No matter how attractive Microsoft tries to make TileWorld, some people will never see the point of reinventing the operating system. They’ve always used the desktop, their programs are all intended for the desktop, their computers don’t have touchscreens, and they’re perfectly content living at the desktop just as they have for years.
For them, good news: Windows 8.1 makes it easy to bypass TileWorld almost completely. Here are the steps.
Bring back the real Start menu. See Figure 6-2.
Start up directly to the desktop. Ordinarily, the TileWorld Start screen is the first thing you see when you start up your PC. At that point, getting to the desktop to start your real work is an extra step—but it’s a step you can eliminate.
Just open the Navigation control panel as described in Figure 6-3. Turn on “When I sign in or close all apps on a screen, go to the desktop instead of Start.”
Use the same wallpaper in both environments. Also in the new Navigation options: “Show my desktop background on Start.” In other words, whatever desktop background wallpaper you’ve chosen for your desktop also appears as the Start screen background. Now switching between the desktop and TileWorld, when necessary, is less jarring.
Make the Start screen more like a menu. In that same Navigation panel: “Show the Apps view automatically when I go to Start.” Whenever you call up the Start screen, you’ll see the more compact Apps view (The Apps List) instead of the tiles. You can see a lot more without scrolling. (You can still get to the tiles by scrolling up.)
If you do turn on this checkbox, you can also turn on “Search everywhere instead of just my apps when I search from the Apps view.” Ordinarily, searching at the Apps list finds only app names.
List desktop apps first in the Apps view when it’s sorted by category. Just what it says: Traditional Windows programs will be listed first on the Apps screen, making them easier to find and open. TileWorld apps are listed later. (This option has no effect if you sort the App screen by date, name, or frequency of use.)
Turn off mouse gestures. Do you wind up opening the Charms bar and recently used apps accidentally when your mouse strays into the corners of the screen? Not anymore. In the dialog box shown in Figure 6-3, turn off the top two “Corner navigation” checkboxes.
Turn off trackpad gestures. And what if you keep opening the Charms bar and triggering other gestures accidentally using your laptop’s trackpad? No problem.
Search for touchpad, and select “Mouse and touchpad settings” in the results. In the resulting pane of PC Settings, turn off “Enable swiping in from the left or right edge.”
Tip
You can make your TileWorld banishment complete by installing a program like Stardock’s ModernMix ($5). It lets you run TileWorld apps in desktop windows! You can download it from this book’s “Missing CD” page at www.missingmanuals.com.