8 tricks to get the most out of Windows 8.1 on PCs with a mouse and keyboard

We all know that with Windows 8 there was a radical change in the interfaceand how to use the operating system with mouse and keyboard. These changes have generated the rejection of many users, leading Microsoft to want to go back, re-incorporating many elements of Windows 7 and earlier, such as the Start Menu.

But the truth is that in Windows 8 and in the subsequent 8.1 update there are many new features and changes that we can take advantage of, in order to become more productive in the use of the PC once we learn to use them.That is why in this post we have wanted to collect several tricks that allow us to take advantage of new features of Windows 8.1 to work more efficiently, including some that are also valid for tablets. Let's go to them.

Use the “Share” charm to work with multiple Metro apps

Despite being rarely used by most desktop PC users, charms offer several useful features for those of us who work with mouse and keyboard One of them is the ability to send content between different Metro/Modern UI applications, thanks to the “Share” charm.

Although its name may make us believe that it is a function designed to share things on social networks, it actually allows to send content from a Metro application to any other appthat has support for this feature, and then execute some function with that content.For example, if we are reading a book in the Kindle app, or a document in the Windows PDF reader, we can select a portion of text and share it with Bing Translator, and the translation of the text will be displayed in a pop. -up, without exiting the original application.

Note-taking applications, such as OneNote or Evernote, also benefit from this feature, since using the Share charm we can save in them text, images or other content from almost any other Metro application, and you can even save screenshots from the desktop. And so, there are many other possible uses for this feature, it's just a matter of browsing the Windows Store for apps that support Sharing.

"An example of using the Share charm: translating a piece of text without leaving the PDF reader"

And in case the list of applications to share becomes very large (and therefore it is difficult for us to find the apps that we really use) we can hide some. To do this, go to Settings > Search and applications > Share.

Taking advantage of the Ribbon: search and quick access bar

Another new addition to Windows 8, perhaps a little better known than the Share charm, is the addition of the Ribbon in Windows ExplorerThis interface, originally from Office, has the advantage of displaying a large number of options grouped intuitively, and also of adapting to context, for example, showing an image editing menu if we select an image.

Thanks to this, the Windows 8 Ribbon displays a tab with search options whenever you select the Explorer search box of files.So we can have easy access to advanced search filters, such as size, file type, tags, or modification date. We also have at one click the option to search in unindexed locations, to resort to recent searches or to save the current search.

These are all options that were available in Windows 7 but in a much more hidden and less accessible way. Learning how to use these filters and becoming familiar with them will help us get accurate search results faster.

Another interesting feature of the Ribbon that many users overlook is the ability to customize the quick access bar This is the toolbar that appears above the rest of the Ribbon (at the title bar level), and that shows the most frequently used options, the ones that we want to see no matter which tab of the Ribbon is active By default, this bar includes the Properties, New Folder and Undo buttons, but we can add as many as we want. For that, all you have to do is right click on the button on the Ribbon that you want to add, and then select “Add to the quick access toolbar”.

Control app notifications

An important innovation of Windows 8 was the inclusion of a centralized notification system, which even has support for desktop applications, such as Outlook 2013. Although these notifications are useful, there are times when we don't want to see them, either because they distract us and we want to concentrate on something, because we are presenting, or other reason.

Luckily, Windows 8.1 gives us several options to choose when these notifications are shown, and also which notifications are shown.The most basic of them is in the configuration charm: there we will see a "Notifications" button that allows us to hide them for 1, 3 or 8 hours. This option is ideal for presentations and events, and works only once (at the end of the period, notifications are displayed again as normal).

If we go to system settings, we can see more detailed options In Search and apps > Notifications allow us to set silent hours for everyday. We can also choose which applications can show notifications and which ones can't, and even disable all notifications completely.

Disable Windows 8.1 Metro app changer

One of the problems of the first version of Windows 8 was how poorly resolved the coexistence of Metro applications with desktop applications wasThis was reflected in something as basic as wanting to switch applications, or see what applications we had open.The taskbar displayed only desktop apps, while on the left side of the screen you could access a Metro app switcher, which didn't display desktop apps as was considered that the desktop itself was an application (?!). The only way to see all open applications (Metro and desktop) was to use ALT + TAB.

With the changes introduced in Windows 8.1 Update, the Metro app changer has little to nothing to offer mouse and keyboard users.

Windows 8.1 Update tried to fix this, making the taskbar also show Metro apps, and we can access the bar from the “Metro environment”. And the truth is that with this modification, the Modern UI application changer has little to offer mouse and keyboard users: better always use the taskbar

Given that, many may want to disable this feature, to avoid calling it by mistake when working on the desktop. Luckily doing it is very easy: we just have to go to System Settings > PC and devices > Corners and edges, and once there, deactivate the option “ Allow switching between applications ”.

Show Libraries back in the Explorer navigation pane (and hide other folders)

Libraries (or libraries) are a type of virtual foldersintroduced in Windows 7 that allow us to consolidate in a single location all the folders in which we save documents, images, videos, etc., regardless of their physical location real.

Unfortunately, in Windows 8 this feature has been de-emphasized, hiding Libraries in the Navigation Pane by default.Luckily, showing them there again is very simple: we just have to go to the "View" tab of the Ribbon, select "Navigation Panel" and then click on "Show Libraries".

Now, when doing that, the Navigation Panel can be very “overcrowded”. To avoid this, it can be useful to hide other locations that we rarely use, such as the Local Network. Achieving that will be a bit more complex, since we will have to resort to Windows Registry To do this we must go to Start, type “regedit.exe” and press Enter. Once there, we must navigate to the following location:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}\ShellFolder

If we want to continue, we have to "take ownership" and assign Full Control permissions on the folder ShellFolder For that we have to click right in the folder, click on “Permissions” and then select “Advanced Options” under the “Security” tab.

In the box that will appear, click on the “Change” option next to “Owner” at the top of the window (Step 1). With this, another window will appear, where you must once again click on “Advanced Options” (Step 2). We will be shown a new window called "Select User or Group", where we must click on "Search now" (Step 3) and finally look for our user in the list that will appear below and select "OK" (Step 4).

Doing so, we return to the initial “Permissions” window, select “Administrators” and assign Full Control permissions. With that we can just edit the registry entry that interests us inside the ShellFolders folder. This entry is called "Attributes", we double click on it and in "Value data" we paste the value b0940064

If we use 64-bit Windows 8.1, we will have to repeat the same procedure in the following registry location, modifying another entry called “Attributes”.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}\ShellFolder

And ready. Upon system reboot, the Network icon should no longer appear within the Explorer navigation pane.

Make desktop apps load faster at startup

We continue with the tricks that invoke the Windows registry. This time it's one aimed at improve the performance of desktop applications that load at startup. It happens that in Windows 8 these applications have lost priority at the start of the system, the operating system delays its loading so that "everything else" is available faster (Start screen, charms, notifications, etc).Something very useful if we work on a Tablet or make intensive use of the Metro environment, but not so much if we use the desktop more.

Luckily, you can try to change that, by forcing the system to give desktop programs the same priority. For that you have to go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Serialize

If we find that the “Serialize” key does not exist, then we must create it in the indicated path. Once there, we must create a DWORD value with the name StartupDelayInMSec, and leave it the value 0, or assign it if a value with that name already exists.

The effect on desktop application performance should be noticeable after a couple of system reboots.

Keep File History on to retrieve previous versions of documents and folders

The File History is one of the great improvements that Windows 8 incorporates, and that unfortunately has gone unnoticed by many users This is the evolution of the “Previous Versions” or Snapshots introduced by Windows Vista: incremental backup copies of our personal files, with which we can “travel on the road”. time ” and retrieve versions of files corresponding to a specific date (very much in the vein of OS X's Time Machine).

The main novelties that File History brings to Windows 8 are the possibility of saving backup copies on an external drive ( something very necessary, since a backup copy that is on the same physical support as the original files is of little use) and that now you can have a more granular control of some options, such as the frequency with which the files are backed up, and the time that each version remains stored.

In addition, the interface for restoring files in Windows 8 is much more intuitive than in previous versions, and it's also easier to find thanks to the Ribbon. To access it we just have to click on the "History" button in the "Open" section of the bar. This button works contextual: it will take us to the previous versions of the folder in which we are located at the moment it is pressed, or to the previous versions of the file that we have selected.

You can also set the most recent copies to also be available on the main drive, as an offline cache, so that we can restore previous versions of files even if we don't have the backup disk on hand. This is very useful, for example, if we have saved unwanted changes to a document. If we want to have more copies available on the local disk, just increase the space reserved for the offline cache

Another interesting storage-related innovation in Windows 8 is “Storage Spaces” for grouping drives and creating virtual disks, the operation of which We already explained here in Xataka Windows.

Save bandwidth with metered connections

With lower prices and higher speeds of mobile connections, it is more common for us today to use 3G/4G connectivity on Windows laptops and tablets , either by sharing the internet from the mobile, with a USB modem or on a device with an integrated modem.

However, the cost of using the web in this way is still not negligible, so we must be cautious in data consumptionWindows 8.1 helps us in this task, by allowing us to establish a network as “metered connection” By default, Windows considers mobile broadband connections to be of metered use, while those of WiFi are not, but this can be easily changed from the network settings, by right-clicking on the corresponding network.

What are the concrete effects of a network being defined as “metered use”? Mainly, Windows limits data traffic for Metro and desktop applications (for example, synchronizing mail in Outlook, synchronizing notes in OneNote or downloading podcasts in iTunes), updating live tiles is also paused, same as syncing files to OneDrive, Windows Update only downloads priority updates, etc.

In any case, Windows 8.1 allows you to modify certain parameters in metered connections. For example, you can make OneDrive sync files and settings over these connections, or make Windows search not return Bing suggestions or web results. With this we will be able to save on data consumption, while not losing the functionalities that most interest us.

Do you know any other tricks to get more out of Windows 8.1?

Header Image | Business Insider Sources | Eight Forums, Team Windows 8