Logon with a Picture Password

Picture Passwords are one of the more innovative new features in Windows 8 that enables you to logon by touching or clicking specific parts of a picture to authenticate.  Any picture in your library can be used as a reference to help you remember where the three parts of your picture password are located. Basic gestures such as dragging your finger or mouse along a specific part of the picture can also be used in your password.

How to Boot directly to the Desktop

One of the most controversial changes in Windows 8 is the new sign on behavior that takes users right to the new Start Screen instead of the classic Desktop. This is very annoying for many desktop users that want to stay in the classic Windows environment as much as possible.  In the final build of Windows 8 Microsoft added fuel to the fire by blocking a popular tweak that allowed users to bypass the Start Screen and boot directly to the desktop. A new work around was eventually found, in fact a number of them. This article will show you multiple methods that will bypass the Start Screen and boot directly to the Windows 8 desktop.

Ultimate Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcut Guide

Keyboard shortcuts in Windows 8 allow you to navigate around the OS quickly and efficiently.  Throughout the classic desktop and modern metro interfaces, Microsoft created keyboard shortcuts for almost every common task.  This guide will show you the most useful keyboard shortcuts to improve your Windows 8 experience.

Install Windows 8 to VHD for Easy Dual Booting

Windows 8 supports installing to a virtual hard disk file called a VHD for non-traditional dual boot setups. Instead of dividing your hard drive into multiple partitions typically required for dual booting multiple operating systems, booting to a VHD allows you to keep your primary OS untouched and instead boot to a VHD file on the same file system. This make it very easy to try Windows 8 on your native hardware while having a Windows 7 safety net that you can access with just a reboot.

Install .NET Framework 3.5 on Windows 8

Windows 8 includes the .NET Framework 4.5 installed by default but versions 3.5 and older are no longer included. Chances are you will have apps that need older versions of .NET to run.  This article will help you enable the .NET Framework 3.5 which will also install .NET 3.0 and 2.0.

Enable Num Lock on the Windows 8 Logon Screen

Some users will find that no matter what value is set in the computer BIOS, num lock will not be enabled automatically on the logon screen.  If you are a desktop user and have a number in your password or use a PIN to login to your account, having number lock enabled on the number pad is essential for a speedy logon.

Enabling num lock on the logon screen is a simple registry tweak. In fact, you can just download and import this registry file and then reboot. 

If you want to get your hands dirty, open up registry editor and browse to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard.

Then edit the value of InitialKeyboardIndicators and set it to a value of 2.

theo: tweaks.com

Convert Physical Machines to Virtual with Disk2vhd

he Windows Sysinternals group at Microsoft has released Disk2vhd that is a free physical to virtual converter. Disk2vhd allows you to create VHD (virtual hard dive) files from physical drives on your computer while your system is online. The VHD files generated can be used in Microsoft Virtual PC or on Hyper-V server and you will have an instant clone of your machine running virtually.  This is perfect for duplicating a production server for a development virtual machine that you can use on a different computer.