You just want to eliminate the Start Screen altogether and go directly to the desktop when you start your computer. Go straight to desktop and bypass the Start Screen I have a Dropbox account and use it to access my work files out in the field as well as at home. Other applications, such as Dropbox, have been providing a similar service for a few years now. Whether you trust the cloud as a safe place to store your files is a decision you’ll have to think through for yourself. This provides a backup for you in case your computer or your hard drive is damaged. If you save your files on OneDrive, they are accessible from your other devices, such as tablets, smartphones, or you can easily share files with other computers. Microsoft supplies 7 GB of storage for free. Microsoft is encouraging users to save files in the cloud. The default save location appears to be OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive). Why does it keep asking me to save to One Drive? Then, I click “All Programs” to see my files. With it installed, the Windows icon on my keyboard will now pull up the Start Menu. One such program that I have used is free. You can actually download a program to simulate the old Start Menu. Miss the old Start Menu? So do a lot of people. Click the arrow on the bottom left-hand side of the Start screen and you will be able to scroll horizontally through your applications. What happened to the lovely list of applications that used to pop-up? Well, again, they are on your app tray. Instructions on pinning applications to the taskbar and shortcuts to the desktop are available also from Microsoft as a pdf.Īfter getting us used to the Start Menu, Microsoft tried to do away with the traditional set-up in favor of the Start screen that appears when you first log into Windows 8. I got this great tip from the Community Forums at Microsoft,, and it works well. You will now have an icon for a shortcut on the desktop to the application. Right click on the icon and choose “Send to – Desktop”.Find the Excel or Word or PowerPoint icons (whatever you want on your desktop).Go to this folder: C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office 15rootoffice15.When you click on it, you’ll get the traditional window displaying computer folders and file names. From the Start screen, click the down arrow and scroll across to find File Explorer.Now, to get your Office applications to show up on the desktop, so that you don’t have to always go back to the app tray to open them, follow these steps: Click it to get a more traditional Windows look. There is a desktop icon on your Start screen. Some people prefer to use the desktop, which operates much like the Windows you are familiar with. Click this arrow, and scroll over until you see Microsoft Office and you’ll see a list of small icons for your Office programs (or applications). On your Start screen, there is an arrow at the bottom, left-hand side of the screen. In order to access your Microsoft Office applications you must go to the app tray. Now, you have two applications running side by side. The app you moved will show up on the side you dragged it to and you can open another app, or go to the desktop on the other side of the screen. A black line will appear, giving you a split window. You can also grab the application window and move it to the left or the right. You can now drag (click and pull) toward the bottom of the screen, closing the app. To close an open application, put your cursor at the top of the screen. Click this arrow, and you get a complete app tray that you can scroll through horizontally, similar to the app tray on your smartphone. ![]() ![]() At the bottom of the Start screen on the left side is an arrow. Say you needed to check a report you’d just had open, you would cursor over to the top right corner, and click on the window showing a thumbnail of the report to get back to it quickly. If you move your cursor to the top left corner of the Start screen, small windows will appear with the last applications you had open. Settings allows you access to personalization of the Start screen and the Control Panel. Printing options are under the Devices choice. Start returns you right back to the Start screen. If you move your cursor to the top right corner, a menu will pop up with the options of Search, Share, Start, Devices and Settings. On your Start screen (where the square shortcuts for different applications can be seen) there are some hidden menus. Many long-time Windows users are frustrated by Windows 8 when they first encounter it, so I thought I’d offer a few tips to make the transition easier. An attempt by Microsoft to marry the versatility of a tablet with the depth of utility of a PC. In addition, when you buy a new desktop or laptop, chances are, you will get Windows 8. With the end of support for Windows XP, more and more people are having to switch to a new OS.
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