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Windows 8 is intended to make the laptop work like a SmartPhone. Microsoft seems to think that this is the save of the future. As a result, Windows 8 does some odd things when considered from the standpoint of a laptop computer, particularly one at-sea on a tender.
Recover from Sleeping
Like smart phones, Windows 8 wants to blank out the screen if it hasn't been used for a minute or two, in order to save battery power. To bring it back to life move the mouse or press one of the arrow keys. That will sometimes work, and if it does will often put you back at the desktop. If the screen is still black try hitting the power button. That should wake up the computer, but will usually put you at the login screen.
Login
Type the password used to login to the computer. This is usually NOT the same password as you use to login to tLandings.
Start Screen
Press the Esc key to get to the desktop, or click on the icon that says "Desktop" in the lower left.
Inserting the tLandings Thumbdrive
When you insert the tLandings Thumbdrive into a USB port on the computer, Windows 8 will frequently give a message: "There is a problem with this drive. Scan the drive now and fix it." We don't know why Windows 8 does this, we've tried scanning and it tells us that no errors were found, so the recommended thing to do is click "Continue without Scanning."
Running tLandings
On the tool button bar at the bottom of the desktop, find the folder icon. It looks like manila folders with colored tabs, and if you hover the mouse pointer over it, it says "File Explorer". Click that. In the File Explorer, find your thumbdrive. If you don't see it you may need to pull it out of the USB port and re-insert it. Double click on the thumbdrive icon on the File Explorer. The File Explorer will show the contents of the thumbdrive. You can now double click on the run_tlandings file to run the tLandings software, the same as you did in the past.
Setting Windows 8 So It Does Not Go To Sleep
Windows 8 thinks it's a SmartPhone, and should do to sleep if you have not used it for a minute or two. Since the tLanding computer is really a work computer on a tender, we don't want that to happen. To configure Windows 8 to stop it from going to sleep, do the following:
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