Thought I'd share with you what features are working and not on my laptop (HP Elitebook 2540p) with Windows 8. It may apply to other laptops as well.
Related links: HP Drivers| What | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Validity Fingerprint Sensor | Working with Validity's drivers | Does not always work from hibernation |
| HotKeys | Works with HP's Win7 drivers | |
| Wifi | Native Win8 support | |
| Ricoh Card reader | Works with HP's Win7 drivers | In Win8RC, Explorer would crash if the card was unformatted. |
| Webcam | Native Win8 support | |
| Sound | Native Win8 support |
and Validity drivers
One thing that had me fooled for a while was how to power off the computer. The power button of course is linked to hibernation, which works well, but to shut down, I had to go to metro/start menu/whatever and then click sign out, then find the power symbol and choose shut down.
An easier way is to go to desktop (win+d) and press alt+f4, for the regular shut-down menu.
An even easier way, if you're too lazy for the keyboard, is a shortcut on the desktop. To a .cmd file that contains only "shutdown /s /t 0". It will shut down immediately, so be careful, you can change the switches to whatever is your taste.
Synaptics Touchpad
The people at Synaptics have released a new driver suite that supports Windows 8 mouse gestures (or touchpad gestures, if you will). Luckily, it also works with the touchpad in 2540p. Just download their drivers for Windows 8 and install, reboot and you're off.Right click the Synaptics icon in the system tray and go to "Touchpad properties" for a handy introduction to the gestures and switch on and off the different ones. In my experience they all work! Especially the three-finger scroll is helpful in modern/metro UI.
Happy Windows 8 install!
