Category: Tech & IT

Apps Missing From Windows Phone 8

Windows Phone 8 and the upcoming 8.1 update really fix a lot of usability issues previous versions of the phone had, but there’s still an area a new OS can’t fix – 3rd party apps.

Within the last few months I have been able to find good official apps for many apps I use on Android, but here’s a list of the ones I’m still waiting for an official app of. If these apps could be made for Windows Phone, there’s no reason I couldn’t switch full-time to my Windows Phone.

  • Amazon Music
  • Goodreads
  • Sonos
  • Starbucks
  • MediaMonkey (or any decent media player that handles genres, metadata, and syncing with ease)
  • Tasker / Llama (any automation app – which probably will never happen with the current limited access to the WP system)
  • Vudu Movies (for when Flixster isn’t working)
  • Any good boardgamegeek.com app.
  • An equivalent to aCar for Windows Phone. This app is amazing for keeping tabs of car maintenance.

How to Fix Windows 7/8 “Play To” feature when it stops working.

“Play To” is a feature of Windows 7 and 8 that will push content from a local computer to a compatible rendering device. In my case, I push video files from my local computer to my Xbox 360 in just a few clicks. It works great… when it’s working.

Thankfully when the “Play To” fails to open the application on the computer to push to a device, there’s an easy fix.
Simply open Task Manager and look for “Windows Digital Media Controller Application” in processes and kill it.

Then go back to the “Play To” menu and try again and it will work.

Fix Surface RT Limited Wifi Connection

NOTE: Changing the BAND settings below will cause 5Ghz wifi to no  longer work on your Surface. You must keep BAND at 6 for 5Ghz wifi connectivity.

10/31/2016 UPDATE:

This setting is now found in the following location:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]
 "Band"=dword:00000004
 "[2.4Ghz or 5Ghz]AutoUse40MHz"=dword:00000000

Tip came from: https://kb.iu.edu/d/bdms and modified slightly by me.

This helpful tip came from a long Microsoft community thread. Until Microsoft gets a fix for this, the best result is to disable Wireless N mode on the Surface, which is the cause of the connection problems.

1) Open regedit.
2) Go to the following tree location:
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\”
3) Find “AutoUse40Mhz” and set it to “0” (“1” is default)
4) Change the entry below this named “Band” to “4” (“6” is default)

Reboot and Surface will connect using only the 802.11 b/g band, instead of the N band.

This has been working well on my Surface RT so far. Hopefully Microsoft gets a permanent fix for this. :\