Three Minutes to Learn Basic and Common Operations of Windows 8 System

Whenever the Windows Operating system has made certain updates and upgrades, there are users unwilling to upgrade their Window Operating system to the latest for worrying about that they cannot adapt themselves to its new operations. However, it is totally no need to worry about that. No matter Win 7 or Win XP now you are using, the following four small tips help you quick master how to perform basic and common operations of Win 8 without any difficulties.

Find Back “Start Menu”  in Windows 8

Users may didn’t realize how important the Start button is until it disappeared in Windows 8 system, and then users found that it is quite inconvenient to operate without the Start button and Start menu when finding the needed program by clicking Start button and opening Start menu becomes habit. However, in fact, Windows 8 has not abandoned the Start menu thoroughly. You can still find back the Start menu and make use of it.

1. In Windows 8 Metro interface or traditional desktop interface, move mouse cursor to where Start button originally was.

2. When the thumbnail of traditional PC desktop interface or Windows 8 metro interface shows, you right click on it.

3. Then you open Start menu and see many familiar functions including Command Prompt, Control Panel, Search and Run, etc.

Though the functions of the hidden Start menu are not that rich as it was, for users who just accept and use Windows 8 system, it brings quite a lot of relief and the new system becomes not that strange to new Windows 8 users.

New Ways to Power off Windows 8 System

Powering off Windows 8 also becomes a problem when Start button is canceled.  Then how to power off Windows 8? Directly press the computer power button? Of course not. There are two options to power off Windows 8 computer.

Option One:

This is the most traditional way to power off Windows 8.

1. Under the Windows 8 Metro interface or traditional PC desktop interface, move mouse cursor to the upper right corner or lower right corner of the screen and you can see a black sidebar, named Charms Bar, with five functions.

2. Click on Settings item and you can see six settings options.

3. Click on the Power item.

4. And then choose Shut down to power off your Windows 8 computer.

Option Two: 

You can try to press shortcut keys to callout shutdown dialog box.

1. Under Windows interface, press Alt + F4 key, and you can see Windows 8 shut down menu.

2. Choose Shut down from the pull-down list.

3. Click OK button to confirm power off.

Quick Switch between Traditional PC Desktop and Metro Interface

Metro interface is the most distinctive feature of Windows 8, which is totally different from traditional Windows interface. And it will show you Metro interface by default after system startup. But it is very easy to return to the familiar traditional Windows desktop either by mouse click or keyboard shortcuts.

Mouse Click

a. Under Metro interface, you can see a Desktop item, click on it and you can switch to traditional desktop interface.

b. Under Metro interface or traditional desktop interface, move mouse cursor to the lower left corner of the screen, the system will pop up a desktop interface or Metro interface thumbnail, click on it to switch.

Keyboard Shortcut

Press Windows key  on your keyboard to switch between Windows Metro interface and traditional Windows desktop quickly and conveniently.

Switch Applications under Metro Interface

Under traditional Windows interface, to switch between the running programs, just click on the corresponding window in the taskbar. But there is no Start menu under Windows 8 Metro interface, then how to switch between running applications?

In Windows 8 system, no matter you are in Metro interface or traditional Windows interface, you can also switch between running programs easily and conveniently only by moving your mouse from the upper left corner (lower left corner) → left edge like the following screenshot shows, and then you can see all the running programs of your system.

Windows 8 interface and some common operations have changed to some degree, but all these changes serve for more convenient and quicker operations. So you should give it a try and accustom yourself to it gradually, and you will love it.