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In Which I Am Bad At Windows 8
ElJeffe
Moderator, ClubPA mod
Moderator, ClubPA mod
I just got a shiny new laptop, yay! It's a Windows 8 machine with a touchscreen, which is neato and fun to play with and everything, but now I would like to actually be productive with my machine.
The whole Win8 dynamic is weird, and it's not striking me as intuitive yet, and I'm trying to figure out to what extent I should learn what the expected flow of using this thing is, or if I should just give up and try to fool it into thinking it's a Win7 box, using all of the apps and customization tricks that are available to do just that. I am confounded by very basic things, like:
- What happens to an app when I'm done using it? Does it close? How do I see what is currently running? With Win7, I can look at my taskbar and see, "Oh, I have five apps running, three of which use a lot of resources, maybe I should shut one or two of them if I want to fire up Photoshop." With Win8, everything just seems to be kinda there, and who knows if it's running or not. (To be fair, I haven't yet installed Office or PS or anything else, since I'm still just dicking around with trying to get a feel for the thing, so the apps consist of various Chrome windows and a handful of minor pre-installed apps.) Basically, for an OS called "Windows", they seem to have completely eliminated the idea of stuff being in windows. Where are my windows?
- The Start... screen... thing... is a goddamn mess. I don't want to see the Finance and Weather and whatever-the-fuck apps when I go to the Start screen, I want to see the software I actually use and pretty much nothing else. Should I be trimming this shit down and sequestering all the useless garbage into subscreens, or whatever, and moving all the apps I like to the beginning?
- How am I supposed to be swapping between programs that are currently open? I guess I can alt-tab, but I've grown accustomed to managing this stuff with the taskbar, and I don't rely on a lot of keyboard shortcuts in general. Is there a way I'm supposed to be doing this?
- What the hell is the desktop supposed to be for in this new Win8 world? Is it just supposed to be a place where I keep my files? Does it not even serve a purpose anymore, and it's just there because it's always been there?
I'm not necessarily looking for answers to these particular questions (though I wouldn't mind, either). What I'm looking for is a way to determine if these are even the right questions to be asking. I feel a bit like a guy who used to ride a horse and somebody gave me a car and I'm trying to figure out where the stirrups are and where to insert the oats. Like, Microsoft is expecting me to use this stuff in a wholly different way from how I'm accustomed, and I'm unsure if I should be following along or saying "fuck it" and pretending Win8 never happened. Are there any websites or videos or something I can use that will show me the proper and expected way to use the touchscreen in conjunction with the mouse/keyboard stuff I'm used to, so I can make a more informed decision?
The whole Win8 dynamic is weird, and it's not striking me as intuitive yet, and I'm trying to figure out to what extent I should learn what the expected flow of using this thing is, or if I should just give up and try to fool it into thinking it's a Win7 box, using all of the apps and customization tricks that are available to do just that. I am confounded by very basic things, like:
- What happens to an app when I'm done using it? Does it close? How do I see what is currently running? With Win7, I can look at my taskbar and see, "Oh, I have five apps running, three of which use a lot of resources, maybe I should shut one or two of them if I want to fire up Photoshop." With Win8, everything just seems to be kinda there, and who knows if it's running or not. (To be fair, I haven't yet installed Office or PS or anything else, since I'm still just dicking around with trying to get a feel for the thing, so the apps consist of various Chrome windows and a handful of minor pre-installed apps.) Basically, for an OS called "Windows", they seem to have completely eliminated the idea of stuff being in windows. Where are my windows?
- The Start... screen... thing... is a goddamn mess. I don't want to see the Finance and Weather and whatever-the-fuck apps when I go to the Start screen, I want to see the software I actually use and pretty much nothing else. Should I be trimming this shit down and sequestering all the useless garbage into subscreens, or whatever, and moving all the apps I like to the beginning?
- How am I supposed to be swapping between programs that are currently open? I guess I can alt-tab, but I've grown accustomed to managing this stuff with the taskbar, and I don't rely on a lot of keyboard shortcuts in general. Is there a way I'm supposed to be doing this?
- What the hell is the desktop supposed to be for in this new Win8 world? Is it just supposed to be a place where I keep my files? Does it not even serve a purpose anymore, and it's just there because it's always been there?
I'm not necessarily looking for answers to these particular questions (though I wouldn't mind, either). What I'm looking for is a way to determine if these are even the right questions to be asking. I feel a bit like a guy who used to ride a horse and somebody gave me a car and I'm trying to figure out where the stirrups are and where to insert the oats. Like, Microsoft is expecting me to use this stuff in a wholly different way from how I'm accustomed, and I'm unsure if I should be following along or saying "fuck it" and pretending Win8 never happened. Are there any websites or videos or something I can use that will show me the proper and expected way to use the touchscreen in conjunction with the mouse/keyboard stuff I'm used to, so I can make a more informed decision?
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I have Metro setup in such a way that I basically use it as a news and weather feed, then click the Chrome pane and go straight to desktop with my most used tabs already open and good to go.
There's a few others too, I like this one personally.
Depends which type of app it is. If it is a Metro app (they don't call it Metro anymore, I don't know what to call it so I'm calling it Metro). Then if you switch to desktop mode or launch another Metro app then the 1st Metro app is still open and accessible via swipes/gestures or alt+tab. Edit: and if you "throw away" a Metro app (swipe from top to bottom) it will close the Metro app and dump you to the Start screen or another Metro app.
I would recommend aggressively pruning your Start menu if you plan to use it much. You can always recreate the links via the Start menu if you accidentally [e: a word] deleted anything. The Start menu is the analogue to the Start button. This is the Kool Aid, drink it or not.
I use alt+tab, but I'm always in desktop mode. Alternately there are gestures you can use (swipe from left-side to switch, swipe from left and return and you have an app list) to switch between Metro apps, though 8.1 has better screen-sharing between apps if you need to multi-task.
It can be another folder with a pointer to it, but I live in desktop mode and my usage of the desktop or app-switching or whatnot is largely indistinguishable from Win7.
Windows 8.1 simultaneously fixes everything wrong with the start screen while also sort of making it go away, or at least less prominent
I struggled to learn how to "manage" the start screen on 8, and most of those issues have been fixed in 8.1
I think how you decide to use your computer is still ultimately a matter of preference. Windows 8.1 makes suggestions but doesn't enforce anything
to switch between apps, you drag down from the top of the screen and you can then throw everything into dividers... I think
Top-left: app switcher. Hover the mouse over it to see what apps are running. Left-click on any app up there to bring up a contextual menu where you can close it.
Bottom-left: Metro start. Will always bring you back to the Metro start screen.
Top and bottom-right: charms bar. The 'Settings' charm is the most important.
In Metro, left-clicking a live tile will allow you to re-size it, unpin it, or remove the app (depending on the app). You can tweak live tile groups simply by left clicking the background.
Metro is really the tablet-y side of things. If you do any real work, or don't use IE as your browser, you're likely going to spend most of your time in the desktop. Since that's what I do, I make it a point to pin my most used apps to both the desktop taskbar and the front of the live tile screen, just so if I have to dive into Metro for whatever reason, I can quickly launch whatever else I need.
But, yeah, updating to 8.1 should be your first priority.
assuming you don't actually wish to use metro apps. which you don't.
edit: if you do worry about having apps running in the background, swipe through them from the left edge of your touchscreen or trackpad then close them down with alt-f4
Want to open something else? Press the Windows key on your keyboard, and either click the program or start typing the name of it. This functionality is exactly like Windows 7, except it looks different.
Windows 8's problem isn't that it's bad, it's that Microsoft did a shit job of explaining it to people.
8.1 is kinda cool. And yeah, the way it's presented is odd. It's Windows, but with this smartphone facade on top of it, which blends well once you get it, but which makes zero sense at first blush.
Anyway, thanks guys!
Wanted to throw in my recommendation for this too. Worth the $5 if Metro bothers you.
This is their single biggest problem to every goddamn product they launch.