Working with Multiple Windows 8 Apps

You can launch multiple Windows apps one after the other from the Start screen or Apps screen. Unless you close it, each Windows 8 app that you launch stays open, albeit in an idle state. You can display thumbnails for all open Windows 8 apps and switch from one to another. You can view two Windows 8 apps at a time, one taking up a third of the screen and the second taking up the other two-thirds of the screen. You can also manually close an open Windows 8 app. This task explains how to display and work with multiple Windows 8 apps.

1 Open Windows 8 apps: Open your first Windows 8 app from the Start screen. Return to the Start screen by pressing the Windows key or clicking on the thumbnail for the Start screen in the lower-left hot corner. Open a second Windows 8 app. Return to the Start screen. Open a third Windows 8 app. Return to the Start screen.

2 Viewing last open app: From the Start screen, move your mouse to the upper-left hot corner. You see a thumbnail for the last Windows 8 app that you opened.

3 View all open apps: Move your mouse down the screen, making sure you keep the cursor as close as possible to the left border of the screen. As you move your mouse down, you see additional thumbnails for each open app.

4 Switch to an open app: Click on the thumbnail of the app that you want to open.

5 Snap a second app: From your current app, move your mouse to the upper-left hot corner. Then move your mouse to the thumbnail of the second app you want to view. Right-click on the thumbnail and select Snap left or Snap right.

6 View two apps side by side: The second app displays on the left or right side of the screen depending on the option you selected, taking up one-third of the screen. The first app takes up the other two-thirds of the screen.

7 Resize an open app: Move your mouse to the vertical scroll bar separating the two apps until your cursor turns into a small vertical line with two arrows. Double-click or drag the scroll bar to increase or decrease the size of the window. To make a window full screen, click and drag the scroll bar all the way to the left or right.

8 Close your current app: Move your mouse to the top of the app's screen until your cursor turns into a folded hand. Click and drag the window all the way to the bottom of the screen until the app disappears.

9 Close any open app: Return to the Start screen. Move your mouse to the upper-left hot corner. Move your mouse down to the thumbnail of the app you want to close. Right-click on the thumbnail and click Close.