Paul Thurrott - Windows 8 Secrets

While personalizing the Metro and desktop environments is useful, we’re particularly taken with customization tips that make the PC work the way you do. And with Windows 8, reaching that happy middle ground can be a bit more daunting since the new Metro environment isn’t naturally efficient for power users, while the old-school desktop environment isn’t necessarily a happy site for those less sophisticated users with tablets who would prefer to stick with Metro. (We’re told those people exist. Bear with us.)

Here are a few tips for spanning the otherwise separate worlds of Metro and the desktop.

If you’ve bet big on Metro and would like to stay out of the desktop environment as much as possible, you of course have our best wishes. And you can of course start by removing the tiles for the Desktop and any other desktop applications (like File Explorer) that may exist on your Start Screen. Good luck, seriously.

But anyone who uses Windows 8 will need to deal with the desktop from time to time, simply because Metro is an incomplete environment that doesn’t offer all of the functionality that’s present in the desktop. How could it? The Windows desktop is the result of over 15 years of improvements and tweaks, while the Metro environment is a 1.0 release. It’s nice, sure. But it’s always going to offer just a subset of the features you get in the desktop.

This makes us wonder whether Windows 9 will feature some sort of cross-environment “themes” capability, since it’s such an obvious need.

With that in mind, you can blunt the visually jarring effect that occurs when you switch between any Metro-based screen and the desktop by duplicating the Start screen background as your desktop background. There’s no automated way to do this, but if you know the trick (and don’t change your background too often), you can make it happen.

Here’s how.

1.First, configure the Start screen with the theme—colors and background pattern—you prefer, as described earlier in the chapter. Then, click the small icon in the lower-right corner of the screen to enable the semantic zoom feature on the desktop. This will cause the tile groups to shrink down, as shown in Figure 5-38.

Figure 5-38:Semantic zoom on the desktop

2.Now, take a screenshot by tapping the Prt Scn key on your keyboard. This copies the onscreen image to the Windows clipboard.

3.Now, run Paint (Start Search, paint ) and paste the screenshot image into the application (using Ctrl + V). Use Paint’s magnification options to shrink the image a bit (using right-click) so that it resembles Figure 5-39.

Figure 5-39:Screenshot in Paint

Two more steps.

4.Next, you must select the background color of the Start screen as the background color in Paint. To do that, select the Color picker tool and then right-click on a blank area of the background in the image. Then, cut out the tiles and the user tile with the Selection tool so that it resembles Figure 5-40.

Figure 5-40:The edited background in Paint

5.Now, save the image to your Pictures library. And, from the File menu in Paint, choose Set as desktop background. Once you do, your desktop wallpaper will be changed to this new image (Figure 5-41).

Now, as you switch back and forth between the Start screen and the desktop (test this by tapping Winkey) you can see that the background remains the same, creating a fairly seamless experience.

Figure 5-41:The Start Screen background applied to the desktop

While Windows 8 provides most of the same customization and personalization functionality from previous Windows versions, it also includes new capabilities. These extend from the expected Metro-based enhancements to new desktop customization features and, perhaps most interestingly, some features that make the Metro and desktop environments work better together. Now that you understand the basics of using both of these environments, and how to meld them to your needs, it’s time to learn more about the Metro apps that make Windows 8 so special.

• Understanding app stores and why Windows Store is important

• Understanding the rules for apps you download from Windows Store

• Launching and Browsing Windows Store

• Accessing content by category, list, or app

• Finding apps

• Downloading, installing, and updating apps

• Rating and reviewing apps and other reviews

• Uninstalling apps

• Configuring accounts and Windows Store preferences

With its Windows Store, Microsoft is following the app store model pioneered by Apple, sure, but it’s also providing a unique approach to what is now considered a key part of any new platform. This approach establishes the very important rules that all apps available from the store must follow, providing users with the assurances they need to trust these apps. But it also plays into one of Windows 8’s greatest strengths as a platform: These apps aren’t just isolated islands of functionality, but they can also integrate deeply into the OS, extending the capabilities of Windows 8 well into the future.

As an app in its own right, Windows Store is beautiful to look at, easy to navigate, and a somewhat ideal way to discover, download, and manage Metro-style apps. It provides a rich environment with app categories and subcategories, lists of useful apps, app landing pages with detailed information, and an excellent set of feedback features that let you rate and review apps and other reviews.

This chapter examines Windows Store and how you can use this full-screen experience to find the apps that will matter most to you.

While many associate app stores with Apple, the truth is that Microsoft got there years earlier with offerings such as Xbox LIVE Marketplace, Windows Marketplace, and other services. But Apple’s begrudging entry into the app store space—remember, Apple originally wanted to keep the iPhone a closed system and only caved because of overwhelming customer pressure—ignited a revolution. To give the Cupertino consumer electronics giant credit where credit is due, Apple got its app store right, establishing rules for app submissions, purchasing, and management that are now essentially standard across the industry. Today, you can’t launch or maintain a mobile or computing platform of any kind without offering an associated app store as well.

The Music and Video Marketplaces were previously collectively branded as the Zune Marketplace. With Windows 8, that brand is being phased out and is being replaced by the Xbox brand instead.