Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Windows 8 & 8
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Handle basic navigation
Windows 8's interface is all colorful tiles and touch-friendly apps
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On a regular desktop, though, you might alternatively spin the mouse wheel to scroll
backwards and forwards
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Press the Home or End keys to jump from one end of
your Start screen to the other, for instance, then use the cursor keys to select a particular
tile, tapping Enter to select it
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You might drag People, Mail, Messaging and Calendar over to the left-hand side, for instance, to
form a separate 'People' group
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Right-click within the block (while still zoomed out) and you'll also be able to give
the group a name, which - if you go on to add another 20 or 30 apps to your Start screen - will
make it much easier to find the tools you need
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1 now provides a special Customize mode with much the same functionality
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3
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Download the Win+X Menu Editor and
you'll be able to further customize the list with programs of your own
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Find your applications
The Win+X menu is useful, but no substitute for the old Start menu as it doesn't provide access
to your applications
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If
you can't see what you need immediately, start typing an application name to search for it
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1, click the arrow to the right of "Apps" to sort your programs by date installed, most
used, category or name
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The Windows Store
Windows 8 now has two different locations for making updates to your computer
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With the
introductions of apps, Windows 8 now has a Windows Store where you can download new apps
or upgrade any apps you may already have installed
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One of the first things
you should do is install the new Windows 8
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This will give you new features and reduce
the frustration level of new Windows 8 users by returning some of the most loved features from
previous versions of Windows
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Make access easier
If there's an application you use all the time then you don't have to access it via the search
system
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Start by typing part of the name of your application
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Right-click the 'Control Panel' tile on the Apps Search screen, and click 'Pin to Start'
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Now press the Windows key, scroll to the right and you'll see the Control Panel tile at the far
end
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7
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Click this and choose 'Shut Down' or 'Restart'
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1, press Win+X, click 'Shut down or sign out' and select the option you need
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Press Ctrl+Alt+Del, for
instance, click the power button in the bottom right-hand corner and you'll be presented with the
same 'Shut Down' and 'Restart' options
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8
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Use the app bar
Windows 8 apps aim to be simpler than old-style Windows applets, which means it's goodbye to
menus, complex toolbars and many interface standards
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Right-click on an empty part of your desktop, select New > Shortcut, and type Explorer
Shell:AppsFolder in the "Location" box
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Double-clicking that shortcut will open a folder listing all your installed
programs, including the apps, and you can launch whatever you like
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See what's running
If you launch a Windows 8 app, play with it for a while, then press the Windows key you'll
switch back to the Start screen
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You could just press Alt+Tab, which shows you what's running just as it always has
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(To see this with the mouse, move your cursor to the top left
corner of the screen, wait until the thumbnail of one app appears, then drag down
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Apps are
suspended when you switch to something else so they're only a very minimal drain on your
system, and if you need the system resources then they'll automatically be shut down
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)
If you want to close down an app anyway, though, move the mouse cursor up to the top of the
screen
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Your app should shrink to a thumbnail which you can
drag off the screen to close it
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And when all else fails then press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to launch Task Manager, right-click something
in the Apps list and select End Task
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Right-click an empty part of the page or flick your finger down from the top of the screen,
though, and you'll find options to create and switch between tabs, as well as a Refresh button, a
'Find' tool and the ability to pin an Internet shortcut to the Start page
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Make a mistake and a wavy red line will appear below the offending word; tap
or right-click this to see suggested alternative words, or add the word to your own dictionary if
you prefer
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Run two apps side by side
Modern UI apps are what Microsoft calls 'immersive' applications, which basically means they
run full-screen - but there are ways to view up to four at once
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And you can then swap these by swiping again
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1 expands on this and can display up to four apps simultaneously, if you've enough
screen space
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Once you've moved it enough, a dividing line
will appear, you can drop the app, and it'll appear in just that part of the screen
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In
Windows 8, right-clicking a tile displays 'Smaller' or 'Larger' options which you can use to resize
it
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1, right-click a tile, 'Resize' and choose from one of four tile sizes: 'Large',
'Wide', 'Medium' and 'Small'
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Uninstall easily
If you want to hide an unused app for now, select 'Unpin from Start'
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(Search for the app, right-click
it, select 'Pin to Start'
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Of course, if you like to try out lots of apps then uninstalling them one at a time can get a little
tedious
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If you're not happy with that, it's easily changed
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The new Task Manager also includes a History feature that tracks the CPU time used by every
application
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But if you don't want someone doing the same to you, clicking App History >
Delete Usage History will clear all the figures
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Show administrative tools
Experienced Windows users who spend much of their time in one advanced applet or another are
often a little annoyed to see their favourite tools buried by Windows 8
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As we've mentioned, pressing Win+X launches a menu with plenty of technical tools: 'Device
Manager', 'Network Connections', 'Computer Management' and more
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Change 'Show administrative tools' to 'Yes' and click
back on an empty part of the Start screen
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Scroll to the right and you'll
find a host of new tiles for various key applets - Performance Monitor, Event Viewer, Task
Scheduler, Resource Monitor and more - ready to be accessed at a click
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Search everywhere
The Windows 8
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It's now
integrated with Bing, delivering internet results and (sometimes) even Wikipedia-style
summaries of whatever you're searching for
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As well as seeing any matches in your own documents, pictures or videos, you'll get a picture,
brief bio (birth date, husbands, siblings, date and place of death), and links to films, videos,
albums and more
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Swipe left (or spin the mouse wheel) and you'll find more pictures
and summaries for all the top 'Marilyn' search engine hits: IMDB, Wikipedia,
MarilynMonroe
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com, as well as further links for images, videos, related
searches and more
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This extra search power can be very useful, but if you'd prefer to keep desktop searches to your
own system then it's easily disabled
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21
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If this proves a problem, though, and you're willing to take the security risk (because this isn't
something to try unless you're entirely sure it's safe), then the system can be configured to run
trusted apps from any source
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Just launch REGEDIT and set the value of the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Appx\AllowAllTrustedApp
s key to 1
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Pin app contents to the Start screen
It's easy to pin apps to the Start screen (right-click, select "Pin"), but you don't have to stop there
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If you want more ideas for your upcoming holiday in Rome, for instance, you could open the
Travel app, right-click, select "Destinations" and choose the "Rome" tile
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Or, alternatively, right-click your preferred
Destination tile, select "Pin
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Similarly, if you use the Mail app with multiple accounts then just open these, and you can rightclick to select separate live tiles for each one - much more useful
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Log in automatically
WARNING: Your account will lose admin privileges as a result of this step
Of course even if you remove the lock screen, you'll still be forced to manually log in every time
your system starts
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Hold down the Windows key, press R, type 'netplwiz' and press Enter to launch the User
Accounts dialog
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Enter the user name and password of the account that you'd like to be logged in automatically,
click OK, restart your system and this time it should boot directly to the Start screen
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Use six apps at once
Launch a Windows 8 app and it appears full-screen, which is fine on a small tablet but not so
impressive when you've got a 27-inch widescreen monitor to fill
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You get a Facebook client, browser, calculator, weather app, clock and more
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Install it and you get the standard menu of your installed programs, for instance, along with
Search and Run boxes, the Recent Items menu, and Windows 7-type shutdown options
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Classic Shell doesn't entirely ignore the modern UI world, though
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Which is
perfect if, say, you're looking to be able to shut down your PC with a click
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Browse to the application you'd like to launch here
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exe -s -t 00
to shut down your PC, or
shutdown
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Type a shortcut name - 'Hibernate', say - and click Finish
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png (and then Screenshot(1)
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png and so on)
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Maybe next time
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Default to Photo Viewer
Double-click an image file within Explorer and it won't open in a Photo Viewer window any
more, at least not by default
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If you'd like to fix this, go to Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs and select Set your
default programs
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Finally, click 'Set this program as default' if you'd like the Viewer to open all the file types it can
handle, or select the 'Choose default' options if you prefer to specify which file types it should
open
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To set this up, go to Control Panel > System and Security > File History
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And once it's been running for a while, you can check on the history for any file in Explorer by
selecting it, choosing the Home tab and clicking History
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Keep apps quiet
Windows 8 apps will often raise notifications, alerting you to new emails, messages, calendar
events, status updates and more
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1
feature can help
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As before, you can selectively turn off notifications for individual apps, but a new 'Quiet Hours'
option allows you to turn them off altogether for a period of time
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Unless you're using the PC,
notifications will be disabled during that period
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Smart search
When you're in the mood to track down new Windows 8 features relating to a particular topic,
you might be tempted to start by manually browsing Control Panel for interesting applets - but
there is a simpler way
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That is,
not just those with "drive" in the name, but anything storage-related: BitLocker, Device
Manager, backup tools, disk cleanup, and interesting new features such as Storage Spaces
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So don't just carry out specific
searches, use the Apps search to look for general keywords such as "privacy" or "performance",
and you just might discover something new
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Set Start screen background
If you'd like to change your lock, user tile or start screen images then go to the Start screen press
Win + I, click 'Change PC settings' and choose the Personalize option
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In theory you'll also be able to define apps that will display their status on the lock screen,
although the app must specifically support this before it'll be accessible from your Personalize
settings
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1 extends Personalize with several useful options
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But if that sounds like you, Windows 8
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To begin, right-click the taskbar, select Properties > Navigation, check 'Show the Apps view
automatically when I go to Start', and click OK
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If that doesn't work for you, though, it's now possible to boot straight into the desktop and bypass
the Start screen altogether
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Unfortunately it doesn't actually ask you what time is convenient, instead just setting it to 3am
and allowing the system to wake your computer (if hardware and circumstances permit) to do its
work
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To change this, launch Control Panel, click System and Security > Action Centre > Maintenance
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And it does this - but only in the logon screen
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As with many other Windows 8 issues, though, it's not taken long for other developers to fill the
gap, and there are now several free tools that can help
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Select Win + I > More PC Settings > Users > Create a Picture Password to
give this a try
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Hibernate or Sleep

You won't necessarily see either Hibernate or Sleep in the Windows 8 shutdown dialogs, but if
that's a problem then you may be able to restore them
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cpl) and click 'Choose what the
power buttons do' in the left-hand pane
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Check
the boxes next to whatever you'd like to use, click Save Changes, and the new options should
now appear in your shutdown dialogs
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Save bandwidth
Set up lots of live tiles on the Start screen and you could find they're using a lot of network
bandwidth, which could perhaps become a problem if you're running a slow or metered
connection
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Click your network connection on the taskbar (or the Start Screen Charms bar), right-click your
network connection in the list and select "Set as metered connection" (you'll only see this with
wireless adaptors)
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Right-click
the connection again and select "Set as unmetered" to change it back
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Sync and privacy

One very useful Windows 8 feature is its ability to synchronize your settings with other PCs and
devices
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Of course that may not always be a good idea
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In which case you'll want to hold down
the Windows key and press I, then click Change PC Settings > Sync Your Settings and disable
anything you'd rather not share
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Open new file types
If you find a file type that none of your applications can handle, then right-click on the file in
Windows Explorer and choose Open With
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You can also click 'More Options' to see currently installed programs and apps that may be able
to open the file
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Restart Explorer

If Explorer locks up for some reason, then regaining control is now very easy
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Open the Charms bar, click Search, and type Help:
'Help+Tips' is a Windows 8
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If you're an expert PC user, though - or the problems are more severe - then consulting the usual
Control Panel applets may point you in the right direction
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Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to take a look
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The simplified Processes tab then reveals what's currently using your CPU
time, RAM, hard drive and network bandwidth
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)

The Performance tab gives you a graphical view of resource use over the last few seconds, while
the App History dialog looks back over days or more to reveal which app is the most resourcehungry
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The 'Startup impact' now shows how much of an effect each of these has
on your boot time; if you spot high impact programs you're sure you don't need, then rightclicking them and selecting 'Disable' will ensure they're not loaded next time
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Hold down the Windows key, press R, type TaskMGR and press Enter to launch it
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Access the Troubleshoot menu, then Advanced Options, and you'll be able to try the Automatic
Repair tool, which may fix your problems
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If that all seems like too much hassle then the Troubleshoot menu's option to 'Refresh your PC'
may be preferable, because it essentially reinstalls Windows 8 but keeps your files, and will fix
many issues
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You don't have to access these features from the boot menu, of course
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