Creating a Hyper-V Virtual Machine on Windows

In this article, I will describe how to create a Hyper-V virtual machine on Windows 10 that can access the Internet. I will be creating a virtual machine containing Windows 7 on a Windows 10 machine, but the process is the same on Windows 8.1 as well; I have not tested it on any other version of Windows. First, open the Hyper-V Manager and click “New” in the Actions pane. Choose the “Virtual Machine…” option from the list that appears:

This will display the “New Virtual Machine Wizard”:

After reviewing the “Before You Begin” page, click “Next” and choose a name and location for the virtual machine; then click “Next” again:

In the “Specify Generation” view, select “Generation 1″ and click “Next”. This cannot be changed after the virtual machine is set up. I have never needed to use Generation 2 virtual machines:

The “Assign Memory” view assigns the VM’s memory. I use the default in this view:

Choose “Not Connected” in the “Configure Networking” view, unless you already have a network setup that the VM can connect to. We will set this up later:

In the “Connect Virtual Hard Disk” view, tell the VM how to connect to a disk. I always create a custom disk for the VM and give it the default size:

Finally, in the “Installation Options” view, set how you will install an operating system. I always install directly from an ISO file:

Click “Finish” and let the process finish. You will notice that the VM cannot connect to the Internet after you install the operating system and try to do anything involving the Internet. To connect to the Internet, you must configure a network for the VM. To configure a network, which can be used by multiple virtual machines, click “Virtual Switch Manager” and create a virtual switch connected to an “External” network:

Set the network to the same network your computer uses, which in my case is the Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2230 network connector.

Next, you will need to set your VM up to use this switch. Go to the VM’s settings, available in the Action sidebar under the options for the real computer, and add a network adapter:

Set this network adapter to use the network switch you just created, and your VM should be able to connect to the Internet:

Click “Apply” or “OK” to finish configuring the VM; you are now ready to connect to the Internet from your new VM.

Windows 10 Start Menu

Windows 10 is out!  And it brings a Start Menu back.  What’s more, it lets us have our Start Screen still too, although it is very different.

Windows 10 is set to use the Start Menu by default on most computers:

You can adjust the size in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions:

So, that is our Start Menu.  There are other features, but they apply to the Start Screen as well, which I prefer, so I will cover them below.

To use a full-screen Start Menu, open the Settings app (Windows-I shortcut), click the Personalization box, and choose the Start tab:

This is our full-screen Start:

Notice how we are much less limited on where we can place our tiles.  However, instead of a horizontal scroll, there is a vertical scroll, which makes for some differences in how you use it.

To access all our apps, click the lowest button on the left side of the screen, below the power button:

If you click one of the initials, the app section will collapse into a more concise block:

The power menu has the standard power controls:

The top hamburger menu opens an sidebar with your user account picture and name at the top.  Click the account box to open a popup with the Change Account Settings (which opens the Accounts section of the Settings app), Lock (which locks the computer), and Sign Out (which signs the current user out) controls:

If you right-click a tile, you get another drop-down allowing you to pin to/unpin from Start and the Taskbar, as well as an option to resize it, and the option to uninstall the app (limited to certain apps).  Universal apps allow you to turn the live tile off (in case the app has one, not all support live tiles, but they still have the option):

The Settings page for Start allows you to show your most used apps in the sidebar available by clicking the hamburger button in the top left corner, recently added apps in the same place, and also at the top of the All Apps list, use Start as a screen or menu, and show recently used items in a jump list:

If you make any changes, but they aren’t shown on the screen, a restart will force an update.

To set which folders appear in the sidebar, click the Choose Which Folders Appear on Start link:

You can also name groups of apps:

You can drag groups of apps around by the two-horizontal-line symbol to the right of the name.  Unfortunately, you can only move them above and below other groups in existing columns; you cannot move a group to a new column unless you have enough space on your screen to support another column, and even then, the new column must be at the right-most side of the screen:

You may notice that the last couple images have different colors for tiles that use default colors.  To change this, go to the Personalization section of the Settings app and select the Color tabs, then choose an accent color:

You can also automatically pick a color based on the desktop background.  Below the accent colors, there is also an option to show the color on Start, the taskbar, and the action center, as well as another to set Start’s background transparent, which overrides using the accent colors for the default background color.  Without either of these set, Start uses a deep gray for the background.

Slide Numbers in PowerPoint

When you are creating a PowerPoint presentation, you may wish to put a footer, the slide number, or the date on your slides:

To do this, go to the Insert tab in the ribbon and click the Header and Footer button in the Text group:

Chose which features you want to have on your slides.  If you choose the “Update automatically” option for the date and time, the date/time will update each time you open the presentation; otherwise, it will remain fixed.  If you check the “Don’t show on title slide” check box, the first slide will not have the header or footer.  The Notes and Handouts tab is for adjusting the settings on notes and handouts.  I cannot set the language and calendar type I wish to use in my installation, possibly because I only have one language pack on my computer:

Click Apply if you only want to put this data on the selected slide, or Apply to All if you wish all slides to be updated and new slides to have it added automatically:

Updates!

The Windows Store OneNote released a new update today.  You can now add multiple accounts, and edit password protected sections.  So far, I do not see a way to create password protected sections.  Learn OneNote also received a minor update (not the large one in the works) with updates on these new features, which is also already listed in the Windows and Windows Phone stores.

Edit password protected section:

Learn OneNote Updated

I released an update for Learn OneNote yesterday, and it is now listed in the Windows Store.  This release features a new theme and tile color, a search feature, and updated content – mostly typo fixes, some new content.  Feel free to comment here with feature requests and problems you encounter.  Unfortunately, Learn OneNote for Windows Phone is temporarily removed from the Windows Phone Store.  I hope to republish it soon.

Download Learn OneNote

Windows Phone Start Screen and All Apps screen

Windows Phone has a Start screen and All Apps screen, similar to Windows 8/8.1:

Windows Phone allows you to put a picture behind your Start screen, similar to Windows 8.1. However, Windows Phone features transparent tiles that allow the picture to be seen through them, as in the picture above. If you do not want a picture on your Start screen, the tiles of apps that have transparent tiles are the same color as your chosen highlight color:

Windows Phone 8.1 allows you to set your Start screen to have two or three columns on your Start screen:

Windows Phone has two background themes for the Start screen, dark and light. This is the Start screen with a dark background:

There are twenty accent colors for the Windows Phone Start screen.  These are used as the accent color for multiple actions, such as pressing a button on the keyboard, and for the Start screen tile color for those applications that have transparent tiles.

All these settings are available through the Start+ Theme tab in the Settings app:

To get to the All Apps page, either swipe left on the screen or tap the arrow button at the bottom of the screen.  When on the All Apps page, swipe right to get back to the Start screen:

The All Apps page is organized alphabetically, and it is easy to find the apps you need by tapping the little box with the letter of the current group to get this window:

Now, tap the letter that the name of the app you want begins with to scroll down to that group:

Notice that the “Authenticator” app has a small “new” under its name.  This means that this app has not yet been opened.

In later posts I will discuss Cortana, the swipe keyboard, the notification center, more settings, and the use of some of the included apps.

OneNote/Learn OneNote Updated

Microsoft released an update to OneNote yesterday with several new features, including printing, inserting PDF files, an ink highlighter, and the ability to move pages to different sections and notebooks and sections to other notebooks.

I have since released an update to my Learn OneNote app that includes these new features.

OneNote:

www.onenote.com

Learn OneNote:

Windows Store

Windows Phone Store

Windows 8.1 Update 2

Windows 8.1 received a second major update yesterday with the rest of the monthly updates.  No major features were released, those being saved for Windows 9, which is presumed to approaching dev preview stage; however, there is at least one new feature in the PC Settings app – the ability to see the last time you checked for and installed updates:

Windows Phone 8.1: Cortana

Cortana is Microsoft’s voice assistant for Windows Phone 8.1.  Cortana has many built-in uses, and is gaining more frequently.  She can tell you what the weather is, take notes to OneNote, create and edit entries in the Calendar app, set notifications, remind you to do things when you reach certain places or when certain people call you, play music on command, and call people.  She can take voice commands, and will interact with you through voice when you do so, or you can type your command, and she will not talk back.  If you search something that has a Wikipedia entry, she will read the first sentence to you.

Cortana stores your interests and upcoming activities in a notebook that you can edit manually, as well telling her to make changes.  To access the notebook, tap the “≡” button:

Cortana’s many settings allow you to set quiet hours when notifications, calls, and messages are blocked; allow you to name places, such as naming a store “Hardware Store” to make commands easier; to put contacts in your “Inner Circle” so they can break through your quiet hours, and more.

To view the entire list of Cortana’s commands, visit this webpage: http://windowsphone.com/en-US/how-to/wp8/cortana/what-can-i-say-to-cortana.

Windows Phone Start Screen and All Apps screen

Windows Phone has a Start screen and All Apps screen, similar to Windows 8/8.1:

Windows Phone allows you to put a picture behind your Start screen, similar to Windows 8.1. However, Windows Phone features transparent tiles that allow the picture to be seen through them, as in the picture above. If you do not want a picture on your Start screen, the tiles of apps that have transparent tiles are the same color as your chosen highlight color:

Windows Phone 8.1 allows you to set your Start screen to have two or three columns on your Start screen:

Windows Phone has two background themes for the Start screen, dark and light. This is the Start screen with a dark background:

There are twenty accent colors for the Windows Phone Start screen.  These are used as the accent color for multiple actions, such as pressing a button on the keyboard, and for the Start screen tile color for those applications that have transparent tiles.

All these settings are available through the Start+ Theme tab in the Settings app:

To get to the All Apps page, either swipe left on the screen or tap the arrow button at the bottom of the screen.  When on the All Apps page, swipe right to get back to the Start screen:

The All Apps page is organized alphabetically, and it is easy to find the apps you need by tapping the little box with the letter of the current group to get this window:

Now, tap the letter that the name of the app you want begins with to scroll down to that group:

Notice that Learn OneNote has a small “new” under its name.  This means that this app has not yet been opened.

In later posts I will discuss Cortana, the swipe keyboard, the notification center, more settings, and the use of some of the included apps.