VHD as a Drive

You can mount the VHD as a drive using simple UI.

1. Open Disk Management (from run you can use diskmgmt.msc)
2. Select Attach VHD
3. 
4. Alternatively you can also use the Diskpart to achieve the same

Microsoft Office Save – Backstage view

It is annoying to select the Save location every time to Computer when your most used location is local computer.  Though I hate to choose every time, explored the option to get rid of it.

Open the File –> Option Menu choose Save tab.

Use the following two options to make your preferences

• Don’t show the Backstage when opening or saving files: (To complete get rid of the backstage view)
• Save To Computer by default: (Just to make the Computer as the default on backstage view)

Office Apps

Microsoft Office apps are custom extension on top of standard office suite, now we have full fledge store support.  The office apps provides custom extensions and utilities, which works inside the office apps.  The recent one which I liked is the Linkedin integration with Outlook.  It is cool to see within your outlook window on a mouse over you can see the complete detail of the sender.

• To add new apps, in outlook go to Info tab and select Manage Apps
  
• You will be presented with list of apps, installed required apps.
  
• Once you install an app, the app will show up in your message just below the subject line
  

Similarly, you have apps for Word, Excel

Windows 8.1 Navigation Customization

Windows 8.1 added with lot of small improvements, this post highlight the Navigation Customization.

Right click on Task Bar and bring the Properties of Taskbar.  Notice it is no more called as Taskbar Property.  It is now Taskbar and Navigation properties.  Check out these cool settings under “Navigation” tab to improve user experiences.

You can skip remaining post if you got all above settings!

Corner Navigation

• Quick App Switch:
• Mouse: When I click the upper-left corner, switch between my recent apps
• Keyboard: Windows Key + Tab
• 
• Charms Bar
• Mouse: When I point to the upper-right corner, show the charms.  You will still get charms using bottom-right corner.  This setting is to avoid disturbance if you are using Close button of desktop apps .
• Keyboard: Windows + I

 

• Default to PowerShell:
• Mouse: Bring the Windows Power User Menu by using Right click, you can set the Power.  It is good idea to start using Powershell instead of command prompt.
• Keyboard: Windows + X
• 

Start Screen

• Default Modern UI / Desktop?: You can set your preferred mode as start screen, between Desktop (Icons) and Modern UI Start screen (Tiles)
• Wallpaper as Modern UI background: You can have the same or different wall paper between Modern UI Start Menu and Desktop.
• Windows Tiles / App list as start screen:  You can switch between Modern Tiles vs App list as your default likst
• Search default Apps / Everywhere
• 
• List Desktop apps first: When all the Apps list you can bring the Desktop to first.

Treasures of Windows Explorer

Any one using Windows, getting in and out of Windows Explorer (WinKey + E) is common task.  But how many of us use the full power of Windows Explorer.  Here are some cool features of Explorer exposed.

• Navigation Pane: You have complete control over the left side folder tree structure.  You can hide / show to get more room. 
• Expand to open folder: You can Keep expanding the tree as you explore
• Show all folders: shows arrows indicating the availability of sub folders
• Show favorites: Get your most used folders in one click

Sort

 

• You can sort the folders in any of the attributes of the file.  You can toggle the sort order by simply clicking on the header
  

Grouping

• You can group the files in a folder based on any of the attribute of the file.

Filter

• You can access the filter by using the down arrow at end of each column header.

Multi select

• Multi select become simple now, no more you are required to hold Shift or control keys, Make sure you switched on this feature by using “Item check boxes”

Also you have

• Recent locations, by accessing Previous, Next, Down Arrow to list all previous locations

• Enabling Preview can show Word, Excel documents

Windows Push Button Reset / Refresh

Windows 8.1 is capable of PBR!!

At any time you can reset the machine to factory condition!  This feature is available from Windows 8.0, At any time you can Reset or Refresh the OS.

Refresh: Refresh you PC without affecting your files.  If you PC isn't running well you can refresh it without losing your photos, music, videos and other personal files.

Reset:If you want to recycle your PC or start over completely, you can reset it to its factory settings.

In both the cases (Refresh / Reset), you need to have the original setup disk used to install the PC which you used to install.  If is Surface it is preserved in the image, you don't need the original setup desk.

In Windows 8 Charms Bar (Ctrl + I)> Change PC Settings > General

In Windows 8.1: Charms Bar (Ctrl + I) > Change PC Settings > Update and Recovery

 

For more details refer http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

When you are upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, you can use this feature to go back to Windows 8.  (Except in Surface device)

More Personalization with Windows 8

From Windows 8, you have Two Start Screen

1. Metro Start Screen
2. Desktop Start Screen

Both you can customize and personalize independently,

For Metro UI from the charms bar (You can hit WinKey + I) > Change PC Settings > Personalize > Start Screen, to change the color theme

Windows 8	Windows 8.1

You can use Ease of Access to make the Metro Tiles bigger.

For Desktop from the charms bar (You can hit WinKey + I) > Personalize or Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization, to change the Desktop color theme, background.

Windows 8	Windows 8.1
	Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization