Paul Thurrott - Windows 8 Secrets

In previous Windows versions dating back to Windows 95, the Start experience was centered completely on the Start menu. This menu was evolved over the years and expanded in functionality and usefulness fairly dramatically in subsequent Windows versions. So did the ways in which we accessed the Start experience: first via a software button called the Start button (later renamed Start orb) and then via a Windows key on PC keyboards.

In Windows 8, everything is changing yet again. The Start experience is now a full-screen Start screen, though if it helps you to think of it as a Start menu, there’s some logic to that. And Start now acts as a toggle, which is another difference: Activate it from the desktop, or from a Metro-style app, and you’ll navigate to the Start screen. But activate Start from the Start screen and you will return to the previously used app (including the desktop).

How you activate Start has changed, too. And while you can still use the Windows key on a keyboard to access the Start experience, the software Start button is gone. So there are some new ways of doing things.

Here’s how you activate the Start experience from the Windows desktop:

• Mouse:As described earlier in the chapter, the Start button is gone, but you can still move the mouse cursor down to the same basic place on-screen—the lower-left corner—and the Start tip will appear. Click this thumbnail to activate Start and, in this case, navigate to the Start screen.

• Keyboard:Tap the Windows key (Winkey) on your keyboard or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Esc.

You can mix and match, too. For example, type Winkey + C to display the Charms bar and then tap (or click) the Start charm. There are many other combinations, but you get the idea.

• Touch:Touch users have two methods to activate Start. You can swipe in from the right side of the screen to display the Charms bar, and then tap the Start charm. Or, you can activate Switcher (described next) by swiping in from the left, and then quickly to the right; then tap the Start thumbnail.

Remember: The desktop is conceptually just an app. So Switcher provides only a single entry for the entire desktop and its contained applications, not one for each Windows application.

Windows 8 features a convenient and consistent new task-switching interface called Switcher that lets you switch between and manage running tasks, including Metro-style apps and the Windows desktop. While we introduced Switcher earlier in the chapter, there are a few additional details that may be of interest.

Here are the ways in which you can activate Switcher:

In Windows 7, Winkey + Tab triggered a unique task switcher called Windows Flip 3D. That action is no longer available in Windows 8.

• Keyboard:This is, by far, the easiest way. Just tap Winkey + Tab to activate Switcher. You can hold down Winkey and repeatedly tap Tab to navigate through each of the various available apps. Just let go of Tab when you find the one to which you want to switch.

• Mouse:Move the mouse cursor to the upper-left corner of the screen to activate the Back experience as described previously. Then, move the mouse cursor down the left edge of the screen to activate Switcher and select the app to which you’d like switch.

Note that there is a subtle indication that the Switcher is waiting for you when you engage Back; as you can see in Figure 4-8, there are a few app thumbnail outlines barely visible down the left edge of the screen.

• Touch:This is the hardest one of all. You need to swipe in from the left side of the screen as if you are going to switch to the previously used app. When the previous app thumbnail appears under your finger, move back to the left until Switcher appears. If you do it just right, Switcher will actually dock on the screen and stay there until you do something.

Figure 4-8:Look closely, and you’ll see a hint that Switcher is available.

While Switcher is visible on the screen, either by being docked with touch or just by being made visible with the mouse, there are some additional capabilities you can use. These include the following:

This will not work with Start or the desktop, only Metro-style apps.

• Removing an app from the Back stack:If you’d like to remove a Metro-style app from the Back stack—effectively closing or quitting it—you can do so by dragging its thumbnail out of Switcher and down to the bottom of the screen. You can do this with the mouse or touch input types.

You can also remove apps from the Back stack by right-clicking and choosing Close.

• Snapping an app for use in side-by-side mode:As described next, Windows 8 supports a unique side-by-side screen sharing mode called Snap that lets you use two apps next to each other on-screen. There are a few different ways to enable this functionality, as you’ll see, but if you’d like to snap a previous app that’s visible in the Switcher to a side of the screen alongside the current app (or desktop), you can right-click it in the Switcher and choose either Snap left or Snap right, as shown in Figure 4-9.

Figure 4-9:A power user method for snapping secondary apps to a side of the screen

Don’t worry if the notion of side-by-side apps is confusing. That’s right: Side-by-side is our next topic.

With all this new task switching goodness, you may be thinking that good old Windows Flip—the familiar Alt + Tab task switcher that dates back decades—is on life support in Windows 8. Not so fast. As it turns out, Windows Flip has some important advantages over Switcher, particularly for those who will be spending a lot of time in the desktop. And since Microsoft sees Metro and the desktop coexisting for the foreseeable future, we think it’s fair to say that Windows Flip has some life left in it indeed.

The key advantage of this interface is that it differentiates between multiple desktop applications as well as individual Metro-style apps. So if you have Microsoft Word and File Explorer windows open on the desktop, and Mail and Calendar open in the Metro runtime environment, and then engage Windows Flip, you’ll see five items: Word, Explorer, Mail, Calendar, and Desktop. But in Switcher, you’ll see just three: Mail, Calendar, and Start. (This assumes you activate Switcher from the desktop.) There are no desktop applications—or even the desktop itself—available in Switcher if you use it from the desktop.

This means that Switcher isn’t of use to individual desktop applications at all, especially if you activate it while using the desktop. So Windows Flip will remain a frequently used tool for all desktop users in Windows 8.

That said, it is a bit curious that Start doesn’t appear in the Windows Flip task list. But keyboard users simply need to use the Windows key instead.

The new Metro environment in Windows 8 is designed for apps that run full screen, similar to how smartphone and tablet device apps work. But Windows 8 kicks things up a notch by offering a special side-by-side mode in which two apps can share the screen, albeit in limited ways. And one of those two apps can be the desktop, which is why we’re discussing it here.