Technical information

Chapter 7: Ten Things You’ll Hate about Windows 8
131
✓ Click the Desktop tile. This app brings you
straight to the desktop zone. To hide this tile
or any other Start screen tile, right-click the
unwanted app to reveal the App bar and then
click the Unpin from Start icon.
✓ Browse files. The Start screen isn’t sophisti-
cated enough to browse your files. As soon as
you plug in a flash drive or portable hard drive,
the desktop’s File Explorer leaps onscreen to
handle the job.
✓ Manage a user account. You can create new
accounts from the Start screen, but to delete or
change an existing account, you need the desk-
top’s Control Panel.
✓ Watch Flash videos. The Start screen’s version
of Internet Explorer handles most websites well.
But on some websites, it can’t play videos that
employ Adobe Flash technology. When a video
won’t play, right-click a blank part of the web-
site to reveal the App bar. Then click the Page
Tool icon (wrench inside a circle), and choose
View on the Desktop. The desktop’s Internet
Explorer jumps in to finish the task.
✓ Manage gadgetry. The Start screen’s PC
Settings screen lists all the devices connected to
your computer, from printers to mice to porta-
ble hard drives. But it shows only their names;
to change the settings of any of those devices
requires a trip to the desktop’s Control Panel.
✓ Manage files. You can access your photos and
music files from the Start screen’s Photos and
Music apps, respectively. But changing those files
in any way — renaming a file or folder, perhaps —
requires a trip to the desktop. You’ll find yourself
there when looking for the date you snapped a
photo, as well.
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