Windows 8 Review

One of the biggest selling point of Windows RT tablets is the ability to connect with existing devices via USB. I’ve decided to scavenge my house for all kinds of USB gear and see if it will work with Microsoft Surface or not. Here’s how it played out:

• USB mouse and keyboard – works. I use Logitech K750 solar keyboard and Logitech MX mouse both in the office and on the go. I pulled the tiny universal receiver from the Intel-based Samsung series 7 slate and both keyboard and mouse worked like a charm. There is a caveat though. Each Logitech accessory comes with it’s own pre-configured universal receiver. In order to use one receiver with both devices it needs to be configured. Currently it can only be done on Intel based PC running Windows XP, Vista or 7 since Logitech hasn’t released drivers for Windows 8. Once receiver is configured there is no need for drivers and the receiver will just work.
• DSLR – works. Connected Canon EOS 5D Mark III and was able to browse files on the memory card, import and view them. The device center page also showed level of battery charge.
• Android smartphone as storage device- works. Can browse and manipulate files
• Android smartphone via USB tethering – doesn’t work. Windows RT doesn’t have the driver for NDIS Internet sharing device. A bummer. Hopefully this will get fixed in the future.
• Wacom Bamboo digitizer – works. Windows RT installed drivers and was able to use it for mouse input.
• USB-Serial adapter – didn’t work. There were no drivers for Windows RT
• DVD drive via USB-SATA adapter – worked. I was able to browse files on the disk. Unfortunately that particular drive no longer works as a burner so I was unable to check if it would burn files to recordable media.
• Portable USB Hard drive – worked. No issues at all. Event though the enclosure has dual USB plugs (one for data and one for additional power). Surface was able to spin up and power the hard drive with just one port just like my desktop PC does.
• iPad – worked. I was able to browse public file storage of the iPad from Surface just like from any other PC.

Printing… I also noticed that Surface automatically detected and installed both of my Brother network printers: MFC-7440N and MFC-6890CDW and was able to print to them via network. Since network scanning requires desktop application from Brother that part didn’t work. Hoping that Brother will release a Metro-style scanning app soon.

Overall, external device support by Microsoft Surface/Windows RT is impressive. It definitely beats iOS/Android by a mile. That doesn’t mean however that there is no room left for improvement.