Windows 8

Launched by Microsoft in October of 2012 to much fanfare, Windows 8 has divided people more than any other version of Windows since the launch of Windows 95, nearly seventeen years beforehand.

Much of the dislike of Windows 8 comes from the opening ’tiled’ interface, which is obviously designed for touch devices, as well as the removal of the now ubiquitous ‘Start’ button.

However, once you get used to the few little foibles that come with every new version of Windows we think that Windows 8 is a more than adequate replacement for Windows 7, especially as it has continued the trend set by Windows 7 in using less system resources than its predecessor, thus making it quite possible to run Windows 8 on machines that ran Windows XP, but couldn’t run Windows Vista or Windows 7.

To help you navigate round and get the best from the new interface, we have compiled a series of both short tips, and longer tutorials below.

Quick Tips

This is a collection of small tips and tricks can help you get more from Windows 8.

Showing ‘All Apps’ from the Start Button – Making Windows 8.1 a little more friendly.
Zooming the Start Screen – How to see more tiles when Windows 8 starts up.
Windows 8 Privacy Settings -Keeping your data safe ans secure.
Shortcut Keys – The easy way to quickly navigate around the new interface.
Access Startup Items – Windows 8 makes it easy to optimise your startup.
Group Start Screen Tiles – How to make the start screen work for you.
Centralised Search – A great little tip for finding anything, anywhere.
The Quick Access Menu – Get to some of the most common options easily.
Closing Windows 8 Apps – Solutions for closing those pesky apps once and for all.
Change Windows Smart Screen Settings – How to stop the annoying pop-up.
Create a ‘New email’ shortcut – A quick tip to make better use of your email program.
Automatically Log In To Windows – Avoid the hassle of typing your password in all the time.
Expanding Shutdown Options – How to get more shutdown options in Windows 8.
Automatically show Desktop at boot up – Make your Windows 8.1 laptop a little easier to use.
Add the Snipping Tool to the Taskbar – Get to this useful application really easily

Maintenance & Administration

Schedule Automatic Maintenance – Make your PC maintain itself when it’s convenient.
Elevated Command Prompt – You need to know this for most system maintenance.
Create A System Recovery USB Drive – You MUST make one of these before disaster strikes.
Reset Your Password – How to reset your Windows 8 password if you forget it.
Clear Print Queue – Recovering from a corrupt printing job the easy way.
Bypass The Log-In Screen – Let Windows automatically log you in.
Disabling Superfetch – How squeeze a bit more performance from systems with low memory.
Backup Your Product Key – an essential precaution to take before you upgrade to Windows 10

Optimisation / Tweaking

The Windows Registry Explained – It runs your system, you need to know what it does.

Security

Securing your USB ports – How to stop rogue USB devices from compromising security