Windows 8 is being marketed as a touch-tablet operating system, but mouse and keyboard users have not been overlooked. With the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Microsoft has added a few goodies for keyboarders and mousers, who have been a mostly unheralded group when the company has talked about its future operating system. But they needn't fear; the impression that Windows 8 is a touch-tablet-only OS couldn't be further from the truth.
Indeed, if you slip into Windows 8's Desktop mode, you pretty much have the familiar Windows 7 interface—with a couple of important exceptions. Yes, the Start Button is gone. Or is it? When you hover your mouse cursor over the lower-left screen corner, you'll see a newfangled version of the Start Button. Clicking this takes you to the seemingly touch-centric Metro Start screen, but as we'll see, this view isn't unsuited to the mouse and keyboard. A very useful new trick in Consumer Preview is the ability to simply nudge the mouse cursor to the sides of the screen in order to move back and forth among Metro tiles.
In fact, for mouse users, the screen corners are the keys to successful Windows 8 navigation. In addition to the phantom Start Button at lower left, the upper and lower right corners, too, are key: Moving the mouse to either invokes the Windows 8 "Charms"—the five icons that initiate key system functions—Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings. The upper-left corner offers another very useful function: It switches you among running apps.
While those quick mousing tips should be enough to get you started, here are 11 more shortcuts that should change your mind if you think Windows 8 is only for touching.
1. Windows Key. This is equivalent to tapping the Windows button on a Windows 8 touch-screen tablet—It simply opens the Metro Start screen. While the Windows key has been quite useful since Vista, in Windows 8 it has the potential to be a real productivity booster, and a habit worth forming.
2. Just Start Typing. From the Metro Start screen, this will bring up app-related results by default. But you can switch the results to search within Settings or Documents, or even to the Windows Store or specific apps.
3. Alt-Tab. Yup, the good old app-switcher from Windows days of yore still works, and it brings up a panel showing all running apps you can switch among, whether Metro or desktop style.
4. Control-Alt-Delete. Another blast from the past, hitting the famous three-finger salute lets you Lock, Switch user, sign out, or open the Task Manager. In Windows 8, the screen shown by this combo also lets you turn on Accessibility options and power-down options, Sleep, Shut Down, and Restart, but it doesn't offer to let you change passwords.
5. Ctrl-Shift-Esc. If you want to go directly to the task manager, this key combo is your ticket. Another classic from earlier Windows days.