Windows 8: Lock Screen, Start Screen, Desktop & the Merits of a Microsoft Account
Windows 8 is as different from Windows 7 as Windows 95 was from Windows 3.1; and once again, it starts right from the graphical user interface. In this article, we explore the new ways of signing into Windows 8, the tile-based, Modern UI-inspired Start screen, and why you should register for a Microsoft account.
A New OS, A Brave New Look
Microsoft's latest operating system - Windows 8 - has gone through what is probably its most radical upgrade in the past 20 years. Despite being built upon the foundation of Windows 7, it looks, behaves, and works very differently in many areas. Indeed, it's no hyperbole to say that Windows 8 is as different from Windows 7 as Windows 95 was from Windows 3.1; and once again, it starts right from the graphical user interface (which we'll explore in detail later).
And while Windows 8 still works with a traditional keyboard and mouse combo, there's no denying that it truly shines when you're using it on a touch-enabled device. Some might even say it’s made exclusively to be touched, poked and prodded. For the most part, we think so too, especially when you're in the new tile-based Start screen or using Modern-style apps. However, if you were to add the classic desktop into the mix, that’s where matters start to get a little bit complicated.
In this article, we shall explore the new lock screen, the new Modern-style Start screen (and a bit on what happens to the desktop), and why you should do yourself a favor by registering for a Microsoft account if you've decided to upgrade to Windows 8.
The New Lock Screen
Place your finger anywhere on the screen, and slide upward to get past the lock screen. If you're using a mouse, just do a left click.
The new Windows 8 lock screen is quite different from what most users are used to. And in more ways than one, it resembles a smartphone lock screen. It’s now much more useful as it has notifications that update you on the machine’s status. For example, you can see at a glance the remaining battery life, Wi-Fi strength, whether or not the device is plugged in to power, whether you've any video call requests, new instant messages, or unread emails. There's also a big clock that tells you the time, along with smaller but legible text that tells you the date. The background is an image, which can be picked from a beautiful image collection baked into the OS (or you could use your own photo). These aspects of the new start screen aren't much use for a desktop system, but for mobile devices like notebooks and tablets, this is a step in the right direction.
The login screen is fairly straightforward. We expect most users to use a traditional password.
In Windows 8, you now have the ability to sign in to the OS with a Microsoft account. What's a Microsoft account? It's basically a new name for what used to be called a 'Windows Live ID'. If you've the credentials (usually an email address and a password) to sign in to Microsoft services like Hotmail, Xbox Live, Windows Phone, and SkyDrive, you already have a Microsoft account that you can use to log in to Windows 8. Of course, local accounts still work, but you won't be able to sync your settings between the PCs you use. If you've an Internet connection, we highly recommend that you sign in with your Microsoft account.
There are also a number of other ways you can log into the machine. For example, you can create a 4-digit PIN to sign into your Windows 8 PC quickly. Or, you can create a picture password. The latter is the most interesting method of signing into Windows 8. The general idea is choose a picture, draw on it, and the gestures you drew on the image, would be your password. You can choose from three different gestures: a tap, circle or line. Security strength is also in that order. While you can 'draw' with a mouse, it makes more sense if you've a touchscreen.
The next time you want to sign in to Windows, you can use a picture password or your alphanumeric password. When using a picture password, if you think a gesture is incorrect, you can always press the Start Over button to restart the process. However, note that after five unsuccessful picture password sign-in attempts, you'd have to use your standard password.
More sign-in options can be found under PC settings > Users > Sign-in options.
For a quick sign-in, you can specifiy a 4-digit PIN.
Alternatively, use a picture password, which is a pretty fun way of accessing your desktop if you've a touchscreen.
For a picture password, three gestures are needed. It can be any combination of circles, straight lines, and taps. The picture that you choose simply serves as a guide.
The Tile-based Modern-style Start Screen
The new Windows 8 Start screen can be slightly confusing at first. But it's only a matter of getting used to. It's a fresh departure from the boring desktop we've been using for years.
Once you get past the initial stage of signing into Windows 8, you'd be greeted with what Microsoft calls the Start screen. The Start screen is based on Microsoft's Modern UI (formerly known as the Metro UI), a touch-friendly design philosophy that places heavy emphasis on simplicity and content interaction. By following this philosophy, Microsoft came up with a Start screen that comprises of colorful 'live' tiles. This tile-based Start screen will replace the previous Start menu, and is the first thing that you'll see after signing in. To set the record straight, this isn't the first time we're seeing the Modern UI. It first caught our attention in 2010 when Microsoft launched the Windows Phone 7 mobile OS (and recently, Windows Phone 8), and again in late 2011, when Microsoft pushed an update to the Xbox 360 gaming console.
Getting to Know Your Start Screen Better
In a nutshell, what Microsoft seeks to do with the new Start screen is to put all the information that matters to you front and center. Apps, websites, photo albums, contacts, weather - you name it. As the name implies, the live tiles update and serve up useful information in real time (applies to app tiles designed for Windows 8), and you can organize, group, and even resize them. For example, the Mail tile shows recent email messages, and the Calendar tile shows upcoming events. Compare this to the utter mess that is the Start menu, which for the most part serves as an app launcher, and you'll realize that the new implementation is about productivity as much as aesthetics. With the new Start screen, you see more things at a glance, and get more things done in fewer steps. And it cures our bad habit of cramming the taskbar or littering the desktop with shortcuts. If something is important, just pin it to the Start screen.
On the Start screen, tiles are bunched together automatically when you install new apps. And like most operating systems, installing apps would cause their tiles to be placed randomly, with the newest ones appearing all the way to the right. This means, your start screen grows in size horizontally. Herein lies one of our complaints and that is navigating the horizontal interface of the Start screen isn't as intuitive with a mouse when you continue to add more and more apps. For example, to scroll horizontally on the Start screen, we've to slam the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen, and 'push' it in the desired direction. Of course, it's a totally different matter on a PC or tablet with a touchscreen since all you need to do is swipe on the screen.
The size in which the tiles appear also depends on the app itself. Some would be a rectangle, while others a square. Some apps would allow you to make their tiles larger (or smaller) - whereby larger simply means twice the width of a square tile. To see what you can do to a tile, just right-click on it at the Start screen. Non Windows 8 designed apps will unfortunately not have any leeway in how they appear other than pinning and unpinning them from the Start screen.
Things you can do to a tile (though not for all apps): unpin from Start screen, uninstall the app, make the tile larger (or smaller), or turn live updates off.
Obviously, when you've tons of apps on the Start screen, there has to be a way to organize them. What you can do is to re-arrange them and place in groups. To move a tile, just touch it and drag it in one fluid motion. If you're using a mouse, just left-click on the tile and drag it. When you're done with grouping the apps (you can tell one group from another by the divider between them), it makes sense to name the groups. This is easily done by going to the zoomed out view, right-clicking on a group, and choose the 'Name group' command.
It makes sense to name the groups after you've re-arrange the apps.
Pinching the Start screen would cause the view to zoom out. Such semantic zoom allows you to navigate from one end of the horizontal layout to the other end quickly.
The Good, Old Desktop
Speaking of the desktop, where did it go? Rest assured, Windows 8 still incorporates the PC desktop that Windows 7 users are familiar with. This also means that your favorite desktop apps that run on Windows 7 will continue to run on Windows 8. To enable the 'classic' desktop, just click on the Desktop tile on the Start screen. But like the Start screen, the classic desktop offers no Start button, and therefore no Start menu. To find and launch apps, you can either use the Search function on the Charms bar, right-click on the bottom left corner of the screen (Windows key + X on a keyboard) to bring up the Admin menu where the Run function resides, or use the File Explorer on the taskbar.
Beyond that, the classic desktop resembles, and works very much like the one in Windows 7. You can place shortcuts on the desktop, pin apps to the taskbar, and snap windows to the left and right hand sides of the screen.
The classic desktop environment is still around, but without the Start button.
The Control Panel, another crowd favorite among Windows users, is still present on Windows 8. We won't say that it's exactly the same as the one in Windows 7, but the look and feel, and the settings provided are similar enough that you should have no problems finding your way around. There are a few additions that we really like, and one of which is the automatic window borders and taskbar colors option. Simply put, Windows 8 provides an Automatic option that changes the window borders and taskbar colors automatically based on the color of the desktop background (that is, the wallpaper). For example, when we used a wallpaper with a predominately blue sky, the window borders and taskbar colors switched automatically to a shade of blue. When we switched to a wallpaper that featured a red flower, they took on a red hue. Yes, it's not a groundbreaking feature, but as they say, the devil is in the details.
Another new addition that we like is the ability to change the text size for specific items, from title bars and menus, to icons and tooltips. It's a great way to enhance readability, and yet not change the size of all items.
Worried that your desktop wallpaper doesn't blend in well with the colors of the window borders and taskbar? Well, Windows 8 is able to choose a suitable shade for them automatically based on the color of your wallpaper.
Rather than changing the size of everything on the desktop, you can change only the text size for a specific item, such as the text in the title bars or menus. This is great for reading on a small screen, such as a tablet.
A quick way to get to the Control Panel, Device Manager, and Task Manager is to right-click at the bottom left corner to bring up this menu.
The Case for a Microsoft Account
Remember earlier, we recommend that you sign in to Windows 8 with your Microsoft account? That's because when you're done mucking around the desktop, you can sync the settings (colors, background, lock screen, account picture, themes, and taskbar, among others) to the cloud via the Sync your settings menu in the PC settings menu (for touch: Charms bar > Settings > Change PC settings; with a keyboard and mouse: Windows key + I > Change PC settings). This lets you regain your personalized Windows when you sign in on another Windows 8 PC. Even the settings and states of your Modern-style apps also stay in sync between each Windows 8 PC you use. The latter is important as it allows you to pick up where you left off in an app as you move between devices. And lest we forget, the lock screen and Start screen are also customizable through the Personalize menu under PC settings.
While you can choose from the provided images for the lock screen background, we reckon many of us would rather use a photo that is much more personal. The choice is yours. Here is also where you decide what apps to run in the background, and show quick status and notifications.
The Start screen is already a very colorful affair, with plenty of colored tiles, but you can also go one step further, and change the color of the background and highlights.
Of course, you're not limited to syncing personalization settings. You can also sync language preferences, app settings, browser favorites and history, File Explorer settings, accessibility settings, and even mouse settings. To prevent incurring data charges, there's an option to disable syncing of settings over metered connections.
Under PC settings, select Sync your settings, and choose what you want to have across all your Windows 8 PCs. That's the power of a cloud-connected OS.
Besides syncing of settings, a Microsoft account will also land you with a set of cloud services, including an inbox, instant messenger, a calendar, contact list, and 7GB worth of SkyDrive cloud storage. And there's a corresponding Modern-style app for each of them in Windows 8, namely, Mail, Messaging, Calendar, People, and SkyDrive. In fact, when you sign in to your Windows 8 PC using your Microsoft account, you'll also be signed in automatically to these services. In other words, you can start replying to an email, check your schedule, or initiate a chat almost immediately after installing Windows 8.
Furthermore, these cloud services are shared between Microsoft products and services. For example, if you add an appointment into the Calendar app in Windows 8, it'll also show up in the Calendar app on your Windows Phone. Your contact list is also shared across devices (Windows 8 PCs, Windows Phones) and services (Outlook.com, Messenger, SkyDrive). Your shared photo albums also appear in SkyDrive, as well as in the Photos app. We'll talk about these built-in apps in a separate article.
In a nutshell, using a Microsoft account lets you have a personalized Windows experience on any Windows 8 PC you sign into. And anyone you share your Windows 8 PC with can have their own personalized, cloud-connected access when they sign in with their own Microsoft account. In Microsoft's own words, this is truly 'Windows everywhere'.
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