Windows 8 Some cool new features

Microsoft’s most promisable product that is Windows 8 has finally arrived in India. It is launched in INDIA before USA. The Advantage is we can easily upgrade from our existing Windows 7 to Windows 8 by just paying Rs. 699. Microsoft is a market leader in the operating system since last 2 decades and here comes the most existing operating system with a lot of cool new features. Here are some of the features you would like to check…

Smooth Touch

Windows 8 supports intuitive simple touch gestures like swipe to left and swipe to right from the charm. Semantic zoom is also a cool feature given by windows 8. Semantic Zoom is a touch-optimized technique used by Windows Store apps in Windows 8 for presenting and navigating large sets of related data or content within a single view (such as a photo album, app list, or address book).

Tiles and Lock Screen

This feature will let you enable having the notification in the home screen without even opening them. This will be very helpful in the application like outlook.
The lock screen in Windows 8 is also become an exciting one. We can see the updates of a maximum of seven apps in the lock screen they will constantly run in the background and send notifications to the lock screen. We can have the option to select between the Weather and Calendar apps to show information on the Lock Screen at all times. This will be helpful if you have any todo task which will be informed while the screen is locked.

Deep Search

A powerful searching option is present in Windows 8 for files, apps, If an application is having their inbuilt search then the Windows 8 can let you search that directly also from home screen, we just have to type the search keyword.  A search can also be included in a search engine directly by simply adding the Bing application in it. Isn’t it cool???

Refresh and Reset

Refreshing the PC while it becomes slow is also changed it just need a single tap now to reset your machine, without changing any of your files. With just a tap all of your settings will be changed back to the default...
Reset is the cool option that let you set the existing setting from any user.  We can simply reset the OS for a fresher look and the worry to delete all files are gone. You can find both features in the Charms bar: Click Settings choose “Change PC Settings” and go to the “General” section.

Sync with Other device

The Synchronization between the PC, Mobile and tablet is also become very easy with Windows 8. Microsoft let you have an account and which is cloud-friendly; All of the personalization’s Setting can be stored in clouds. “Sync your settings” option within your OS settings lets you sync personalization’s (wall paper, colors, lock screen and Avatar), passwords, language preferences, app settings, browser settings, and more.

Multitasking / Snap View

This feature let you work on multiple  application at the same time with the active one will taking a large space in the screen and the other will simply take a very small space thus the switching between the application is no more a pain now. It’s quit helpful while we chat with someone and searching something at the same time.

Pin/Unpin

The Start Screen becomes more powerful and friendly where we can place some of our useful application to have the live updates. Example we can pin individuals from the People hub directly in Start Screen for quick access. You can always pin and un-pin items from your Start Screen.

Go Social with sharing

Sharing is become a fun in Windows 8, if anything is useful and you want to share the same with friends and circle simply  open charms bar and tap the Share button , it will detect automatically where this need to be shared irrespective of content whether it is an image, link or section of a application. Social networks and e-mail sharing can be done using the share menu at the same time sharing between multiple applications is also possible.

Task Manager

Task Manager in Windows 8’s has got a lot of improvement with multiple new feature. If an application is running we can check complete list of everything that’s running on your device, separated by section: apps, background processes, and Windows processes.
Device’s resources utilization of each app or process can be seen. The Performance tab gives you details of CPU, Memory, and Disk, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi usage in the form of charts.  App history shows you how much CPU and bandwidth your apps have used over time, making it easy to identify which apps take the most resources. The Startup tab lets you set the apps for default running. The Users tab shows you usage based on the devices various users, while the Services tab lets you go through your services to restart services.

Keyboard Shortcut

Windows 8 is touch enable OS but the basic way of using operating system using the keyboard keys is not out. Microsoft has given hundreds of new keyboard shortcuts to access apps and its features.
Windows logo key + type key word: Search your PC
Ctrl+plus (+) or Ctrl+minus (-): Zoom in or out of many items, like apps pinned to the Start screen or in the Store
Ctrl+scroll wheel: Zoom in or out of many items, like apps pinned to the Start screen or in the Store
Windows logo key + C: Open the charms
Windows logo key + F: Open the Search charm
Windows logo key +H: Open the Share charm
Windows logo key +I: Open the Settings charm
Windows logo key + K: Open the Devices charm
Windows logo key + O: Lock the screen orientation (portrait or landscape)
Windows logo key + Z: Open commands for the app
Windows logo key + PgUp: Move the Start screen and apps to the monitor on the right (apps in the desktop won’t change monitors)
Windows logo key + PgDn: Move the Start screen and apps to the monitor on the left (apps in the desktop won’t change monitors)
Windows logo key + Shift+period (.): Snap an app to the left
Windows logo key + period (.): Snap an app to the right

I hope you will like all of the new features offered in Windows8. It is officially launched and this can be upgraded very easily. I have searched a lot of websites to compile this content. Thanks to all of them for providing the list of new features. Please feel free to post your suggestion and comment about this post.

Thanks

Anil Kumar Pandey

Microsoft MVP, Microsoft MCC,DNS MVM