Get your start button back
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Windows 8.1 brought back the start button, albeit in an incredibly lame fashion. All it does it take you to that tablet-esque page with all of the useless tiles on it.
To get a proper start button, you’ll want to check out an app called Classic Shell. Once you download that, you’ll be able to get something with some semblance of the old start button. It’s still not as good, but it’s better than nothing.
Quicker shutdown
Windows 8.1 retains the shortcut menu that appears when you right-click in the bottom left-hand corner of the desktop, but there are some new options. You can now shut the system down or log out of your account from here, rather than going through the Settings charm.
Configure Smart Search
By default Windows 8.1 will look through files on your PC, in your SkyDrive account and on the web when you type a query into the Search charm, but you can modify this behaviour. Open the Settings charm then choose 'Change PC settings > Search and apps > Search' to disable Bing integration.
Lock screen slideshows
Having a static photo as your lock screen picture is so Windows 8. Join the Windows 8.1 revolution by configuring a slideshow of several images instead - on the Lock screen page under 'PC and Devices' in the Settings app there's a new Slide show entry, complete with a variety of configuration options.
Name app groups
Each of your Start screen app tile groups can have its own heading now, if required. You could name one group 'Work' and one 'Play', to be completely unoriginal and dull, for example. Right-click on the Start screen and choose Customise to bring up the labels.
Disable hot corners
In Windows 8 you needed a third-party tool or a registry hack to disable the 'hot corners' around the edges of your screen. In Windows 8.1, you can simply open up the Corners and Edges section of the 'PC and devices' settings page and turn off the corner navigation options.
IE11 Reading View
The brand-new Internet Explorer 11 comes bundled with Windows 8.1, and it has some neat new features (most of which have already been seen in other browsers, but still). One of these is the Reading View, which you can access by clicking the book icon on the right of the address bar.
App docking
Windows 8 enables you dock Start screen apps to the side of the screen, and this functionality is enhanced in 8.1 - you can dock two Start screen apps and avoid the desktop altogether, and adjust the size of each pane, giving you much more flexibility over how your display looks.
Change the apps Windows 8.1 uses
Use your mouse and send your pointer to the bottom right of the screen. Hit settings, change PC settings, search and apps, and go to defaults. From there you can edit the default apps Windows uses. Now, you no longer have to use the pre-packaged mobile apps that come with 8.
Remove those pesky Windows Store apps
To get rid of these apps, go to the change PC settings section I referenced in tip #3, except this time hit PC and devices. Now, click disk space, and wait for the page to load. Once that’s done, click “see my app sizes.” Now you’ll see a list of all the apps pre-loaded onto your PC. Feel free to uninstall them all if you want to.
Make your start button more useful.
To do this, right click your taskbar on the desktop, click properties, then navigation. There, check the box that says “Show the Apps view automatically when I go to Start.” This way, you’ll see a list of apps when you hit your start button instead of the start screen.
Adjust your display settings
To find the Windows 8.1 display settings, go to settings (which can be easily accessed using the hotkey windows button + C), change PC settings, then PC and devices. After that, navigate to display on the left-hand side, and from there you can change your resolution and orientation. You could do all of this by right-clicking your desktop as well, but some will probably prefer the streamlined interface Windows 8.1 offers.
View multiple apps at the same time
This is sort of like Windows 7′s snap to the side feature, though a bit more advanced. First, open up multiple apps. Choose one of them to display on your screen (I chose weather). Now, move your pointer to the top left of your screen so you can see the other apps you have running. Choose any of them, right click, and select “insert left.” Now you’ll have two apps on the screen. Then, repeat this process, except this time when right clicking the app select “insert center.” Now you’ll have three apps on the screen. This is useful if you need to keep track of a lot of information at once, or if you’re running your PC through a large television screen and have the real estate to view multiple things simultaneously.
Disable hot corners
While the hot corners in Windows 8 sometimes prove to be useful, often they can be a nuisance, especially if you accidentally move your cursor to the edge of your screen and something pops up when you don’t want it to.
To turn them off, navigate to PC and devices, which you access in the same way you did before (settings > change PC settings > PC and devices). Instead of going to display, this time go to “corners and edges.” Under the corner navigation subheading, turn off both options. Now, neither the charm bar nor the recent apps list will pop up when your cursor creeps onto the right or left edges of your screen.
Take advantage of smart search
Smart Search is one feature that I’ll give Microsoft credit for. From the start screen, just start typing and Smart Search will initialize. You can search for a file, a program, or even something you want to find on the web. Smart Search will literally search everywhere for what you’re seeking. Use it when you don’t have time to open your web browser, or are too lazy to search your cluttered desktop for a program you want to use.
Find obscure settings easily
This is a slight variation of the Smart Search trick. Instead of setting Smart Search to look for “everything” use the drop down menu to set it to only look for settings options. This makes it much easier to find regularly sought options related to mouse pointer speed, projecting to a second screen, and changing your desktop background.
Save online articles for later
This is useful if you are going to an area where there’s no internet connection, or if you see an article you want to read but have to leave in a few minutes. To do this, find the article you want to save, and launch the settings bar (windows button + c). Then, click the share button, which should open the Reading List app. From there, add the article to the app, and it will be there for you to read at a later date.
Use the cloud
A lot of people use Drop Box, but if you want to stay in the Microsoft ecosystem OneDrive comes preloaded into Windows 8.1 (it used to be called SkyDrive, for the record). To back up documents to the cloud, go to settings, change PC settings, OneDrive. There, set “save documents to OneDrive by default” to on. Now your documents are protected in the cloud, useful in the case that your hard drive crashes or your computer takes a swim.
Do something cool with Xbox Music
This one actually has a semi-cool feature, in that it can create a playlist based on the website you are currently viewing. It does this by searching for songs or artists mentioned there, and pulling them up for you to listen to. To access this feature, go to a website, open the settings sidebar (windows button + c), and click share. Now, select Music, and it’ll create a playlist for you.
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