Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
If you’re like me, when you use Windows 8.1 you probably use your Desktop apps a lot more than any of the Modern apps that are native to the Windows 8.1 “Start” screen.
If so, there’s an easy way to make your Desktop apps be displayed before the Modern apps on the “All Apps” screen (which makes them a lot easier to find in a jiffy). Here’s how: [Read more…]
Question from Shannon W.: I bought a brand new Gateway laptop with Windows 8 based on the promise that I could upgrade to Windows 8.1 for free. But when I go to the Windows App Store I don’t see any way to download the upgrade.
I called Microsoft Tech Support and they’re apparently unable to help me. I’d just return the laptop and buy a different one, but the return period has expired.
Can you tell me what I need to do in order to upgrade my laptop from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Julie T.: I bought a Lenovo computer with Windows 8 on it in August and finally got around to upgrading it to Windows 8.1 just a few days ago.
After 8.1 was installed I noticed that the apps I had downloaded before I did the upgrade were all missing. I downloaded all of them again but they still aren’t showing up on the Start Screen.
What am I doing wrong? Are the apps not being installed even though it says they are?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
As you probably know by now, Microsoft made a ton of changes when they designed the Windows 8 user interface, and many of them were quite unpopular to say the least.
Some of the most reviled changes were addressed with the release of Windows 8.1, but there’s one that really irritates me that wasn’t addressed at all: the procedure for printing from a modern app.
Before Windows 8 came along, printing was almost as easy as breathing. All you had to do was either click the Print icon on a toolbar or the Print option on the “File” menu. But since most modern apps no longer have these features we must do it in a completely different way.
Follow the steps below to print from a modern app in Windows 8.1: [Read more…]
If you have recently upgraded to Windows 8.1, you have probably noticed that both the address bar and tabs list in the “modern” version of IE 11 (the app that loads when you click the Internet Explorer tile on the Start screen) keep disappearing every time you load a new web page.
If you find the disappearing address bar and tabs as frustrating as I do, follow these steps to force them to remain visible for you: [Read more…]