Windows 8: How to Show Administrative Tools in Start Screen

The Windows 8 Start Screen doesn't show the administrative tools tiles by default. If you want to pin them or more easily use the search function to find them you will need to set them to be shown. Thankfully, this is very easy. Click Read More to find out how.

Windows 8: Why It's Awesome on Desktops, Too

Everyone who is saying Windows 8 doesn't work well on desktop is spreading misinformation, just like with Windows Vista. This post is not a usual how to post and is intended to help correct up some false information that Windows 8 in not usable on a desktop.

I have been using Windows 8 as my primary OS on both my laptop (convertible Tablet PC) and my desktop with two giant monitors (30" 2560x1600 and 27" 2560x1440) and I can say that I've had NO ISSUES.

Windows 8 is AWESOME. The new Start Screen may SEEM like it isn't good for a desktop at first but that's false. It works just totally great. All the keyboard features are still there, you can press start and then type a few letters to search and press enter, just like Windows 7. It also still has the run commands built in, so you can type those and press enter, too, just like in Windows 7.

Sure it is full screen and hides everything else, but so what? When you're launching a program from the start menu, is it really important what is going on in the background for those 2 seconds? No, it's not.

There are even some advantages to the start screen in Windows 8. With the start menu on my screen I could see 16 most recently used programs plus 8 or so shortcuts on the right side of the start menu for a total of 24 shortcuts. With the start screen I can have a 12x8 grid of shortcuts and tiles for a total of 96 shortcuts and live tiles. That is FAR more than the start menu had. I have every program I ever use pinned and I have a few tiles, such as weather for a couple cities and a few stock quote tiles pinned. Just press the windows key on the keyboard or click in the lower left corner and the start screen comes up. Right when it comes up the tiles are instantly updated with the latest information. Once I've read what I want to read I can press the keyboard button or the lower left corner again and be back to where I was before, on the desktop.

Explorer Ribbon

Windows 8 also has other very useful improvements for desktop keyboard and mouse users. The new Windows Explorer ribbon is just AWESOME. Super quick access to a lot of tasks and options.
Take a look at that screenshot. With just one or two clicks you can show and hide file extensions, show and hide hidden items, rename, new folder, view properties, select all, select none, invert selection, copy the path to the selected item, change icon size, hide and unhide items, etc. In the file menu you can even open command prompt or open command prompt as admin in the current location.

In windows 7 you had to hold shift and right click to open a command prompt in that location and you didn't have an option to open one as admin in that location. You had to click in the address bar, press copy, then go to start and run command prompt as admin, then switch to the drive you're currently in, then type CD and then right click and press paste to get an admin command prompt in that location. Windows 8 is obviously much easier.

Keyboard Shortcuts

You also get awesome keyboard shortcuts with the ribbon. Just press alt on the keyboard and you have great shortcuts. Invert selection? alt h s i. Super quick. Windows 7 had a lot of these like invert selection but this is much easier to figure out and use. Lots of things Windows 7 couldn't do with keyboard only (or was much more difficult) such as copy path. alt h c p.

Windows Defender, Built into Windows 8, now has Anti-Virus in addition to Anti-Spyware

Windows Defender has been included in Windows since Windows Vista but up until Windows 8, it only did offered anti-spyware protection. You had to download Microsoft Security Essentials or use a third-party anti-virus utility. Not anymore. Microsoft Security Essentials has now been integrated into Windows Defender for Windows 8. It comes pre-installed and will protect your computer without any annoying notifications or demanding you pay or upgrade to a better version. 

WIN+X Menu

Another awesome thing for keyboard and mouse users is the new WIN+X menu. Either press WIN+X or right click in the bottom left corner and you can instant access to lots of admin tools and not only that, you can just press one letter after opening it up. Win+X A opens command prompt as admin. Win+X M opens device manager. Win+X K opens disk management.

Another cool feature is seamless is the new file copy dialog. It combines all file copy windows into one where it shows graphs of each transfer and the ability to pause and resume transfers. Another great feature of the new file copy process is switching of network interface while copying a file. Say I start copying a bunch of big files from my laptop to my desktop over wifi and I notice it's only going at 15MBps and I need it to go faster. With 7 and earlier I had to cancel the transfer, connect an ethernet cord, and start the copy again. Then it will get to the point where there are some half copied folders or other files which already exist and it will bring a dialog asking what to do. Or to avoid it you can delete everything copied and start again. With Windows 8 all you need to do is plug in the cord and once Windows detects the faster connection method it will switch to the faster method seamlessly.

And my one last favorite new feature is the super improved task manager. It shows much better performance information and in the Startup tab it shows you which programs are making your computer take longer to start up and lets you disable them.

New Task Manager Performance Tab

New Task Manager Startup Tab

As you can see, Windows 8 brings a lot of awesome new features and not just touch support. It's very usable on the desktop and quite awesome, really.

How to change the default save format for Office 2010

Everyone who has tried Office 2010 out has seen the new format it saves in. The problem is many people who you want to send your documents to do not have Office 2010 or 2007 and therefore will not be able to see your document. While this isn't as big of a problem as it was when Office 2007 first came out, some would still like to change their default file saving format. It is the same procedure for all office products so I will only show the procedure for Microsoft Office Word 2010.

If you would like to see how it is done in Office 2007, use the old guide.

How to take a screenshot of a movie

This howto will show show you an easy way of taking screenshots of videos or movies. Back in 2006 I wrote an article about how to take a screenshot while watching a movie on Windows XP. Windows XP couldn't take a screenshot (using print screen) of a video by default and thus was a complicated process . A much easier way to take a screenshot is to use a different media player, such as VLC. Click Read more to see how.

Windows 8: How to shut down or restart your computer

As you probably know, Windows 8 brings with it a new Start Screen and does away with the old Start Menu. The old Start Menu contained the shutdown and restart functions, so those had to be moved elsewhere. Click Read more to see how to access the power functions.

Windows 8 Power Menu

As you probably know, Windows 8 brings with it a new Start Screen and does away with the old Start Menu. The old Start Menu contained the shutdown and restart functions, so those had to be moved elsewhere. Click Read more to see how to access the power functions.

How to play DVDs in Windows 8 for FREE

Microsoft has decided to remove native DVD playing in Windows 8. In order to play DVDs you now need third party program. Most of the DVD playing programs cost money, but luckily there are some free ones. One of my favorite media players is VLC media player. VLC can play DVDs and basically any video or music file you can find. This includes AVI files, MP4 files, MKV files, etc. Another option is to install Windows Media Center, a program that used to be included in Windows 7 and Windows Vista

How to Disable UAC in Vista

UAC is a new feature implemented in Windows Vista to increase security. While I would highly recommend having it enabled, some people believe it is annoying and want to disable it. Click Read more to find out how to disable it.

FREE Antivirus!

Nowadays you can not get by without antivirus software on your PC. Many people do not know there is a large amount of antivirus software to choose from, and many of them free! Click read more to find out more!

How to Change the Location of the Documents and other user Folders

Windows sets the location of the Documents, Music, Pictures, and other similar folders inside of the users directory by default. While this is fine in most cases, some times it is better to move the folder. An example would be if you installed a second hard drive in your computer and wish to put more files in those folders then your original drive could hold. If you simply moved the folder to the new location, Windows wouldn't know and would still try to access the old location when you click the Documents icon. Click Read more to see how to change the location of these folders to anywhere else on your PC.