eGalax Touch Screens are not always USB-HID Compliant.

eGalax Touch Screens are not always USB HID compliant and if they are not USB-HID Compliant then they are not Windows Vista/7 Touch Compliant .

Are you affected by this issue?

Let’s start by saying that the eGalax Touch Screens made by EETI uses a Touch Resistive Panel Controller (it can be capacitive but most UMPC and Tablet PC use the Resistive one) that can be connected using 3 different interfaces: USB (Hardware ID: USB\VID_0EEF&PID_0001 or USB\VID_0EEF&PID_0002), RS232 (Hardware ID: SERNUM\EGX5800, SERNUM\EGX5900, SERNUM\EGX6000, SERNUM\EGX5901 and SERNUM\EGX5803) and PS/2 (Hardware ID: *PNP0F13).

How do you know if you have a eGalax Touch Screen?

Usually eGalax Touch Screen requires of a OEM made utility to calibrate the screen. This utility is called most of the time Touchkit (Touchmon) but I have seen it rebranded or renamed to other names. The screen that allows you to calibrate the screen looks like this:

You can find the hardware ID of your touch screen using the Device Manager.

If you have a HID Compliant eGalax Touch Screen it should be listed under Human Interface Devices if you don’t see it there then it should be listed under Mice and other pointing devices. In either case if you do a right click, properties on top of the device you will see the following screen where under Details, Property, Hardware IDs, you can find the hardware ID for the installed device.

Once you have found that you have a UMPC or Mini Tablet PC with a eGalax Touch Screen and you have found what kind of interface it’s using by comparing the Hardware ID with the list I gave at the beginning of this article what do you need to know.

If you have a RS232 or a USB interface most likely that your device is USB HID Compliant and you will see it listed in XP under Human Interface Device, if that’s the case then in Vista or W7 you will see it listed in that category and you don’t have any problem. But I said most likely because I had the situation in the past where a device with a USB Interface (Samsung Q1) did not have HID support because the eGalax drivers was not prepared with the HID protocol. If your device is using a PS/2 interface most likely you will never see any of the Touch Features of Windows 7 and Vista because your device is not HID Compliant.

What HID Compliant means?

HID means Human Interface Device.

“Most operating systems will recognize standard USB HID devices, like keyboards and mice, without needing a special driver [This is the case in Windows 7 in my experience installing it in 3 different devices using touch screen]. When installed, a message saying that a "HID-compliant device" has been recognized generally appears on screen. In comparison, this message does not usually appear for devices connected via the PS/2 6-pin DIN connectors which preceded USB. PS/2 does not support plug-and-play, which means that connecting a PS/2 keyboard or mouse with the computer powered on does not always work. In addition, PS/2 does not support the HID protocol.”

How this affects you?

If you are using Windows XP Home Edition:

• no floating tip
• no focus on text field after opening tip
• no panning hand on IE
• right click menus popping while scrolling
• right click confused by the OS as a click.
• no pen flicks
• crappy looking handwriting.
• No Ink support in Office and Outlook.
• No Ink recognition software (In Tablet PC Edition, the recognition software is present but does not work properly.
• All Tablet PC functionalities from Control Panel are missed.
• No ink support in Windows Live Messenger

If you are using Vista or Windows 7:

• Different onscreen keyboard (Vista)
• No on screen keyboard in the profile logon screen
• no Automatic learning from your handwriting
• no floating tip
• no focus on text field after opening tip
• no panning hand on IE
• right click menus popping while scrolling
• right click confused by the OS as a click.
• no pen flicks
• Tablet PC software missed in accessories (Vista)
• all tablet PC software not accessible (including Applets from Control Panel)
• crappy looking handwriting or with a very slow and bad performance. Recognition rate very low compared with the one in a HID Compliant device
• No Ink support in Office and Outlook 2007
• No Ink support in Windows Live Messenger

These missed or “no working properly” features do not sound that important for somebody that never has used them. But any person that has used before a touch screen with HID support or a Tablet PC will have a hard time trying to use on of these devices. To give you an idea, when I switched from my Tabletkiosk eo V7110 to my Samsung Q1, I ended using more the eo than the Q1 just because I could not get used to to the fact that I did not have these features in my Q1. And the Samsung Q1 was a better device. I only started using for real the Samsung Q1 when I received the eGalax Beta Drivers with HID support. One important note, after I received those drivers EETI released many version of the Touchkit and in none of them included the HID Support needed for the Samsung Q1. And we are talking about something that happened back in 2007. This means that if you do not have HID Support from Touchkit (Touchmon) at this moment the possibility of getting it in the future is almost none. Installing W7 in a touch screen device without HID Support does not make too much sense to me because you are missing the best part that W7 brings to these type of devices. Without these features you better stay with Windows XP. Will I buy a Touch Screen Device that is not HID Compliant? The short answer is NO. I'll be missing if I buy one part of the functionalities of Windows 7 has designed to work with Touch Screens. Functionalities that have been described many times as the best you can find in any Operating System in the Market. I'll be missing the best Handwriting Recognition Feature currently available in the market in any Operating System.

Why UMPC and mini Tablet PC makers use an interface that is not HID?

One of the reasons is because Microsoft is not distributing any more Windows XP Tablet PC 2005 Edition. OEMs are installing Windows XP Home edition in these devices and this OS does not come with any touch screen features. If you don’t have any touch screen features supported by the OS then you can go away by using the PS/2 interface because your screen just acts like a simple mouse.

Summarizing

Now you are informed, it’s your choice to do an educated decision about to buy or no to buy a device with a touch screen that is not HID Compliant. In fact, we all should request OEM to include that in the specifications of their machine or to ask Microsoft to request from OEM using Windows Vista or 7 in a touch screen device to specify if it’s HID Compliant because from this single point depends whether you will have or will not have all the Operating System Touch Features.

Can this be fixed with a driver update? Well, I have seen it fixed before. I don’t know if that can be done for the PS/2 interface but at least one thing is for sure, EETI is about to release the drivers for Windows 7 and there is not any HID support for this interface.

Note: You can ask questions to EETI using this email: touch_fae@eeti.com

The mysterious case of my PC waking up by itself from Hibernation

Since I installed Windows 7 Ultimate my P1610 was waking up from Hibernation by itself every morning at 8:05 AM. After few hours of research in the web I found that the cause of the problem was Media Center. The problem is that most of time at that time my P1610 is in it's case and without a proper ventilation it was getting extremely hot. Something really no good for the CPU. The solution, in the device manager, task scheduler (see picture).

Unchecking the option to Wake the Computers to run this task, probably is enough to fix this issue. In my case I'm not recording anything in Media Center, so I disabled the task. A drastic decision that put end to the Mystery that was jeopardizing the integrity of my lovely P1610.

Few notes about W7 in a Viliv X70

Thanks to Dynamism I had the chance of testing a Viliv x70 and even more, install W7 on it. This is not a guide, these are just few notes about the process.

• The device has only one USB port, buy a little USB port where you can connect your USB Mouse, keyboard and a bootable USB Memory stick with Windows 7. I used this tool to prepare the USB Memory.
• Download from Viliv all drivers and uncompress them in a folder in your bootable USB. Windows 7 wont recognize the WiFi and the Touch Screen. This is why is so important to have the WiFi driver ready. The touch screen driver that I recommend is the eGalax Beta for W7. Still this is not a HID and as result Windows 7 will not recognize this device as a Tablet PC or a device with a digitizer. This means that you will miss some of the touch features that we love very much from Windows 7.
• To boot from the USB, turn on the unit holding pressed the button B. Using the Joystick select the option of booting from the USB.
• To install W7 select the 24 Gb unit, click in advance, and format.
• When the installation of W7 is done, install the WiFi, reboot and run windows update. Once you have installed the updates then install the touch screen driver. Check the device manager, you will find a device marked with !, update the driver using the files in the folder EC_IO downloaded from Viliv.
• Keep installing the rest of the software download the Viliv. For CubeUI you will need to download Air from Adobe.

Windows 7 Index for the Viliv x70. Average 3.48

As comparison point here is the Index for the Fujitsu P1610. Average 3.02

The Viliv X70 overall performs better than my P1610 with a better CPU. The Viliv X70 only needs one thing, a HID for the touch screen . What a crime to have a wonderful device like this no using fully all Touch features of Windows 7 and Office (No ink support).

Viliv X70 Touch Driver

Well, W7 does not recognize the touch screen as a HID, in another words, as a digitizer. It recognize it as just a mouse. The problem with this is that most of the touch functionalities of W7 do not work  properly in this case. The ink experience is just frustrating. The same thing happened with the original Samsung Q1. Back there, I found a work around and I’ll be exploring that route today. For somebody coming from using a Tablet PC or an UMPC with digitizer the Viliv X70 will be a step backward unless there is a solution for this issue. There  are options to make the inking experience better but still you are missing all the potentials of a very good “Touch” Experience.

This machine has a lot of potential and I love it. But this issue needs to be addressed.

Installing W7 in a Viliv X70 and Twitter

I’m going to post in Twitter all the details about this process. Posted already few things that I’m preparing and will continue with the whole process at 7:00 PM EST Today. 

Crime and punishment

The Crime: Install Windows XP Home Edition in a Viliv X70. Punishment: Keep using it without enjoying all the features touch relative available in Windows 7.

The device performs very well, here is the Crystalmark score:

One of the best scores I have seen thanks to a super fast SSD. It's without any doubt faster than my P1610. Thanks God, I have been authorized to install W7 in this demo device and I'll do it tomorrow ending my punishment period.

What my coworkers think about the Viliv x70

I showed today the x70 to my coworkers, IT Pros with many years of experience. In a brief interview I asked them two simple questions: What they like it and what they did not like it.

Unboxing the Viliv X70

Here is a photo report of the unboxing of the Viliv X70.

Viliv X70, first Impressions

I received a Viliv X70 review from Dynamism and I have prepared a short video for my Spanish site I the video has subtitles in English, so do not worry I you wont have to learn Spanish.

So far, the design is what have impressed me most of all. This UMPC looks really good, the space around the screen is well utilized and as result the device looks smaller than other devices with the same screen size.

Add Network Support to Windows Live Movie Maker

Windows Live Movie Maker has been finally released. Some users have found that you can import files into Movie Maker if they are located in the network. But there is a workaround to overwrite this.

To run the roadblock, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker and add a DWORD value named AllowNetworkFiles. Afterwards, simply double-click it and set its data to either 0 (disabled) or 1 (enabled).

Lenovo releasing new mini PC

Should I say new? No really,  let’s check the picture posted at Lenovo’s website and compare it with another device I was lucky enough to review:

From Lenovo’s Page	Ruvo Mini Cap 7

Ultra-slim, space-saving mini PC. Fits anywhere-table, living room or even the kitchen counter. Pair it with your TV to output to larger a screen and watch videos or play games.

Lenovo used to be an IBM company that made and designed their own machine. Lately (After it was bought by a Chinese based company) I have experienced issues in their machines and now I found that they are just rebranding machines made by somebody else.

BTW, I just received a second version of the Ruvo Mini Cap 7 but this time using a different  graphic chip, it’s not using the SIS and I’m expecting to see a better performance in this one.

Lenovo - New product showcase

UMID mbook M1 at Dynamism

Dynamism will start shipping next week the UMID mbook M1 with a “cool matte black casing”. According to brief note I got from them, the first orders will receive a free leather case ($50 value – while supplies last)

A fully-powered seriously-miniaturized Windows notebook that fits in your pocket has finally arrived! The world's smallest PC is the UMID mbook M1 and it is brought to you exclusively by Dynamism.

The M1 is one of the smallest (or the smallest at this moment, I’m not sure) PC in the market.

Dynamism - UMID mbook M1

RockMeIt, another browser entering the competition

Yes, there is a new kid coming to town according to news posted at InformationWeek and this page that promises information whenever becomes available. 

Marc Andreessen, who developed the Netscape browser that brought the Internet to millions of people in the 1990s, is reportedly backing a startup that believes it has a better browser.

Netscape was an interesting browser that could not hold Microsoft’s push. But… It’s coming back now that we have Google, Apple, Opera and Firefox fighting against Microsoft supremacy. What exactly RockMeIt will bring new to this busy market?

Dell Mini 3i Smartphone is official

Yes, there are few pictures posted in Engadget that shows the new Smartphone from Dell. 

The 3.5-inch 360 x 640 pixel device with capacitive touchscreen was on display in China running the Android-based Open Mobile System (OMS). The Mini 3i was on-hand as part of the launch of China Mobile's new Application Platform that offers music, video, and app downloads to mobile phones from Nokia, Samsung, LG, and apparently, Dell.

And it will be using Android, so Dell said bye bye to Windows Mobile and joined Google’s club.

The Killing of an iPhone

Here is a video found by GottabeMobile  that I would like to share with you guys. It's not a secret that I consider the Apple Store a "Dictatorship" - I know from first hand what that word means - and it's my sincere hope that the recently opened Microsoft Mobile Market does not  become another one. Though their annual fee is the first sign of anti popular rules and regulations. Anyway, here is the video:

Some people, including our own Warner Crocker, are pretty upset about Apple pulling Google Voice from the app store. Then there’s this guy…

Killing an iPhone to Send a Message to Apple | GottaBeMobile.com

IE8 the best in protection

An independent study has found that IE8 is the browser blocking Malware and Phishing sites.

IE8’s SmartScreen Filter has delivered more than 70 million blocks in the first four months since IE8’s official release, for a cumulative total of 80 million blocks. This data is a strong indication of the value of the protection SmartScreen provides, and of just how widespread socially-engineered malware attacks are on the web today.

IEBlog : Real-World Protection With IE8’s SmartScreen Filter™

Paint .NET using DirectWrite

If you don’t have the money to buy Adobe Photo Shop then you will be happy to know that Paint .NET is free and an excellent tool capable of replacing Photo Shop in most of the tasks. Today I read at Windows Experience Blog that the latest version of this tool started to use DirectWrite, the latest update in the DirectX family.

DirectWrite is one of the new additions to the DirectX family of APIs in Windows 7. DirectWrite enables better readability, adds support for a large variety of languages and scripts, and in conjunction with Direct2D provides superior rendering performance for Windows applications. Applications can also use DirectWrite with GDI and carry forward existing investments in the Win32 code base. You can read more about DirectWrite here.