The desktop in the Windows 8 beta offers no Start button and a few shortcuts. How can you easily populate it with your favorite programs? Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and ...

Even if you bypass Windows 8's "modern" UI entirely using a tool like Start8 or Classic Shell, there are some great apps available for it. Thanks to ModernMix, an app that lets you run full-screen ...

Here in the ExtremeTech bunker, where bleeding-edge tech comes to meet its maker, most of us have now been using Windows 8 for a few days. Here are some of the tips and tricks we've learnt. Share on ...

Install any Windows desktop gadget in Windows 8.x with 8GadgetPack Your email has been sent Greg Shultz takes a look at 8GadgetPack, a free tool that reinstalls the ...

Windows 8 – despite Microsoft’s dreadfully misguided marketing decisions – turns out to be a quite fine operating system. Oh, I’m not talking about the tiled Start screen and the so-called “Modern UI” ...

Windows 8 has two environments: the full screen, touch-centric Windows Store App interface (also called Metro) and the Desktop interface, which looks and acts like Windows 7. If you install programs ...

It's been over a year since I first installed a build of Windows 8 on a test machine. Since then, I've run it on a wide range of hardware, including slate-format tablets, hybrid touch/pen/keyboard ...

As much as people may like Windows 8, most just cannot get used to the idea of NOT seeing the desktop, once Windows 8 boots. We have been regularly sharing details and tips about Microsoft’s upcoming ...

Windows 8 isn’t for everyone. If you’re mostly a desktop PC user comfortable with Windows 7, upgrading to Windows 8 is probably not worthwhile. If you’re a mobile user who needs easy access to the ...

On Friday, October 26, Microsoft will unleash Windows 8 -- the result of more than three years of work by one of the world's largest cross-disciplinary software and hardware engineering teams, and ...

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. is a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 ...