win 8.1 help - basic stuff

[Kongar]

I just bought a surface pro 3 - great piece of hardware. But windows 8 - oh my what a confusing POS. I know I've seen someone link a "read this and it'll help" url but I can't find it. Anyone got some good sites to help us reluctant win 7 converts figure out the nuances of the interface? I know it's just a matter of playing with it and all will be ok, but boy am I frustrated right now.

Thanks guys
Kongar

PS LOVING the new i7 surface pro 3 - very nice piece of hardware even if it's a bit overpriced.

 

[Tsumi]

This is a fairly good guide (I'm a daily 8.1 user).

Winkey + x, or right-click the start button has a lot of handy shortcuts, including power options.

If you like gadgets, install 8gadgetpack. If you want the Windows Update notification for installing updates manually, use this. If you want to spend some time making custom icons for your start screen, use Oblytile.

 

[Kongar]

Thank you that helped along with some googling on my part. Couple things still causing me problems - any comments appreciated.

1) can you change the color of the actual tiles themselves on the start screen? Looks like it was removed in the .1 update?
2) how exactly do you "swipe in" with a mouse. I keep reading it, and it works with touch, but I'll be damned if I can do any of that with a mouse
3) how do you close an app? I thought swiping down or clicking the "x" with the mouse was it - but these apps still show in task manager.
4) why are some things in "pc settings" greyed out?
5) maybe related to #4 - when I set up the computer I signed in with my Microsoft account. This appears to be the only user on the machine. Am I an admin account or a user account? (I thought admin, but I've seen pop up menu options "run as admin". Also I see no way to change account type from admin to user etc.
6) I see they've removed windows backup (which stinks because the win7 backup was pretty reliable). Did they also remove the ability to create a backup DVD/ISO? I see the "restore to factory" setting in pc settings - did they bury a recovery image on the HDD? What if I have a drive failure?

Thanks!
Kongar

 

[SuperSubZero]

1) can you change the color of the actual tiles themselves on the start screen? Looks like it was removed in the .1 update?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn393983.aspx

2) how exactly do you "swipe in" with a mouse. I keep reading it, and it works with touch, but I'll be damned if I can do any of that with a mouse

Put the mouse in the upper or lower right corner for about half a second. You can also do Win+C.

3) how do you close an app? I thought swiping down or clicking the "x" with the mouse was it - but these apps still show in task manager.

Alt-F4

4) why are some things in "pc settings" greyed out?

Would need examples of things that are greyed out.

5) maybe related to #4 - when I set up the computer I signed in with my Microsoft account. This appears to be the only user on the machine. Am I an admin account or a user account? (I thought admin, but I've seen pop up menu options "run as admin". Also I see no way to change account type from admin to user etc.

You are an admin. You cannot downgrade your own account, and the options do not appear. If there were other accounts on the machine, any admin would be able to change the levels of those users.

6) I see they've removed windows backup (which stinks because the win7 backup was pretty reliable). Did they also remove the ability to create a backup DVD/ISO? I see the "restore to factory" setting in pc settings - did they bury a recovery image on the HDD? What if I have a drive failure?

Most OEMs have some mechanism to create recovery media from their image partition. If yours does not, you should contact them and get media.

 

[Tsumi]

1. As I mentioned, you can use Oblytile for tile customization.
2. My general method of doing it is going to the lower right corner then moving the mouse straight up. No need to wait.
5. You're an admin account, but with user privileges. With UAC on, anything requiring administrative access will pop up a notification requesting access. If you have disabled UAC (which you shouldn't do on 7 or 8), then administrative access is automatically granted for anything running on your account.