Top Windows 8 Features And Customization

Regardless the operating system we work on, we always look for different ways to customize it so that your computer looks different from others.

So, if your machine is running on Windows 8, I would like to share some interesting ways to customize Windows 8.

The best thing about the below Windows 8 tricks is that they are pretty easy to try out. Without wasting much of your time, let me get to the business. Below are the Windows 8 tricks.



Adjust Tiles Sizes

If you are not happy with not happy with the tiles sizes of your current home screen, then you have all the rights to change the sizes. All you need to do is right click on any tile, click on the Smaller option to reduce the size of the tile and vice versa to increase it. And to get it done on a tablet, just tap on the tile and hold it and drag up or down to increase or decrease the tile size.

Set Default Apps

Windows 8 has this incredible feature of displaying some apps on the home screen. And if you wish to have any particular app on the home screen, just right click on the application window and you will have an option to set it as a default app. And if you want to do it on your tablet, just swipe from bottom to the top of the screen.

Set Lock Screen Image

Now having an image to be displayed when have your machine locked is surely a cool thing to have. By default, Windows 8 lets you use 8 different images as lock screen images. In order to enable them, navigate as Settings charm from the Start Screen. Then click on Change PC settings > Personalizeand then on Lock screen.

Set Lock Screen Apps

If you do not like to have static images for your locked screen, then you can have some apps available which offer you more than just an image. You can search the Windows 8 app market for such apps which would display info like number of emails received, weather info, reminders, calender, and much more.

Turn OFF / ON Notifications

One could easily spot few of its features being inspired from Mac and iOS and Notifications is one such addition. But if wish to disable it, all you need to do is navigate as Settings Charm > Change PC Settings > Notifications. Here you can either disable it or enable it. A pretty handy feature to have. [Via]

Easy Way To Take Screenshots

This feature is totally inspired from Mac. I always wondered, unlike Mac, why Windows do not let you capture a screenshot by pressing keys. But here is the brand new addition to Windows 8 which lets you take a screenshot by pressing Windows key + Print Screen on computer and Windows key + Volume Down button on a tablet PC.

Create Your Own Groups On Start Screen

By default, Windows 8 offers you some pre-defined groups. If you wish to have your own groups, all you need to do is drag and drop the application on the empty screen and that is it! And in order to rename any group, all you need to is click on the button on the bottom right corner and then right clicking on the groups.



Get The Best Out Of Multiple Monitors

If you are using multiple monitors on Windows 8, then its immense bliss. If you wish to move your current app from right to left, you need to press Windows key + Page Up and in order to move to right, press Windows key + Page Down. Cool, right?

Run Automatic Maintenance Schedule Tasks

You can get this thing activated from Action Center. Under the Automatic Maintenance section, you can set the time as whatever you wish to. And if in case your computer is off at that time, it would take care of the maintenance activities when your machine is idle after the scheduled time. And the scheduled tasks include, software updates, security scanning, diagnostic actions. [Via]



Speed Up Windows Startup

I have been reading a lot about Windows 8 and learned that unlike its other releases, Windows 8 actually saves its state while shutting down and when you turn it ON later, it gets back to the same status. And I guess, this consumes a lot of resources. In order to fasten the Windows 8 booting, you need to navigate into Control Panel and do the below tweaks.

Under Power button settings option, chose the option for When I press the power button as Do nothing. And below you will find the Shutdown settings section, where you need to enable the Turn on fast startup (recommended) option. I think you are done with this tweak and you shall see a considerable improvement in the boot time of Windows 8.

Speed Up Taskbar

If you can successfully speed up the taskbar of your machine, then you can see a good improvement in the performance of your machine. In order to do that, launch the Registry Editor on your Windows 8 machine and navigate as HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Mouse on the left panel and change the value of MouseHoverTime on the right panel to 100.

Remove Unnecessary Startup Items

This is not a Windows 8 specific tip as it works well on any operating system, and I have been doing this since ages as it works well. When you startup your computer, a good amount of time and resources is spent on items which are started automatically. Just click on the Run option and open the MSConfig snapshot by typing MSCONFIG and hitting enter.

Take Off The Desktop Animations

When I first learned that desktop animations, I stopping trying out themes and other similar things as it would affect my computer’s performance. With Windows 8, you get the catchy desktop animations by default which have to be removed in order to get the best performance.

Right click on Computer and click on Properties and then on Advanced System Settings. Now on theSystem Properties window, click on Advanced tab and then on Settings button. There, click on theAdjust for best performance option which would uncheck all the memory eating desktop animations and hence will help improving your computer’s performance.



Optimize Drives

In the previous versions, you had Disk Deframenter and in Windows 8, we have got Optimize Drivesoption. Instead of optimizing your drives once in a while, you can schedule the activity to take place every week would help the cause of speeding up Windows 8.

Remove Heavy Services

If you find your Windows 8 machine is running slowly, identify the processes / services which are eating maximum of memories and then try to remove them, and see if those programs can be uninstalled if they aren’t of any use. I decent way to identify the culprit services which slows down your Windows 8 machine.



Try Third Party Tools

Personally, I have never used much of any optimizing tool other than System Mechanic. There are number of such tools in the market (free and paid) which would let you clean the junk and keep your machine in good condition so that no unnecessary process consumes your machine’s resources. [Via]



Steps To Setup Picture Password On Windows 8

First thing that you need to do is click on the Settings option on the Charms Bar. In order to get the Charms Bar, you would have to either move the cursor from top right to down or swipe the mouse pointer in from the right

• Now click on the More PC Settings option
• Click on the Users on the left panel and click on the button labelled as Create a picture password 
• This will launch a user interface which will help you do the job
• In order to choose a picture, click on the Choose Picture button
• You can upload a picture from your local machine or Facebook or Flickr or SkyDrive
• Now position your picture and click on Use this picture button
• Now you need to draw three gestures on the picture. And these gestures could be the combination circles, straight lines, taps
• Repeat the same pattern for 3 times and you are done with the setup

From now onwards, whenever you login to your Windows 8 machine, it would display you with the selected picture. And in order to login, you would have to get the gestures right.  [Via]



Enable Aero Peek on Windows 8

The rightmost button on taskbar used to give you peek of desktop. Click in the empty space next to the clock in the taskbar still takes you to desktop when few windows are open. However, there is no peeking to desktop on hovering. You can enable by:

1. Right click on the taskbar, click Properties.

2. Check “Use Peek to preview the desktop when you move your mouse to the Show desktop button at the end of the taskbar”. Press OK.

Alternatively, you can right click the show desktop button and click “Peek at desktop” and it will be enabled.

Enable 3D Window switching on Windows 8

Remember that Win+Tab widnow switching in Windows 8? You used to get a nice 3d carrousel of open applications. And you could scroll through the list and choose the desired app. This is made possible on Windows 8 using app called Switcher. Switcher also makes it possible to get Mac-like Expose for switching among the running applications. Choose what you like. [Via]