{"id":12449,"date":"2012-11-12T11:48:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T09:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.borncity.com\/blog\/?p=12449"},"modified":"2014-07-24T11:15:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T09:15:39","slug":"windows-8-a-cure-for-to-go-workspace-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/12\/windows-8-a-cure-for-to-go-workspace-bug\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 8: A cure for To Go Workspace Bug"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"[German edition<\/a>]Windows 8 Enterprise supports Windows To Go on USB devices \u2013 I have blogged several times about that<\/a>. But most users are going with Windows 8 Core or Pro, where Windows To Go has no relevance. Nevertheless some users are reporting, that Windows 8 is causing serious trouble with Windows To Go workspace. Some are recognizing, that Windows store reports, that it won't allow app installing in a To Go environment. Others recognized some \"freezes with reboots\", after removing a USB thumb drive (and a message, that \"Windows to go media only may be removed after shutdown\"). Time for the doctor, a diagnosis and a cure.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"I've had a couple of users in German Microsoft Answers Forum, reporting \"Windows To Go workspace\" issues \u2013 although they are using Windows 8 Pro as an upgrade from older Windows versions. I've had no clue, how to cure it \u2013 only a few quackery hints. One was to enter \"to go\" in the start screen's search box \u2013 launch the Windows To Go workspace start option wizard and set the option No – to force Windows 8 not to use Windows to go workspace environment. Below is a screenshot of my German dialog box.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But some users are reporting, that they can't change this option. Some of them took a \"radical cure\" and did a PC refresh, resetting Windows 8 to factory settings.<\/p>\n

Quackery: A short registry hack as a cure?<\/h3>\n

Later on I got a feedback from a user, who has had a call from MS support. They suggested to reset the value within Windows 8 registry, using regedit. Here is a step-by-step guide, how to survive in several scenarios.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Switch to start screen and type regedit<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  2. Mark the regedit<\/em> tile (right click or drag it a bit down with a finger) and use the app bar button Run as administrator \u2013 <\/em>confirm UAC prompt.<\/li>\n
  3. Within registry editor navigate in the left pane to key:
    \nHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Search in right pane the DWORD value PortableOperatingSystem <\/em>and change the value from 1 to 0.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    After closing registry editor, the option No<\/em> should be marked in dialog box Windows To Go workspace. After rebooting, the problem should be solved\u00a0 – or maybe not \u2013 or it will come back soon \u2026<\/p>\n

    The cause of the bug \u2013 the bad and the ugly<\/h3>\n

    The guys from MS support gave us a hint, what causes this behavior. If the user mounts an USB storage device (USB stick, USB disk), and if this media has the same ID as the internal hard disc, Windows 8 has a conflict. If the device ID is found twice during system boot, Windows 8 assumes a \"Windows To Go\" environment \u2013 and falls partly into To Go mode.<\/p>\n

    That's the reason, why I called the registry hack shown above as a \"quakery\". Although the hack seems to be a fix, the bug may be happens again, if an USB storage device will be re-connected to a Windows 8 computer. To overcome this behavior, a solid cure is mandatory. The solution: Assign a different device ID to the USB device – but be aware, this will wipe your USB storage.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Press key combination Windows<\/em>+X or use\u00a0 the context menu of Start <\/em>hover button (lower left corner).<\/li>\n
    2. Select command prompt (administrator) <\/em>in the quick access menu shown in the lower left corner \u2013 and confirm UAC prompt.<\/li>\n
    3. Enter diskpart<\/em>, press enter key and use the commands shown below.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      list disk\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \" lists all drives
      \n<\/em>select disk #<\/span>\u00a0 \" # = drive numer of usb device
      \nclean
      \nexit<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

      Just use the commands in blue (the other words behind \" are comments). Press enter after each command. It's important, to select the right disk, because clean <\/em>wipes the disk.<\/p>\n

      Afterward you need to use computer management and disk management, to re-format the drive. During formatting, a new unique device ID will be assigned. But I have no clue, whether this new device ID will collide with other Windows 8 systems, if the USB device is connected to this system. I guess, Microsoft needs to investigate this further and release a patch.<\/p>\n

      Links:
      \n<\/strong>1:       Microsoft-Forendiskussion Store<\/a> (German)
      \n2:       Microsoft-Forendiskussion USB-Stick<\/a> (German)
      \n3:       Microsoft-Forendiskussion with solution<\/a> (German)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      [German edition]Windows 8 Enterprise supports Windows To Go on USB devices \u2013 I have blogged several times about that. But most users are going with Windows 8 Core or Pro, where Windows To Go has no relevance. Nevertheless some users … Weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[419,2254,4363,2533],"class_list":["post-12449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein","tag-bug","tag-freeze","tag-windows-8","tag-windows-to-go-workspace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borncity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}