from previous versions. In Windows 7, for example, if you tapped the Windows key repeatedly, the Start menu would simply open and close repeatedly. But in Windows 8, tapping this key repeatedly will toggle between the current Metro-style app and the Start screen.
Windows 8 ships with a large number of apps and you can find even more in Windows Store, Microsoft’s new app store.
We discuss the various built-in Windows 8 Metro-style apps throughout this book, of course, but you can find out more about Windows Store in Chapter 6.
Accessing the Windows Desktop
In Windows 8, the desktop environment is treated like an app, and you should find a Desktop tile somewhere on the Start screen. (If you don’t, you can use Start Search, described in the next section, to find it.) When you tap the Desktop tile, the familiar desktop interface appears, as shown in Figure 3-10.
Figure 3-10: The Windows desktop lives.
The Windows desktop looks and works much like the desktop in Windows 7, but with a few differences. The biggest is that the Start button and Start menu are missing: Windows 8 has replaced the old Start menu with the new, full-screen Start screen, so the Start button is gone. You will typically use the Windows key, Windows key button, or the other methods described later in this chapter, to access the Start screen.
With just a few exceptions, all of the built-in Windows 7 applications and utilities—Paint, WordPad, Windows Media Player, and the like—are included in Windows 8 as well.
Other than that, things work as before. You can run traditional Windows applications, in windowed or full- screen mode, install new applications, and so on. Chances are if it worked in Windows 7, it will work fine in Windows 8 as well.
Also, the Start toggle mentioned earlier works with the Windows desktop as well: Tapping the Windows key (or Windows key button) repeatedly will toggle the display between the desktop and the Start screen.
The desktop is important enough that it gets its own chapter. Check out Chapter 4 for more information.
Using the System-Wide Metro User Experiences
While the Start screen, Metro-style apps, and the Windows desktop are all full-screen experiences that you generally access in isolation, Windows 8 also offers a variety of other Metro user experiences that you can access from elsewhere. In many cases, these experiences are new system-level interfaces, and most are available from the Windows desktop as well as from the Start screen or Metro-style apps.
Before digging into individual interfaces, it’s helpful to know that Windows 8 exposes many of these user interfaces in different ways depending on whether you’re using the keyboard, mouse, or your fingers on a multi- touch screen. And yes, in most cases, all three input types are available.
• Keyboard shortcuts: For keyboard users, Microsoft has delivered a startling number of keyboard shortcuts in Windows 8, many of which utilize the now-common Windows key (or Winkey). For example, Winkey + D will display the Windows desktop, while Winkey + E will open a new Windows Explorer window. Keyboard shortcuts are such a big deal in this release, in fact, that we supply an amazing list of such shortcuts in the appendix. But we also discuss each applicable shortcut as needed throughout the book.
• Hot corners: For mouse users, Microsoft utilizes the corners of the screen, providing what it calls hot corners that activate different features. These features include Back, Switcher, Start, and Charms, and they’re discussed individually in just a moment.
• Edge UIs: Touch users can utilize various edge UIs to achieve the same actions for which mouse users use hot corners. For example, if you swipe down from the upper edge of the screen (or up from the bottom edge), you will activate the current app’s (or other Metro experience’s) app bar. You can perform simple task switching via the left edge of the screen and access the Charms bar from the right edge; these interfaces are all described later in this chapter as well.
Okay, let’s look at the various system-level Metro experiences in Windows 8.
Charms: The Uber-Metro UI
If you learn just one Metro-based user experience, it should be how to access the Charms bar, a menu of useful system-level options that is perhaps the key to mastering Windows 8. This is shown in Figure 3-11.
Figure 3-11: Charms
Before explaining Charms further, however, let’s discuss how to invoke them. Each of these access types works from anywhere in Windows 8, including the Start screen, any Metro-style app or game, or from the Windows desktop.
• Keyboard: Type Winkey + C.
Accessing the Charms bar on a multiscreen configuration can be tricky, depending on the location and orientation of your secondary screens. Though some workarounds exist, the simplest is to use the Winkey + C keyboard shortcut instead of the mouse.
• Mouse: Move the mouse cursor into the top-right corner of the screen. As you do, the Charms bar will appear in a translucent mode. Then, move the cursor down toward the middle of the right edge of the screen to fully engage the bar. (Conversely, you can mouse into the lower-right corner of the screen and then move the mouse cursor up toward the middle of the right edge of the screen.)
Why the translucency? Microsoft is accounting for other user interface elements that might be bumped up against the right edge of the screen, including a desktop application’s scroll bar or the Peek button in the taskbar. If you don’t immediately move the mouse cursor toward the middle, the Charm bar will disappear, allowing you to access whatever else is on-screen in that area.
• Touch: To display the Charms on a multi-touch screen, swipe in to the left from the right edge of the screen.
As you can see, there are five items, or “charms”, in the Charms bar. They are as follows:
Search: This charm provides easy access to the system-wide search functionality in
