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Here is a compact yet deep technical
exploration of Windows 8 user apps using
the new Metro end-user interface introduced by Windows Phone 7.
Related topics elsewhere on this same website (WilsonMar.com):
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Apps in Windows 8 App Store
Get to the Store screen from All Apps.
This is a different store than the
Windows Phone App Store.
To search for an app in the store, just start typing the name. Matching Apps names appear automatically.
BLAH:
There is no way currently to search apps by attributes
such as whether it's free, disk space taken, etc.
Further reading about looking for apps:
-
Getting Started with Windows 8 from HP has Windows 7 tutorials mixed in.
-
Xbox Companion XBox 360 Dashboard enables Windows 8 tables to remotely control media playing on XBox 360.
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Tom's Guide publishes reviews and guides on the latest consumer electronics and gadgets.
- Think shows random quotes in Live Tiles
Default Apps Comes with Windows 8
TIP:
To maintain consistency, use the color of apps that come with Windows 8.
| App Name & Links | Live | Icon | Red | Green | Blue | Code |
|---|
|
Mail
| Yes
| 
| 0 | 130 | 153 | #008299 |
|
Photos
| Yes
| -
|
|
Box
| No
| -
|
| Finance
| Yes
| Green
| 0 | 138 | 0 | #008a00 |
| Games
| No
| Green
|
| Store
| No
| X
|
| Default icon
| No
| Light Blue
| 0 | 178 | 240 | #00b2f0 |
| Skydrive
| No
| Darker Blue
| 10 | 87 | 192 | #0a57c0 |
| Internet Explorer
| No
| Light Blue
| 44 | 134 | 238 | #2c86ee |
| Weather
| Yes
| Light Blue
| 45 | 137 | 239 | #2d89ef |
| Desktop
| No
| Blue
| 70 | 23 | 180 | #4617b4 |
|
Calendar
| No
| Blue
| 81 | 51 | 171 | #5133ab |
|
Sports
| Yes
| Blue
|
| Maps
| No
| 
| 140 | 0 | 149 | #8c0095 |
|
Camera, Messaging, One Note
| No
| Blue
|
| News
| No
| Purple
| 172 | 25 | 61 | #ac193d |
| Video (player)
| No
| X
| 174 | 25 | 62 | #ae193e |
| Bing
| Yes
| Burnt Orange
| 210 | 71 | 38 | #d24726 |
|
Music (player)
| No
| -
|
|
Reader
| No
| -
|
Glphys for icons in App Bar and elsewhere.
Microsoft Office 2013
YOUTUBE:
Word 2013 Preview Demo
Lynda.com has a whole course on Office.
The UX (User Interface) of these apps will become the standard for other Metro apps.
For example, editing has a full screen.
To expose the ribbon menu, cursor to the top right to expose the three dots to click on.
Upper case is how top menu items are. In Word:
- FILE is new, to replace the office orb.
- HOME is carried over from Office 12. But has an added Box section to Open, Share files to Sykdrive.
- HOME and INSERT are carried over from Office 12
- DESIGN is new
- PAGE LAYOUT REFERENCES MAILINGS REVIEW VIEW ADD-INS ACROBAT are carried over
- DEVELOPER is not visible until activated
- TEAM appears only if Team Foundation Server is available to the user.
Google Apps
Google decided not to make a Gmail app for Windows 8.
This is of course to reduce the value of a competitor (Microsoft).
But Google's publicly stated reason is that they are waiting to see if Windows 8 gets enough traction to
warrant investing in Google apps.
Media Apps
This article
Toolbox for Windows 8
is a free collection of general purpose tools like a clock, calculator, weather app, notifier, voice notes app, doodler, etc.
This gives you the ability to lay out your screen similarly to the way that you might in a Windows 7 environment.
For example, you can have a Web page, Facebook, a clock, and the weather all displayed on screen at once.
Multimedia 8 from Microsoft
One of my big gripes with Microsoft Surface, and with Windows 8 in general, is that Microsoft seems to have skimped on the video codecs. I have a rather large collection of movies in .MP4 format and haven’t been able to get any of them to natively play. Thankfully, Multimedia 8 solves this problem nicely.
Not only does Multimedia 8 play otherwise unplayable videos, but it also plays music files and lets you build playlists. When it comes to playing videos, the software offers lots of nice extras such a video stabilization, subtitles, and even 3D rendering.
Metro Commander
One of the features that is seriously lacking in Microsoft Surface is a metro version of Windows Explorer (or File Explorer as Microsoft has begun calling it). Sure, you can access File Explorer through Desktop mode, but using Desktop Mode on a tablet isn’t exactly an elegant solution. There is a metro interface for navigating the file system, but this interface isn’t exactly great for functions like moving or copying files. This is where Metro Commander comes into play.
Metro Commander provides a way to navigate the file system through the Metro interface. The really nice thing about Metro Commander is that it displays two separate views of the file system. This allows you to easily drag and drop files from one location to another.
PDF Touch
One of the essential apps for almost any computing device is an app for opening PDF files. PDF Touch will indeed let you open PDF files, but it takes things a step further. Using a touch screen interface, you can actually mark up PDF documents. For example, you can highlight key phrases or doodle on a document.
Enterprise Apps
Apps to add on top of Windows 8 Enterprise, build 9200 that comes with
Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser: Internet Explorer 10 [Version: 10.0.9200.16384]
- Hard disk encryption - BitLocker
- Corporate standard security suite: McAfee Security Suite, Agent, VirusScan & Anti-Spyware [Version: 4.6.0.2292, 8.8.0, and 8.8.0.975]
- Enable the ability to run Java applets: Java Runtime Environment 6 [Version: 1.6.0_33-b03]
- VPN tunnel software to connect remotely to the corporate network.
- Viewer for PDF files: Acrobat Reader 9 [Version 9.4.6]
- Viewer for streaming video files: Acrobat Flash 10 [Version: 11.3.372.94]
- Security & authentication software: ActivClient [Version: 6.2.0.59]
- Self-service password reset tool: Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) [Version: 4.0.3555.2]
- Self-service password reset tool: FIM 2010 Registration Check [Version: 2010]
- Microsoft AVI, MP3, MPEG player: Media Player [Version: 12.0.9200.16384]
- Instant messaging: Microsoft Lync 2010 [Version: 4.0.7577.4098]
- personal productivity tool: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 [Version: SP1]
- HP UPD (Universal Print Driver)
- HP ePrint
- Google
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Windows 8 User Apps
