10 (Ten) less Known Features in Windows 8

There are some features that you may not know that your Windows 8 has, I will be sharing with you 10 of such features today.

1. Get More from your Multiple Monitors

For those who have multiple monitors, no doubt they’ve noticed that Windows extends your taskbar throughout both the screens. It will more than that, though: press Win+PgUp to move your current app for your left monitor, and press Win+PgDn to move to the right one. Additionally, if you navigate to the Desktop Background portion of your Personalization configurations, you can right-click on any wallpaper and select which monitor you would like it to appear on.

2. Hide Recent Files out of your Jump Lists

Windows 8 enables you to customize Jump Lists; giving you the possibility to hide lately recently opened applications. To get into the preferences, simply right-click on the Taskbar, navigate to Properties, and click on the Jump Lists tabs.

3. Cut the number of Rows on the Home Screen

By default, the Home screen fills up the monitor with many rows of tiles. If you want to lower the quantity —maybe you have a particularly cool home screen, or maybe the groups are not much big— you can fine-tune this number through editing the Registry.

4. Capture Faster Screenshots

For a quite long time, Windows provided an absurd screenshot shortcut in which you had to press Print Display, and then open up an app like Paint and paste your screenshot from the clipboard. If you push Win+Print Screen, Windows would take a screenshot of the screen and instantly save it inside your Pictures folder.

5. Create App Groups on the Home Screen

When you initially open the home screen, you’ll observe that some of your apps have been in their own “groups.”  You are able to create your own groups simply by dragging an app’s name on an empty space upon the Home screen.

6. Personalize More Icons in Windows Explorer

Windows 8 enables you to customize your Library icons from its settings. Simply right-click on the Library, select Properties, and you should click on the option to alter the library’s icon right at the end.

7. Enable the Start Screen animations

When you very first sign into Windows 8, you find a cool animation of your tiles filling the screen. If you wish to enable the cooler animation for each launch of the Home screen, you can perform this with an easy Registry tweak.

8. Use the Hidden “Aero Lite” Style

The latest version of Windows 8 opted for a more basic theme compared to the early editions, so Aero Lite no more shows up. However, you may still find it in the Themes folder. It gives a bit different appearance to the title bars and some other parts of the OS.

9. Customize the Apps of Search Bar

When you begin searching from the Home screen, you’ll see a summary of apps in the search bar. Click on one of these, and you’ll find those same terms in that specific app.

10. Run Automatic Maintenance on the Schedule

Windows 8 includes a new feature which runs automatic upkeep tasks like software program updates, security checking, and other diagnostic tests every day.

Author Bio:

Rohit is a tech blogger and co-owner of tech blogs – Techie In You and Techie Mode, where he regularly shares the latest tech news, tips and tricks.