[OFFICIAL] questions and answers for Microsoft surface
- Thread starter -Falco
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What happens when you double-click the videos? For supported formats, the relevant app (typically the built-in app) should start up and play them. For unsupported formats, you should get a prompt offering to search the Store for a compatible app. Of course, it's possible for the container (which is the usual source of the file extension, stuff like ".avi" or ".mov") to be supported, but the video and/or audio codec within that contain to be not supported. In that case, you should manually open the file with an app that supports that decoder.
Security concern using Windows Live ID
Is using your Windows Live ID as an administrative user a legitimate security concern, and, if so, is the security precaution listed below effective on the Surface RT? Part of the reason I ask the question is that I do not fully understand how the BitLocker recovery key process works when it is initially stored on the Microsoft servers.
Proposed Surface Security Precaution.
1. Set-up new User Account. Make it a local account which does not require signing into Microsoft.
2. Change type of new user account to “administrator”from Control Panel.
3. Manage User accounts and change account “type”of Microsoft login account to standard (not administrator).
4. From administrator account back-up BitLocker encryption key (go to control panel, Bitlocker).
5. Use local admin account for any data whichcannot be compromised.
6. Depending on the strength of your password, you should now be protected in the event your data on the Microsoft servers is hacked into or Microsoft is forced to divulge your Windows Live credentials and password.
Is using your Windows Live ID as an administrative user a legitimate security concern, and, if so, is the security precaution listed below effective on the Surface RT? Part of the reason I ask the question is that I do not fully understand how the BitLocker recovery key process works when it is initially stored on the Microsoft servers.
Proposed Surface Security Precaution.
1. Set-up new User Account. Make it a local account which does not require signing into Microsoft.
2. Change type of new user account to “administrator”from Control Panel.
3. Manage User accounts and change account “type”of Microsoft login account to standard (not administrator).
4. From administrator account back-up BitLocker encryption key (go to control panel, Bitlocker).
5. Use local admin account for any data whichcannot be compromised.
6. Depending on the strength of your password, you should now be protected in the event your data on the Microsoft servers is hacked into or Microsoft is forced to divulge your Windows Live credentials and password.
In theory, yeah that works. Lots of potential pitfalls, though. Make sure that sensitive data is stored with ACLs that only allow the Admin user access. Don't use UAC to gain access to that data from the non-Admin account via the Admin credentials (this modifies the ACLs). Hope there's no local elevation of privilege vulnerabilities (there are some, whether they're currently known or not).
Mind, these attacks are only relevant in the case of somebody gaining access to your Surface already. Me knowing you Microsoft Account username and password wouldn't let me remotely log into your Surface, for example.
Mind, these attacks are only relevant in the case of somebody gaining access to your Surface already. Me knowing you Microsoft Account username and password wouldn't let me remotely log into your Surface, for example.
Still Concerned about security
Thank you for your response. I wish I could say your answer puts me at ease. The fact you are from Seattle makes me give more credence to your statement about the existing vulnerabilities in the elevation of privileges area. Do you know if a new BitLocker Recovery Key is created when a user establishes a new Local Administrative User Account and changes the Windows Live User account to Non-Admin? If so, when does this happen exactly? I thought I read on the MicroSoft website that a recovery key is only established when signing into MicroSoft for the first time. It seems to me that if its the same BitLocker recovery key after making the User Account changes I talked about as a proposed security procedure, then the ultimate decision as to whether to reveal the contents of my surface may rest with someone other than myself because hackers could steal the recovery key from MicroSoft, or MicroSoft could be forced to provide this recovery key to a third party.
If this concern is valid, or am I missing something here? Could you recommend any procedure for putting the final decision to reveal data back into the Surface owners hands?
Thank you for your response. I wish I could say your answer puts me at ease. The fact you are from Seattle makes me give more credence to your statement about the existing vulnerabilities in the elevation of privileges area. Do you know if a new BitLocker Recovery Key is created when a user establishes a new Local Administrative User Account and changes the Windows Live User account to Non-Admin? If so, when does this happen exactly? I thought I read on the MicroSoft website that a recovery key is only established when signing into MicroSoft for the first time. It seems to me that if its the same BitLocker recovery key after making the User Account changes I talked about as a proposed security procedure, then the ultimate decision as to whether to reveal the contents of my surface may rest with someone other than myself because hackers could steal the recovery key from MicroSoft, or MicroSoft could be forced to provide this recovery key to a third party.
If this concern is valid, or am I missing something here? Could you recommend any procedure for putting the final decision to reveal data back into the Surface owners hands?
I would be more concerned about privilege escalation exploits as they run on the device while you are using it and logged in, at which point the drive is unlocked for access already. BitLocker recovery really is more of an aid for someone who has physical access to your device trying to gain access to your files when they do not have a login for the computer. In the old days we used to be able to just boot up a cd or usb stick with Linux or even windows2go and have access to all the files without having to log in to your account. With BitLocker this is a bit harder as a recovery key is needed for this to occur.
@lilstevie is correct. The fact that you were worried about ACLs and account separation suggested that the attack vector you were concerned about is an online attack by malware or a "guest" user (anybody with physical access tot he online device but who doesn't know your login credentials). If you're worried about protecting a device against theft (and note that it needs to be turned off instead of merely suspended for this to matter), then BitLocker is your protection, but that's a different attack vector.
BL recovery keys are not typically revoked or rotated; it is expected that once such a key is generated, it will be stored securely and always be usable. You can do it manually if you desire, using the manage-bde command-line tool. I do not know whether it's possible to prevent uploading the BL key to Microsoft, although it probably is.
BL recovery keys are not typically revoked or rotated; it is expected that once such a key is generated, it will be stored securely and always be usable. You can do it manually if you desire, using the manage-bde command-line tool. I do not know whether it's possible to prevent uploading the BL key to Microsoft, although it probably is.
asus tf600f windows rt apps on the go
Hi All.
I bought this tablet for using with my work as I am out and about throughout the weekdays.
Really need to find the best way of syncing my outlook and calendar before I leave the office but obviously RT does not have normal outlook with contacts and calendar to do this the easy way.
The second thing I am struggling with is finding an app that uses GPS rather than my mobile data for navigation, any ideas?
Lastly I bought a leather type case with built in keyboard but the keyboard and charge socket is directly in line with the tablet holding brackets so can not be used. Any suggestions for a good case and keyboard? Even if they are put together in a small case separately.
TIA
Ricco
Hi All.
I bought this tablet for using with my work as I am out and about throughout the weekdays.
Really need to find the best way of syncing my outlook and calendar before I leave the office but obviously RT does not have normal outlook with contacts and calendar to do this the easy way.
The second thing I am struggling with is finding an app that uses GPS rather than my mobile data for navigation, any ideas?
Lastly I bought a leather type case with built in keyboard but the keyboard and charge socket is directly in line with the tablet holding brackets so can not be used. Any suggestions for a good case and keyboard? Even if they are put together in a small case separately.
TIA
Ricco
Apps use the Windows Location Framework for getting your location. The WLF will use WiFi data by default, but if there's a GPS available it will also use that (for more precision, or to get a fix where WiFi triangulation doesn't work).
If you use an Exchange server, just set it up in the built-in Mail app (or Calendar app, or People app...) and everything will automatically sync with Outlook.
If you use an Exchange server, just set it up in the built-in Mail app (or Calendar app, or People app...) and everything will automatically sync with Outlook.
windows location frame work navigation
Thank you for you reply, as a new person to the tablet market I am still not understanding some of this...
We do not use an exchange server for email just IMAP or POP.
Thank you for you reply, as a new person to the tablet market I am still not understanding some of this...
We do not use an exchange server for email just IMAP or POP.
Using IMAP on both Outlook and on the tablet will cause mail to be kept in sync (folders, message read-unread state, stuff like that). POP3 doesn't do that; don't use it (it's antique and awful).
If you want to sync calendars and contacts, I believe there's an "Outlook Connector" app/plugin for the PC that will keep your Outlook calendar and address book synced with your Windows Live one. Since the Windows Live calendar and contacts sync to the tablet by default, this can be used to set up automatic syncing between the PC and tablet.
If you want to sync calendars and contacts, I believe there's an "Outlook Connector" app/plugin for the PC that will keep your Outlook calendar and address book synced with your Windows Live one. Since the Windows Live calendar and contacts sync to the tablet by default, this can be used to set up automatic syncing between the PC and tablet.
I just changed my Surface's language to portuguese and all the critical updates I have done when the English language was active are showing in Windows Update again. Is this normal?
For updates which modify any user-facing text, yes. Locale-specific stuff is stored in .MUI files which accompany the binaries. To save space, most versions of Windows don't install all the MUIs by default - they're individually small, but there are a ton of them. Switching to a new language for the first time unpacks new MUIs, but updates that were previously installed for those MUIs will be missing.
The update process should be very quick with tiny downloads, though.
The update process should be very quick with tiny downloads, though.
Thank you for your reply! I tried updating but now the Surface became unstable. Microsoft apps like Finance or Sports don't open; I see the splash screen but then it goes straight to the desktop. Even Google and ESPN app are not working. Should I restore my surface?
Just a quick reply about my problem. I performed several restores on my Surface and figured out the the apps start to crash after I implement the tip 13. Enable Hidden Start Screen Animation, from the [REF] *Surface Hints, Tips and Registry Tweaks topic.
I had that same result on my desktop. It was Explorer crashing, not the apps, though, which will give pretty much the same effect.
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5Ask questions for the Microsoft surface and only the Microsoft surface go here. They can range from hardware to software questions. Please try not to repeat questions. And please answer them in a nice way. Don't put people down because they don't know how to create a folder or something simple. and DON'T SAY GOOGLE IT!
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Samsung galaxy s2
Rom: Jedi knight 6
kernel: Jedi kernel 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~3You know, with all due respect to your chronic illnesses and such, the "android on RT" question could have been answered a lot faster by search than by making the post; they've been asked, and answered, so many times it's absurd. The questions about media players and such have at least the virtue of thinking we might know something that all the reviewers online don't, but that's not much of a virtue when it, too, has been discussed to death already.
Look at it from our perspective: these are questions that we long-time members see over and over again, dozens of times in this forum alone. Often, even in the same thread! So yeah, we get tired of giving the same answers over and over, and to have somebody ask yet again, the assumption that they clearly haven't even tried to save us (not to mention themselves) some time with basic research is very easy to make. Yeah, the forum search feature is a miserable pile of fail, but xda-devs is very well indexed by Google, Bing, etc. and you can easily answer questions by checking there. The Bing search for Android "Surface RT" site:xda-developers.com gives almost 12 thousand results, and I can answer a few of your questions just reading the list without even clicking the links.
Before you (or any other newbie) post on a site like this, bear in mind that there's basically four types of responses you're likely to get: noobs who don't know anything either, people who know and are willing to take the time away from working with other hackers/developers/experts to write you an answer, people who know that the answer can be found by search (they may be experts or total noobs or anything in between) and will tell you so, and no answer at all (which can be either because nobody knows or nobody can be bothered to tell you something so obvious). Basically, unless you think your question is both unusual enough and intriguing enough that people who know will bother responding to it, don't post it.
This is not ideal, no. It's not terribly newbie-friendly, and it's not the optimal way to disseminate knowledge. But, this is an imperfect world. People have limited time. People have personal goals. People are not machines, willing to tirelessly spit out the same information day in and day out. At the end of the day, you should remember that XDA-Devs is a *developer* site. It's not a user site. The focus is on getting the most out of our devices, not answering the questions of people who don't even have what we consider to be baseline-level knowledge about the subject of mobile devices (such as the fact that ARM devices cannot be turned "into a Win7"; a question which makes about as much sense as if somebody asked if their sailboat could be made into an airplane or something).
If you're looking for a site devoted to answering the questions ordinary people have about Surface, as opposed to one about experts sharing information on hacking a Surface, try something like http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface. Yes, linking to external sites which arguably compete with XDA is against the forum rules, but I'd argue that it largely falls under "post in the correct section" too; based on this thread, I'm not sure that you could be said to be *contributing* anything here, except the admittedly useful reminder that we can be a bunch of arrogant snobs at times. That's true, and it's something we should pay attention to, but it doesn't actually help you any.
In fact, given how unlikely it is that the next person like you will read this post before asking for the 11902nd time, writing it is probably a net detraction from XDA's usefulness too. But it's already written, so I may as well post it and hope.2
First of all, is this a work account? If so, IT could be blocking it or something. Assuming it's not, go to your calendar on the website and try going into settings. Share the calendar to your Microsoft live mail address. Once that's done, sign out of GMail and go to your Livemail. Open the invitation to join, make an account, and just use that account to sign into your calendar in Windows ? :good:
Long, complicated method, but should work!
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Hit the thanks button if I helped!2
When you say Google, I'm assuming you mean GMail in the mail app or contacts in the people app. I've added mine and it works fine. However, you might want to try logging into your live account (I'm assuming you have one since you have a surface) and hooking up your two accounts there. To do this, go to live.com and click on your name on the upper right-hand corner. Then click on account settings. Login with your password again and go to permissions on the left-hand side. In the following screen click add accounts. There you can add Google contacts. For mail however, there are other ways to link.
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Hit the thanks button if I helped!
---------- Post added at 01:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 AM ----------
Hey, this is most likely a hardware problem. I had a similar issue with mine (only I could still change the volume with touch). Does it do the same thing with the touch/type cover? This would tell you if it's a hardware problem.
However, I got mine replaced 'cause my headphone jack stopped working. The volume rocker was then fixed and has been fine ever since. Oh, and have you tried resetting or refreshing in case it is software? If you're going to get it replaced anyway (just call Microsoft, explain what happened and tell 'em you want it replaced, they'll do it for you) you may as well try that first.
Hope this helped!
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Hit the thanks button if I helped!1
1) do you have the correct imap prefix set? How many folders do you have?
2) probably because deep cycling the battery under 5% reduces overall battery life
3) you can't? http://www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-surface-rt-tip-deleting-apps
4) http://superuser.com/questions/496906/how-can-i-remove-live-tile-updates-in-windows-8
5) possibly never, but I agree that would be awesome
6) don't understand - keyboard should use your global language setting
7) you could always share your bigger skydrive's account with your smaller skydrive account - that should make the space accessable from the smaller account. Do that in the skydrive web interface.
8) ?
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