Managing a Wi-Fi or Cellular Network

Windows 8 has several options for controlling and managing your Wi-Fi and cellular connections. You can view connection properties to check or change the security and encryption types and the network security key for your own network. You can set a network as a metered connection to keep track of how much data it is using, a handy option for cellular accounts with a limited number of monthly minutes. You can also display the estimated data use to see how many megabytes you have downloaded using a certain connection, another useful option for cellular accounts. This task shows you how to manage your Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

1 Launch the Start screen: Open the Start screen.

2 Go to Settings: Hover your mouse over the Semantic Zoom button to display the Charms bar. Click the Settings charm.

3 Open the Networks panel: The first icon for wireless networks shows that it is available if accessible networks are in your location. Click that icon.

4 View available networks: The Networks panel displays as a sidebar on the right. The Connections section displays any available connected wired network and any 3G/4G connections. The Wi-Fi section displays available Wi-Fi networks.

5 View options: Right-click a network connection that you have already used in Windows 8, such as your home network. A pop-up menu with four options appears.

6 Show estimated data usage: Click Show estimated data usage. Estimated usage appears showing how many megabytes of data have been used over a certain period. You can click Reset to set the estimated usage counter back to zero. To hide the data usage, right-click the network again and click Hide estimated data usage.

7 Set as metered connection: Click Set as metered connection if you want to limit the amount of usage on this network. This means that certain noncritical Windows updates and other software are deferred until you are on a nonmetered connection. Therefore, you may want to set your 3G or 4G connection as a metered connection to reduce the amount of data that gets downloaded. To turn off the metered connection, right-click the network and click Set as nonmetered connection.

8 Forget this network: Click Forget this network for a network that you do not need to connect to again. Forgetting the network removes the stored information for the network security key.

9 View connection properties: Click View connection properties to open the Windows desktop and display the network's security and encryption types and security key, which gives you the ability to change the security key if necessary.

10 Turn sharing on or off: This option appears on the right-click pop-up menu for any live connections. Click Turn sharing on or off if you want to change the network's current sharing setting.

11 Turn off Networks sidebar: Click any empty area in the Start page to turn off the Networks sidebar.

Quick Fix

Changing the View in File Explorer

Open File Explorer. Click the View menu from the Ribbon. Hover your mouse over the different views — Extra large icons, Large icons, Medium icons, Small icons, List, Details, Tiles, and Content — to preview the different views. Click the bottom scroll arrow to see the Tiles and Content views. Click the view you want to use for your current folder.