Microsoft Windows 8 | Tips And Tricks

Windows 8 is dramatically different, in both look and user experience, from any PC interface that's come before it. The video above will give you a taste for the overall look and feel (it's the same on a desktop as it is on a tablet), as well as some of the core features and terms-Charms, Snap, and more-that we'll be dealing with below. You should also check out our full review for an overview.

Ready? Great. Here comes the deep dive that'll make your Windows 8 life a million times better.

 

New Apps for Music, Video, and More

A lot of the default apps in Windows 8 will shoot you into a Live app-and out of the desktop environment. To remedy this, you just have to right click on any file of the type you want, and mouse over the Open with option. From there, select Choose default program.... You'll be able to select whether any app opens in Windows 8 or desktop. You can do this for multiple file types at once by going to Programs > Default Programs.
If you set all your file types to desktop apps, you'll never get booted out of desktop for anything, and you can enjoy all of the other benefits of Windows 8, like its smaller footprint and better performance.

 

Multitasking with Live Apps

If you do choose to embrace Windows 8 in all its tiled goodness-and you really should-the first trouble you're going to run into is fluidly switching between apps. Your programs will now open full screen, which means going back and forth is more complicated than just clicking around. And Alt+Tab doesn't behave quite like you're used to any more. So here's how to get around:
Your New Most Used (But Kinda Clumsy) Gesture: You can zoom through Metro apps while multitasking easily enough just by swiping (or clicking in the top left corner, if you're on a mouse), but there's one problem: It can be a crap shoot which app you're going to get, since there's no visual reference point about what's coming up next, and in what order. The gesture to get around this isn't super obvious.
If you're using a touchscreen, pull from the left side of the screen, like you're going to yank an app over for that fast-change multitask, but then shove it back to the left. This brings up the Windows 8 app selector, where only Windows 8 apps are shown, with the desktop environment being a single app. As far as we can tell, this doesn't work on trackpads (at least the ones we've used). Once you used to it, though, it's actually a more natural way to access multitasking than iOS, and a little easier than Android since you don't have to reach for a button-it's just always on the left side of your screen.

Alt Tab vs. Start Tab: This is another big difference. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, Start+Tab cycled you through your apps using the Aero view, with previews of each windows rather than the regular Alt+Tab. Now, though, Start+Tab accesses the same Windows 8 multitasking menu, while Alt+Tab is unchanged.
The difference between the two is that Alt+Tab has an icon for each of your Windows 8 apps, but also each of your desktop apps. So if you're just Alt+Tabbing around, you can get disoriented by zapping from full screen app to full screen app.

 

Keyboard Shortcuts

Start+C: Open charms
Start+Q: Search charm
Start+H: Share charm
Start+K: Devices charm
Start+I: Settings charm
Start+Q: Search apps
Start+W: Search settings
Start+F: Search files (It's easier to just type directly into the Start screen, but these take you directly to your desired search category.)
Start+,: Peek at desktop
Start+B: Back to desktop
Start+Enter: Open Windows Narrator
Start+X: Open system utility settings menu
For Live Apps
Start+.: Snap app left
Start+Shift+.: Snap app right
Start+Z: App options
Start+Tab: Cycle through app history
Start+F4: Close an app

 

Pin Apps to the Search Bar

You will probably be using the search bar a LOT to navigate your way around Windows 8. So while the defaults of Apps, Settings, and Files are good things to search in, the rest of your apps are in alphabetical order. That's not convenient for calling up frequently used apps-like, say, Music or Bing-in a hurry. Thankfully, there's a better way.
Just open the search bar through the Charms bar, or from the Start screen, and right click an app and select Pin. It will now remain just under the default three search categories, and you can drag your pinned apps around to rearrange their order.

 

Pin Desktop Apps to the Start Screen

If you like the new Start screen, but you just want to use it as a hub and do all the rest of your work in Desktop mode, you can use it as, basically, a fancy app launcher, widget hub (with Live Tiles), and favorites hub by yanking out all of the tiles that would open a separate Live app. You do this just by right-clicking a desktop app and selecting Pin to Start.
This is a good tip to use in conjunction with picking new default non-Modern apps. You can also keep just one or two Live apps there, and use them as your Snap apps. That will also have the added bonus of making the fast-swap gesture more usable since it would always be the same thing.

 

Google Apps and Search

A lot of people rely heavily on Google services for their PC life. Google's made it easy to maintain those services-and replace their default Microsoft equivalents in Windows 8-by making a landing page called getyourgoogleback.com. From there you can easily download the Google Search app and Chrome, and stick them on your Start screen.

 

Take the Time to Sync Up with a Microsoft Account

You can run a regular local account on Windows 8, but it's definitely worth your time to set up a Microsoft account. All that requires is a Hotmail, Live, Outlook, or other Microsoft email address.
To sign in systemwide, go to the Charms bar, and select Settings > Change PC Settings (this will send you to another window) > Users From there you can select Switch to a Microsoft account. From there, just enter your account email, or you'll be given the option of creating one. A new subhead will now appear in PC Settings called Sync your settings. You can pick out which kinds of settings you want to sync.
It's worth your while, especially since it'll save you the trouble of having to sign in each and every time you try to access Xbox Music, the Windows Store, etc.

 

Turn Off the Lock Screen

Windows 8 turns on the lock screen by default, which is probably for the best. But if you'd rather not deal with it, you can disable it, and launch right into the screen you left off at.
Type "netplwiz" into the start screen, and launch the app that comes up. Then select your user account, and uncheck Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer. You'll be prompted to enter your password twice. Now just restart and you're password-free. You can re-enable the lock just by doing this in reverse.

Basically: Burying your porn is no longer good enough. All the more reason to just keep that stuff in your browser, where it belongs.

 

Change the Boot Drive if Windows Boots Too Fast

Traditionally, when you're changing which drive or partition your computer boots from, you do it at startup. But Windows 8 boots really fast, so if you need to switch the drive and don't want to futz with timing your keystrokes, just go to PC Settings > General > Advanced startup options. From there, you can restart into a screen that will let you switch operating systems, troubleshoot, continue to Windows, or restart.

 

New Task Manager

Task Manager (Control + Alt + Delete) is one of the more boring parts of Windows, but it got a bit of a facelift in Windows 8, and there are some new features that can make your life easier.
The biggest advantage is the Startup feature, which doesn't just tell you which programs are set to load when you start your computer; it also tells you how much they're going to affect startup time. That ranges from None, to Low, Medium, and High. Some are Not Measured, but for the most part, this should let you more accurately pick which programs to launch at startup.

Other features include an updated Users tab that shows you a bunch of information about how many resources each logged-in user is sucking up, and how. You can also get at the App History tab, which tells you how much data each of your Live apps is sucking up. That's mostly for tablet users on a data plan, but still a nice peek under the hood for desktop users.

 

Easy Screenshots! Finally!

There's finally an easier way to take screenshots on Windows. Here's the keyboard shortcut, which will dump the screenshots into a Screenshots folder in your Pictures folder.
Start+PrntScrn: Take screenshot and save to Pictures

 

Try Out Xbox Music-But Know What You're Getting

Xbox Music is Microsoft's new streaming music service. It's activated by default if you've connected your Microsoft account to your Windows 8 install, meaning that you can just boot up Windows 8 for the first time and play free music in the Music app. Think of it as a built-in Spotify. And it took a while, but Xbox Music now how cross-platform support in the form of iOS and Android apps, as well as a browser player.

Know the Difference Between RT and Windows 8
Microsoft hasn't done a great job of explaining that Windows RT is not the same as Windows 8, even though they look very much alike. If you're buying one of the new computers made specifically for Windows 8, take a moment to figure out which version of Windows you want. Here's our full breakdown of what Windows RT can't do.