That takes you to the App screen where you'll see any recently-installed apps highlighted with the word New.
In Windows 8.1, apps don't make their way to the Start screen unless you pin them there.Īfter you install a new app, click on the down arrow in the lower left corner of the Start screen. In Windows 8, any app you install automatically takes up residence on the Start screen, easily turning it into a crowded and disorganized mess. What other tricks will you find in the new Start screen? Less clutter for one. To get out of Customize view, just click or tap on the Customize button on the app bar. In the Customize view, simply click on the text box for Name Group and enter a name. If you organize your tiles into distinct groups, you can more easily name them. You can enlarge the tiles for your favorite apps and shrink the ones for apps you rarely use. Certain tiles offer a choice of small, medium, wide, and large. You also have more tile sizes from which to choose. You can unpin them from the Start screen, uninstall them, resize them, turn off any live tiles, or just clear the selection. There's an array of other options that can be run on multiple tiles. You can select multiple tiles by clicking on them, and then drag and drop all of your selected tiles en masse to another spot. But in this Customize view, you can't accidentally open an app by clicking on or tapping its tile. Moving a tile by dragging and dropping is nothing new. You can now drag and drop any tile to another spot on the screen. You can also right-click on any tile to open the Customize view. Right-click anywhere on the Start screen to display the app bar and click on the Customize button.
Right off the bat, Windows 8.1 offers a dedicated Customize button for the Start screen where you can tweak a variety of settings. But even those who aren't too keen on the screen may welcome the new ways you can customize it in the Windows 8.1 Preview.
The Windows 8 Start screen is largely a love-it-or-hate affair. You can more easily tweak the Start screen in Windows 8.1.