travel with and with a 8,200 dpi sensor very accurate, lots customisation. The Alienware AW959 is to some extents better and simpler being a dedicated wired mouse, although on the SW side it's a pain as it will look to install a lot of Alienware gaming bloat. I worked out that if you uninstall it then install the older SW package (mouse only) it never looks to update again which is fine as it works perfectly allows customisation of the mouse and doesn't have all the useless bloat, and once the mouse is set up you don't really need to have the app running in the background.

I use the Precision while on the road as Bluetooth, operates between both system seamlessly, with near instantaneous connection. Being MS super easy and the companion application allows a fair amount of customisation including switching dpi on the fly which I find desirable in all mice. With the companion application on multiple systems you can literally seamlessly use the one Precision Mouse across all at the same time, smart idea :cool:

Settings are stored on the Precision directly, so no need to install the companion allocation on the other systems unless you have a need. Admittedly it's handy to see a visual que of the dpi setting, the gaming centric mice you can generally set up a colour scheme to illustrate, equally with just five levels it's easy enough to keep track :)

Q-6
 
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Wow. I've never heard of mice that do these things.

Way beyond what I need. :) But I always appreciate reading about new things.

gaming mouse art:
gaming mouse.PNG




On the Surface Laptop note, I was able to create a recovery drive.
 
Wow. I've never heard of mice that do these things.

Way beyond what I need. :) But I always appreciate reading about new things.

A good mouse really makes a difference as it can help you to be more productive and reduce RSI with good ergonomics. MS Precision has a reasonable set of controls, gaming mice frequently more, so you can drive Macro's etc. The SPATHA has six side buttons and the Dell AW959 has a magnetic side panel allowing you to flip between two or six side buttons :cool:

Sounds overkill, equally when you can Cut, Copy & Paste etc, directly from the click of a button it's a time saver, as is flipping dpi when precision is desired over raw speed. Add in various profiles and you can have an enormous amount of flexibility to control and accelerate tasks.

Q-6
 
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A good mouse really makes a difference as it can help you to be more productive and reduce RSI with good ergonomics. MS Precision has a reasonable set of controls, gaming mice frequently more, so you can drive Macro's etc. The SPATHA has six side buttons and the Dell AW959 has a magnetic side panel allowing you to flip between two or six side buttons :cool:

Sounds overkill, equally when you can Cut, Copy & Paste etc, directly from the click of a button it's a time saver, as is flipping dpi when precision is desired over raw speed. Add in various profiles and you can have an enormous amount of flexibility to control and accelerate tasks.

Q-6
Yep, for a bit of fun a couple of years back I bought the kids and myself some flashy Razor gaming mice with all the bells and whistles and detachable parts but got annoyed with the bundled software and my youngest lost his precision mouse ali mouse pad :mad:

I must confess if I am doing anything in anger with excel I struggle without a mouse the TP is inefficient IMO

I travel with the MS Arc Mouse but can't say I am a fan as it simple does not glide but great for in the bag as it's flat

I have tried to limit my use of track wheel as its a surefire way to strain when scrolling through multiple docs a good precision mouse is a sensible investment

The little bit of photo editing I do is great with a mouse and pen combo but pdf markups pen all the way :)
[doublepost=1549184142][/doublepost]Well It's been a tough couple of days in Bali with my little GO :)

Managed to get the pool water feature turned off as 8hrs of it on each day is tiresome and it allowed me to move the BT JBL speaker/clock to the outdoor kitchen and stream some chill-out sounds to our pool from my MP3 directory on the GO ie my music organised how I want :rolleyes:

The Go kickstand is great I can sit on the lounger and tilt the screen back to a perfect angle to catch the dark green parasol canopy above so no reflections :)

Got a complex word doc procedure to review that has advance embedded code done by our IT so can only work in a full MS Office, done that so my assistant can pick it up tomorrow from our shared office onedrive

Received a drawing from my friend in Thailand via Line so annotated that with my comments using my pen

Have a nice binary (saves space for emailing) macro enabled excel sheet to mod for our Chennai office it only has a couple of million entries and 500k look-ups for calculating the fluid contents for 3 offshore platforms but the good part is using power pivot the data is summarised down to around 80 lines per platform

Streamed some UK TV for the Mrs to catch up on her soaps, done some Netflix and dailies of course email, Whatsapp Line etc

Now only if this little box of tricks could pour me a Bacardi as the wife is wearing her legs out LOL
 
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Yep, for a bit of fun a couple of years back I bought the kids and myself some flashy Razor gaming mice with all the bells and whistles and detachable parts but got annoyed with the bundled software and my youngest lost his precision mouse ali mouse pad :mad:

I must confess if I am doing anything in anger with excel I struggle without a mouse the TP is inefficient IMO

I travel with the MS Arc Mouse but can't say I am a fan as it simple does not glide but great for in the bag as it's flat

I have tried to limit my use of track wheel as its a surefire way to strain when scrolling through multiple docs a good precision mouse is a sensible investment

The little bit of photo editing I do is great with a mouse and pen combo but pdf markups pen all the way :)

Agree the software side of some mice can be a real hassle, I always look at that first. ROG SPATHA is superb, equally the software set up complex as you need to use profiles to switch dpi. The Dell AW959 is much better as long as you can avoid all the Alienware bloat and has a dedicated button for DPI. The utility of swapping from 2 to 6 side buttons useful, it's just a wired mouse so no charging or connection concerns, nor do you need to keep the companion app running in the background as all is stored to the mouse directly.

Microsoft Precision is squarely a productivity mouse with fewer features. Same it doesn't glide as well as the ROG or Dell although it's starting to feel better to the touch after running it around a big textured mouse mat for a couple of minutes solid :p Dell AW959 glides the smoothest, SPATHA being second. Battery MS state up to 3 month, with heavy use I can see it needing charging every couple of weeks.

Bluetooth may be an issue for some, so far for me it's been very reliable, the Precision can also be used as a wired mouse if one cares to. Scroll wheel is switchable between free running and detent and oddly seems to be operated by a servo, equally it works :) I can get by on the trackpad for productivity, however much faster with a good mouse.

The MS Precision shines on the road as it can seamlessly switch between systems which a boon if you use multiple systems simultaneously. Keep meaning to pick up a Surface Dial as being pretty ambidextrous I could probably get some additional utility out of it, although it's pricy for my intended use.

Q-6
 
The Surface Dial works with the Surface Laptop 2. That’s another option for me, since the Precision mouse is right hand only. I hadn’t thought of that. Appreciate you bringing that up.

I somehow think I am being pushed toward a Studio. :p
 
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Hoping for an updated 15" Surface Book soon with a slimmer, possible re-worked design (having two separate batteries in the screen and keyboard make for some costly, uneconomical repairs once those batteries wear out), the new Intel processors, and nvidia RTX cards this year.
 
Hoping for an updated 15" Surface Book soon with a slimmer, possible re-worked design (having two separate batteries in the screen and keyboard make for some costly, uneconomical repairs once those batteries wear out), the new Intel processors, and nvidia RTX cards this year.
Nooooooooooooo don't want any of that skinniness if it reduces my 12 hours use

I don't care if they make it fatter to fill the gap with more battery and then only charge each cell to 85% should improve longevity without losing the 12 hours

I think we have been through this MS have some flat fee's for repairs etc

A fatter, black, latest chip-set and 32/64GB ram :cool: they do not have to follow Apple general appeal to those that can afford it, make it special make it pro :) and 4K & TB3 wont go amiss

It will still be cheaper than a MBP+IPP combo
 
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The Surface Mouse (with the wheel) is interesting. I can see what folks meant by the wheel aspect being a bit cumbersome and painful. I can work around that.
Nooooooooooooo don't want any of that skinniness if it reduces my 12 hours use

I don't care if they make it fatter to fill the gap with more battery and then only charge each cell to 85% should improve longevity without losing the 12 hours

I think we have been through this MS have some flat fee's for repairs etc

A fatter, black, latest chip-set and 32/64GB ram :cool: they do not have to follow Apple general appeal to those that can afford it, make it special make it pro :) and 4K & TB3 wont go amiss

It will still be cheaper than a MBP+IPP combo

^Some of this, please. I am sure the price will sadly climb, but MS has sales so. I’d rather it not be priced too much higher. The chip set updates and more RAM would be great. I also hope they fix the battery charging issue the 15” models had.

I love that Surface mobile devices give me many input choices and the keyboards are fantastic. I do not want the keyboards to change. The SB2 has a great keyboard.

And if it’s black? I will have a hard time resisting it. I love the black case of the SL2. I want all my tech to have that.
 
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I am getting a feel for the Surface laptop as my daily, non-intensive work driver.

I like it. I am not pushing it hard and do not dare tweak most settings, but it’s not troublesome at all. I am a little worried about Windows Hello though (Red light and white light on all the time while I use) > is that normal with Windows Hello?

Next up, writing software.
 
I thought you said 'baysteps'? :p
Busted.:D

Yes, Word and -possibly Final Draft- :eek: Need to look up free screenplay software for Windows.

Super scary. :p

If things arise, I’ll look them up as it happens. I know not to muck with settings, including not removing the Surface wheel mouse from Bluetooth. Having a recovery drive and reset point puts me at ease. So I gradually increase my work flow on the SL2.
 
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Busted.:D

Yes, Word and -possibly Final Draft- :eek: Need to look up free screenplay software for Windows.

Super scary. :p

If things arise, I’ll look them up as it happens. I know not to muck with settings, including not removing the Surface wheel mouse from Bluetooth. Having a recovery drive and reset point puts me at ease. So I gradually increase my work flow on the SL2.

(Oeps typo 'baysteps'. :confused: I meant babysteps of course.)

Sounds like you are settling in! If you don't forget to backup you documents as well nothing can happen. But probably I am suggesting things you already thought about.
 
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(Oeps typo 'baysteps'. :confused: I meant babysteps of course.)

Sounds like you are settling in! If you don't forget to backup you documents as well nothing can happen. But probably I am suggesting things you already thought about.
Believe me, I appreciate being reminded. I backed up, but never made disk image copies or clones. Paid for that royally in 2016 when my iMacs internal drives and back up got taken out by a virus (there’s a reason why I never used torrents before or since).

So, thank you.
 
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