Posts Tagged ‘consumer’
Take Screenshots in Windows 8 Consumer Preview
Other than in other versions of Windows where you took screenshots by pressing the PrtSc key and then pasting them to Paint or another graphical editor, it is now possible to take screenshots directly on in Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
To do that, just press Windows key + PrtSc and the screenshot will be saved into your pictures folder. For those who prefer the classic method, it is still available the way it was. Furthermore, if you did not know, you can press Alt + PrtSc to capture only the active window. Unfortunately this feature was not (yet) updated to work together with the Windows key method.
Create New Metro Tiles On Windows 8
Since you now won’t get around to use the Metro Start-screen on the recently released Windows 8 Consumer preview, it might be good to know how to add some functionality to it.
To add the usual Windows tools or Apps you can just open the Metro menu and right-click some free space. On the appearing menu at the bottom of the screen, choose All Apps. You now get to a list of Windows components and apps, which you can right-click to open their menus. From there, click on Pin to Start:
To pin other programs or folders to the Start-screen, go to the classic desktop and right-click the item you want to have on the Metro screen. Here, you also have the option to Pin to Start.
A way to produce more customized tiles is to create a shortcut on the desktop which you can assign switches to. For example, if the shutdown button is too hidden for you, just create a new shortcut and assign the path shutdown /s to it (for more options, open a cmd and type shutdown /?). Stick it to Metro as described above, give it a nice icon before maybe, and your shutdown button will be far more accessible than the original one.
Shutdown Windows 8
Windows 8 does no longer provide you with an obvious button to shut your machine down, put it to sleep or restart it. You now have the optoins to either shut down with the Ctrl + Alt + Del screen or to find your way through some hot-corner menus to do so. If you choose to try the latter, move your mouse to the top right corner of the screen to activate the appropriate menu, then move the mouse down to the Settings option:
Then click the Power button to open the shut down menu and choose the action of your choice:
Windows 8 Task Manager Improvements (Consumer Preview)
Along with all the other changes that Windows 8 introduces to the operating systems’ family, the ones made to the Task Manager will likely be welcomed by most users. Along with a revamped interface it brings along an enhanced pool of functionalities.
Opening the Task Manager is still done in the old way: you can either right-click the taskbar on the classic desktop and choose the appropriate action or press Ctrl + Alt + Del. As before, it is also available from the applciation menu which however is now part of the Metro menu.
Upon opening you will only be presented with a small window offering you to handle running application, which might be a good way to bringing the manager closer to unexperienced users. By clicking on More details, you will get to the new detailed Task Manager view, having all the options you had in earlier versions, plus, a few new ones.
You will notice a few more tabs in the new manager – the Details, Users and Services tabs are basically what you will be used to from previous versions. The performance tab has visually been enhanced and now features Disk and Network usage. The Startup tab gives you the option to edit the applications that are run on system startup just like msconfig did – this function has now moved to Task Manager. App history gives you an overview of your App usage (CPU, Network, Tile Updates). The Processes tab however is the big deal.
It lists all the running processes, divided into categories (Apps, Background processes, Windows processes) and furthermore shows all their resource usage. Heavy resource users are displayed on a dark yellow to orange background – the color gets lighter the less resources the process uses.
Notice that the Apps you do not use at the moment do not drain any CPU resources – they are put to “sleep” if running in the background.