How do I close this Windows 8 Metro App?

Before I get to yapping about Metro apps, and before someone goes about clicking on the Metro apps on the Start screen; it is probably a good idea to know how to close the darn things.  It had me miffed the very first time I opened an app.  Most Metro Apps let you right mouse click on the screen to open a ribbon with options on the bottom of the app, but you will never find Close there.  Nor will you ever see an X in the upper right of an app to close it.

Note: I do have a 23” Touch monitor that I am using with Windows 8 CP, but am I a mouse person and support people with mice, so much of my blogging is done on a Desktop with Mouse and Keyboard. Using Windows 8 CP with a touch monitor is similar movements as mouse but a whole different beast to describe.

Metro Apps

Metro Apps always run at full screen. In my reading Metro apps only work at 1024×768 or greater resolutions.  There is no way to make a Metro app work in a portion of the screen.  You can open a new app that essentially suspends and covers the previous app.   The exception to the rule being desktop mode, where an app like Messaging can be “Snapped” to the left or right of the desktop.

You got the App open, now how do you close it?

As simple as this sounds; it took me a day to perfect closing apps. Really.  It is simple but I had to accept the concept first.  Once you get it down it is a quick and painless motion. My first thought was “They really want me to drag from the top of the screen all the way to the bottom”?  It is not as bad as that sounds.

You can close an open Metro App by:

1. Moving the mouse to the anywhere on the top edge of the screen.  The cursor will almost look like the fingers are grabbing on to the edge.
2. While on the very top edge; click and hold the left mouse button and drag the mouse ALL THE Way to the bottom of the screen.  The Application will get smaller as you drag down, when you see just the top portion of the app peeking out of the bottom of the screen…Let go of the mouse button and Poof…the app is closed.  By closed I mean closed, no longer in memory.  Caput.

Honestly it took practice.  And between you and I , it took even more practice to get it down using the touch monitor.  Same principle; touch the very top edge of the screen and “Flick” downward to close the app. I found that I have to use a fingernail to drag it off the bottom of the screen.

Multiple Apps

We can have multiple Metro apps and the desktop open at the same time.  To open multiple apps we launch the first app from the Start screen.  That app will consume the entire screen.  To open a second Metro app; we hover our mouse pointer over the very bottom left corner of the screen and click the little Start screen that appears.  Back on the Start screen we open our second metro app.   Repeat as necessary.

So how do we switch between apps?

Well, Alt+Tab works as it always has in the various versions of Windows

Alt+Tab to switch between open apps.

How about with the Mouse?

With a mouse we can hover the pointer over the upper left corner of the screen and the First open app will appear.  If we hover over the the upper left corner then move the mouse straight down; a fly out with all open applications will appear on the left of the screen.  The same is true if we hover our mouse over the very bottom left of the screen and move the mouse straight upward. Note: that if your Desktop is open, when we are on the start screen we see the desktop when we hover over the bottom left corner of the screen.

Hover pointer  over Upper or Lower left corner and move up or down to expose all open apps.

With the application panel open we can click on an app to go to that open app or we can right-click on an app and choose Close to Close it.  If we are on the Desktop when we open the app panel and right-click on an application; we will have the option to Snap Left or Snap Right.  Choosing a Snap option will open the application in a column type window to the left or right of the Desktop.  This is useful if we want the Messaging app visible (allows us to chat) while working with a program on the desktop.

Do you want to know what apps are open and what they are doing in memory?  There is a little science in every show .

1. Get to our Start screen
2. Start typing the word Task
3. The Search screen opens and we see Task Manager in the results column, just press enter to launch the Task Manager (or we could click on it).

Under Apps we see both open Metro apps and programs.  Here we can end task just like we did in Windows 7.

Now we know how to close them…let us talk about a few of them.

Arranging the blasted Start screen in Windows 8

So far I am pretty comfortable with Windows 8.  I truly do like the look, feel and performance, but this goes down in the “Good luck with this one” file.  I understand that we only have the “Consumer Preview” flavor of Windows 8; hopefully there will be some added functionality to organizing the Start screen tiles.  Maybe I am just not seeing it but being a left handed Virgo; organization in a logical fashion needs to happen for me.

The start screen, as far as I can see, is organized in groups of tiles.  The tiles can be moved by pressing and holding (with mouse or touch) any of the outer edges of the tile, then dragging to a new location.  This is all well and good, until you run into the “snap” feature.  When you drag a tile and let go, it will snap into some invisible grid that is on the start screen.  Most of the time this is fine.

About Tiles:

Tiles are single (square) and double tile size.  It appears that we are at the mercy of the application as to what size tile is place at the start screen when we install the application.  What I have seen so far is that all the legacy apps that I install are single tile size. I have found how to rename them, but have not found a way to choose between single or double tile size.

About Groups:

It seems that there are set group sizes (in columns wide) on the Windows 8 Start screen.  You can mix and match but a tile group can be (in columns):

• (2) Single or (1) double tiles
• (3) Single or (1) single tiles and (1) double tile.
• (4) Single, (2) double tiles, or (2) single and (1) double.

Create a New Tile Group

So far I am ok with this.  To create a new group is simple.  Drag a tile to the right until you see a divider bar (outlined in red in the screen cap below) then let go to the right of the divider.  Boom, a new tile group is created.

Arrange the Tiles

Now the fun begins… If you have all single tiles then there is no problem.  The tiles just snap in place where you let go.  If you have a mix of double and single tiles in a group, well good luck on your journey.  As we drag and let go snap takes over.  In the screen cap below; If I drag a tile (three column group) from the upper right column and place it in the middle of the group…it snaps where I let go, but the bottom tile in the second column is force to the top of the third column.  What if I didn’t want that one there?  Well I have no choice…It just happens.

The way to work with these tile groups is to remember is there can be no gaps in the rows of a column.  Columns are filled top left and down then to the next column.  When you drop a tile in a column, everything under it will be moved down and the last tile will be moved to the top of the next column.  It is almost puzzle like getting your application tiles in the order and layout that you want.

With a little patience it does become easier.  Good luck, and with a little practice you will organizing your start screen in no time .  Well…something like that as your results will vary.

Where are my stinking Apps in Windows 8?

Again, year after year of doing the same old thing…we become accustomed to doing things a certain way.  It becomes second nature.  In Windows Vista, Windows 7 and even XP we clicked the Start Orb and located the program we wished to run.  Either by typing it in the Search programs and files box or Drilling down the All Programs tree of life (oh, bother).  Well many of us just pinned applications we used to the taskbar and did neither of the above

Windows 7 Start menu

Change can sometimes be a good thing.

From what I see, Windows 8 is designed to provide (in the near future) a familiar interface across multiple technologies.  Windows Phone 7.5 all ready uses the Metro style interface as a Start screen, Windows 8 on the PC and Tablet will offer the same.  If you have a Windows Phone 7.5 you are half way there…Jumping in to Windows 8 will make a bit more sense to you.

When we boot up and log into Windows 8 we are presented with the Start Screen.  The Start screen displays Metro Apps that we may have downloaded from the Windows store and It can display as tiles (launch pads) all those other programs that we install.

Windows 8 Start screen

For the geeks, it is an immediate “What have they done with …”.  Where’s my Media Center?  Where is my Control Panel?  The thing to remember is: The Start screen is our clean work area.  Here we set it up to the look and feel the way we want.  They don’t clutter the work area by default.  We can add or remove items that we may or may not use every day.  We can arrange tiles and groups to suit our needs.  We can even name our groups of tiles.

So what can you do with these tiles on the Start screen?

The obvious is to click on a tile to launch the application it represents.  If we right-click on a tile, we are presented with a ribbon across the bottom of the screen, with all the options that we can do with the tile or application.

• Unpin from Start will remove the tile from the Start Screen
• Pin to Taskbar will pin the Application the Taskbar of the Desktop for easy launching when working with the Desktop mode.
• Uninstall – be careful with this one.  Depending on the Application it will either take you to the Add/Remove Programs dialog or will completely uninstall the app from your computer. Pay close attention to the dialogs that open when you click Uninstall.
• Open in new window  Pretty obvious, it will launch the app in a new window.
• Run as administrator  Lets you run the app as the administrator…duh.
• Open file location  Opens the application’s location in Windows Explorer.

Windows 8 unpin an app

 

Most of the time when you install a program; Windows 8 will automatically place a tile on your start screen.  Be careful with the Tiles that are added to your Start screen when you install an application.  Unpin any Uninstaller that may get added to your Start screen.  Trust me, you don’t want those easily accessed.  I myself am a click happy fool, in the blur of a moment I clicked one of these Uninstallers and yes … Uninstalled a program I use from my computer.

That’s special, but where are the rest of my applications?

Glad you asked.  If you right-click on a blank area anywhere on the Start screen, All apps will appear on the ribbon on the bottom left of the screen.  Click on All apps. We use the Apps screen to add tiles to our Start screen or just launch them if we wish.

Windows 8 All apps button

Would you look at that.  A whole pile of apps.  Metro and desktop applications that I have installed.  It doesn’t take long to figure out that this is the same exact thing as All Programs in Windows 7, it is just a different way of presenting it.  Metro apps will be on the left and just like All Programs the App screen is sorted by application and items associated with it.  I’m down with that.   All those items like readmes, uninstallers and the application itself appear on the Apps screen when you install a program.

Windows 8 Apps

Pin an app to the Start screen.

When I installed my utilities for my Canon camera; not all apps that I wanted were pinned to my Start screen.  On the All apps screen I can locate the utility and right-click on it.  Like the Start screen options, here I can choose Pin to Start.  It’s as simple as that.

Windows 8 Pin to Start

Too hard?  Go back to the Start screen and just start typing the name of the application that you want pinned to the Start screen or to wish to launch.  Below I started typing Corel on the Start screen; the screen changed to the Search center and all my Corel apps appeared in the left column.  Here I can either click on, to launch, the application or right-click to be presented with the same options as above.  Pretty quick and just as easy, I say.

Windows 8 Start screen search

Once pinned you can go back to the Start screen and “Organize” the screen or location of your application…but that is a whole other story in itself.

You can teach an old dog new tricks.

At first I wasn’t really getting it but the more I have played with Windows 8 the faster I can get around.  It’s the same logic of previous versions, just a different presentation.  Once you get it down, it is a pretty smooth way to do things.  It did take me a week or two to get used of this interface but now that I am comfortable with it, I do like the changes.

Computer is on, how the heck do I shut Windows 8 down.

Another immediately noticeable change (and much discussed) is how to shut Windows 8 down.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the Start bubble (orb) is missing.  The first time I went to shut Windows 8 down, I was immediately at a loss. Like me, it seem that lots of folks don’t read the manuals before trying the new OS as there is much chatter the missing Shut Down option.

With Windows 7 we could click the Start bubble and the fly out would have the option to Shut Down, Restart, Switch User, Log off, Lock and Hibernate.  Not so with Windows 8.  No Fly out, no shutting down that way.  It is there it is presented to us differently with Windows 8.

To shut Windows 8 down we can bring up the “Charm” bar.  To bring up the Charm bar, just hover your mouse over the bottom right corner of the desktop or metro dashboard.  the Charm bar will fly in from the right.

On the Charm bar click on the settings Charm.

Windows 8 Charm bar

Click on Power icon.

Windows 8 settings panel

Choose Sleep (hibernate), Shut down or Restart depending on your need.

Another Shortcut I found was to use Windows Key + I , then press up arrow to select power then Enter to shut down.

Ctrl+Alt+Delete works as it always has, giving you a Power button to Shut Down, Restart or Sleep and options to Lock, Logoff, Switch User or Launch Task Manager.

Create a shortcut to shut down.

TechRepublic has a very good article on creating shortcuts in Windows 8.  How do I shut down Windows 8 covers creating a Shortcut to shutdown (Hibernate, Lock, Log off etc.) Windows 8, change the Icon for the shortcut and pin the shortcut to the Metro Dashboard and/or the taskbar.

Lock or Sign out of the computer.

Ok, I can shut it down now but what if I want to Lock the system or Log out?

That is pretty simple.  As above Ctrl+Alt+delete still gives us the option or On the Metro Dashboard you will see the logged in user in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Click on the Photo and you will be presented with several options:

Lock account will lock (password protect) your current session and the computer will go to the log in screen. Or you can sign out completely.  You can also switch to another user (requires password) if someone else is logged into the computer.

This whole shut down thing is a mystery if like me, you skipped researching it at all.

Where’s My Stinking Start Bubble

Metro Dashboard (Start screen)

Right off after a clean install of Windows 8 (CP) and booting into the OS and signing in for the first time you will land on the Start screen.  Whoa…what the heck.  A whole bunch of tiles on the screen.  This is the Metro dashboard or Start menu.  Clicking a tile will launch the application associated with it.  I played around with several that were pretty cool and I will talk about those later…but my first thought was I got to get to something I recognize.   I see a tile that says Desktop so I click it.

Whew, the familiar Windows 7 desktop

Well at least at first glance it looked familiar.  I wanted to look around under the hood, so I went to right mouse click on the Start bubble and boom…it is not there.  No Windows Start bubble?  No All Programs? Are you serious?

Windows 7 Start bubble

Having supported Windows PCs for so many years I am accustomed to either right clicking the Start bubble to choose Manage Computer or Clicking the Start bubble and entering the utility that I wish to run in the Search Programs and Files box.  Without the Start bubble I could do neither.   This was my day one kick in the shorts.

The Metro Dashboard (New start screen) had a limited amount of Tiles (applications) and I couldn’t find how to actually manage anything on this computer.  Oh, bother.  This probably goes back to that I read the manuals last thing, but scouring the internet I found that if you hover your mouse in the bottom left corner of the screen that a tiny version of the Start Screen will appear.  If you click on it you will be taken to the Start Screen with all the tiles.

Windows 8 hovering mouse over bottom left corner

Alt+Tab still works to switch.  It took me a day to try a right-click on that little Icon that flies out and find all those Management Apps (and more) that I am used to.   Almost everything I want to manage a computer is there.

Hover mouse over lower left of scree and right-click on Start that appears.

Neat, but where is my Search Programs and files box to quickly find/launch things?  I hate to admit it but I sort of gave up on this and went off and played with other cool things in Windows 8.  I’m a week into playing, I have the Start screen up on the monitor…the cat steps on my keyboard.  The screen changes to a search dialog … whoomp there it is.   Thanks Bridgett, I have been looking for that.  Way better than the Search Programs and Files dialog as it is a full screen representation of what I am looking for.  The Start Screen acts as a dashboard to launch apps by clicking on the tiles. But also acts as Search Programs and files when you just start typing what you are looking for.  Note to self, self reading manuals and readmes are not such a bad idea.

These two functions had me panicked right from the get go, but now that I know how to get to them I can move about in Windows 8 quickly.

Next up…Where are my stinking Apps?

The Preface – before you install Window 8 (CP)

By now we all have heard the Windows 8 consumer preview (CP) is available for anyone to test and play with.  They don’t really call it a Beta, I’m assuming because they know there are some features they plan to add and some kinks to work out.  I’ve been using Windows 8 since the Developer Preview (which was a severly crippled first take).

If you happen to have an old pc laying around that you can scrap the disk and want to have some fun and play with Windows 8 (CP) you can read about it and download here: Windows 8 CP

I had several old pcs hanging about and ended up installing on an AMD Phenom (Quad core) w/6G of RAM (Thanks Chris).  I put in a budget AMD (ATI) 6540 Radeon for video and an ATI HDTV tuner in it as well as I will use this box as a DVR.  With Media Center I can pick up 30 some HD/SD channels of the air.  This is attached to  a 23” Acer Touchscreen.  I ended up reinstalling on a Terabyte SATAII drive because the original was IDE.  I figured by now I am quite comfortable with the OS and later this year when the OS is released if I can just upgrade to the retail package then life is good.

Local or Microsoft Account during set up?

A clean install is quite fast coming in at less than 15 minutes on my rig.  One thing to know when installing Windows 8 is you will be asked to create an account at set up.  You will be given two options: A Microsoft account or a Local Account. Which ever you choose the account will be an adminstrator on the box.

A Local account is just like any Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 account (profile), where you log into the computer and do your business.  A Microsoft Account is a Live ID that you have with Microsoft.  It behaves like a Local account but also logs you in online to give you some really cool features.  Totally free, it is your space in the Cloud.  If you have a Hotmail account you probably already have a Live Account.  Likewise if you have an XBox you have a Live ID.  I have had a Live ID since it was called Microsoft Passport way back.  No harm no foul.

You are given the choice to Create a Live Account during Windows 8 install.  The choice is yours; Use/Create a Live account or Create a Local account.

About Live ID. Many Assume Live and Hotmail are the same thing, because MS is always pushing Hotmail.  This is not the case.  You can have a Live ID and no Hotmail Account.  I for example have my EarthLink email associated with my Live ID, I may have a Hotmail account but I have never been in it.  We had social networking and Cloud (before it was the word of the day) with Microsoft Spaces well before FB or G+ thought of doing it.  We had Friends, Blogs, and Photo sharing.  You can get to a live account from almost any computer or Windows Phone, so your stuff is available to you anywhere.  With a Live Account you have Hotmail if you choose, Live Messenger, SkyDrive (25G of Storage and Office Online which is web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) and Live Calendar. All online, all free.

Now, I am not trying to sell you on a Live ID as how you do things does not concern me. What I would tell you is there are apps in Windows 8 and on Windows Phone 7 that draw from a Live ID. Apps that surely make my day easier.  A Live ID is seperate (Obviously not required) of Windows 8 but Windows 8 can associate with it.  Having a Live ID will let you keep some Windows 8 settings out on the cloud (sync across computers, I believe).

Anyway, love or hate having one, a Live ID integrates in to Windows 8 and Windows Phone nicely.

With my Live ID, Online I have set up simple connectors for Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, Flickr, Smugmug and other social sites.  It was actually quite simple.  When I browse to my Live Homepage I have something similar to the wall of FB, where I can see activity from any of my friends/contacts.  If one of my friends posts a picture on Flickr I see it there, If one of my friends posts on Facebook I see it, if a friend on facebook is having a birthday…I see that too.

Where am I going with this?

Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7 have an app called “People”. I click on this people tile and Windows 8 let’s me see my contacts from all the different social sites in one place.  I can click on “What’s New” and see all activity, I can click on one of the activities and and comment on the post.  I can click on a person and see the info that they entered on any of the social sites.  The same is true on my Windows Phone, all of my friends from all the social sites become contacts and if they entered a number I can call them. I see all their status updates on my phone.    The creepy thing is the Calendar, the Live Calendar gets info from all the social sites that I have connected and puts them in on place…My Calendar is full and I haven’t even entered anything.

As to SkyDrive, which is similar to Dropbox, I can copy files/photos from any computer to my SkyDrive and then and access them from anywhere including my Windows Phone.  I can even edit them online (Computer or Phone) using the online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint or OneNote.  I have a shopping list on my SkyDrive that I share with Shawn.  She can access the list from her phone to see what we may or may not need.

The Choice is yours

All that being said, again you can choose to create a Local Account or Use an existing/Create a Microsoft Account when setting up your Windows 8 machine for the first time.  If you choose Local, applications like People and Calendar will not show you all the cool stuff that is available out there.   Also you will not be able to sync across computers with a local account.  If you do enter your Live ID; Windows 8 runs off a does a whole bunch of cool stuff for you. It populates the People app and the fun begins.

…now for something completely different. Windows 8 (CP)

Yes, I take lots of pictures but I am finding it hard to blog about them at this point.  The old if you having nothing nice to say, then don’t say it at all syndrome.  So instead of not doing anything at all I think I will blog what I do know about.  Technology.

First a bit about me so you know where I’m coming from and why I can talk about Windows 8.

Back when I was 14ish I become interesting in electronics when I built my own guitar amp from components bought at Radio Shack. Yes RS sold more than toys in the old days.  I quickly moved on to building my own test equipment (o’scope, multimeter and signal generator) all part of a mail order electronics course to build a 27″ color TV from ground up. That was fun.  My senior year in HS I was getting extra credit by taking Electronics classes at the local community college.

Then one day in the later days of HS, a Marine Corps recruiter says “Have I got a job for you”.  I can guarantee you Ground Radio Electronics.  So I took my entrance exam, raise my hand and proceded to bootcamp.  At graduation they tell us our first assignment; because I scored high on math, electrical and mechanical portions the ‘Corp’ had a better job for me…Teletype Technician.  What the heck is a Teletype I asked myself.  Needless to say the ‘Corps’ sent me off to a year and a half of electronics, teletype and cryptographic schools.

We’re coming up on the early ’80s, I’m a bit of a player so I pick me up one of those ColecoVision (because I know it is already rumored that it would expand to become a computer) playing games on it wasn’t quite enough so I started reverse engineering it so I could do my own thang.  The “Adam” expansion came out with CP/M 2.2 and Smart Basic.  I started learning Assembly, Machine Code and messing with basic programming.  From there it was a Tandy 1000 (Radio shack also sold computers in the early days) with DOS, on to a Gateway 2000 386sx 16 (quality product from Souix City) with Windows 1.

Meanwhile, back in the Marines me and couple of my kids were coming up with a way to integrate some shiny new laptops the Marines picked up.  The ”Corps” was not quick to embrace the technology and did not want computers on their backbone just yet.  We came up with a way to make the laptops talk to the Teletypes making life easier on the operators.

In my 15 years in the Marines I watched (and repaired) communications go from Teletype to Computers of today.

After leaving the military (the pay was better on the outside) I became a Senior Field Service engineer for a bay area company, working on everything from Novell 3.11, Windows, WFW to Apple Macs. After a couple years of running my car into the ground. I started working for the company I work for today.

Right as I came on, the company wanted to migrate from a VAX and Banyan environment to a Windows for Workgroups environment.  What a treat that was as this was 18 years ago, computers were 486 models, TCP/IP was not part of Windows and the list goes on.

Through my years I have worked with every flavor of Windows imaginable, except for Windows ME.  That just sounded like an adminstrative nightmare from the get go.

There are things that you become accustomed to…and change can be a smack in the face.  Going from Windows NT to Windows 2000 was a treat on the User Interface side.  Moving from Server 2003 to Server 2008 had some suprises…

…but one’s first look at Windows 8 after using Windows 7 for so many years is shocking.  Don’t get me wrong, it is really cool and performs better than predecessors.  Just know there is a learning curve if you don’t know the secrets.  They may not be secrets at all, I am just one of those people who read the manual last.

Hopefully, I can point out some of the really cool areas where people could get lost on their first day with Windows 8.  That what I hope to do with this blog.

Wings over Gillespie 2011

Another fine day at Gillespie Field for the “Wings over Gillespie” airshow.

Moose Drool

Name says it all…

More Stuff…

…this time from San Diego (Quail) Botanical Gardens.

My guitar is done gently weeping