Deploying Surface Pro 3 Pen and OneNote Tips

Hi, my name is Scott McArthur and I am Senior Support Escalation Engineer on the Deployment/Devices team. In today’s blog I am going to go over some tips for deploying Surface Pro 3 related to the Pen and OneNote integration.

Note:   The Surface Pro 3 Pen functionality requires OneNote 2013 or Modern OneNote.  It does not work with OneNote 2010.

Tip #1: Deploying custom image to Surface Pro 3

You may have noticed that if you deploy a custom image to Surface Pro 3 the Pen button does not bring up modern OneNote. The image that ships with Surface Pro 3 contains additional update that adds this functionality. If you are deploying a custom image you will need to incorporate that update into your deployment or reference image.

KB2968599: Quick Note-Taking Experience Feature for Windows 8.1

At this time we are working on making this update easier to download but in the meantime you can download it from the following direct link:

https://download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/06/windows8.1-kb2968599-x64_de4ca043bf6ba84330fd96cb374e801071c4b8aa.msu

Update 10/3/2014:  
There is a new additional update that you should install or include in your image related to OneNote and Note-Taking

August 2014 update for Quick Note-Taking Experience feature in Windows RT 8.1 and Windows 8.1
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2978002

Tip #2: Setting default OneNote for the Pen

If you use the Desktop version of OneNote 2013 you may want it to be the default application when the Pen button is pressed. To change the default OneNote application you can set this in OneNote 2013 using following steps

1. Click File, Options
2. Choose Advanced
3. Under Default OneNote Application

image

NOTE: If you do not have this option in OneNote 2013 make sure you have the following update for OneNote installed:

KB2881082: July 8, 2014 update for OneNote 2013

Tip #3: Double click functionality for screenshots

One of the other nice features is the ability to double click the pen button to send a screenshot to OneNote.

Magic Tricks with OneNote and Surface Pro 3
https://blogs.office.com/2014/06/18/magic-tricks-with-onenote-and-surface-pro-3

In order to support this functionality, the Modern OneNote app must be the latest version available from the store.  So, if this functionality does not work, make sure Modern OneNote app has been updated.

If you configure the Desktop OneNote as the default OneNote application, it should work by default with the double-click feature.

Tip #4: Adding Pen pairing to a deployment

During the 1st bootup of the OEM image that ships with the Surface Pro 3, you are prompted during OOBE to pair the pen. If you are deploying a custom image and want to add this setup screen to your deployment (to be completed by technician or user), you can use the following steps:

Requirements:

  • System with the Windows ADK installed
  • Install.wim are you are deploying
  • Another Surface Pro 3 system that has the OEM system image that ships from Microsoft

1. Take one of your existing Surface Pro 3 devices that has the OEM image on it and copy the following files to USB flash drive or other location:

%windir%\system32\oobe\info\default\1033\oobe.xml
%windir%\system32\oobe\info\default\1033\PenPairing_en-US.png
%windir%\system32\oobe\info\default\1033\PenError_en-US.png
%windir%\system32\oobe\info\default\1033\PenSuccess_en-US.png

2. Open Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment cmd prompt

3. Use the DISM command to mount the image you are deploying

Dism /mount-wim /wimfile:c:\install.wim /index:1 /mountdir:c:\mount

4. Create the following folder structure in the image

C:\mount\windows\system32\oobe\info\default\1033

5. Copy all the files from Step #1 above into this folder

6. Close any explorer Windows and switch to C:\ to make sure no open file handles to the c:\mount folder

7. Unmount the image and save changes

Dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:c:\mount /commit

Tip #5: Troubleshooting the pen

For additional information on troubleshooting the pen take a look at:

https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/touch-mouse-and-search/troubleshoot-surface-pen#penshows

Hope this helps with your Surface Pro 3 deployments

Scott McArthur
Senior Support Escalation Engineer