Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 bring an entirely new user interface
from the Windows Vista and Windows 7 days.
So in this video, I'll show you some features
that are unique to the Windows 8 operating system.
Many of the new Windows 8 applications
are full-screen apps, but you can
put more than one app on the screen
by using this side-by-side functionality.
You would use this by taking a full-size app,
dragging it down from the top edge
and moving it over to the left or right side.
You can also use the keyboard to do this
with the Windows left arrow and the Windows right arrow.
Here's how you might use this on your Windows 8 desktop.
You have a full-size Windows 8 app.
If you move near the top, you'll get the title bar up here,
then you can grab it and move it to the left or right side
of the page.
I use my Windows key to go back to the Start page.
We'll grab another application, and now I'm
running two side-by-side on the same Desktop.
You may have noticed that Windows Start
screen looks very different than Windows Vista or Windows 7.
This is the modern UI, and this is Microsoft's common user
interface.
You'll see this in Windows 8, you'll see it on the Xbox,
you'll see on the Windows Phone, and other Microsoft systems
as well.
You may also see this referenced as the Metro UI,
but there were trademark concerns with that,
so Microsoft has standardized on calling this the Modern UI.
One thing that is different about this user interface
is that it's not just a bunch of static icons.
These are live applications with different colors and animation.
And you can get information right
on the front of the Start screen.
You'll notice that these live tiles are dynamic.
They're constantly updating, and they're
providing you information right on the Start screen
without having to move into different applications.
You may recall in Windows 7 that you can pin applications
right on the Taskbar.
And, of course, you could this in Windows 8 as well.
In Windows 7 and in Windows 8, you
wait to until the app is running,
you can right click and choose Pin This Program
to the Taskbar.
Or if you're on a touch environment with Windows 8,
you can simply touch and hold that application
and choose Pin to Taskbar.
From the Windows 8 desktop, we can
see the applications running down here on the Taskbar,
and if there is a certain task that we'd
like to always have available there,
we can right mouse click and simply choose Pin This Program
to the Taskbar.
Windows 8 also integrates cloud-based storage
directly into the operating system.
You don't have to install any third-party applications.
It simply is part of the OS itself.
You may see this referred to as SkyDrive or Live Folders.
Those are older names.
These days, it's referred to as Microsoft OneDrive.
Like most cloud-based storage systems,
you're able to store all of your documents into the cloud.
But because it's integrated into the operating system,
this becomes the default storage location
for all of your documents.
And all of the settings for your computer
are also stored in the cloud as well.
If you need to migrate, for instance,
from one computer to another, you simply
login with your Microsoft OneDrive credentials,
and all of your settings will be downloaded and installed
on the new computer.
The Windows Store is a central place
to find applications for your Windows operating system.
There's both paid and free applications
that are curated and available in this easy to use interface.
This is also the central point to go for installing the newer
modern UI applications.
There's also other windows applications
that could be downloaded from the Windows Store as well.
If you're an independent developer or someone who
has created their own application,
this is a great place to install your apps,
and then all the Windows users can go to one central place
to download your application.
In today's computing environments,
we often will have more than one monitor
that we use at our desktop, and with Windows 8
you can customize how the Taskbar looks
on different monitors.
You might want to have the Taskbar button
showing across all the monitors that you're using
or maybe just on the monitor where you're
using the current application.
You can also change the way the buttons look on each Taskbar.
So one monitor's Taskbar might have a certain way
that it looks, and another monitor might be configured
in a completely different way.
Maybe you're combining applications together
on one screen and separating them on the other.
Here's a good example of how this might look.
I've put two separate screens side by side,
and you can see on the left screen
the Taskbar has a certain style with the icons at the bottom.
On the right side is exactly the same Taskbar,
but you can see that we've expanded it out
so it looks a little bit different on the right screen
than it does on the left.
In Windows 8, there are a set of shortcuts that are
available from every screen.
These are called Charms.
They are able to search, to share, to go to the Start menu,
look at devices, and change the settings for the configuration
of your operating system.
You can use the keyboard to access these.
You can move with your mouse, or if you're using a touch screen,
you can use your finger.
Windows C will bring up the Charms from the keyboard.
If you're using your mouse, you can go to the right window
and move over, or you simply swipe over
from the right with your finger to show the Charms bar.
If we're using our mouse, we can move to the upper
or the bottom right.
The Charms bar will appear, and then we
can choose any of these options.
If you've been doing Windows administration
for any amount of time, you're probably
familiar with PowerShell.
This is something you could add on to previous Windows
versions, but it's now included with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.
PowerShell is like taking the command line
and expanding its capabilities to really take
advantage of the Windows operating system.
It can use these command functions called commandlets.
They are PowerShell scripts available that you can run.
And they're also standalone executables
the will work in PowerShell.
If you're someone who is administering
many different Windows systems or you
have to handle large domains, the PowerShell
is a great utility to use.
If we like to find PowerShell, we can go to our Start menu.
We can either look through all of the different applications
that are on our system, or if we're at the Start menu,
we can simply type in what we'd like.
So let's type in PowerShell, and it brings up Windows PowerShell
as the first option.
And it looks very similar to the command line you might use.
But now you have other commands available.
For instance, I can run Get-Service and list
out all of the different services that are
running in my operating system.
One of the advantages you have in an Active Directory
environment is everyone has a centralized login,
and all of your configuration settings
are automatically backed up.
Well, Microsoft has brought this same idea to the home
by allowing you to log in with your Microsoft account.
So you can use the Microsoft network account,
Hotmail account, Live account, or an Outlook account
to centralize the login to your operating system.
This isn't just used for authentication, of course.
If you're downloading applications from the Windows
Store, all of those can be centralized onto all
of your different systems.
And if there's download app content,
it will be automatically updated because it knows your login.
And if you have PC settings that you're
using across multiple systems, all of those
could be centralized with one central login.