Day 15 – Surface Pro: Exploring applications and impact on storage space

Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet
3/26/2013 
 
Welcome to Day 15 of working with a Microsoft Surface Pro Windows 8 tablet for educators. Today I would like to discuss some of the applications we have been installing on the Surface Pro and the impact it has on storage space.

Yesterday, I gave an overview of the 64GB and 128GB models of the Surface Pro and why we elected to go with the larger capacity model. The main reason was that I knew we would be installing “full-blown” Windows 8 applications including Office 2013 as well as some selected software that will be used for creative purposes for teachers and students. Below is a screenshot of some of the apps and applications that we have installed so far.

I also mentioned yesterday that the Surface Pro is a transformative device that can be thought of as a hybrid between an Ultrabook class machine and a tablet.

This device evolution leaves us with the predicament of trying to categorize this machine into something that we have not experienced before. The Surface Pro is a PC, a tablet, and a Tablet PC all rolled into one.

Because the Surface Pro is a transitional device it has a dual-personality with the traditional Desktop as well as the modern-style Start Screen apps available for use at all times. This allows you to easily switch back and forth between the best computing environment, at will, for the intended job.

This flexibility does require an adjustment of wrapping your head around the two different computing environments. You need to realize that you can use both full-blown Desktop applications with all the power and sophistication we have come to expect with PC’s AND also the more “light-weight” modern apps with a touch-friendly interface. Meshing the two together requires a change in mindset to fully appreciate the benefits.

One of the intents of this blog is to document the experience and share new possibilities for teaching and learning. Since this is a hybrid model we are exploring I am interested in both the Desktop and App worlds.

I began by installing the PC applications that I regularly use on the Surface Pro. These are the full applications that we are accustomed to running on a standard PC.

To begin with the reported amount of storage space available on the brand new Surface Pro we purchased was 89.3GB free out of the box. The rest of the 128GB SSD storage is used by the operating system and a recovery partition. You can get an approximately 7 GB of space returned if you backup the recovery partition to a USB drive if you absolutely need additional space. But if you remove the recovery partition you will not be able to do a factory reset. You will need the recovery USB drive that you will need to make if you delete the recovery partition, so be careful. Since the Surface Pro also has expandable storage I am leaving the recovery partition on the device. I will use expandable storage if I need it.

So here are the practical results from the programs that I have chosen to install to date. I have installed the following programs on the Surface Pro:

Microsoft Office 2013 – including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and OneNote

Symantec 12 – antivirus
SafeConnect – wireless client to access university network
Camtasia Studio 8 – screencasting
Mixcraft 6 – for music and audio creation
Paint.net – free image editing tool (Desktop)
Ink2Go - Screen annotation & recording (Win 7)
Audacity – free sound editing tool (Desktop)
ScreenBeam – wireless HDMI display transmitter for use with HDTV

The above programs are all PC applications that are robust and full featured.

I am exploring the practical applications for teaching and learning purposes with a teachers eye. What do you need a computer to do?

I want to be able to use the de facto standard Office programs as well as have the ability to create music and audio for podcasts, produce videos, edit images, and produce screencasts. With the selected programs above the Surface Pro is becoming a powerhouse for teaching and learning purposes.

After installing the above applications and doing the Windows Updates the total amount of free space available on the 128GB Surface Pro was 71.6 GB. Not bad, not bad at all. This leaves plenty of space for additional programs and data.

In addition to the Desktop applications there are many “modern” apps available including, News, Videos, Travel, Finance, Xbox Music, Bing, Camera, Skype, Skydrive, Maps, Store, etc…

So, there you have it, well over half of the 128GB Surface Pro is still available as free space even after installing some of the heavy-weight programs listed above. I do have a couple more programs I will be installing in the future but I do have the space available when I need it.

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

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