Baris Eris's Blog

Lenovo Horizon and Windows 10 Notes

I had the Lenovo Horizon v1 27″ PC since it came out.. It was the last PC to get the Windows 10 upgrade, unfortunately the experience wasn’t smooth. This post is about the progression of my upgrade process and some tips that might help you along the way.

Initial State

Back when Windows 10 was first released, upgrade advisor was not qualifying the Horizon, citing various compatibility issues. Knowing that Microsoft was gradually adding more and more PCs to the compatibility list, I patiently waited. It took 3-4 months but in the end upgrade was enabled and Windows 10 loaded on top of Windows 8.1 that I had on the PC.

Things broke

Perhaps one of the reasons you’re reading this is that key functionality of Horizon, that is the Aura launcher app decided to no longer work.

This is a failure of Lenovo and Microsoft combined:

  • If it is flat out broken like this, why the upgrade advisor not blocked Windows 10 upgrade?
  • If it is so easily observable that the core app on this PC (i.e. the reason people buy it), why didn’t Lenovo issue a patch?
  • Regardless of the above, why Lenovo Companion update process is not catching the new version of Aura?

Fixes so far

I will state that restoring the functionality back to out of box state on Windows 10 is not yet complete. But still I will share some things I was able to restore.

  1. Tycoon game (Monopoly)

What I have done on Windows 10?

I have simply installed the Aura version from this page: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS105149?LinkTrack=Solr — it placed another app on the desktop, called “App Explorer”.

Installing this version of Aura didn’t help — it continued to crash; however, the App Explorer allowed me to search / find the Lenovo Tycoon app in their store, and freely install it. On first attempt, it failed to install. On 2nd attempt, it succeeded. From there, Lenovo Tycoon became a desktop app on Windows 10 and I bypassed Aura, simply launched it as it is now a regular application.

As I continue to update things and restore functionality, I will update this post. Hope you find this useful. If you have related fixes/suggestions on Horizon v1 w/Windows 10, please leave a comment.

Baris Eris

7 responses to “Lenovo Horizon and Windows 10 Notes”

  1. Vazgen Avatar
    Vazgen

    Hi Baris Eris. I also have Lenovo Ideacentre Horizon 27 (i7, 8GB, 1TB SSHD, 27 ” Full HD, Windows 8, 57318719). Last month I upgraded to Win 8.1. First aura 1.3.0.0099, which came with it, didn’t work at all, then after windows update it started to work, but didn’t launch automatically for the first time. I also lost Fishing Joy game, from the aura, but installed from the store windows version, but Lenovo Tycoon works well, but little letters hardly noticeable. I installed aura 3.0.3.0021, it worked well with new feachers, but automatic launch also doesn’t work. I shell not upgrade to win 10, because in support list for win 10, Lenovo Ideacentre Horizon 27 doesn’t included. I have one question, do you play fishing joy game, or raiding company game. In 6th level of Raiding Company, when a weapon twin turret pops up, my game stops and crushes. And I aught to exit through windows task manager, Did you reach to that point.Share your experience please.

    Reply
    1. Baris Eris Avatar
      Baris Eris

      Thanks for sharing your experience. No I’m afraid I haven’t played the games extensively to comment on that. Maybe others here have?

      Reply
      1. Vazgen Avatar
        Vazgen

        Excuse me, what are you afraid of

  2. satterwc Avatar
    satterwc

    Baris, thanks for the blog entry. I’ve got a v1 Horizon as well, running 8.1 with all available updates. The GWX utility never has installed, and when I try to manually run it after downloading I get an error that my version of windows isn’t compatible. I see the v1 horizon is specifically not on Lenovo’s W10 compatibility list. What did you do to make the upgrade available?

    Reply
    1. Baris Eris Avatar
      Baris Eris

      Nothing special really – was just there.

      Reply
  3. Laura Avatar
    Laura

    I need help with the Aura not working, everyone is mentioning the games. I bought my Horizon for photo viewing in the Aura and showing them to clients and now I can’t open program. I loved the fact I could move photos around and put 2 side by side for client to choose…

    Reply
    1. Baris Eris Avatar
      Baris Eris

      Hi Laura – if that’s the only feature you care for, fairly certain restoring to factory image of the PC should take care of it. Make sure to backup your files before though.

      Reply

Leave a comment

Blog at WordPress.com.