MS Windows 8 Tutorial

MS Windows 8 Tutorial

CNET Top 5 - Reasons not to upgrade to Windows 8

How Old Are Your Ears? (Hearing Test)

Here it comes - Top Secrets in Windows 8

1. Hidden Quick Access Menu (Win+X Menu)

Although Microsoft has removed Start button and Start Menu from Windows 8 Taskbar but they have added a hidden Quick Access Menu (QAM) which provides easier access to many useful system tools such as :

·         Programs and Features

·         Power Options

·         System Settings

·         Device Manager

·         Command Prompt

·         Task Manager

·         Control Panel

·         Search

·         Run

·         and a few more

To access QAM, move your mouse cursor to extreme bottom-left corner of screen and right-click and you'll get the hidden system menu as shown in following screenshot:

                                                                                                   

You can also access it using "Win+X" hotkey.

You can also check out following exclusive tutorial to customize this new Quick Access Menu in Windows 8:

If you are still using Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, you can get a similar system menu in Desktop context menu or My Computer context menu using following tutorials:

2. Auto-Save Screenshots

That's an awesome addition to Windows 8. In previous Windows versions, whenever you needed to take a screenshot of your screen, you had to press "PrntScr" key or if you wanted to take screenshot of a specific program window, you needed to click on it to make it active and press "Alt+PrntScr" keys. After doing this, the screenshot was captured by clipboard and you had to paste and save it using an image editing software like built-in MS Paint, Adobe Photoshop, etc.

Windows 8 makes the whole process a lot easier. You can just press "Win+PrntScr" keys together and Windows 8 will automatically save the screenshot in your "Pictures" library folder. The screenshot is saved with the name "Screenshot.png". If you take more screenshots, they are saved with an added number such as "Screenshot (2).png", "Screenshot (3).png" and so on.

                                                                                                    

I wonder why they didn't add hotkey "Win+Alt+PrntScr" to automatically save screenshot of a specific window. I hope they'll add it in final build of Windows 8.

3. New Hotkey to Access Safe Mode

In previous Windows versions, if the user wanted to boot into Safe Mode, he needed to press "F8" key at system startup but this good old and well know hotkey no longer works in Windows 8. Microsoft has replaced it with a new hotkey.

The new hotkey is "Shift+F8". So now you need to press "Shift+F8" keys together to access Safe Mode option in Windows 8. I can't understand the reason behind this move. May be they'll use "F8" hotkey for some new stuff? Who knows?

4. New Hot Corners in Screen

Windows 8 comes with hot corner feature which allows you to access some built-in options when you move your mouse cursor in a corner of your monitor screen. When you move your mouse cursor to bottom-left corner of screen, it shows small Start Screen thumbnail which lets you go to Start Screen.

                                                                                                            

When you move your mouse cursor to top-left corner of screen, it shows a list of all running Metro apps so that you can switch between apps or close an app.

                                                                                                                

When you move your mouse cursor to top-right or bottom-right corner of screen, it shows new Charms Bar where you can access Settings, Search, Share, Devices and Start Screen charm.

                                                                                                         

If you don't like Charms Bar to automatically appear on screen as soon as you move the cursor to top-right or bottom-right corners, you can disable it using following tutorial:

How to Disable "Charms Bar" Hint Feature in Windows 8?

If you want to disable all hot corners in Windows 8, check out following article:

How to Disable Hot Corners (Charms Bar, Start Screen Thumbnail, App Switch List) in Windows 8?

5. Hidden "Applications" Folder to Launch Metro Apps Directly from Desktop

Did you know you can access a hidden folder "Applications" in Windows 8 by using following command:

explorer shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}
or
shell:AppsFolder

You can execute the above mentioned command in RUN dialog box, in Command Prompt or from anywhere else. It'll open a secret "Applications" folder containing shortcuts of all installed apps as shown in following screenshot:

                                                                                           

This way you can directly launch Metro apps without going to Start Screen.

You can create a shortcut for this command using a simple method given here and then pin the shortcut to Taskbar, Start Screen or put it on Desktop for quick and easy access.