254 replies to this topic 4 votes

[bdsams]

Alright folks, it's a new OS and time for tips and tricks...let us know what you find and post them here so we can keep a running thread of all the nifty shortcuts MS has included.

[dafin0]

Dot Matrix, on 01 March 2012 - 00:13, said:

Don't know if anyone has caught onto this or not, but in the lower left corner of the screen, if you *right* click, you get a nice little menu filled with goodies.

Untitled.png

[br0adband]

For "power users" the fastest and bestest one I found earlier was the right-click on the lower left hand corner "Power Menu" with shortcuts to all the stuff like Control Panel, Power Options, Disk Management and the other goodies.

Some new keyboard shortcuts as well, there's a comprehensive list at:

http://www.winsupers...hortcuts-142358

Aside from that not much going on yet. I spend 99% of my time looking at the Desktop anyway so, I don't notice much difference between 8 and Windows 7 at this point (and yes I ran the DP for some time as well).

I know most of the Metro apps are previews so I hope they get around to adding some features to Reader - having PDFs load to fit the screen and no zoom functionality is a pain in the ass with some PDFs I have. Most typical PDFs will end up not displaying well enough to be able to read (I'm on a 1280x800 screen) well.

Fast, smooth (had to hit Windows Update to get the updated Intel GMA950 driver of course, prior to that it was sluggish), and working well so far on a ThinkPad T60 with a Core Duo (not even a Core 2 Duo).

[GreyWolf]

Win-X will also quickly pull up the power menu.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

If you click at the top left corner continuously, you will switch between legacy desktop and currently running apps.
This is nice if you have fewer apps running in the background and don't want to go through the entire list

[Ice_Blue]

To close Metro apps easily from both the desktop and start screen:

Put your mouse on the top left corner of the screen.
The most recently opened Metro app will appear. Move the mouse down to see all running apps.
Move it over the app you want to close, and right-click on the app, then select close.

[yikes]

For those who want easier way to shutdown:
1) Create a shortcut (new->shortcut) on a classic desktop.
2) Direct it to shutdown.exe -s -t 0
3) Put a nice icon on it
4) Pin it on start screen

Here you go, easy shutdown button

[Vileu]

If you really want your start menu back you could use http://lee-soft.com/vistart/ then again the orb won't be nicely aligned.

[King Lizzle]

One nice workaround I did find is to go to C:\Windows\ and search for "Shows Desktop". You can then copy that shortcut to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup Doing that means that Windows 8 will, in a fashion, boot directly to the desktop so you can bypass the Start Screen initially.

Also an old favourite of mine still works. Hit Win-key + R then type "control userpasswords2" and hit enter. This will bring up a dialog where you can choose to bypass the login process allowing your PC to fully boot into Windows without interruption.

[Ci7]

yikes, on 01 March 2012 - 13:48, said:

For those who want easier way to shutdown:
1) Create a shortcut (new->shortcut) on a classic desktop.
2) Direct it to shutdown.exe -s -t 0
3) Put a nice icon on it
4) Pin it on start screen

Here you go, easy shutdown button

or just

Alt+F4

shutdown

done

[Glen]

GreyWolf, on 01 March 2012 - 06:03, said:

Win-X will also quickly pull up the power menu.

Nice! I'm a keyboard enthusiast, so any more of these that can be posted will be greatly appreciated!

[CentralDogma]

Here a big giant list of useful console commands for any version of Windows(shamelessly stolen from here):

• Accessibility Options : access.cpl
  
• Add Hardware: hdwwiz.cpl
  
• Add / Remove Programs: appwiz.cpl
  
• Administrative Tools : control admintools
  
• Automatic Updates: wuaucpl.cpl
  
• Wizard file transfer Bluethooth: fsquirt
  
• Calculator: calc
  
• Certificate Manager: certmgr.msc
  
• Character: charmap
  
• Checking disk : chkdsk
  
• Manager of the album (clipboard) : clipbrd
  
• Command Prompt : cmd
  
• Service components (DCOM) : dcomcnfg
  
• Computer Management : compmgmt.msc
  
• DDE active sharing : ddeshare
  
• Device Manager : devmgmt.msc
  
• DirectX Control Panel (if installed) : directx.cpl
  
• DirectX Diagnostic Utility : dxdiag
  
• Disk Cleanup : cleanmgr
  
• Disk Defragmenter : dfrg.msc
  
• Disk Management : diskmgmt.msc
  
• Partition manager : diskpart
  
• Display Properties : control desktop
  
• Properties of the display (2) : desk.cpl
  
• Properties display (tab "appearance") : control color
  
• Dr. Watson: drwtsn32
  
• Manager vérirficateur drivers : check
  
• Event Viewer : Eventvwr.msc
  
• Verification of signatures of files: sigverif
  
• Findfast (if present) : findfast.cpl
  
• Folder Options : control folders
  
• Fonts (fonts) : control fonts
  
• Fonts folder windows : fonts
  
• Free Cell ...: freecell
  
• Game Controllers : Joy.cpl
  
• Group Policy (XP Pro) : gpedit.msc
  
• Hearts (card game) : mshearts
  
• IExpress (file generator. Cab) : IExpress
  
• Indexing Service (if not disabled) : ciadv.msc
  
• Internet Properties : inetcpl.cpl
  
• IPConfig (display configuration): ipconfig / all
  
• IPConfig (displays the contents of the DNS cache): ipconfig / displaydns
  
• IPConfig (erases the contents of the DNS cache): ipconfig / flushdns
  
• IPConfig (IP configuration cancels maps): ipconfig / release
  
• IPConfig (renew IP configuration maps) : ipconfig / renew
  
• Java Control Panel (if present) : jpicpl32.cpl
  
• Java Control Panel (if present) : javaws
  
• Keyboard Properties: control keyboard
  
• Local Security Settings : secpol.msc
  
• Local Users and Groups: lusrmgr.msc
  
• Logout: logoff
  
• Microsoft Chat : winchat
  
• Minesweeper (game): winmine
  
• Properties of the mouse: control mouse
  
• Properties of the mouse (2): main.cpl
  
• Network Connections : control NetConnect
  
• Network Connections (2): ncpa.cpl
  
• Network configuration wizard: netsetup.cpl
  
• Notepad : notepad
  
• NView Desktop Manager (if installed): nvtuicpl.cpl
  
• Manager links: packager
  
• Data Source Administrator ODBC: odbccp32.cpl
  
• Screen Keyboard: OSK
  
• AC3 Filter (if installed) : ac3filter.cpl
  
• Password manager (if present): Password.cpl
  
• Monitor performance : perfmon.msc
  
• Monitor performance (2): perfmon
  
• Dialing Properties (phone): telephon.cpl
  
• Power Options : powercfg.cpl
  
• Printers and Faxes : control printers
  
• Private Character Editor : eudcedit
  
• Quicktime (if installed) : QuickTime.cpl
  
• Regional and Language Options: intl.cpl
  
• Editor of the registry : regedit
  
• Remote desktop connection : mstsc
  
• Removable Storage: ntmsmgr.msc
  
• requests the operator to removable storage: ntmsoprq.msc
  
• RSoP (traduction. ..) (XP Pro): rsop.msc
  
• Scanners and Cameras : sticpl.cpl
  
• Scheduled Tasks : control schedtasks
  
• Security Center : wscui.cpl
  
• Console management services: services.msc
  
• shared folders : fsmgmt.msc
  
• Turn off windows : shutdown
  
• Sounds and Audio Devices : mmsys.cpl
  
• Spider (card game): spider
  
• Client Network Utility SQL server : cliconfg
  
• System Configuration Editor : sysedit
  
• System Configuration Utility : msconfig
  
• System File Checker (SFC =) (Scan Now) : sfc / scannow
  
• SFC (Scan next startup): sfc / scanonce
  
• SFC (Scan each démarraget) : sfc / scanboot
  
• SFC (back to default settings): sfc / revert
  
• SFC (purge cache files): sfc / purgecache
  
• SFC (define size CAHC x) : sfc / cachesize = x
  
• System Properties : sysdm.cpl
  
• Task Manager : taskmgr
  
• Telnet client : telnet
  
• User Accounts : nusrmgr.cpl
  
• Utility Manager (Magnifier, etc) : utilman
  
• Windows firewall (XP SP2) : firewall.cpl
  
• Microsoft Magnifier: magnify
  
• Windows Management Infrastructure: wmimgmt.msc
  
• Protection of the accounts database: syskey
  
• Windows update: wupdmgr
  
• Introducing Windows XP (if not erased) : tourstart
  
• Wordpad : write
  
• Date and Time Properties : timedate.cpl

[jamwheat]

Also for closing windows/apps in Metro: ALT+F4 works.

On Metro, right mouse click lower left corner brings up a dialog box were you can "show all apps"! Used it to show Media Center, so installed my USB cable adapter, setup TV, and watched some TV!!

[Roberticus]

This made my Win8 experience more enjoyable:
Open regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Desktop and change the value for "MenuShowDelay" to 0-20 (from 400). Dialogs and such opens up faster.

This next one made it more smooth (especially hovering the mouse over corners for menus):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Mouse
There change "MouseHoverTime" to 0-20 (from 400)

[fleccy]

Insig, on 01 March 2012 - 15:47, said:

If you really want your start menu back you could use http://lee-soft.com/vistart/ then again the orb won't be nicely aligned.

You can align them how you like by following this:

sevenforumsdotcom/tutorials/20602-taskbar-center-icons.html

Result:

http://img535.images...17/12209698.png