Installing Apps from the Windows Store
Windows 8 comes with quite a few apps, but it
doesn’t cover every base, not by a long shot. If there’s an app that
you need, you can obtain the app yourself and then install it on your
PC. Here are the steps to follow to install an app from the Windows
Store:
1. On the Start screen, tap Store. The Windows Store appears.
2. Open the app that you want to install.
3. If it’s a paid app, tap the price; otherwise, tap Install. Windows 8 displays a message that it’s installing the app (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Store app lets you know that it’s currently installing the app.
Uninstalling Windows 8 Apps
If you have an app that you no longer use,
you can free up some disk space and reduce clutter on the Start screen
by uninstalling that app. Here’s how it works:
1. Use the Start
screen or the Apps screen to locate the Windows 8 app that you want to
uninstall. To display the Apps screen, switch to the Start screen,
right-click or swipe up from the bottom edge, and then tap All Apps.
2. Right-click or swipe down on the app tile. Windows 8 displays the app bar.
3. Click Uninstall. Windows 8 asks you to confirm.
4. Click Uninstall. Windows 8 removes the app.
Sharing Windows 8 App Data
In these days of ubiquitous social
networking, we are immersed in a world of sharing: happenings, links,
information, and much more. You can enhance your social contacts and
share more of your life with other people by using Windows 8’s Share
feature to send data. For example, you can send a photo, alert a person
about a web page, or let someone know about some cool music.
First, here are the general steps to follow to use the Share feature:
1. Using an app, open or select the file you want to share.
2. Press Windows Logo+C or swipe left from the right edge of the screen. The Charms menu appears.
3. Tap Share. The Share pane appears and displays a list of apps you can use to share the data.
4. Tap the app you want to use to send the selected item.
5. Fill in any data
that’s required to send the item and then initiate the send. In Mail,
for example, you type the recipient’s address, add a subject line, and
then tap Send.
For a more specific example, here are the
steps to follow to post a website link to Facebook or Twitter (assuming
you’ve linked one or both of these social networks to your Microsoft
account):
1. Use the Internet Explorer app to open the website you want to share.
2. Press Windows Logo+C or swipe left from the right edge of the screen. The Charms menu appears.
3. Tap Share. The Share pane appears and displays a list of apps you can use to share the link.
4. Tap People. Windows 8 displays a new social network message that includes a link to the website (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. A website link ready to be shared on Facebook.
5. Use the list to select Facebook or Twitter.
6. Type a message introducing or describing the link.
7. Tap the Send button. Windows 8 posts the link to the social network.
Note
Several other Windows 8 apps support sharing
data to Facebook and Twitter. For example, you can use the Music app to
open an album—which could be one of your own albums or an album in the
Music Store—and then post information about the artist to your friends
or followers. You can also use the Video app to share information about
a movie or TV show, the Store app to share a link to an app in the
Windows Store, and the Maps app to share a map or directions to a
location.
To customize app
sharing, press Windows Logo+I (or display the Charms menu and click
Settings), click Change PC Settings, and then click the Share tab. You
can configure the following options:
• Show Apps I Use Most Often at the Top of the App List—Leave
this switch On to have Windows 8 float your most frequently used
sharing apps to the top of the list that appears in the Sharing pane.
• Show a List of How I Share Most Often—Leave this switch On to see a list of the share methods you use most often.
• Items in List—Use
this list to control the size of the list of frequent sharing methods.
You can also click Clear List to remove everything from the list and
start over.
• Use These Apps to Share—If
there are apps you never use to share, you should click their switches
to Off in this section to remove them from the Sharing pane.
