Goodwill Community Foundation creating
opportunities for a better life
you've probably heard that Windows 8 is
very different from earlier versions of
Windows and it is but the good news is
that Windows 8.1 brings back many of the
features that went missing when Windows
8 first came out making it much easier
to use if you have Windows 8 you can
download 8.1 for free just go to
Microsoft comm and click downloads to
find the most recent updates Windows 8
offers a completely new computing
experience if you've used Windows before
the first thing you'll notice is it
looks totally different
Microsoft has moved a lot of things
around and it may take you a while to
figure out how to do even the most basic
tasks like finding your files or
switching to a different program one
reason why they've made so many changes
is they wanted Windows 8 to run on
tablets as well as desktops and laptops
there are actually two different views
in Windows 8 right now we're looking at
the Start screen the other view is the
desktop which looks very similar to
earlier versions of Windows chances are
you'll use both of these views for
different tasks and you'll get used to
switching back and forth let's take a
look at the Start screen you can click
on an app to open it unlike earlier
versions of Windows apps don't open in a
window they fill the entire screen but
if you prefer multitasking you can drag
the app to the side and then open a
second app to close apps just move your
mouse to the top of the screen if you're
using a tablet you can close apps by
dragging them down now let's take a
moment to look at the desktop this view
is pretty similar to earlier versions of
Windows but it's gone through some
changes most notably involving the start
button when Windows 8 first came out the
start button had been removed but a lot
of users found it hard to adjust to
using a desktop without a start button
so Microsoft brought it back in the 8.1
update but it functions a little
differently than before the start button
you
to display a list of programs and
shutdown options now clicking it brings
you back to the Start screen so you can
access your programs and apps as well as
shutdown options and a new search button
while you're on the Start screen you may
notice some tiles changing these are
live tiles they let you see information
on the tile itself without even clicking
on it that means you can see the weather
news headlines and more right from your
Start screen to get the most out of
Windows 8 you'll want to go to onedrive
comm to create a free Microsoft account
if you don't already have one this will
let you use Microsoft's online services
for example you can use onedrive to
store your documents photos and other
files in the cloud you can also store
your calendar contacts and more online
why is this important for Windows 8 well
you can log in with your Microsoft
account and it will automatically pull
your calendar emails photos and more so
you can access them easily from your
Start screen the coolest part of this is
that you can log in to any computer that
has Windows 8 and all of your settings
and your onedrive files will be there
now if you're wondering where all your
old files and folders are don't worry
you can still get them by going to the
desktop and navigating to the folder you
want
and many of your existing programs will
still run from the desktop view although
you should do some research to find out
whether they are Windows 8 compatible as
you can see Windows 8 has introduced a
lot of changes if you're not comfortable
relearning how to use your computer then
you may want to stick with your current
version for now but if you're really
into new technology and you like the
idea of storing your files in the cloud
chances are you'll feel right at home in
the new Windows 8