How to Use Windows 8 - Part 3: Using Basic Navigation

1. 1 Use the Charms bar. Access the charms menu by holding your mouse in the upper right corner and dragging directly down. This will bring up your system time, as well as a menu, which is used to control several function of the computer. It is a powerful and important menu and you will want to know it.^[3]
   • Search is very similar to the All Applications button on the original start menu. However, for some apps pressing the search charm will search within that program, rather than searching the computer. Pay attention to this.
   • Share is used when doing tasks like viewing pictures. Share items to attach them to emails, place them in your SkyDrive, or a number of other functions depending on the file.
   • Start returns you to the start menu.
   • Devices allows you to access things like a second screen, or to set up and use printers. What is available will depend on what you have and what program you are using.
   • Settings can access the current application settings in some cases, but will otherwise access the computer’s settings. This is how you turn the computer off or put it to sleep, connect to the internet, manage the sound, personalize the computer, and access the control panel, among other functions.
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   Switch between windows. Switch between windows, programs, or apps by holding your mouse in the top left-hand corner of the screen and clicking the left mouse button. This will cycle through the currently running programs. To navigate to a specific program quickly, hold your mouse in that corner and drag directly down to access the equivalent of the taskbar, which will show all open programs.
   • Remember that the desktop is treated as a single program, so you may need to open the desktop before being able to go directly to the program you wish to access.
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   Open programs. Open programs by clicking tiles on the start menu or program icons in desktop view. You may wish to create tiles for programs, which you use often, which are discussed below. Programs can be pinned to the desktop taskbar similarly to previous versions.
   • To pin a program to the taskbar for which you cannot easily find the application icon in desktop view, find the program using the search charm and select “Pin to taskbar”. This is not available for all programs. Pinning to the start menu, however, should always be available.
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   Close programs. Close programs using the familiar "x" button at the top right corner of program windows. If this is not available, you can open the side taskbar by holding your mouse in the upper left corner and dragging down, then right clicking on the program you wish to close.
   • You can also press ⎇ Alt+F4 to close a program, though this will only close the program you are viewing.
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   Use multiple programs simultaneously. You may eventually find that when you navigate away from, say, your internet window where a song is playing on YouTube, the music will stop. If you want to use two programs in Windows 8 at once, you will need to put the computer into the windowed mode.
   • Do this by having both programs open at once. Hold your mouse in the top left corner and the other program you wish to view should appear. Grab the image and then hold it at the edge of the screen until the side pops out. Let go and both programs will be open and running.
   • Windows 8.1 allows for having up to 8 apps running at once, but this number is determined by your screen size. Tablets, for example, can still only have two.