4. Start It Up
LiveTiles look cool. There, I said it. They're a really fun way to catch up on various apps and social streams at once. You can resize to get more information. You just tap and hold, chose resize and select an option. Start in Windows 8.1 RT is a much more personal and powerful thing. Select 'customize' and chose your colour themes and backgrounds, decide which apps are most important to you and create sections that group them together. Can't be bothered swiping all the way to the other side? Just pinch out for a zoomed out view and tap to go into the section you want. Swiping up anywhere on the Start screen takes you to your All Apps section. This is where apps end up after you install them and to pin them to Start or uninstall you just tap and hold and select the option. You can select more than one app at a time and add them as a new group. Can't find an app? Maybe you pinned it to Start but you can't remember where you put it? Just select Find In Start and you'll be taken straight there. If you have the keyboard connected you can just start typing and the Search option will appear, choose the drop down to search Everywhere (including Bing Smart Search), Settings, Files, Web Images or Web Videos. Some find it very difficult to get over the loss of a Start Menu but you don't need one. The new way is more efficient and remember that a long press (right-click) on the Start button (or Win+x) launches an Admin menu that gives you access to Shut Down options, Command Prompt, Control Panel and various other options that will quell the need for a tree-structured Start Menu.