It’s been just over a year since Windows 8 and it’s clone 8.1 made its appearance in my office and I thought I would pass along some tips and tricks for those that already have Windows 8, and for those still running the venerable Windows XP who will be facing the upgrade as these older machines click their last icon. Remember all Microsoft support ends for Windows XP on April 8th, 2014.
Windows 8.1 boots faster than my Windows 7 machine and even a test machine running Vista with nothing loaded on it. Getting to the Metro desktop the first time around was a bit of a shock but as I maneuvered around and discovered some of its unique features it became easier to use. Of course in the beginning a click on the tile labeled Desktop brought up a very Windows 7 style desktop to comfort me.
For years we have clicked on an icon from the desktop or clicked on the Start button – All Programs and scrolled up and down looking for a specific program we want to use. Windows 8.1 Metro desktop doesn’t require any pointing or clicking. Just start typing the name of the program we want and the Metro desktop will display the icon for it.
There is a quick access menu available by using a Right-click in the bottom left corner of the desktop (or hold down the Windows key and press X) A text-based menu provides easy access to lots of useful applets and features: Device Manager, Control Panel, Explorer, the Search dialog, Run and more.
But if we liked the All Programs of operating systems past, we can approximate the same by finding a blank area of the Metro desktop, use a right mouse click and click on the tile for All Apps. This will present us a scrolling list of all the Apps we have loaded on the PC. Don’t forget, Windows 8.1 uses the word Apps in place of Programs as previous versions of Windows called them.
Windows 8.1 Apps open without displaying the traditional toolbars and close buttons previously seen. Not to worry, Windows suspends programs that are not in use when we open another program. However, if we want to close a program, we can move our cursor to the top of the screen where it will become a hand and then pull the window down to the bottom of the screen which closes the program. If we have a touch screen simply swipe our finger down from the top of the screen to the bottom. Of course we can still use the Alt-F4 key combination to close an active window or the Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the Task Manager and close the program from there.
Windows 8 comes with Internet Explorer 10 and now is upgrading to IE11 and when launched from the Metro desktop is opened without borders or toolbars. A bit of a shock at first, but right mouse click on any blank area and options for switching tabs, Internet tools and other familiar features appear.
Windows 8.1, it’s not that scary.
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Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer: Courtland Nederveld: 9781467985895: Books
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