What's Windows 8 All About ?

We are quite aware of the 'New Boy' carrying ahead the monopoly of Microsoft's Operating Systems since the last couple of months. This operating system i.e, Windows 8 has made us to write with a whole heart that this O.S is the most fastest, intuitive, uncluttered, Easy-To-Use (you heard that right !!) till date, at least under the hood of Windows' OS.

Let us have a look over some of its key features and thus can shed some light on how this New Boy can help us and in what ways !

1. Lock Screen

Just like any of the previous versions of Windows, Windows 8 opens on its lock screen, which looks pretty much clean and uncluttered but unfortunately this can be a nightmare for some as it displays no clues about what to do next.

On the contrary, it's all very straightforward. Just tap the spacebar  spin the mouse wheel or swipe upwards on a touch screen to reveal a regular login screen with the username you created during installation. Enter your password to begin. Regarding passwords, we would even like to mention that this OS features a new-gen 'Picture Passwords' to give a more secure and fun way to sign in to your computer. We will be talking about this in our new posts.

Windows 8 Lock Screen

2. Start Screen

Gone are the days of using the age old start menu which was implemented until the Windows 7, where it only showed in the left lower edge (in default settings). Windows 8 uses a replacement for the start button, that's the Start Screen, where the start menu will be shown in a totally new window panned fully across the screen.

The Start screen shows much larger computer icons for the program and, whenever possible, replaces them with live tiles. These tiles are one kind of live informational widgets that display dynamic contents depending on the software they represent. For instance, an email client may display the number unread emails in its live tile. The Start screen now allows users to uninstall their programs by right-clicking on them and selecting "Uninstall". Pinned apps can now be placed in groups. The search box in the Start screen is initially hidden but jumps into view as soon as it receives a keyboard input. True to its namesake, the Start screen is the first screen that a user sees upon login.

Windows 8 Start Screen 

3. Basic Navigation

In the new interface, Windows 8  launches a very colorful plethora of customizable live tiles & touch friendly apps. Moving around though is very basic, just swipe the screen with your finger on a touch screen or scroll the mouse upwards or downwards to move the screen in the any direction. And you can also use the keyboard. Press the Home or End keys to jump from one end of your Start screen to the other, for example, use the cursor keys to select a particular tile, tapping the Enter key to select it. Press the Windows key to return to the Start screen; right-click (or swipe down on) apps you don't need and select Unpin to remove them; and drag and drop the other tiles around to organise them as you like . 

4. The New Task Manager

At the first glance, the Task Manager in Windows 8 looks much simpler than the old Windows 7 version, showing nothing but a list of applications and a “Not responding” flag next to any programs that appear to have frozen. It’s accessed in the same way too: you can press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to open the lock-screen and thereby clicking on the Task Manager or by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Escape to open its window directly.

But as soon as we click on “More details”, the window grows into a more powerful console. The default tab – Processes – lets you monitor all running processes in a hierarchical view & examine not only each one’s CPU usage, but also memory, disk and network consumption. This provides a useful view into what’s gobbling up your resources.

In the upgraded Performance tab, we can take a closer graphical look at total resource usage, and the Startup tab shows us a list of processes set to load automatically when you log in – a graphical alternative at last to the antiquated 'Msconfig' tool. It’s a breeze to check and disable unwanted resource-hogging startup items; a particularly nice touch is a “Startup Impact” estimate that helps you to identify the most sluggish starters.

Other tabs enable us to monitor resource usage by us and thus help us to keep an eye on running services. This all adds up to a more powerful monitoring tool than its forebears.
The only disappointment is the “App history” tab, which keeps track of total CPU time and network usage for each installed app. The idea of keeping a long-term view of resource usage is a good one, but unfortunately, only modern apps are counted, not desktop applications, making this tab fairly useless to desktop users.

Task Manager in Windows 8

5. Finding Your Applications

The Win+X menu is useful, but no substitute for the old Start menu as it doesn't provide access to your applications. To find this, hold down the Windows key and press Q or either right-click an empty part of the Start screen or swipe your finger up from the bottom of the screen and select 'All Apps' to reveal a scrolling list of all your installed applications. Browse the various tiles to find what you need and click the relevant app to launch it.

Search Results in Windows 8

Apart from these prevalent features, Windows 8 has many other user friendly features like the changed system shutting down styles, snapping the currently running apps like the video players into a particular corner to watch them without disturbing your work the other windows.

 
Remember, for Windows 8, change is the key. Its not at all difficult as hoaxes want you to believe. Its all easy & every thing is just in your front, just at the wait of your gesture or a key taps. Lets accept the change Microsoft has intended us to accept.