Volume 08 | Issue 02

TECHNOLOGY
YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO EVERYDAY

Welcome to Windows 8
Getting started from scratch
Understanding the new UI
Usability and getting work done
Secure my Windows 8
Enterprise features
Tips and Tricks to become a Power User

A 9.9 media Publication

 fAST
tRACK
to

windows 8

powered by
Chapters
windows 8
february 2013

06 PAGE
Welcome to Windows 8
Where did it come from where will it go? What is it doing here? That’s
what we explore

16 PAGE
Start from scratch
Now that you know what Windows 7 is all about, this chapter
tells you how to get started right from choosing the right version
to installation and other nitigrities

24 PAGE
Get to know the new UI
Windows 8 almost speaks another language when it comes to
interacting with its UI. But that’s OK we’ve got a dictionary here for you

45 PAGE
Usability and getting work done
Windows 8 would win “the good looks” competition in all probability.
Start using it and it would win your heart too. We showcase a few
features designed to make life easier

Editorial Contributor Sr. Art Director

Credits
The people behind this book

Executive Editor Copy editing: Anil VK

Robert Sovereign-Smith Infancia Cardozo Associate Art
Directors
Writers Proofing Atul Deshmukh
Kshitij Sobti Anirudh Regidi Anil T
Vaibhav Kaushal Jayesh Shinde Sr. Visualisers
Manav Sachdev
Features Editor Design Shokeen Saifi
Siddharth Parwatay Sr. Creative Director Visualiser
Jayan K Narayanan Baiju NV
 cONTENtS 3

58 PAGE
Windows 8 security and performance
Hardware features have long been ignored to elevate security.
Windows 8 changes that, and in a big way

71 PAGE
Enterprise features
“Built by one of the largest enterprises on earth” may be reason
enough to trust Windows 8 in your own enterprise. But that is not
where all reasons end

77 PAGE
Tips and Tricks
We pull back the curtains on Microsoft’s latest Windows and show you
how to get what you want out of the OS

Volume 08 | Issue 02

TECHNOLOGY
YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO EVERYDAY

© 9.9 Mediaworx Pvt. Ltd.

FeBRuARY

Published by 9.9 Mediaworx

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in
Cover Design: Midhun Mohan

any form or by any means without the prior written permission of

the publisher.
WINDOWS 8

February 2013
Free with Digit. If you have paid to buy this Fast Track from any
source other than 9.9 Mediaworx Pvt. Ltd., please write to
[email protected] with details Welcome to Windows 8
Free With Digit February 2013

Getting started from scratch

Understanding the new UI
Usability and getting work done

Custom publishing Secure my Windows 8

Enterprise features

If you want us to create a customised Fast Track for you in order to Tips and Tricks to become a Power User

demystify technology for your community, employees or students 02 A 9.9 media Publication

contact [email protected]
4

Introduction

W
indows 8 can be a confusing release for consumers even
before they have used it at all. Should you hate it, or should
you like it? “Love it to bits” and “hate with a passion” are
both valid opinions, but there seems to be no conclu-
sion for Windows 8. Hopefully this FastTrack will give you some much-
needed closure.
Windows 8 took some time to develop its reputation. Microsoft
announced change after change for their upcoming OS, and people were
mostly fine, happy even. Even the confirmation that Explorer would use
the ribbon only slightly dampened the joy.
But one cold, damp morning Microsoft finally announced to a media
rife with trepidation, that the Start Menu had passed away. A collective
“oh you didn’t” resounded through the masses and things just got real.
Microsoft had gone too far, the line must be drawn here, people said, this
far and no further.
Windows 8 was then heavily criticised by Valve co-founder Gabe Newell.
He really disliked the idea of Microsoft having monopoly of the Windows
ecosystem. After all Valve runs its own very successful app store for Win-
dows, called Steam, which has branched out to selling general-purpose
software in addition to games. If Windows is locked down now, Steam will
have no future.
There is a little truth in nearly every criticism of Windows 8 whether
positive or negative. Yes, Microsoft has started pushing an inbuilt store, not
as an option, but as the only way to purchase the new Modern UI applica-
tions. Yes, the Windows 8 UI is clunky and disjointed at places, but not
because the new UI is bad, but because the marriage between the classic
and Modern UIs 8 is unstable to say the least. Depending on how you look
at it, either the Classic UI seems tacked on, or the new UI does.
 iNTRODUCTION 5

But having said all that, there is still a lot in Windows 8 to explore, and
take in before you can conclude for yourself whether this OS is worth your
time and money. Which is where this booklet comes in.
In this FastTrack we explore everything to do with Windows 8. We look
at the the history of Windows up to this release, we look at the new Win-
dows 8 editions and help you choose and install the must suitable one for
your needs. We go over basic Windows 8 concepts, gestures and shortcuts
and explore the classic UI and Modern UI in detail. If want to delve into
securing the OS or running it in an enterprise environment we have you
covered there as well. Finally if you really need the start menu or want to
even out some of the blemishes of the OS, there is the tips and tricks section
at the end. Be sure to check out this section if you want to leapfrog to the
covetted “power user” status you’ve probably garnered for yourself using
Windows 7 all these years.
Maybe you were forced to jump into Windows 8 when you purchased a
new computer and want to make the best of it, maybe you took to the OS and
bought it on an impulse, or maybe you’re curious, maybe you’re cautious
and just want to look before you leap. In any case this FastTrack should
have something in it for you.
6
Chapter #1

Welcome to
Windows 8
Where did it come from where will it
go? What is it doing here? That’s what
we explore

Ramping up to 8
Windows has had a long and confusing history filled with inconsistent
dates, names and version numbers, and recent Windows releases haven’t
improved the situation much. There are a few key milestones in the his-
tory of Windows, and here we are speaking at an architectural level, not
legal or financial.
It all begins, as always, with v 1.0, which for our purposes is unremark-
able if not for the fact that it was the first version of Windows. Windows
 Welcome to windows 8 7

The very first version of Windows

was a 16-bit operating system and came out back in 1985 – a time when you
really had to work hard to fill up 100kB of space.
Windows 2.0 came and went uneventfully, and then came the very
popular Windows 3.0 in 1990. In 1992 a minor update, Windows 3.1, was
released. This is also, however, a time when things started to get interesting.
Windows was just at v3.0 but already there was a completely redesigned
version of Windows in the works, Windows NT. Windows NT 3.1 quickly
followed Windows 3.1 in 1993, and unlike Windows 3.1, Windows NT 3.1
was 32-bit not 16-bit. Windows NT introduced the Win32 API, which was
used in Windows 95 as well and continues on to this day – with significant
improvements of course. Windows NT was also written with multiple dif-
ferent architectures in mind, although it didn’t stray far from x86.
It was supposed to be the new base for future versions of Windows, but
unfortunately this was not to be. Windows 95 got built on Windows 3.1
instead, and so was Windows 98, and – the one that should not be named,
but we still will – Windows ME. Meanwhile a line of Windows versions
based on Windows NT continued, with Windows NT 4, and then Windows
2000 (which is essentially Windows NT 5).
Windows XP finally merged the old Windows 3.1, 95, 98 series of Win-
dows with the NT series. Windows XP was mostly just a re-skinned Win-
dows 2000, and was technically Windows NT 5.1. It was also the first
version of Windows to support the full capabilities of 64-bit processors in
a special Windows XP Professional 64-bit edition, which unlike the 32-bit
version of Windows XP, was based on Windows Server 2003 rather that
Windows 2000 (making it v5.2).
8 Welcome to Windows 8

Which finally brings

us to the current gen-
eration of Windows.
Despite all its faults,
Windows Vista was
a major update to the
Windows platform, and
brought Windows to
v6.0. Now since we have
already established that
we all here know math,
Windows NT was just Windows 3.1 based on a different it would make sense to
kernel. NT 4.0 looked more recognisable, like Windows 95 assume that Windows
and 98
7 would be, at its core,
Windows NT 7.0; well
your assumption would be wrong. Windows 7 is, believe it or not, based
on Windows NT 6.1. We’ll be the first to admit that version numbers are
mostly meaningless, but it’s still a bit odd. If you don’t believe us, just start
any core Windows application, like paint or notepad, and check out its about
page, on Windows 7 you will see it listed as “Version 6.1”.
Now you may be wondering why this is important. This is important,
because with Windows 8, we have another major change, perhaps the most
major change to Windows yet. Windows 8 finally fulfils the promise of
Windows NT as a kernel that can run on multiple platforms, by embracing
ARM. Another interesting development with Windows 8 is the merger of
the Mobile and Desktop versions of Windows, just like there was the merger
of the Windows NT and Windows 9x back in 2001 with the release of XP.
Windows NT 6.2 now runs on desktops and laptops as Windows 8, on
servers as Windows Server 2012, on tablets as Windows RT, and on phones
as Windows Phone 8.
Even this isn’t the only architectural change to come to Windows. Win-
dows 8 introduces completely new kinds of Windows applications. Earlier
called “Metro”-Style applications, now they’re just called Modern-style
applications. These applications can only be installed from the Windows
Store – unless you are a company and need to run private apps.
Just like the Win32 API was introduced way back with the release of Win-
dows NT in 1993, Windows 8 introduces WinRT, a new simplified set of APIs
for Windows that has been developed for the new modern style of applications
 Welcome to windows 8 9

This is probably what most people think of when they think of Windows 8 since it is the
hallmark addition

for Windows. WinRT apps can be written such that major parts of it will run
on Windows phones, tablets and desktops with minor platform-specific code.
Windows 8 still supports running 16-bit applications made for Windows
1.0 (although you may have to enable this support), however only in the
32-bit version. Support for 16-bit applications has been absent in 64-bit
versions of Windows since XP.
With WinRT now available, the clock has started ticking on Win32,
which has been around since Windows 95. It’s still a long way away, but
eventually Win32 will go away, and it all starts with Windows 8.
Another major change that starts with Windows 8 has to do with a new
storage architecture – we will cover that in more detail later – and even the
beginning of the new ReFS file system that will eventually replace NTFS.
And perhaps biggest of all, if certain rumours hold true is that Windows 8
will begin a trend of quicker Windows releases, with Windows 9, or some
intermediate release of Windows coming in as early as next year.

Some Touching Improvements

While this may not be well known, Windows 7 was a multitouch capable
OS, and even included a few multitouch-capable apps. For example, in
MS Paint you could use multiple fingers to draw lines. Why this isn’t well
known is because Windows 7 was lacking one very important feature; it
lacked a UI that can actually be used by touch.
Before we go on, it’s important to know why touch is even important
on a desktop OS. There are many people who will say touch is not a valu-
10 Welcome to Windows 8

able or worthy addition to desktop / laptop computers; so in this context

it is important to also note that this is something people still say about the
mouse. Before GUIs computers were mainly used in solving mathematical
problems and processing textual information. For people still using their
computer for those tasks the addition of a mouse probably led to no increase
in productivity.
However with GUIs computers have become increasingly capable of
being used for manipulating images, videos, audio, 3D scenes and much
more, all of which involve some form of spatial manipulation, and are best
done with a mouse. Once touch and multitouch becomes even more ubiq-
uitous, we will find ourselves with a whole range of uses for a computer
that would traditionally have required significant manipulation with a
keyboard and mouse.
One of the most famous
criticisms of touch screens for
desktops is the ‘gorilla arm’.
Imagine using a 24 – inch
touch screen for many hours
a day. Keeping your hand
extended towards a screen for
hours is just not feasible. There
is some merit to this, but the
thing most people forget is that
when you talk of touch screens
on a desktop, you are already
Code editing tools gain little from the addition of talking about a fixed device
a mouse that is very flexible, there is no
good reason for it not to have a
keyboard and mouse in addition to a touchscreen. While a purely touch-
based device is not more productive than a traditional keyboard-mouse-
based device, the addition of touch to an existing keyboard-mouse setup
can certainly improve productivity. After all it is adding a whole new way
you can interact with your computer.
Even today, software developers or writers can get a lot of work done
without having to touch the mouse at all. When you do use the mouse
though, it is in a situation where it will lead to the desired result quicker.
Over time as one uses a computer, they develop a sense for using the right tool
for the job; and touch is just another such tool. Future app developers that
 Welcome to windows 8 11

can take multitouch for granted

will be able to craft application
interfaces that take advantage of
that; just as GUIs went through
many changes in style, presenta-
tion and functionality since their
early days. The real question
then becomes, does multitouch
Desktops with touch screens will probably
improve productivity on desk- require some adaptations before they can
tops enough for it to take off? It be used efficiently
probably will for laptops with
smaller screens, but on desktops will the cost of a large multitouch screen
be too prohibitive? Only time will tell.
With that said, let us get back to out point about the support for touch in
Windows. Windows 7 supported multitouch, but did not have a GUI that
could really be used with touch alone. Windows 8 on the other hand finally
includes a way of using Windows that is touch centric.
Principally the new design philosophy of Windows 8 is quite sound,
and doesn’t even have to do with just touch. Most current GUIs are based
on the principle of skeuomorphism; which means that they try to equate
the design of digital items from real world items. For example a folder icon
in Windows Explorer actually looks like a real-world folder, a button is
often visibly bevelled and so on. It essentially covers any bit of design that
is entirely ornamental and meant to evoke the feeling of using a physical
object rather than a digital one.
You might have seen applications that have odd UIs such as an actual
knob to change volume, or actual pages with shadows in an eBook reading
application, or a notebook application that is ruled. The problem with these
is that while they evoke familiarity, they can also potentially confuse. For
example, you can’t really turn a knob displayed on screen as you would
a normal knob, neither can you turn pages like a real book in an eBook
reader. Other references can become quickly obsolete, children of the
current generation have probably never used a physical address book,
yet you will find applications designed – visually – like a leather bound
address book.
Microsoft wants to eschew such practises in their new design, and as
such we have Modern UI, which in their terms is “authentically digital”.
The aim is to have a clear and clean design where buttons can be simple
12 Welcome to Windows 8

boxes, there is no need for bevels, rather clear spacing and typography is
used for content presentation and segregation.
Is the new Windows 8 UI better? That’s a point of much argument
and the fact is, the answer will be different for different people. Even if we
assume that the new Windows 8 UI is brilliant, there is still great value
in familiarity. Many Linux distros still try to use the interface conven-
tions of Windows, because that
is what most people are familiar
with. Those who have used the
traditional Windows interface
for a long time are used to how
it looks and works, and they may
find the UI changes discordant.
Windows 8 is however the first
in this new brand of Windows,
and some teething problems are
Whoa! For a second I though I was holding a
real bookshelf to be expected. What is up to users
is whether they are willing to put
up with these issues for the other benefits it provides. Getting back to the
point on touch, it is something Windows 8 does well. An example of how far
touch support goes in Windows 8 is the boot and login process. Windows
8 goes as far as to give you a mouse or touch driven boot screen, so if you
have multiple operating systems, you will be able to boot to them right from
the boot screen using touch.
Once the system boots, logging in is the next pain point, but Windows
8 has your back here as well. Rather than log in using a clumsy on-screen
keyboard, Microsoft has developed a new gesture based login system that
lets you log in using gestures performed over a picture of your choice.

To the Cloud and Beyond

Windows 8 also finally takes the cloud a lot more seriously. The latest OS
goes as far as to let you log in using an online Microsoft account rather than
a standard local account (although the latter is obviously still an option)
and having a Microsoft account linked has some benefits as we will go on
to explain.
If you have a linked Microsoft account, one of the major benefits is that
Windows can automatically synchronise a number of Windows settings and
personalisations to the cloud. For example, it will sync you desktop themes,
 Welcome to windows 8 13

background, lock screen settings, account picture, taskbar settings etc. It

will also sync your language preferences, network password, applications
passwords and even web password. Windows Store apps can add support for
syncing some of their settings as well, and Internet Explorer can already sup-
port syncing browser history, favourites etc. Once synced, these settings and
personalisations will automatically be applied on any other devices linked to
the same account, so you can keep your Windows desktop and tablet in sync.
There are other niceties as well, such as SkyDrive integration in Windows,
so if you use that service you can open files from SkyDrive and save files to it
just as you would to a local drive. It isn’t just SkyDrive either, although that
comes by default, you can install apps that give you similar level of access
to other services such as Google Docs, Dropbox, SugarSync, and Box; there
are even applications that include all these services in one package.
Sharing is also built into the OS – although only for the new kind of apps.
Applications can support posting
their content, and other apps can
register to receive these posts. So
if you install a social networking
application, it will show up in
the list of applications that can
be used for sharing. So then other
applications can post content, say
a game posting a high score, to
the social network of your choice
via any of your installed social
networking apps. All these settings can be synced if you have a
Windows 8 also features a local account linked to your Microsoft account
much deeper search integration.
Windows 8 offers Store applications to participate in system searches, so
now Windows can search for that book you bought on Kindle, or that loca-
tion on Bing Maps or that contact in your address book app. All of this is
integrated in the system so you can access search for all apps in a similar
way, or you can run a system-wide search and get a list of all searchable
apps right there.

Digging Deeper
It might not seem like it but there is a lot more to Windows 8 than you can
tell from its shiny but disjointed exterior. There are many amazing features
14 Welcome to Windows 8

buried deep within the OS that would perhaps have come to the forefront if
it weren’t for the endless controversies about its UI and the Store.
Windows 8 touches every part of Windows, removing unused fea-
tures going way back and touching up even the remotest areas of the
Windows experience.
Let’s start with the boot process, which now supports – and for Windows
hardware manufacturers even mandates – secure boot. Secure boot ensures
that only code signed by Microsoft can run on boot, which almost nullifies
the risk of boot viruses.
Windows Explorer as you might know now has a ribbon-based UI, which
actually manages to save space since it is condensed most of the time. The
file copy dialog has be heavily enhanced with support for pausing transfers,
combining multiple transfers into one window, and viewing a graphs of
the performance rather than just a snapshot and changing estimate of time
remaining. Also, Windows finally supports mounting ISO files and throws
in VHD and IMG mounting support for good measure.
The task manager too has received a lot of love and is now a much more
powerful, yet simpler and prettier tool for understanding what is going on
in your system.
There are even bigger changes, for example Windows 8 now has much
better multi-monitor support. Each screen can now have its own taskbar
that can show all applications, or the applications open on that screen. Each
monitor can now be given a separate wallpaper as well.
Another major feature is the new Storage Spaces system for managing
hard drives. Storage Spaces takes away the pain of managing physical hard
drives, and rather focuses on virtual storage spaces. The way this works is
that you can use a number of hard drives to create a storage pool. This storage
pool can then have a number of storage spaces, each of which appears like
your traditional hard drive partition.
What is great about this feature is that it supports redundant storage
and storage virtualization. Redundant storage means that each piece of
data you store is stored on at least two hard drives. Even if one fails, your
data will continue to be accessible. Storage virtualization on the other hand
means that you can essentially create a 10TB storage space even if you are
only using three 1TB drives. The storage is virtualized so it will not be
allocated till it is actually used. This way you can create a 10TB partition
now, and only buy hard drives when the space in existing drives actually
begins to fill up. Since Windows maintains two copies of each piece of data,
 Welcome to windows 8 15

upgrading a pool of drives is as

simple as removing a small drive
and replacing it with a bigger
one. Windows will quickly try
to fill up that drive to ensure that
there are still two copies of each
piece of data.
Windows 8 also replaces the
old Windows Backup system The Windows 8 boot menu is touch friendly and
with something a lot more pow- included a number of recovery options
erful, File History. As you might
expect from the name, this feature maintains a history of changes to files
in your libraries. You can browse through older versions of your files or
restore them at any time. While a similar feature was available in Windows
before, now it support backing up to arbitrary locations, including other
computers in your HomeGroup.
In this introductory chapter we’re just introducing you to some of the
nicest and juiciest features, however there is still a lot more in Windows
8 that we haven’t even covered here. But by now you’ve probably realised
that Windows 8 is no slouch in this regard. So without further ado let’s go
on to the next chapter which will tell you everything you need to know to
get your Windows 8 installed, up and running.
16
Chapter #2

Getting
started from
scratch
Now that you know what Windows 8 is
all about, this chapter tells you how to
get started right from choosing the right
version to installation and other nitigrities

Hardware requirements
While we might differ in our opinion on whether the roads in our country
are good enough for a Ferrari, no matter how powerful the car, it needs the
right road to run. The situation is very analogous to computing where the
 Getting started from scratch 17

hardware would be the road and software, the car. If you have a great OS
and the hardware doesn’t support it, the OS is a waste. The performance and
smoothness of any application depends on the hardware and it’s more so
for the operating system. If the OS doesn’t run well, you can be sure that no
application will either. Naturally, hardware requirements and compatibility
issues for an OS carry much more weight than they do for any app. Windows
8 has a higher set of hardware requirements compared to Windows 7. Don’t
worry though; they’ve not been increased much.

Processor
If your processor can run Windows 7, it can also run Windows 8. The
system requirements on the processor side is the same for Windows 8 – 1
GHz of clock speed. But we’re talking about one of the most sophisticated
and complex electronic units being produced at the moment. Windows 8
has raised the bar in terms of features supported by the processor. It now
requires PAE, NX and SSE2.
1. PAE: Physical Address Extension is a feature that allows a 32-bit OS
to address more than 4 GB of memory installed on the computer. It’s a
hardware feature and has been there since quite some time now; almost
since we entered the new millennium. You shouldn’t worry about it. It
might however be the case that the BIOS settings on your PC are set to
NOT use PAE which you should be able to change.
2. NX: NX stands for Never eXecute. This feature disallows the execu-
tion of code in the data segment of a program’s address space. It ends
up providing an elevated application-level security. Intel calls the
technology ‘XD’. Interestingly, for NX to function, the processor must
run in PAE mode.
3. SSE2: This technology too has been around since the last decade and
is a SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) instruction set which is
immensely useful in processing video.
Your processor should have all of the above unless it’s more than a
decade old.

Memory
It’s just as much as it was for Windows 7 – 1 GB. Though Microsoft recom-
mends that you have 4 GB, we’ve used the OS on as low as 1.5 GB and it
works just fine. However, for 64-bit installations, you must have 2 GB of
RAM or you would have to live with a lot of lag.
18 Getting started from scratch

Graphics
You need to have, at least, a DirectX 9 capable graphics device. Such devices
have also been available for quite some time now – they became widely
available way back in 2004-05. Windows 7 and Windows Vista had the
same minimum graphics requirement. If you’re running any of them, your
machine’s graphics capabilities should be sound enough.

Display
As low as 1024 x 768 pixels will do and most people have way more than that!

Input devices
As obvious as it sounds, you need a keyboard and a mouse. If you want
to use touch features, you need a device which has a touch-enabled
screen. In fact, a touch-enabled screen can perceptibly enhance your
Windows 8 experience.

Storage Space
This shouldn’t be a problem in this age of massive hard disks. If you have
the 32-bit OS, 16 GB should do, while 20 GB for the 64-bit version is recom-
mended. That said, the installation would typically take up 8 GB and 10 GB
of space, respectively, for 32-bit and 64-bit installations.

Extra features
Secure boot: It needs motherboard firmware with support for UEFI v2.3.1
and has the Microsoft Windows Certification Authority in the UEFI
signature database.
ΩΩ SkyDrive: Since it’s a cloud offering by Microsoft, you’re required to
have a Microsoft account (which is free, of course).
ΩΩ BitLocker: You would need a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip in
your system to encrypt the OS installation drive.
ΩΩ Hyper-V: It’s an enterprise class virtualization solution which requires
a 64-bit system with SLAT (Second Level Address Translation) support.
ΩΩ Snap apps: Snap apps is a feature that gives you an overview of the
list of Modern UI apps running on the system while you’re in desktop
mode and the list of desktop apps when you’re using a Modern UI app.
You need at least 1366 x 768 pixels for the feature, and that can be a
problem. Many laptop models sold in the past had a resolution of 1200
x 800 and a number of them are still in use today. While the height (800
 Getting started from scratch 19

Windows 8 Snap Apps feature

pixels) is sufficient, the width of the display (1200 pixels) is lower than
the minimum required.

Editions to choose from

As a home user, you have just two editions to choose from – Windows 8
and Windows 8 Pro. There are two other versions – Windows 8 RT and
Windows 8 Enterprise which you can’t purchase off the shelf. Windows 8
Enterprise is aimed at businesses and features capabilities mostly useful
only to enterprises, while Windows 8 RT comes pre-installed on tablets.
Windows 8 RT edition is aimed at the ARM processor and can’t be installed
on a normal PC.
Coming back to the options Microsoft has left us with, the differences
between the two editions are based on features provided. Windows 8 hosts
the most common features a home user would need and the Pro edition will
satisfy the guys with a demand for advanced features. The following is a
list of the features new to Windows 8:
1. Trusted Boot or Secure boot prevents boot-time viral code injection into
memory and makes sure that you’re secure right from the start.
2. Picture Password allows you to use a picture as your password. You
draw a pattern on a picture which is used as a password.
3. The start Screen features a grid of dynamically updating tiles that rep-
resent apps.
4. File History lets you see past versions of your files.
20 Getting started from scratch

5. Microsoft Account Integration allows

you to use your Microsoft account to NOTE
log in to Windows. It’s also used to sync The most confusing part
files and settings. about this new OS is with
6. Refresh and Reset of the OS helps reset regards to the versions that
the settings to defaults in case things go are available. The PC user
wrong. Since Windows 8 was designed has it easy, just having to
to suit the mobile ecosystem as well, decide between a regular
this feature has found its way onto the Windows 8 and a Pro version.
desktop. You may not need to do a com- The problem comes when
plete reinstall anymore! you’re choosing a tablet. The
7. Connected Standby mode allows Win- RT version of Windows, while
dows 8 to use special power management it looks like a full-blown WIn-
features for your computer to continue dows 8 OS is more of a fully-
receiving updates over the network featured Windows Phone
while using the least power possible. 8 than a desktop OS. Few
8. Snap or Snap apps, as we’ve already desktop apps are compatible
mentioned, allow you to look at desktop with it and we’ll talk about it
apps when using a Modern UI app and in detail later.
vice versa.
9. Storage Spaces allows Windows to use
multiple disks for one single volume; it’s similar to LVM on Linux.
Of these new features, Storage Spaces isn’t supported on the RT edition.
The Remote Desktop feature on Windows 8 is limited to a client-only setting
while Windows 8 Pro can act as both, client and server. Also, all editions of
Windows 8 include the revamped Windows Explorer now known as ‘File
Explorer’; Windows Update, Updated Task Manager, Internet Explorer 10,
Windows Store and an improved multi-monitor support are also included
in all the editions.
Features such as BitLocker, EFS, Booting from VHD, Domain member-
ship, Group Policy and Hyper-V are available only in Pro and Enterprise
editions and are targeted at advanced users. Since these features are used
mostly by enterprises, we’ve covered them in a later chapter dedicated to
enterprise features available in Windows 8.

Which edition should I buy?

Keeping in mind the differences between editions, we would recommend
you to go for Windows 8 unless you’re in need of enterprise class features.
 Getting started from scratch 21

The most significant features of Windows

8 are available in all editions while the NOTE
differentiating features of Windows 8 Pro The terms ‘Client’ and
and Windows 8 Enterprise are useful only ‘Server’, in context of Remote
to enterprises. Desktop mean ‘Controlling’
computer and ‘Controlled’
But do I really need it? computer, in that order.
If you’re buying a new laptop, chances are Windows 8 can’t be used for
high that it will ship with Windows 8. In requesting remote help be-
that case, there’s no escaping it. Unless it cause it can’t act as a server.
comes pre-installed, we don’t really find it
to be a compelling upgrade. Let’s elaborate
a bit on that.
Windows 8 changes the way you use your system. There’s no start menu
or visible search box when you press the Windows key. You just start typing
what you want to search. Much like Mac and Linux, this OS has ‘hot corners’
which give you access to shortcuts by placing your mouse near the screen
corners. Half of the control panel’s functions are present in the new ‘PC
settings’ app (it’s a Modern UI app). There are two Internet Explorers – one
for the desktop, another for the Modern UI. While there are architectural
changes under the hood, they don’t show up all that much. The UI changes
are the most significant difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8.
While Microsoft has got its share of brickbats for the interface change,
there’s also been some excellent feedback. One of the biggest advancements
that Windows 8 brings to the table is the ability to multi-task. Besides Snap
Apps, you have a Charms bar on the right-hand side to open settings, plugged-
in-devices, start screen and search and share files whenever you need to.
While many have reported that these features are great and help get mundane
tasks done quickly and easily, complaints have also been in abundance.
If what we just told about the changes in UI sounds a bit intimidating
and you’re hesitant to shell out money for the Modern UI screen (the ‘start
screen’), you’d be okay staying away from Windows 8. If not, read on. Most
applications which can work on Windows 7 will work on Windows 8.
Windows 8 integrates better with the cloud than any previous version of
Windows. You can have settings synced on different PCs.
Whether or not to upgrade depends on how badly you need the new
features. If you read the last issue of Digit, you’ll remember us telling you
that Windows 8 is faster to boot and takes the torture much better than
22 Getting started from scratch

Windows 7. And you need to check your wallet too! While there may not
be a very compelling reason to jump over, there’s no reason to step back
either. We recommend installing a trial on your PC and try it out for about
a week (Microsoft says new users take about a week to adjust to the new
UI). If you like it, you should buy a license. If not, Windows 7 isn’t retiring
and you should stick with that.

Where to buy and for how much

Given the fact that ours is a country where software piracy is rampant and
it’s tough to locate a store which actually sells genuine Windows, purchasing
the DVD online is your best bet. However, the discs may not be in oblivion
if you live in a city.
At the time of writing, the retail
price of Windows 8 is unclear and
the Microsoft website won’t allow
us to purchase Windows 8. There
was an offer that would allow you
to upgrade an existing version of
Windows to Windows 8, but that
offer has probably ended by now.
Windows 8 upgrade offer Official pricing of Windows 8 is set
at $199 though a specific price for
India hasn’t been announced yet. Keep an eye on http://windows.microsoft.
com/en-IN/windows/buy for updates.
Existing Windows 7 customers can upgrade to Windows 8 by paying
just `699. There is a small catch though. You need to have purchased your
Windows 7 copy between 2nd June 2012 and 31st January 2013 to be eligible
for this offer. The last day to register and order your Windows 8 upgrade is 28
February 2013. For more info visit : http://www.windowsupgradeoffer.com/en-IN

Installation methods
There are two ways to get Windows 8 running on your machine – you either
upgrade your existing Windows installation or you create a new one. The
simplest installation method is also the most common one – installation of
the OS from scratch. You pop in a DVD, boot from it and the installer comes
up. You partition the hard disk, a few extra clicks and the OS comes to life.
If you’ve ever performed a Windows setup, you would already be aware of
how this works. There are no new surprises here.
 Getting started from scratch 23

Upgradation, however, isn’t so easy to figure out. When performing an

upgrade, keep Windows settings, your personal files and installed applica-
tions in mind. Depending on which version of the OS you’re upgrading from,
you may or may not be able to keep one or more of them. Beginning with the
second most famous OS currently, we’ll show you the options you’ve got.
Windows XP to Windows 8: Windows 8 allows you to upgrade from
Windows XP only if service pack 3 is installed. You won’t be able to carry
over your applications or settings, only the files.
Windows Vista to Windows 8: If you’ve not installed SP1 on your Win-
dows Vista installation, then you can only keep the files; no applications or
settings will be carried over. With SP1 installed, you can migrate the data
as well as system settings but applications still won’t migrate.
Windows 7 to Windows 8: The scene is a little complicated in this case.
Since Windows 7 is the immediate predecessor of Windows 8, it’s possible
to keep either only your files or everything (system settings, applications
and files). However, for some strange reason it doesn’t appear to support
the migration of only files and settings while ignoring the applications.
Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro: This would be applicable if you were
to upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro. Here too, like Windows 7,
you can bring across just the personal files or the trio of Files + Applications
+ Settings but you can’t have just the settings and the files.
We just spoke about the Windows versions that are upgradable to Win-
dows 8. But, you can’t just upgrade Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8.
You’d only be able to upgrade it to Windows 8 Pro. While the Basic, Home
and Home Premium editions of Windows 7 can be upgraded to Windows
8, the Professional and Ultimate versions can be upgraded to Windows 8
Pro only. Again, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise can
be upgraded to Windows 8 Enterprise.
To be able to upgrade from one version of Windows to another, you’ll
need to download the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant and run it on your
PC. It will tell you what you can take over to the new OS and what must be
left behind (actually, deleted).
24
Chapter #3

Get to know
the new UI
Windows 8 almost speaks another
language when it comes to interacting
with its UI. But that’s OK we’ve got a
dictionary here for you

L
et us begin with the name that was: Metro. Why isn’t it Metro
anymore ? And what is it now? Such are the questions that keep us
awake at night, because we don’t always know how to answer them.
So let’s start with the simpler answers, why has the Metro
name suddenly disappeared.
For quite a while Microsoft was compulsively singing the praises of
Metro, and how wonderful and brilliant it was, and how it is a big part
of Windows Phone, and would soon be a big part of Windows 8. Then a
 Get to know the new UI 25

German company, Metro AG decided to threaten Microsoft since they had

a trademark on “Metro” which Microsoft was infringing. Whether there is a
chance that people would really be confused between a group running chain
of stores and a design language for an operating system, we will never know
because Microsoft dropped the terminology like a pernicious porcupine.
Wouldn’t it have been fun if Microsoft—after investing so much time and
presumably money—developing awareness about an upcoming technology
had kept it despite legal cost. If they had just bought Metro AG instead.
Besides it would have been fun to see Microsoft grocery stores selling apples.
Now we come to the rather more confusing matter of what it is called
now. Metro was a perfect name, a brilliant name. If you wanted to talk about
the new kinds of applications in Windows 8 you would call them Metro
apps; if you wanted to talk about the new UI in Window 8 you would call
it Metro, and if you wanted to talk about the design philosophy behind the
Windows 8 UI, you would call it the Metro design language. With that one
term out of the picture, things fall apart.
One could simply replace the term Metro with another term, say
“Nutero”, but you see now one knows what Nutero is, and it doesn’t have
as much brand value as Metro did. If they had called it that from the start,
things would have been fine, probably.
However it is also important to consider the fact that Metro was essen-
tially Microsoft’s term for the new design language used by Windows 8.
It was a style of designing application interfaces. When people call the
new Windows 8 applications Metro-style apps or Metro apps, that is not
accurate. Since there may be Windows 8 applications that are not designed
with the Metro design principles in mind. So now we call them Windows
8 apps, or Windows Store apps, since the only way to get them is via the
Windows Store. If we have to be really pedantic we can point out that it is
entirely possible to follow the Metro design principles and make an app
for the Windows desktop or even Linux—in fact it is currently possible to
run the Metro version of Firefox on Windows 7, or Linux.
In referring to the design of Windows 8, it is easy enough to just call it
the Windows 8 UI. For a while Microsoft was calling it Modern UI, and that
is a term we have used in this booklet in many places as well.
As for the design language itself, Microsoft now seems to be calling it
the Microsoft design language in their developer documentation.
So now we know what the Metro name was used for, and that it was
a design language; we will now refer to it as Modern UI. What we intend
26 Get to know the new UI

to look at next is what was this language, what does it entail, and why is
Microsoft pushing for it.

Why Modern UI
Computer technology is hardly old, but it has its baggage.
Take a look at email which is, at this point, around four decades old. It
was created at a time when transferring files over a few kB per second was
an immense luxury. It was designed as a simple system with a sender, a
recipient, and a text message.
Then as its use evolved and expanded there was a need for protecting
against spam, or using hosted email service, or sending attachments. Since
email was designed for text, attachments would initially have to be converted
to plain text, increasing their size in the process, pasted in the mail, and then
sent. The recipient could then paste that attached text content in a file, and
decode it to get the original binary.
Today this process is transparent, and attachments show up as nice
clean file icons in webmail, but the technology is still plagued with the
limitations of the past.
In 2009 Google decided to take matters into its own hands and unveiled
the future of communication, Google Wave. Google Wave was designed with
one thing in mind, what would an email-like communication system look
like, and work like if it was created today. Wave supported inline replies,
instant messages, widgets, bots; it was an open system so like email, any
company could run a wave service.
In the time since its release it has now replaced 90% of email and IM
conversation. But only in an alternate universe that in this authors words
would have been “totally awesome”.
The reality is, it was a huge flop. Maybe it needed more time, maybe it
was half baked and tried to do too much. It doesn’t matter, Google gave up.
You may be wondering what this has to do with Microsoft, Windows 8
and Modern UI. Here is what; When we look at how the GUI has evolved,
we will find similar anachronisms, aspects of UI design that exist because
they existed in the past, because they are familiar and for no other reason.
What would a user interface look like if it was created for the computers of
today? Or perhaps more accurately if it did not have baggage from the past?
Microsoft thinks their design language is the answer. Microsoft is
pushing it hard because that is the only way to bring changes to things
that are widely accepted.
 Get to know the new UI 27

Is it the best awesomest thing in the history of the world that will obvi-
ously be successful and eventually loved by everyone and adopted by all
operating systems and in time we wont even remember what old computers
used to look like but we will still all sing to the praise of how glorious our
new UIs are, and how brave Microsoft was in delivering us from the Evil
UI or yore as all countries of the world come together for the common cause
of celebrating the Modern UI?
We have a bet against that future—a hefty sum too. Still the fact is, a
lot of what we think about what a GUI should look like is based on what
GUIs already look like.
Why does the save icon have a floppy of all things; why is that a conven-
tion; who even uses a floppy now? Rather for those faced with a GUI for the
first time, that is just the save icon, and the fact that it looks like a floppy is
merely a matter of trivia for future school-level quizzes. They learn that it
is a save icon and understand what it is when it is used again. If we were
to suddenly replace the save icon with a picture of a horse, people would
soon learn what it means – while being understandably confused – and a
child participating in a quiz in the future would mention this FastTrack as
what started this whole trend.
Microsoft believes in this new design language – actually its beginnings
can be traced way back to Encarta – and the implications of this UI design
will be understood over time.
We said earlier that Microsoft was trending towards non-skeumorphic
designs but why is that even a good thing; shouldn’t we be evoking the
familiar in order to help people get familiar with computing concepts?
Evoking familiar patterns can be a good thing, but like all good things,
they can be overdone. Let’s take the example of skeuomorphs outside the
field of computers software; take for example the common example of an
electric car.
An electric car has no need for a front grill, since the engine does not
need air for cooling, even so these cars have such grills. Why? To evoke
the familiar design of a car, or for economic reasons having to do with
the fact that reusing similar designs is easier in manufacturing. Seems
fine enough?
Let’s go a step further and add an exhaust, which electric cars have no
need for. Now we’re just wasting money, but we can go further and install
a small smoke machine in it as well, just to get the feeling of a normal car.
While we’re at it, we all like the roar of an engine, so let’s add an engine
28 Get to know the new UI

noise generator as well, just to make it sound like a “real” car (this last bit
is actually useful if the car is too silent, to warn pedestrians).
There comes a point when you have started to reproduce the inefficiencies
and negative attributes just for the sake of familiarity. An example of this
in software would be the use of a volume knob instead of a straightforward
slider. The knob looks more familiar, but to use it you give up the accuracy
afforded by a digital solution.

What is Modern UI?

We already talked a little about what Modern UI is in the introduction,
where we also talked about skeumorphism and how Modern UI tries to
avoid it like the plague.
So what are Microsoft’s design principles. Well, they list the following five:
ΩΩ “Show pride in craftsmanship”
Effort should be put into polishing the experience for tasks that are repeat-
edly performed. Apps should use balance, symmetry and hierarchy such
that users can expect how the app will behave. Apps should be aligned
to a grid. Apps should be accessible to the widest audience even those
with disabilities.

ΩΩ “Be fast and fluid”

The app should be prepared for the next interaction even as the first is being
performed. Interaction should be intuitive and touch friendly, with good
use of motion. The UI should be immersive and compelling.

ΩΩ “Be authentically digital”

The app should take advantage of the digital medium. The app is just pixels
on a screen and can use colours and images in a way not possible in the
real world. Apps should use meaningful motion, bold and vibrant colours
and beautiful typographically. Apps should connect to the cloud and be
dynamic with communication.

ΩΩ “Do more with less”

A design should be reduced as far as possible, so that there are minimal
distractions. Only the most relevant things should be on screen. Content
should be prioritised over chrome. The app should focus on being good at
on thing rather than OK at many things. Move lesser used command off the
chrome on to app bars, and take advantage of the charms feature.
 Get to know the new UI 29

ΩΩ “Win as one”
Apps should work well with other apps by taking advantage of the contracts
Windows provides, such as search, storage, and sharing. These principles
are more about the philosophy of the design rather than actual design
guidelines, but Microsoft has plenty of these as well.
Microsoft’s apps will obviously try to follow these principles, so you can
look at them as examples of what the Modern UI is; however most apps in
the Windows 8 store follow similar guidelines.
One thing you will notice is that while this has to do with touch, it isn’t
something that’s entirely built around touch. One could apply these prin-
ciples to desktop apps as well.
Microsoft’s design guidelines have to do with how an application should
use space, and how it should lay out its content and controls. The most
common examples of such applications also happen to be designed for touch.

Getting around the new UI

So now that we have some idea about what Modern UI is, how it got here,
and why it will probably stay, let’s look at how to actually use this thing.
What’s immediately visible when you start Windows 8 for the first
time is what Microsoft calls, the start screen. It serves a similar purpose
as the start menu did in previous versions of Windows, which is to launch
applications but it is much more than that.
There are a couple of new UI elements in Windows 8 other than the
immediately visible start screen. To use Windows 8 you will need to learn
what these new UI elements and conventions do and how to use them. Let’s
go over them in turn.

The Start Screen

The start screen is what replaces the star menu of yore – who even remem-
bers that start menu anymore – and adds a few things into the mix.
This is probably the first thing you will see when you launch Windows
8 for the first time – or the first thing you see when it finishes installing.
The start screen is where you will see all all the applications you install
listed. It will also list installed desktop applications. Instead of icons, the
start screen shows tiles; these are rectangular icons for applications and
include the name of the application. Even desktop apps show up here as
tiles, but their tiles are visibly different. Windows Store apps even get some
special features for the start screen. One thing you will notice is now some
30 Get to know the new UI

The start screen on a 1920x1080 monitor

application tiles keep changing what they show. Each tile is like a small peek
into the application; your mail app can show the latest mail and unread
mail count, your news app can show the latest news clip with their leading
image; an eBook reader can show which book you are currently reading.
This small feature also means that for some apps you don’t even need
to launch them to see if there is anything new. If your mail app shows there
are no new mails, you needn’t launch it.
The start screen isn’t just limited to apps either, it can also link to other
kinds of content. Apps can pin content here as well. For example, Internet
Explorer can pin websites here, the Kindle app can pin books here, and the
People apps can pin Contacts here. It’s just a convenient way to access con-
tent directly rather than going through the app.
At the top-left of the start screen you will
also see the name and photo of the currently
logged in user. Clicking on this shows a menu
that can be used to change the account picture,
lock the computer or sign out.

Managing Tiles
There a number of things you can do on your
start screen to keep things organised. The sim-
plest and most obvious being that you can drag Tiles can show the latest data
tiles around to rearrange them. available to the app
 Get to know the new UI 31

Tiles for Modern UI apps can be displayed either as a normal square tile,
or an expanded rectangular tile that takes up as much space as two tiles.
As we said before, tiles can show information from an app, so you can use
this with tiles that have important data to display.
To perform operations on a tile, you need to select it first. If you are using
a touch screen, slightly slide the tile in a up-down motion, this will select
the tile, mouse users can just right click. For keyboard users you first need
to navigate to the tile using the arrow keys, and then press the space key to
select the tile. A bar will pop up at the bottom with command for the tile.
For all tiles you will see an option to unpin the app from the start screen
or uninstall the app. For Store apps you will also get an option to change
the size of the tile, and to turn off live updated for a tile. For desktop icons
you will be able to launch the app as an admin, open the location of the
shortcut, open a new window of the app, and to pin the app to the task bar.
The start screen shows apps in rows and columns, but the way these icons
these behave needs to be understood. As you start adding tiles to the start
screen, they will come in rows of two.
When the maximum number
of rows in a column is exhausted,
another column starts.
If you drag a tile away form a
column, to the left or right, at one
point a column of space will appear
highlighted, and you will be able to
start a new group of tiles.
You can have a number of such
groups. Unlike the old start menu
there is no system of folders on the Tiles: The operations visible here change
start start screen, so having hierarchy depending on what is supported by the
is not possible. Instead you can group application
tiles for similar apps together. It is
even possible give a name to these groups. So you can group together all
your photo editing apps under the heading “Photo Editing”, or for example
all your internet related apps under “Internet”.
To make managing the start screen easier, there is a zoomed out view
available. In this view you can move around entire groups, and name them.
This zoomed out view is accessible by using the zoom (pinching) gesture
on the start screen. To reach this view with a mouse you have two options,
32 Get to know the new UI

either click on the minus icon on the

bottom-right of the screen, or using
the scroller of your mouse in addi-
tion to the [Ctrl] key. Keyboard users
can use [Ctrl]+[+] and [Ctrl]+[-] to
zoom in and out respectively.
In this mode you will be able
to highlight and entire group and
drag and drop it into place. You can
right click, swipe and select, or press
spacebar to select a group, in which
case you can again get a command
bar. This should have only one option,
“Name Group”, which does what
you’d expect.
Once a column is filled, the next one starts
The Charms bar
There are a couple of ways to access the charms bar. For touchscreen users,
you can swipe in from the right edge of the screen to show this bar. For mouse
users, the process is a bit more complex; move the mouse to the top-right or
bottom-right corner of the screen, the bar will begin to show up, then move
the mouse along the edge (down or up depending on where you started) to
access the bar. For keyboard users there is a shortcut for each feature of the
charms bar. These are listed in the last chapter of this booklet.
The main shortcut you need to know is [Win]+[C] (Win is the
Windows or Start key on your keyboard).
The charms bar has a number of “charms”, which are essen-
tially points of integration for Windows 8 applications. You will
find five such charms on this bar.
The search charm at the top lets you search the current appli-
cation, if it is the kind of application that has anything to search.
For example, an eBook reader app might let you search for books
in your collection. A photo editor app on the other hand might
have nothing to search for, or it might just let you search for filters
to apply to an image. If you open the search charm from the start
screen or desktop, it will search installed application by default.
However at any point you can use it to switch to searching files,
settings, installed apps, or searching a particular installed app.
 Get to know the new UI 33

The share charm lets you share content from the app you are
using. To use this the app you are using should have something
to share, and support sharing. A web browser for example should
let you share the current URL, a music library application might
let you share the name of the currently playing app as your status.
You also need an application to share with, for example, a twitter app, or
a photo sharing app. Sharing isn’t just about links, applications can share
images, text or even arbitrary files. So if you share that zip file you might
find yourself faced with a the Dropbox and SkyDrive apps while sharing a
link will show you your Twitter and Facebook apps. An app pariticpates
both ways as well, so you can share files on your Dropbox via mail, but you
can also share files from your Photo app with Dropbox. You cannot share
from the desktop or desktop apps.
The Start charm in the middle takes you to the start screen. If tapped or
clicked while on the start screen it goes back to the last used app.
The Devices charm allows sending content from an app to connected
devices. This includes sending documents to a printer, streaming a video
to your TV, or streaming audio to a home theatre system.
The Settings charm is a standardised way you can access the settings for
any application. Nearly every application has some or the other configura-
tion settings associated with it, and this is where you will find the settings
for Windows 8 apps. In desktop mode it links to the desktop related set-
tings such as the control panel and personalisation. At any point it will also
show other system setting
such as the network infor-
mation, volume control,
brightness control, noti-
fications, power and key-
board settings. It also has
a link to the Modern UI
control panel.
As you can see, charms
might take a while to get
used to, but they stand-
ardise the way you can
access some of the most
common features found
in most applications. Multiple groups, with a little gap in between
34 Get to know the new UI

Things like the share charm are especially useful since it allows for
cross-application integration even when the software are made by two dif-
ferent – or even competing – companies as long as the applications share
some common ground in file formats.

The Command Bar

While different applications may implement this feature in different ways,
this is a feature that is common to many of the applications.
To keep the application interface neat and clean, most application hide
lesser used commands off screen, giving most of the space to the actual
content. You can still access these command with touch, mouse or keyboard.
If you are using the mouse, just right click to show these commands.
If you are using touch, swipe upwards from the bottom edge of the screen,
or swipe down from the top edge.
If you are using the keyboard, press [Win]+[Z].
These commands can be considered a hybrid of the context menu and
toolbar. So if you have some item selected on screen, chances are these
commands will change.
For example Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 hides the tab bar and the
address bar while browsing, however using the above gestures / shortcuts
you can show those UI elements. On the on the other hand IE has a proper
context menu instead of using the command bar for this purpose.

Managing Running Apps

When you launch any Modern UI application, it fills the entire screen,
this is normal behaviour for a Windows 8 app. Unlike traditional desktop
applications, you cannot arbitrarily resize a Window 8 app. This doesn’t
mean that Windows 8 doesn’t multitask, it very much does, and quite well.
To switch between running Modern UI apps there is a new task switcher
that is touch friendly. To access this task switcher all you have to do swipe
in from the left edge of screen. A column showing thumbnails of running
application will show up, at the bottom there will always be a thumbnail
for the start screen, and one of the thumbnails will be the desktop.
This task switcher can be also be accessed by moving the mouse to the
top-left or bottom-left corner of the screen, and then moving your mouse
along the edge (up or down depending on where you started), just like the
charms bar. You can also use keyboard with the [Win]+[Tab] shortcut and
switch apps just like you would with Alt-tab.
 Get to know the new UI 35

Switching apps is simple enough, just click or tap an app thumbnail

to switch to it. These applications are sorted by recency, with the most
recent app at the top. If you are running too many apps, some might no
longer show up as they disappear at the bottom. You can get back to these
“hidden” apps by clicking on the apps tile in the start screen, it should be
up and running where you left it.
Since there are two kinds of applications running on the Windows
system, things can get a little confusing. This confusion arises from the
fact that there are multiple places that show running applications, but the
applications they show are different and inconsistent.
In desktop mode the taskbar will not show Modern UI apps, however
they will appear while Alt-tabbing. The new app switcher does not show
desktop apps but it does show the desktop itself. This desktop tile can be
“closed” but that just hides the tile, the desktop is still running.

The IE10 app bars include its location bar and tab bar

So as a quick guide:
Taskbar: shows ONLY desktop apps
Alt-tab: shows both desktop and Modern UI apps
Win-tab: shows ONLY Modern UI apps + desktop
There are a couple of other tricks you can use with the task manager.
If you are using the mouse, you can move the mouse to the top-left corner
of the screen and you will see the last used app, you can just click here to
switch to that app.
We said earlier that you can’t arbitrarily resize Windows 8 apps. You can,
however, snap an application to the left or right side of the screen. If you do
so the app will take up one column of the screen, while another application
can happily run alongside it.
Say you are listening to music, and browsing the internet. You can snap
the music player to one side of the screen while you continue browsing.
36 Get to know the new UI

Likewise you can have the messenger app or a social networking app open
alongside another application. The application needs to support this view,
and generally they do, but there is no guarantee that the application will be
very useful in that mode, some apps do this better than others.
To snap fit apps, you can drag an app from the Modern UI task manager
and move it towards the left or right side of the screen, Windows will indicate
that it can snap the application there, at which point you can drop it. If you
drag an app from the task bar to the centre of the screen it will just replace
the currently running app rather then run alongside it. If you drag an app
from the task bar to the bottom of the screen, that will just close the app.
A slider will also appear between two apps open side by side. This slider
can’t be arbitrarily moved either, but can can be used to change which app
is the primary and which is docked.
These gestures can be performed using the mouse as well, using the
mouse you can even drag and drop a running app from its top edge to left
/ right side of the screen to dock it, or to the bottom to close it.
These operations also be performed using the keyboard. You can find
those later in this booklet.

The Lock Screen

When you start your computer, before you see the login screen, you will see
the Lock screen. There is not much to do here other than to get rid of it, but
it does show some important information from your running applications.

Browsing the latest news while listening to music

 Get to know the new UI 37

The lock screen shows the current date and time, and can be configured
to show a lot more. You can have it show information from as many as eight
different apps, of which one can show detailed information. The lock screen
background can also be changed, which we will come to later.
The lock screen is a good place to get an overview of your system, and
can tell you at a glance whether you need to interact with your system to
check mail, return an IM etc.
There’s nothing much to do with it but dispel it and get on with your
work, which fortunately is as simple as clicking anywhere, pressing any
key or sliding the lock screen away. This reveals the login screen.

Modern UI
settings
A result of the
dichotomy between
Modern UI and
traditional / classic
desktop UI in Win-
dows 8, there also
two control panels Here the lockscreen is showing details for the calendar app
of sorts. and icons for a couple of apps such as mail
The traditional
Control Panel is retained, but there is a new touch-friendly settings appli-
cation that can configure common Metro UI settings.
To access this panel all you need to do is use the Settings charm and
click on the bottommost “Change PC settings” link.
This area can be used to configure most new UI aspects of Windows 8,
such as the Lock screen, stat screen, notifications, search, sharing, syncing
and a lot more. We’ll go by each setting in turn.
Personalise: Here you can configure the visual aspects of the Modern UI.
You can set a Lock screen wallpaper, and configure which applications
should show information on the lock screen. For the start screen you have a
range of designs and patterns available that can be applied – in addition to
no style – and you can pick from a number of pre-defined colour schemes.
You can also pick an account picture which will then be shown on the start
screen and login screen.
Users: Windows is a multi-user OS, and that hasn’t gone with Win-
dows 8 even as devices become increasingly personal. Here you can add
38 Get to know the new UI

user accounts, or
configure your own
sign in options. If you
connected your login
account to a Micro-
soft account while
creating it, you will
have an option here
to unlink it. You can
also configure how
you sign into your
Welcome to the new “modern” control panel account. Windows 8
supports picture pass-
words, and PIN based login schemes in addition to a standard password.
Notifications: Windows 8 has an in built Notification system that can
show updates from installed apps. Here you an configure which apps are
allowed to show notifications, whether notifications should be shown on
the lock screen and whether a sound should accompany a notification.
Search: Like the notifications page, the Search page lets you opt out from
showing certain apps while searching – useful once things start getting
busy. Here you can also clear you search history and configure if search
should show suggestions.
Share: Settings related to sharing between apps are listed here. As with
notifications and search, you can disable apps from showing up when you
are sharing.
General: Here you can configure settings related to the time, switching
apps, spelling (yes Windows 8 has in-built spelling correction), language,
application storage, refresh and reset, and advanced start up.
While most of the other options are quite intuitive, advanced start-up
could need some explanation. Since Windows 8 could potentially be used
on a touch-screen only device, how do you access the boot menu which
requires pressing F8? Advanced start-up is the answer. When you want
to boot to another OS or run recovery options, you can restart the system
form here rather than the regular way.
Privacy: Here you can let Store apps access your location, or use your
real name and account picture. You can also participate in an improvement
program for Windows Store that will send the URL for any content you
browse using apps to Microsoft.
 Get to know the new UI 39

Devices: Any devices you add that can interact with Modern UI apps
will show up here.
Ease of Access: Here you can configure assistive technologies such as
high contrast mode, and narrator.
Sync your settings: If you use a Microsoft account to log in rather than
a local account, Windows 8 will be able to sync a number of you settings
with Microsoft’s cloud. These include personalisations, stored passwords,
language settings, app settings, browser settings etc.
HomeGroup: Microsoft added HomeGroups in Windows 7 as a simpler
way of setting up home networks. This feature is still available in Windows
8 and here is where you can configure it. The old way of configuring these
settings is still available, so unless you have a pure touch screen, there isn’t
much point using it here.
Windows Update: This is the simplest page of all. If there is an update,
it will show that you can do something about it. Otherwise you can check
for updates.

New Ways to Log In

We mentioned earlier that it was possible to set up a user account using
your Microsoft account. While this does make keeping things in sync a lot
simpler – as you will learn later on – chances are you have and want to keep
a complex password for your online account. Such passwords are OK on a
desktop, but typing them out repeatedly on a tablet without a physical key-
board can be a pain. Even if you are only using a local account with a simpler
password, Windows 8 offers some alternatives that might serve you better.
The first is a PIN-based login, which is essentially a 4-digit numeric
code for you computer. The great thing about this is that all you need to
do is enter the pin and it will automatically log in the second you enter the
final digit of your pin, no need to even press enter!
If you want a little more security though and you have a touch screen,
Windows 8 has better solution, Picture passwords. What picture passwords
let you do is to use a picture of your choice in combination with a series of
gestures to log in.
The password is then a series of three gestures, performed in the right
order. A gesture could be a simple tap, a straight line, or a circle. You pick a
picture that provides the points of reference since you can perform gestures
on the items on the screen. This can be used with a mouse as well, but is not
as comfortable as it would be with a touch screen.
40 Get to know the new UI

A picture password is easy to set up, but doesn’t allow any more than three gestures

Microsoft Account
One of the things that might tick people off about Windows 8 is how neces-
sary it is to have a Microsoft account in order to use it.
When you hear that all Modern UI Windows 8 apps need to be installed
from the Store, it seems restrictive, but there is also the hidden implication,
how do you identify yourself to the store?
The Windows store, since it is run by Microsoft, requires that you have
a Microsoft account in order to use it. What this effectively means is that
unless you have a Microsoft account, you simply cannot install any Modern
UI applications on Windows 8, which means no applications at all on Win-
dows RT since it only runs Store apps.
Windows does come pre-installed with a couple of applications, and
these do not come from the store. However, even these applications need a
Microsoft account if you want to use them in any meaningful way, or at all
in the case of some applications.
The Messenger and Mail apps, for instance, both need you to
associate a Microsoft account even if you want to only use them for non-
Microsoft services.
Now, this isn’t a big deal if you don’t have a problem with having a
Microsoft account. This is by no means something that is unheard of.
Android devices need a Google account, while iOS devices need an Apple
account. However if you don’t like the idea of needing an account just to
use a desktop OS, then you are a bit out of luck. Even Ubuntu needs an
 Get to know the new UI 41

account for some of the features of the OS, although it is not even close to
as restrictive as Windows 8.
If it is just a matter of not wanting to associate your primary Microsoft
account with your OS install, you can create a separate account for this
purpose. So, if you are OK with a Microsoft account, what all you get?
A Microsoft account is essentially what used to be Windows Live, or
Microsoft Live. It is a number of Microsoft services wrapped up into one.
If you have a Microsoft account if you have used Hotmail, or SkyDrive.
A Microsoft account will give you access to all these Microsoft services.
If you make a Microsoft account for use with Windows 8 it will include
access to SkyDrive, with 7GB free online storage, and a Hotmail or Outlook
account for email. For Windows 8 you will also need it for the Windows
Store and to install Modern UI apps.
There are some benefits you get from using your Microsoft account to
sign into Windows rather than a regular Windows account. The first benefit,
and one we have already mentioned before, is that it will synchronise a lot
of your personalisations and settings across multiple computers. This is
understandably useless if you have just one computer.
Even third party app developers can tap into SkyDrive APIs and syn-
chronise their data using it. So your eBook reading app, could keep the
same eBooks on all computers along with maintaining information about
what page you are on in each book, browsers can ensure that your browsing
sessions (tabs, history and even cookies) are in sync across devices.
Another benefit is that this automatically keeps you signed in into all
apps that need a Microsoft ID. Otherwise you have to individually sign
into the SkyDrive app, the Games app, the Mail app, the messenger app,
the calender app etc.
This even automatically signs you into Microsoft services in Internet
Explorer, and can be used by other third party apps for ID as well.
Still having a Microsoft account connected to your local account is not
necessary, although having a Microsoft account probably is, if you want to
install any Modern UI apps at all.

The Windows 8 Store

So Microsoft finally has a store for Windows, and supposedly only Modern
UI applications can only be installed from there.
This is true for the most part, but there are minor exceptions. For example,
the Windows store does list desktop applications, but it doesn’t sell them,
42 Get to know the new UI

or let you install them from the Store. It is for discoverability only. Also, it
is possible to install Modern UI apps from outside the store in a way. For
enterprise users, where a company might want to distribute applications
within the company without going through Microsoft’s Store, there are
ways available, but they are not available to consumers.
If you are developing a Modern UI app, you need some way to run it
and test it right? So those methods make it possible to install open source
applications without going through the store.
Realistically though, you are looking at the store as the source for all
your Modern UI applications.
The Windows Store is still new, and developing, so it does currently have
a dearth of good applications. Still you will find a number of popular games
and apps on the store, such as the Angry Birds games. The Angry Birds
games for example, are priced at around `250. Apps and games generally
seem to be priced around their mobile and tablet counterparts rather than
the desktop versions.
The Store is divided into numerous categories: games, social, enter-
tainment, photo, music and video, sport, books and reference, news and
weather, health and fitness, food and dining, etc. There is also a spotlight
section curated by Microsoft.
Each section can be browsed by clicking on name of the section (this
might not seem readily apparent) by using the links for each section that
let you browse to free apps, top paid apps or new releases. If you browse a
category by clicking on it you will see all the apps in that category, which
might be a little overwhelming. So, you can filter items in a category based

The store might just get a little hard to navigate as the number of apps increases
 Get to know the new UI 43

on subcategories, or pricing, and sort them based

on price rating and popularity. Unfortunately
there seems to be no way to browse apps by a
developer or publisher.
You can of course search the Windows Store
as well, and process is the same as searching
any other app. You can use the charms bar and
click / tap search.
Each app has its own page which includes
screen shots, a description, licence terms and
other such information. Each app will also list the
permissions it has, such as whether an app uses
location services, or uses the internet, whether
it has access to your files etc. Also included are
reviews for each app, and one good thing about
the review system used by the Windows Store
is that it shows whether the person leaving the
review used a trial version or the full version
of the app. These can’t be installed
For paid applications, you can either buy the from here
title outright, or try it first. Microsoft allows app
developers to pick a right trial period, so you could have apps giving trials
for 1 day, 7 days, 15 days, 30 days, or even perpetual trials. Now, you need
to be careful with trials for Windows 8 apps, once you try an app, and the
trial elapses, there is no way to try it again. In fact if you have multiple user
accounts, no other user on the same computer can ever try that app again.
On the other hand, there is some good news when it comes to purchased
software. With multiple users on a computer and multiple computers to
a user, you might be wondering how applications are licensed. Microsoft
has kept this simple. An application you purchase on your computer can
be installed for all user accounts of that computer. So if Sumeet and Palak
are using a computer with separate user accounts, and Sumeet purchases
an application, it can be installed on Palak’s account as well. Likewise if
Palak purchases an app it will be available to Sumeet as well. Additionally,
all the apps you purchase can be installed on 5 separate devices. So Sumeet
can install software he purchased on his personal tablet as well, but the
applications available to Sumeet because he shared a computer with Palak
will not be available to him on his tablet.
44 Get to know the new UI

Purchasing software titles is quite simple. When you purchase some-

thing, you need to authenticate yourself, and if you haven’t done so already,
you need to add a credit card or debit card to your account. You do need a
card to make a payment, for now there seems to be no other way to make
purchases on the Windows Store.
We did find that the store accepted our debit cards, and even worked
with the Verified by Visa / MasterCard SecureCode systems that sometimes
cause issues while making international purchases.
Applications can also support in-app purchases for content, additional
functionality or even subscriptions. Some apps can offer a free version, with
the ability to unlock additional features for a payment. These payment sys-
tems can use the Microsoft Store payment method, or their own system.
 45
Chapter #4

Usability
and getting
work done
Windows 8 might just be the prettiest
OS out there, though far from functional.
Given time, can it capture your heart?
Here are some of the features designed
to make your life easier
46 Usability and getting work done

O
ne of the most flamboyant features of Windows 8 is its new start
screen. Windows, as we’ve known it since the past 15 years, has
undergone radical change and the desktop is no more the same.
Mobiles have invaded our computing experience and Windows
8 duly refletcs that trend.

Getting to the desktop

You log on to Windows and the desktop is there waiting for you. Windows 8
changes that a bit. In the new iteration of Windows, you don’t have a desktop
anymore. When you switch your system on, the first thing you see is a start
screen with live application tiles. These tiles keep updating information
on their faces. No longer are any manual updates required for your email,
weather and news. If it’s new, it would be on the start screen. When you first
see it, we’re sure you’d be mesmerized by the beautiful show of colors while
your intellect questions where the desktop went. Look closely and you’ll
surely locate your desktop as one of
the tiles on the start screen though.
Click it and you’d feel right at home!
For keyboard lovers, the good old
[Win] + [D] key combination also
gets the job done.
While you’re on the desktop,
the one thing you’re going to miss
for sure is the start menu button.
It’s simply not there. Hover your
To reach the start screen, hover on the bot- cursor in that area and a rectan-
tom left corner and click the box gular box shows up with what
looks like a snapshot of your start
screen. Clicking the box will take you to the start screen. In a very similar
fashion, if you’re working with a Modern UI app, hovering your mouse
near the top-left corner of the screen would provide you with a snapshot
of the desktop. Click it and you’d be taken back to it via a very nifty screen-
flip animation.

Modern UI vs. Desktop apps

Frankly, this is the biggest dilemma with Windows 8. For the files most com-
monly used, Windows 8 provides you with more than one option. A fresh
installation of Windows 8 sets the Photos app as the default application for
 Usability and getting work done 47

viewing pictures and the Music app as the default for opening MP3 files.
Both these apps are Modern UI apps and if you fancy using them, consider
the fact that Modern UI apps don’t create a button in the taskbar. Here’s
where the Snap Apps feature is your mate.
Taking the decision about when to use Modern UI apps and when to use
Desktop apps when both are available on the same system can be difficult.
To make it easier, take these parameters into account:
1. On what device are you using Windows 8? – With new devices con-
stantly entering the market, the options have widened and the OS can
run on almost all of them – be they PCs, tablets, laptops /ultrabooks
or convertibles.
• For a PC, laptop or ultrabook, we recommend a desktop app over a
Modern UI app. Modern UI apps are built for touchscreens and the
controls aren’t very friendly for a mouse user. You can also expect a
void of keyboard shortcuts for Modern UI apps.
• A convertible device can transform from a tablet into an ultrabook
and vice versa. Your usage of the device itself should determine the
choice of apps. If you prefer the tablet mode, Modern UI apps are the
way to go. If you use it more as an ultrabook (and mind you, we’re
skipping the touchscreen usage), desktop apps would please you.
2. How frequently do you use a keyboard and mouse? – If you change
applications in a jiffy remembering the sequence in which [Alt +
Tab] will bring them up on the screen and you add footnotes to MS
Word documents using a keyboard shortcut, Modern UI apps would
annoy you.
3. Is it a convertible device? – Touchscreens are awesome – they avoid
keystrokes, use less energy, feel smooth and since the keypads don’t
take up any space, you get larger screens. Using touch on a desktop PC
can be a pain, but on a laptop, it can feel very natural. Make sure you
try out both before considering a purchase as this can drastically affect
your views on Windows 8.
4. How advanced a user are you? – Advanced users know their way around
the system. They change options frequently based on needs and squeeze
as much juice as they can get out of every device and app. Typically an
advanced PC user (touchscreen geeks excluded) uses a lot of keyboard
shortcuts and Windows 8 supports plenty of those. An advanced user
might find the extra mouse movements frustrating but can get used to
them in time.
48 Usability and getting work done

Changes in the regular desktop apps

Windows 8 won’t bring about any changes to any third-party applications
except for their title bars. However, many a thing has changed for the apps
that come packaged with Windows itself, especially the Explorer.

Changes in Windows
Explorer
You’ll find that Microsoft has
decided to remove Windows
Explorer from Windows 8.
It’s now called ‘File Explorer’.
While this move may fail to
impress, the changes in its
looks, features and function- File Menu in Windows 8 File Explorer
ality are bound to impress
you. If you were happy with Windows Explorer in Windows 7, Windows
8’s File Explorer will please you even more. Since most of our work with
the OS revolves around files and File Explorer is a constantly summoned
tool, it affects a large part of how we interact with the OS.
The biggest change to the explorer is the addition of the ribbon, not
unlike the one you’ve seen on Office 2010. You can collapse the ribbon bar
to save space when you wish to. File explorer normally hosts four tabs in the
ribbon bar: File, Home, Share and View. Let’s talk about each of these tabs:

File tab
This holds the usual menu.
Useful as it may seem, there
resides another option to open
a command prompt right away
and it will ‘cd’ you into the
Well spaced controls are good only for the tablets directory you have open in the
explorer window. Similarly
you could open up the Windows PowerShell too. Help, Delete history and
Close are the other obvious options. Open new window is another useful one.

Home tab
The most common functions related to files are under the home tab of the
File Explorer. Functions such as Cut, Copy and Paste are on the left-hand
 Usability and getting work done 49

side in the ‘Clipboard’ section. There’s an immensely helpful button named

Copy path which is enabled only when at least one file is selected in the main
window. Clicking it will copy the path of the selected file(s) and folder(s)
to the clipboard. That’s one useful function to supply the file name to any
program or to help a friend over chat (e.g. when you need to tell them the
location of a file to edit). You can sidestep the ‘browse’ button now and just
paste the file path in the file-name box wherever available. Though we’re
accustomed to right-clicking files and folders to copy and paste them, two
more buttons named Move to and Copy to are also present on the home tab.
Delete and Rename have their own buttons too. These are in the ‘Organize’
section of the tab.
In the ‘New’ section we have three buttons: New folder, New item and
Easy access. The New folder button is self-explanatory and exists in Win-
dows 7 as well. The New item button will show you all the options you get

Home tab of Windows 8 File Explorer - The parent-folder button has returned on the address bar

in the ‘New’ section of a right-click in the main window (Shortcut, Text

Document, Compressed Folder etc.). The easy access button allows you
to pin an item to the start screen, include the selection in a library, add to
favorites or map as a drive. Don’t get excited though – the Map as a drive
option doesn’t let you map a local folder as a drive letter – you can only map
a network folder as a drive. For remote files, three more options: ‘Always
available offline’, ‘Sync’ and ‘Work offline’ are given.
Next is the ‘Open’ section with a Properties button. The default action is
just what you guess – open the selected file(s) and/or folder(s) properties.
However, clicking the triangle on the button opens up another option which
lets you remove properties from a file. Clicking the Open button does what
double-clicking the file would do – open it with the default app. However
you can use it to do the ‘Open with…’ task as well. The Edit button is mostly
disabled except in case you’ve selected a file which Windows 8 knows will
be editable by a particular app, e.g. it would open Paint for an image. The
most interesting inclusion is the History feature which we’ll talk about at
length later on.
50 Usability and getting work done

Three buttons in the ‘Select’ section allow you to select all files, select none
or invert the selection (deselect the selected ones and select the unselected).

Share tab
Here you get the common options to share the files you’ve selected in the
main window. You may zip the files, burn them to a disc and if Windows
knows how to print the file, it would enable the print and fax buttons. For
some strange reason, the Email button didn’t get enabled even after having
configured the Mail app (Modern UI app) successfully. Explorer doesn’t seem
to recognize the app as an email handling program and throws an error if
we try to use right-click > Send to > Mail recipients. Sharing files with the
homegroup and revoking the permissions are a click away.
While advanced users would have already used the functionality to their
advantage in the past, Advanced Security button exposes those arcane,
difficult-to-understand options to a normal user. We’ll try to explain some
of its functions in the chapter dedicated to security.

View tab
There are times when one can live with less screen real estate while there
are other times when one needs all the space they can get with all folders
shown, especially when looking for a file buried deep inside folders. Until
Windows 7, the options were located in the ‘Folder Options’ dialog box
only. The View tab exposes the most useful functions from that dialog box.
The navigation pane can be enabled/disabled in just a couple of clicks and
customizing its view is quite easy as well. You can toggle one of the preview
or details panes on the right side of the window without any difficulty (the
details pane no longer appears at the bottom of the window). View layout
options is now visible easily as opposed to the old ‘click to open a menu with
a vertical slider’ style. The good part is: the layout will change temporarily
as and when you hover over the option (in much the same way it happens
when you hover over the ‘styles’ in MS Word 2007 and higher). The bad
part is: if you scrolled all the way down in the directory, an accidental hover
on the layout styles will send you back to the top again.
The ‘Current view’ section allows you to sort and group the view the
way you’d like covering the options we’d usually find in the View, Sort by
and Group by entries of a right-click menu (call it the ‘context menu’ if you
will). Seeing hidden files and hiding the currently visible ones are both
single clicks away – the process is so simple now that it almost defeats the
 Usability and getting work done 51

View tab in Windows 8 file explorer

primary purpose of hiding the file. The only good purpose it can serve is to
make sure that [Ctrl + A] doesn’t select a hidden file or folder – useful if you
were to delete them all. Viewing file extensions is an option right up there
on the ribbon as a checkbox. And just in case you need more control, the old
‘Folder Options’ dialog box can be accessed by clicking the Options button.

Miscellaneous tabs
Miscellaneous tabs, one for each type of file or location can appear on the
ribbon bar. For example, when you’re in the ‘Computer’ window (the system
‘Computer’ folder which lists the available drives), the Home and Share
tabs disappear and the Computer tab comes up with links to Control Panel,
System Properties, Program management and Computer management tool.
Again, depending on what file you have selected, file explorer would
bestow a new tab e.g. ‘Play’ for video and audio files and ‘Manage’ for
picture files. Selecting a drive in the Computer folder will add the tab to
manage the drive – format, defragment, enable bitlocker and disk cleanup.
All of this makes it a whole lot easier for those who could not follow the
long instructions like “right-click drive, go to properties, and switch to
the Tools tab”.
File Explorer is one of the best changes made to the Windows 8 UI. It
comes with almost all the goodies we’ve been waiting for and wait, the ‘Folder
up’ button is back too! Most used functions which were hidden beneath
menus and tabs are now on the ribbon. One can add the more frequently
used functions on the quick access bar and personalize the experience alto-
gether. You can minimize the ribbon using the button located just beneath
the Close button on the title bar for some extra screen space as well.

Changes in Task Manager

The Task Manager has been an integral part of the toolkit for every Win-
dows user. The default layout of the task manager in Windows 8 is simple.
If you had the luck to see a Windows 98 task manager, you’d be able to relate
instantly. However the advanced view on clicking ‘More details’ would
show you that the task manager in Windows 8 has been given a semantic
52 Usability and getting work done

overhaul. There are new tabs added to the interface and the information
shown is better organized.
With time, all apps have become update hungry. Almost every application
you can install has the capability to update itself over the Internet. Some
applications do it silently without informing you and they don’t even show
you an option to alter this behavior. Google Chrome serves well as one such
example. The Processes tab has replaced the Applications tab and hosts
an extra column to show
the network bandwidth
consumption by processes.
This is truly useful for those
who want to save every bit
of network resource. If your
network is not working at
the speed you’re expecting
it to, open Task Manager in
Windows 8 and if you find a
resource consuming process,
kill the culprit. At the top,
you have the total resource
The Task Manager has become more meaningful usage for each category
than ever in Windows 8 (CPU, Memory, Disk and
Network). Processes using
more resources than others are easily distinguishable by the intensity of
the background color. You can view the list of application windows running
under one process by clicking the triangle on the left of the process name
entry. Windows processes show up along with other background processes
as well. The background processes list would typically also contain the
tray icon processes among others – making it easy to kill off a process if
it doesn’t offer an ‘exit’ option! However, the Processes tab doesn’t show
the Modern apps by default. To view them, you need to enable them from
the menu; follow the path View > Status Values > Show suspended status.
The performance tab has a summary view which does away with details
and makes the window look like a widget showing you the summary of
resource usage. The regular view has been split into two – resource names
on the left, graphs on the right. Clicking the resource name on the left shows
the detailed view with the resource graph on the right. Each resource has its
graph summary view as well. We have a screenshot with CPU graph over-
 Usability and getting work done 53

view and other graph overviews will appear very similar. However, you can
have only one task manager running despite your wishes to have multiple
windows floating around. You can disable/enable the small graph boxes on
the left pane via a right-click menu option. As always, you have the link to
Resource Monitor on the performance tab to have a detailed look, if you desire.
App History tab shows the list of apps with their respective resource
usages since Windows 8 was installed, or when you last cleared the usage
history. This can help discover the apps which have been utilizing too much of
network bandwidth or the ones which keep the CPU busy to drain the battery.
The only change on the Services tab is a link to open the Services Manage-
ment Console instead of a button. However, there is a new Startup tab which
shows the list of applications that start up when you log in to Windows. You
have options to not just disable the app from starting up but also to find the
file location or search online. The search online feature will launch Bing
search with the process filename as the search parameter. Traditionally,
controlling startup applications has been a part of the msconfig system
configuration tool until now. The msconfig tool in Windows 8 just links to
the task manager instead.
The Users tab now gives the details of resource utilization by processes
running under the respective user accounts. Details tab lists the processes
the way older versions of Windows have been doing under the Processes
tab. In other words, we still have the old ‘Processes’ tab, although now
renamed to ‘Details’.
Most other apps have not changed. Except of course, the title bar and the
new looks Windows 8 brings to the table by default, Notepad, WordPad,
Paint, Calculator and other accessories have gained absolutely nothing in
the new version.

Two arrows for one target

On more than one occasion you’ll find yourself with more options than
needed. The inclusion of Modern UI in Windows 8 has given way to a dual
approach to accomplish mundane tasks. While it’s good in its own right, it
does cause a little trouble and confusion: two Control Panels, two Internet
Explorers, two music apps, two picture viewers...phew!

Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer 10 looks pretty much the same as it looked on Windows
7. But there’s more to it. Windows 8 comes with two versions of Internet
54 Usability and getting work done

Explorer – one for the desktop, another for

the mobile view (Modern UI). Both versions
share the basics – favorites, frequent sites,
history etc. RSS Feeds however remains an
exclusive feature for the desktop version of
It is possible to pin the desktop
version of IE to the start menu IE. Favorites and frequent sites are shown
on the IE for Modern UI app when you focus
on the address bar at the bottom. History can’t be seen in the Modern UI
app although the visits are recorded to form a part of history you can view
in the desktop version.
The tile present by default on the start screen will lead you to the Modern
UI version of IE. To open the desktop version you need to go to the desktop
and start it from the taskbar. If you wish to pin the desktop version of IE to
the start screen, follow the steps:
1. Create a shortcut on the desktop (right-click Menu > New > Shortcut) and
put the location as: %PROGRAMFILES%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.
exe in the new shortcut wizard.
2. Name the shortcut as ‘Desktop IE’ or anything else you want.
3. Right-click the shortcut on the desktop and select ‘Pin to start’ option.
That’s all. Go back to the start screen and you should have an entry on
the far right (named as ‘Desktop IE’ in this case) added to the list. Drag it
to your favorite position and you’re done!

PC Settings and Control Panel

You’re probably going to hate this but Microsoft has split the control panel
into two as well. While this move has its own advantages for the end user, it
does complicate things for the power user. A simple observation is enough
to understand that the basic settings from each section have been moved to
the PC settings interface. For example, advanced user management options
such as Family Safety, configurations for user type, network adapter,
windows firewall etc. remain in the desktop interface whereas simpler
options such as changing passwords, creating new users, connecting to
a Wi-Fi hotspot etc. are now a part of the PC Settings app. To clear your
confusion, in any case, and know whether a setting has been migrated to
the PC Settings app, all you need to do is answer a simple question – does
the setting make sense for a tablet? If the answer is yes, the setting would
probably be located in the PC Settings app. If no, the control panel is where
one should search for it.
 Usability and getting work done 55

User account types

Microsoft seems to have gone crazy over the number ‘2’. Windows 8 can be
used with two types of accounts, and no, we won’t bore you with details about
differences between administrator and normal accounts. What we will talk
about though are ‘Local accounts’ and ‘Microsoft accounts’ – concepts new
to Windows 8. A Microsoft account is an account whose credentials (email
and password) you’d use to sign in to Microsoft services such as Hotmail,
Live and Bing. A local account, on the other hand, is one which you use to
sign in only to your PC.
When we use a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows 8, the OS actually
takes care of syncing the settings, files and favorites from Microsoft servers
(basically, the cloud). When using a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows
8, it’s not mandatory to be connected to the internet at all times. Actually,
it’s not mandatory at all, except when you first select the type of account
you want to use for signing in. This is because a ‘Microsoft account’ from
a Windows 8 perspective is simply a local account to which credentials of
a Microsoft account have been synced and stored locally. If you don’t want
to sync and store everything online, you can ‘Switch to a local account’. The
option is available in the Users section of PC Settings.
Assuming you’re already using a ‘Microsoft account’ to log in to your
machine, you can opt to switch to a local account by clicking that button.
When you do this, you’ll be asked to enter your current password. The next
screen will ask you to enter a username, password (twice) and password
hint. While you may expect Windows 8 to annihilate all your files and
preferences and get you a new account, nothing could be further from the
truth. The only thing it does is change your password stored on disk, add a
password hint and change your username (if you enter a different username).
If you’re not using a Microsoft account, (it doesn’t matter if you switched
to a local account or didn’t opt for one while installing Windows 8) you’ll get
an option to switch to a Microsoft account in PC Settings. You’ll be asked
to enter your password and then the email address and password of the
account you want to connect to. Once done, your apps, passwords, files,
calendar, mail etc. will be synced.

File History
File History is one of the long awaited features of Windows 8. Typically,
file backups have to be taken manually: you either write the data to a CD/
DVD or copy it to a USB drive or external hard disk. The File History feature
56 Usability and getting work done

automates this for you. While

you continue to work, it will
periodically save the copies of
files that have changed.
Before using File His-
tory, you’ll need to configure
it. While you can search for
it in Control Panel and then
configure it, an easier way to
File History is one of the most addictive features launch it the first time is to go to
of Windows 8 any library and click on the File
History button in the Home tab
of the File Explorer. You’d find the option to configure File History there.
You’ll need a separate physical disk than the one on which the OS has been
installed. It doesn’t matter if you have 2 partitions or 20 on the same physical
drive where you have Windows 8 installed, none of them can be used to
store file history. If you don’t have an extra disk, you’re pretty much out of
luck and won’t be able to use this feature.
Coming back to configuring File History, you can’t use File History
on just about any folder unless it’s in a library. So if you have documents
inside a folder which lives outside the Windows 8 installation drive then
you’d have to include the folder to a library before backing it up using File
History. That said, you can create a new library and include the folder in it.
File History can work with any folder added to any library – it’s not limited
to the libraries available by default. However there are three folders which
are backed up by File History irrespective of whether or not they’re included
in any library; they are Desktop, Contacts and Favorites.
You can configure the behavior of this immensely useful tool from
the Control Panel. It resides at Control Panel > System and Security > File
History. Opening that location will give you four options on the left pane:
ΩΩ Restore Personal Files: This option will launch the File History applica-
tion and allow you to restore files from the history. In the main interface,
you’ll find three buttons at the bottom – two buttons to scroll through the
various times at which history was saved and one green colored button
for restoring the file’s version that you are currently viewing. We rec-
ommend not using this button. Instead select the files/folders/libraries
manually and right-click the selected ones to get an additional ‘Restore
to’ option. This will allow you to save the files in that snapshot of file his-
 Usability and getting work done 57

tory in a separate location than the original file version, saving yourself
from accidentally overwriting all current files with their older versions.
ΩΩ Select Drive: It’s here that you select the partition from one of the drives
which qualify for the feature to be used by File History. Remember that
you can select only one drive at a time. File History can’t utilize more
than one drive at a time. A folder named ‘File History’ is automatically
created on the drive selected by you.
ΩΩ Exclude Folders: If there are any folders that you want to exclude from
being backed up by File History, you can specify them. This rule will
apply to any folder added to any library as well as to Desktop, Contact
and Favorites folders in your user folder as well.
ΩΩ Advanced Settings: There are three characteristics of File History you
can tame from this screen:
1. Frequency of file saves: By default, File History saves the files every
hour. You can change the frequency to anywhere between ‘10 minutes’
to ‘Daily’. It goes without saying that higher the frequency of backups
by File History, more the disk space utilized.
2. Size of offline cache: This applies to the case when you’ve selected
a network folder on the ‘Select Drive’ page. It determines how much
of the recent backups will be kept locally as cache. The default value
is 5% of the disk space, and 20% is just as high as you can go.
3. Versions to save: The default is ‘Forever’ which means that File His-
tory won’t delete anything, ever. However keeping the default is a bad
idea – you’re bound to eventually run out of space. Unless you really
have enough space, it’s recommended to change it to something more
modest such as three months. This should typically be the duration
after which you perform that boring manual job of organizing files and
ensuring that everything is in order. If you’re one of those who take
backups regularly, three months should be good otherwise ‘Forever’
isn’t a bad option either, given that fact that you can manually clean
up the versions you don’t need by clicking the ‘Clean up version’ link
just below this option.
File History is one of those features which we’d truly swear by. Once you
start using it, there’s no going back. Sure there have been backup programs
but when it comes integrated with the OS in a neat and easy to use package,
it becomes unbeatable. Although there are many improvements, for some,
this alone can be reason enough to purchase Windows 8. File History is
available in all versions of Windows 8.
58
Chapter #5

Windows 8
security
Hardware features have long been
ignored to elevate security. Windows 8
changes that, and in a big way

L
ike all other operating systems, Windows 8 has its army of fanboys.
While those standing on the anti-Microsoft podium may chastise
Windows for not being secure enough, a look under the hood
suggests that Windows has multiple defenses against hacking.
Windows 8 erects new walls to keep out cyber criminals. In this chapter,
we’ll show you glimpses of the Windows 8 security system (truly, there’s
no way we’d be able to explain all its marvels in a small booklet).
 Windows 8 security 59

The foundation laid out by previous generations

Experts call Windows 8 more secure than its previous versions but this
didn’t come about over just a couple of years. Windows 8 stands on a solid
foundation of security laid out in Windows Vista, Windows 7 and XP and
that’s where we’ll begin.

NTFS / EFS
NTFS, which provides enhanced security for files, is one of the most impres-
sive file systems around. It comes with a sub-system called EFS (Encrypting
File System) that can be used to encrypt files and folders. To encrypt the file
(or folder), you open the file’s properties and click on the ‘Advanced’ button
on the bottom of the ‘General’ tab. In the ‘Advanced Attributes’ window,
you can enable the ‘Encrypt contents to secure data’ option and apply it.
The best part about EFS is that it doesn’t need any explicit decryption
once you’ve encrypted the file. The user who has encrypted the file can
open it just like any other normal file and EFS will encrypt/decrypt the
file in the background as the user works on it. EFS is so tightly integrated
into Windows that if the disk is taken out the system or the OS removed/
reinstalled, it locks out the files completely. This behavior is embedded in
the process of encrypting the files; here’s how it happens:
1. The file is encrypted using either AES or 3DES algorithm with a ran-
domly generated number as the FEK (File Encryption Key). The reason
AES is used is because it’s fast and symmetric. Once encrypted, the file
can only be decrypted by using the FEK.2. The FEK is encrypted using
one of the most famous and secure public key algorithms – RSA. EFS
saves the encrypted version of the FEK with the file. The public-private
key pair to be used by RSA is automatically generated for a user if it’s
the first time s/he is encrypting a file. Since the FEK can be decrypted
only by the private key, knowing the private key is necessary. This key is
stored in the user’s profile directory. At this stage, if the file is transferred
to another computer it’s protected because the FEK is encrypted and the
private key needed to decrypt it won’t be available.
3. Storing the private key so openly exposes a major security risk. Hence
the private key is also encrypted by using a master key. At this point,
the file can only be decrypted if the master key is available.
4. The master key is also generated randomly by Windows when the
encryption happens the first time. The user’s master key is encrypted
using 3DES algorithm which employs a key that’s partly based on the
60 Windows 8 security

user’s password. When the user changes his password, the master key
is automatically decrypted and re-encrypted based on a key derived
from the new password.
5. Finally, the file is protected at the ‘installation’ level.
This procedure provides multiple levels of security under various cir-
cumstances. One needs to know the user’s password (along with all other
keys) to decrypt the master key if the file is to be accessed in a different instal-
lation on the same machine – one more reason to have a strong password.
When an administrator changes the password of another user, say ‘UserX’,
the master key of UserX is not automatically decrypted/encrypted. Hence
another user, even if its the administrator, can’t access files encrypted by
another user (but there are workarounds
for an administrator which he can set up
beforehand). If the file is moved out of
the machine then the user’s private key,
master key and the key used to encrypt
the master key – are all missing. Cracking
it becomes next to impossible. There’s a
downside though: if your installation gets
corrupted or you reinstall your OS, you’re
locked out of your own files. To save you
on such a day is this guide: http://bit.ly/
XFwygo
Encrypting a file using EFS Beyond EFS, NTFS has its own per-
mission system to grant and revoke per-
missions for every file or folder for every user and group in the system.
These options can be accessed and changed on the ‘Security’ tab of the
file/folder properties window. This is good enough to block programs
and certain files and folders from being accessed by a non-administrative
user on the system. An administrator though, can change the restrictions
imposed by another user.

Registry
Yet another integral part of Windows – a central spot for all system set-
tings, configurations and preferences – is the registry. Registry controls the
behavior of the entire OS. Any setting that you change in Windows will end
up changing some value in the registry. Many applications also host their
settings under Registry. It controls a large part of Windows’ behavior, and
 Windows 8 security 61

there’s no shortage of tips and tricks (such as disabling the task manager
or the registry editor itself) on how to effectively utilise it. All keys and
hives of registry are also controlled using permissions that resemble the
NTFS permission set. Registry is (mostly) built by files located in Windows\
System32\config folder in your installation drive. If you change the per-
missions on the right hive, you’d be able to see your encrypted password,
your password hint... everything. Back that hive/key up and you’ve created
another way to recover your password!

BitLocker
Introduced in Windows Vista and
enhanced in subsequent releases,
BitLocker is a full-disk-encryption
method which encrypts an entire
volume (this could be an entire
disk or a primary or logical par-
tition) using AES 128 bit encryp-
tion. Though the algorithm is well You can turn on BitLocker right from the File
known by the world, its implemen- Explorer
tation in BitLocker is closed and
has probably been altered. BitLocker can be used to encrypt any drive
attached to Windows Vista. However with Windows 7, BitLocker was avail-
able to be used on external drives as well.
Given that the hardware has a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip, it
can also encrypt the Windows installation drive. The OS drive encryption
requires an additional volume formatted in NTFS with a size of 100 MB
which is left unencrypted (there’s your answer to why Windows 7 Ultimate
creates that apparently useless partition of 100 MB when installing). This
volume is used to store the files responsible for loading Windows. This is
similar to Linux which can also have a separate ‘/boot’ partition. However,
if the files on the boot volume of Windows are found to be altered, BitLocker
will refuse to load Windows! BitLocker is available in Enterprise and Ulti-
mate editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 as well as in Pro and
Enterprise editions of Windows 8. You can find BitLocker in Control Panel.

Integrity Levels
Integrity Levels were introduced in Windows Vista to enhance the protec-
tion provided by Windows ACLs (Access Control Lists). Prior to Vista, any
62 Windows 8 security

process launched by a user could do what the user could. This was one of the
reasons why using your computer as an administrator was risky. Integrity
Levels introduced a ‘per object’ protection where each object in Windows
was marked with a certain integrity level. More important the file/object,
higher the integrity level it possessed. The (in)famous UAC in Windows
Vista actually determined the maximum integrity level of a process running
under a user account without prompting the user for permission. Even
the processes launched by an administrator had access to only moderate
integrity level objects.
So, while an admin user could read and modify an important file, a pro-
cess launched by him would not be able to do either, without first asking for
permission (well, according to the UAC settings). In Windows Vista, every
file and registry key was marked with an integrity level and the trend has
continued since then.

DEP and ASLR

A large part of security attacks are sourced from the possibility of executing
code that can be randomly injected into the memory (RAM). The DEP (Data
Execution Prevention) feature built into most x86 and x86-64 systems dis-
allows execution of parts of memory marked as non-executable. Without
DEP, a malicious hacker could execute just about anything he was able to
inject into the system memory. DEP support was introduced in Windows
XP Service Pack 2 to prevent such a case. Hackers decided to counter this
with ‘return-to-libc’ style attacks whereby they’d execute a system library
function to execute the injected code in turn. All of this is possible because
the locations of libraries can be predicted.

How code injection works

Typically, code injection is done by inputting a code into a program which
expects some data as an input. For example, if a web page asks you for your
name in a textbox and prints the same wrapped in a <strong> tag, then input-
ting Digit in the textbox will cause the page to send back <strong>Digit</
strong> to the browser. If however you entered

• Digit <script type=”text/javascript”> document.

location=’http://www.thinkdigit.com/’; </script>

in the box then the page will send back:

 Windows 8 security 63

• <strong>Digit <script type=”text/javascript”> document.

location=’http://www.thinkdigit.com/’; </script></strong>

When the browser reads that, it will redirect to Digit’s website. That is
one of the most simple examples of code injection wherein the input received
by the program actually tries to produce results that were unintended. In
the web domain, this example would actually be called an XSS (Cross Site
Scripting) attack.
An application working on the computer would receive and process
inputs given to it by the user from time to time. In a fashion similar to that of
the webpage, if the user tries to send an input to the program which would
actually cause the program to do something different than it intended to,
then it would be called ‘code injection’. It’s termed as code injection because
the input given to the target program is usually a carefully crafted piece of
executable code. Remember however, that a code injection for an application
program is much more complicated and difficult than that for a web page
due to the arcane format in which executable codes are expressed.
Address Space Layout Randomization is a method to prevent hackers
from executing an injected code. Typically when a library (a DLL file) loads
into the memory, it prefers to be put at a certain address in the memory.
This is true for the executable files as well. Only if the location is unavail-
able, will Windows put it elsewhere. ASLR changes that. It randomizes
the memory location where libraries are to be loaded every time Windows
boots. This takes away one of the biggest advantages in the hands of hackers
– predictability of memory address of a library. ASLR was introduced in
Windows Vista.

New security features in Windows 8

While to an average user, these minute changes make an insignificant or zero
difference, they do add up in the end to make Windows 8 more secure than
its elder siblings. Let’s talk now about some unnoticeable, yet significant
security improvements in Windows 8:

Forced ASLR
Forced ASLR, a feature introduced in Windows 8, tries to force ASLR on
every library that is to be loaded. However if the library doesn’t have the
information needed to leverage the ASLR function then Forced ASLR
64 Windows 8 security

will either not load it in the first place

(the strong configuration) or allow it to
load at the memory location that the
library prefers (weak configuration).
A backport of this feature is available
for Windows 7 at http://support.micro-
soft.com/kb/2639308. The update is also
installed when you install Internet
Explorer 10 on Windows 7.

HEASLR
Although ASLR tries to allay the pos-
ASLR Randomizes the memory loca- sibilities of random code execution, its
tion of libraries each time you boot potential is limited on a 32-bit platform
Windows 8
due to limited memory space available
for allocation of libraries at the load-time. Theoretically 32-bit systems can
use up to 4 GB of memory but Windows won’t utilize more than 2 GB of
it for any process’ user address space. The ASLR algorithms in Windows
Vista and Windows 7 until now have been using the same algorithm for
both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. This approach defeats the benefit ASLR
could get on 64-bit systems with a lot more randomization space available.
HEASLR or High Entropy ASLR utilizes the address space by giving more
randomness to the memory addresses at which libraries are loaded in
runtime thus elevating security to another level on 64-bit platforms. Like
ASLR, HEASLR is also an optional feature.
If you’re a developer, it’s advisable to make sure that ASLR is enabled
for the libraries that you create. While Visual Studio 2010 enables ASLR
by default (make sure of it in Project Properties > Configuration
Properties > Linker > Advanced), HEASLR needs to be enabled
manually by adding the /HIGHENTROPYVA option to the linker.
Interestingly, Internet Explorer 10 is one of the first apps to take advan-
tage of all the new ASLR improvements – and that makes it more secure
than the competition against specific attacks.

Ivy Bridge and security enhancements to DEP

As we said earlier, DEP tries to enhance security by marking chunks of
memory (called memory pages) as ‘non-executable’. However, there are
ways to bypass this. The first is by a return oriented programming attack,
 Windows 8 security 65

‘return-to-libc’ being the most common approach. Yet another approach is

to exploit a bug in kernel. Since the kernel of an OS has all the privileges
possible, a security bug in kernel would allow the attacker to execute just
about anything on the compromised system. The most prominent method
to do this is by injecting the code in the application’s user memory and
exploiting a kernel security bug to execute the injected code. This is a deadly
method of attack since the kernel has virtually no restrictions on what it
can do. Exploiting a kernel bug means exploiting the privileges available
with the process which makes the system extremely vulnerable to damage.
This is especially true for versions before Windows 8 and Intel proces-
sors released prior to the advent of the Ivy Bridge architecture. Ivy Bridge
architecture brings in a security mechanism called SMEP (‘Supervisor
Mode Execution Prevention’ or ‘Supervisory Mode Execute Protection’).
SMEP disables the kernel from executing any code in the user space of
the process. This enables protection against attacks on the kernel itself.
With SMEP deployed, the kernel can’t be instructed to execute any code
residing in the user area of the process (it’s where most attackers would
save the injected code) and since the process itself doesn’t get the permis-
sion to alter the kernel level memory, the injected code in user code is
basically useless.
With the user-memory locked out, one of the very few options left for
an attacker is to somehow place the exploit (injected code) in the kernel
memory. Windows 8 elevates its security again; since on most occasions the
malicious code is injected by making it look like data, the code gets stored in
the ‘data’ section. Traditionally, all of the memory owned by the kernel was
executable; one could command the kernel to execute data and it would do it.
In Windows 8 however, even the code located in kernel memory is executed
only if it’s marked as executable by the DEP faculty. This prevents cases
where the injected code is passed to kernel via an API call.

AppContainers and Sandboxing

The Modern UI apps of Windows 8 – all running in sandboxes – are allowed
to access only the bare necessities and can’t access beyond the permitted
limits. They read and write to only their respective private storage areas.
AppContainers is a new Integrity Level which has bare minimum per-
missions. If the app wants to perform an action, it must be specified in a
manifest file which contains the list of capabilities required by the applica-
tion. If the application doesn’t specify the permission to access the resource
66 Windows 8 security

in the manifest (such as accessing the device camera) and it tries to access
the resource while running, the access is denied by Windows 8. Although
AppContainers is enabled by default for Modern UI apps, it can be utilized
in desktop apps too by using the API.

win32K.sys
If you know Windows internals well enough, you probably already know
about the win32k.sys driver. It’s the kernel part of the Windows sub-system.
This file is responsible for handling user spaces as well as the primitive
(and yet necessary) GDI sub-system. The GDI has almost always been a
primary target of attack due to the unprotected API it provides. This makes
the win32k.sys a bright attack target as well.
In Windows 8, Microsoft has restricted processes from accessing func-
tions in win32k.sys directly. This means that a significant set of functions
which were available for code injection and could later be used to execute
malevolent code have been barred. This cranks up overall security of the OS.
However, security is a cat and mouse game. Every time Microsoft comes
up with new measures, hackers around the world figure out workarounds.
One of the major loopholes of software has been the inability to use the
advanced features built into the hardware. Windows 8, for the first time
mandates certain hardware features to be installed (PAE, NX, DEP) and
utilizes some advanced features in newer, latest processors (such as SMEP
in Ivy Bridge). While we consider this to be a step in the right direction, only
time will tell if this will keep out hackers.

Enabling Security in Windows 8

Though we interact with computers every day, computers aren’t very good
at recognizing us. The only way a human can be recognized by a PC is
through a ‘user account’. This is also where all security restrictions and
permissions are applied.

User accounts in Windows 8

We’ve already mentioned that Windows 8 has a control panel that’s split
into two – some basic parts lie in the ‘PC settings’ (Modern UI app) while
the more advanced still live in the desktop Control Panel app. User accounts’
main features have been sent to the PC Settings app. Since creating a new
account, changing password etc. are basic functions of user accounts on
a PC, they reside in the Modern UI app rather than in the Control Panel.
 Windows 8 security 67

How to launch pc settings

There are many ways to launch the PC settings.
ΩΩ The first and the easiest is to bring up the Charms bar – hover the mouse
near the top-right or bottom-right corner and click on Settings, then click
on the ‘Change PC settings’ in the panel that comes up.
ΩΩ The second method is to hit the start button and type ‘PC settings’ in the
search box (or you can use the Charms bar to get to search box).
ΩΩ The third is to create a shortcut for PC settings on the start menu or
taskbar and then use it.

Creating new user accounts

You need to launch PC settings and go to the Users section. On the right pane
(if your screen is taller than wider, it would open in another screen), you’d
have an option to ‘Add a user’ besides a (+) symbol at the bottom. Click that
and you’d be prompted to enter the user’s Microsoft account email address
(the one used to sign in to Windows 8 or the Microsoft website). If you don’t
have that email address, you may click on the ‘Sign-in without a Microsoft
account’ at the bottom. Supposing you opted to not use the Microsoft account,
you’d be taken to a screen trying to sell you on the advantages of using a Micro-
soft account. Click on the ‘Local Account’ button at the bottom to continue.
Windows would then ask you to enter a user name, password (twice, of
course) and password hint. If your password hint contains the password
itself, Windows won’t accept it – a good security measure. In the end you
can indicate if the account you’re creating is a child’s account. Marking
the account as a child account will allow you to monitor and manage the
PC usage by that account in the Family Safety center. One more click and
your account is ready.

Changing your own password

Open up PC settings, go to the Users section and click on the ‘Change your
password’ button. You’ll be prompted to enter your current password and
your new password, twice and that’s it. Beware though – if you use Microsoft
account to sign in to Windows 8, changing your password in Windows 8 will
also change it on its servers. Sadly, Windows 8 no longer allows a password
with more than than 16 characters if you want to use a Microsoft account.
The only way to bypass this limitation is to switch to a local account and
disconnect the automated syncing features. We’d call it an disadvantageous
move given that other parts of the OS have improved the security.
68 Windows 8 security

Creating a PIN
Windows 8 allows you to log in to the machine using a 4-digit PIN (reminds
you of an ATM, eh?) as an alternate option. You can create a PIN in the same
user management section within the PC settings app. The process is simple:
click the ‘Create PIN’ button, enter a 4-digit pin twice and you’ll be able to
use it the next time you need to log in to Windows. Although too small a
feature, when you opt to sign in with a PIN, Windows doesn’t require you to
press [Enter]. The moment you enter the 4th digit in the correct sequence,
you’ll be signed in.

Creating a picture password

This feature seems to be inspired by the pattern locking feature in Android.
Windows 8 allows you to draw a series of three gestures where each gesture
is a circle, straight line or a tap. You can create a picture password from the
same user management screen in the PC settings. Once there, click on the
‘Create picture password’ button.
You’ll be asked to enter your existing password. Next, Windows 8 would
visually show you a sample of how to draw a line or a circle while giving an
option to choose the picture to be used for picture password. Click on ‘Choose
picture’ button and it would let you swipe through the picture gallery (the
‘pictures’ library in File Explorer). Though you can choose a picture from
other libraries as well, browsing the disk is not allowed – you must add
the picture to a library before you could use it for picture password. After
choosing the picture, you’re allowed to drag and reposition the picture
well enough so that the area you’re interested in is visible. Then, draw the
gestures on the picture, twice. Once confirmed, the gestures are saved and
along with the picture itself form the ‘picture password’.

Family Safety in Windows 8

Much like in Windows 7, the Family Safety feature allows an administrator
(the parent) to control the resources accessible to another account (child
account). Family Safety can be enabled for a user under Control Panel >
User Accounts and Family Safety > Family Safety. This facility
enables the parent to restrict PC usage on four parameters:
1. Time Usage: The parent can determine how long a child can spend on
the PC on weekdays and weekends or can set time periods for each day
when the child can’t access the computers – useful to drive home the
point of “no late night gaming”.
 Windows 8 security 69

2. Web filtering:
This can prevent
access to certain
websites, using
an automated rat-
ings system (has
to be previously
selected) or restrict
access to selected
websites. This can
help ensure that Family Safety can be used to restrict the period during the
children are not day when the child account can assessed on the PC
wasting time in the
name of doing research on Wikipedia.
3. Game and Store settings: This enables the parent to set an age-based or
content-based rating level for the games your child can view, download
and install from the Windows Store.
4. App restriction: The child won’t be allowed to launch certain apps.
It would help the parent emphasize that the child can launch a music
player but not a game.

Windows Defender
Introduced during the days of Vista’s rise and immediate fall, Windows
Defender has now matured into a full-fledged antivirus. You can launch
Defender using the start screen search. Just like any other antivirus, it would
update itself over the internet periodically and will scan the computer or a
folder when you want. Like a faithful protector, it sits in the background,
aware and ready to defend you if it senses suspicion. Windows Defender is
installed and enabled by default and is set to download updates automati-
cally by default as well.

Windows Firewall
If securing your PC from unwanted physical access is the first step towards
security, having a good firewall would definitely be the second. A firewall’s
responsibility is to block the incoming and outgoing traffic over the network.
Windows, since XP Service Pace 2 has provided a firewall which can get the
job done. While it shows you a simple interface in Control Panel, a much
advanced core sits beneath.
70 Windows 8 security

You can access the basic interface from Windows Control Panel >
System and Security > Windows Firewall). If you want to allow an
app or feature through the firewall, you have the option on the left pane. Be
warned though – that feature doesn’t help you restrict a program, only allow
it. If you want to restrict a program for inbound and outbound traffic, you’d
need to open Windows Firewall with Advanced Security (WFAS), which
can be accessed by clicking ‘Advanced settings’ on the left pane. Before we
proceed, we should inform you that WFAS is not a separate firewall; it’s
just an advanced interface to the same technology.
Though intimidating at first, WFAS is a pretty good tool to block traffic.
The rules are classified into two main types:
1. Outbound Rules: They’re basically there to restrict the initiation of com-
munication by a local program or service. They’d be applicable to most
programs and services we use. So if you don’t want Firefox to access the
internet, this is where you create the rule.
2. Inbound Rules: They restrict / allow a connection coming from another
computer to your computer. The rules here are useful for background
services such as a print service, Web server, Database server, FTP service
etc. Though in most cases the rules enabled by default suffice, you can
create one of your own. This you can do by right-clicking the rule type
(Outbound/Inbound) in the left pane and selecting ‘New Rule…’ from
the menu. All rules can be applied to any and all network types – Public,
Private and Domain. Remember though – the Domain network type
exists in Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise editions only.
Windows 8 takes the solid security foundations developed into the
Windows architecture over the course of the past 14 years and improves
them by utilizing more hardware features. Features such as Forced ASLR
and HEASLR improve the security on the software level and are aimed
to defeat malicious hackers. The AppContainer feature, along with strict
manifest checks help build confidence and reliability on Modern UI apps.
NTFS, BitLocker and EFS, as always stand firm in the background to secure
your data from potential file system attacks offline.
 71
Chapter #6

Windows 8 –
Enterprise
features
“Built by one of the largest enterprises
on earth” may be reason enough to trust
Windows 8 in your own enterprise. But
that is not where all reasons end

W
indows is not simply the world’s most used desktop
OS because consumers buy it; it’s also a favourite with
businesses ranging from small enterprises to corporate
behemoths using it in their offices. And why shouldn’t
72 Windows 8 – Enterprise features

it be – Microsoft has long featured a great deal of functionality for office

use. With Windows 8, new features have come in and the old ones are more
advanced. While an average user would only imagine that the business use
is limited to things such as a shared printer, shared network connection and
remote desktop, there’s a whole lot more required of an enterprise office PC.
The enterprise landscape needs higher level features than a PC.
The Enterprise edition comes with features which not only help manage
the office environment in a friendlier, yet sophisticated manner but also
provide a higher level of secu-
rity. Feature-wise, Windows
8 Enterprise is the best you
can get. However, it is actually
volume licensed and you can’t
get a retail package – you can
only order it in volumes.
While some enterprise
level features are available
in Windows 8 Pro as well,
features such as AppLocker,
Windows 8 has a separate edition for Enterprise use DirectAccess, Windows To
Go, Branch Cache and NFS
(Network File System) Services are exclusive to Windows 8 Enterprise
edition. Let’s talk about the features available in Windows 8 Pro as well as
Windows 8 Enterprise.

Booting from VHD

If you’ve ever paid any attention to virtualization technologies, virtual hard
disks (VHD) would ring a bell. It’s the disk image file format for Microsoft
Virtual PC as well as for Hyper-V on server platforms. VHD booting was
added to Windows’ capability list in Windows 7. Windows 8 Pro and above
can use the technology.
The advantages of booting from VHD are numerous. You could use it as
an alternate installation in case the primary Windows installation doesn’t
work. You can use it as a secondary installation on a USB drive with all
programs loaded – a kind of “PC in the Pocket” scenario. Alternatively,
you could even virtualize the same into a Microsoft Virtual PC or Hyper-
V setup. Even VirtualBox supports this format so you are not out of luck
if you run Mac or Linux. Since VHD installations can run directly on the
 Windows 8 – Enterprise features 73

mac without requiring virtual-

ization software, performance
doesn’t have to degrade. VHDs
can be used to quickly deploy
Windows images (installation
images) onto multiple PCs, can
be booted via USB drive and
help carry the entire office
setup to your home as well.
You can have more than one
VHD installation with different
How to enable Hyper-V applications installed in each –
allowing multiple installations
for different kind of users without having to mess up the entire partition
table. And in case you want to remove the OS, just delete the VHD, remove
its entry from the boot menu and you’re done. Beware though – it’s not all
sweet. It has its downsides – about 3-5% drop in performance (not that it’s
noticeable enough), no hibernation, no BitLocker support on the host drive
etc. Also, you have to add a boot menu entry if you want to boot via a VHD
– Windows doesn’t automatically do that for you.

Active Directory
No, this is not really a directory. It’s a service available in Windows Server
Editions. Active Directory Services (or ADS) empowers an organization to
take control of its office computers. ADS is used to create “logical domains”
of computers and enforce security rules throughout the domain at different
levels of granularity.
ADS can be used as a cen-
tral password storage tool
– when a user logs in to the
domain on a client computer,
the domain controller (the
computer running the ADS)
checks for the password and
determines the type of user
that has logged into the client computer. It would then initiate the login pro-
cess for the client and send the list of security policies which the client must
follow. Policies of different types can be implemented via ADS. Controlling
74 Windows 8 – Enterprise features

the frequency of automatic Windows update, blocking certain programs

from being accessed (browsers or monitoring applications), configuring
Windows installer to prevent installation of certain software (such as games)
and enforcing a certain amount of complexity in passwords are a handful
of them. ADS can be used to separate and organize computers by depart-
ments using domains. Trust policies can be used to avail certain services
in a second domain to computers of first domain.
ADS is at the heart of enterprise level management for PCs and not all
Windows editions can join a domain. In case of Windows 8, only the Pro
and Enterprise editions can. That being said, a Windows 8 PC (general
edition) can be installed on an office PC but can’t be controlled using ADS.
In other words, Active Directory Services can run on Windows Server
Editions and client computers can only join a domain. You cannot create a
domain on a Windows 8 PC.
Policies are the rules that can be used to limit and restrict functionality
of the Windows PC depending on your needs. These can be enforced via
the ADS using the Group Policy editor available in Windows 8 Pro and
Enterprise versions. While it is an enterprise feature, it can also be used
by home users to restrict other users from
tinkering around with their PCs. Everything
from disabling ‘New hardware found’ bal-
loons to disallowing the ‘Format’ option for
USB drives – here’s where it happens. Group
Policy editor is not child’s play however.
Don’t play around with this if you don’t know
what you’re doing lest you regret it later.

AppLocker
This feature saw the light of day in Win-
dows 7 and is there in Windows 8 Enterprise
(only). If the name doesn’t make it obvious,
may we tell you that AppLocker is a dream
feature for bosses who’re always striving to
You need to enforce the rules
in AppLocker to bring them to improve employee productivity. It simply
effect disallows applications from running. This
feature answers four questions:
1. Which applications should a user have access to run? – Be it playing
Mahjongg or starting Windows Media Player, AppLocker can help.
 Windows 8 – Enterprise features 75

2. Which users should be allowed to install new software? – Installer rules

can be used to block installation of programs in a certain directory or
coming from a certain vendor. Say, if the boss doesn’t want any software
from Adobe, one rule is all that’s needed.
3. Which versions of applications should be allowed? – Suppose you use
O&O Defragmenter and you want only versions 10.0 and above to be
installed on any computer, a rule in AppLocker will see to that.
While AppLocker certainly makes sense in the corporate environment
where program versions and permissions are important, it can also be
useful for advanced users in a home environment. While it’s available for
Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise, Microsoft has included
it only in the Enterprise edition of Windows 8. As a home user, you can
enforce some rules on your computer without AppLocker too. At the least
you can simulate the “Path” rules using NTFS permissions.

Windows To Go
To have a ‘Live Linux’ is no big deal. NOTE
Download it, burn it, it runs. For Win- 1. AppLocker can be started
dows, it would be a herculean task if by typing ‘gpedit.msc’ in the
you could do it without any tools. There search box and then navigat-
already are tools like BartPE and Win- ing to Local Computer Policy
Builder which allow you to create your > Computer Configuration
own Live Windows DVD or USB, but > Windows Settings > Secu-
they’re not supported by Microsoft. rity Settings > Application
They’re more of a hobbyist’s tools, and Control Policies in the Group
enterprises would rather not bet on a tech- Policy Editor window.
nology unsupported by Microsoft due to 2. If you haven’t used Ap-
risks associated with such deployments. pLocker yet, then let it be
Don’t be disheartened because Windows known: just creating rules
8 Enterprise has an alternative – Win- won’t do anything. You need
dows To Go – which lets offices boot from to first enforce the rules.
USB disk drives (including external hard To do this, right-click ‘Ap-
disks). Enterprises can distribute their pLocker’ on the left pane and
preconfigured corporate setup on a USB select properties.
drive with all the security and restric-
tions they want and that too with official
support! Unfortunately, it’s not for home users. That said, one of the most
exciting features of Windows To Go is its behavior upon removal of the USB
76 Windows 8 – Enterprise features

drive. If it’s taken out of the port while a Windows To Go session is active,
Windows 8 will freeze the execution and resume if the device is plugged back
in within 60 seconds. If the device is not plugged back in, the system will
halt itself. The limited timeframe of 60 seconds has been given to prevent
any sensitive data from being displayed on screen. Since Windows To Go
is available only on Windows 8 Enterprise which is intended for office use,
the duration of 60 seconds is reasonable.

DirectAccess
VPN or Virtual Private Networking is not a new concept. Organizations have
been using it since eons to allow someone (well, usually employees) access
to the corporate network via the internet. DirectAccess, introduced with
Windows 7 is an improved version of VPN. While a VPN connection must
be explicitly started by the client, DirectAccess does the same automatically
(once you’ve configured it, of course). DirectAccess needs at least Windows
Server 2008 R2 on the server end and operates over IPv6. If the client com-
puter requesting the access is not on an IPv6 network, the traffic is tunneled
via 6to4 or Teredo. Once again, the feature is only for Enterprise clients.

BranchCache
Chances are fair that you know about the ‘Offline Files’ feature. Yeah, the
one which enables you to make remote files available on your own computer
so that you can work on them from anywhere. When you’re done, perform
sync and the files are pushed to the server. All well and good. But that’s not
enough for the more demanding amongst us. BranchCache is the enterprise
level offline file caching service for WANs (Wide Area Networks) which
needs Windows Server 2008 R2 and above to host files, typically from
branch offices of an enterprise (hence the name) so that computers in those
branches can easily access the files without having to overload one central
server. It not only saves the server from load but also optimizes network
usage and increases response times, similar to the way browser saves do
by caching images, CSS and JS files in a page.

Other features
While there’s no way we can describe all the enterprise elements Microsoft
built into Windows 8, these are the most distinguishing features with ADS
being the most important of them all.
 77
Chapter #7

Become a
power-user
We pull back the curtains on Microsoft’s
latest Windows and show you how to get
the most of what you want out of the OS

L
ike with every previous version of Windows, the out-of-the-box
experience of Windows 8 can be greatly enhanced if you know
your way around the system. There are a number of hidden, unin-
tuitive or poorly explained features in all versions of Windows
and if you are willing to take a few risks, make a few changes under the
hood, and perhaps take advantage of some third-party tools, you can get
your Windows experience a lot closer in line with what you want.
78 Tips and Tricks

Configure the SmartScreen Filter

In Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft introduced the SmartScreen filter, a new
measure to protect users against phishing attempts and malware. The
SmartScreen filter tests the URL a user is trying to access against a list of
blacklisted URLs that are known to contain malware. In IE9 Microsoft
extended this to downloaded files as well.
Now in Windows 8 this is a core part of the system, and will test files
downloaded from the internet by any application, not just Internet Explorer.
It is a good initial measure against malware, and should probably not be
turned off unless you have another anitvirus software installed. Even so if
you wish to configure it or turn it off, here is how you can do that:
ΩΩ Open the Control Panel
ΩΩ Open Action Center which can be found under System and Security,
you can just search for it
ΩΩ On the left you find a link titled “Change Windows SmartScreen set-
tings”, click on it.
This will open a dialog that lets you opt between three levels of protection
for the SmartScreen filter. The highest level of protection will require you to
provide administrator approval before running any unrecognised application;
which could mean clicking Yes on a UAC prompt, or entering a password. The
second level of protection simply warns you before running such an application,
but needs no approval. The final option is to simply have the filter turned off.

Filling a Start Menu-Shaped Hole

OK, so yes, Windows 8 does not have a Start Menu, and that is probably
not something many people will like. Depending on what you used the
Start Menu for though, there are solu-
tions available.
Windows 7 decreased reliance
on the Start Menu by allowing you to
pin commonly used applications on
the taskbar itself. Furthermore if you
needed to launch a lesser used applica-
tion, all you needed to do is press the
Start Menu button on your keyboard and
start typing the name of the application
This menu will do if you need just the in question, select the correct application
bare minimum from the list and press enter.
 Tips and Tricks 79

Now, if these two are the only ways you used the Start Menu, you don’t
really need a start menu at all to be honest. You can still pin applications to
the taskbar. And if you want to search for apps, you can still press the start
button and simply start typing on the start screen, the process is the same.
If you really want a menu though, there are a few options for you. The
lightest, cheapest and most straightforward option is to use the toolbars
function of the taskbar to create a simple start menu toolbar. Here is how
you can do that:
ΩΩ Right click on the task bar, and under the Toolbars menu click on “New
toolbar…” a dialog will open up for picking a folder.
ΩΩ The contents of the Start Menu are actually stored in two folders,
the folder for applications installed for the current user is located at:
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Paste this in the file open dialog, press enter, and select it as the location
for the toolbar.
You will notice a new toolbar called Programs on your taskbar, and
you can click the arrows next to it to access the list of installed programs
on your computer.
There is another important folder here:
%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
This lists applications that have been installed globally.
Of course this is very far from a perfect solution so, don’t worry, there
are a few apps that can get back the start menu.

Start Menu Replacement Apps

There were hacks earlier that restored the start menu in Windows 8, unfor-
tunately in the release version of Windows 8, the start menu has been
entirely removed. There is nothing to restore. Don’t worry though, there is
a growing list of applications for replacing the Start Menu. These applica-
tions recreate the start menu functionality from scratch.
Here are three of the best:
Classic Shell: Considering the range of features offered and the price,
this is probably the best software that you can get.
It’s been around for a long time and aims to bring back features or UI
designs that were present in older versions of Windows but were removed in
newer versions. In Windows 7 it can bring back the old classic style of start
menu that was there in Windows 9x. In Windows 8 it gives you an option of
what kind of start menu you want, including a Metro-themed start menu.
80 Tips and Tricks

The Classic Shell

start menu is a flex-
ible, skinnable, highly
configurable and best
of all it is open source
and free!
Visit www.classic-
shell.net to download
it (or find it on the
Alpha DVD)
Classic Shell is free and immensely configurable, a good bet Pokki: This oddly
named software is
actually much more than just a start menu solution. If you are looking for
an old fashioned menu that looks and works like the menus of yore, this
might not be the best option for you. It is a very different menu both visu-
ally and functionally.
Pokki is actually a web application platform. So not only does it pro-
vide a menu, it also lets you install web applications and pin them to the
taskbar. For example you can pin Gmail to your taskbar and it will show
your inbox count on your taskbar, display notifications and will open in its
own window. The start menu itself can integrate Facebook and Gmail and
show notifications from both on the menu itself.
There are a number of other applications in the “Pokki store” including
web games like Angry Birds. As a menu it serves well, and can search your
installed metro and classic apps along with your files and web apps.
Start8: This is actually a paid software by Stardock the creators of
software like WindowBlinds – and a few other software we cover later on
– and costs a reasonable $4.99. There is a free 30-day trial available though.
Start8 features two styles for the start menu, a Windows 7 style, and
a Windows 8 style. The Windows 8 style of menu essentially resized the
Windows 8 start screen to fit in a start menu-sized area so it works just like
the Windows 8 start screen. The Windows 7 style menu supports a few dif-
ferent themes. The menu is quite configurable and is very stable and well
integrated. Stardock has some experience with desktop customisation soft-
ware after all. If you have a Stardock Object Desktop subscription, this is free.
Besides the three we’ve mentioned, there are other options such as
StartMenu8 by IObit or ViStart; although ViStart seems to be rife with
third party toolbars and the like.
 Tips and Tricks 81

Automatically Log into Windows

If you only have a single user on your computer, there is little reason to be
stuck at a login screen when you start your computer. If you agree with us,
you might want to set up your computer to automatically log in on startup.
Here is how you can do that:
ΩΩ With the Windows start screen open type “netplwiz” and press enter to
launch the User Accounts manger
ΩΩ Deselect the checkbox next to “Users must enter a username and pass-
word to use this computer.”.
ΩΩ Click OK on the dialog to save changes.
ΩΩ This will prompt you to enter the default login credentials; enter them
and press OK.
ΩΩ Reboot
Your computer should now automati-
cally log in as this user.

Tiles for rebooting or

shutting down your PC
Windows 8 doesn’t exactly place the shut-
down and reboot options in a convenient
place. The options are accessible though a
multi step process of opening the charms
bar – which could take a few steps of its
own – clicking on Settings, then clicking
on power, and finally clicking on Shut- It may be a security compromise
but your computer is up and run-
down, Reboot, Hibernate or Sleep. Or you
ning faster
can press Ctrl+Alt+Del and choose the
power options from there.
If you want to simplify the way you shut down or restart your computer,
one way is to simply create shortcuts for those tasks on your start screen.
Windows includes a command line utility “shutdown.exe” that allows
you to perform shutdown, reboot, sleep or hibernate actions using a
simple command. You can simply create a shortcut to the shutdown.
exe with the correct parameters, and clicking on that shortcut will then
perform that action. After creating the shortcut, right click on it, and
select Pin to Start.
Depending on what action you want to perform, here is what the short-
cuts should point to:
82 Tips and Tricks

Shutdown immediately:
shutdown /s /p
Reboot immediately:
shutdown /r /p
To add a time delay of x seconds to the shutdown process, just add a
space followed by a “/t x” after the above commands.
If you are not familiar with the process of creating a shortcut, just right
click on an empty space on your desktop or any open folder in Explorer,
and under the “New” menu click on “Shortcut”.

Change Window Border Size

Windows 8 comes with an unfortunately large size of window borders. Even
worse is the fact that there is simply no personalisation option available
for changing this setting, even though it was available in earlier versions
of Windows.
In Windows 8, changing the border width and other such settings
requires editing the registry. Even so, it is a simple hack and can be accom-
plished by following the steps below:
ΩΩ With the Windows start screen open type “regedit” and press enter to
launch the Registry Editor.
ΩΩ Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Win-
dowMetrics
ΩΩ The setting we want to change is PaddedBorderWidth double click the
setting to change the value.
The default value here should be -60, and the larger the negative value,
the larger the border. In other words, setting this to -10 will reduce the
border a lot.

Add More File Storage Providers for Apps

Windows 8 by default comes with support for browsing Microsoft
SkyDrive, which provides 7GB of free storage if you have a Microsoft
account. We are assuming you already have a Microsoft account because
you need it to access the Windows 8 Store and install apps from it in
the first place.
The SkyDrive app lets you browse Microsoft SkyDrive files, and also
allows other applications and load files from it, or save files to it. You can
likewise install other storage providers, such as Dropbox and access that
storage like a regular local drive.
 Tips and Tricks 83

There are also a number of apps on the Windows 8 Store that can con-
nect multiple storage providers through a single app. One such application
(this should not be seen as an endorsement) is Cumulo, and it can connect
to Microsoft SkyDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox (the Pro version sup-
ports SugarSync and Box as well). There are other similar apps for adding
multiple providers in one interface.
It is important to note that the storage providers you add will only be
accessible by modern UI apps.

Switching to the Legacy Boot Manager

As we mentioned before, in Windows 8 even the boot menu is touch and
mouse friendly. This was presumably done to make sure that you can
boot the OS of your choice even on a Windows tablet that might not have a
hardware keyboard, but it can cause some issues.
One major issue with the new boot manager is that it is graphical, and
requires Windows 8 to finish loading all the drivers required to show the
screen, the graphics, touch and mouse drivers for example. This means that
the screen shows up quite late in the boot process.
Also, the way the new boot loader works is that if you select Windows 8,
it continues booting at that point and Windows 8 starts fairly quickly after
that, however if you pick another OS, this time it reboots, and starts the
selected OS at the next boot. This can take a lot of time on some configura-
tions, especially on older computers.
The good news is, getting the old style of boot menu is rather simple,
and just requires the execution on a single command. Simply start the com-
mand prompt in admin mode (there is a tip for that) and run the following:
• bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
• To revert, just run the following:
• bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard

Now you should be greeted by a text-based boot menu – the kind you would
find in previous versions of Windows. This isn’t just superficial though, the
old style menu works the old way, where it first shows the menu, and then
starts booting the OS. If you are dual booting, this is a huge time saver.

Start the Command Prompt in Admin Mode

There are a number of situation when starting the command prompt in
admin mode is necessary. In fact if you use the command prompt only when
absolutely necessary, chances are that you will need to use it in admin mode.
84 Tips and Tricks

There a number of ways to go about this, depending on how frequently

you need to do this.
If you need to use an elevated command prompt regularly, your best bet
is to pin an elevated command prompt to the task bar. This is simple enough;
Pin the command prompt to the task bar.
Right click on the icon to show the jumplist for it.
Right click on “Command Prompt”
Click on the button labelled “Advanced…”.
In the dialog that pops up, check “Run as administrator” and click OK
on both dialogs.
Now whenever you click on this taskbar icon, it will launch the command
prompt in elevated / admin mode.
A second method that is probably equally convenient is to press
[Win]+[X]. On Windows 8 this will show a menu in the bottom left corner
of the active screen with links to common Windows tools. This has shortcuts
for both the command prompt and an for running the command prompt
as admin.

Change Wallpapers for Multiple Monitors

While Windows 8 does support changing the wallpaper of each monitor
individually, this isn’t highlighted very well in the Windows 8 GUI. What
Windows 8 does do is install special panoramic themes that have wallpapers
that can span across two monitors.
If you want to apply two different wallpapers to your monitors, the pro-
cess is simple. Open the wallpaper personalisation page of the control panel.
Here instead of clicking on a wallpaper to set it, right click on any wallpaper.
You will see an option for setting that wallpaper for all monitors, but you
will also get the option to set it as the wallpaper for a particular monitor.

Configure Your Taskbar for Multiple Monitors

A pleasant surprise for those who boot Windows 8 on their multi-monitor
computer for the first time is that each monitor will show a taskbar of its own.
In earlier versions, Windows users got one taskbar on their primary
monitor, and that was all. Switching between applications could be a pain
since you would have to click on one monitor while the results would appear
in a different monitor. So people used third party software if they had to.
In Windows 8 each monitor will have its own taskbar, and you can even
configure, to a degree, how they will work. There are three supported modes
 Tips and Tricks 85

for the taskbar. The simplest is that all

taskbars show only the applications run-
ning on the same monitor as the taskbar.
Another option is to have all taskbars
show that same thing, which is, all run-
ning applications. The third mode is to
have the primary taskbar on the primary
monitor show all running applications,
while the other taskbars will show only
the applications running on their screen.
You can pick between these three
options, and enable or disable multi- Taskbar options are a bit under-
display taskbars by right clicking on the whelming, but at least they are
there finally
taskbar, and clicking properties.
There are still a few shortcomings of
the multi-monitor taskbar that is included with Windows 8. For one, you
can only pin applications to the primary task bar. Secondly, the time and
date display and system tray are only included in the primary task bar. If
this matters to you, you should look into third-party software for secondary
toolbars which often include these features. Some examples are DisplayFu-
sion, UltraMon, Actual Multiple Monitors etc.

Set a Custom Refresh Point

We’ve mentioned the Refresh feature of Windows 8 before, but just to
reiterate, it is a new feature in Windows 8 that can be used to reinstall
Windows in place. Refreshing your system is like a fresh Windows 8
install, but with all your data intact and all your store-bought applica-
tions available.
However, if you installed a lot of drivers and desktop applications, you
might be have to reinstall everything at this point, which can be a pain.
There is a solution though. You can create a custom system refresh image.
Whenever you create this image it will contain a snapshot of the current state
of your Windows install and including any installed desktop applications.
The next time you refresh your computer, rather than resetting to a blank
state, it will reset to this state.
It is still best to create this image at a point when you have on the most
important applications installed; otherwise it can defeat the purpose of
reinstalling Windows in the first place.
86 Tips and Tricks

To take a snapshot of your system, start the command prompt in admin

mode and run the following command line:
recimg -CreateImage C:\Path\To\Image\Folder
This will create a file called CustomRefresh.wim in the supplied folder
and register that image file as a custom refresh image. You can create mul-
tiple such refresh images and switch between then using the “recimg
-SetCurrent” command.

Disable UAC Completely

UAC, or User Account Control works differently in Windows 8 than it did
before and the new way it works might catch you off guard if you are used
to the old way of doing things.
But before disabling it let’s see what it does. UAC runs all software as
a standard user with standard privileges so that no software has more
system access than it needs. Software that need to perform an operation
that requires more privileges trigger a special prompt that asks the user to
confirm whether that action should be allowed. If UAC is disabled, there
are no prompts, and every software runs with full privileges by default.
This has changed in Windows 8, where first of all, UAC simply
cannot be disabled in the same way it could be in Windows 7 and Vista.
In Windows 8, decreasing the security level of UAC simply removes all
prompts, but UAC continues working and all applications still run as
a standard user. If a software needs administrative privileges and asks
for them, Windows silently gives those applications more privileges.
However there are still software that need admin permissions, but
aren’t designed to work with UAC, and simply fail to run as they don’t
have enough permissions. For these software the way to give admin
permissions is to right click on the shortcut / exe and select “Run as
administrator”. This is actually good for security, but for some power
users it can be annoying.
It is possible to turn off UAC completely in Windows 8 but it comes at a
huge cost, it will completely disable all Windows Store / Modern UI apps.
First let’s reduce the UAC setting to their lowest.
ΩΩ Press [Win]+[W] to search for settings in the start screen, type “uac”
and press enter.
ΩΩ In the window that opens up, move the slider all the way to the bottom.
ΩΩ Click OK to save the settings.
To disable UAC completely follow the steps below:
 Tips and Tricks 87

ΩΩ Press [Win]+[W] to search for settings in the start screen, type “group
policy” and press enter.
ΩΩ In the window that opens up drill down to Co m puter
Configuration>Windows Settings>Security Settings>Local
Policies>Security Options
ΩΩ In the right hand area near the bottom you will find the policy called
“User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval
Mode”; double click this setting.
ΩΩ In the dialog that opens up, select Disabled, and click OK.
ΩΩ Windows will warn you that the system’s security has been reduced and
will prompt you to restart.
Once you have restarted, the new settings will apply. Applications will
launch with admin privileges by default and Metro apps will be disabled.

Enable Hyper-V
If you are running Windows 8 Pro, you will be pleased to know that your OS
includes a pretty advanced virtualization software called Hyper-V. Hyper-V
is comparable to software like VMWare Workstation and Oracle VirtualBox.
Hyper-V is included with Windows, but does not come installed by
default. Installing it is simple though, all you need to do is the following:
Press [Win]+[W] to search for settings in the start screen, and type “fea-
tures” one of the results should be called “Turn Windows features on or
off”, launch it.
A dialog will show up that allows you to enable and disable a number
of Windows features, Hyper-V is one, select it and click OK.
Windows will now begin installing the software, and it should be avail-
able after a reboot.
You should note that installing Hyper-V may make it impossible to
install other virtualization software like VMWare Player or Workstation.

Use BitLocker to Encrypt Your Files

NTFS has an extensive system of permissions that allows you to restrict
who can access, view, read or otherwise interact with a particular file.
Unfortunately if someone gets access to your physical drive, NTFS per-
missions mean diddlysquat since they are enforced by software and can
be easily overridden.
Windows has however, since Vista, included a tool called BitLocker
for encrypting your entire hard drive. Using BitLocker you can lock any
88 Tips and Tricks

volume on your com-

puter, even the one
you boot from.
You can right click
on any volume, and
select “Turn BitLocker
on” to start the pro-
cess. This will simply
require you to enter a
password to use with
the drive – you will
Hyper-V may be a requirement if you want to develop for
Windows Phone also be asked to save
a copy of the recovery
key somewhere safe – and it will begin encrypting your drive.
You can even encrypt the main operating system drive, but this has some
special requirements since the drive has to be unlocked before boot. First
of all this requires that Windows has a separate boot partition that isn’t
encrypted; if you don’t have this already, we can’t help you here although
it is possible to create a separate boot partition even if you don’t have one
already. The second requirement is that your system include a TPM (Trusted
Platform Module. This requirement however, you can get around.
If you try the process described before on your system drive and it
works, then great, you have a TPM module and BitLocker will just work.
Otherwise you will need to configure your system to use BitLocker with a
TPM. Here is how you can do that:
ΩΩ With the Windows start screen open type “gpedit.msc” and press enter
to launch the Local Group Policy Editor.
ΩΩ Browse to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates
> Windows Components > BitLocker Drive Encryption > Oper-
ating System Drives
ΩΩ In the right pane, double click the setting “Require additional authentica-
tion at startup” and select “Enabled”
ΩΩ In the options area ensure that the checkbox before “Allow BitLocker
without a compatible TPM…” is checked.
ΩΩ Click OK.
Now you should be able to start the BitLocker process on your system
drive, and will have the option to either enter a password on startup, or
insert a USB drive to boot.
 Tips and Tricks 89

Create and Mount a Virtual Hard Drive

What if you could have a virtual hard drive all within a file on your real
hard drive? Does this seem like something you would want to do?
It is now quite simple with Windows 8, you can create a virtual hard
drive file, which when “attached” to the computer shows up just like an
external hard drive would. Such a virtual hard drive can even have multiple
partitions like a physical drive.
Windows has native support for the VHD virtual hard drive format and
in Windows 8 added support for the VHDX format. Creating a drive in any
one of these formats is simple:
ΩΩ With the Windows start screen open type “diskmgmt.msc” and press
enter to launch the Disk Management tool.
ΩΩ Click on the Action menu and select Create VHD.
ΩΩ You can now pick the format and type of the drive. If you’re still using
older versions of Windows, or might need to use the virtual hard drive
on other computers, choose VHD, otherwise choose VHDX.
ΩΩ A fixed size disk gives better performance, but will take up space imme-
diately. If you make a 10GB fixed size disk, it will need 10GB of space on
your actual drive. On the other hand a dynamically expanding disk will
initially take up only a few MB, but will expand as you store more data on it.
ΩΩ Enter a size and choose a location for the virtual hard drive and click OK.
ΩΩ Your drive will now be created, and should show up in the Disk Man-
agement tool.
You can now use the Disk Management tool to create partitions on this
disk and format those partitions just like you would for a normal drive.
You will also notice that partitions from this drive will show up in
Explorer and you can begin copying files like normal. Once you are done,
you can right click on the all the partitions and select the eject option. Once
all partitions are ejected, you can move the virtual hard drive file around
wherever you want, even to another computer. Attaching it again to access
it is as simple as double clicking the file.
If you want you can password protect these drives. For this you can use
the inbuilt BitLocker feature of Windows, which allows you to encrypt entire
drives, whether portable, fixed or virtual. If you encrypt the drive, you will
be prompted for a password when you attach the drive and try to open it.

Gestures in Windows 8
Being the touch centred operating system that it is, Windows 8 includes
90 Tips and Tricks

a number of gestures that can be used to access many of its new and old
features. Some of these are probably not very comfortable for mouse
users though.
Here are some of the gestures you can perform in Windows 8, and their
resulting actions:

ACTION RESULT
Press and Hold Context menu (right click)
Swipe from right edge Charms bar
Swipe from left edge List of open apps
Swipe from bottom Command bar in modern apps
Swipe from top to right / left Snap app to left or right of screen
Swipe from top to bottom Close running app

Windows 8 also supports mouse gestures on for most of these new

features, but they are a bit tricky at times.
To open the charms bar with the mouse, move it to the top-right or
bottom-right corner, the charms bar icons will appear. At this point move
your mouse straight down or up depending on where you started from, and
the charms bar will show up.
To launch the start screen with the mouse, simply move it to the bottom
left corner of the screen, a rectangle with Start written on it will appear,
click on it. If you right click at this point, you will see a new menu that has
links to a number of important tools.
Often Modern UI apps will have additional actions that can be brought
up by swiping up from the bottom edge, to do this with the mouse, simply
right click.
To switch the the most recently used Modern UI application, move
the mouse to the top-left of the screen and click when a screenshot of
that app appears.
You may have noticed that these gestures all rely on using screen edges, so
what happens if you have multiple monitors? Which screen edge do you use?
If you have multiple screens, you can use any screen edge, and to make
sure that you can actually move you mouse to the corner of a screen without
shifting onto the next screen, Windows 8 puts up an invisible wall for your
pointer in the screen corners. This makes it easy to use the corners for per-
 Tips and Tricks 91

forming gestures, but unfortunately it can make using multiple monitors

infuriating at times.
A lot of these action are a lot better, faster and easier when performed
using the keyboard.

Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows 8

Windows 8 includes a number of new UI elements, and they can all be
accessed using the keyboard.

Action Shortcut
Open the charms bar Win+C
Use the search charm Win+Q
Use the share charm Win+H
Use the devices charm Win+K
Use the setting charm Win+I
Search Win+Q or pres Win and start typing
Search Settings Win+W
Search Files Win+F
Zoom in on Start Screen Ctrl+Plus
Zoom out on Start Screen Ctel+Minus
Open command bar Win+Z
Switch to Desktop from Modern UI app Win+D
Snap app to the right Win+Period
Snap app to the left Win+Shift+Period
Move app to next monitor Win+PgDown
Move app to previous monitor Win+PgUp
Switch between Modern UI apps Win+Tab
Show Quick Link menu Win+X

There is another interesting little shortcut in Windows 8 but has little to

do with any new features. Windows 8 now includes a single shortcut that
will automatically take a screenshot of your entire desktop, and save it to a
PNG file in the Screenshots folder in your Pictures library. The shortcut is
simple; [Win]+[Print Screen].
92 Tips and Tricks

Change Apps Included for Search, Share

and Notification
As you use Windows 8 for a long time, and install a growing number of
application, you might find that the search and share integrations that
Windows provides start to become overwhelming. Each time you search
you will find a list of dozens of applications that provide that feature, when
you use it for only a few of them.
Think about it, how often do you think you search the Travel or Weather
apps, if you even have them installed. Likewise you might find that you
simply aren’t sharing content using many of the apps that support the feature.
You might also find that you are getting far too many notifications for
the feature to be useful.
Windows 8 makes turning off individual apps from search, share and
notifications quite simple. The first thing you need to do is launch the Modern
UI version of the control panel:
ΩΩ Open the settings charm (Win+I).
ΩΩ Click on “Change PC settings” right at the bottom.
Here you will find a page for Notifications, Search and Share. Each page
will list the applications that can use that feature with each application
having an option to turn it off.

Use File History for Backup

You read about the prerequisites of this feature in Chapter 4, now we show
you how to use it as a back up. You know File History automatically back
sup all your Libraries. Remember that you can add existing folders from
anywhere on your hard drive to a library, Given that, simply create a library
called backup and use it just for including folders to back up.

Use File History With a Single Drive

If you are in the situation where you don’t have another hard drive,
network drive, or portable drive to back up to, but would still like to use
File History just so you can access previous versions of files, here is a
trick you can use.
What you can do is fake the presence of an additional hard drive by
using a virtual hard drive file. To do this you can use take advantage of
the fact that Windows supports virtual hard drives natively. Read the tip
about using virtual hard drives, and then use such a virtual hard drive as
the destination for the backup.
 Tips and Tricks 93

The process for changing search and share apps is similar to changing notifications

Access Store Apps Without the Start Screen

If you wanted to be able to launch a Store application without going through
the start screen, you are out of luck. While you can associate files with such
applications and they will launch when you try to open the associated files,
there is no simple way to create a shortcut to a Modern UI app.
There is however a way to create a shortcut to the a folder that contains
all start screen apps. All you need to do is create a new shortcut and point
it to the following location:
%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-
3893943456e1}
When you click on this shortcut a new explorer window will launch
with all your start screen apps, you can launch them from here, but that
is pretty much it.

Add a Toolbar to Explorer

If you are not a fan of the ribbon UI in Explorer and would like to rather
94 Tips and Tricks

just have a toolbar that has all the important file operations on it, there is
an simple solution.
If you launch explorer you will notice that above the ribbon, in the titlebar
area, there are a number of icons and a downward pointing arrow. You can
“pin” operations from the ribbon to this toolbar and use them from there
without using the ribbon UI at all. You can add individual items, individual
options or even entire panes as items to this toolbar.
If you don’t like the location up in the titlebar, you can click on the
downward arrow and select “Show below the Ribbon” to move it to the area
below the ribbon, but above the address bar.

Add Items to the [Win]+[X] Menu

If you are a power user you will find yourself using the [Win]+[X] shortcut
for the Quick Link menu quite often. This menu appears where the start
menu would in previous versions of Windows, and has links to some of the
important tools in Windows 8.
While it just displays shortcuts in a set folder, Microsoft has taken meas-
ures to ensure that it doesn’t become a dumping ground for shortcuts placed
by every application a user installs. So it isn’t possible to just create a shortcut
there and expect it to show up; you need to use a third party application to
do this. One such application is “Win+X Menu Editor for Windows 8”. This
tool will let you create additional groups and add links to additional tools
in this menu. You can find this application at www.winaero.com.

Start Using Storage Spaces

Imagine the following scenario – chances are something like this already
happened to you – you just bought a new 250GB hard drive for all your
movies and home videos. You call this drive “Videos”, this is more space
than you will ever need you feel. In a year or so you realise that this isn’t
enough, not even close. Movies are HD now, and ripping a single Blu-Ray
can take a fifth of the total space in your drive. Your digicam too is HD and
chews though a GB as if it were nothing.
So you get another hard drive, 1TB this time, and it becomes “Videos
2”. Now you’re stuck with two locations for the same kind of data, and in a
year or so you will need “Videos 3”.
Now there is a solution to this mess, and it is called Storage Spaces.
There are few concepts you need to understand about Storage Spaces to
understand how it works.
 Tips and Tricks 95

ΩΩ You can combine multiple hard drives, whether internal, or external,

connected via USB, SATA, or SAS. When you create a storage pool, all
the storage in that pool of drives is combined.
ΩΩ Within this storage pool you can create storage spaces. A storage space
is like a partition on a hard drive, it has a certain capacity, and can store
files up to that capacity.
ΩΩ A storage space can be of four resiliency types:
• Two-way mirror: this keeps each piece of data on at least two different
drives. For this you need at least two drives in the pool.
• Three-way mirror: this quite expectedly keeps all data on three
drives. For this you need at least three drives in the pool.
• Parity: This is more complex; it stores a copy of the data, and enough
information about the data to reconstruct it if one of your drives fails.
For this too you need at least three drives in the pool.
• Simple: This is the standard way of doing things, just one copy of the
data. You only need a single drive in a pool for this.
ΩΩ A storage space is not limited by the size of the drives in the pool. This
means that even if you only have three 1TB drives in a pool, you can still
make a 10TB storage space in that pool. You can’t really use that space,
but as you add more drives to the pool the space will become available.
ΩΩ A single storage pool can have multiple spaces of different types. So if
you group 4x1TB drives in a pool, it can have a two-way mirrored pool
of 5TB, another three-way mirrored space of 1TB, a 10TB parity space
and a 5TB simple space.
ΩΩ Since data in a pool is stored in multiple places (except for simple storage
spaces) if one of your drives fails you can disconnect it, add a new drive,
and the data will be rebuilt on that new drive. So even if a drive doesn’t
fail you can remove your old 250GB drive and plug in a new 3TB drive
to increase the size of your pool.
ΩΩ Even if you just create a simple storage space, at least you can combine
the storage space of multiple drives in one place. So rather than have
“Video”, “Video 2” and so on, you have one storage space that you keep
expanding with more drives.
To actually use this feature simply visit Storage Spaces in your Control
Panel, you can also find Storage Spaces by pressing [Win]+[W] to launch
settings search, typing “storage space” and pressing Enter. You can then
connect the devices you would like to create a pool with—or if they are
internal drives, they’re already connected.
96 Tips and Tricks

Once you have created a pool, you can begin creating spaces. You can
add more drives to a pool, rename a pool or delete a pool from here as well.
You can also create a new pool with a new batch of drives if you want. So
you can have multiple pools with different storage spaces in each.
To use the storage spaces in a pool you need to connect all the drives in
that pool, or enough drives such that all the data is available.
A very important thing to note about Storage Spaces is that they wont
work on Windows XP, Vista or even 7. This is a new technology and will
only be available in Windows 8 and above. Also if you use Linux, you
may want to avoid this since it is currently not supported. Linux provides
similar – but harder to use – features.