Windows 8.1 Bible

Chapter 9: Personalizing the Windows 8.1 Interface

IN THIS CHAPTER

The Windows 8.1 interface

Working with tiles

Working with tile groups

Customizing the contents of the Start screen

Clearing tile data

The Windows 8.1 interface presents a clean, streamlined way to interact with your apps, data, and documents, but like the traditional Windows desktop interface, the new interface is just a starting point. You can customize the organization of tiles and tile groups on the Start screen, change the picture on the Lock screen, and much more.

This chapter explores how you can change all these elements of the Windows 8.1 interface and customize it to suit the way you work and play.

Customizing the Start Screen

Although the Lock screen might be the first thing you see when you start Windows 8.1, you'll certainly spend a lot more time working on the Start screen, so that's where we'll start our tour of the tools and settings you can use to customize the interface.

Rearranging tiles

Figure 9.1 shows a portion of a typical Windows 8.1 Start screen. As the figure shows, the tiles on the Start screen are grouped. You can rearrange the tiles on the Start screen, moving them within a group, moving them to other groups, or even creating new groups.

Figure 9.1

Tiles on the Windows 8.1 Start screen.

Moving tiles within a group is easy. If you're using a touch device, tap and hold the icon until ...