If you're upgrading to Windows 8, BlackBerry Desktop Software will work
By
Bla1ze on 25 Oct 2012 08:32 pm
October 26th marks the release of Microsoft's new operating system called Windows 8. If you'll be among the folks upgrading to Redmonds latest and greatest, you may be wondering whether or not your BlackBerry Desktop Software will work. As noted by RIM in their BlackBerry knowledge base, everything will go fine provided you follow some initial steps.
BlackBerry Desktop Software will function when installed on Microsoft Windows 8 however .NET Framework 3.5 must be installed and enabled prior to the install of the BlackBerry Desktop Software. Microsoft .NET 3.5 framework can be installed and enabled by following the instructions in the Microsoft article listed below.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh506443.aspx
In addition, RIM also notes that an updated version of the BlackBerry Desktop Software is coming that will have enhanced features specifically for Windows 8 users.
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teostar Oct 25, 2012 at 8:45 pm
Yea yea... Let's hope its not "coming soon" like TB7.
T_C Oct 25, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Nice!! I guess I'm upgrading soon!
Windows 8 and BB10, that can be a nice upgrade!
slagman5 Oct 26, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Unless you're running Vista, don't get Windows 8... It wouldn't be an upgrade. Honestly, unless you have a touchscreen PC, Windows 8 is pretty crappy. I want a tablet running Windows 8, but for my desktop, that interface is extremely stupid. I'm sticking to Windows 7, and if you're not on Windows 7 and am thinking of upgrading, upgrade to that instead of 8...
BB_Bmore Oct 25, 2012 at 8:54 pm
My lap although only a year old is not touch screen. So I'm not sure about win 8 :/
scmcc16 Oct 25, 2012 at 9:08 pm
It doesn't have to be a touchscreen for Win 8 to work. It's that Win 8 was designed to work with all platforms, old fasion mouse and keyboard, touchscreen laptop/tablet and their Win 8 phone. All the same OS, same experience.
I tried the Relase Candidate for a week and although there are a number of functions that I loved, there were a number I didn't. I recently bought a new laptop and got the Win 8 for $15 deal. So I'll throw it on the laptop and try it out before deciding if I'll upgrade my desktop.
ryanlrobinson Oct 25, 2012 at 9:47 pm
I've tried a few different versions along the way on my non-touch desktop (Developer Beta, Consumer Beta, and RTM). There are a few minor advantages over Windows 7 on a desktop - full-screen apps, simplified menus - but there are more disadvantages and it seemed pretty clear my workflow efficiency would take a huge hit.
I am, however, definitely buying a new laptop/tablet running Windows 8. It should be an amazing touch experience, pretty close to the "no compromises" they promise.
slagman5 Oct 26, 2012 at 6:48 pm
It doesn't need to be touchscreen in order to work, but the interface sucks for anything but touchscreen. Stick with Windows 7...
I want a tablet running Windows 8, but not for my PC...
mrfreetruth Oct 25, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Windows8? I just seen a few stupid commercials . I don't know what the commercials were about. In fact what I did see I didn't like. windows 8 is going to fail. The surface ads...well some think it sucks balls. bye bye MS
http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/10/16/the-surface-ad-sucks-balls/
kullkid92x Oct 25, 2012 at 11:06 pm
Trololololol. Have you even seen a full run through of the OS? I've used it for only 2 days (a friends dev comp) and i can tell you it runs flawlessly. I think for once, maybe windows 7 included, i feel like windows just works.
fxiddy Oct 26, 2012 at 2:58 am
How can you not like it when it's pretty close to the of bb10. Fan or not to call it rubbish is at best shortsighted and at worst plain stupid.
Eskibo Oct 26, 2012 at 6:33 am
Sigh, do some homework before having an opinion. You dont have to use the touch friendly user interface.
nicocolton Oct 26, 2012 at 7:34 am
I wouldn't trust an article that has "sucks balls" in the title.
slagman5 Oct 26, 2012 at 6:49 pm
LOL, the Surface actually looks to be the best tablet out on the market right now...
crozyBB Oct 25, 2012 at 9:25 pm
Keep us posted if you hear of any of the Dev SDK's working on win8. I wont be upgrading until I get that confirmation
ryanlrobinson Oct 25, 2012 at 9:48 pm
They should work on Windows 8, just not Windows RT. Windows 8 is supposed to be backward-compatible for all Windows Vista and 7 apps.
sjc1963 Oct 25, 2012 at 9:40 pm
Wouldn't do me any good. My P4 with 3.4GHz CPU and 2 gb of RAM is not compatible with Windows 8.
nicocolton Oct 26, 2012 at 7:36 am
Actually, Win8 is less resource intensive that Win7. XP would run the smoothest, but if you wanted to run it, it would run, just a bit slower.
sjc1963 Oct 26, 2012 at 8:45 am
Actually, no it won't run at all on a P4. I tried the preview then I tried the compatibility program and BOTH said that my CPU is too old even though it is 3.4 GHz. Windows 7 still runs great on it, though.
slagman5 Oct 26, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Stick with Windows 7... I am, no need to upgrade unless you have a touchscreen computer...
tekware Oct 25, 2012 at 9:42 pm
Thanks, but I can't think of a valid reason to upgrade to Windows 8
onggp Oct 25, 2012 at 9:58 pm
I previously installed Windows 8 RC and the BB Desktop Software worked flawlessly. Except for one critical thing. When I tried to use mobile internet (tethering) I couldn't get connected. So I went back to Windows 7 since I had no issues with tethering from it.
Torch 9860 + Playbook 64GB = Fun times!
Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes Oct 25, 2012 at 10:12 pm
So thats how the desktop windows is going to look now? It looks like a pure mobile ui
Eskibo Oct 26, 2012 at 6:35 am
No it isnt. You can choose to use the new interface or not.
DuexNoir Oct 25, 2012 at 10:19 pm
Is that the home screen of Win8? Is there a way to hide all those tiles? Because you can't really show your wallpaper with all those tiles blocking the background like that. If you can't hide those, then I don't like it.
~I am BlackBerry by choice~
Eskibo Oct 26, 2012 at 6:36 am
Go check out some video previews on youtub. You are not limited to the metro interface.
NFLPLAYBOOK Oct 25, 2012 at 10:20 pm
I'm updating tomorrow. My desktop first then i will see about the laptop. Thanks for the info.
jl_06 Oct 25, 2012 at 10:43 pm
Will it work with Windows 8 RT? Like on the Surface Tablet?
kullkid92x Oct 25, 2012 at 11:10 pm
Naw man, that would be pretty dope though lol connecting your BB 10 device to a tablet and syncing on the go.
Windows RT can only run apps from the windows store.
the surface pro however comes with windows 8 pro so you can run it there for sure.
Kiddo2050 Oct 26, 2012 at 11:40 am
BB10 will have skydrive so no need to hook to sync.
gorang Oct 25, 2012 at 10:47 pm
Am I the only one who still thinks that Windows XP Pro is the best/most logical/most reliable Windows yet?
tekware Oct 25, 2012 at 11:25 pm
More than likely. Would have to go with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit for that honour.
Skoal712 Oct 26, 2012 at 12:20 am
I am with you in the XP Pro. Still running it on my one desktop. I like it much, much better than Windows 7 64 bit I have running on my other desktop.
stephen_az Oct 26, 2012 at 1:59 am
Windows XP was an appalling dog of an OS out of the gate that gained its following due to longevity. To be more precise, it was a bug ridden insecure mess on release that was only "fixed" by multiple Service Patches and is still the least secure OS still on the scenes. Oh, it is also the last of the major Microsoft OSs whose name is also synonymous with BSOD. I am really glad that the clock is ticking on end of life for the product since those of us who abandoned it years ago can be less at risk of being peripherally infected by working with XP machines and their security weaknesses.
Superfly_FR Oct 26, 2012 at 2:22 am
Cool, thanks.
@Bla1ze : Do you have infos about SDKs/simulators compatibility ?
fxiddy Oct 26, 2012 at 3:06 am
liked windows xp, absolutely hate windows 7 and agree with an earlier comment about it being the most illogical operating system.
Just glad I bought an all in one hp touchsmart pc recently so I'll get the full benefit of the touchscreen on windows 8. Looking forward to it I think it looks great.
Looking at the swiping gestures and how the settings and menus pop up - is it only keep or does anyone else think it resembles bb10 and qnx on the pb?
Any patent infringement?
Eskibo Oct 26, 2012 at 6:41 am
For the love of.....
People, start doing some research before assuming all sorts of fallacies. No you are NOT limited to the metro tile interface. - . -
LongLeggs Oct 26, 2012 at 10:32 am
You don't need .net to be installed before hand. When you start the install of the BB Desktop or anything for that matter that requires the framework, it installs it automatically for you. All it does is asks you for permission to do so.
mrfreetruth Oct 26, 2012 at 11:14 am
"Visiting our local store on Oxford Street in London at midday today to see how the new OS was going down with the general public, The INQUIRER discovered that the popular high street chain was yet to sell one device running Windows 8"
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2220288/currys-and-pc-world-str...
mrfreetruth Oct 26, 2012 at 11:14 am
"Visiting our local store on Oxford Street in London at midday today to see how the new OS was going down with the general public, The INQUIRER discovered that the popular high street chain was yet to sell one device running Windows 8"
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2220288/currys-and-pc-world-str...
Kiddo2050 Oct 26, 2012 at 11:48 am
Nice try. Read the headline in PC Mag it says it all:
Windows 8 is too big to fail, so give up on trying to say it will fail. It simply won't.
taz323 Oct 26, 2012 at 11:59 am
Upgraded to Windows 8,without an issue. BB desktop manager downloaded and works so far better than with Windows 7
sheldonbk Oct 26, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I didn't do anything special. Worked right away and has been working on Win 8 for a month or so without an issue
herculesinwyoming Oct 26, 2012 at 9:07 pm
so far windows 8 is great! just gotta give it a chance.
playbook still has better apps
artie Oct 26, 2012 at 10:15 pm
$39 is hard to resist for an upgrade. l wonder how long it will take to download and install.
Rootbrian Oct 27, 2012 at 7:37 pm
I'll stick to windows xp on a second hard disk and keep windows 7 as a spare and continue using my Linux desktop OS. No issues on it, aside from two buggy programs that don't capture video anymore. GNU/Linux is free and there's linberry.
Rootbrian Oct 27, 2012 at 7:39 pm
I don't like this "secure boot" aka "restricted boot" thing they're using to prevent you from using GNU/Linux on your computer. Newer machines have it, older ones don't. Forget getting a new. COmputer if it's going to have that in it.
Jiola Berthana Oct 31, 2012 at 5:07 am
BlackBerry Desktop Software is perfectly compatible and will function smooth on Microsoft Windows 8, however the only requirement is Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or later must be installed on the system. AI Media Comms AIMediaComms
Grandpa Engineer Dec 31, 2012 at 3:53 am
In order to run the blackberry desktop on 64 bit 7 or 8 it is a good idea to update your java, as well as fully enable .net 3.5
the java you need is at the moment is jre-7u10-windows-x64
one foolproof method I have found, especially if you have tried and failed to install the desktop is to begin at the beginning
1. uninstall completely the desktop
2. fully enable .net 3.5
3. install jre-7u10-windows-x64 and it is ok to install over your current version of java
4. reboot
5. install the desktop software
even then, it can be a little clunky and slow finding all the drivers when you plug your device to your computer. Using a playbook, the above method works for me 100 percent of the time. Meanwhile, running x86 win 8 64 bit on a touch notebook and love it...I won't get into that, but it works for me.
bb_ont Jan 25, 2013 at 8:15 am
Will be getting a Win 8 tablet shortly. But it really would be great if Blackberry supported linux. I hate windows. The only reason I'm getting a win operating system for the tablet is the difficulty of tethering our Bold 9900s to linux or android systems.
Wimpie Bartheil Mar 20, 2013 at 7:01 pm
Well fuck me silly no wonder I've been struggling my ass off to sync my blackberry & windows 8 laptop!!!!!!
All this time I thought I was just technology retarded or something. Thanks for the advice!!!!!!!