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Standard desktop programs also show up on the Start screen as rather unglamorous-looking gray tiles that show the name of the program and its icon. Right-clicking a Metro app will bring up a list of actions at the bottom of the screen-most Metro tiles will let you shorten or lengthen them, remove them from the Start screen, or uninstall them. ![]() There is no limit to the horizontal size of pages, and you can freely drag tiles to either side of these wider divides. The wider gap between two of the columns is a divider between “pages” of apps. Tiles can be moved around at will, and will try their best to rearrange themselves dynamically. You can also scroll by grabbing the scrollbar at the bottom of the screen, or by moving your mouse pointer all the way to the left or the right of the screen.ĭisplays with more pixels can display more itemsĪbove, you can see most of what constitutes a Metro page: tiles of apps lined up into neat columns. Metro columns on the Start screen will expand or contract to fill all of the screen resolution available to them, as evidenced in the screenshots above and below, and your mouse or trackpad’s vertical scrolling function will let you move left and right (horizontally, I know) through all of your apps. Tiles for Metro-style apps are big and colorful, and can usually be set to two sizes, a smaller square that allows for two tiles to sit side by side in a column, and a longer rectangle that spans the entire column. Authenticate, and you’ll be looking at the Metro-style Start screen. 1366x768 metro last light image password#Press any key on your keyboard and the login image will slide upward, revealing the traditional Windows name and password fields. The look is reminiscent of most tablets and smartphones, but its big, high-resolution, striking images reminded me more of the Kindle Fire than anything. Other Metro apps, like Mail and Messages, can also be configured to display status and notification messages on the lock screen. In Windows 8, the lock screen shows you the date and time and your current battery life and network connectivity status, set against a user-configurable background. In previous Windows versions, this screen told you nothing about the computer-it was simply a gateway, and as such it either showed you a list of user accounts on the computer or displayed a CTRL + ALT + DELETE prompt with username and password fields. We’ll start with the entry point: the new login/lock screen. 1366x768 metro last light image android#It’s well thought-out and with a little polishing will stand up well to iOS and Android in terms of features, and in terms of aesthetics it's already there-animations are fluid and attractive, and nice touches like a volume overlay (see right-finally!) bring an extra level of modern polish to Windows.īrian Klug and Ryan Smith talked a bit about using Metro on a tablet in their piece on September’s Windows 8 Developer Preview, a process which is more or less the same in the Consumer Preview, so what I’ll be focusing on here is the general layout and function of Metro in the Consumer Preview, and my experience using it with a keyboard and mouse. Metro, with its large fonts, bold colors, and large buttons was designed to be touched, and I think once we get some tablets designed for Windows 8 people are going to warm up to it. We’ve known for years that the traditional Windows desktop doesn’t work well on tablets, but does an interface designed for touch also work with a mouse and keyboard? 1366x768 metro last light image software#Microsoft tablets (whether running Windows 8 or Windows on ARM) will run the same core software as PCs, will be able to run many of the same apps as PCs, and (most importantly for Microsoft’s ecosystem of enterprise users) can be managed using the same tools as PCs. That’s because Microsoft is going a step further than Apple with regards to its operating systems: while Apple is busy porting iOS features and characteristics to a desktop operating system that is still recognizably OS X, Microsoft insists that the tablet is just another kind of PC, and to that end is building a unified OS for both tablets and traditional PCs. Metro is here, and if you use Windows 8 you’ll have to come to terms with it. There’s nothing built-in to the OS that allows you to disable it or boot to the desktop by default (though surely various hacks will enable this if they haven’t already). There is no classic Start menu to fall back on. ![]() ![]() This new UI, which originated in Windows Phone 7 and has since been extended to the Xbox 360, is the Wave of the Future at Microsoft, and it’s part and parcel of Windows 8. As soon as the setup process is finished, you’re presented with your first look at Windows 8’s primary innovation: Metro. ![]()
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