A few thoughts and experiences after a few hours using my new ThinkPad E440 with Win 8.1

Question

After waiting 36 days for my new ThinkPad to arrive, I guess I'm just "eh" about it after using it some. Here are some of my thoughts, opinions, and experiences I've had after using it for a few hours... Hope this helps other people.
I should not be surprised because I read all the reviews, but the touch pad really sucks. I hate everything about it, the way it clicks - it's so loud and clunky! - and it's insensitivity (and I adjusted this to be more sensitive). Thank goodness for the track point. I love that thing.
The touchscreen stopped working after a few hours of use. After I rebooted it came back. Is this a bad omen? Or did I inadvertantly turn it off? Is that even possible? I am new to Windows 8 so anything is possible.
The touch screen, when it's working, is not very responsive. It's MUCH LESS responsive than my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Android phone or my LG G Pad 8.3 tablet. This is very disappointing.
I ran the hardware scan that is in the Lenovo Solution Center and got a warning under the category "Local Connection Test". I looked at the list of System Events and it's very long. The first application error event name is MpTelemetry. Response is "Not available". The next one is "PnPRequestAdditionalSoftware". Response is "Not available". And the list goes on and on and on for pages. I have no idea what to do about this or what it means.
Also in the Lenovo Solution Center, under Software, there is a Critical Alert that says I never updated Windows. But I did when it prompted me to while it was first booting up and it was updating and installing things. Where it says "To update your operating system, you must run Windows Update", I click on the Launch button and it takes me to Windows Update where it says No Updates are Available. Go figure. It also says there have been 9 Windows updates made to the computer. I guess I'll have to just always ignore that Critical Alert.
In the system tray, it says "ThinkPad OneLink Dock Detached!". I don't have a dock... So, yes, that's true, it is detached.   I'll have to hide that one.
I realize there is a Lenovo Recovery Partition on the hard drive but I would really like to create a set of recovery disks before I start customizing this thing, installing apps, and moving my files over. I can't find anything that tells me how to do it. Under the control panel, there is the Recovery icon. The only choice there for creating recovery media is to create a Recovery Drive, not disks. I'll post a separate item to get information on this.
On the positive side, I have had it in my lap the whole time and it's not gotten too hot for my legs. That's a big improvement on my old Toshiba Satellite Pro.
This locating the Fn key to the left of the CTRL key decision must have been made by someone smoking crack. Why would anyone in their right mind want to do this? We've had the CTRL key on the outer left edge like, FOREVER, why move it now?? This will be something that will take me a long time to adjust to - if I ever do. I use the CTRL a lot for cutting, pasting, and formatting things in Excel and Word. It's going to be a battle. I wonder if any software exists that allows you to redefine the keys? Speaking of location of keys, I keep hitting the Page Down key when I want the Page Up key. I'm used to the Page Up key being above the Page Down key instead of to the left.
After being told here in the forum that the fingerprint reader was not an option in the US I am pleasantly surprised to see one on my new ThinkPad.
I use the right-click on my mouse often. For example, to open a link in a new tab instead of switching to the new URL. For some reason, when I click on the right part of the touch pad when the mouse is located over a link, it just opens the new URL instead of giving me options for opening the URL. I'll have to figure this out.
So anyway, I guess that's more than a few things... hope this is useful to someone...

Answer 1

You can change FN and CTRL key in the BIOS