Metro / ModernUI Internet Explorer missing

Have you noticed that the Metro / ModernUI Internet Explorer has gone missing or only starts the desktop version?

If you don’t like the “full-screen” Metro / Modern UI version of Internet Explorer, then this post is for you.

If you do like it, then this post is for you also.

I for one do like the ModernUI version of IE, both on the desktop and on my Surface. On the desktop I mostly use it when reading news sites and such, but it still serves a purpose for me.

Today I noticed it wasn’t working anymore. When I click the big ‘e’ icon on the Start Screen it would switch over and start the desktop version. I tried doing a search on my desktop for Internet Explorer, but still, only the desktop version would appear. Most peculiar.

After a bit of digging around I found the following option to “Open Internet Explorer tiles on the desktop” under the IE options Programs tab, but it was greyed out and I couldn’t change it. Most peculiar

Windows RT 8.1 upgrade fails with Boot Configuration error

UPDATE 19 August 2014 regarding KB14-045 bluescreens:

Although I don’t have a fix, there seems to be a lot of people finding this post while searching about the recent bluescreen issue caused by Microsoft Updates KB14-045. I have started a new post about this issue here:

https://kickthatcomputer.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/windows-update-kb2982791-ms14-045-causing-bluescreen/

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Microsoft have now released the Full Recovery Image for WinRT (3.7GB download). You can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/surface-rt-startup-error-0xc000000d?lc=1033

It uses the same steps to complete the upgrade with the last part being to recreate the full recovery volume. Some news sites are saying the MS image will revert you to 8.0, it does not. It will complete the 8.1 upgrade and then the extra steps are to recreate the on-device recovery volume with the 8.0 image which only applies if you rollback sometime in the future.

First point – How annoying is it that you can only update Windows RT from the App Store, although probably not a drama if you only have one tablet. Slightly annoying if you have two. Both need to download the update, so that’s 2x the several GB needed. If you happen to be an enterprise/business that decided to buy several of them (does such a entity exist?) then it would appear you are about to have a ton of downloads happening unless you boost your proxy cache size.

And now for todays story. I updated one Surface RT with no drama. It took a long time but I just let it run overnight and it was all good the next morning. The other tablet, not so good.

Recovery
Your PC needs to be repaired
The Boot Configuration Data file is missing some required information
File: \BCD
Error code: 0xc000000d

Yay.

Although it takes a while, and might be a bit tricky, it does seem to be fairly easy to recover from. (UPDATE: I have now received multiple confirmations that this works, and no data is lost!)

WordPress posts not showing the title

Minor point, but annoying. I started to notice that some of my blog posts were missing the title. I tried updating, retyping etc but nothing seemed to “reset” it. The only solution I had was to start a new blog entry and copy the content, then delete the old entry.

A search on the internets only turned up people building their own custom themes having this problem due to putting code in the wrong place. This has been happening to me with several different themes that I’ve picked from the WordPress themes “store”.

Hyper-V Powershell command are missing

In my never ending quest to learn a new thing everyday, I decided I needed to spend more time with Powershell. After a recent Hyper-V issue it seems it would be just the thing to help. So imagine my surprise when nothing I did could get the Hyper-V PS commands to work!

It turns out that because my server had been upgraded to Server 2012 from 2008R2, when the Hyper-V role is installed, the Hyper-V PS module isn’t.