Window 8 Special tips

Close apps with a flick of the wrist

Click (or tap) and hold the top edge of an app to move it around the desktop, then drag it to the bottom of the screen to close it.

Close apps by dragging your finger down from the top of the screen until the app minimizes and begins to disappear into the bottom edge.

Mouse: Move your mouse to the top of the screen until the cursor morphs into a gnarled hand, then click and drag the app down until it begins to disappear into the bottom edge of the screen.

Keyboard: The classic ALT + F4 key combination still closes any open program; if you use it while no programs are open, it should trigger the Windows power management menu so you can shut down your PC.

Open your options menu with a swipe (or a right-click)

The options menu along the bottom edge is unique to every app.

Swipe your finger up from the bottom edge to bring up the options menu in any Windows 8 app.

Mouse: Simply right-click in the empty space of any Windows 8 app to bring up the options menu.

Keyboard: Hit the Windows key + Z to bring up the options menu.

Try out semantic zoom

MICROSOFT

Zoom out to quickly organize the data you store within an app, or even just to organize the apps themselves.

Pinch your fingers together to zoom out; zoom out far enough and you will eventually enter Semantic Zoom mode, which can be useful for moving files around or quickly creating groups of folders. It's sort of hard to explain, so the best thing to do is play around with semantic zoom yourself to see how it works.

Mouse: Hold down the CTRL key and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to scroll in and out of Windows 8 apps. Scroll out as far as you can to enter semantic zoom.

There are actually a few ways to move and organize your files in Windows 8. If you have a touchscreen handy, tap and hold an object in Windows 8 (like the live tiles in the Start screen, for example) to move it around and reorganize folders or menus. If you're using a mouse and keyboard you can move files and folders around in the Desktop app with the File Explorer utilty, just like every other version of Windows. If you need to shuffle things around in the Windows Start screen or a Windows 8 app, simply left-click on an object, then hold and drag it to reorganize your apps, files and folders. Use the mouse wheel to quickly scroll through lists while doing so.