Windows 8 new interface

This search tool will look for files but runs in a Metro-style interface. To use the traditional search interface, open up Windows Explorer and run a search from there. Share allows you to quickly post something from a Metro app -- be it a map address or a link -- to your friends and followers on whatever social networks you have plugged into the People application. It's still in the formative stages. As yet, you can't share anything from within the desktop.

The Devices charm lets you send content to another device, such as a second screen, a printer or a media streamer. Again, you can expect to see a much-improved version of this feature in the full Windows 8 release. Finally, Settings provides access to key configuration screens. If you activate it from within a Metro app, you'll see app-specific options. If you launch it from the desktop, you'll see links to Control Panel, desktop personalisation screens and diagnostic information.

Wherever you access the Settings charm, a selection of standard options covering network connections, volume and power are always available. As the official launch looms, Windows 8 is still a work in progress, even with the Release Preview now out in the wild.

If there are any mouse and keyboard shortcuts or tricks that I've missed, do let me know in the comments. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy , which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion. Compare that with older versions of Windows — just one click was needed to choose the running app from the task bar. For starters, the person writing the post admits they have never used Windows 8, but is trying to make an objective story about it.

How does that make sense? Secondly, this Raluca individual. I have the full version of Windows 8 Professional that I got from my University running at home on my laptop.

I definitely have experience with the software. There are a few statements that are odd, but this particular one really threw me off:. Nothing in the above statement is true. The desktop on Windows 8 pretty much acts the same as any previous versions of Windows, with some new, small adjustments made.

To begin, any program you add to the task bar, functions as expected. You can switch between those applications that you have open just by clicking their icon without opening Start — just like any version of Windows. Secondly, if you need to access any previous application that you exited but not closed , you simply point your mouse to the left side of the screen and an overlay with previously opened applications pops up in which you can switch to those or close them and pin them.

If you want to open a new application, previously un-open and not saved on the desktop or task bar, you just open up the Start screen and select the program. Nothing new here. But is this an issue? Because you are in the Start screen, so your applications are there anyway. Additionally, the applications are available by as I mentioned earlier hovering your mouse to the left of the screen. Yeah, things are different.

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Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions. This chapter explains the basics of navigating through Windows 8.

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Microsoft has added some guidance for users to alleviate the pain of switching between the two interfaces. But why take this dual-OS approach at all? Tablets lend themselves to full-screen experiences, so having menus appear and disappear with a few taps makes sense here. On desktop PCs, however, hiding menus and controls is less efficient. Desktop displays afford plenty of screen real estate to showcase secondary windows and buttons that we find convenient for so many productivity tasks in Office, Photoshop, and other programs.

So where is Microsoft headed with Windows 8, the unitary OS designed for desktops, all-in-ones, notebooks, Ultrabooks, and tablets? But design is full of compromises.