Microsoft Windows 8.1 - Fast fixes

Get rid of irritating quirks in Microsoft’s latest operating system update and make it work the way it should

Fix blurry text permanently

You may find that certain programs in Windows 8.1 suffer from blurry or hard-to-read text This is caused by something called DPI Scaling and is due to Windows making a bad guess at how certain fonts should be displayed , casing them to appear fuzzy. Fortunately, there’s a new setting in 8.1 that lets you fix this error for all programs, which means you won’t struggle reading menus and settings. Right-click anywhere on the Desktop, select ‘Screen resolution’ , then ‘ Make text and other items larger or smaller’ . Next, tick ‘ Let Me choose one scaling level for all my displays’, select Smaller and click Apply. You’ll need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Stop the mouse pointer lagging

The Windows 8.1 update has caused the mouse cursor to move slowly or completely freeze when playing certain games. In fact, some games have become unplayable due to the fault. Microsoft has released a downloadable patch that will fix the problem. Go to www.snipca.com/10830, scroll to Resolution and click ‘Download the package now’ next to your version of Windows. Microsoft says it is working to add support for more games.

Remove the secureBoot watermark

SecureBoot is a new feature in Windows 8 that ensures your computer only uses trusted software when it boots up protecting it from malicious programs. When updating from Windows 8 to 8.1 some people have ended up with a small message in the bottom-right corner of the Desktop that reads ‘SecureBoot isn’t configured correctly’. This ‘watermark’ can be removed by using Windows Update (Search for update and select ‘ Check for updates’) or by downloading a patch from Microsoft

Stop your touchpad from turning off

A new feature in Windows 8.1 called accidental activation prevention(AAP) is designed to stop unintended taps on the touchpad from disrupting your typing. AAP disables the touchpad for a short time after each keystroke, so you don’t inadvertently click it while typing, which can be annoying when playing games or running programs that require simultaneous use of the keyboard and touchpad. To turn AAP off press Win+c, then select settings, change PC Settings, ‘PC and devices’ and ‘ Mouse and touchpad’. Open the dropdown menu and select ‘No delay(always on)’.

Make your SkyDrive files available offline

By default SkyDive in windows 8.1 only makes your files available offline if you first created them on your PC. You won’t be able to access other files on your PC that were created in SkyDrive or on another computer, unless you’re connected to the internet. To make your entire SkyDrive library available offline navigate to SkyDrive in windows Explorer, right click it and select ‘Make available offline’

Search everywhere on your PC

windows 8.1’s new search scours the web as well as your computer. Strangely, it won’t search your entire computer. This is because whatever Windows searches it also has to index, which can take up a lot of your system’s resources, slowing your computer down. Therefore, it will only search the most common areas of your hard drive/ If you want windows to search specific parts of your computer, add these to its index. Press Win+x, then click Control Panel. Next to ‘View by’ select Large Icons and scroll down to indexing options. In the window that appears, click Modify and add any additional locations you want adding to your search index, such as an external hard drive. Tick the boxes next to everything you want indexing, then click ok.