Windows 8 tips and tricks

A thread similar to this for Windows 7 taught me how to use keyboard shortcuts to snap windows, minimize, and maximize (win key plus direction keys)...incredibly useful. I thought it's time Windows 8 got the same treatment.

I'll start with just a few I've learned:

Win+C -- bring up charms.

Win+X -- bring up a menu of administrator and power-user tasks.

When multitasking in Metro with touch, drag a window to the bottom of the screen to close that app. Grab it the same way you would grab it for putting it on the left quarter of the screen, but instead of hovering it on the left edge of the screen, drag it to the bottom and the app will close.

 

thanks for the tip! Didn't know the last one which is quite helpful

 

Before reading this thread, I was testing Win+A, Win+B, etc. and found some interesting results. I have never used the Win button this much until Windows 8. I think it has to do with how there is no Start button and how inconvenient some things are opened.

 

Keyboard shortcuts and other "tricks" are useful regardless of the OS. Look at all the keyboard shortcuts people use in Win 7, from simple stuff like control-S and control-P in Word to win+arrow to snap to win+typing to launch a program. Let's keep this thread focused on listing tips and tricks for Win 8 instead of turning it into another "I hate win 8 because..." thread. The people who don't like Win 8 have plenty of those.

 

Windows-I Brings up the Settings charm, where you'll find--among other things--the Power icon for shutting down the PC

Redmond pie has the most comprehensive list of Win 8 shortcuts. Check it out here: Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts

• | Redmond Pie

 

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  Awesome, Win-F is going to be really useful. Very quick way to launch file search. Win Z will also be useful when using metro apps on my Vaio F2...faster than right-clicking on the top or bottom of the screen (probably easier to just swipe from the top or bottom on my Duo).

 

Win + Q is pretty useful too, one of the few shortcuts you want to use when on the desktop.

 

Nice. I had been using Win + F for search, but Win + Q is much nicer, less abrupt.

Instead of dragging to the bottom of the screen to close an App, It is also possible to right click on an App on the left side charms bar and just click close App. Also, from there most Apps can be can be snapped to either side of the screen.

 

I find win+z, win+q, and win +i the most useful so far.

Searching in win 8 is really easy overall you just start typing while in tablet mode...

 

Need to type something in German or French? With the Win 8 touch keyboard, press and hold a key to bring up special characters. Hold S to bring up an option for ß, hold n to bring up the option for ñ, etc. Works for all accents in German, French, and Spanish, and maybe a couple other languages I don't recognize.

 

Here's a very valuable one. Access to the New York Times' tablet apps costs $240/year. You can read via web interface for free, but only 20 articles/month.

But if you go into the Windows 8 News app and create a separate tile just for New York Times articles, you can read the New York Times an unlimited amount for free. This is a value of $240/year completely saved by careful use of the News app (which, for the record, gives a great reading interface).

To put it another way: If you are a New York Times subscriber, you can cancel your subscription and buy a Surface and it'll pay for itself in two years.

 

now that we've all created the shutdown shortcut so as to avoid having to shutdown via the unintuitive charms bar, maybe try this one out. when in the desktop (app), the ever-familiar 'alt + f4' keyboard shortcut pulls up this similarly familiar window:



oh, but those window borders--the horror! :thumbsup:

 

As I look at the supplied pic and the border of my open IE, yes it does just tug away at me. Esthetically I hate that plain flat hard edged border..............

 

we know.

Sent from my PI39100 using Board Express

 

For those with multiple monitors, you can set the default screen where the start screen show up by using a monitor's charm menu start button.

Afterwards, pressing your windows key will always load the start menu on that monitor.

 

Hmmm...can you explain this a bit? It doesn't seem to work most likely because I am misunderstanding what you mentioned.

 

you can launch the start screen on either monitor by using the bottom-left "hot corner." however, once you launch the start screen on a given monitor, that becomes the default until the start screen is launched on the other monitor using the other's "hot corner." by default we mean that pressing the actual windows key on your keyboard launches the start screen on that display.

e.g., i use my 27" external to display the start screen unless i want to snap two RT apps side-by-side, at which point i'll launch the start screen on my laptop's display so that it becomes the start screen monitor and i can continue to use the "desktop environment" on my external.

 

Ok. I see what you mean. Thanks.