Naming Windows 8 Start Groups

A quick tip I've just discovered and wanted to share with you. In a previous post I mentioned the ability to get an overview of your start menu using the +/- buttons, however it gets much better than that.

Now, before I go any further I want to point out that I have since found out that by holding the control key and using your mouse's scroller, you can achieve the same.

Organising the start menu is an extremely simple task. In zoomed in mode, drag any tile from its current position into the 'group' and position you'd like it to appear. Simple as that. If you want to create a brand new group, position the tile so that it hovers between two groups, or at the very end of the list of tiles. You'll know when you're in the correct position by a thin long grey highlighted box to suggest a new group will be created.

But it gets better still! Now zoom out. Right click on a group and click on Name Group. Such a simple thing which come to think of it, I'm surprised with myself I hadn't previously questioned its existence. Prior to this I had my groups all laid out, but had memorised which group contained which function (i.e. communications, news, productivity, games, etc.).

The final tip is that whilst in overview mode, you can drag and drop groups to reposition their priority if you feel at a later date you're using a group that's less easily accessed on a more frequent basis.

Should I Upgrade to Windows 8?

The simple answer to this question is that you need to decide for yourself, but if you've reached this blog post then I doubt you're looking for a yes or no answer, but more likely a bit of guidance as to whether or not it's a good idea.

Here are two opposing facts you may not know about, which will really get you thinking along the path of upgrading and whether or not you're ready to take the next step.

EARLY ADOPTION
As with anything, the more people that use it, the more likely a problem is going to surface. This is a good thing. It might not sound like it, I mean, who wants buggy software anyway? But that's not the point. The difference here is between glitches that have been spotted, and those that are waiting to be found. At least those that have already been spotted can be rectified and mass distributed to all those 'instances' of the software with an Internet connection. And this is where hot fixes and service packs come in.

Now consider this. Whilst I can't give you an exact figure, lets say for examples sake Windows 7 have 100,000 hot fixes and 1 service pack (a service pack is a large collection of hot fixes). Windows 8 has 100 hot fixes and no service packs. This means 100,000+ bugs have been found in Windows 7, but only 100 bugs have been found in Windows 8. Based on this, which operating system is more buggy?

The answer? There is no answer. Or at least not one that can be gleamed from that bit of information, however the most likely case is going to be that Windows 8 is more buggy because those hot fixes don't signify a level of how many problems you're likely to run into, rather, they signify just how many bugs have been fixed. There could be only 100,000 bugs EVER to appear in windows 7. That could be it, all bugs at all in existence have been fixed. This is extremely unlikely, but bare with me here. Now lets say both Windows 7 and Windows 8 have 100,000 bugs each. 100,000 of those have been fixed in Windows 7 but only 100 have been fixed in Windows 8.

It's about now the penny should have dropped in that 9,900 bugs or vulnerabilities in this theoretical comparison have yet to be found, and so now ask yourself which of the two systems are more buggy?

This is where the term 'early adopter' comes in. An early adopter is someone who is happy to take on a piece of software knowing the risk they are likely to face. It's a step above beta testing which in an ideal world is where all bugs should be ironed out, but in something as huge as an operating system, waiting on a release date until all bugs have been patched is just not going to happen. And it's these early adopters that stumble across bugs and send error reports to Microsoft that alert MS of the problems people have encountered, so at to be able to provide a new hot fix.

So where does this place in terms of whether or not you should upgrade? Well, if you're happy to be an early adopter - maybe you're running a second machine, or consider yourself a bit of an experimentalist who's happy to take risks - then maybe it's time to consider playing around with the new OS sooner rather than later.

If however you're planning on rolling the operating system across an environment where it's critical that everything works as expected (for example, a production or industrial environment) then you may want to hold off until a few more hot fixes or a service pack has been released.

BUDGET
With Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft began their mission to bring everyone up to date. The reason behind this? Progression was being stumped by users who were afraid to move away from what they knew and appreciated (Internet Explorer 6) and so continued to use it regardless (and probably oblivious) of the fact support had ended for this browser a long time ago, meaning hot fixes like the ones discussed above were no longer being distributed.

This also stumped development and technological progression because the browsers people were sticking to simply just didn't work with the platforms used to generate better, more secure, more fancy and stable websites.

Queue Windows 8. Microsoft is, again, trying to push people to upgrade their environments, this time by applying a highly appealing upgrade price. To illustrate this, you can go into PC World (a UK based chain if you're reading this from outside of the UK) today and purchase Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade for £99.95 (£83.49 from the website). At it's launch it would have been much more. In comparison, you can buy the Windows 8 Professional upgrade (that's right, Professional) for £49.99. But here you're really paying for the physical medium. For an even sweeter deal, check out Microsoft's website (link below) to download the software and burn it to a DVD yourself for £24.99! Another sweetener, though I'd imagine this one is likely to apply to much fewer people, if you did just so happen to buy a PC after the 2nd June 2012, it costs just £14.99 to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro.

Upgrade to Windows 8 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/buy?ocid=GA8_O_WOL_DIS_ShopHP_FPP_Light
Upgrade for a newly purchased Windows 7 PC: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/upgrade-offer

The catch however is that if you're going to do this, you need to do it now, or at least, very soon. The standard upgrade offer is valid until the 31st January 2013, whilst the Newly purchased Windows 7 offer is valid until February 28th 2013.

SUMMARY
So that's pretty much it. I didn't want to go into detail about all the nitty gritty corners of Windows 8 and what it's capable of because, well, that's the whole purpose of 8Tricks, so check out my other blog posts to find out more about it's hidden gems, but to summarise, the decision on whether to upgrade really depends on whether you feel ready to try something new or whether you want to hold back until more people have taken a bite of the bullet. This of course does reflect the price you pay - Microsoft are actively rewarding early adopters with a very tempting discount. This is their cheapest OS yet, and I would imagine once the early upgrade offer is over, Windows 8 Professional won't be cheap, and that may hinder you from upgrading anytime soon after.

Charming: Windows 8 'Charms' You

 

If you haven't already come across Windows 8 Charms, take a good look at the set of icons above and get used to them! These are going to become a prominent part in your everyday operations of windows 8 fast, so its worth discovering them early.

Charms are a set of quick launch 'smart' tools that allow you instant access to control features, such as standard control sets such as wifi status, volume, notifications, etc. to more specific controls within metro apps.

That's right. You may have seen me refer to these tools as smart, and that's because they tailor to their requirement depending on your current activity. For example, straight from the messaging app I can check out the settings charm to add messaging accounts and configure permissions, whilst over in the gallery, I can check out the Share charm to send the picture across to different services depending on compatible Windows 8 apps.

Devices is something of a less obvious charm, however allows you to send a display to a second screen if you have one available or send something to a printer.

Finally, the search charm, and my favourite charm of all, takes the age old concept we've all come to know through different incarnations over various versions of Windows, and adds a whole new layer of turbo-awesomeness! The search charm replaces the standard system search, and allows you to search for apps, settings or files. That's pretty bog standard, but the best part comes with the in-app searches. Launch the search charm and you'll see a list of all searchable apps. These are sorted in order of the most recently searched, so if Bing is top of the list, then you search for Mail, then Mail will head straight to the top. Next, you just need to start typing to notice things happening, results appearing, or previous search phrases for quick searching. The final beauty is you don't necessarily need to launch the charm to start searching. On some (most, if not all) apps, you can just start typing. That's all you need to do. Start typing, and the rest is done for you.

It's fast, effective, and unlike any Windows search facility of the past. In fact, I feel compelled to say it feels like an opportunity Google have really missed out on!

So that's the new charms interface. Like I say, take a moment to get to know them, figure out how they work, and how you can make the most of them. Unlike many of the features that get bundled into a windows OS only to never be used and discontinued by the next OS release, Charms are here to stay.

2nd Start Menu

Since the Windows 2000 / Windows XP era Microsoft have been including a dual column start menu, providing simplified access to resources such as the control panel, administrative tools, search and run. At first glance with the new start screen, it may appear the days of the 2nd column are now a distant memory.

This is not the case. To gain access to only the core useful administrative features of windows, hover over the bottom left corner to present the start menu preview (formally the start button). Right click on this preview to present a popup menu with the following options:

 - Programs and Features
 - Power Options
 - Event Viewer
 - System
 - Device Manager
 - Disk Management
 - Computer Management
 - Command Prompt
 - Command Prompt (Admin)
 - Task Manager
 - Control Panel
 - File Explorer
 - Search
 - Run
 - Desktop

Admin Tools

A handy feature in Windows 8 allows you to instantly place all administrative tools on the start menu. To do so, open the start menu and then hover over the top or bottom right corner to present the 'charms' interface. First go to Settings, then click Tiles. There will be one option here to 'Show Administrative Tools'. Set this to 'Yes'. That's all there is to it!

Tiles Overview

Windows 8 tiles interface has an overview mode. Many apps incorporate this view, which can be accessed through a small set of +/- buttons on the bottom right corner of the screen. Once in overview, you can typically click on a 'set' or tile (depending on the interface used when developing the overview) to focus on that particular area of the app.

BBC News Overview Snippet

Different apps may include the overview in different ways to others, for example the default weather app will provide a list of tiles explaining the section they lead to, as oposed to the graphical tile interface used by the BBC (screenshot).

Along with the overview, some apps make use of the +/- keys to provide other functions, for example viewing an image in the default gallery app makes use of these buttons for zooming in and out.

Give it a shot, the first play you'll see these buttons are on the start menu.