Top 10 tips for navigating Windows 8 Metro

Moving around Windows 8 Metro isn't intuitive, so here are some pointers

The classic example: How do you turn off a Windows 8 machine?

The answer: swipe out the Charm menu from the right side of the screen, choose Settings, touch the power button, and choose Shut Down. Simple, yes?

RELATED: This Windows 8 tablet might actually be a PC

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training
at certkingdom.com

HARDWARE: 12 available devices to test drive Windows 8

Windows 8's Metro interface is anchored by the Start screen, a collection of colored rectangles called tiles that are labeled with text to explain what they are. So the mail application says Mail and has a stylized envelope displayed on it. The tile to access the Windows store says Store on it and features a stylized shopping bag.

The Start screen stretches out horizontally and may take up several screens that can be scrolled by sliding a finger on a touch screen or left-clicking the arrow buttons in the bottom corners.

Metro is distinguished by its use of the full screen to display current applications. All the chrome of the navigation bars and systems tray so familiar in earlier versions of Windows are gone. Tools that serve these functions are hidden off-screen.

Some of these comprise the charms bar, a set of buttons hidden to the right of the screen. They can be called out with the swipe of a finger on a touch screen. These charms are labeled Search, Share, Start, Devices and Settings.

Swipe the left side, and you get the applications bar, which displays a thumbnail of each running application. Pressing any one of them brings it to fill the main screen.

Those are the basics, but there's still a lot to know. Here are 10 tips for performing useful tasks in Windows 8 that you might never discover on your own. Tasks can be carried out using touch or mouse and keyboard.

1. Returning to the Start screen: It's easy to lose your way in Windows 8 when you're just learning it, and finding the Start screen can help re-anchor you. To find it using a touch screen, swipe out the Charms bar on the right and press the Start charm. With a mouse, click the bottom-left corner screen. You'll know it's ready for the click when a tiny image of the Start screen pops up. On a keyboard, press the Windows key.

2. Organizing the Start screen: The Start screen is made up of a large number of tiles, so separating them into categories makes it easier to find the ones you want. Drag tiles either with a finger or using a mouse and dropping related tiles near each other.

3. Naming groups of tiles: Zoom out on the Start screen to get an overall view of the Start screen tiles. This can be done using a two-fingered pinching gesture or clicking on the minus button in the lower right. Find the group you want to name, right-click on it and choose Name Group, type the name and press Enter. Or touch the group, choose Name Group and type in the name.

4. Pinning tiles: Not all applications are displayed on the Start screen. To add one, right-click or touch a blank spot on the Start screen and click or touch All Apps when it appears on the bottom. Right-click or touch the app you want to pin, then click or touch Pin to Start.

5. Displaying administrative tools: Right-click the mouse in the lower left corner. Or press the Windows key + X and the tools menu appears in the lower left. Or, while on the Start screen, press the Windows key + I, select Tiles, press Enter, press the space bar to change Show Administrative Bar to Yes. Administrative tool tiles will be pinned to the extreme right of the Start screen. Or swipe out the Charms bar, touch Settings, touch Tiles, flip the switch to Yes.

6. Search: In Windows 8, the Search charm can be used to search the system or, if it is invoked while in an application, to search the application. To search, access the Charms bar, choose Search and type in the search term. If you want to search the Start screen, just start typing your search term on the Start Screen. After your first keystroke, a search window appears. It will be searching apps by default, so if you want to search something else, you have to press or click on it.

7. Switching from app to app: When you have more than one app open, click in the upper right to reveal thumbnails of all active apps and click on the one you want. With touch, swipe out from the left side of the screen then back to the left side again without lifting your finger. That will reveal the thumbnails (this display is called the Switcher). Press the one you want.

8. Snapping apps: Metro supports displaying two apps at once, one in a narrow strip at either the right or left and one occupying the rest of the screen. The smaller one is said to be snapped to the side. To do so, type Windows key + . and it snaps on the right; press them again and it snaps to the left; do it again and it becomes full-screen. To switch between the snapped app and the main app, drag the vertical dividing bar between the two toward the center until the main app snaps to the other side.

9. Closing a Metro app: Metro apps idle in a low-power state in the background when not in use, but to shut them down, swipe from the top of the screen and, without lifting your finger (or releasing the left key if you're using a mouse), drag to the bottom. The app will first shrink and, as it reaches the bottom, will disappear.

10. Getting out of Metro: Had enough Metro? Press Alt + Tab and release when you get to the desktop.

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training
at certkingdom.com

Lenovo working with Intel on ThinkPad Windows 8 tablet

Lenovo's first Windows 8 tablet will be based on Intel chips

IDG News Service - Lenovo is working with chip maker Intel on a future ThinkPad tablet based on Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system, a Lenovo executive said.

The release of an Intel-based ThinkPad tablet depends on when Microsoft releases Windows 8, said Dilip Bhatia, vice president and general manager of the ThinkPad business unit, in an interview. He declined to provide a specific date, though Windows 8 is expected to come out later this year.

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Chips based on the x86 architecture such as processors from Intel provide many advantages to business customers, who are Lenovo's targets with ThinkPad tablets, Bhatia said.

"On the x86 architecture you get backward compatibility," Bhatia said. Windows 8 tablets with Intel chips support existing and legacy applications already running on Windows, which is the dominant OS in the PC market.

Intel later this year plans to release a tablet chip code-named Clover Trail, which will be released at the time Windows 8 becomes available. Intel's only potential competitor on Windows 8 is ARM, whose processors ship in most tablets today. The touch-based Windows OS will come in three versions -- Windows RT for ARM, and Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro for x86 chips.

Windows has grown up on x86 chips, raising questions about ARM compatibility for existing Windows applications. Intel's CEO Paul Otellini last week said legacy x86 applications would not work on Windows on ARM, and Microsoft has said legacy x86 could not be used or emulated on Windows RT.

Bhatia did not comment on whether Windows RT devices would be offered by Lenovo, but said all options are being considered when developing products. Lenovo already offers tablets based on ARM processors, including the ThinkPad Tablet, which runs Google's Android OS.

Lenovo was the world's fourth largest tablet vendor in the first quarter of this year, according to IDC, behind Apple, Samsung and Amazon. Lenovo is the world's second-largest PC vendor thanks to growing shipments in home country China and an expansion of the worldwide distribution channel.

The ThinkPad Windows 8 tablet could easily slip into the existing base of ThinkPad PCs used in businesses, said David Daoud, research director of personal computing at IDC. Lenovo maintains a 16% to 18% market share in worldwide business PC sales depending on the quarter, he said.

The ThinkPads are already popular in businesses, so users may opt for the Windows 8 tablet as a companion device in the enterprise IT environment, Daoud said. IT environments are coping with new usage models that involve app stores and input modes such as touch and voice, and a Windows 8 tablet could be successful if users feel comfortable with the OS and device.

"If consumers are likely to move to a tablet-like environment as they've done strongly on the iPad front, it's important for PC makers with corporate clients to have a suite of products that fit into the bring-your-own-device model," Daoud said.

Lenovo is also building a cloud service so the company's PCs and mobile devices can access or exchange data through private or public clouds. Much like Apple's mobile device strategy, Lenovo hopes to combine content, infrastructure, access devices and middleware as part of its cloud strategy. The cloud service will be launched later this year.

ThinkPad laptops and tablets will be part of the cloud strategy, Lenovo's Bhatia said.

"We've got a whole theme focused on the cloud," Bhatia said.

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com