Hi! I bought a new laptop and it brought Windows 8, which I totally and absolutely HATE. It also did not bring a numbers pad, which I need for my work. I have since found out that I could get a numbers pad to use it through the USB ports. The problem is that Win8 for the most part ignores those ports. I cannot use flash drives with it, just as I'm able to do with my old Vista laptop. And researching online, I found the same complaint from other users. I know there is ahack for it, but I do not feel competent to alter my computer's allocation of drives to make it "believe" that my USB ports are part of drive C and be able to use them like I do in my old, and rickety laptop. My question is, does Win 7 or Win 2000 accept USB external drives and flash drives? I need those constantly! Would I be able to use the Num pad with it like any other USB attachment?
I'm not a geek, I come here to learn stuff from you guys who kknow a lot in my opinion.
Thank you so much!

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Usually laptops have a function key that will turn some keys on the board into a number pad. As for the USB number pad approach, it depends upon whether it requires a specific Windows 8 driver to work. Also, is this an x86 system, or is it using an ARM processor?

The problem is that Win8 for the most part ignores those ports.

My PC is running Windows 8.1 and it has lots of USB ports with no problems. Maybe it's just a laptop thing.

Hi, I'm running a regular HP laptop on Windows 8. It cannot see nor read a flash drive AT ALL. I need a numbers pad for some work I do and to use some software like Blender. I located an external USB Num Pad that I could buy but before I make the purchase, I needed to find out if Windows 7 is more agreeable to that sort of thing than Win8. I know that there are tweaks, but it takes double the amount of time when you have to be fishing for codes. The laptop brought lots of USB ports, but they are no good to me for what I need them since it seems incapable of reading the drives I'm inserting in them. Reading online I found out some clever guys partition the C drive and make Win8 believe the flash drive or external USB device is part of drive C to get Win8 to accept and use it. That's way above my head. I just would like to know if an older version of Windows would take care of my headache and get me working without so much trouble. Any tips in that direction would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much!

Try to go to CMOS setup or in Window 8 case the UEFI setup and see whether the USB ports has been disable. If it is disable than enable it.

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