Heads up - Lenovo Metro apps for Windows 8 are not available for upgraded thinkpads

ThinkPad software for Windows 8 - Lenovo Community

To clarify, on laptops that ship with Windows 8, those apps don't exist anymore and everything is managed through a Metro-style application called "Lenovo Settings." While the OS runs without these on a thinkpad upgraded to Windows 8, a lot of the Fn hotkeys are now useless and you lose a lot of the benefits Power Manager had over the stock power/battery options.

Additionally, this means you shouldn't install the "Lenovo Settings Dependency" in your laptop's drivers matrix as it does nothing without the metro app. Really sucks for those who purchased a thinkpad to get the $14.99 windows 8 deal-as it stands, if you planned on upgrading to windows 8 your thinkpad is gimped if you were a user of any of those applications versus the same model shipping within the next few weeks with Windows 8 onboard.

I guess this is our cold introduction to one of the downsides of the new, closed Windows Store

 

Main thing I'm concerned about is Power Manager. Does anyone know whether Power Manager offers special features that aren't available in the normal and advanced Windows power settings?

 

I really appreciated the features it has to help with battery charging thresholds for keeping batteries healthy, I don't really know of any software that can do that job on windows 8. I feel like the extra stuff like battery stretch and other features of Lenovo's power management driver also resulted in better battery life, but I don't have hard data to compare times and I'd be comparing windows 7 with power manager to windows 8 stock which isn't exactly fair.

I didn't really use the other 3 but communications utility was useful for people using bluetooth devices. I really wanted power manager though, literally the only thing I'm missing from windows 7 now that the rest of the important lenovo windows 8 drivers have gone up for my X220 (well, dolby v4 would be nice )

 

How functional are those utilities, particularly Access Connections and Power Manager under Windows 8? Like if we can force them to install. It's not like the inner workings of 8 are that different from 7, or even Vista for that matter. And Vista stuff tended to work on 7. So, 7 stuff should tend to work on 8.

Does anyone know how to set charge thresholds without Power Manager?

 

For anyone that stumbles upon this thread in the future, I wanted to confirm that Power Manager for Windows 7 works fine with the Windows 8 Power Management driver on Windows 8. You need to run the Power Manager installer in compatibility mode for Windows 7, but as far as I can tell the program is fully functional.

 

How about the fingerprint reader? Thats a feature that I would really like to get working windows 8, especially with the new lock screen. Does anyone know how this works with the new OS?

Edit: typos

 

If the original Thinkpad Fingerprint Utility, aka rebranded Authentec, stops working ( btw. Confirmed: Apple-owned fingerprint software exposes Windows passwords (updated) | Ars Technica ) , Windows has built-in biometrics support which should work just fine in Windows 8 with proper drivers (the ones from Windows 7 should work).

 

I upgraded to Win 8 and installed the fingerprint driver.

It works like before, though I am not sure if I have tried all the features you need.

Details:
I am using Thinkpad x230, and I have only one user account in Win 8(MS Live account, not a local account).

I can switch on the computer by using fingerprint, and the windows will automatically log in my account.
I can log in my account in the locked screen (pictures with clock) using fingerprint.

 

Windows 8 won't let me use the fingerprint reader w/o installing either the Authentec suite ($$$, Windows directly links me to it), or (better) use the Windows 8 fingerprint software on the drivers page.

 

This kind of flaky software support is why I went back to Win7. I knew manufacturers would play games with drivers and/or take forever to release them.

 

The old Power Manager from Windows 7 worked fine on my Windows 8 install and has been running on every release of Windows 8 till now. Unlike the post above, I don't ever remember having to run it in compatibility mode though. Sadly my SSD just died so I can't really check on whether it's actually running in compat mode.

 

Same here, no problems with the fingerprint reader on an X61. power mananger has been working perfectly too. the only thing i haven't gotten to work yet is the tablet buttons, but automatic rotation actually works correctly in windows 8 when you switch from laptop to tablet mode.

i'm using this software: Fingerprint Software for Windows 7 (64-bit) & Windows 8 (64-bit) - ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, ThinkStation