5 Windows 8 Tricks You Should Learn

19 Feb 2019

Windows 8 has a number of tricks that can help anyone to get the most out of the operating system from Microsoft.

Lock screen opening

From the lock screen Windows 8 opens and while its appearance is worth talking about, it does not really offer many clues on the next thing you need to do.

However, it is so easy and clear like tapping on the space bar, swiping upwards on the touch screen or spinning your mouse wheel to show a normal login screen that has the created user name during the installation process. Once you have entered the password you can start.

Basic navigation

With touch friendly applications and colorful tiles, Windows 8 is very straightforward especially for those using tablets. You only need to swipe towards the right or left towards scrolling the screen and tapping the tile you are interested in. On a normal desktop, it is possible to spin the wheel of your mouse to scroll forward or backward.

It is also possible to make the most of your keyboard by pressing the End or Home keys to move from one part of the Start screen to another before using cursor keys in choosing a certain tile and clicking Enter for selection.

To go back to Windows Start screen, click the Windows keys. You can right click or even swipe down upon applications you might not want and even choose Unpin to have them removed. Dropping and dragging other tiles about is the best way of organizing them.

Group applications

All apps on the Start screen appear randomly displayed at first and those who want to organize them can sort the apps through custom groups. For example, Calendar, Messaging, Mail and People can be dragged towards the left side into a group that is separate.

Clicking the (-) minus icon towards the right corner at the bottom of the screen helps in zooming out from where you are able to drop and drag the freshly created group and any other about, even as a single block.

As you right-click inside the block without zooming out yet, you can give a name to the group and even add tens of other apps into the Start screen to find all the tools required in your life easily.

Menu for quick access

Right clicking on the left bottom corner or holding the Windows key down before pressing X displays a menu with text for easy access to all the useful features and applets such as Search dialog, Explore, Control Panel, Device Manager among others.

Shut down

For easier shut down of Windows 8, moving the cursor of your mouse towards the right corner at the bottom of the screen can help before clicking Settings. You can also hold the Windows key down before pressing I for the power button. Clicking the power button gives you a choice to either Restart or Shut Down.

For those using Windows 8.1, pressing Win+X and clicking either Sign out or Shut down and choosing the right option will suffice.

However, a number of tricks from previous Windows versions still work such as pressing Control+Alt+Del and clicking the power button on the bottom corner on the right hand to display Restart or Shut Down choices. On the desktop, you can press Alt+F4 to choose Switch User, Sign Out, Restart or Shut Down.

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