HOW TO: Tooling Around With Windows 8

Windows 8 has been designed for touch. You need a new, multitouch-compatible computer to take advantage of this, but you can get a feel for the experience on a mouse-based computer. For example, place your cursor over a tile, then hold the left mouse button down and track the pointer so it drags the tile to a new location on the Start screen. Release the left mouse button, and the tile will be relocated.

My first impression of the bargain-basement US$39.99 Windows OS upgrade: To all outward appearances, Windows 8 is a vivid, visual, deeply rewarding and aesthetically pleasing skin to the 2009-released Windows 7 PC desktop OS.

Big deal, you might say.

However, digging in a bit, I found that this rather beautiful desktop isn't just a revamp of Windows 95 and later incarnations, with their ever-proliferating static shortcut icons. The icons in Windows 8 are live.

Here's a look at some of the things that are different from boring old Windows 7 and its earlier versions, why this OS is worth 40 bucks, and how you can explore it to get up to speed.

The Animated Start Page

Most of Windows 8's widget-like tiles are live and animated. They are really self-updating widgets -- a la mobile OS -- rather than the static icons we're used to on a PC.

Click on the "Photos" tile on the Start page. Then add some photos by connecting to a social network or to Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud service. After a while, the pictures will appear and animate within the Photos tile on the Start page.

Follow the same concept to populate other tiles. For example, populate the Weather tile by clicking on it, and allowing Location Services at the prompt.

Software - That Is, Apps

Apps are the new applications, or what we used to call "software."

Click on the "Store" tile to launch the Store Spotlight. Scroll through the categories like Games and Productivity by placing the pointer at the bottom of the screen and clicking on the scroll-like navigation bar that appears.

Choose an app, like TuneIn Radio, say, by clicking on it and selecting Install. The install process will commence and may ask you for the Live password that you used when setting up the operating system.

Look for the newly installed app on the Start screen.

SkyDrive Storage

Microsoft's Dropbox- and Google Drive-like cloud storage product is tightly integrated into Windows 8. SkyDrive provides 7 GB of free storage. Download SkyDrive on a Windows 7, Vista or Mac OS X Lion computer within the same network as the Windows 8 PC you're on, and the machines will find each other.

Drag some files into the SkyDrive folder on the legacy computer, and they will sync on the Windows 8 computer. As with Dropbox and others, there are SkyDrive apps for mobile devices too.

Internet Explorer 10

Browse to a Web page that you'd ordinarily bookmark or save to favorites. Then select the Pin to Start.

The page will become accessible from the Start page. Some sites create a live notification when updates are available.

Organizing and Touch

This OS has been designed for touch in much the same way as smartphone and tablet OSes are.

You need a new, multitouch-compatible computer to take advantage of this, but you can get a feel for the experience on a mouse-based computer.

Moving a Tile

Place your cursor over a tile, like the Photos tile. Then hold the left mouse button down and track the pointer so it drags the tile to a new location on the Start screen.

Release the left mouse button, and the tile will be relocated.

Navigation Tips

There's no Start button -- even to stop. On touch computers, swiping in from the left changes apps. Swiping in from the right returns you to the Start screen; swiping in from the bottom displays navigation functions; and pinching and stretching will zoom.

These concepts work with a mouse too. Try some of this navigation by clicking on the Internet Explorer tile. Then move the mouse pointer to the top of the screen until the pointer morphs into a hand icon.

Press the left mouse button and drag the Internet Explorer page to the bottom of the screen with the mouse. The screen will be returned to the Start page.

Click in the top left corner within an app screen to see recent apps. Drag one of those apps to a spot on the screen until a space appears. Release the mouse button and both apps will share the screen.

Want to Ask a Tech Question?

Is there a piece of tech you'd like to know how to operate properly? Is there a gadget that's got you confounded? Please send your tech questions to me, and I'll try to answer as many as possible in this column.

And use the Talkback feature below to add your comments!

Hands on: Lenovo's thinnest touch-capable all-in-one desktop computer

There are a lot of touch-capable all-in-one desktops, and we've seen just about every one. Aside from the HP TouchSmart, they haven't been worth mentioning. With Lenovo's new effort, that's all changed. In a word, the 27-inch IdeaCentre A720 is...impressive.

Companies interested in making a multitouch-capable desktop have a number of options at their disposal. Many, such as Dell and HP, have chosen to go with an optical touch capability. On the upside, it can be triggered by anything, such as a finger, stylus, or even a grapefruit. The sensitivity is not so great, however, and the response typically lags noticeably behind the physical action. 

 Lenovo chose instead to go with a staggering 27-inch capacitive panel on top of the A720. Staggering because most capacitive touch panels are rarely larger than ten inches; the technology is expensive, and can grow prohibitively so as the panel size increases. Thanks to their partnerships in China, however, Lenovo was able to secure the capacitive panels at an affordable price. 

 The response on the screen is impeccable. Actions trigger immediately, and the cursors follow your fingers around the screen without any perceptible lag or delays. Being able to use all ten fingers at the same time is a heady feeling, and even Lenovo's staff took a couple of minutes to fingerpaint on the screen with a childlike delight.

Lenovo has worked hard on the software to provide customers with a substantive multitouch experience. Most of these touchscreen all-in-ones have some form of custom manufacturer software, but again, apart from the HP TouchSmart, it generally hasn't been very good.  Lenovo still has some UX bugs to work out, but the software generally works very well, which was a pleasant surprise. The A720 comes preloaded with several touch and multitouch games, such as Bugs, seen in the video above (and it must be surprisingly fun, because the Lenovo employees wouldn't stop talking about it), the famous Angry Birds and more.

One of the biggest problems users face in interacting with touchscreens on the notebook or desktop has to do with arm fatigue - we're just not used to holding our arms perpendicular to a surface for the lengths of times that computer activities generally take. Lenovo thought of that, too, and developed an ingenious stand to take care of it. Anyone who's bought an all-in-one is used to the idea of a display and stand combination that can be tilted between a range of generally -5 to 30 degrees or so. The IdeaCentre A720 goes substantially beyond such everyday combinations and reclines completetely flat. You can gently but firmly push against the display, and it folds beneath itself so that the monitor is resting parallel to the table.

The accompanying keyboard and mouse are standard Lenovo fare. Wireless and lag-free, but only plastic and not the metal they pretend to be. Lenovo should just craft the same keyboard and mouse, but in a funky black plastic - take ownership of the fact that these are plastic-clad peripherals, instead of being metal like the rest of the A720; they end up looking a little bit tacky.

Frankly, this changes the game when it comes to the all-in-one market. If Lenovo can craft the proper software experience, then the A720 could end up as a wildly desirable product. Imagine setting the IdeaCentre up in your living room, and when the family wants to play a board game, you just press the monitor flat. One such popular title is in the works.

Depending on who you ask, Lenovo is either the world's 2nd or 3rd largest computer manufacturer. The IdeaCenter A720 marks them as one of the most innovative, too.