course, vary according to the file type.) Here, you see a list of Metro-style apps and desktop applications that can open a certain file type. And if you always want to open that file type with a certain application, this is a great time to make sure that happens.
And be sure to click the See All link to expand the window, when available, to see more options.
But what if you’re not quick enough and the toast disappears? Or perhaps you simply want to change the file association at a later time. In these situations, you can redisplay the new, Metro-style file association interface in a surprisingly old-fashioned way. Simply find a document or file type for which you want to change the associated application, right-click it, and choose Open With and then Choose Default Program.
We discussed how you can pin any application to the Metro-style Start screen earlier in the chapter. What you might not realize, however, is that Windows 8 automatically pins application shortcuts to the Start search for you. This happens when you install any classic desktop application, and depending on the application, it can get ugly.
Some applications are simple, standalone affairs, and thus won’t pollute your Start screen with dozens of new icons. Install the desktop version of Google Chrome for example, and you’ll find that a single new tile is added to the end of the Start screen as shown in Figure 4-39.
Figure 4-39: When you install a desktop application, one or more tiles are added to the Start screen.
When you install more complex applications like Microsoft Office or Visual Studio, you could be in for a surprise: Some will populate the Start screen with multiple tiles, many for applications you’ll never (or perhaps rarely) need.
First, the bad news. You can’t stop this from happening. And the reason is simple: Because the Start screen replaces the Start menu, it emulates the Start menu, and this is the same behavior from Windows 7 and previous Windows versions, just a bit more in your face.
We discuss the many ways in which you can personalize the Start screen (and other aspects of Windows 8) in Chapter 5, but it’s wise to check this screen after each Windows application install to see which tiles were added. And then you can delete the ones you don’t want and, if desired, reorganize those you do.
Remember that deleting tiles from the Start screen won’t remove those applications. You can see this by opening the All Apps view by tapping Winkey (or Start) and then choosing All Apps from the Start screen app bar, which appears at the bottom of the screen. In this All Apps view, all of the installed applications are available and are even segregated in groups.
To display the toolbar-like control called the app bar at the bottom of the screen, right-click with the mouse, swipe up from the bottom of the screen with touch, or press Winkey + Z.
Switching Between Running Applications, Apps, and Open Windows
Even when Windows was just a simple graphical front end to MS-DOS, it supported means by which users could switch between various running applications, bringing one to the visual forefront and making it the current application. These task management capabilities have long worked with both keyboard and mouse, and even with touch, and include such well-understood tools as Windows Flip, the familiar Alt + Tab keyboard shortcut.
These capabilities largely come forward in Windows 8, which for the most part provides a superset of the multitasking and task-switching capabilities in Windows 7. But because Windows 8 includes the new Metro-style environment and full-screen Metro-style apps, there are a few differences.
What’s missing from Windows Flip? The Start screen. If you wish to go there, use the new Start experience, the Windows key on your keyboard, or the Windows key button on your device.
First, it’s now possible to task switch between Metro-style experiences (like the Start screen) and apps and the desktop. To do so, you can use Windows Flip as before, tapping Alt + Tab repeatedly until you find the application or app you want. In Windows 8, Windows Flip provides access to individual desktop applications, individual Metro-style apps, and the desktop, as shown in Figure 4-40.
Switcher treats the desktop environment as a single app, and doesn’t differentiate between individual desktop applications.
You can also use the new Switcher user experience, which was discussed earlier in this chapter. Switcher is mouse- and touch-friendly, and provides a new way to switch between running tasks.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the Windows Flip 3D task-switching interface that was available in both Windows Vista and 7 is no longer available in Windows 8. Now, the Windows Flip 3D keyboard shortcut—Winkey + Tab—activates Switcher instead. Sorry, Flip 3D fans.
Figure 4-40: Windows Flip now works with both Metro-style app and desktop applications.
Using Task Manager
As with the task-switching functionality described earlier, Windows has also offered an interface called Task Manager that, among other things, provides a way for users to manually kill processes and applications. It’s perhaps a sad statement that this interface is one of the most frequently used tools in Windows, but there you go. And in Windows 8, it’s gotten its most impressive upgrade in years, with a simple new user interface that offers a superset of the functionality from previous versions.
You can also access Task Manager from the power user tasks menu that appears when you activate the Start tip and right-click the Start tip thumbnail as described previously in this chapter.
Task Manager is accessible many ways, but the simplest is the tried-and-true method of right-clicking a blank area of the taskbar and choosing Task Manager from the context menu that appears. As you can see in Figure 4-41, the Windows 8 version of Task Manager offers a much simpler interface by default than its predecessors.
From this very simple interface, you can right-click an application and perform a number of actions, the most commonly used of which are End task (kill the application dead), Switch to (to bring that application to the forefront), and Open file location (which will display the application executable in File Explorer). But since End task is the single most common option, there’s a button just for that: To kill any application immediately, select it in Task Manager and click End task.
While it’s possible that the End task button and right-click menu will meet most users’ needs, the power users in the audience are probably looking at the interface and thinking that there are many missing features. But that’s only true because they’re hidden by default. Click More details and Task Manager will expand into a power user’s dream come true. Not only are all the capabilities from the Windows 7 Task Manager present, but there are new capabilities here as well. The advanced Task Manager interface is shown in Figure 4-42.
Figure 4-41: The simpler new Task Manager
Figure 4-42: Task Manager’s advanced UI
