In Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, the Start Screen is designed as the touchscreen-friendly Start menu replacement. It allows you to customize its layout as you want. You can pin and unpin your favorite apps and documents as tiles there, in the order you want. Once you have organized your Start screen layout according to your personal preferences, you might want to backup the layout for further use, e.g. to use it again after a re-install of Windows. Here's how you can back up the customized layout that you have.
Author: Sergey Tkachenko
How to force Windows Store to check for updates in Windows 8
The Windows Store is a new way of installing software in Windows 8 and 8.1. It allows you to discover and install Modern apps as well as keep them updated. It was designed mostly for touch screen devices, but Desktop users can find some Store apps useful too. Windows Store has a feature to automatically check for updates to installed apps. However, you may wish to check for updates manually if you disabled auto update for apps. In this article, we will look how to make the Store app check for updates of installed apps via a special direct command.
SlideToShutdown is the Start Screen’s power button alternative in Windows 8.1
Do you know that Windows 8.1 comes with an alternative way to shutdown your PC? The feature called 'Slide To Shutdown' provides a fancier user interface to shutdown Windows with a swipe. It was created for PCs and tablets with Connected Standby. Connected Standby is a power management feature similar to what smartphones have. Most Desktop PCs and x86 tablets do not support the Connected Standby sleep state. However, you can use this Slide-to-Shutdown feature regardless. Here's how.
How to change the icon of a pinned desktop app on the Start screen
The Start screen in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 allows you to pin Desktop app shortcut for fast access. After pinning a shortcut, the Start screen shows a tile with the app's icon and its name. In Windows 8.1, Microsoft has improved the visual appearance of such tiles by making the background color of the tiles match the icon's predominant color. The one thing the Start screen lacks is the ability to change the pinned app's icon. Let's look how it can be done.
How to open file or folder properties quickly in Windows File Explorer
You can see many details of a file or folder on your disk drive from its Properties. You can even access the metadata of media files from Properties. Properties can be accessed using the mouse by right clicking on the file or folder and then choosing Properties from the context menu. However, there is a faster way to open Properties too. In this article, I would like to share with you a way to open file or folder properties directly without opening the context menu or the Ribbon.
Learn all the possible ways to open PC Settings in Windows 8
Windows 8 features a new, touch-friendly UI to change your operating systems settings via a special app called "PC Settings". Along with classic Control Panel which remains in the Desktop, the PC settings app allows you to change the most important parameters of your PC. You can manage your user accounts, devices, change your personalization preferences and network settings, and so on. Since Windows 8.1, many more settings from the classic Control Panel are available in PC Settings. In this article, we shall see all the ways to open the PC Settings app in Windows 8.
How to install a blocked extension in Google Chrome
After the latest update to Google Chrome, it has started preventing users from installing extensions from any other place except the official Chrome Web Store. Also, if you have some extensions installed which are not from the Store, the browser will block them too. The primary reason why Google made these changes is security: they want to protect their users from malicious extensions. However, if you are sure that an extension you downloaded previously is safe to install, here is how you can bypass the restrictions.
How to rename your Windows 8.1 tablet
In Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update, Microsoft has evolved many PC Settings and made them independent of the classic Control Panel which you access from Desktop mode. In the initial release of Windows 8, in order to rename your tablet, you had to use the Advanced System Properties applet. It was an old applet and not touch friendly. Thankfully, Windows 8.1 provides a new useful otpion to rename your tablet.
How to get the CRX file for Google Chrome extensions
Ever since Google announced that add-ons for Google Chrome can only be installed from their web store, many users want to know how they can obtain *.crx files directly for their favorite Google Chrome extensions. CRX files are the packed version of the extensions and can be used to install them offline, without visiting the Google Chrome web store. In this article, I would like to share a very simple way to obtain the crx file for any Chrome extension quickly.
Corals theme for Windows 8
