Must know hotkeys and tips for new Win8 users...

[Rudi]

Hi,

I have been using Win8 for a while now, and thing become second nature after a week or two (or more) of use. I don't even miss the start button anymore (really!!!)

Anyways, if i look back at what would have been great to know about, in those early days... I would say that this short list of hotkeys are VERY handy to know about in order to find your way about the new interface.

If you know of any more...welcome to add to the list!

HOTKEYS:
Press the [Win] to open the Start screen or switch to the Desktop (if open).
Press the [Win] + D will open the Windows Desktop.
Press the [Win] + . to pin and unpin Windows apps on the side of the screen.
Press the [Win] + X to open the power user menu, which gives you access to many of the features most power users would want (e.g. Device Manager and Command Prompt).
Press the [Win] + C to open the Charms.
Press the [Win] + I to open the Settings, which is the same Settings found in Charms.
Press and hold the [Win] + Tab to show open apps.
Press the [Win] + Print screen to create a screen shot, which is automatically saved into your My Pictures folder.

TO ACCESS A PROGRAM:
Press [Win] to access the tiles screen, and immediately type the name of the app/program

TO CLOSE A METRO APP:
Drag down from the top of the screen.
With a mouse, place the pointer at the top (when changed to a hand), drag down until the app disappears

HOT CORNERS:
The corners on your screen are hot corners and give you access to different Windows features. Below, is a brief explanation of each of these corners.

Bottom Left-hand corner
The bottom left-hand hot corner of the screen will allow you to access the Start screen, if you're in the Start screen and have the Desktop open, this corner will open the Desktop from the Start screen.
Tip: Right-clicking in the left hand corner will open the power user menu.

Top-left corner of the screen
Moving the mouse to the top-left corner and then down will display all the apps running on the computer. Clicking and dragging any of these apps to the left or right-hand side of the screen will snap that app to that side of the screen. Each of these open app icons can also be right-clicked to close or snap.

Right-hand side of the screen
On the full right-hand side of the screen will be given access to the Windows Charms.

[John Gray]

The most complete set I found for these Windows 8 Shortcut Keys was by Paul Thurrott.

But of course there's little point knowing more than a very few of these if you shun the Metro/Modern/Fisher-Price tiles interface and use a desktop restorer like Classic Shell or StartisBack!