Video tutorial Learning guide for Windows 8 Operating System. Its very easy to understand 

Eight minutes video 

How to use Windows 8

Here is a long video on how to use Windows 8 starting from the very basic to more customizable options within the operating system.

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Once you boot into Windows 8, you will first see a lock screen. It will show you places where you can visit quickly, like for example your mail Inbox or your messages or updates.

To sign-into you PC, push the lock-screen up. You can sign in using a picture password, a regular Windows username and password or with your Microsoft Account credentials.  You can create two kinds of accounts: a local account for that PC only, or a Microsoft account, which works on all the PCs running Windows 8. You can select any one of these options as your login method.

Once you are logged in, you will see the new Windows 8 Start Screen, which is the home page of your Windows 8 PC. No longer will you see the familiar desktop, your favorite wallpaper, the task bar or the start button.  The Start Screen is the new program launcher and replacement of start menu. So get used to this new Start page!

The Start Screen displays tiles that represent apps, people, programs, shortcuts and more. The live tiles will always show what is happening on your PC without your needing to launch any particular app.

You can customize and personalize the Start Screen to your taste. You can customize the background screen, color, accent, rearrange the tiles, add or remove tiles, create groups, name/re-name, and more.

You can zoom in and zoom out to see the full list of tiles by moving your cursor to the bottom right corner of your screen, where a tiny magnifying glass image is visible.

In a touch device, the edges are important. In a non-touch device where you are using a mouse, it is the corners that are important!

Windows 8 on a non-touch device

On a non-touch device like a laptop or a desktop computer, the bottom left corner is for Start, if you move your cursor to this corner and click on the small icon that appears, you will be taken  to the start screen.

If you want to go back to the app or program that you were just in, you will have to move your cursor to the top left corner and click. If you keep clicking, it will cycle you through the recently used apps. If you move your mouse slightly down, it will open a list of all the recently used apps. Here you can click and switch directly to any app you want.

To see access all your installed apps, when you are on the Windows 8 Start Screen, simply right click on an empty part of your start screen.

Now click on ‘All apps’ to view and access all your installed apps quickly.

Just look at this way – think of the Start Screen as your new Start Menu and to bring it up, click the Win Flag key. To work at your desktop, click on the Win flag key again.  Clicking on the Win Flag key, will alternatively bring up the start screen and the desktop. Once you accept this, you will find working with the Windows 7 desktop and start screen much easier.

While on the desktop, when you move the cursor to the bottom left corner you get the option to visit Start Screen. When you right-click here, you will get a menu option, offering quick links to Explorer, Control Panel, Search, Task Manager, Run and so on.

When you move the cursor to the bottom-right corner, the Desktop Peek functionality will be activated. When you right-click here, you will see the option to Show and Peek Desktop. The Desktop Peek transparent area may be missing, but the functionality is very much there. To see the Charms Bar, move the cursor to the top-right part of the desktop, or even the start screen.

To  see two Windows 8 apps next to each other, you can use the Snap feature that lets you do so. To use this feature, pick and drag one of the apps to your right screen edge.

On a Windows 8 laptop or a desktop, keyboard shortcuts will have a very useful role. You may see all the Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts here. Also check out this Ultimate Guide to Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts and their Mouse & Touch equivalents.

Windows 8 on a touch device

If you are on a touch device, switching between apps is fast and fluid. Simply wipe in your thumb from the left edge of the screen to switch your apps. If you drag your finger in from the side, it will list down all the apps which are open.

To close a Metro app, you have to simply swipe your finger down from the top, and throw it down towards the bottom of the screen.

In the Metro style Internet Explorer, switching between open pages is quite easy. You can use your finger to swipe it towards the right or left to changes the open pages. When you swipe down from the top of the screen, you will see a list of all the open tabs. To share a link with your friends, you have to swipe in your finger from the right side. This will display the Charms bar. The Charms bar displays some fundamental Windows 8 features available for that app. Here you can select the Share button to share a web link, if you wish.

How to shutdown Windows 8

To shut down Windows 8, bring your cursor to the top right corner to bring up the Charms bar.

Here click on Settings > Power. Here you will see the options to Shutdown, Sleep or Restart your computer.

Windows 8 basic How-to Video : Learn Windows 8 basic navigation in 8 minutes

You can watch this 8 minute video tutorial by Jensen Harris, Director of Program Management for Windows experience, Microsoft, to see all this in action.

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Regardless of whether you are creating a Recovery Drive using a USB flash drive or on an optical disc, it is important to remember that a Recovery Drive is bit specific. In other words, if you create a Recovery Drive in a 64-bit version of Windows 8, you can’t use that drive to boot up and repair a 32-bit version of Windows 8. Likewise, you can’t use a 32-bit Recovery Drive in a 64-bit system.

Using a USB Flash Drive

To begin with, you need to know that the USB flash drive you choose to use will become a dedicated Recovery Drive - you won’t be able to use it for anything else. In its base configuration, the contents of the Recovery Drive will require about 256MB of space. However, if you choose to include the OEM recovery partition, you’ll need more space. Thus, if you are creating a basic Recovery Drive, you can use a 1GB USB flash drive. (If you have a smaller sized drive, from the old days, you could use it as well.) If you are going to add OEM recovery partition, you’ll want at least a 16GB USB flash drive.
To launch the USB flash drive version of the Recovery tool, use the [Windows] + W keystroke to access the Search Settings page, type Recovery Drive in the text box, and click Create a recovery drive, as illustrated in Figure A. You’ll then encounter a UAC, as shown in Figure B and will need to click Yes to continue. As you can see in the UAC dialog box, the program name is shown here as Recovery Media Creator.

Figure A

Accessing the Recovery Drive tool from the Start screen is easy.

Figure B

When you launch the Recovery Drive tool, you’ll encounter a UAC.

In a moment, you’ll see the first screen in the Recovery Drive wizard, as shown in Figure C. If your computer came with an OEM recovery partition, the Copy the recovery partition check box will be enabled allowing you to include the contents of the recovery partition on the recovery USB flash drive. (If you select this option, you’ll need a sufficiently large capacity USB flash drive.) To continue, click Next.

Figure C

If your computer came with an OEM recovery partition, the Copy the recovery partition check box will be enabled.

In the next screen of the Recovery Drive wizard, you’ll be prompted to select your USB drive. If the drive isn’t already connected to your system, you can insert it now. When you do, Windows 8 will rescan the system and display your drive. Now, as you can see in Figure D, since I am only creating a basic Recovery Drive, the wizard informs me that the drive will only need to hold at least 256MB and that everything currently on the drive will be deleted. Remember, this will become a dedicated Recovery Drive. Once you select your USB flash drive, click Next.

Figure D

The USB flash drive you choose to use will become a dedicated Recovery Drive.

In the next screen, as shown in Figure E, you are once again warned that the contents of the drive will be deleted. To continue, click the Create button.

Figure E

You are again warned that everything on the drive will be deleted.

When you do, Windows 8 will format the drive and the begin copying files to the drive, as shown inFigure F. If you are creating a basic Recovery Disk, the process will just take a few minutes. If you are including a recovery partition, go get yourself a cup of coffee - it could take as long as an hour.

Figure F

If you are including a recovery partition, the creation process can take up to an hour to complete.

When the process is complete, Windows 8 will open the drive so that you can see the contents, as shown in Figure G. You can then close the Recovery Drive wizard by clicking the Finish button.

Figure G

When the process is complete, you will see the contents of the drive in file Explorer.

If you included a recovery partition on the USB flash drive, when the process is complete, you’ll be prompted to delete the recovery partition from the hard disk to free up space, as shown in Figure H. If you delete the recovery partition, you’ll then have to use Disk Management to extend your system partition into the newly freed up space.

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Windows 8 is a version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablets, and home theater PCs. Development of Windows 8 started before the release of its predecessor, Windows 7, in 2009. Its existence was first announced at CES 2011, and followed by the release of three pre-release versions from September 2011 to May 2012. The operating system was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, and was released for general availability on October 26, 2012.

Windows 8 introduces significant changes to the operating system's platform, primarily focused towards improving its user experience on mobile devices such as tablets to better compete with other mobile operating systems like Android and Apple's iOS. Windows 8 introduces a new touch-friendly shell and user interface based on Microsoft's "Metro" design language, featuring a new Start screen with a grid of dynamically updating tiles that represent applications. The Start screen replaces the "Start menu" of earlier Windows versions. There is a new app platform with an emphasis on touchscreen input, and the new Windows Store to obtain and/or purchase applications to run on the operating system.

In addition, Windows 8 takes advantage of new or emerging technologies like USB 3.0, 4Kn Advanced Format, near field communications, cloud computing, and the low-power ARM architecture. It includes new security features such as built-in antivirus capabilities, a new installation process optimized for digital distribution, and support for secure boot (a UEFI feature which allows operating systems to be digitally signed to prevent malware from altering the boot process). Synchronization of certain apps and settings between multiple devices is supported.

Windows 8 was released to mixed reception. Although reaction towards its performance improvements, security enhancements, and improved support for touchscreen devices was positive, the new user interface of the operating system has been widely criticized for being confusing and having a steep learning curve (especially when used with a keyboard and mouse instead of a touchscreen). Despite these shortcomings, 60 million Windows 8 licenses have been sold through January 2013. This includes upgrades and sales to OEMs for new PCs.

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