Watching Your Videos in Windows 8.1

You can play your videos in the Videos app, which you can access from the Start screen. When you first open the Videos App, you will be presented with a display showing videos that you can watch or purchase online.

To view your own videos, you should pan left either with a swipe of your finger or by moving your mouse to the bottom of the screen, where you will find the scroll bar. You can also use the scroll wheel on your mouse to move around left and right in Apps.

Your video display will show you your most recently added videos. To view all of your videos, click/touch the My Videos link at the top of this section.

Note: Click or tap the back arrow in the top left of the screen at any time to return to the previous page.

There are several different ways to organize your videos. Near the top left of the screen, you can click/touch on the Date Added link to view your video library in different ways, such as A to Z or by duration. You can click/touch on any video to play it, and you will see play controls appear on the screen, which will fade when you don’t touch the screen or move the mouse for a few seconds, but they will reappear when you do touch the screen or move the mouse.

Note: At any time, you can right-click with your mouse or swipe upward with your finger from the bottom of the screen to open more controls on the App Bar.

You may have videos stored in different folders on your computer or perhaps in a different location, such as an external USB hard disk. To play files in different locations, open the App Bar and click/touch Open File. This will open the folder view where you can look through all your files and folders to view any videos. This also applies to the Music App in Windows 8.1.

Using the Folder View 

The Open File view allows you to view any files you have stored, not just on your own computer, but also in compatible Internet services such as Microsoft SkyDrive on your home network and, if you have a Windows Phone and use the Windows Phone app to connect to your PC, you can also access video you have recorded on the phone as well. You can click/touch on any link that has a view. For example, clicking the Files link will display folders, including your documents, pictures, and even your entire computer and network. Below this are links to other available locations, such as SkyDrive. You move around folders in this view by clicking on them. If you want to move up a folder location, click/touch the Go Up link. Videos can be opened and played by clicking or touching them.

Uninstalling Apps and Programs in Windows 8.1

You won’t always want to have every app or program installed forever. You may, for example, have installed something just to try it out or because you thought it was what you were looking for, only to discover later that it is an app or program you don’t want to keep.

You can uninstall any app or program from the Start screen or the All Apps view by touching and holding it or right-clicking on it. In the App Bar, you will see an uninstall option.

If you are uninstalling a desktop program, you will be taken to the Programs and Features window on the desktop. Here, you should click the program you wish to uninstall and on the toolbar near the top of the window, you will see an option to uninstall the program. 

Viewing Two Desktop Windows Side by Side

You can also view desktop programs side by side. This can be very useful for comparing two documents or web pages. To do this, click/touch or touch and hold the top of the desktop program window and drag it to the far left or right of your screen. You will see a shadow appear when your mouse touches the screen edge to show you that the program will be resized to fill exactly half of your screen’s width and docked to one side of the screen.

Drag your other program to the opposite side of the screen and it will fill the other half of your screen’s width. You can return them to their original shape and size by dragging them away from the side of the screen in the same way that you put them there.

To compare two web pages side by side when you have multiple tabs open in the desktop version of Internet Explorer, drag an individual tab out of the window and it will then appear in its own Internet Explorer window. These can then be snapped to the left and right of the screen.

Viewing Apps Side by Side

You can also view apps (and even the desktop) side by side on your screen. To view apps side by side, grab the app at the top of the screen with your finger or mouse and drag it toward the center of the screen. You will see that it changes to a thumbnail image. When you drag this thumbnail to the left or right of the screen, you will see a vertical bar appear; this signifies that dropping the app there will dock it in a panel to that side of the window. You can now return to the Start screen and run another app. This second app will appear, filling the main portion of the screen with your docked app sitting at the left or right of it.

If your screen has sufficiently high resolution (normally HD) you can have three or even four apps running side by side. With two apps running, return to the Start screen and start another app. This new app will then appear as a thumbnail image between the currently running apps on your screen . You can drag this app left or right to replace the apps that are on that side of the screen, or you can hold the app between them. If a gap opens up you can drop the app there to display all the apps together.

Note : You can also select another running app by holding down the Windows Key on your keyboard and pressing the Tab key to cycle through thumbnail images of running apps. For desktop programs, use the key combination Shift+Tab instead.

When you have two or more apps running on your screen you can change their sizes by dragging the bar that separates them to the left and right. You can also drag this bar to the far edge of the screen to remove an unwanted app from view completely.

Switching Between Running Apps and Programs

Apps in Windows 8.1 run full screen by default, but you will want to switch between them and use more than one at a time. There are several different ways to switch between running apps and programs on your computer. If you are using touch, then dragging your finger in from the left of your screen will drag the previously seen app onto the screen.

You can also display a list of the currently running apps by swiping in from the left of your screen with your finger and then, in the same movement, swiping back out again.

Note: You can shut down any running app by dragging it off the bottom of the screen. This includes app thumbnails and the currently running app.

With your keyboard, you can use the Windows Key+Tab key press to switch between running apps or the Alt+Tab key combination to switch between all running app and desktop programs. The Windows Key is in the bottom right of your keyboard, with the Windows logo on it, and Tab can be found near the top left of the keyboard.

To switch between apps using the keyboard, hold down the Alt or Windows Key and keep pressing Tab until you get to the program you want. The currently running apps and programs will appear as thumb‐ nail images at either the left side of the screen or in the center of the screen. 

Viewing All Your Installed Apps and Programs

To see hidden apps and programs, open the App Bar from the Start screen and click/touch the small down arrow that appears in the bottom left of the Start screen or swipe upward with your finger. Here, you will be able to see all the apps and programs that are installed on your computer. Programs are organized into groups as you would see in the Start Menu in previous versions of Windows.

You cannot rearrange apps and programs in the All Apps view into different groups, but it is easy to see all the software you have installed and you can view them in different ways. In the top left of the All Apps view you will see a by name link. You can click this to view your apps and programs in different ways, such as by category, by date installed, or most used.

In the top right of the All Apps view is a search box you can use to find an app or program if you’re having difficulty finding it in the list. Remember, this view can also expand outward to the right, so you may need to swipe left and right to view everything. Again, if you are using a mouse, a scroll bar will appear at the bottom of the screen.

Organizing App Icons on the Start Screen

When you install new apps on your Windows 8.1 computer they don’t appear in your Start screen straight away, you will need to pin them there. This is because your Start screen could become cluttered quite quickly if apps auto-pinned themselves, making it very difficult to find what you are looking for. As you add Tiles to the Start screen, it expands to the right and can get very large.

You can pin tiles to the Start screen by opening the All Apps view. This is opened with touch by swiping upward on the Start screen. With your mouse you will see a small down arrow near the bottom left of the screen. Click this to open the All Apps view.

You pin an app (or multiple apps simultaneously) by right-clicking them (touching and holding with touch) and from the App Bar clicking the Pin to Start button. You can also move Tiles around the Start screen to organize them, and hide them back to the All Apps view to help keep them organized.

Note : You open the All Apps view by swiping upward on the Start screen with your finger or by clicking the small down arrow with your mouse that appears near the bottom left of the screen.

If you are using a mouse, remember to look for the scroll bar at the bottom of your screen. You can drag this to move left and right on the Start screen. You can also use your mouse scroll wheel to pan left and right on the Start screen. 

You might want to reorganize the tiles on your Start screen so that all the apps, websites, and programs you use regularly have their Tiles on the far left of your screen, to make them easier to access. You might also install software such as Microsoft Office and want to hide the extra programs it installs, such as the Office Picture Viewer. 

Arranging the Start Screen Step by Step 

To arrange your apps, websites, and programs on the Start screen, follow these quick steps: 

• Click/Touch and then hold, drag, and drop tiles around the Start screen to rearrange them using either your finger or your mouse. 

• Hold a tile between groups to create a new group again using either your finger or your mouse. Drop it on the vertical bar that appears. 

• Remove a tile from the Start screen by touching and holding it, or right-clicking with your mouse, and then click/touch Unpin from Start from the App Bar. 

To leave the customize view click or touch anywhere in a blank space on the Start screen or press the Esc key on your keyboard.

If you unpin a Tile from the Start screen, it will be removed, but you will still be able to access it when you want to. You will notice that in the Customize view (which can also be accessed by clicking the Customize button of the Start screen App Bar) you can also name groups of tiles. You might, for example want to name then “Work,” “Internet,” and “Games.” This can help you identify your groups of apps. 

Arranging Groups of Tiles 

I mentioned previously that you can create new groups of Tiles by dragging a Tile to the space between groups and, when you see a vertical bar appear, dropping the Tile. You can also name and rearrange whole groups of Tiles simply and quickly. 

You can give groups of Tiles names by zooming out of the Start screen. You can do this in one of three ways:  

• Make an outward pinch zoom gesture with your fingers 

• Click with your mouse in the very bottom right corner of the Start screen 

• Hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and use your mouse wheel to zoom out.

You can now drag and rearrange whole groups of tiles to arrange them however best suits you.