New Features in Windows 8 and Useful Apps
New Features in Windows 8.0 & Useful Apps.
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As we already know , that Windows 8.0 when launched in August , 1 2012 , it came with entirely newer graphical interface . Apart from this , when this Operating system was launched , Microsoft also added some of enhanced and newer applications to his product which makes it not only best to work with an environment but also , provides us with best in built support for the applications .
Some of the applications , which are launched by Microsoft , for its product are as follows :-
So now , let's spend our time towards our actual learning.
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Bitlocker Drive Encryption
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Bitlocker Drive Encryption , still being an older feature but is most frequently used . With the help of this feature , we can encrypt an entire drive and the person with a correct key could only be able to decrypt the same . This feature could be applied to all the drives including an operating system drive . We may also turn this feature for removable drives like pen drive , removable hard disk drive and so on .
It also gives an extra security in point of preventing system hacks from the hacker . In order to enable the option , navigate to 'Control Panel' pointing to 'System & Security' and selecting to choose 'Bitlocker Drive Encryption'. When you navigate to above option , you will find all the drives available on the system . Here , you can select to choose the drive for which you wish to enable the encryption .
After you decide the concerned drive , select to choose the option 'Turn on Bitlocker' for that drive .
Now , in order to decrypt the contents , you could either make use of one of following methods
Here , as you can see , I am making use of first option as a mode of security . In the next dialog , you would be asked for backing up your recovery key . Here , you may select either of the listed option to backup your key .
In the next screen , you needs to select whether you wish to encrypt either available disk space or an entire drive .
Once the process is complete , you will find 'Secure' icon appearing across the drive . You can not access the contents of the drive unless you unlock the drive . In order to unlock the drive , you have to make use of any of the above mentioned options . Here , I'll make use of
'Password' in order to decrypt the contents . When you will attach your drive to the system , you will have to right click and select to choose 'Unlock Drive...' .
Restore to - This option do lets you to retain all the previous versions and to save fresh copy of the latest version to an another location.
Preview - This option do lets you to take a preview of the document of the all available versions and depending upon the contents , you may select to restore the desired one.
So , that's all about file history feature in 'Windows 8.0' . I hope this post might have been much more informative to you.
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Enhanced backup support
Click here to view the complete information for the backup feature in 'Windows 8'.
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Windows Defragmentation
As you might be knowing , the data in the disk is stored in the form of 'Tracks' and 'Sectors'. So , when we save the data on the drive , every data we store is allocated specific track and sector number. So , when we request a file on a system , what system does is it contacts the FAT table for that specific drive and searches for the entry in it .
Assume , when we delete some of data from our hard drive , system leaves to fill that particular sector when next time we copy any file . It does not matter most , when the data we delete is not of much more size . However, if the data is much more bigger in terms of GB , it leaves entire number of sectors which were used for the filling up of that file . So this disturbs the continuation of the file system to search for the data as it has to unnecessarily search for data in those sectors even if no data exists on these sectors . In short , what it does is it fragments the data onto our drive and makes it much more slow for access .
What defragmentation does is that , it helps the system to align the data existing on the system in orderly manner in terms of 'Tracks' and 'Sectors' . So , when a particular file is requested , system does not take much time to search for it.
In order to proceed with 'Windows Defender' , navigate to 'Control Panel' and selecting to choose the option named 'Performance Information & Tools' . Here, in the upper left corner, select to choose the option 'Advanced Tools'. Here, select to choose the option 'Open Disk Defragmenter' .
You will find following options available when you work with 'Disk Defragmenter'
You can also schedule the defragmentation to occur at specific date . For this, navigate to 'Change Settings' tab and select the interval which you want to set.
Disk defragmentation needs to be performed when your system becomes slow and takes more time for access.
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System Restore
When we shut our system down , what system does it it saves all the software configuration , hardware configuration , drivers information and the user settings into the registry . That's why whenever we install any newer hardware or software , we are asked to restart our system. In this case , if any of wrong entries are made into registry , it renders the system not to boot properly into windows or the operating system is not started . This is because , wrong entries are made into registry .
The care of this aspect is already taken by the system by creating a 'Restore' point . The 'Restore' point is created in the following cases
If you are unable to boot into windows , then you can navigate to 'System Restore' via 'Safe Mode' . If this option too does not work , you needs to make use of 'Recovery disk' to boot from it and select to choose this option .
In order to navigate to 'System Restore' , navigate to 'Control Panel' and select to choose 'Recovery' option . Here , select to choose 'Open System Restore' . Select the restore point where you wish to revert your system back to and click on 'Finish' to confirm your restore point.
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SkyDrive
Windows 8 comes with built-in SkyDrive application. With this , you can view and browse the files you've saved to SkyDrive.
You may also install the SkyDrive desktop app and synchronize your files and folders across computers. Skydrive requires you to register with the site which when done , as a free user provides you 7GB of free disk space . For this , you should register yourself with any of the following account.
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Windows Defender
Windows Defender is built-in feature in Windows which provides anti-virus and malware protection for your windows . It not only scans your system for potentially harmful applications but also provides real-time protection , double checking each file or application you open without slowing your system down.
If you already have an anti-virus program running on your system , then you might not be able to turn Windows defender as your anti-virus software is performing the above mentioned tasks . However , it is better idea to go for good anti-virus software in point of security concern of your system. If you already have good anti-virus software installed on your system which is performing the function of virus detection as well as firewall protection , then you might not need to enable this feature and sometimes you even would not be allowed for the same.
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So ,these are some of the useful applications and features which I had described. Apart from these , there are still more newer applications like 'Mail' application which allows you to unite number of E-Mail services and work with them efficiently , 'People' , 'Store' app and so on.
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As we already know , that Windows 8.0 when launched in August , 1 2012 , it came with entirely newer graphical interface . Apart from this , when this Operating system was launched , Microsoft also added some of enhanced and newer applications to his product which makes it not only best to work with an environment but also , provides us with best in built support for the applications .
Some of the applications , which are launched by Microsoft , for its product are as follows :-
- Bitlocker Drive Encryption.
- File History.
- Enhanced Backup Support.
- Disk defragmentation.
- System Restore.
- Skydrive , and so on.
- Windows Defender.
So now , let's spend our time towards our actual learning.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bitlocker Drive Encryption
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bitlocker Drive Encryption , still being an older feature but is most frequently used . With the help of this feature , we can encrypt an entire drive and the person with a correct key could only be able to decrypt the same . This feature could be applied to all the drives including an operating system drive . We may also turn this feature for removable drives like pen drive , removable hard disk drive and so on .
It also gives an extra security in point of preventing system hacks from the hacker . In order to enable the option , navigate to 'Control Panel' pointing to 'System & Security' and selecting to choose 'Bitlocker Drive Encryption'. When you navigate to above option , you will find all the drives available on the system . Here , you can select to choose the drive for which you wish to enable the encryption .
After you decide the concerned drive , select to choose the option 'Turn on Bitlocker' for that drive .
Now , in order to decrypt the contents , you could either make use of one of following methods
- Specify Password
- Use the Recovery Key Or ,
- Use your smart card.
Here , as you can see , I am making use of first option as a mode of security . In the next dialog , you would be asked for backing up your recovery key . Here , you may select either of the listed option to backup your key .
In the next screen , you needs to select whether you wish to encrypt either available disk space or an entire drive .
Once done with above , click on 'Start Encrypting' to start the encryption process .
Once the process is complete , you will find 'Secure' icon appearing across the drive . You can not access the contents of the drive unless you unlock the drive . In order to unlock the drive , you have to make use of any of the above mentioned options . Here , I'll make use of
'Password' in order to decrypt the contents . When you will attach your drive to the system , you will have to right click and select to choose 'Unlock Drive...' .
Specify the password and you are ready to go with your contents on the drive . Here , you could also make use of 'Recovery Key' to decrypt the contents . For this , you needs to select to choose the option , 'More Options' and select to choose 'Enter Recovery Key' . Once done , your drive will be encrypted.
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File History
As you might have heard number of times that , why is Microsoft demolishing some of useful features which were there in previous versions of Windows ? The answer to this is that , nothing has been demolished but is little bit polished to make it look good . Till 'Windows 7.0' , you might have heard about the feature of 'Previous Versions' . 'File History' in Windows 8.0 exactly works in the same ways .
File history do allow you to save automatically copies of files located in libraries , contacts , favorites or Skydrive to an external drive or network location . File history can be helpful in those situations where you want to restore previous version of the file .
Enabling File History
In order to enable file history , navigate to 'Control Panel' , pointing to 'File History' . It is recommended that , for 'File History' to work , we should make use of an external drive . We can also specify a network location for the copies of the files to store . Once you attach your drive , you needs to select the drive and turn 'File History' on for that particular drive.
Click on 'Ok' to save the settings . Once done , Windows will start to configure 'File History' for the specified drive.
Once you configured the 'File History' , if you wish to change the default settings for the feature , you may navigate to 'Advanced Settings' located in the upper left corner of the screen.
Here , you can select to choose , the frequency of backup of your file , percent of disk space to be used and the maximum time interval that these copies would be retained . Once you done with the above settings , select to choose the option to 'Save Settings' .
Restoring files using File History
In order to restore an older version of file , first you needs to navigate to the folder containing that file . Once done , open the folder and select to choose 'Home' tab. Here , in the top right corner of the screen , you will find the option 'History' . Once clicked upon this , it will reveal you all the previous existing copies of the file .
When you wish to restore an older version of the file , navigate to the file as I mentioned above . Here , select your file , right click and select either of the following option .
- Restore
- Restore to
- Preview
Restore to - This option do lets you to retain all the previous versions and to save fresh copy of the latest version to an another location.
Preview - This option do lets you to take a preview of the document of the all available versions and depending upon the contents , you may select to restore the desired one.
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Enhanced backup support
Click here to view the complete information for the backup feature in 'Windows 8'.
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Windows Defragmentation
As you might be knowing , the data in the disk is stored in the form of 'Tracks' and 'Sectors'. So , when we save the data on the drive , every data we store is allocated specific track and sector number. So , when we request a file on a system , what system does is it contacts the FAT table for that specific drive and searches for the entry in it .
Assume , when we delete some of data from our hard drive , system leaves to fill that particular sector when next time we copy any file . It does not matter most , when the data we delete is not of much more size . However, if the data is much more bigger in terms of GB , it leaves entire number of sectors which were used for the filling up of that file . So this disturbs the continuation of the file system to search for the data as it has to unnecessarily search for data in those sectors even if no data exists on these sectors . In short , what it does is it fragments the data onto our drive and makes it much more slow for access .
What defragmentation does is that , it helps the system to align the data existing on the system in orderly manner in terms of 'Tracks' and 'Sectors' . So , when a particular file is requested , system does not take much time to search for it.
In order to proceed with 'Windows Defender' , navigate to 'Control Panel' and selecting to choose the option named 'Performance Information & Tools' . Here, in the upper left corner, select to choose the option 'Advanced Tools'. Here, select to choose the option 'Open Disk Defragmenter' .
You will find following options available when you work with 'Disk Defragmenter'
- Analyse : This simply gives you an idea if you wish to proceed with the defragmentation and does not actually performs.
- Optimize : This performs the actual process of defragmentation and frees up the space upon the drive to make it easily searchable.
You can also schedule the defragmentation to occur at specific date . For this, navigate to 'Change Settings' tab and select the interval which you want to set.
Disk defragmentation needs to be performed when your system becomes slow and takes more time for access.
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System Restore
When we shut our system down , what system does it it saves all the software configuration , hardware configuration , drivers information and the user settings into the registry . That's why whenever we install any newer hardware or software , we are asked to restart our system. In this case , if any of wrong entries are made into registry , it renders the system not to boot properly into windows or the operating system is not started . This is because , wrong entries are made into registry .
The care of this aspect is already taken by the system by creating a 'Restore' point . The 'Restore' point is created in the following cases
- When a new hardware is installed
- When a new software is installed
- When we install device driver
- Windows patches are installed
If you are unable to boot into windows , then you can navigate to 'System Restore' via 'Safe Mode' . If this option too does not work , you needs to make use of 'Recovery disk' to boot from it and select to choose this option .
In order to navigate to 'System Restore' , navigate to 'Control Panel' and select to choose 'Recovery' option . Here , select to choose 'Open System Restore' . Select the restore point where you wish to revert your system back to and click on 'Finish' to confirm your restore point.
In order to learn more about 'System Restore' , click here to visit this article from 'Microsoft' .
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SkyDrive
Windows 8 comes with built-in SkyDrive application. With this , you can view and browse the files you've saved to SkyDrive.
You may also install the SkyDrive desktop app and synchronize your files and folders across computers. Skydrive requires you to register with the site which when done , as a free user provides you 7GB of free disk space . For this , you should register yourself with any of the following account.
- Outlook.
- Live
- Microsoft
- Hotmail
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Windows Defender
Windows Defender is built-in feature in Windows which provides anti-virus and malware protection for your windows . It not only scans your system for potentially harmful applications but also provides real-time protection , double checking each file or application you open without slowing your system down.
If you already have an anti-virus program running on your system , then you might not be able to turn Windows defender as your anti-virus software is performing the above mentioned tasks . However , it is better idea to go for good anti-virus software in point of security concern of your system. If you already have good anti-virus software installed on your system which is performing the function of virus detection as well as firewall protection , then you might not need to enable this feature and sometimes you even would not be allowed for the same.
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So ,these are some of the useful applications and features which I had described. Apart from these , there are still more newer applications like 'Mail' application which allows you to unite number of E-Mail services and work with them efficiently , 'People' , 'Store' app and so on.
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