Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book phantom touches

A couple of days ago one of our docked Surface Pro 4 (SP4) units started to experience what looked like an ongoing touch in the middle between the two screens near the bottom.

A reach over to the SP4 and a touch to figure out where the phantom touches were happening brought about the discovery that it was near the bottom righthand corner of the touch screen.

Weird.

Okay, so pull it off the dock, give it a good screen cleaning, and for good measure blow it out since it's been sitting there for a while.

It seemed okay but the problem came back.

A reboot would not fix it either.

So, in to the Microsoft Store we went today. The tech took it into the back for a few minutes then came back and said it's good to go.

What was done? They have a calibration tool there at the store to recalibrate the touch screen.

Since that was done the SP4 has been behaving. We'll see, but let's hope it's all good.

• Microsoft KB 3165497: Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book experiences "phantom" touch input on the screen

As it turns out, the task run by the Microsoft Tech is in the above KB article.

So, if experiencing phantom touches download and run the calibration tool found in that article.

UPDATE 2018-09-10: They came back. :(

As  an FYI, this time around instead of hugging one side of the screen we had a line of touches running across the screen.

So, instead of heading back to the store we ran through the hotfix e-mail process and ran the utility.

The phantom touches disappeared again. We'll see for how long.

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
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Some Thoughts on Writing in Digital and the Surface Pro 4

I personally love to write. With real pens and ink. :)

Currently, we have a pending order with a Taiwanese vendor for some TWSBI fountain pens.

The above image is from TWSBI's web site. It's a TWSBI Diamond 580 Clear. There's also a Mini version that travels a lot better.

Pilot makes some gorgeous inks. The above ajisai is a pretty neat colour that will be the go-to for regular note taking. We have several different colours on their way at the moment.

When there is a need to write in pencil the Platinum PRO-USE 03 (MSD-1500) is one of the best mechanical pencils ever made in my opinion.

When it comes to art, my primary medium is coloured pencil on various media or graphite pencil also on various media. I'm currently working on a Tiger Moth Orchid using Faber-Castell Polychromos oil based colour pencils.

All of the above is to bring about just how important the digital ink experience needs to be. While not a professional digital ink writer or artist by any means, the digital ink experience is quite important.

To date, my personal best digital pen experience for both writing and art has been with the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with the Pro 4 (SP4) being even better.

The SP4 provides an excellent platform for one who prefers to write over type.

OneNote has an excellent recognition process that allows for hand written notes to be copied and pasted into Word. For those that take notes at meetings to provide minutes at a later date this feature works great!

It's also great for those that attend conferences to gain information. Writing the notes on the fly can be a lot faster, especially for those of us that developed a written shorthand while in university classes back in the day. ;)

Tie in the taking of pictures to use as a reference later in the day when re-working the handwritten notes into a final set and we have a pretty good method for building some pretty good written work such as articles, blog posts, or even books.

Side Note: Another aspect of writing versus typing is in memory retention. Retention seems to be _a lot_ better when notes are taken live with a pen versus typing those notes in. Retention gets even better if the "crib" notes and pictures are re-worked later that day into a final set of notes.

At some point time will be spent with the Microsoft Surface Studio. It seems to be about the best platform out there for the artistically inclined. We certainly know of quite a few engineering, architectural, and other such firms either switching or looking to switch to the Surface Studio.

The one catch though is that it is difficult to let go of pen and paper when it comes to art. For some, the "analog" versus "digital" art "discussion" can be quite "religious" in nature. ;)

Suffice it to say, if looking for a new ultra-portable system that will run most work related applications and provide an excellent platform for the written word the Surface Pro 4 is the one to choose.

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
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Twitter: @MPECSInc

Some Thoughts On ARM and Intel Windows 8 Devices and the Windows 8 OS

This is a post to the SBS2K Yahoo List.

OP: Windows and ARM are essentially dead.

My thoughts . . .

I don’t think ARM is dead. Cost wise Intel can’t meet them especially with the new FABs they have built and their ongoing yield issues. There needs to be a cost tier in tech.
 
The ARM/RT/Surface 2 experience is aimed at the iDevice user. Folks that are used to a locked in experience where they need to purchase apps outside of the device to get what they need to be productive. The advantage goes to Surface 2 as it has everything one needs to be fully productive short of Enterprise features like DirectAccess _out of the box_. InTune takes care of the management side of things to some degree to give corporate IT some control over the devices.
 
I like my Surface 2. It’s flaky for sure. It reminds me of the day when we started to see motherboards with the “new” 32-bit PCI slots on them and the industry extolling “Plug and Play” as the new end to IRQs and Jumpers. We called it “Plug and Pray” for _years_ before the tech settled down and started doing what it was supposed to.
 
I believe that the Windows ARM line will, and already is, put a lot of pressure on iDevices and Android devices since users see a device that has their Windows experience out of the box.
 
Kill Microsoft with words over the new Metro/Modern UI and its app environment but Microsoft knows what they are doing. They _know_ user pain moving between different platforms and the cost in lost productivity due to the “where’s my cheese” between them.
 
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been approached with a “my Android device updated and now my stuff is gone or changed how do I get it back” question. That’s one area that Google has totally wrong. It’s not about the devs and their toys it’s about the end-user and their need to stay productive. Windows Phone solves this pain point big time as does iOS as they don’t butcher the user experience between versions.
 
And that is the clincher: As the general public becomes more aware that their PC, tablet, and phone can host the exact same environment in a stable and ongoing fashion, especially through device changes, the Windows platform will grow. The Windows 8/RT platform is relatively stable, provides a methodology to move to new devices and inherit everything, and provides a seamless and similar user experience across ALL devices. That’s Microsoft’s long-term vision IMNSHO.
 
An example: I killed the screen on my Nokia 920. It pancaked on the floor. Box tape is holding the glass together and it still works just fine but seeing through the cracks is painful. So, I bought a new Nokia 1020. It took about an hour after signing in with my Microsoft ID to have EVERYTHING as it was on my 920. The device backup and restore process pulls everything back even my text message threads! I don’t have to plug my phone into a computer or WiFi sync it like the iPhone does (not sure if messaging threads come back with a restore to a new iPhone?).
 
I set up a new Windows 8.1 machine for home based on the Intel NUC. I signed in with my Microsoft ID, set up my app passwords, and pulled down my regular apps from the Store’s “What you purchased” list and I was fully productive. All I needed from there was Office, RD Manager, and Camtasia. Everything else I use is in Metro/Modern UI.
 
If you have not experienced the seamless setup between Windows 8+ systems then you are truly missing out again IMNSHO. I NEED to have every second available to me to stay on top of things. Windows 8 has saved gobs of time over the previous days when I was working on setting up new machines for myself. In fact, after signing into my Microsoft ID (it is 2FA protected so I always need my phone for this step) and setting my passwords into the Mail app (the new PC has all of my Exchange mailboxes ready for a password and to start syncing immediately) I can be productive immediately communication wise.
 
Maybe I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. Maybe not. But I can tell you the benefits of Windows 8+ far outweigh the cons. Oh, and the Start Button in Windows 8.1 rocks. I did not realize just how much I missed it for managing servers via a windowed RDP/iDRAC/iLO/RMM session. :P
 
One more neat bit: Hit the Start button after setting key mail folders on the Start Menu and the Live Tiles give me an at-a-glance view of all communications. I like that.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

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Neat: Microsoft Surface Ad “The Surface Movement”

The following video was pointed out by fellow MVP Cris Hanna.

The Surface Movement

The keyboard has been the tablet’s Achilles’ heel from the get-go.

Wanting to get any serious work done on the Tega v2 tablet required us to purchase some sort of keyboard/mouse combination. The Logitech DiNovo Mini met that need for our Tega v2 tablet.

The fact that the Surface will have a keyboard built right into the unit is a “killer feature”.

Folks that are spot checking their Live Tiles for something they are waiting for can touch their way through in a few taps and swipes.

Someone that needs to focus on finishing up that report or tweaking their proposal will require an extra input method. The Surface’s built-in keyboard kit is perfect for that.

For anyone that has travelled coach, the ability to disconnect the keyboard and rest it on our lap while the tablet itself sits on the now reclined seat table in front of us is going to be a really good thing too!

The Surface and other OEM Windows 8 product offerings that are going to be available soon are, IMNSHO, going to be a game changer for that market segment.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Windows Live Writer