How can I close an app in Windows 8?

Question

How can I close an app in Windows 8?

Answer

Microsoft wants to change the users Windows experience by having any open apps remain open until shutdown. Therefore, they have removed the file menu, close, minimize, and resize options in apps designed for Windows 8 and replaced them with the Windows 8 App commands. The App commands bar appears on the bottom portion of the screen (as shown in the below picture) when you swipe up or down from either edge orright-click in the app.

Although the App commands will give you additional options for the open app, it may still not give you the option to close the app. If you want to close the app follow any of the below suggestions.

1. Move your mouse to the very top of the app, which should change the mouse cursor to a hand, then click-and-drag or swipe that app to the bottom of the screen. Once you let go of the app it will close.
2. Move your mouse to the top-left corner of the screen and then move down to show all open apps, right-click the open app you want to close and choose Close.
3. Press the Windows key + Tab to show open apps, right-click on the app you wish to close and click Close.
4. Press Alt + F4 on the keyboard to close the app or any open program.

Increase the speed of Firefox

If you have a broadband Internet connection and use Firefox you can decrease the time each web page you visit loads by enabling pipelining. Pipelining will make Firefox load more than one request at a time for each page it loads. In other words if the page you are visiting has dozens of images it will load more than one image at a time, making the web page appear faster. Follow the below steps to enable pipelining in Firefox.

1. In the address bar type about:config and press enter.
2. In pipelining in the search box, as shown below.
3. Double-click network.http.pipelining to set the Value to true.
4. Double-click network.http.proxy.pipelining to set the Value to true.
5. Make sure network.http.pipelining.maxrequests is set to a value of more than 30.
6. Right-click in an empty portion of the about:config window and click New and thenInteger. Enter nglayout.initialpaint.delay as the name of the integer and for the value make it 0.

Top 10 Windows 8 tips and tricks

Customize your tiles

Make the most of your Windows Start screen tiles by adjusting the sizes, where they are located, and what is listed.

• Move any tile by clicking and dragging the tile. While moving a tile, if you need a larger view of the Start screen move the tile towards the top or bottom of the screen to zoom out.
• Use your mouse wheel to scroll left-to-right through your tiles.
• Any Desktop shortcut or program can be pinned to the Start screen by right-clicking the icon and choosing Pin to Start.
• In the bottom right-hand corner of the start screen is a magnifying glass with tiles, click this icon to get a zoomed out view of your Start screen. In this view, if you right-click on a group of tiles you'll be given the option to name group, which can be useful if you have a group of related tiles (e.g. games). In this view, you can also click and drag a group to organize your tile groups.
• Create a new speed bump between tile groups by moving a tile to a speed bump.
• Resize any User tile or Live tile by right-clicking the tile and choosing resize.

Top 10 Twitter tips and tricks

Below is a listing of our top 10 favorite Twitter tips and tricks. These tips will help make your Twitter experience more enjoyable and can help increase your followers.

Customize

• Change your profile picture. Use a picture of yourself to make it seem more personalized if this is your personal Twitter account.
• Utilize as much of the 160-character limit Twitter BIO space allows. Include keywords your followers or potential followers may be searching for.
• Create your own background image. However, do not make the image too much like an ad or sales pitch. The background image must be less than 800k and we recommend a size of 1600x1200 for a large image or smaller if you plan on tiling the image or just having it on the left-hand side. Finally, keep in mind that smaller resolutions and monitor sizes will hide much of the background.

Third-party tools

Take advantage of the hundreds of different third-party online tools and services that enhance your Twitter experience. Below are a few of our favorites.

• TwitPic - Take advantage of TwitPic to post pictures on your tweets. If you want to post pictures while away from the computer, use the Twitterific app.
• Qwitter - Great service that sends an e-mail any time someone unsubscribes from your Twitter profile and mentions a possible Twitter post you made that may have caused them to leave.
• Manageflitter - Fantastic site for managing your followers and getting an easy to read overview of people not following you back, quiet users, and inactive users.
• WeFollow - Great website that allows you to add yourself to a listing of Twitter users by tags you find interesting.
• SocialOomph - Another great service with a collection of free Twitter tools including the ability to schedule when a tweets gets posted.
• Tweetbeat - An excellent site that takes the trending topics on Twitter and gives you a clearer explanation of present and past trending topics.
• TwitterMeme - Another great location to find the hottest links on Twitter.
• Twitter Grader - Great service that grades any Twitter account and gives you additional details and ranking information.
• Twitter Fan Wiki Apps - Finally, this wiki has a listing of several hundred different Twitter applications and tools for users wanting more.

Install Windows Essentials

Install Windows Essentials

Install missing Windows software by installing the free Windows Essentials software package that includes: Windows Live Family Safety, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, SkyDrive for Windows, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Live Writer, and Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector.

• Official Windows Essentials web page and download.

Enable and disable Windows 7 features

Enable and disable Windows 7 features

Turn on and off Windows features by clicking Start, typing features and press enter. In the Programs and Features window on the left-hand column click Turn Windows features on or off and in the Windows Features box check or uncheck the features you want enabled or disabled.

Use the Windows 7 search

Use the Windows 7 search

Find and run anything in Windows by using the Windows 7 search box. Click the Start orbor press then Windows key and type the name of the program you wish to run or file you wish to edit. Windows 7 will usually do a good job at finding an exact match and simply pressing enter will execute that program or open that file. If more than one match is found, use the up and down arrow keys to select the file you wish to open and then press Enter.

Running as administrator: Some programs may require administrator mode in order to function properly. You can run any program as administrator from the search box by typing the name of the program you want to run and then instead of pressing Enter to run the program press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run as administrator. If you want to click and run a program as administrator hold down the Ctrl+Shift and then click the icon.