Windows 8 Archives - Page 3 of 4

How to remove all bundled Modern apps from your user account in Windows 8

Windows 8 has done radical changes to the application distribution model. There are two types of applications or "apps" in Windows 8 - Desktop apps are one type that we all have used for years, and Modern apps are the other, formerly known as Metro apps. Modern apps were created principally for touch screen devices, such as tablets and for simple uses. If you are not a tablet user and do not have a display with touch screen support, or if you are a power user, you may find Modern apps useless.

Even if you click "Uninstall" on the Start screen for the built-in apps, they are not completely removed from your system as they are "Staged" so that Windows can re-create the built-in apps for a new user account. So, they continue to take disk space unnecessarily on your PC, in the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps folder.

You might be interested in knowing how to remove these bundled Metro apps from your user account and free up a significant amount of disk space. Read below to see how.

Slow down window animations in Windows 8/7/Vista with the Shift key

In Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced the DWM (Desktop Window Manager) which implements fancy animation effects, transparency and Aero skins for window frames. Ever since Vista, it allows you to slow down window animations by pressing the Shift key (the animation you see when any dialog or window appears on screen, or when minimizing, or closing a window). This is a hidden feature that has to be enabled with a registry tweak. Read the rest of this article to learn how to enable it.

How to get true Aero Glass with Blur in Windows 8

An MSFN member 'BigMuscle' has implemented Aero Glass with transparency and blur for Windows 8. His tiny portable app Aero Glass for Win8 v0.2 hooks the DWM API in Windows 8 and creates real blur and transparency effects on window frames using Direct 2D and Direct 3D.

It is just AWESOME:

AeroGlass with blur in Windows 8 — Aero Glass with Blur in Windows 8

How to install third party themes in Windows 8

Ever since Microsoft introduced the theming engine in Windows XP, they don't allow visual styles (themes) which are not digitally signed by themselves to be used. Windows 8 is no different in that regard, so we need to patch certain system files to be able to use these themes. In this tutorial, I will show you how you can use third party themes:

Option 1 (Recommended): UxStyle

Install the UxStyle software developed by Rafael Rivera. The main benefit of this app is that it keeps system files untouched on disk and works transparently in memory.

Just follow the instructions in the installation wizard.

How to prevent Windows 8 from automatically logging in the last user

If you have multiple user accounts in Windows 8 (e.g. one for yourself and another for your family member), you may notice a new annoyance in Windows 8 - it signs in the last user automatically who shut down/rebooted the PC. Most users would not like to be signed in automatically and would instead prefer seeing a list of users at the logon screen, from where they can choose which user account to login with. Today, we are going to share a way to prevent Windows 8 from automatically signing in the last user. Let's start.

How to reduce the startup delay for desktop apps in Windows 8

In case you aren't aware of this, Windows 8 delays the startup for all desktop apps. Shortcuts located in your Start Menu's Startup folder as well as the items which run from various Registry locations will be launched after a delay of few seconds. This behavior was implemented by Microsoft probably because Windows 8 is a tablet-oriented OS (another example of how the Desktop takes a backseat in Windows 8). However, you can reduce this startup delay for desktop apps by editing the Registry. Read this post to learn how.

How to pin any Modern (Metro) App to the Taskbar or the Desktop

One of the most anticipated and highly desired features lacking in Windows 8 is the ability to pin Modern (Metro) apps to the taskbar. Microsoft did not make this possible out of the box. There have been a few articles written by various websites covering how to do this but they only deal with the built-in Modern Apps. The method didn't work for additional Store-installed apps. Here's how you can do it easily with the help of a free third party tool, called OblyTile. OblyTile is a little tool that allows you to do two things:

- OblyTile lets you pin a shortcut to anything you want on the Start screen with a custom image of your choice. Even Desktop apps can have a custom static tile image instead of just a regular icon.

- OblyTile includes a launcher lets you launch Modern (Metro) apps from anywhere on the Desktop. Modern (Metro) apps have an AppID, stored in their shortcut (the AppID concept was introduced in Windows 7). OblyTile lets you create a shortcut to a Modern app on your desktop that you can move or pin anywhere like the Taskbar or inside your favorite Start Menu replacement.

How to improve the way you close Modern (Metro) apps

Ever since I released "Close Threshold for Metro Apps" utility for Windows 8, many people have been asking me how to make it easier to close Modern Apps without using third party software.

In case you are not familiar with Close Threshold for Metro Apps, it is a utility that simply adjusts the registry value for mouse as well as for touch screens so that the distance needed to close a Modern App by dragging it from the top edge of the screen can be reduced to whatever you want. You no longer have to drag it all the way to the bottom of the screen to close an app. It's a significant improvement in usability, trust me.

Coming back to the manual way of accomplishing the same thing. because Windows RT-based devices are unable to run my utility as it does not have a version for ARM architecture. Well, now they can use this simple registry tweak I am going to share.

How to tweak the settings of the parallax effect on the Windows 8 Start Screen

Parallax effect settings of the Start Screen in Windows 8

Whenever you scroll the tiles on the Windows 8 Start screen, you will notice that there is a difference in the speed of the animation of the Tiles and the Start Screen's background. The background scrolls slower than the tiles, giving the user a motion effect of a parallax. Today, I am going to share with you a hidden registry tweak which lets you customize the speed of the parallax effect in few simple steps.

Option one: Use our easy-to-use tool to tweak it
I have updated my Start Screen Animations Tweaker application to version 1.1. It now allows you to customize the hidden settings of the parallax effect.

How to customize the Windows 8 boot experience

Windows 8 introduces a new boot experience, which has undocumented hidden options. As our friend KNARZ discovered, they can be tweaked. Today, I will explain which commands can be used to disable the Windows 8 boot logo and the spinning animation, as well as how to enable advanced boot options and bring back the "classic" Windows 7 boot experience.