Windows 8: The Most Handy Tips & Must Have tools

With Windows 8 still in the review phase,there a few tricks & tips which can make your Windos 8 experience better:


1)Enable the default Start menu: For Pc's without the Touchscreen feature,The Metro GUI is rendered useless & it will be better if we can enable the conventional Start Menu in Windows 8.This can be done in as follows:

1. Go to Run -->Enter Regedit & press Enter.Then navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer.
2. Double-click RPEnabled and change its value from 1 to 0.This will disable the Metro Gui & reinstate the conventional windows start Menu.

2)Windows ShortCuts:There are 18 officially confirmed Windows shortcuts.The thing to note here is that the short-cuts pertaining to Metro GUI will not function once it has been disabled in Step1.

Windows Logo Key + Spacebar – Switch input language and keyboard layout
Windows Logo Key + Y – Temporarily peek at the desktop
Windows Logo Key + O – Locks device orientation
Windows Logo Key + V – Cycles through toasts
Windows Logo Key + Shift + V – Cycles through toasts in reverse order
Windows Logo Key + Enter – Launches Narrator
Windows Logo Key + PgUp – Moves tiles to the left
Windows Logo Key + PgDown – Moves tiles to the right
Windows Logo Key + Shift + . – Moves the split to the left
Windows Logo Key + . – Moves the split to the right
Windows Logo Key + F – Opens File Search App
Windows Logo Key + C – Opens Charms Bar
Windows Logo Key + I – Opens Settings charm
Windows Logo Key + K – Opens Connect charm
Windows Logo Key + H – Opens Share charm
Windows Logo Key + Q – Opens Search pane
Windows Logo Key + W – Opens Settings Search app
Windows Logo Key + Z – Opens App Bar

Step3)SmartScreen Filtering:SmartScreen filter is Internet Explorers built in security module which enables detection & prevention of harmful scripts or any file from being loaded or executed which compromises your security.However in Windows 8,this feature is implemented directly into the OS rather than just IE.You can edit the security settings pertaining to SmartScreen in Control Panel-->Change SmartScreen Settings-->Action Center.There are 3 different ways for you to manipulate it:

1. Request approval from user/Administrator before executing or installing any unrecognized applications  downloaded from the internet.(Recommended for beginners)
2. Give a small premonition/warning regarding the legality of the download(For intermediate users)
3. Turn it off(Experts).

Step4)File History Feature:Similar to Mac Os X's Time machine utility,Windows 8 comes with a new cool applet called File History in the control panel which helps you to recover files/folders deleted or removed accidentally.You can prioritize folders to be recovered or not,to include/exclude them,allocate/determine the cache location to save back-ups of the mission critical files whether on the Hard-disk or the External drive.By a simple click on the Home ribbon tab & then on clicking History option you can keep tabs on the files via the explorer.This feature is off by default so you may have to activate it first.


Step5)Fixing Disk related Errors: You don't have to use third party tools like Tune Up utilities or Disk Doctor etc to fix any disk related issues as an advanced application is available in windows 8 itself.There utilities are accessible in the same way we used to access them in previous versions.There are two different utilities you can use for disk related Operations:

1. The Scan Drive Utility: Scans & fixes some of the minor disk issues encountered during the scans,but also gives you access to the drive a feature not available in previous Window versions.
2. The Scan & Repair Utility:This performs a much more elaborate & indepth scan of the hard-disk & this time your disk wont be available untill the Repair process is complete or cancelled.

Step6)Establish gesture Based password:This feature provides a much more sense of security with a new concept of gesture based password combo.Here you can take a pic & scribble on it using taps,lines & circles & it can be used as a password.To enable this feature you need Metro GUI & to initiate this process Go to Control Panel -->User's Applet & click on create Picture password.


Step7)Mount ISO Files using Default Windows:No more necessity to download Power Iso,magic Iso or Daemon tools as Windows has implemented its own ISO format mount feature.All you have to do is right click on the *.iso file and choose mount.You can say goodbye to third party tools.


Must have Windows 8 Tweak Tools:The whole Idea of the developer preview is to encourage the developers to create new apps in the Windows 8 domain & who knows it just might be shipped along with the retail version of Windows 8.I was able to lay hands on a few Windows Apps which I found very useful & I decided to put them here.They are all freewares so give them a try:

• Windows 8 Start Tweaker allows you to change Wallpaper & start menu features.
• Windows 8 Blue Poison unlocks the additional features available for users in the Windows 8.
• Metro UI tweaker to modify the Metro GUI settings.
• Windows 8 start Menu toggler to alternate between the Metro Menu or the Conventional start Menu