Windows 8 now uses Internet Explorer's
SmartScreen system-wide, checking downloaded files to ensure they're
safe. In general this is a good thing, but if you have any problems then
it can be tweaked.
Launch Control Panel, open the Action Centre
applet, and click Change Windows SmartScreen Settings in the left-hand
pane. Here you can keep the warning, but avoid the requirement for
administrator approval, or turn SmartScreen off altogether. Make your
choice and click OK to finish.
28. Windows 8 File History
Windows
8 includes an excellent File History feature, which can regularly and
automatically back up your libraries, desktop, contacts and favourites
to a second drive (even a USB flash drive - just connect it, and choose
'Configure this drive for backup using File History' from the menu).
To
set this up, go to Control Panel > System and Security > File
History. Click Exclude Folders to help define what you're saving,
Advanced Settings to choose the backup frequency, Change Drive to choose
the backup destination, and Turn On to enable the feature with your
settings.
And once it's been running for a while, you can check on
the history for any file in Explorer by selecting it, choosing the Home
tab and clicking History.
29. VHD - enhanced
Windows
7 added support for creating and attaching virtual hard drives in
Microsoft's VHD format. Now Windows 8 extends this with the new VHDX
format, which improves performance, extends the maximum file size from 2
to 16TB, and makes the format "more resilient to power failure events"
(so they shouldn't get corrupted as easily). Launch the Computer
Management Control Panel applet, choose Disk Management, and click
Actions > Create VHD to give the format a try.
30. Storage Spaces
If
you have multiple hard drives packed with data then you'll know that
managing them can be a hassle. But that's all about to change with a new
Windows 8 feature, Storage Spaces.
The idea is that you can take
all your hard drives, whether connected via USB, SATA or SAS (Serial
Attached SCSI), and add them to a storage pool. And you can then create
one or more spaces within this pool, formatting and accessing them as a
single drive, so you've only one drive letter to worry about.
What's
more, the technology can also maximise your performance by spreading
files across multiple drives (the system can then access each chunk
simultaneously). There's an option to mirror your files, too, so even if
one disk fails your data remains safe. And if your Storage Space begins
to fill up then just plug in another drive, add it to the pool and you
can carry on as before.
Yes, we know, this is just a
consumer-friendly take on RAID. But there's nothing wrong with that, and
it looks promising. If you'd like to read up on the technical details
then the official Windows 8 blog
has more, and you can then create and manage your drive pool from the
new Control Panel\System and Security 'Storage Spaces' applet.
31. Virtual Machines
Install
Windows 8 and you also get Microsoft's Hyper-V, enabling you to create
and run virtual machines (as long as you're not running in a virtual
machine already). Launch OptionalFeatures.exe (press Windows Key and R
and type it in to run), check Hyper-V and click OK to enable the
feature. Then switch back to the Start screen, scroll to the right, find
and click on the Hyper-V Manager tile to begin exploring its
capabilities.
32. Smart Searching
When you're in the mood
to track down new Windows 8 features relating to a particular topic, you
might be tempted to start by manually browsing Control Panel for
interesting applets - but there is a simpler way.
If you'd like to
know what's new in the area of storage, say, just press Win+W to launch
the Settings Search dialog, type "drive", and the system will return a
host of related options. That is, not just those with "drive" in the
name, but anything storage-related: BitLocker, Device Manager, backup
tools, disk cleanup, and interesting new features such as Storage
Spaces.
This Search feature isn't new, of course, but it's easy to
forget how useful this can be, especially when you're trying to learn
about a new operating system. So don't just carry out specific searches,
use the Apps search to look for general keywords such as "privacy" or
"performance", and you just might discover something new.
If you like your PC to boot just
as fast as possible then the new Windows 8 lock screen may not appeal.
Don't worry, though, if you'd like to ditch this then it only takes a
moment.
Launch GPEdit.msc (the Local Group Policy Editor) and
browse to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates >
Control Panel > Personalisation.
Double-click 'Do not display the lock screen', select Enabled and click OK.
Restart and the lock screen will have gone.
If
you can't easily find GPEdit.msc by searching in the Start screen,
search for 'mmc', and then press Enter. On the File menu, click
'Add/Remove Snap-in', then in the 'Add or Remove Snap-ins' dialog box,
click 'Group Policy Object Editor', and then click 'Add'.
In the
'Select Group Policy Object' dialog box, click 'Browse'. Click 'This
Computer' to edit the Local Group Policy object, or click 'Users' to
edit Administrator, Non-Administrator, or per-user Local Group Policy
objects, then click 'Finish'.
20. Install anything
Most
mobile platforms recommend you only install apps from approved sources
to protect your security, and Windows 8 is the same: it'll only allow
you to install trusted (that is, digitally signed) apps from the Windows
store.
If this proves a problem, though, and you're willing to
take the security risk (because this isn't something to try unless
you're entirely sure it's safe), then the system can be configured to
run trusted apps from any source.
Launch GPEdit.msc (see above
for instructions on how to find it), browse to Computer Configuration
> Administrative Templates > Windows Components > App Package
Deployment, double-click 'Allow all trusted apps to install' and select
Enabled > OK.
21. Log in automatically
Of
course even if you remove the lock screen, you'll still be forced to
manually log in every time your system starts. This can also be resolved
at speed, though, using much the same technique as in previous versions
of Windows.
Hold down the Windows key, press R, type 'netplwiz' and press Enter to launch the User Accounts dialog.
Clear the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" box and click OK.
Enter
the user name and password of the account that you'd like to be logged
in automatically, click OK, restart your system and this time it should
boot directly to the Start screen.
22. Replacing the Start menu
If Windows 8's search and navigation tools still leave you pining for the regular Start menu, installing ViStart will replace it with something very similar.
Download
the program and install it, carefully; it's free, but the Setup program
will install the trial of a commercial Registry cleaner unless you
explicitly tell it otherwise.
But once that's out the way, your
old Start button will return in its regular place, and clicking it (or
pressing the Windows key) will bring back the usual Start menu complete
with search box and all the usual menus.
The program has a few flaws - on launch it gave us an e-mail icon for Outlook Express, for instance - but otherwise works well.
There's also Start8 from Windows customisation veterans Stardock. It provides similar functionality to ViStart but with a more up-to-date look.
23. Windows key shortcuts
Win : switch between the Start screen and the last-running Windows 8 app
Win + C : displays the Charms: the Settings, Devices, Share and Search options
Win + D : launches the desktop
Win + E : launches Explorer
Win + F : opens the File Search pane
Win + H : opens the Share pane
Win + I : opens Settings
Win + K : opens the Devices pane
Win + L : locks your PC
Win + M : minimises the current Explorer or Internet Explorer window (works in the full-screen IE, too)
Win + O : toggles device orientation lock on and off
Win + P : switch your display to a second display or projector
Win + Q : open the App Search pane
Win + R : opens the Run box
Win + U : open the Ease of Access Centre
Win + V : cycle through toasts (notifications)
Win + W : search your system settings (type POWER for links to all power-related options, say)
Win + X : displays a text menu of useful Windows tools and applets
Win + Z : displays the right-click context menu when in a full-screen app
Win + + : launch Magnifier and zoom in
Win + - : zoom out
Win + , : Aero peek at the desktop
Win + Enter : launch Narrator
Win + PgUp : move the current screen to the left-hand monitor
Win + PgDn : move the current screen to the right-hand monitor
Win + PrtSc : capture the current screen and save it to your Pictures folder
If
you're a fan of keyboard shortcuts and don't like the idea of scrolling
through app tiles to find the program you need, don't worry, Windows 8
still supports a useful old shortcut. Which is perfect if, say, you're
looking to be able to shut down your PC with a click.
Launch the desktop app, right-click an empty part of the desktop and click New > Shortcut.
Browse to the application you'd like to launch here. Of for the sake of this example, enter shutdown.exe -s -t 00
to shut down your PC, or shutdown.exe -h -t 00
to hibernate it, and click Next. Type a shortcut name - 'Hibernate', say - and click Finish.
Right-click
the shortcut, select Pin to Start and it should appear on the far right
of the Start screen - just drag the tile wherever you like.
25. Intelligent screengrabs
If
a Windows 8 application is showing something interesting and you'd like
to record it for posterity, then hold down the Windows key, press
PrtSc, and the image won't just go to the clipboard: it'll also be
automatically saved to your My Pictures folder with the name
Screenshot.png (and then Screenshot(1).png, Screenshot(2).png and so
on).
You might hope that pressing Win+Alt+PrtSc would similarly
save an image of the active window, but no, sadly not. Maybe next time.
26. Photo Viewer
Double-click
an image file within Explorer and it won't open in a Photo Viewer
window any more, at least not by default. Instead you'll be switched to
the full-screen Windows 8 Photos app - bad news if you thought you'd
escaped such hassles by using the desktop.
If you'd like to fix this, go to Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs and select Set your default programs.
Scroll down and click Windows Photo Viewer in the Programs list.
Finally,
click 'Set this program as default' if you'd like the Viewer to open
all the file types it can handle, or select the 'Choose default' options
if you prefer to specify which file types it should open. Click OK when
you're done.
Windows 8 apps aim to be simpler than old-style
Windows applets, which means it's goodbye to menus, complex toolbars,
and many interface standards. There will usually be a few options
available on the App bar, though, so if you're unsure what to do then
either right-click an empty part of the screen, press Windows+Z or flick
your finger up from the bottom of the screen to take a closer look.
9. What's running?
If
you launch a Windows 8 app, play with it for a while, then press the
Windows key you'll switch back to the Start screen. Your app will
remaining running, but as there's no taskbar then you might be wondering
how you'd ever find that out.
You could just press Alt+Tab, which shows you what's running just as it always has.
Holding
down the Windows key and pressing Tab displays a pane on the left-hand
side of the screen with your running apps. (To see this with the mouse,
move your cursor to the top left corner of the screen, wait until the
thumbnail of one app appears, then drag down.)
And of course you
can always press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to see all your running apps in the Task
Manager, if you don't mind (or actually need) the extra technical
detail.
Windows
8 apps don't have close buttons, but this isn't the issue you might
think. Apps are suspended when you switch to something else so they're
only a very minimal drain on your system, and if you need the system
resources then they'll automatically be shut down. (Their context will
be saved, of course, so on relaunching they'll carry on where you left
off.)
If you want to close down an app anyway, though, move the
mouse cursor up to the top of the screen. When it turns from the regular
mouse pointer to the icon of a hand, hold down the left mouse button
and drag it down the screen. Your app should shrink to a thumbnail which
you can drag off the screen to close it.
If that's too much hassle, then simply pressing Alt+F4 still works.
And
when all else fails then press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to launch Task Manager,
right-click something in the Apps list and select End Task. Beware,
though, close something you shouldn't and it's easy to crash or lock up
your PC.
11. Mastering Internet Explorer in Windows 8
Click
the Internet Explorer tile from the Start menu and you'll launch a
full-screen version without toolbars, menus or sidebars, which like so
much of Windows 8 may leave you initially feeling lost.
Right-click
an empty part of the page or flick your finger down from the top of the
screen, though, and you'll find options to create and switch between
tabs, as well as a Refresh button, a 'Find' tool and the ability to pin
an Internet shortcut to the Start page. Click the spanner icon and
select 'View on the desktop' to open the full desktop version of
Internet Explorer.
12. Run two apps side by side
Windows
8 apps are what Microsoft calls "immersive" applications, which
basically means they run full-screen - but there is a way to view two at
once. Swipe from the left and the last app you were using will turn
into a thumbnail; drop this and one app displays in a sidebar pane while
your current app takes the rest of the screen. And you can then swap
these by swiping again.
13. Spell check
Windows
8 apps all have spellcheck where relevant, which looks and works much
as it does in Microsoft Office. Make a mistake and a wavy red line will
appear below the offending word; tap or right-click this to see
suggested alternative words, or add the word to your own dictionary if
you prefer.
14. Run as Administrator
Some programs need
you to run them with Administrator rights before they'll work properly.
The old context menu isn't available for a pinned Start screen app, but
right-click one, and if it's appropriate for this app then you'll see a
Run As Administrator option.
15. Make a large app tile smaller
You'll
notice that some Windows 8 apps have small live tiles, while others
have larger tiles that take up the space of two tiles. Right-clicking on
a Windows 8 app's Start screen tile will display a few relevant
options. If this is one of the larger tiles, choosing 'Smaller' will cut
it down to half the size, freeing up some valuable Start screen real
estate.
16. Uninstall easily
If you want to hide an unused
app for now, select 'Unpin from Start'. The tile will disappear, but if
you change your mind then you can always add it again later. (Search
for the app, right-click it, select 'Pin to Start'.)
Or, if you're sure you'll never want to use an app again, choose 'Uninstall' to remove it entirely.
17. Apps and privacy
It
is worth keeping in mind that by default Windows 8 apps can use your
name, location and account picture. If you're not happy with that, it's
easily changed. Press Win+I, click More PC Settings, select Privacy and
click the relevant buttons to disable any details you'd rather not
share.
18. Administrative tools
Experienced
Windows users who spend much of their time in one advanced applet or
another are often a little annoyed to see their favourite tools buried
by Windows 8. Microsoft has paid at least some attention, though, and
there is a way to bring some of them back.
Open the Charm bar by
flicking your finger from the right-hand side of the screen and select
'Settings' then 'Tiles'. Change 'Show administrative tools' to 'Yes' and
click back on an empty part of the Start screen. And it's as simple as
that. Scroll to the right and you'll find a host of new tiles for
various key applets - Performance Monitor, Event Viewer, Task Scheduler,
Resource Monitor and more - ready to be accessed at a click.
Windows 8 is finally here, and if you're used to previous versions of
Windows then you're going to notice that quite a bit has changed. In
fact, Windows has seen the biggest changes since the jump from Windows
3.1 to Windows 95.
Out goes the Start menu, in comes the new
touch-oriented Start screen, new apps, new interface conventions - even
experienced PC users may be left feeling a little lost.
Don't
despair, though, help is at hand. We've been investigating every part of
Windows 8, uncovering many of its most important tips and tricks, so
read our guide and you'll soon be equipped to get the most out of
Microsoft's latest release.
1. Lock screen
Windows 8 opens on its lock screen, which looks pretty but unfortunately displays no clues about what to do next.
It's
all very straightforward, though. Just tap the space bar, spin the
mouse wheel or swipe upwards on a touch screen to reveal a regular login
screen with the user name you created during installation. Enter your
password to begin.
2. Basic navigation
Windows 8 launches
with its new interface, all colourful tiles and touch-friendly apps. And
if you're using a tablet then it'll all be very straightforward: just
swipe left or right to scroll the screen, and tap any tile of interest.
On a regular desktop, though, you might alternatively spin the mouse wheel to scroll backwards and forwards.
And
you can also use the keyboard. Press the Home or End keys to jump from
one end of your Start screen to the other, for instance, then use the
cursor keys to select a particular tile, tapping Enter to select it.
Press the Windows key to return to the Start screen; right-click (or
swipe down on) apps you don't need and select Unpin to remove them; and
drag and drop the other tiles around to organise them as you like.
3. App groups
The Start screen apps are initially displayed
in a fairly random order, but if you'd prefer a more organised life then
it's easy to sort them into custom groups.
You might drag People,
Mail, Messaging and Calendar over to the left-hand side, for instance,
to form a separate 'People' group. Click the 'minus' icon in the bottom
right corner of the screen to zoom out and you'll now find you can drag
and drop the new group (or any of the others) around as a block.
Right-click
within the block (while still zoomed out) and you'll also be able to
give the group a name, which - if you go on to add another 20 or 30 apps
to your Start screen - will make it much easier to find the tools you
need.
4. Quick access menu
Right-click
in the bottom left corner (or hold down the Windows key and press X)
for a text-based menu that provides easy access to lots of useful
applets and features: Device Manager, Control Panel, Explorer, the
Search dialog and more.
5. Find your applications
The
Win+X menu is useful, but no substitute for the old Start menu as it
doesn't provide access to your applications. To find this, hold down the
Windows key and press Q or either right-click an empty part of the
Start screen or swipe your finger up from the bottom of the screen and
select 'All Apps' to reveal a scrolling list of all your installed
applications. Browse the various tiles to find what you need and click
the relevant app to launch it.
If
there's an application you use all the time then you don't have to
access it via the search system. Pin it to the Start screen and it'll be
available at a click.
Start by typing part of the name of your
application. To access Control Panel, for instance, type 'Control'.
Right-click the 'Control Panel' tile on the Apps Search screen, and
click 'Pin to Start'. If you're using a touchscreen, press and hold the
icon, then flick down and select 'Pin to Start'.
Now press the
Windows key, scroll to the right and you'll see the Control Panel tile
at the far end. Drag and drop this over to the left somewhere if you'd
like it more easily accessible, then click the tile to open the desktop
along with the Control Panel window, and press the Windows key to return
you to the Start screen when you're done.
7. Shutting down
To
shut Windows 8 down, just move the mouse cursor to the bottom right
corner of the screen, click the Settings icon - or just hold down the
Windows key and press I - and you'll see a power button. Click this and
choose 'Shut Down' or 'Restart'.
Some of the tricks available in
previous versions of Windows still apply. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del, for
instance, click the power button in the bottom right-hand corner and
you'll be presented with the same 'Shut Down' and 'Restart' options.
And
if you're on the desktop, press Alt+F4 and you'll be able to choose
'Shut Down', 'Restart', 'Sign Out' or 'Switch User' options.
Microsoft today unveiled the “release preview” version of Windows 8
which mostly indicates that the new Windows operating system is
feature-complete. Windows 8 Release Preview is available as a free
download and it is very likely that your existing system specs are good
enough to run Windows 8. The System Requirements for Windows 8
According
to Windows 8 FAQ, any machine equipped with 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of hard
disk space and 1 GHz processor should be able to handle Windows 8. The
minimum RAM requirements are 2 GB in case you would like to install the
64-bit version of Windows 8. Should you download Windows 8 Setup or the ISO Image?
Update: Where can I Download Windows 8?
As you may have noticed on the Windows 8 download page, the installation of Windows 8 can be done in two ways.
You can either take the easiest route and download the Windows 8 Setup program – that’s also the default option.
Alternatively, you can download ISO Images of Windows 8.
If
you are planning to install Windows 8 on your existing computer, either
on a different partition (dual-boot) or just want to upgrade from an
older version of Windows to Windows 8, the default Setup program is a
good choice.
Please note that that your installed software
programs will only be preserved if you are upgrading from Windows 7 to
Windows 8. If your planning to install Windows 8 on top of Windows XP or
Vista, only the files will be preserved but not the various software
programs that you may have on the disk.
The Windows 8 ISO image may be more handy in other situations like:
Your
computer has an x64 processor but is currently running the 32-bit
version of Windows. If you want to install the 64-bit version of Windows
8, download the 64-bit ISO.
You want to install Windows 8 on your Mac (iMac or Macbook) using Boot Camp software.
You want to install Windows 8 on multiple computers. In that case, you can download the ISO once, create a bootable DVD and boot the other systems using this newly created Windows 8 disk.
You plan to run Windows 8 as a Virtual Machine inside your existing copy of Windows.
You are running Windows XP.
The universal product key for Windows 8 is TK8TP-9JN6P-7X7WW-RFFTV-B7QPF. Will my software programs run inside Windows 8?
Before grabbing the ISO image of Windows 8, quickly run this setup utility
and it will show a list of all software programs and hardware drivers
on your system that are compatible with Windows 8. Alternatively, you
can visit this page to see a list of all known software and hardware devices that are found to be working with Windows 8. How should I go about installing Windows 8?
You can have Windows 8 on your computer in three ways – you can install Windows 8 side-by-side
(also known as dual-boot), as a virtual machine (so that it runs inside
your existing Windows just like any other software) or you can have
Windows 8 as your primary OS (there’s no going back from here).
If you just want to try out Windows 8 but without modifying any of your existing set-up, the safest bet is to use a Virtual Machine.
If you have a vacant disk partition or don’t mind creating one (it’s
easy), go for the dual-boot option. Else, if you have a spare computer,
you can consider upgrading to Windows 8 overwriting the previous installation of Windows.
Also
note that if you are upgrading from Windows 8 Consumer Preview to the
new Windows 8 Release Preview, none of your installed programs, files
and account settings will be preserved though everything would be moved
to the windows.old folder.
How to download Windows 8?
Before downloading windows 8, make sure you meet the minimum requirements required for installing Microsoft Win 8.
1GHz or faster processor.
1GB RAM for 32bit and 2Gb RAM for 64 bit
16/20GB hard drive for 32/64 bit
Download the full version of Windows 8 ISO image
from the link given in this post. If you’re using windows 7, you can
directly use the inbuilt Disc Image burner software to write the ISO
file into DVD or just use any third party software’s like Nero for
burning the Windows 8 image into DVD or USB.
Note: If you’re planning to upgrade from Windows XP/Vista/7. the you
have to install windows 8 without developer tools. For a clean install,
all the builds are supported.
Windows 8 is the first truly gestural version of Windows. The OS
supports intuitive simple touch gestures like swiping in from the left
to switch apps and swiping in from the right for the Charms menu.
Semantic zoom is another big winner. Whether you’re in the Start Screen
or a specific app, like the People hub, you can navigate using the
pinch-to-zoom gesture to get a high-level view. For example, you can use
semantic zoom in the News app to see all of the news sections
available, instead of having to scroll through the app.
Other useful gestures include swiping in from the top of the screen
for app-specific commands and settings and dragging an app from the top
down to close it out.
A singleton is a class that is instantiated only once. This is
typically accomplished by creating a static field in the class
representing the class. A static method exists on the class to obtain
the instance of the class and is typically named something such as
getInstance(). The creation of the object referenced by the static field
can be done either when the class is initialized or the first time that
getInstance() is called. The singleton class typically has a private
constructor to prevent the singleton class from being instantiated via a
constructor. Rather, the instance of the singleton is obtained via the
static getInstance() method.
The SingletonExample class is an example of a typical singleton
class. It contains a private static SingletonExample field. It has a
private constructor so that the class can't be instantiated by outside
classes. It has a public static getInstance() method that returns the
one and only SingletonExample instance. If this instance doesn't already
exist, the getInstance() method creates it. The SingletonExample class
has a public sayHello() method that can be used to test the singleton.
The Demo class obtains a SingletonExample singleton class via the
call to the static SingletonExample.getInstance(). We call the
sayHello() method on the singleton class. Executing the Demo class
outputs "Hello" to standard output.
java programs executes in JVM uses Heap of memory to manage the data.
If your Java program requires a large amount of memory, it is possible
that the virtual machine will begin to throw OutOfMemoryError instances
when attempting to instantiate an object. The default heap size if 1 MB
and can increase as much as 16 MB.
Setting/Increase JVM heap size on Eclipse
Right click on the main program -
run-configuration->-ArgumentTab->Inside VM and insert the paramter.
