INDOWS 8 TIPS AND TRICKS ......PHASE 2

21. Search everywhere

The Windows 8.1 Search tool is no longer just about scanning your own system. It's now integrated with Bing, delivering internet results and (sometimes) even Wikipedia-style summaries of whatever you're searching for.

To give this a try, launch the Charms bar, click Search, type 'Marilyn Monroe' and press Enter. 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.

That's just the start, though. 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.com and Biography.com, as well as further links for images, videos, related searches and more. Click any of these to open a browser window at that site.

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. Launch the Charms bar, click Settings > Change PC Settings > Search, and set 'Use Bing to search online' to 'Off'.

22. Install anything

Most mobile platforms recommend you only install apps from approved sources to protect your security, and Windows 8 is the same: it'll only allow you to install trusted (that is, digitally signed) apps from the Windows store.

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.

It's all done via a single Registry key, too. Just launch REGEDIT and set the value of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Appx\AllowAllTrustedApps key to 1.

23. 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. Many apps also enable you to pin particular content for easy access later.

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. And then repeat those steps every single time you revisit the page. Or, alternatively, right-click your preferred Destination tile, select "Pin...", and you'll be able to access it directly from the Start screen.

Similarly, if you use the Mail app with multiple accounts then just open these, and you can right-click to select separate live tiles for each one - much more useful.

24. 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. This can also be resolved at speed, though, using much the same technique as in previous versions of Windows.

Hold down the Windows key, press R, type 'netplwiz' and press Enter to launch the User Accounts dialog.

Clear the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" box and click OK.

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.

25. 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.

Toolbox for Windows 8 helps out, though, by bundling 12 common apps in a single package. You get a Facebook client, browser, calculator, weather app, clock and more. And instead of always appearing full-screen, you can run and interact with two, three, four, even six of these tools, all at the same time.

26. Replace the Start menu

If Windows 8's search and navigation tools still leave you pining for the regular Start menu, installing the free Classic Shell will replace it with something very similar.

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. And it can make Windows 8 boot directly to the desktop, too.

Classic Shell doesn't entirely ignore the modern UI world, though. A menu of installed apps enables you to launch them from the desktop, and you can alternatively switch to the Start screen with a click.

27. Learn Windows key shortcuts

• Win : switch between the Start screen and the last-running Windows 8 app
• Win + C : displays the Charms: the Settings, Devices, Share and Search options
• Win + D : launches the desktop
• Win + E : launches Explorer
• Win + F : opens the File Search pane
• Win + H : opens the Share pane
• Win + I : opens Settings
• Win + K : opens the Devices pane
• Win + L : locks your PC
• Win + M : minimises the current Explorer or Internet Explorer window (works in the full-screen IE, too)
• Win + O : toggles device orientation lock on and off
• Win + P : switch your display to a second display or projector
• Win + Q : open the App Search pane
• Win + R : opens the Run box
• Win + U : open the Ease of Access Centre
• Win + V : cycle through toasts (notifications)
• Win + W : search your system settings (type POWER for links to all power-related options, say)
• Win + X : displays a text menu of useful Windows tools and applets
• Win + Z : displays the right-click context menu when in a full-screen app
• Win + + : launch Magnifier and zoom in
• Win + - : zoom out
• Win + , : Aero peek at the desktop
• Win + Enter : launch Narrator
• Win + PgUp : move the current screen to the left-hand monitor
• Win + PgDn : move the current screen to the right-hand monitor
• Win + PrtSc : capture the current screen and save it to your Pictures folder
• Win + Tab : switch between running apps

28. Boot desktop apps faster

While you can still set up desktop apps to load when Windows 8 starts, they don't have the priority they once did. Quite the opposite, in fact - Windows 8 delays their launch to ensure everything else starts more quickly. This can make the system more responsive as your system boots, but if you're switching straight to the desktop then it may slow you down, so it may be worth turning off the delay, just to see if you can spot any improvement.

Launch REGEDIT and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Serialize.

Create the Serialize key if it doesn't exist, and select it in the left-hand pane.

Right-click in the right-hand pane, create a new DWORD value called StartupDelayInMSec, and leave it set at zero (or, if a value is already there, set it to zero).

Restart and the desktop apps will now launch more quickly. Try three or four test boots to see if there's any improvement, and if not, delete the StartupDelayInMSec value to restore the default settings.

29. Launch programs fast

What you need to know

Windows Phone 8

If you're a fan of keyboard shortcuts and don't like the idea of scrolling through app tiles to find the program you need, don't worry, Windows 8 still supports a useful old shortcut. Which is perfect if, say, you're looking to be able to shut down your PC with a click.

Launch the desktop app, right-click an empty part of the desktop and click New > Shortcut.

Browse to the application you'd like to launch here. Or for the sake of this example, enter

shutdown.exe -s -t 00

to shut down your PC, or

shutdown.exe -h -t 00

to hibernate it, and click Next. Type a shortcut name - 'Hibernate', say - and click Finish.

Right-click the shortcut, select Pin to Start and it should appear on the far right of the Start screen - just drag the tile wherever you like.

30. Take intelligent screengrabs

If a Windows 8 application is showing something interesting and you'd like to record it for posterity, then hold down the Windows key, press PrtSc, and the image won't just go to the clipboard: it'll also be automatically saved to your My Pictures folder with the name Screenshot.png (and then Screenshot(1).png, Screenshot(2).png and so on).

You might hope that pressing Win+Alt+PrtSc would similarly save an image of the active window, but no, sadly not. Maybe next time.

31. 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. Instead you'll be switched to the full-screen Windows 8 Photos app - bad news if you thought you'd escaped such hassles by using the desktop.

If you'd like to fix this, go to Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs and select Set your default programs.

Scroll down and click Windows Photo Viewer in the Programs list.

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. Click OK when you're done.

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32. Tweak SmartScreen

Windows 8 now uses Internet Explorer's SmartScreen system-wide, checking downloaded files to ensure they're safe. This is a very good thing - a report by NSS Labs revealed that IE10 blocks more malware than any other browser - but if you have any problems then it can be tweaked.

Launch Control Panel, open the Action Centre applet, and click Change Windows SmartScreen Settings in the left-hand pane. Here you can keep the warning, but avoid the requirement for administrator approval, or turn SmartScreen off altogether. Make your choice and click OK to finish.

 

33. Set up Windows 8 File History

Windows 8 includes an excellent File History feature, which can regularly and automatically back up your libraries, desktop, contacts and favourites to a second drive (even a USB flash drive - just connect it, and choose 'Configure this drive for backup using File History' from the menu).

To set this up, go to Control Panel > System and Security > File History. Click Exclude Folders to help define what you're saving, Advanced Settings to choose the backup frequency, Change Drive to choose the backup destination, and Turn On to enable the feature with your settings.

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.

34. Use VHD - enhanced

Windows 7 added support for creating and attaching virtual hard drives in Microsoft's VHD format. Now Windows 8 extends this with the new VHDX format, which improves performance, extends the maximum file size from 2 to 16TB, and makes the format "more resilient to power failure events" (so they shouldn't get corrupted as easily). Launch the Computer Management Control Panel applet, choose Disk Management, and click Actions > Create VHD to give the format a try. Or, for an easy and free way to create VHDX files from physical drives, take a look at the excellent Disk2vhd.

35. Keep apps quiet

Windows 8 apps will often raise notifications, alerting you to new emails, messages, calendar events, status updates and more. This is generally a very good idea, but if you don't want them popping up when you're not working at the system (overnight, say) then a new Windows 8.1 feature can help.

Open the Charms bar, click Settings > Change PC settings > Search and Apps > Notifications. 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. Just turn 'Quiet Hours' on, set the 'From' and 'To' times - 00:00 to 07:00, say - and you're done. Unless you're using the PC, notifications will be disabled during that period.

36. Pool storage spaces

If you have multiple hard drives packed with data then you'll know that managing them can be a hassle. But that's all about to change with a new Windows 8 feature, Storage Spaces.

The idea is that you can take all your hard drives, whether connected via USB, SATA or SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), and add them to a storage pool. And you can then create one or more spaces within this pool, formatting and accessing them as a single drive, so you've only one drive letter to worry about.

What's more, the technology can also maximise your performance by spreading files across multiple drives (the system can then access each chunk simultaneously). There's an option to mirror your files, too, so even if one disk fails your data remains safe. And if your Storage Space begins to fill up then just plug in another drive, add it to the pool and you can carry on as before.

Yes, we know, this is just a consumer-friendly take on RAID. But there's nothing wrong with that, and it looks promising. If you'd like to read up on the technical details then the official Windows 8 blog has more, and you can then create and manage your drive pool from the new Control Panel\System and Security 'Storage Spaces' applet.

37. Enable virtual machines

Install 64-bit Windows 8 Professional or Enterprise and you also get Microsoft's Hyper-V, enabling you to create and run virtual machines (as long as you're not running in a virtual machine already). LaunchOptionalFeatures.exe (press Windows Key and R and type it in to run), check Hyper-V and click OK to enable the feature. Then switch back to the Start screen, scroll to the right, find and click on the Hyper-V Manager tile to begin exploring its capabilities.

38. 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.

If you'd like to know what's new in the area of storage, say, just press Win+W to launch the Settings Search dialog, type "drive", and the system will return a host of related options. 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.

This Search feature isn't new, of course, but it's easy to forget how useful this can be, especially when you're trying to learn about a new operating system. 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.

39. 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. Browse the various tabs and you'll be able to choose alternative images or backgrounds in a click or two.

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.

Windows 8.1 extends Personalize with several useful options. In particular, it enables you to set your desktop wallpaper as the Start screen background, a great way to reduce the jarring effect when you're bounced from one to the other.

40. Boot to the desktop

The Windows 8 Start screen hasn't been Microsoft's most successful innovation, and many Windows 8 users avoid it just as much as they can. But if that sounds like you, Windows 8.1 provides two new tweaks which just might help.

To begin, right-click the taskbar, select Properties > Navigation, check 'Show the Apps view automatically when I go to Start', and click OK. Clicking the Start button then displays all your installed applications, rather than app tiles, perhaps making it easier to find whatever program you need.

If that doesn't work for you, though, it's now possible to boot straight into the desktop and bypass the Start screen altogether. Right-click the taskbar, select Properties > Navigation, check 'When I sign in or close all applications on a screen, go to the desktop instead of Start', click OK, and you'll be seeing far less of those colourful tiles in future.

41. Schedule maintenance

Windows 8 can run common maintenance tasks - software updates, security scanning, system diagnostics and more at a scheduled convenient time, which is good.

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. Which isn't so good.

To change this, launch Control Panel, click System and Security > Action Centre > Maintenance. You can now click 'Start maintenance' to launch any outstanding tasks right now, while selecting 'Change maintenance settings' enables you to choose a more convenient time, and optionally disable the feature's ability to wake up your computer if that's not required.

42. Restore the Windows "Updates are available" alert

If you've set up Windows 8 to check for Windows updates but enable you to choose whether to download and install them, then of course it's very important that the system tells you when updates are available. And it does this - but only in the logon screen. The "Updates are available" system tray icon has disappeared, so if you don't log off or restart your PC regularly then no matter how important Microsoft's latest security patches might be, you won't hear about them.

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. Install a copy of the Windows Update Notification Tool or theWindows Update Notifier and the "Updates are available" alert will be restored to your system tray.

43. Close apps easily

Closing a Windows 8 app can sometimes be awkward. You have to drag or swipe down from the very top of the screen right to the very bottom - which might be quite some distance - and if you don't quite swipe all the way, the window just reappears and you have to start again.

The solution? Get Windows to close the app without you having to travel quite so far. It works like this.

Launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Switcher, and create new DWORD values called MouseCloseThreshold and TouchCloseThreshold.

These define how far mouse and touch users will have to drag the app before they can drop and close it. Start by setting each value to the maximum 1000, reboot, and you'll find you can now drop the window maybe only half way down the screen and still have it close correctly, which is much quicker and easier.

You may also be more likely to close apps accidentally, of course. If this happens, reduce the value of the relevant Registry key a little (the minimum value is 1, setting it to 0 prevents that method of closing at all), reboot and try again. Or delete the keys if you have problems with this and would like to restore the default settings.

44. Set a picture password

Windows 8 enables you to create a picture password, where you choose an image, then draw on it in a combination of taps, lines and circles - only someone who can reproduce this pattern will be able to log on. Select Win + I > More PC Settings > Users > Create a Picture Password to give this a try.

45. 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.

Launch the Control Panel Power Options applet (powercfg.cpl) and click 'Choose what the power buttons do' in the left-hand pane.

If you see a 'Change settings that are currently unavailable' link, then click it, and if Windows 8 detects that your PC supports Sleep and Hibernate options then they'll be displayed here. 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.

46. Simplify search

By default Windows 8 includes every bundled app in its Search results. If you'll never want to use some of these - the Store app, say - then select Win + I > Change PC Settings > > Search, choose which apps you don't want included, and your search list will be more manageable in future.

47. 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. But Windows 8 does offer one option that might help.

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). Windows will then limit what individual live tiles can do, while also downloading only priority Windows updates, and applying a few other restrictions. Right-click the connection again and select "Set as unmetered" to change it back.

48. Touch keyboard

By default the Touch keyboard will try to help you out by, for instance, playing sounds as you type, capitalising the first letter of each sentence, adding a period if you double-tap the spacebar, and more. If any of this gets in your way, though, you can turn the relevant feature off: just go to Win + I > Change PC Settings > General and customise the keyboard to suit your needs.

49. Sync and privacy

One very useful Windows 8 feature is its ability to synchronise your settings with other PCs and devices. So if you've set up your new Windows Phonedevice with your contacts, email details and so on, then use the same Live account on Windows 8 and it'll import them for you: very convenient.

Of course that may not always be a good idea. If several people use a device then you may not want your website passwords to be synced, for instance. 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.

50. Customise the Quick Access toolbar

Windows Explorer in Windows 8 features a Quick Access toolbar immediately above the menu, providing easy access to options such as 'New Folder', 'Minimise', 'Undo' and more.

This is customisable, too - click the arrow to the right of the default buttons, in the Explorer window caption bar, and choose whatever options you need. And you can include add any other ribbon option on the Quick Access Toolbar by right-clicking it and selecting Add to Quick Access Toolbar.

51. Try the advanced menu options

If you need to run the command prompt as an Administrator then your instant reaction will probably be to reach for the Start menu. Before becoming annoyed a microsecond later when you remember it's no longer there.

It's good to see that Microsoft has provided a simple alternative, then - just click the File menu in Explorer and click Open command prompt > Open command prompt as administrator.

And while you're there, make note of the other advanced new options also on that menu: you can open a new window in a new process, open Explorer, and even delete your Recent Places and Address Bar histories with a click.

52. Show folders and libraries

The default Windows 8 Explorer view doesn't show all the usual drives and folders - Control Panel, Recycle Bin and so on - in the left-hand navigation pane. Windows 8.1 may hide the libraries, too. This certainly keeps the display simple, and if you want to list all your drives then you can just click Computer, but if you prefer to see everything upfront then it only takes a moment. Click View > Options, check 'Show all folders' and 'Show libraries', and click OK.

53. Mount ISO files in Windows 8

Need to take a closer look at an ISO file? Right-click it in Explorer, click Mount and you can view it as a virtual drive, launch the files it contains, or add more if you like.

54. 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. You'll see a 'Look for an app in the Store' option, which enables Windows 8 to use an automated search tool to find and highlight an app for you.

You can also click 'More Options' to see currently installed programs and apps that may be able to open the file.

55. Restart Explorer

If Explorer locks up for some reason, then regaining control is now very easy. No need to close the process any more: simply press Ctrl+Alt+Esc, select Explorer in the list, click Restart and Windows 8 will handle the rest.

L.S. CREATIONS...........

JUST BE L.S.