Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Snipping Tool and R2H - Redmond steps in

When one of my readers, Aviruth, reported that the ASUS R2H Ultra Mobile PC shipped without the Microsoft Snipping Tool it was enough to raise some concern. Not only is the Snipping Tool a powerful Tablet enhancement but it also makes disseminating information a lot easier when in a keyboardless environment, i.e. UMPC and Slates.

The Snipping Tool was released as part of the Microsoft Experience Pack for Tablet PC in 2005, and later as art of the combined Education Pack/Experience Pack named The Enhancement Pack. Dustin Hubbard, group manager on the Tablet PC Mobile Platform team did a great job of demo-ing the User Interface (UI) on Channel Nine – this video.

So when I heard the Snipping Tool was not part of the R2H internals I left a comment recommending that Aviruth download the Experience Pack and install the Tool from there…surprisingly the results came back negative, i.e. the Tool would not install. So after a few emails to my friends in Redmond the results have come back from their investigations. Although there is nothing too surprising the results are defiantly worth posting.

So Aviruth, try out these suggestions and get back to all of us on your results.

The Email:

Hugo,

The UMPCs ship with the Origami Touch Pack only. I believe this decision was made by OEMs because the UMPC display resolution is lower than how the Tablet PC packs were designed. As you mentioned to “Anonymous”, the download files are available freely on microsoft.com. If the default language is not English, use the Enhancement pack in the language of choice (8 languages supported).

The last email that you pasted makes me wonder, however, if the person is not actually installing the individual components. The pack installs a menu and then each application needs to be installed individually. An option is available to install all, except for the Snipping Tool, which needs to be installed on its own. Do you think the person is actually doing this?

If this isn’t the issue, then Redmond should be able to direct your inquiry to the team handling the packs.

-- Redmond


(Names were replaced by the word Redmond to protect possible email hounding)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Hugo you are a legend mate,thank you so much for this.really really appreciate it!.now it's installed and working smooth! Can't thank you enough :)

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

No Aviruth,

Your the star for letting me get involved. Thank you for letting me be a part of it and let me know how it's all going for you - the UMPC "thang"

Anonymous said...

Hugo mate, this has helped me so much it's cut down so much of the time that i spend in e-mailing things.Superb stuff!Thank you again mate.:)

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Aviruth,

How cool is that - my initial suggestion was based on knowing just how productive this would make you. When it didn't work I had to use all my leverage possible to get you answers...and it worked, and now the snipping tool works for you...great stuff!

I love this blog!