1) Personalize Your Desktop Background:
Unfortunately, you cannot add your personal background image like you used to do it in previous Windows but you can enjoy the vibrant colors and styles that make you forget about custom background images. Just open up new Charm bar and go to Settings charm. Now click PC Settings and go to Personalize tab. In the right pane, you will find a link for Start Screen. Just choose the one that meets your style and select the color accordingly.
2) Turn Off Live Tiles:
The new feature of live tiles has added a new life to Windows UI. The tiles keep on updating themselves for any real time information however, this may get overloaded sometimes. To switch off this behavior, just right click the tile and disable the live tile option from the app bar.
3) Add Live Tiles Of Your Favorite App:
It doesn’t take much of efforts to add live tiles of your favorite app. As for a finance app, just launch it from the main screen tile. Hold down the Windows key and press Q to prompt search charm. Search for the name of the required stock. Click the result page and right click on the screen to trigger the app bar. Click the pin to Start button. Rename the new tile and click the Pin to start option. Press down the Windows key to go back to the main screen. And you would finally see a new tile added on to your screen. You can apply the same method to pin up your favorite app tile.
4) Add Live Tiles For Your Favorite Websites:
The metro styled version of Windows 8 doesn’t let you store your favorite websites in traditional bookmark folders. However it has improvised this function by providing Pin facility so that you can be able to see your most wanted websites on Start screen. Just click on the Pin site button located on the website page you want and choose the popup option to Pin to start. Confirm the name of the tile, press Pin to start and get your chosen website on your Start screen.
5) How To Access Device Manager:
Accessing device manager is a bit of different style in Windows 8. You can access various management features by using Power User Tasks menu. Just take your mouse pointer towards lower left thumbnail and right click. You should be able to see a pop up menu that makes you access various tools such as power options, Command prompt and most importantly Device Manager.
6) Organize Your Desktop Screen:
Having huge crowd of tiles can mess up your desktop. Therefore it is important to organize them by placing each into a group based on their categories. Just drag a tile to the left or right of its current group until a transparent vertical bar appears. Move the tile and it will consequently broaden up the space between its former groups. Do the same with other tiles to give a cleaner look to your desktop.
7) How To Shutdown And Restart Your System:
The Shutdown and Restart option is no longer visible to users as they used to in previous Windows. Still there are various ways to access these options but one has to find them out. The simple and fastest way is to click on your account picture on the upper right corner of the main windows screen and select the sign out option. Other than this, you can also click on the circle icon in the lower right corner and access the shutdown and restart option. You can even use the traditional method of pressing Alt+F4 and a popup screen will provide you these options.
How To Add Shutdown Button To Windows 8
8) Pin Up Your Preferred Folders:
Besides having websites and apps pinned on to main screen, you can even pin your mostly used folders on the start screen. Just open file explorer in the desktop. Go to the folder that you want to pin up with your desktop screen. Right click the folder and click the option to Pin to start from the popup menu. Now you are able to see the preferred folder with other pinned up apps.
9) Resize Live Tiles:
Other than adding and closing the live tiles, you can also resize them according to your needs. Just click the Start screen tile. If the tile can be resized, then an option on app bar would appear asking larger or smaller. Choosing one of them is totally up to your choice. I like them a bit small so I stick to smaller option mostly.
10) How To Search For Content:
Windows 8 has simplified the searching of stuff. Be it a file, an app or a setting, just type the searching keywords from the Start screen and have it on your hands in seconds. Furthermore, you can even look out for your files from setting option in the right pane. Click on the files option and you would find a list of files along with their names and description.
Personalizing your Windows 8 desktop by using these tips can definitely add more grace to the new look of this OS. So try them out as soon as you gain the opportunity to have your hands on new Windows 8.
