Technical information

Windows 8 For Dummies, Dell Pocket Edition
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You can also fetch the Start screen by pressing
the
key on your keyboard or tablet.
Cleaning up a messy desktop
When icons cover your desktop like a year’s worth of
sticky notes, Windows 8 offers several ways to clean
up the mess. If you simply want your desktop clutter
to look more organized — lined up straight or in orga-
nized piles, for example — then do this: Right-click
the desktop and choose Sort By from the pop-up
menu. The submenu offers these choices:
✓ Name: Arrange all icons in alphabetical order
using neat, vertical rows.
✓ Size: Arrange icons according to their size, plac-
ing the smallest ones at the top of the rows.
✓ Item Type: This lines up icons by their type. All
photographs are grouped together, for example,
as are all links to websites.
✓ Date Modified: Arrange icons by the date you or
your PC last changed them.
Right-clicking the desktop and choosing the View
option lets you change the desktop icons’ size, as well
as play with these desk-organizing options:
✓ Auto Arrange Icons: Automatically arrange
everything in vertical rows — even newly posi-
tioned icons are swept into tidy rows.
✓ Align Icons to Grid: Turned on by default, this
option places an invisible grid on the screen and
aligns all icons within the grid’s borders to keep
them nice and tidy — no matter how hard you
try to mess them up.
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