Turing my Surface Pen into a presenter tool

I’ve finally replaced my Lenovo W540 laptop with an Surface Pro 3, and I love it! There is just one catch. The single USB port is always in use, and my Presenter tool is using just that. So a small hope started growing in me; Can I use my Surface Pen as a Presenter tool?

A few Bing searches later, and AutoHotkey is my new favorite tool. It allows us to write scripts that executes based on, well, hotkeys. Another quick search teached me that the Top button sends keystroke F19 and F20. Double-click is F19 and a single click is F20.

After some minutes with the AutoHotkey Help document the following script was born

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
; #Warn  ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.

#IfWinActive ahk_class screenClass
#F20::
  Send, {Right}
Return

#F19::
  Send, {Left}
Return

Thanks to the #IfWinActive line, the pen also works as it’s suposed to do while not presenting.

That’s it. Now I’m able to go forward and backward in a presentation by clicking the Surface Pen Top button. A few tests shows that the range is up to about 10 meters, so most stages should be covered.

To get started yourseft, please make http://www.autohotkey.com/ a visit 🙂

All Resources View available in Azure Preview Portal

In complete silence, Microsoft have released the All Resources view in the Azure Preview Portal.

The view allows you to browse resources much in the same way as the current Management Portal, but in a more “modern” view, if I can say so.

As you can see from the image below, we are able to search, select subscription and choose what columns we want to see.

Another great tip is to pin this blade to the dashboard, and let it use 4×6 tiles.

To do so follow these simple steps

  1. Click Browse everything
  2. Click the Pin up in the right corner
  3. Left click the dashboard, and select customize
  4. Move the blade to you location of choice, and select 4×6 as the size.

Update:

Also note that subscription and name filtering are available on all other blades as well. Perfect when you have multiple subscription connected with the same Azure Active Directory. When we choose a subscription where, it’s also “sticky” so when browsing to another blade, your section will be remembered.

Happy Azure time 🙂

The missing site-to-site connectivity option

When creating a new Virtual Network in Azure, you might have noticed that the site-to-site connectivity option is missing, while the point-to-site connectivity is ready for activation.

The most probable reason for this is that there is no Local Networks configured in the subscription where you created the new Virtual Network.

Try browsing to New, Network Services, Virtual Network, All Local Network, and create a new one for the subscription where you need it. Then go back to the Virtual Network Configuration tab and you should see the create a site-to-site connectivity option.