The Start screen is the first screen you see when you log in to Windows. It’s more than just a way to launch your apps: it’s an entire dashboard, showing live updates from your social networks, weather, news, and more. If you arrange the Start screen properly, you can have all the most important apps and updates available at a glance, without scrolling, and that can save you enormous amounts of time.

The next sections show you how to customize your Start screen and give you advice about the best ways to do it.

Grouping apps

Although it might not be obvious, apps on the Start screen are divided into groups, as shown in Figure 5-1, and each group has a name. To move an app between groups, simply drag the app to the new group. To rename a group, select any app in the group by right-clicking or flicking it, and then type the new group name.

Figure 5-1. Zoom back on the Start screen to change app groups.

You can zoom out by pinching with your fingers or by pressing Ctrl+Minus Sign on the keyboard. With the Start screen zoomed out, you can rearrange entire groups by dragging them left or right.

I arrange the tiles so that all the apps I use regularly are at the left and appear by default on the Start screen. Apps I use less frequently are grouped logically according to the type of app.

Troubleshooting: One of my apps is missing from the Start screen

If an app is installed but doesn’t have a tile on the Start screen, follow these steps to add it:

1. On the Start screen, click the arrow in the lower-left corner. This displays all apps installed on your computer, even if they are not pinned to the Start screen.

2. Select an app by flicking it with your finger or right-clicking it with the mouse.

3. Click the Pin To Start command at the bottom of the screen.

You can also quickly launch any app by typing its name from the Start screen. With touch, use the Search charm from the Start screen to find an app.

Changing the Start screen background

While you don’t have as many options as you do on the desktop, you can still configure the color of the Start screen and choose from a few graphical themes. From the Start Screen, select the Settings charm, and then select Personalize. In the right pane, select the graphic you want, as shown in Figure 5-2, or select your desktop wallpaper (always the last item). Then, pick your color and the background style you want. That’s really it!

Figure 5-2. There are only a few ways to customize the Start screen.

Showing administrative tools on the Start screen

In the early versions of Windows, Microsoft expected everyone to have some basic systems administration skills, but each version has gotten progressively more automated. If everything goes as planned with Windows 8.1, most users will never need to launch an administrative tool.

That’s a step in the right direction, but power users still need every tool available to them. Especially if you’re familiar with earlier versions of Windows, you want to have the same tools at your fingertips. While the Windows 8.1 Start screen doesn’t show administrative tools by default, you can turn them on with a few clicks: from the Start screen, open the Settings charm, click Settings, click Tiles, and then click Show Administrative Tools.

Windows 8.1 displays the administrative tools only on the All Apps page (accessed by clicking the down arrow from the main Start screen), as shown in Figure 5-3. To add individual tools to your main Start screen, right-click or flick the tool and then select Pin To Start.

Figure 5-3. You can add the administrative tools to your Start screen.

Tiles appear on the Start screen, replacing app icons. You can click a tile to start an app, but if an app uses tiles effectively, the tile will give you the information you need to completely avoid starting the app.

Tiles can display content from the app and display updates without requiring you to open the app. Fortunately, tiles are designed to use very little battery power and bandwidth. Nonetheless, they do use some trace amount of power and bandwidth, and if you don’t use the live tile feature for an app, you might as well turn it off. I’ve turned off the live tile feature for the Mail, People, and News apps because I find the updates too distracting—they tempt me to check my email or Facebook when I’m supposed to be working.

To disable a live update for a tile, select an app on the Start screen by flicking it or right-clicking it. Swipe up from the bottom, and then click Turn Live Tile Off.

It’s entirely possible for live tile data to show something you’d rather not see on your Start screen. Realistically, it’s only a matter of time before one of your Facebook friends posts something absurd that shows up on your People tile. Fortunately, it’s easy to manually clear the live tile data. From the Start screen, select the Settings charm, click Settings, click Tiles, and then click Clear.

Windows 8.1 will clear all data from your live tiles, so you will see the default tiles. At some point, though, it will refresh the tile data, and your friend might make another appearance unless you disable live tile updates for that app.

To automatically clear live tile data when you log off from Windows 8.1 Pro or Windows 8.1 Enterprise, follow these steps:

Apps can display notifications that appear as a message on top of other apps for 10 seconds. These messages appear any time the app has something it wants to tell you immediately. For example, an instant messaging app would show a notification each time you receive a new message, and Windows shows a notification each time you insert a memory card with pictures on it.

Unfortunately, it’s also possible for apps to show annoying notifications. For example, you probably don’t care if a role-playing game you installed six months ago is now offering 50 percent off bronze armor, or if a social networking app thinks you’ve gone too long without updating your status.

In those situations, you can turn off notifications for the offending app. Select the Settings charm, and then click Change PC Settings. In the left pane, click Search & Apps, and then click Notifications. In the right pane, turn off notifications for individual apps as shown in Figure 5-5. You can also use this page to set quiet hours during which Windows hides notifications. This is a good way to stop your PC from waking you up while you’re sleeping.

Figure 5-5. Use PC Settings to turn off an app’s notifications.

You should temporarily turn off notifications before giving a presentation or sharing your computer with a coworker (unless, of course, you want them to see the unexpected love note from your spouse/partner). To temporarily disable all notifications, select the Settings charm, and then click Notifications in the lower-left corner of the settings bar. You can then choose to hide notifications for one hour, three hours, or eight hours.

When the Notifications icon shows a clock over it, notifications are disabled. Click the icon to reenable notifications.

The lock screen is the first thing you see when you start Windows. The lock screen shows a picture along with app notifications, both of which can be customized by changing the lock screen picture or personalizing lock screen notifications.

Ideally, you should set up the lock screen to tell you that you don’t need to log in to your computer. For example, if you regularly log in just to see if you have any new email messages, you should display email notifications on the lock screen. Then, you can tell at a glance, without logging in, whether you have any new messages. I have it set up to display the details about the next appointment on my calendar and the number of new messages waiting for me.

To set the lock screen picture, select the Settings charm and then click Change PC Settings. Select PC & Devices, click Lock Screen, and then click Browse to select a picture. To control which apps display notifications on the lock screen, under Lock Screen Apps, click a plus symbol to add an app, as shown in Figure 5-6. To remove a notification, click the icon and then click Don’t Show Quick Status Here.

Figure 5-6. Use PC Settings to show app notifications on the lock screen.

Whereas a standard notification simply shows a number (which might indicate the number of new messages), a detailed notification shows text (which might show a preview of the most recent message). Only one app can show detailed notifications, so choose the one that will save you from having to log in to your computer most often, and be sure you’re comfortable with other people seeing those notifications, because anyone can see the lock screen without logging in.

To choose which app shows a detailed notification, click the icon below Choose An App To Display Detailed Status, and then click the app.

You can also completely disable the lock screen. Even though the lock screen is useful for giving you information without logging in and for preventing accidental input on touch-screen computers, it’s rather unnecessary on desktop computers, because you can usually get more detailed information from the live tiles on the Start screen.

If you’d rather skip the lock screen and jump directly to the login screen, run gpedit.msc (only available on Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows 8.1 Enterprise) to open the Local Group Policy Editor. Select Computer ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesControl PanelPersonalization, as shown in Figure 5-7. Double-click Do Not Display The Lock Screen. Select Enabled, and then click OK. The next time you restart the computer, Windows will display the login screen when it starts, bypassing the lock screen.

Figure 5-7. Some advanced settings must be changed using the Local Group Policy Editor.

Over time, more applications will be designed for Windows 8.1, and users will rarely need to access the desktop. Windows 8.1 is designed with that long-term goal in mind. While Windows 8.1 is new, however, many of us will still spend a great deal of time running desktop apps created for Windows 7. If that sounds like you, you might also find it frustrating that Windows 8.1 deemphasizes the desktop. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to make the Windows 8.1 desktop more usable while waiting for your apps to catch up with your new operating system.

How to launch apps

You can launch any app simply by typing its name from the Start screen. However, if you’re a desktop user and you’d rather not use the Start screen to launch apps, you can create a special folder containing shortcuts to your Windows 8.1 apps. The easiest way to launch desktop apps is still by pinning the apps to the desktop taskbar.

To launch Windows 8.1 apps directly from the desktop, create a shortcut that links to the special folder location containing the apps. Follow these steps:

1. Open the desktop by clicking Desktop from the Start screen or by pressing Windows+D.

2. Right-click the desktop, select New, and then click Shortcut.

   The Create Shortcut wizard appears.

3. On the What Item Would You Like To Create A Shortcut For page, type %windir%explorer.exe shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}, and then click Next.

4. On the What Would You Like To Name The Shortcut page, type Apps, and then click Finish.

5. To make the folder easier to access, right-click it and then click Pin To Taskbar.

To launch an app from the desktop, open the folder you created and double-click the app. You might not be able to see the icons for Windows 8.1 apps because most of them are white, and File Explorer shows a white background by default. To see the icons, select them with your mouse or press Ctrl+A, as shown in Figure 5-8.

Figure 5-8. You can create a special folder to launch Windows 8.1 apps from the desktop.

How to add the Recycle Bin to the taskbar

The Recycle Bin is always located on your desktop, and you can drag files and folders to it to delete them. To make it even easier, you can add the Recycle Bin to your taskbar, as shown in Figure 5-9.

Figure 5-9. Add the Recycle Bin to your taskbar for easy access.

To add the Recycle Bin to your taskbar, follow these steps:

1. Open the desktop by clicking the Desktop icon from the Start screen or by pressing Windows+D.

2. Start File Explorer by clicking it on the taskbar. On the View tab, select the Hidden Items check box. Close File Explorer.

3. If the taskbar is locked, unlock the taskbar by right-clicking it and then selecting Lock The Taskbar. If Lock The Taskbar does not have a check mark next to it, the taskbar is already unlocked.

4. Right-click the taskbar, select Toolbars, and then click New Toolbar. Select C:Users<username>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch.

   This displays the Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar, which provides quick access to shortcuts and folders. The Quick Launch toolbar was popular with Windows Vista and earlier versions of Windows, but Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 support pinning shortcuts to the taskbar, so the Quick Launch toolbar became redundant. However, you cannot easily pin the Recycle Bin to the taskbar, so the Quick Launch toolbar is still useful.

5. Grab the dotted line and drag the Quick Launch toolbar to the left, making it larger.

6. On the taskbar, right-click Quick Launch, highlight View, and then select Large Icons.

7. On the taskbar, right-click Quick Launch and clear the Show Text option.

8. On the taskbar, right-click Quick Launch and clear the Show Title option.

9. Drag the Recycle Bin from the desktop to the Quick Launch toolbar.

10. Once again, grab the dotted line to resize the Quick Launch toolbar. This time, drag it all the way to the right, making it as small as possible.

11. Right-click the taskbar, and select Lock The Taskbar.

Now, you can drag items to the Recycle Bin on your taskbar to delete them, and empty the Recycle Bin by clicking it on the taskbar.

Windows 8.1 provides an entirely new system for searching content on your computer and the Internet. Whereas Windows 7 simply searched files on your computer, Windows 8.1 allows applications to include their own search results. Windows 8.1 also stores your search results so that it can automatically suggest similar searches in the future.

To configure which applications can be searched and to clear your search history, select the Settings charm and click Change PC Settings. In the left pane, select Search & Apps, and then select Search.

Now, you can perform several different actions:

All computers, but especially mobile computers, must balance performance and power usage. Windows 8.1 default settings are effective for most users, and if you buy a new computer with Windows 8.1 installed, the computer manufacturer has probably tuned the settings specifically for your computer.

The Windows 8.1 update includes Power & Sleep options, which you can access by opening the Settings charm, selecting PC & Devices, and then selecting Power & Sleep. These options allow you to control whether Windows 8.1 automatically adjusts the screen brightness and to specify how long it waits to turn off the screen or to enter Sleep mode.

There are times when you might want to fine-tune power settings. For example, if you are on an eight-hour flight and you need your battery to last for as long as possible, you might be willing to tolerate slower performance. On the other hand, if you need to finish a report in the next 30 minutes, you want every bit of performance your computer has to offer.

Windows 8.1 includes three power plans. Each one adjusts performance differently depending on whether the computer is plugged in or running on battery power. The three plans are:

I usually leave my computer on Balanced mode and adjust the advanced settings for my typical usage. When I need my batteries to last as long as possible (for example, on a long flight), I switch to Power Saver mode. When I have more than enough battery power, I switch to High Performance mode.

To change your power plan or adjust a power plan’s settings, search for power options and then select Power Options. Select a power plan, as shown in Figure 5-10. (If you don’t see High Performance, click Show Additional Plans.)

Figure 5-10. Change your power plan to get more battery life or faster performance.

The first setting you might want to change is Require A Password On Wakeup. If you are not worried about other people using your computer or accessing your files, change this setting to No.

You might also need to customize power settings for specific scenarios. If you are uploading a large file, you don’t want your laptop to automatically go into Sleep mode when you close the lid. If you have a really weak Wi-Fi signal, you might want to boost the power of your wireless network radio without changing the power settings for other aspects of your computer. To customize a power plan’s settings, click Change Plan Settings, and then click Change Advanced Power Settings. Some of the more useful settings include:

Using multiple monitors is a great way to improve the productivity of anyone working in a traditional computing environment with a desk, keyboard, and mouse. When you have more than one screen, you can keep more windows open simultaneously. Instead of returning to the Start screen to switch apps, you can simply move your mouse over to the other monitor.

Some apps can take advantage of multiple monitors, also. For example, Adobe Lightroom provides tools for cataloging and editing pictures. If you have more than one monitor, you can display thumbnails of all your pictures on one monitor while viewing the selected image full-screen on your second monitor, making it much faster to browse pictures.

If you use Windows 8.1 with more than one monitor, the Start screen and apps designed for Windows 8.1 will use the primary monitor, while the desktop will use all additional monitors. You can also use the primary monitor for desktop apps.

The sections that follow describe how you can customize the way Windows 8.1 uses your monitors.

You’ll definitely want to configure Windows 8.1 to use the language you’re most comfortable with. If you have people in your household who speak different languages, or are trying to learn other languages, you can add multiple languages to Windows 8.1, regardless of where you bought your computer.

To add a language, follow these steps:

As shown in Figure 5-14, you can switch between installed languages at any time. Click the Settings charm, click the language in the lower-right corner, and then select the new language.

Figure 5-14. Switch between languages with two clicks.

Pressing Windows+X on the keyboard or right-clicking the lower-left corner opens a list of commonly used power user tools, such as a command prompt with administrator privileges, as shown in Figure 5-15. This menu is commonly known as the WinX menu.

Figure 5-15. The WinX menu displays helpful power user commands.

As you might guess, most users won’t ever stumble across the WinX menu. That’s okay, because most users won’t need these tools frequently enough to want a special menu. After all, all these tools can be started in other ways, such as by using the Start screen. However, the WinX menu can save power users a great deal of time, especially if you take a few minutes to add your own custom items to it.