At the edge of tweaking
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Here is yet another handy tip to save your time and improve the usability of Windows 8.1 for you. Today we will exclusively share with you how to create a shortcut to open Automatic proxy setup.
This can be extremely useful if you want quickly change the automatic proxy configuration on your PC or Tablet.
In Windows 8/8.1 as well as in Windows 7, the user interface for Taskbar Properties changed, and with the removal of the Classic Start Menu, one useful option got removed from the settings: the ability to clean up the Run history as well as Explorer navigation history.
Let's see how we can perform the cleanup without using third party software.
When you first install Windows 8.1, it shows you help tips on how to use the corners of the screen to invoke various aspects of the Modern UI. They look like this:
While such tips are quite useful for the novice user, they can become incredibly annoying for power users or for anyone who is familiar with Windows 8/8.1's corner navigation. If they annoy you, here is how you can disable them in few simple steps:
How To Find If You are Running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 10
Almost all of my latest Winaero apps have separate builds for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. There are several reasons to provide separate 32-bit and 64-bit builds but it's mainly due to Windows compatibility - many times a 32-bit app does not work correctly in 64-bit Windows.
Sometimes, users of modern apps get confused which version they should use, because they can't tell if they are running 32-bit Windows or 64-bit. Actually, it is very easy to detect.
Windows 7 introduced a number of hotkeys to change the size and position of desktop apps. Let me remind you those keyboard shortcuts:
Win + Up Arrow - maximize the active window
Win + Down Arrow - return the maximized window to the original size. If you press Win+Down once again, the window will be minimized .
Win + Left Arrow - snap the active window to the left edge of the Desktop.
Win + Right Arrow - snap the active window to the right edge of the Desktop.
This is very handy, right?
But do you know that Microsoft has added these features in Windows 8.1 for Modern apps too? Let's see how hotkeys can be used with Modern apps.
As you might have observed, Windows 8.1 has two Lock Screens. One of them is your personalized lock screen, which you see when you lock your PC or tablet. The second one is the default Lock Screen. Every time you sign out, you see the default image with color stripes and the blue login screen behind it.
While you are able to customize your personal Lock Screen via PC Settings, Windows 8.1 provides no way to change the background image and color of the default Lock Screen.
I would like to share with you a simple way of changing the appearance of the default Lock screen.
In the previous article, I said that I will explain why closing Modern apps has been made harder by Microsoft in Windows 8.1 compared to Windows 8. Well, the answer consists of 2 reasons: first, Microsoft really doesn't want you to close Modern apps. They have been saying that all along since Windows 8 - the OS will manage the closing of unused apps automatically for you. Inactive apps will be suspended when they are not in use and if you don't use them for a long enough period, they'll be closed automatically.
The second reason is that they introduced a new ability for Modern apps - to restart them quickly without going all the way through the procedure of closing them, returning to the Start screen and launching them again! Windows 8.1 brings a new hidden feature, which allows you to restart a Modern app! Let's discover this hidden secret feature right now!
With Windows 8.1, Microsoft has secretly changed the behavior of Modern apps when you close them. In Windows 8, when you dragged a Modern app from the top edge to the bottom edge of the screen, it got closed. But in Windows 8.1, when you do the same, you will be surprised - that the app does not get closed; it remains in the Task manager! Windows 8.1 keeps Modern apps in the "suspended" state when you close them. In addition, Microsoft has also killed off all settings to tweak the close threshold for Modern apps as a result of which Winaero's CloseThreshold tool no longer has any effect see how to reduce distance to drag close Metro apps and speed up closing in Windows 8.1. But it's not all bad news, you are still able to close apps completely with a mouse gesture or swipe. Let's see how.
