Some possible shortcuts for Windows 8
As you found out there is no "Start Menu" in Windows 8, but this so called Modern UI Start Screen which is used to launch other desktop apps that take you right back to the desktop. This switching takes you out of context by pushing your work in the 1st application off-screen, making it easy to lose track of what you were doing..
Switcher groups all desktop apps into just one thumbnail, within the switcher menu you will see separate thumbnails for all your open Windows 8 applications. So the entire desktop gets one thumbnail, no matter how many different programs are running on it.
1. The good old
ALT + TAB keyboard shortcut will show you a menu with every desktop and Windows 8 app on it. You can keep hitting the
ALT + TAB to select the app you want, but after you switched apps, the menu disappears.
2. When you 1st boot up Windows 8 you end up with a Lock Screen that you must drag up and away (or click to close) before you reach the login prompt. You can disable this function;
If gpedit is installed.
- Hit Window Key + R, a run dialog box appears
- Type gpedit.msc into the box and hit OK, the Local group policy Editor appears
- Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Tools > Control Panel > Personalization in the left pane of the window
- Double click (or tap) on Do not display the lock screen
- Select Enabled and Click OK
3. Previous windows displays the power button in the start menu to shut it down. In Windows 8 you must pull out the Charms menu, click the Settings charm, click the Power Button and then select Shutdown or Restart (DUH)
There is an easier way;
- Navigate to the desktop
- Right click on the desktop and select New > Shortcut
- In the box that appears enter the following; shutdown /s /t 0 (that's a zero), hit next, enter a name you would like and click finish. A new shortcut will appear on the desktop
- Right click on the shortcut and select Properties
- Click change Icon under the shortcut Tab and then click OK in the warning box that says shutdown.exe contains no icons
- Select an Icon from the available list Click on it twice (once to close the Change Icon window and once more to close Properties window), your shortcut will now have an icon
- Right click the shortcut and select Pin to Start, the shutdown icon will now appear on the Start Screen
- Drag the shutdown icon to a prominent place on the Start Screen
- Right click the icon and select Pin to Taskbar, if you want the shortcut to live on your desktops taskbar as well
You can also repeat the above steps to create a Restart Button, instead use the command
shutdown /r /t 0
USERS
Windows 8 does have the ability to handle multiple users and sync their settings with the cloud. If you use a Microsoft account and log into your second, third or even millionth device with those credentials, you’ll get the same wallpaper, account settings and even favorites you had on your other computers.
However, new users cannot install desktop applications on their own. When a secondary user tries to install a program on the desktop, they will be hit with a User Account Control dialog box, asking for the admin password. After entering the password, the application installs but does not put a shortcut on the desktop. If you want someone to be able to install software, you must give them admin rights.
- Navigate to PC Settings under Charms > Settings menu
- You must be logged in as administrator before doing this, if you are the 1st user to have activated Windows 8 you are the administrator
- Click on Add User under the Users Tab
- Enter the new user's email address and click next
- Click finish
- Launch the desktop control panel and select small or large icon view
- Click User Accounts
- Click Manage another account
- Select the account you want to modify
- Click Change the account type
- Select Administrator and click Change account type
- New users who want their account to sync to a device needs to designate the device as a "Trusted Computer" on the users TAB in the PC Settings menu and then enter the confirmation code that it send by mail