Close Modern apps Archives

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.

Continue reading "How to really close Modern apps in Windows 8.1"

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.

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