Contents at a Glance -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- About This Book -- Foolish Assumptions -- What You Don't Have to Read -- How This Book Is Organized -- Conventions -- Icons -- Beyond the Book -- Where to Go from Here -- Contents at a Glance -- Book I: Starting Windows 8.1 -- Chapter 1: Windows 8.1 4 N00bs -- Hardware and Software -- Why Do PCs Have to Run Windows? -- A Terminology Survival Kit -- What, Exactly, Is the Web? -- Buying a Windows 8.1 Computer -- Chapter 2: Windows 8.1 for the Experienced -- What's New for the XP Crowd -- What's New for Windows 7 and Vista Victims -- What's New for Windows 8 Users -- What's New for All of Windows -- Do You Need Windows 8.1? -- Chapter 3: Which Version? -- Roll an 8 - Any 8 -- Choosing 32-Bit versus 64-Bit -- Chapter 4: Upgrades and Clean Installs -- Deciding Whether to Upgrade Your Old PC -- Choosing Your Upgrade Path -- Cleaning the Gunk Off New PCs -- What If the Wheels Fall Off? -- Contents at a Glance -- Book II: Personalizing Windows 8.1 -- Chapter 1: Getting Around Windows 8.1 -- Windows' Jekyll and Hyde Personality -- Navigating around a Touchscreen -- Navigating with a Mouse and Keyboard -- Keying Keyboard Shortcuts -- Working with the App Bar -- Shutting Down Apps -- How Do You Turn This Thing Off? -- Chapter 2: Changing the Lock and Logon Screens -- Working with the Lock Screen -- Logging In Uniquely -- Chapter 3: Working with Charms and Notifications -- Bringing on the Charms -- Setting and Responding to Notifications -- Chapter 4: Controlling Users -- Why You Need Separate User Accounts -- Choosing Account Types -- What's Good and Bad about Microsoft Accounts -- Adding Users -- Enabling the Guest Account -- Changing Accounts -- Switching Users -- Chapter 5: Microsoft Account: To Sync or Not to Sync? -- What, Exactly, Is a Microsoft Account?.

Deciding Whether You Want a Microsoft Account -- Setting Up a Microsoft Account -- Taking Care of Your Microsoft Account -- Controlling Sync -- Chapter 6: Privacy Control -- Why You Should Be Concerned -- Knowing What Connections Windows Prefers -- Controlling Location Tracking -- Minimizing Privacy Intrusion -- Contents at a Glance -- Book III: Navigating the Start Screen -- Chapter 1: Controlling the Start Screen -- Touring the Start Screen -- Changing Tiles on the Start Screen -- Changing the Start Screen Background -- Organizing Your Start Screen -- Working with Tiled Metro Snap -- Showing All Apps View All the Time -- Chapter 2: Searching in and with the Start Screen -- General Approaches to Searching -- Searching for Programs/Apps -- Searching for Settings -- Searching for Files -- Chapter 3: Sharing Among Tiled Apps -- Sharing the Easy Way -- Stepping Through a Photo Share -- What Can You Share? -- Controlling Share -- Chapter 4: Settings, Settings, More Settings, and Devices -- Using the Settings Charm -- Changing PC Settings -- Touring the Start Screen Settings -- Doing the Devices Charm -- Chapter 5: Taking Control of the Windows Store -- Checking Out What a Tiled App Can Do -- Browsing the Windows Store -- Searching the Windows Store -- Adjusting Your Store Accounts and Preferences -- Contents at a Glance -- Book IV: Maximizing Tiled Windows 8.1 Apps -- Chapter 1: Running Metro Internet Explorer -- Introducing the Two Faces of IE -- Navigating Metro Internet Explorer -- Sharing and Printing Web Pages -- Sorting Out Your Settings -- Choosing and Setting a Default Browser -- Chapter 2: Using Metro Mail, People, and Calendar Apps -- Choosing a Mail/Contacts/Calendar App -- Drilling Down on Windows 8.1 Metro Mail -- Putting All Your Contacts in the Metro People App -- Avoiding Metro Calendar App Collisions.

Chapter 3: The Windows 8.1 Photos App -- Discovering What Metro Photos App Can Do -- Touring Photos -- Editing Photos -- Adding Photos -- Importing Pictures from a Camera or External Drive -- Chapter 4: Xbox Music and Video -- Why You May Want Xbox Music or Video -- Playing Your Music with Xbox Music -- Viewing Your Videos with Xbox Video -- Managing Playlists -- Turning Off the Tiled Apps as Default Media Players -- Contents at a Glance -- Book V: Connecting Online with Tiled Apps -- Chapter 1: Using SkyDrive in Windows 8.1 -- What Is SkyDrive? -- Using the Tiled Metro SkyDrive -- Using SkyDrive on Your Desktop -- Running SkyDrive on the Web -- Fetching -- Chapter 2: Using Skype in Windows 8.1 -- Exploring Skype Alternatives -- Where Can You Find Metro Skype? -- Installing " Legacy" Skype -- Making First Contact -- Adding a Contact -- A Few Tips from Skype-ologists -- Chapter 3: Getting Started with Facebook -- The Many Faces of Facebook -- Signing Up for a Facebook Account -- Building a Great Timeline -- Chapter 4: Getting Started with Twitter -- Understanding Twitter -- Setting Up a Twitter Account -- Tweeting for Beginners -- Hooking Twitter into Windows -- Chapter 5: Bing News, Finance, Travel, Sports, Fitness, and Food -- Recognizing the Bing in Everyone -- Reading the News with Bing -- Pinning Finance for Fun and Profit -- Traveling with Your Tablet -- Sports Fans Everywhere, Take Note -- The Two New Metro Bing Apps -- Chapter 6: Games, Games, and Games -- Searching the Store for Games -- Cutting the Rope with Style -- Tapping Pirates Love Daisies -- Starting with Sudoku -- Beating Birzzle -- Contents at a Glance -- Book VI: Working on the Desktop -- Chapter 1: Running the Desktop from Start to Finish -- Getting Around -- Exploring Files and Folders -- Sharing Folders in the Public Folder -- Touching on the Taskbar -- Recycling.

Creating Shortcuts -- Sleep: Perchance to Dream -- Chapter 2: Personalizing the Desktop -- Recognizing Desktop Levels -- Setting Color Schemes on the Desktop -- Picking a Background -- Controlling Icons -- Selecting Screen Savers -- Using Desktop Themes -- Seeing Your Desktop Clearly -- Tricking Out the Taskbar -- Controlling the Notification Area -- Chapter 3: Metro Mods for Desktop Users -- Drop That Stupid Background -- Installing New Programs and Dealing with Their Tiles -- Finding and Adding Programs to the Start Screen -- Sorting through the Metro Start Tiles -- Starting to Form Your Metro Start Screen -- Organizing the Start Screen for a Lean Mean Desktop -- Booting to the Desktop -- Chapter 4: Maintaining Your System -- What's the Difference Between Restore, System Repair, Recovery Mode, Refresh, and Restart? -- Using a Password Reset Disk -- Maintaining Drives -- Maintaining Solid State Drives -- Zipping and Compressing -- Chapter 5: Using Windows ( Live) Essentials -- Introducing the Applications and How They've Changed -- Getting the Windows Essentials Apps -- Using Windows Live Mail -- Managing Windows Photo Gallery -- Panning Windows Movie Maker -- Chapter 6: Choosing and Using a Desktop Web Browser -- Which Browser's Best? -- Using Internet Explorer on the Desktop -- Customizing Firefox -- Optimizing Google Chrome -- Searching on the Web -- Referring to Internet Reference Tools -- Chapter 7: Music on the Desktop -- Getting Started with Windows Media Player -- Playing with Now Playing -- Copying from a CD ( Also Known As Ripping) -- Organizing Your Media Library -- Managing Playlists -- Burning CDs and DVDs -- Sharing Your Windows Media Player Media -- Customizing WMP -- Where to Find and Buy Good Music -- Contents at a Glance -- Book VII: Controlling Your System -- Chapter 1: Controlling Control Panel -- Exploring the Real Control Panel.

Relying on Device Manager -- Stuffing AutoPlay -- Uninstalling/Changing Programs -- Turning Windows Features On and Off -- Setting Default Programs -- Adding and Switching Clocks -- Changing Languages -- Enabling Ease of Access Features -- Chapter 2: Troubleshooting and Getting Help -- Starting with the Help + Tips tile -- Troubleshooting in the Action Center -- System Stability and the Reliability Monitor -- Tricks to Using Windows Help -- How to Really Get Help -- Snapping and Recording Your Problems -- Connecting to Remote Assistance -- Getting Help Online -- Chapter 3: Working with Libraries -- Understanding Libraries -- Making Your Libraries Visible -- Working with Your Default Libraries -- Customizing Libraries -- Creating Your Own Library -- Chapter 4: Storing in Storage Spaces -- Understanding the " Virtualization" of Storage -- Setting Up Storage Spaces -- Working with Storage Spaces -- Chapter 5: Getting the Most from HomeGroups -- Preparing a PC for a HomeGroup -- Connecting to a HomeGroup -- Sharing Files and Printers in a HomeGroup -- Navigating to a HomeGroup Folder -- Caring for Your HomeGroup -- Venturing beyond HomeGroups -- Chapter 6: Running the Built-In Desktop Applications -- Getting Free Word Processing -- Taming the Character Map -- Calculating - Free -- Painting -- Sticking Sticky Notes -- Chapter 7: Working with Printers -- Installing a Printer -- Using the Print Queue -- Troubleshooting Printing -- Catching a Runaway Printer -- Contents at a Glance -- Book VIII: Maintaining Windows 8.1 -- Chapter 1: File History, Backup, Data Restore, and Sync -- What Happened to the Windows 7 Backup? -- Backing Up and Restoring Files with File History -- Storing To and Through the Cloud -- Chapter 2: A Fresh Start: Restore and Reset -- The Three R's - and a Fourth RE -- Refreshing Your PC -- Resetting Your PC.

Restoring to an Earlier Point.