Windows 8 is rife with features and behaviors that conspire to
perplex even the most experienced PC users. Not all of them are bad, per
se, but few of them are immediately intuitive. Making matters worse,
the OS was primarily designed for touch control, and as a result, many
mouse and keyboard commands feel like tacked-on afterthoughts.
But help is on the way.
We've assembled a list of our favorite Windows 8 shortcuts, tricks,
and workarounds. Many focus on making the most of the OS on a
traditional desktop PC, so if you're interested in touch gestures,
please check out our article
that focuses directly on the Windows 8 touch experience. Now let's
start our journey of discovery with a look at easy-to-use (though often
tough to remember!) Windows 8 hotkey commands.
Employ the hottest hotkeys we know
In these key combinations, hold down the Windows key (normally
located between Alt and Ctrl) and another key, as described on this
list.
Press the Windows key to enter the tiled Start screen.
The Windows key + M minimizes everything that's showing on the desktop.
The Windows key + E opens Explorer for quick access to folders.
On the Start screen, press the Windows key + D to instantly get to the desktop.
The Windows key + Tab opens a list of currently running programs.
The Windows key + Print Screen takes a screenshot and saves it in a Screenshots folder nested in your Pictures folder.
To take a screenshot on a Windows 8 tablet, simultaneously press the Windows button and the volume-down button on the tablet chassis.
The Windows key + Q opens a global search menu. Type what you're looking for and where you would like to look.
The Windows key + W opens a search in your system settings to quickly locate and change system properties.
The Windows key + F opens a file and folder search.
The Windows key + Pause opens the system properties page to show you a quick rundown of your specs.
The Windows key + "," (that's the comma sign!) makes all current
windows transparent, giving you a peek at the desktop as long as you
hold down the Windows key.
The Windows key + "." (the period) snaps a window to the right or left side (toggling each time you press ".").
The Windows key + R prompts the Run command—useful for quickly launching apps and other routines with a command prompt.
The Windows key + X opens the Quick Access Menu, exposing system
functionality such as the Command Prompt, Disk Management, File
Explorer, Run, and more. Alternatively, you can right-click on the
bottom right corner of the screen to spawn the Quick Access Menu.
The Windows key + I opens the settings menu, giving you quick access
to the Control Panel, Personalization, and your Power button, among
other features.
The Windows key + O locks orientation on devices with an accelerometer.
Zoom in tight
See all your tiles and groups at once with semantic zoom.
The Start Screen is full of nice, big, chunky tiles that represent
all your apps. The tiles are easy to see in small groups, but what if
you have hundreds of apps installed? Most will be hidden from view,
unless you want to do a lot of scrolling. Enter the new semantic zoom
feature. If you’re using a touch display, squeeze the Start screen with
two fingers to receive a bird’s eye view of your entire screen contents.
And the feature is also available to mouse and keyboard users: Simply
hold down the Ctrl button, and use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
Categorize your apps
Start screen customization for the organized.
Your Start screen can become a cluttered mess if you collect too many
apps and other elements that have been pinned to the screen as tiles,
so take advantage of built-in organization tools that let you divide
everything into labeled groups.
First, drag all the tiles you want to assign to a single group to the
far right-hand side of your Start screen in vacant territory; the OS
should sequester the tiles together. Once you're satisfied with your
assembly, use semantic zoom (described above) to get a bird's eye view
of your desktop. Now right-click the group (or simply drag down on it),
and select the "Name group" option on the left of the bar that appears
below. Type in the name, and enjoy your newly organized Start screen!
Close an application
Closing an app sounds simple enough, but you'll quickly
notice that close buttons are hard to find in Windows 8. That's because
Microsoft encourages us to run apps in the background where they'll take
up minimal resources, but still be accessible at any time.
Nonetheless, if you insist on being rebellious, you can close an app
by dragging it with your mouse or finger from the top of the screen all
the way down to the bottom. As you drag, the app will miminize into a
thumbnail, and when you reach the bottom, it will disappear from
view. Alternatively, you can still close apps via Alt + F4 and through
the Task Manager.
Use centralized, contextual search
Search for anything in any app from one place.
The Search function located on the Charms bar is packed with power,
letting you search the directories of not only your Windows 8 machine,
but also the greater Windows ecosystem. Simply choose the bucket of data
you want to sift through—it could be all your installed apps, your
system settings, your files, your mail messages, or even an external
service like the Windows Store or Bing Maps—type in a keyword, and hit
Enter. The Search function will then return the results, perfectly
contextualized for the database you’ve addressed
Oh, and how's this for cool? You don't even need to hit the Charms
bar to access Search. From the Start screen, simply start typing, and
you'll be quickly whisked to the text-entry field for search queries.
Try it. It works!
Adjust privacy settings
Customize your privacy settings to your liking.
A lot of apps tap into very personal information by default. Indeed,
your pictures, location, and name are liberally woven throughout the
system, and like many users you may not be comfortable trusting your
machine with that much sensitive data. To adjust the settings, press the
Windows key + I, and go to Change PC Settings. Select the Privacy
option, and personalize the settings for your personal data there.
Adjust SmartScreen settings
Choose your own level of safety with SmartScreen.
SmartScreen warns you before running an unrecognized app or file from
the Internet. While it's helpful to be aware of a file's source,
constant warnings can also get a little annoying. By default, you need
an administrator's permission, but this can easily be adjusted to just a
warning or no indication at all. Using the magic search function
described above, type "security" at the Start screen and find the "Check
security status" in the Settings tab. From this area, you can adjust
various security settings, including the Windows SmartScreen.
Bring up the Quick Access Menu
The secret Start button for power users is hidden at the bottom-left.
Right-clicking on the lower left of the screen—whether you’re in the
Windows 8 Start screen or in the desktop—will bring up the Quick Access
Menu, which enables a direct line to many key system management chores,
including Disk Management, Task Manager, Device Manager, and Control
Panel.
Use Windows 8 apps and your desktop simultaneously
Because the Windows 8 experience is split between new Windows 8 Store
apps and old-school desktop apps, the operating system is prone to some
strange behaviors. Case in point: When running a multimonitor setup,
Windows 8 apps will consume your main screen, leaving your secondary
screen running the desktop. This arrangement would seem to
allow full-screen multitasking among both types of apps—a modern app on
the left side, a desktop app on the right side—but this isn’t the case.
Indeed, as soon as you begin using the desktop on your secondary screen,
the new-style Windows 8 app disappears, and your primary screen begins
running the desktop.
But here’s a workaround. On your primary screen, use the new Windows 8
split-screen “snapping” function to run the desktop and a new Windows 8
Store app together. The desktop can take up the left-hand sliver, while
the Windows 8 app consumes the majority of the screen. Now use your second
display for a full desktop view. In this arrangement, you can fully
multitask between new-style apps and desktop apps, and both windows will
be large enough to be useful.
Go to Task Manager for Startup items
Task manager is more useful than ever.
You no longer have to run the MSConfig program to change startup
items. Startup items now show up in a tab on Task Manager. Simply press
Ctrl + Alt + Del and select Task Manager. Click the "More details" tab
at the bottom and find the Startup tab at the top.
Share and share alike
Play with the Share charm in every app.
Windows 8 is Microsoft’s first social-media-aware PC operating
system. Using the Share button located on the Charms bar, you can pick
any number of elements from your Windows 8 Store apps—say, a location
from your Maps app, a news story from the Finance app, or a even a
contact from your People app—and then distribute that item to friends
via other Windows 8 programs.
Perhaps most conveniently, you can quickly share a photo via email or
Twitter, or to your own SkyDrive or Windows Phone. The Share button is
contextual, and the more you use it, the more you’ll discover which apps
share with each other, and which don’t. (Hint: None of your desktop
apps offer sharing opportunities through the Charms menu.)
Create a picture password
A fun way to protect your system.
Using a picture password is a fun way keep your device secure while
not having to remember a complex password. To enable it, press the
Windows key + I to get to the settings charm. Click "Change PC settings"
at the bottom right, and go to the Users tab. Under "Sign-in options"
will be the "Create a picture password" button. This will give you the
option to choose any picture, and then define three gestures anywhere on
the image. Your gestures can be circles, swipes and clicks.
For example, to set a picture password for the image above, you could
click on the highest palm tree, draw a circle around the island, and
then swipe down from the lens flare in the upper right. Just beware: The
direction of each gesture matters! After confirming it a couple times,
your picture password will be set.
Boot to the desktop without an app
Skip the Start screen and get right to the Desktop.
One of biggest complaints about Windows 8 is that it boots straight
to the Start screen—an annoyance for many committed desktop users. The Start8 utility
helps you avoid this indignity (among other cool features), but you can
actually boot straight to the desktop without installing anything
extra.
Go to the start screen and type in "schedule" to search for Schedule Task in Settings. Click on Task Scheduler Library to the left, and select Create Task. Name your task something like "Boot to desktop." Now select the Triggers tab, choose New, and use the drop-down box to select starting the task "At log on." Click OK and go to the Actions tab, choose New, and enter "explorer" for the Program/Script value.
Press OK, save the task, and restart to test it out!
Log in without a username or password
To speed up the log-in process, you may want to disable the username
and password log-in screen. You can do so by opening the Run window
(press the Windows key + R) and typing in "netplwiz" to access the User
Accounts dialog box. Uncheck the box near the top that says "Users must
enter a user name and password to use this computer." Click OK, and enter the username and password one last time to confirm your choice, and you are all set for easy access to your system.
Refresh your PC
Enjoy a fresh PC without losing everything.
If your system is feeling a little sluggish, it may be time for a
refresh. In the past we would have to find our copy of Windows 7, back
up all of our data, and perform a fresh install to enjoy that
back-to-factory-fresh feeling. But now Windows 8 allows you to perform a
fresh install from within Windows without losing any data.
In order to perform the refresh, go to Settings and click the Change PC Settings tab near the bottom. Select the General
tab and find the "Refresh your PC without affecting your files" section
near the middle (you may also select "Remove everything and reinstall
Windows" to get the true factory settings treatment). Select "Get
started" and press "Refresh." After a few minutes the PC will restart,
and you will have a fresh copy of Windows 8.
Start in Safe Mode
Safe Mode is a great way to get into your system when something won't
allow you to start up normally. Troubleshooting becomes a breeze when
corrupted drivers and files aren't loaded that prevents a system from
functioning. It used to be as easy as pressing F8 when the system starts
up, but doing so with Windows 8 will take you to Automatic Repair Mode.
The trick to getting back to good old fashioned Safe Mode? Hold down
the Shift key and press F8 while booting up.
This takes you to the Recovery mode. Select "advanced options," then
"troubleshoot," then the "advanced options" again (there are a lot of
advanced options). Select Windows Startup Settings and finally the Restart button. This will reboot the computer and give you the option to boot into Safe Mode.
If you need to get into Safe Mode from within Windows, open the dialog box (the Windows key + R) and type "msconfig" (no quote marks). Select the Boot tab and check the Safe boot box. The system will continually boot into Safe Mode until you go back and uncheck the box.
Turn Live Tiles on and off
Use the Live tile option to customize what you want to see.
When looking at the plethora of tiles on your Start screen, the view
can get stagnant, despite all the pretty colors.This is where Live Tiles
come in. They offer real-time data right on your Start screen, and you
don't need to open any apps. For example, the Weather tile will show you
the current conditions, and Mail will show you the subject of the
latest message you've received.
You can customize which apps are live and which aren't by
right-clicking on the tiles. A settings bar on the bottom will pop up
with an option to turn the Live Tile on or off. Simply select the
preferred option, and you're all set. Note, however, that not all apps
have a live, real-time data-streaming option.
Find the Windows games folder
Currently, the games folder used in Windows 7 isn’t present in
Windows 8. Fear not; if you install any current-generation PC game that
would regularly save to this folder, the folder is automatically
created. For a quick way to find it, right-click on the game icon on the
Start screen and choose “Open file location” at the bottom.
Activate Family Safety
Let your kids play without having to worry.Want
to avoid some nasty surprises on your credit card? Create a separate,
standard account on the device for your kids (Family Safety can't be
applied to an administrator account). You can activate Family Safety by
going to the Control Panel, User Accounts, and Family Safety,
and selecting the account you would like to apply it to. From these
settings you can get reports on the account's activity; set a level of
Web filtering; set time limits; and enforce Windows Store, game, and app
restrictions.
Shut down with one click
Easy to create button to shut down.
Windows 8 hides the Power button in the Settings menu, forcing a
multistep process just to shut down one's PC. But thanks to a crafty
shortcut trick, you can pin a Shutdown button right onto the bottom of
your desktop. Here's how.
Create a shortcut on your desktop (right-click, go to New, then Shortcut). Enter "shutdown /s /t 0" (with no quotes, and, yes, that's a zero not an "O") as the location of the item, and press Next. Now name the shortcut (prefereably "Shutdown") and press Finish.
Right-click the shortcut, and navigate to Properties. Choose Change Icon in the Shortcut tab, and then OK
to leave the warning box. Choose an icon of your choice from the list.
In the screenshot above, you'll see we chose a Power button.
Right-click the shortcut again, and select Pin to Start. You can place the icon on your Start screen wherever it's convenient. Clicking it will instantly shut down your computer.
PCWORLD - Windows 8, I want to love you, but your annoying quirks keep bringing me down.
After spending more than a year conquering the operating system's
overhauled (and nonintuitive) interface in its various prerelease
iterations, I've now entered a second stage of frustration: I find
myself cursing at Windows 8's major changes less and less, but shaking
my fist and swearing like a sailor at its little irritations more and
more.
Beyond its polished, tile-based surface, Microsoft's new operating
system plays host to a legion of smaller annoyances—a cornucopia of
quirks that will leave you seething long after you get the hang of all
the new gesture controls and schizophrenic system options. Some of the
problems are whoppers. Others are mere nitpicks that result from a
lifetime of traditional Windows use. But many of these problems can be
fixed, with one major exception. Read on!
Lock down the lock screen
Disabling the lock screen is but a hidden option away.
Let's start at the very beginning of the Windows 8 experience. Lock
screens make sense on a tablet, but on a PC the lock screen becomes just
another superfluous click in a sea of nonstreamlined Windows 8
controls. Fortunately, banishing the Windows 8 lock screen from your
life is easy.
Open the Run command box by searching for "Run," pressing Windows-R, or
moving your mouse pointer to the lower-left corner of the Desktop
screen, right-clicking, and selecting Run in the Quick Access menu.
Now type gpedit.msc and press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel >Personalization in the left menu. Double-click the Do Not Display the Lock Screen option in the main pane to open a new window. Select the Enabled radio button, click OK, and you're done. Buh-bye, lock screen!
Press Start to continue
Enough words have been written about Windows 8's missing Start button to
fill the Library of Congress twice over, so I won't spend much time on
it. But if you're looking to bring back the Start button and possibly
even banish the live-tiled Start screen for good, check out the free
(and awesome) Classic Shell program. We cover it in-depth in our roundup of free tools designed to bend Windows 8 to your will.
No POP for you!
That POP option in the Mail app? It's a trick.
One of my biggest Windows 8 irritations is its lack of POP email support
in the native Mail app. I get it, Microsoft: IMAP's syncing
functionality fits better into the cloud-connected, work-everywhere
vision you have for Windows 8. But tell that to all the nontechie people
who lean on me for computer support, and who rely on the POP email
addresses that their ISPs handed out.
If you're running Windows 8 and need to keep tabs on a POP email account, I first recommend downloading Mozilla's free Thunderbird email application
and using it in Desktop mode. But if you don't want to do that (or if
you're running Windows RT), you have a workaround for Microsoft's POP
reluctance, though it's somewhat clunky.
The key lies in the Mail app's support for popular webmail clients,
including Gmail and Outlook.com—two free favorites that just happen to
be able to connect and link with outside POP email accounts. See where
I'm going here? Just create a free email account with either service,
and then link your POP mail account to it using the tutorials supplied
by Outlook.com or Gmail.
After persuading your POP account to play nice with your Outlook.com or
Gmail account, add your chosen webmail service to the Windows 8 Mail app
through the normal means. Voilà! Your POP mail will work its way into
the Mail app inbox by way of its webmail proxy.
Here's the kicker: When you send email, the Mail app will let you use
only your webmail email address, not your POP mail address. There isn't
any way around the limitation, but at least your messages will land in
your inbox.
No DVD playback? No problem!
VLC's myriad media options include full DVD playback.
Windows 8 still includes Windows Media Player, but the new version of
the program lacks DVD playback support. If you've yet to take the plunge
into a digital-only lifestyle, you could spring for Windows 8 Pro and
the optional $10 Media Center Pack (which Microsoft is giving away free
to upgraders until January 31, 2013). This is one solution, but I
recommend downloading the free and flexible VLC instead.
VLC isn't as polished as Microsoft's Media Center software, but it's
jam-packed with utility, offering full DVD playback and ripping support,
robust file-transcoding options, the ability to tune in to Internet
videos and podcasts alike, and even spotty Blu-ray support if you enlist
the help of add-ons with questionable legality. Our guide to mastering VLC will get you up and watching in no time—and for no money.
Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?
The Recycle Bin properties screen.
Unlike HAL (and Windows 7), Windows 8 isn't pleading or pushy when you
want to get rid of a file. Deleting something sends the item straight to
the Recycle Bin, no confirmations necessary. Ironically, this may be
the one case when you can perform a task in fewer clicks than you could
in previous iterations of Windows. That said, the old-style confirmation
prompt has saved me from errantly deleting something important on more
than one occasion.
If you want to bring back the warning, right-click the Recycle Bin and select Properties. Simply check the Display delete confirmation dialog box in the new window, click OK, and you're good to go. Getting rid of the option is as easy as removing the checkmark once again.
Forget the Bing app
Skip the Bing app, and pin the Bing website instead.
I'm a Google fanatic, but when I'm tooling around in Windows 8's Start
screen on a touchscreen device, I find that the Bing search app's
picture-heavy aesthetic fits very nicely with Windows 8's Modern design.
Like many Modern-style apps, however, the Bing app includes an
irritating quirk: Selecting a search result pops you out of the Bing app
and opens the page in Internet Explorer. It's a mild annoyance in the
grand scheme of things, but it still drives me nuts.
You can have your attractive cake and eat it too by pinning the Bing.com
website to the Start screen. Head to Bing.com, click the Pin This Site icon in the toolbar, and then select Pin to Start. Annoyance averted.
Higher resolution, lower readability
Desktop image sizing options: Not just for the hard-of-seeing.
Windows 8 has spurred a whole new hardware type: the laptop-tablet
hybrid. Many of these devices sport 1080p IPS displays that are
breathtaking to behold. I've had the opportunity to test a few hybrids
extensively, and I've found that the blessing of a high-resolution
display comes with an accompanying curse.
Many convertibles stick to an Ultrabook-type form factor, squeezing that
1080p resolution into a 10- to 12-inch screen. The ultrapacked pixel
density makes for a razor-sharp picture, but text appears a bit too
small for my taste in desktop mode. Fortunately, a trick that helped
farsighted folks browse with ease in Windows 7 still applies in Windows
8.
Right-click anywhere on the desktop, select Screen Resolution, and then click Make text and other items larger and smaller. The Change the size of all items
option works great if you plan on sticking to a touchscreen interface,
boosting the size of icons and text alike to make them finger-friendly. I
prefer using the Change only the text size option on
hybrid-type devices that include a touchpad or mouse, however. The
drop-down menu includes a bevy of text types, each of which you can
individually alter to suit your particular needs.
The one that got away
That's the avatar face of anger.
Unfortunately, Windows 8's single-most oppressive annoyance can't be
fixed by minor tweaks, or—as I was told after spending hours on the
phone with multiple support representatives—by Microsoft itself.
I'm a huge proponent of the system's ability to transfer basic settings
and files between multiple computers with the help of a cloud-connected
Microsoft Account. I've accumulated several Microsoft Accounts over the
years, however. One exists solely to maintain my Xbox Live gamertag,
with more than six years' worth of achievements, Microsoft points, and
associated purchases tied to it. Another Microsoft Account plays host to
my grandfathered 25GB SkyDrive account, and all the files inside. I
rely on a third as my primary Microsoft Account login.
There is no way to merge the multiple accounts into a single, comprehensive Microsoft Account.
The aforementioned support calls proved unhelpful in clearing up the issue. Taking to the Internet, I found this July 2012 forum post
by a Microsoft representative stating that the company has no plans to
introduce an account-merging option. "I think it would be a nice
feature, but it was repeatedly assessed as too costly compared to other
needs," he said.
That sucks for a long-term Microsoft fan like myself, especially since I
jump from computer to computer frequently. I've resigned myself to the
fact that I need to juggle three separate Microsoft Accounts in order to
keep full functionality. Signing out of my main account and back in
with my secondary accounts on the SkyDrive and Games apps doesn't take
long, but it's frustrating, all the more so because I won't have any way
to fix this particular irritation at any time in the foreseeable
future.
