Windows 8. 1 tips & tricks: 1. If you're new to the Windows 8 experience, you might be irked by some of the interface tweaks Microsoft has made. We show you 1. 3 tips to make the most out of your PC for productivity purposes and help to give the OS a more familiar feel. Boot to desktop. In Windows 8. However, this feature needs to be activated manually. To do this right- click the Taskbar > Properties > Navigation tab.
Under Start screen (bottom pane), tick the first option that says, “When I sign in or close all apps on a screen, go to the desktop instead of Start”. Then click on OK or Apply. The app offers three types of Start Button - Classic, Two Column and Windows 7.
Version 4 offers improved compatibility with Windows 8. New features include a dedicated shutdown button, the ability to pin programs to the taskbar from an explorer windows and better Windows Search functionality.
Home » Tools » Windows 7 – MFU (Most Frequent Used Programs). MFU (Most Frequent Used Programs). The UserAssist tool lists the UserAssist registry keys stored under HKEY Sorry, but bringing back the Start menu won't help Windows 8.
Get the Start menu back in Windows 8 and 8.1 with Classic Shell. By Mike Williams; Published 3 years ago; 20 Comments. The ability to display your most frequently used programs also speeds navigation. EXAMPLE: Recent Items and Frequent Places in Windows 8 and 8.1. To Turn 'Recent Items' and 'Frequent Places' On or Off in Taskbar Properties 1. By default, Windows tracks and stores these frequently used programs. The main features are: Highly customizable start menu with multiple.
However, this can be reactivated easily. To do this open up Windows Explorer > View > Options. Tick the box Show libraries in the navigation pane to re- activate the feature. Uninstall unused apps at the same time.
Windows 8. 1 allows users to select multiple apps and uninstall them all at the same time. If you ever need to do this, right click on the Start screen > Customise > Tick apps you want to uninstall. Disable Charms. Charms in Windows 8. But if you find yourself inadvertently activating the menu with your mouse, it’s possible to disable it. Go to Taskbar > Properties > Navigation and untick the “When I point to the upper- right corner, show the charms.”6 – Open files in the desktop instead of Modern UIMusic, videos, pictures and PDF files are automatically opened using Modern UI apps by default, but you can changed to be opened within the desktop. To do this, from the Windows Start screen type “default programs and click on the Default Programs icon under results. Here are a few useful combinations which will get you started.
Windows key + C: Opens up the charms menu. Window key + O: Locks the orientation of the screen. Windows key + Q: Opens up the App Search pane.
This now appears alone and without the Start screen. Windows key + M: Minimises all windows and brings you back to the desktop. Windows key + H: Opens the Share charm in any app you are currently in. Windows key + F: Opens up the Search box to help find files. Windows key + I: Opens up the Settings Charm. Windows key + (full stop) + Arrow key: Moves app to the left or right of screen so you can view more than one app at a time. Using the down arrow key with this combination will close the app you are in.
More shortcuts can be found here. Turn off notifications to minimise distractions. If you want to get work done without being distracted by notifications Windows 8. Go to PC Settings > Search & apps and then make sure the Quiet Hours switch is on. You can then choose which times you want to be left in peace. Search locally and on the internet.
The search function in Windows 8. When you enter a term, the local files will appear as normally, but swiping to the left will bring up other web pages Bing has trawled through.
13 ways to increase productivity. If you're new to the Windows 8 experience. You should pin your most frequently used apps to your taskbar so you can access them faster. On Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, an update to the Start menu known as the 'Start screen' was introduced. It covers the entire screen and no longer features the right column. It shows much larger tiles for programs and. Those are pinned programs that are automatically put there when you first install them, not frequently used programs. Frequently used programs feature is only available in Start Menu and is not available on Windows 8 without.
This also shows up files on Sky. Drive too. 1. 0 – Get Sky. Drive under control.
Sky. Drive is baked into Windows 8. Files stored here are listed alongside other categories, such as downloads and documents. Whilst cloud storage is a boon to those who use files across multiple machines, you may not want all you fires in the cloud. To ensure that Windows 8. PC Settings. Here there are settings for the cloud storage tool that will determine whether it is enabled by default as well as how specific content types are handled. Sky. Drive also tries to save space on the hard drive by using what it dubs “Smart Files”. This is a great feature as long as you have an internet connection, but useless when you don’t.
To make sure that all Sky. Drive files are accessible when you need them go to Windows Explorer > right click Sky. Drive > select Make Available Offline.
This will download all files stored in the cloud and save them locally. Ditch Command Prompt and go for Power. Shell. In Windows 8. Windows icon in the taskbar brings up a list of power user commands. For those of you that need to carry out more intensive, complex tasks using DOS- style commands you can replace CMD with Windows Power. Shell. To do this go to Navigation Properties > Tick the box marked Replace Command Prompt with Windows Power.
Shell in the menu when I right- click the lower- left corner . Show all apps instead of live tiles If you want to retain the Modern UI start screen but want to change the layout, it’s possible to display all apps.
To make this more productive in use, it is best to tick all of the last four boxes in the Taskbar and Navigation Properties dialogue box. When you click on the Start button you will see all your desktop applications first on the list (Modern UI apps appear at the end). Of course you can still go back to the live tiles by clicking the little arrow at the bottom to go back to that view, but why would you? Then select the option at the bottom that says “Pin to Taskbar”. If you like to set up rules and filters in your email that moves messages into certain folders (for example, all emails from your boss go into one folder), you can pin these folders to the start screen to save extra time in locating them. From within the Mail app in Windows 8.
Manage Folders” icon at the bottom, the click “Pin to Start”. After selecting the tile size, you can then go back to the Start screen and place it wherever you want.