The tile-based
interface Start screen is Windows 8’s most noticeable feature. It’s
Microsoft’s glance-and-go interface. You see it when you log in to
Windows 8, and even if you use Desktop on a PC for most things, you’ll
find that you transit through the Start screen often. As tile-based apps
become more prevalent, Desktop users will find themselves increasingly
spending time inside the tile-based interface. And of course, if you are
using Windows 8 on a tablet or phone, then the tile-based interface is
your friend.
The interface is
organized around a tile-based flat wall of icons. A scrollable wall of
icons has been used by many operating systems and data visualization
shells and is very useful in browsing a lot of items quickly through
visualization. Let’s start our visit to the tile-based interface by
looking at its main features, and then we’ll take a look at some of the
small customizations that are possible with the Start screen.
Most of the functionality of the Start screen
is hidden, and much of what you do on the Start screen is associated
with tiles, which we will get to in a moment. You can’t customize the
Start screen very much in this version of Windows.
Windows 8 uses the Charms bar to display some
of the central settings that were once found on the Start menu and in
various control panels. The Charms bar is also available to you when you
are on the Desktop.
The Apps bar appears at the bottom of the
screen and offers you options that relate to what an app is doing at the
moment. Think of the Apps bar as the equivalent of a right-click or
context menu on the Desktop (the Desktop doesn’t have an Apps bar).
Since the main thing that the tile-based interface does is work with
tiles, most of the buttons on the Apps bar relate to tiles, particularly
when a tile is selected. In many instances, Apps bar buttons will
display a pop-up menu of commands when you tap or click them.
There’s not much you can customize in
tile-based interface, but you can select a new background design and
color from a limited number of choices; and you can move tiles around
and create new groupings.
The customization features of the Start screen
are clearly a work in progress. Future versions of Windows 8 will
undoubtedly give you a fancier display. And if Microsoft doesn’t do it,
you can count on third-party utilities to offer better features.
It’s obvious that the tile-based user interface was built with touch in mind.
To open the tile-based interface Start screen
• Log in to Windows.
• On the Desktop, press 
. (Press the key again to return to the Desktop.)
• Tap or click the lower-left corner of
your display. Windows 8 shows a thumbnail of the Start screen on a PC.
On a tablet, you don’t see the thumbnail, but you when you click the
lower-left corner, you switch between the Desktop and the Start screen.
To move your view of Start screen content
• Swipe right or left.
• Use the scroll bar to move left or right.
• Use your mouse’s scroll wheel to move left or right.
• Move the cursor to the left edge of
the display to scroll all the way to the left, or to the right edge to
scroll all the way to the right.
To view the Charms bar
• Press +C.
• Swipe from the right edge.
• Hold your cursor on the upper-right corner of the display .
The Charms bar is available from both the tile-based interface Start screen and the Desktop.
To change the Start screen colors and background
1. Open the PC Settings Personalize screen, then click the Start screen link .
You can personalize the Start screen by changing its color and design.
2. Click one of the six patterns in the top row of boxes or one of the 25 different colors.
To customize the tile-based interface using the corners and edges
• Tap, or move the cursor to, the
lower-left corner to view a thumbnail of the Desktop that you can click
to move. On the Desktop, this corner shows the Start screen thumbnail,
which you can click to move to the Start screen.
• Tap, or move the cursor to, the
upper-left corner to view the next open app in the tab order. Click to
cycle through the tab order from one open app to another. Drag down to
view a pane with all of your open apps.
• Tap, or move the cursor to, the upper-right corner to view the Charms bar. Drag down to open the Charms bar.
• Tap, or move the cursor to, the lower-right corner to view the Charms bar. Drag up to open the Charms bar.
• Tap and hold, or click, the lower-right corner to see a reduced-tile-size view of the tile-based interface screen .
You can select groups of tiles here and move them left or right. Swipe
from the left edge on the Start screen to move to the next app in the
tab order.
This reduced tile-based view can be used to select groups of tiles and move them left or right.
• Swipe up from the bottom edge or down from the top edge to view the Apps bar.
• Swipe in from the right edge to view the Charms bar.
Tip
If you start to type a
text string on the Start screen, you are automatically taken to the
Search function and matches are displayed.
