Windows 8.1 provides a common user interface for configuring app-specific settings and common system settings, as shown in Figure 2-1. To access settings and hidden menu items for the current app, press Windows+I.

If you log on to multiple computers with the same Microsoft account, app settings will roam with you to whichever computer you log on to.

By clicking the Settings charm (shortcut: Windows+I) and clicking Permissions, you can configure the resources an app can access, including your webcam, microphone, and the lock screen.

With Windows 8.1, your searches can find data within Windows 8.1 apps as well as files and folders on your computer. For example, a search could find a contact from the People app, stock data from the Finance app, or messages from the Mail app.

As a result, most apps won’t have their own search command. Instead, use the Search charm to search within any app. To quickly start a search using a keyboard, press Windows+F. For example, to find a new app in the Store by name, touch the Search charm, touch Store, and then type the name of the app. Similarly, to find music, touch the Search charm, touch Music, and then type the name of the artist.

Configure whether an app appears on the search bar by using the Search page of PC Settings.

Figure 2-1. Access settings for the Start screen or any Windows 8.1 app by pressing Windows+I.

You can share content from many Windows 8.1 apps by clicking the Share charm (shortcut: Ctrl+H). For example, from Internet Explorer, you can use sharing to easily email a link to a webpage (using the Mail app) or share it on Facebook or Twitter (using the People app). Any app can support sharing from any other app, so you can share with apps that are not included with Windows, too.

Configure whether an app can share from the Share page of PC Settings.

Windows 8.1 apps share a common convention for printing: the Devices charm. To print a document from within an app, tap the Devices charm and then follow the prompts that appear.

Microsoft has guidelines for Windows 8.1 app developers that will further improve consistency and usability. Most Windows 8.1 apps resume where you left off, as long as that content is still relevant. For example, Internet Explorer always returns you to the tabs you last had open, reading apps will open the book you were last reading to your current page, and games should return to your current spot without requiring you to load a saved game. Windows 8.1 apps can automatically roam settings and state, too, so you can have the same experience even if you switch between computers.

Apps designed for Windows 8.1 can be installed only by downloading them using the Store app. The Store provides a single interface for finding, buying (if an app is not free), downloading, and installing an app.

In previous versions of Windows, finding and installing a new app typically followed this process:

Because each software development company has its own website format, the process for buying, downloading, and installing each app was different. If the app had a free trial, users would have to return to the website later to purchase and register the app. Additionally, there was no reliable way to find user reviews.

The Store changes this for Windows 8.1 apps. Now the process is much simpler:

Only Windows 8.1 Pro computers that have been joined to an Active Directory domain can install apps without using the Store. This process is commonly known as sideloading, and the custom apps businesses add are called line-of-business (LOB) apps. Essentially, only business users can bypass the Store to install Windows 8.1 apps. While this restriction might not be popular among power users, you can still freely install desktop apps.

Developers release app updates regularly. Most of the time, they’re just fixing a bug or two. Sometimes, they add new features or improve the user interface. Updates are usually a good thing.

On rare occasions, you might find an update that you don’t want. For example, the developer of a free app might add aggressive advertising to the app, or a developer might remove an important feature. It’s even possible that a developer will introduce a new bug that breaks an existing feature, a problem developers know as a regression.

By default, Windows 8.1 automatically downloads app updates and then prompts you to install them, as shown in Figure 2-3. This is the best situation for most people. You can’t configure apps to update automatically. Every update must be initiated by the user, but since Windows 8.1 has already downloaded the files, the update doesn’t take long.

You can manually check for updates by opening the Store, selecting the Settings charm, selecting App Updates, and then selecting Check For Updates. Because updates are automatic, you shouldn’t need to worry about them, but it’s good to know how to check just in case you hear about an important update that Windows hasn’t found yet.

Figure 2-3. Automatically update apps using the Store.

Windows 8.1 apps don’t have menus. Instead, they have app commands that are displayed on a toolbar that appears at the bottom of the screen, the top of the screen, or both. Figure 2-4 shows the Weather app commands at the top of the screen.

Figure 2-4. App commands replace menus in Windows 8.1 apps.

To view app commands with the touch interface, swipe up from the bottom or down from the top of the screen. To view app commands with a mouse, right-click anywhere on the app.

Some Windows 8.1 apps, such as Internet Explorer, still provide right-click context menus.

If your computer’s display has a resolution of 1024x768 or greater, you can snap apps to the short side of a screen and use them alongside another app. To snap the current app, drag the top of the screen to one side. You can also touch or hover your pointer at the upper-left corner to display previously opened apps and then drag the app you want to snap to one side of the screen.

After you have snapped an app, you can drag the divider left or right to change how the apps share screen space. Apps have a minimum width, however, and that width is usually 320 pixels. Figure 2-5 shows the Weather app snapped to the left side of the screen, multitasking with Internet Explorer.

Figure 2-5. Snap apps to the side of the screen to multitask.

In the desktop environment (including the Windows 8.1 desktop), the user can make app windows any size. For example, a user might place a web browser on the top half of the screen and a word-processing app on the bottom half of the screen. Windows 8.1 continues to support this flexibility for desktop apps.

While all apps designed for Windows 8.1 support snapping, some apps won’t be useful when snapped, and they might simply display an icon. Even if an app does not display a user interface when snapped, snapping can still be a useful way to quickly flip between two apps.

To close a snapped app with the mouse or touch, swipe down from the top of the screen and then drag it to the bottom of the screen.

Apps designed for Windows 8.1 can update their tiles on the Start screen with relevant information. For example, as Figure 2-6 demonstrates, the Finance app displays current stock prices and the Weather app displays current conditions. Live tiles often give you the information you need from an app without having to open the app.

Windows 8.1 is designed to support hundreds of live tiles without substantially slowing your computer’s performance or reducing battery life. Windows 8.1 receives authenticated and encrypted updates to live tiles from the Windows Push Notification Services (WNS), a web service hosted by Microsoft for free use by Windows 8.1 customers and app developers. Because WNS provides updates for all apps, Windows 8.1 can update an app’s tile without starting the app itself. App developers can create custom web services to update WNS, and in turn live tiles, with up-to-the-minute text, data, and images.

Figure 2-6. Live tiles display app information without opening the app.

Apps can also update live tiles while the app is running and on a scheduled or periodic basis. For example, the Windows Calendar app uses scheduled updates to display meeting notifications based on local calendar data, without communicating on the Internet. Live tiles can cycle through up to five updates.

Use the App History tab of Task Manager to see the bandwidth used by live tiles.

Some Windows 8.1 apps allow you to use the Pin To Start option to add an extra tile to the Start screen. The new tile links you directly to content within an app, but otherwise it behaves exactly like an original tile. For example, a news app might allow users to create a tile for a specific news topic, such as technology news. The app could then update that tile with headlines and images from the latest technology news.

Windows 8.1 apps can display information on the lock screen, which allows users to get updates at a glance without logging on to their PC. Not all apps support displaying information on the lock screen.

You can configure up to seven apps to display information on the lock screen, with one app displaying a detailed status. Figure 2-7 shows a sample lock screen. On the right side of the screen, above the date, the Calendar app displays the details of the next meeting. Below the date, the icons show that the People app has four notifications, and the Mail app has two new messages.

Figure 2-7. Apps can display notifications on the lock screen.

To configure which apps can update the lock screen, use the Personalize page in PC Settings.

To improve system integrity and user privacy, Windows 8.1 apps run in a sandboxed environment that isolates the app’s data and minimizes the privileges the app has to the operating system and computer. Isolation improves security, reduces the risk of malware, and increases system stability.

Applications use resources even when you are not actively using them. In earlier versions of Windows, users needed to manage the apps they had open and remember to close apps they were no longer using. If a user left too many apps open, the computer would run low on memory or processor resources, and the computer’s performance would slow down. The computer would run out of battery power sooner, too.

Windows 8.1 automatically suspends Windows 8.1 apps that are not in use when it can make better use of the app’s memory. When Windows 8.1 suspends an app, Windows 8.1 writes the app’s memory to the hard disk without interfering with other disk input/output (I/O). If you are familiar with Windows hibernation, the process is similar, but for a single app.

Though Windows 8.1 makes a copy of the app’s memory on the hard disk, it leaves the contents of the app’s memory intact. If the user accesses the app before another app needs the memory space, Windows 8.1 resumes the app immediately without needing to read the memory contents from disk.

If the user accesses a suspended app and the app’s memory contents have been overwritten, Windows 8.1 immediately reads the app’s memory from the hard disk and resumes the app. The faster the computer’s disk is, and the smaller the app’s memory set is, the more responsive suspended apps will be. Specifically, solid-state disks (SSDs) will provide the best performance.

Apps consume no resources while in a suspended state, improving battery life and the performance of foreground apps. On computers with large amounts of memory, Windows 8.1 might never need to suspend apps. Operating system functions, such as copying files, continue in the background without being suspended. Windows 8.1 cannot suspend desktop apps.

Desktop apps continue to run even when they are not in the foreground. Though the user might not interact with them, desktop apps often perform background tasks such as retrieving data from the Internet. Sometimes, these background tasks are unnecessary and simply waste computing resources. At other times, however, they are important. For example, an instant messaging app needs to receive new messages, and a music app needs to play music.

Windows 8.1 apps are designed to be suspended when they are not in the foreground, minimizing the resources they use. However, Windows 8.1 apps can still perform background tasks triggered by a variety of different scenarios, including:

Applications can restrict background tasks so that they run only when the computer is plugged in or a specific amount of network bandwidth is available. Windows 8.1 restricts the processing and network resources background tasks can use so that they will not consume too many resources. Apps on the lock screen receive the following processor and network time:

Apps not on the lock screen receive even fewer resources:

The network restrictions are removed when the PC is connected to a power outlet.

Windows 8.1 includes two versions of Internet Explorer: a touch version and a desktop version. The desktop version of Internet Explorer 11 closely resembles Internet Explorer 9 running in Windows 7. When you launch Internet Explorer from the Start screen, however, you open the touch version of Internet Explorer, which provides a very different experience by default:

Figure 2-12. Starting Internet Explorer 11 from the Start screen provides a full-screen interface and touch-friendly controls.

When you launch Internet Explorer 11 from the Start screen, the app is very touch-friendly. To go back to a previous page, swipe the page from left to right. To switch between tabs, swipe down from the top of the screen, and then touch the tab you want to use. For more information about using touch, refer to Chapter 1.

Windows 8 includes Internet Explorer 10, and Windows 8.1 includes Internet Explorer 11. For users upgrading from Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 10 and 11 offer several important improvements:

These capabilities won’t change the way you use a website unless the website specifically takes advantage of them. Over time, however, more websites will create content that leverages the power of these features.

Internet Explorer 11 has several improvements over Internet Explorer 10:

Behind the scenes, Internet Explorer 10 and 11 update the user agent string, which Internet Explorer uses to identify the browser’s version to the web server. Some web servers provide different versions of a website depending on how the browser identifies itself. While this will not be a problem for most users, you can solve any compatibility issues by enabling compatibility mode in Internet Explorer 11. Compatibility mode configures Internet Explorer to identify itself as Internet Explorer 7 and to render webpages using the techniques implemented in Internet Explorer 7. If you are a web developer, read “Internet Explorer 11 Preview Guide for Developers” at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/bg182636.aspx.

Since the earliest versions of Windows, Windows Explorer has been the primary tool for browsing and searching files. Windows 8.1 provides the familiar File Explorer (called Windows Explorer in Windows 7) functionality with a more intuitive interface, as the sections that follow describe.

Unlike the other apps described in this section, File Explorer is a desktop app. Desktop apps are designed to be primarily controlled with a mouse and keyboard.

Ribbon

File Explorer uses a ribbon, as shown in Figure 2-15, rather than more traditional menus. To maximize screen space, the ribbon automatically hides when it is not being used. However, you can click the arrow in the upper-right corner to keep the ribbon visible.

Figure 2-15. The ribbon replaces menus in File Explorer.

File Explorer displays specialized tabs on the ribbon for the content in the selected folder. For example, if you select a folder with pictures, File Explorer provides the Picture Tools tab that you can use to rotate pictures and start a slide show. Similarly, File Explorer provides specialized tabs for videos, music, compressed files, disk image files (.iso and .vhd), searches, and more.

If you’re not a fan of the ribbon, click the arrow near the upper-right corner to hide it. The next time you open File Explorer, the ribbon is hidden automatically.

Copying files

File Explorer also improves how files are copied. If users copy multiple files, File Explorer displays all copy jobs in a single window as shown in Figure 2-16, rather than displaying a separate window for each copy job. You can pause copying to improve the performance of other copying tasks, and you can click folder names to open the folder from the copy window.

Figure 2-16. File Explorer displays all copy jobs in a single window.

Clicking More Details displays the throughput, progress, and an estimate of the time remaining for each copy job, as shown in Figure 2-17.

Figure 2-17. Copy details now display the progress and performance.

Conflict resolution

If you attempt to move or copy files to a folder that contains files with the same name, File Explorer detects the conflict and allows you to replace the files, skip the files, or choose which files to keep, as shown in Figure 2-18.

Figure 2-18. File Explorer prompts you to decide how to handle conflicts.

If you decide to choose which files to keep, File Explorer in Windows 8.1 displays the window shown in Figure 2-19. Select the files you want to keep. Selecting the check box at the top of each list will select all files from that folder. Double-click a file to open it. Then, click Continue.

Figure 2-19. File Explorer includes a new user interface for selecting which files should be kept or overwritten.

The People app is much more than an address book. The People app brings together everyone in your life from many different sources: personal email, work email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and more.

The People app is the best way to keep in touch with anyone you know. Rather than visiting Facebook to check on a friend, simply open the People app. People will gather the person’s status, photos, and videos from Facebook as well as other sources, and allow you to browse what they’ve shared using a touch-friendly interface. You can even Like and Comment.

Right-click or swipe down from the top of the screen, and then click What’s New at the top of the page to browse friends with recent updates from all your different social networks, including status updates and new pictures. Tap any update to Like it, Favorite it, add a comment, or re-tweet it. How you can respond to an update depends on the social network the update was posted to.

You are part of the People app, too. Clicking Me at the top of the screen shows you your own status updates and photos, as well as updates on the people closest to you.

The Calendar app synchronizes with your calendar service and displays your plans in daily, weekly (as shown in Figure 2-20), or monthly layouts. Editing an event is as easy as tapping it. With an event open, swipe up from the bottom or right-click the details pane to delete it.

Figure 2-20. The Calendar app synchronizes with your online calendar.

The Calendar app’s live tile on the Start screen displays the current date and upcoming events. The Calendar app will also remind you of upcoming events that you have set an alarm for, even when the Calendar app isn’t running.

The Mail app connects to each of your different email accounts and uses the People app when you need to browse contacts. As shown in Figure 2-21, it provides a touch-friendly way to read email messages. It also supports using many different accounts.

Figure 2-21. Use Mail for each of your different accounts.

Sending email is straightforward too, as shown in Figure 2-22. Tap the To field to select recipients, and then type the subject and body of your message. The bar at the bottom of the screen provides convenient access to common formatting and for adding attachments and emoticons. To send or delete the message, tap the icons in the upper-right corner.

Figure 2-22. The Mail app provides a touch-friendly way to send email.

The mail server you connect to can communicate security requirements to your computer. For example, the mail server might require that you use a complex password and that the computer lock itself after a period of inactivity. Windows 8.1 will prompt you if this is the case, and if you choose to synchronize with the server, Windows 8.1 can automatically configure itself to meet your mail server’s security requirements.

Windows 8.1 includes the Games app. With Games, you can:

Figure 2-23. Games provides single player and online gaming directly from the Start screen, and Solitaire is still provided for free.

Windows 8.1 provides the Music app to allow you to play music that’s in your collection and to find new music. The intuitive interface allows you find musicians, albums, and songs and to create playlists. Your music will continue to play even if you switch away from the Music app.

If you are looking for new music, you can find music from just about any artist, and preview 30 seconds from different songs. If you like a song, you can buy it with just a few clicks.

The Music app includes songs from your Music library. For instructions for how to add a folder to your library, refer to Chapter 9. For more information about the Music app, refer to Chapter 14.

The Video app gives you access to your entire video collection, and lets you find and buy movies and TV shows with HD sharpness and high-quality sound. When shopping for movies and TV shows, you can watch previews. Unlike with the Music app, if you switch to another app, Video automatically pauses.

The Video app includes files from your Videos library. For instructions describing how to add a folder to your library, refer to Chapter 9. For more information about the Video app, refer to Chapter 14.

The Photos app, as shown in Figure 2-24, provides an interface for browsing and editing pictures on your local computer. Note that in the Windows 8.1 update, Microsoft removed the feature included in Windows 8 that displayed pictures from Facebook, Flickr, and SkyDrive.

Figure 2-24. The Photos app displays pictures from your local Pictures library.

Click a picture to view it full-screen, and slide up from the bottom to set the picture as the image on the app tile or as the lock screen image or to edit it. The Photos app in Windows 8 did not include editing capabilities, but these were added as part of the Windows 8.1 update. Figure 2-25 shows a picture being edited in the Windows 8.1 Photos app.

Figure 2-25. The Windows 8.1 update allows you to edit photos using touch.

Some of the ways you can edit your photos include:

When you finish editing your photo, the app gives you the option to update the original file or save a copy. I recommend saving a copy, because edits that seem great to you now might seem silly in a few years.

The Photos app does not let you browse or edit raw files from higher-end cameras. Raw files capture all the data from your camera’s sensor, potentially providing better image quality and more powerful editing capabilities. To edit raw files, I suggest the free Picasa app available at http://picasa.google.com, or Adobe Lightroom, available at http://adobelightroom.com.

You can also select multiple pictures as you browse them, and then quickly send the pictures in an email by using the Share charm.

The Photos app includes files from your Pictures library. To add a folder to your library, see the instructions in Chapter 9. For more information about managing your photos, refer to Chapter 15.

People often look up the current weather, and with the Weather app (shown in Figure 2-26), the forecast is a tap away. On your Start screen, the Weather app’s live view tile displays the current weather at your selected location. Open the Weather app to view the upcoming forecast hourly for the current day or daily for the entire week. Swipe from the top or bottom to choose your location, and scroll sideways to view more detail, including weather maps and historical data.

Figure 2-26. The Weather app displays the current and forecasted conditions.

The Finance app gives you quick insight into how the stock markets and your personal holdings are performing. The live tile on the Start screen shows you current stock prices with a 30-minute delay. Open the app to choose the stocks you own, view the latest financial news (as shown in Figure 2-27), check values for currencies, commodities, and bonds, and view interest rates. Add stocks to your watch list and then tap the stock to view a chart of the current prices.

Figure 2-27. The Finance app gives you recent stock prices and financial news.

Use the Reader app to view comment document formats, including PDF and XPS files. By default, the Reader app browses SkyDrive. Click the arrow to choose any folder on your computer. To access files on remote computers, use the File Explorer desktop app to map a shared folder.

Turn pages by tapping the arrows on either side of the screen or by using your keyboard’s arrow keys. Swipe up from the bottom or right-click to bring up the app commands, which allow you to search within the document and view the document in one page, two page, or continuous formats. When you view a document in Two Pages mode, if the left and right pages seem to be on the wrong sides, select the Cover Page option.

Tap More to rotate the document, view the document’s metadata, or navigate using the document’s bookmarks (which function like a table of contents). Zoom in and out by pinching and pulling with the touch interface, or by holding down Ctrl and using your mouse’s scroll wheel. Zoom out far enough, and you can view thumbnails of the document’s pages and quickly find a specific page.

While reading, you can select text to highlight it, add notes to it, or copy it to the Clipboard.

The Maps app provides a touch-friendly tool for viewing street maps, satellite maps, traffic, directions, and satellite maps, as shown in Figure 2-28.

The Directions feature will create turn-by-turn steps that you can follow to drive between two locations. Use the Devices charm to print from Maps.

Figure 2-28. Maps provides directions.

The Camera app turns your PC into a camera, much like a camera built into a mobile phone. You can use the Camera app with any webcam; however, most users will use it with cameras built into slate PCs.

Using the camera is straightforward. Tap anywhere on the screen to take a picture or start a video recording. In video mode, tap the screen a second time to stop recording. If your PC has two cameras, the Camera app will display the Change Camera button to switch between the forward and rear-facing cameras.

Tap the Camera Options command to change the resolution of the recorded image or to select a different microphone for video recording. Click the More link on the options page to adjust brightness, contrast, flicker, and the behavior of the autofocus and autoexposure systems.

The News app provides a rich way to browse the news. The user interface is much more touch-friendly than any website. In fact, the News app feels more like flipping through a magazine than using a website.

You can customize the News app to show news you’re especially interested in. The easiest way to do this is to add or remove sections from the home news feed, Bing News. With Bing News selected (which is the default), swipe up from the bottom or right-click to view the app commands, and then select Customize. As shown in Figure 2-29, remove any sections you don’t want, and click the Plus symbol to add sections that you do want. You can also reorder sections.

Figure 2-29. The News app can find articles related to topics you choose.

The Travel app, shown in Figure 2-30, is like a touch-friendly travel magazine. Browse photos of gorgeous places and read travel-related articles, updated regularly.

Figure 2-30. Use the Travel app to scope out a city.

If you’re planning a trip to a specific destination, or you have a case of wanderlust but haven’t yet picked a destination, open up the Travel app and flip through it. Not only will you find amazing places to visit, but you can choose attractions, hotels, restaurants, and more.

The Sports app is a great way to keep up with the latest scores, team schedules, and sports-related headlines. You can add your favorite teams to the Sports app, and the latest news about the team, their entire schedule, all recent scores, and their roster and stats are just a couple of taps away.

The Food And Drink app, released with the Windows 8.1 update, makes your PC particularly useful in the kitchen by letting you organize recipes, maintain a shopping list, and (as shown in Figure 2-31), plan your meals.

Figure 2-31. Use the Food And Drink app to organize your recipes and plan your meals.

Scroll right to use my favorite feature of the app: browsing thousands of recipes. When you find a recipe, you can add it to your meal planner and even add the ingredients to your shopping list.

This app (new in the Windows 8.1 update) can track your diet, nutrition, calories, weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, vaccinations, and exercise. You can even use it to find potential diagnoses for medical conditions by entering your symptoms, as shown in Figure 2-32.

Figure 2-32. You can try to diagnose your medical problems with the Health And Fitness app.

Use this app to learn more about Windows 8.1 and to get help with specific apps. I suggest visiting each of the sections on the Help+Tips app home page, shown in Figure 2-33, and watching the animations. Browsing the entire app takes only a few minutes, but having a good understanding of how to use Windows 8.1 can save you hours over the lifetime of your computer.

Many of the sections offer separate tips for using the touch interface or a mouse. Be sure to select your preference using the Show Content For option on the bottom of the page.

Figure 2-33. The Help+Tips app is a great way to learn to use Windows 8.1.

If you’re browsing the web and want to save an article to read later, add it to the Reading List. From Internet Explorer, find a page you want to save, select the Share charm, and then select Reading List.

Later, just open the Reading List app, and you can browse the items you’ve saved. You can view them even if you’re no longer connected to the Internet, making Reading List ideal for offline reading while you’re in a train or airplane.

Use the Scan app to scan documents. Before using the Scan app, be sure to connect your scanner by opening PC Settings, selecting PC & Devices, and then selecting Devices.

The Sound Recorder app is appropriately named; it’s the perfect tool for making quick spoken notes to yourself or recording meetings and classes. The first time you launch it, you see only a big record button that you click to start recording. Once you have a recording, you can play it back, delete it, rename it, or trim it.