IT Blog

If you’re like me, you don’t like change.  You like the warm security that familiarity offers, you also like intuitive design, things that make sense, just wanting to get on with it.  Now that you’ve finally settled into a groove with Windows 7, along comes Windows 8 rocking the boat so impolitely!

In a market where touch-devices, mobility and computing power are becoming ever more synonymous, Microsoft decided it wanted to head off the inevitable.  Out popped Windows 8, in what seems to be a transitional step to make the Windows franchise touch-device friendly.

Windows 8 sits somewhere between the tried and true, keeping many of the core features and technology from Windows 7 and in trying to keep up with the times, implements what Microsoft (used to) call the ‘Metro’ interface, based on the design language of the same name.  If you’ve used a Windows Phone before, you’ll see the resemblance straight away.

The desktop could be seen as a little bipolar, split between the more traditional view and the tiled interface, also known as the Start Screen, which is used to launch programs (or apps.).  The tiles can be re-organised as you wish, which essentially makes it a mosaic of shortcuts.  Some tiles can be deemed ‘live’ which means they can display information in real time.  It may not be the sleekest interface, but it does get the job done.

You can access the traditional desktop environment via a tile on the Start screen. The Start button on the task-bar has been removed in favour of a hot-spot in the lower-left corner of the screen, which displays a large tool-tip with a thumbnail of the Start screen.

Swiping from the left edge of a touchscreen or clicking in the top-left corner of the screen allows one to switch between apps and the Desktop. Pointing the cursor in the top-left corner of the screen and moving down reveals a thumbnail list of active apps.

What will quickly become your best friend is the ‘Charm Bar’.  It’s a vertical bar that by default sits along the right edge of your screen.  It can be accessed by swiping from the right edge of a touchscreen, or pointing the cursor at hot-spot in the right corners of a screen.  It provides access to system and app-related functions, such as search, sharing, device management, settings, and a Start button and appears to be application specific, in that depending on what program (or window) you are looking at, its functionality will change to accommodate that program.

Another new feature is the ‘PC Settings’ app., which is a cut down version of ‘Control Panel’ more friendly for touch devices.  Handy for small, quick changes, but if anything more substantial needs to be tinkered with, Control Panel is still your go to guy.

That should get you rolling confidently, but to give you all a little further guidance, here follows an extensive compilation of shortcuts to the most common questions we receive from our clients with additions that I personally find useful: