Duck wrote:
Question can you remove the tiles that you do not plan to use and replace them with tiles for the apps you like to use?
Don
Yes, you can put whatever tiles on the Start screen you want and choose what size they should be. For me, it was seeing that out-of-the-box Start screen that made me think Win8 was too big a change - it just had a bunch of tiles that I had no idea what they were for.
But once you tailor it with the tiles of programs you use it is much more comfortable. Since there are new "apps" available for Win8 from the Microsoft store that run in the newer "Metro" interface, I chose to group my Mom's into "Desktop Apps" and "Metro Apps" to help her remember the difference and know where the familiar stuff is. You can name your own groups or leave the names off. One negative is it seems you can't easily change the color of the tiles. I think you can by editing some XML files, but that is certainly not user friendly.
For my Mom, what I wanted her to stay away from is the Apps Screen. Depending on how it is configured, the Apps screen may come up instead of the Start screen or the Desktop when you hit the Windows key or icon. The Apps screen has a icon and name for everything installed on the computer and is just way too confusing for those less technical. But you right-click on the icons on the Apps screen and tell it to pin it to the Start Screen, taskbar, etc. Then on the Start screen you can move the tile around and resize it. As I said, I am training my Mom to use the Start screen as her main launching point for the apps she uses.
The one thing I find annoying and non-user friendly is that in the Metro apps, the titlebar at the top hides automatically, so you have to go hover up there to make it reappear so you can close the app. I'm afraid it will be hard for my Mom to remember that, plus she has lost much dexterity in her hands so mouse work is getting harder for her. Other than using hotkeys to make it appear, I have not found a way to make it stay visible up there so it will be easier for her.
