In This Chapter

Opening a program, an app, or a document

Changing which program opens which document

Installing, uninstalling, and updating apps

Creating a shortcut

Cutting, copying, and pasting

In Windows, programs and apps are your tools: Load a program or an app, and you can add numbers, arrange words, and shoot spaceships.

Documents, by contrast, are the things you create with apps and programs, such as tax forms, heartfelt apologies, and lists of high scores.

This chapter explains the basics of opening programs and apps from the new Start menu in Windows. It explains how to find and download a new app from the Start menu’s Store app. It also shows you where to find an app’s menus (Microsoft mysteriously hid them).

As you flip through this chapter’s pages, you figure out how to make your preferred program open your files. You also create desktop shortcuts — buttons that let you load desktop programs without visiting the Start menu.

The chapter ends with the “Absolutely Essential Guide to Cutting, Copying, and Pasting.” Put this one trick under your belt, and you’ll be well on your way to dealing with nearly every situation Windows tosses your way.

Starting a Program or an App

Windows 10 returns the Start button and menu to their age-old spot in the desktop’s bottom-left corner. A click of the Start button brings you the new Start menu, complete with its new band of apps clinging to its right side.

I explain the new Start menu, shown in Figure 6-1, in Chapter 2, as well as how to customize it, adding or removing tiles to ensure you find things more easily.

The Windows 10 Start menu looks little like the Start menu of yesteryear, but it still lets you launch programs or apps by following these steps:

1. Open the Start menu.

   Summon the Start menu by clicking or tapping the Start button in the screen’s bottom-left corner. If your hands are already on the keyboard, just press the Windows key (  ).

   The Start menu appears, as shown earlier in Figure 6-1, bringing a list of your apps and programs. In fact, the Start menu automatically updates itself to keep the names of your most recently used programs or apps visible.

2. If you spot the tile for your program or app, choose it with a mouse click or, on a touchscreen, a tap of a finger.

   Don’t see a tile for your sought-after program on the Start menu’s list? Move to the next step.

3. Scroll down the screen’s right side to see more tiles.

   Hidden along the Start menu’s far right edge is a scroll bar, similar to scroll bars you see in stocked folders. Sometimes you can’t see the scroll bar until your mouse pointer rests directly over it. When you see the scroll bar, drag its scroll box down the screen; then you can see any Start menu tiles that were hiding from view. No scroll bar? Then you’re already seeing all that the Start menu has to offer.

   If you’re a touchscreen owner, you can view the hidden tiles by sliding your finger up the Start menu.

   Still don’t see your program or app listed? Head for Step 4.

4. View all your apps.

   To keep its list of apps and programs manageable, the Start menu doesn’t list every program or app on your computer.

   To reveal them all, click the words All Apps in the Start menu’s bottom-left corner. All your apps appear listed by alphabetically name.

   To see all your apps on a touchscreen, slide your finger upward on the screen; the All Apps view slides up into view.

If you still can’t find your program on the admittedly crowded Start menu, follow these tips for other ways to open an app or a program:

• While you view the Start menu, begin typing the missing program’s name. As you type the first letter, the Search pane quickly appears, presenting a list of names beginning with that letter. Type a second or third letter, and the list of matches shrinks accordingly. When you spot the app or program you want, open it with a double-click (or a touch on a touchscreen).

• Open File Explorer (shown in the margin) from the taskbar, the strip along the bottom of the desktop. When File Explorer appears, choose Documents from the Navigation Pane along the window’s left edge, and double-click the file you want to open. The correct program automatically opens with that file in tow. (If the wrong program opens it, head to this chapter’s “Choosing Which Program Should Open Which File” section.)
• Double-click a shortcut to the program. Shortcuts, which often sit on your desktop, are handy, disposable buttons for launching files and folders. (I explain more about shortcuts in this chapter’s “Taking the Lazy Way with a Desktop Shortcut” section.)
• While you’re on the desktop, you may spot the program’s icon on the taskbar — a handy strip of icons lazily lounging along your desktop’s bottom edge. If so, click the taskbar icon, and the program leaps into action. (I cover the desktop’s taskbar, including how to customize its row of icons, in Chapter 3.)
• Right-click on the Windows desktop, choose New, and select the type of document you want to create. Windows loads the right program for the job. (On a tablet, this trick works only when you turn off Tablet mode.)

Windows offers other ways to open a program, but the preceding methods usually get the job done. (I cover the Start menu more extensively in Chapter 2, and the desktop is the star of Chapter 3.)

Opening a Document

Like Tupperware, the Windows desktop is a big fan of standardization. Almost all Windows programs load their documents — often called files — exactly the same way:

1. Click the word File on the program’s menu bar, that row of staid words along the program’s top.

   If your program hides its menu bar, pressing the Alt key often reveals it.

   Still no menu bar? Then your program might have a Ribbon, a thick strip of multicolored icons along the window’s top. If you spot the Ribbon, click the tab or button in its leftmost corner to let the File menu tumble down.

2. When the File menu drops down, choose Open.

   Windows gives you a sense of déjà vu with the Open window, shown in Figure 6-2. It looks (and works) just like your Documents folder, which I cover in Chapter 5.

   There’s one big difference, however: This time, your folder displays only files that your particular program knows how to open — it filters out all the others.

3. Point at your desired document (shown in Figure 6-2), click the mouse button, and click the Open button.

   On a touchscreen, tap the document to open it.

   The program opens the file and displays it on the screen.

Opening a file works this way in most Windows programs, whether written by Microsoft, its corporate partners, or the teenager down the street.

• To speed things up, double-click a desired file’s name; that opens it immediately, automatically closing the Open window.

• Humans store things in the garage, but computers store their files in neatly labeled compartments called folders. (Double-click a folder to see what’s stored inside. If you spot your file, open it with a double-click.) If browsing folders gives you trouble, the folders section in Chapter 5 offers a refresher.
• If your file isn’t listed by name, start browsing by clicking the buttons or words shown along the left side of Figure 6-2. Click the OneDrive or the This PC folder, for example, to search other folders and their files stored inside.
• Whenever you open a file and change it, even by accident, Windows usually assumes that you’ve changed the file for the better. If you try to close the file, Windows cautiously asks whether you want to save your changes. If you updated the file with masterful wit, click Yes. If you made a mess or opened the wrong file, click No or Cancel.

• Confused about any icons or commands along the Open window’s top or left side? Rest your mouse pointer over the icons, and a little box announces their occupations.

Saving a Document

Saving means to send the work you’ve just created to a hard drive, flash drive, or disc for safekeeping. Unless you specifically save your work, your computer thinks that you’ve just been fiddling around for the past four hours. You must specifically tell the computer to save your work before it will safely store it.

Thanks to Microsoft snapping leather whips, a Save command appears in nearly every Windows program no matter what programmer wrote it. Here are a few ways to save a file:

• Click File on the top menu, choose Save, and save your document in your Documents folder or to your desktop for easy retrieval later. (Pressing the Alt key, followed by the F key and the S key, does the same thing.)

• Click the Save icon (shown in the margin).
• Hold down Ctrl and press the S key. (S stands for Save.)

If you’re saving something for the first time, Windows asks you to think up a name for your document. Type something descriptive using only letters, numbers, and spaces between the words. (If you try to use one of the illegal characters I describe in Chapter 5, the Windows Police step in, politely requesting that you use a different name.)

• Choose descriptive filenames for your work. Windows gives you 255 characters to work with. A file named January 2015 Squeegee Sales is easier to locate than one named Stuff.

• You can save files to any folder, CD, DVD, or even a flash drive. But files are much easier to find down the road when they stay in one of your four main folders: Documents, Music, Pictures, or Videos. (Those folders are listed on the left edge of every folder, making it easy to place files inside them.)

• If you want to access your current file from other devices, perhaps your phone or tablet, save it to the Documents folder on OneDrive: Choose OneDrive from the Save window’s left edge and then choose the OneDrive Documents folder. Then click the Save button.
• Most programs can save files directly to a CD or DVD. Choose Save from the File menu and choose your preferred drive from the right pane’s This PC section. Put a disc (preferably one that’s not already filled) into your disc-writing drive to start the process.
• A few newer programs spare you the chore of clicking the Save button: They save your work automatically as you type. Microsoft’s OneNote note taking program and many Start menu apps save your work automatically, so they lack a Save button.

• If you’re working on something important (and most things are important), click the program’s Save command every few minutes. Or use the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut. (While holding down the Ctrl key, press the S key.) Programs make you choose a name and location for a file when you first save it; subsequent saves are much speedier.

Choosing Which Program Should Open Which File

Most of the time, Windows automatically knows which program should open which file. Double-click a file, and Windows tells the correct program to jump in and let you view its contents.

But sometimes Windows doesn’t choose your preferred program, and that holds especially true for the latest version of Windows. For example, the new app-loving Windows tells the Start menu’s Music app to play your music. You may prefer that the desktop’s Windows Media Player handle the music-playing chores instead.

When the wrong program opens your file, here’s how to make the right program open it instead:

1. Right-click your problematic file and choose Open With from the pop-up menu.

   As shown in Figure 6-3, Windows lists a few capable programs, including ones you’ve used to open that file in the past.

2. Click the Choose Another App option.

   The window that appears, as shown in Figure 6-4, lists more programs, and the currently assigned program appears at the list’s top. If you spot your favorite program, double-click to tell it to open your file. (Make sure the Always Use This App to Open Files check box is selected so you don’t need to repeat these steps.) Then click OK. You’re done!

   Don’t see the program you want or need to open the file? Move to Step 3.

3. Click the words Look for An App in the Store, and click the OK button.

   The Store app appears, leaving you at a virtual shelf stocked with apps capable of opening the file.

If you install a new program or app to open a particular file, the newcomer usually assigns itself the rights to open that type of file in the future. If it doesn’t, head back to Step 1. This time, however, your newly installed program or app will appear on the list. Choose it, and you’ve finally finished.

• In a bit of revisionist history, Windows uses the term app when referring to both traditional desktop programs and Start menu apps. Be mindful of the Windows terminology when on the desktop. If Windows says an action will affect your apps, it will also affect your desktop programs.

• Windows lets you choose your default programs from the Start menu, as well. From the Start menu, click the Settings link. When the Setting app appears, click the System icon. From the System window, choose Default Apps from the left pane. On the right, Windows lists the programs currently opening each type of file. Click any program’s name, and a list appears for you to hand the reins to a different program.
• Sometimes you’ll want to alternate between different apps or programs when working on the same file. To do so, right-click the file, choose Open With, and select the program you need at that time.
• Occasionally, you can’t make your favorite program open a particular file because it simply doesn’t know how. For example, Windows Media Player can play most videos except when they’re stored in QuickTime, a format used by Microsoft’s competition. Your only solution is to install QuickTime (www.apple.com/quicktime) and use it to open that particular video.
• If somebody says something about “file associations,” feel free to browse the technical sidebar “The awkward world of file associations,” which explains that awful subject.

Navigating the Windows Store

Apps, which are mini-programs specialized for single tasks, come from the world of smartphones (computerized cellphones). And, like the apps from smartphones, apps come only from an App store. In Windows, they come from the Windows Store, available with a click on the taskbar’s Windows Store icon (shown in the margin).

Apps differ from traditional desktop programs in several ways:

• Windows 10 allows apps to run within desktop windows rather than consuming the entire screen as they did in earlier Windows versions. When running in Tablet mode, though, apps return to their full-screen behavior. Programs can run in windows or full screen, whichever seems most convenient.

• Apps are tied to your Microsoft account. That means you need a Microsoft account to download a free or paid app from the Store app.
• When you download an app from the Windows Store app, you can usually run it on up to eighty-one (yes, 81) PCs or devices — as long as you’re signed in to those PCs or devices with your Windows account. (Some apps may raise or lower that number.)
• Newly installed apps consume just one Start menu tile. Newly installed programs, by contrast, often sprinkle several tiles onto your Start menu.

Apps and programs can be created and sold by large companies, as well as by basement-dwelling hobbyists working in their spare time.

Although desktop programs and Start menu apps look and behave differently, Microsoft unfortunately refers to both as apps. You might run across this terminology quirk when dealing with older programs, as well as newer programs created by companies not hip to Microsoft’s new lingo.

Adding new apps from the Store app

When you’re tired of the apps bundled with Windows or you need a new app to fill a special need, follow these steps to bring one into your computer.

1. Click the Start button and open the Store app from the Start menu.

   The Store app jumps to the screen, as shown in Figure 6-5. You can also click the Store app (shown in the margin) from the taskbar that always runs along the bottom of your screen.

   The Store opens to show its Spotlight category, where Microsoft highlights a few chosen apps. Beneath that, the Picks For You section suggests apps you may be interested in, based on your past downloads.

   To see more, point near the Store app’s right edge, and a scroll bar appears. Drag the little box down the scroll bar to see the top few apps in each category: Top Free Apps, Best-Rated Apps, New and Rising Apps, Top Free Games, Top Paid Games, Best Rated Games, and more.

2. To narrow your search, choose a category by clicking its name.

   Save some time by clicking the App Top Charts button. (The mouse points to it in Figure 6-5.) Click an interesting free app and, when the Free button appears, click it to get the hang of the process. (Similarly, to buy a paid app, click the button that lists its price.)

3. Search for a particular app by typing a keyword into the Search box in the upper-right corner and pressing Enter.

   Didn’t find the right app? Then head for the Search box, which lives in the store’s upper-right corner. Shown in Figure 6-6, the Search box narrows down the apps by a keyword.

   Like the Store app, almost all searchable apps include a built-in Search box, which appears in their upper-right corner.

4. Sort the listed apps by subcategory, price, and relevance.

   After searching for games, for example, you can sort by the games that appear by subcategory, perhaps limiting them to show only Card games.

   The Refine pane lets you sort apps by other criteria, including Top Free, Top Paid, Best-Rated, Top-Grossing, and New and Rising.

5. Click any app to read a more detailed description.

   A page opens to show more detailed information, including its price tag, pictures of the app, reviews left by previous customers, and more technical information.

6. Click the Free or Price button.

   When you find a free app that you can’t live without, click the Free button. To buy a paid app, click the button bearing its price tag. The price will be charged to the credit card linked to your Microsoft account. If you haven’t yet entered a card, Microsoft walks you through the process.

   Whether you install a free or a paid app, the new app appears on your Start menu’s alphabetical All Apps list as quickly as your Internet connection speed allows.

To copy an app from the All Apps list to a front-page Start menu tile, right-click the app’s name and choose Pin to Start. I explain how to customize your Start menu further in Chapter 2.

Taking the Lazy Way with a Desktop Shortcut

As you work, you’ll constantly find yourself traveling between the desktop and the Start menu. When you grow tired of meandering through the woods to find a program, folder, disk drive, document, or even a website, create a desktop shortcut — an icon that takes you directly to the object of your desires.

Because a shortcut is a mere icon that launches something else, shortcuts are safe, convenient, and disposable. And they’re easy to tell apart from the original because they have a little arrow lodged in their bottom-left corner, as you can see on the folder shortcut shown in the margin.

To skip the Start menu, follow these instructions to create desktop shortcuts to your oft-used items:

• Folders or Documents: From the desktop’s File Explorer, right-click a favorite folder or document, choose Send To, and select the Desktop (Create Shortcut) option. The shortcut appears on your desktop.
• Websites: On Internet Explorer, see the little icon in front of the website’s address in Internet Explorer’s Address bar? Drag and drop that little icon to your desktop for quick access later. (As of this writing, the Microsoft Edge browser doesn’t let you create desktop shortcuts.)

• Control Panel: The desktop’s Control Panel contains eight sections, each with links beneath it. Every icon and link in Control Panel can be dragged onto your desktop to create a shortcut. (An easy way to access the Control Panel from the desktop is to right-click in the screen’s bottom-left corner and choose Control Panel from the pop-up menu.)

• Storage areas: Open File Explorer with a click of its icon on the desktop’s taskbar. From the Navigation Pane along File Explorer’s left side, drag and drop any storage area you want to the desktop. Windows immediately places a shortcut to that drive on your desktop. (This works for your main OneDrive folder, This PC, flash drives, disc drives, and even network locations.)

Here are some more tips for desktop shortcuts:

• For quick CD or DVD burning, put a shortcut to your disc drive on your desktop. Burning files to disc becomes as simple as dragging and dropping them onto the disc drive’s new shortcut. (Insert a blank disc into the disc drive’s tray, confirm the settings, and begin burning your disc.)
• Want to send a desktop shortcut to the Start menu? Right-click the desktop shortcut and choose Pin to Start; the item appears as a tile on the Start menu, as well as in the Start menu’s All Apps list.

• Feel free to move shortcuts from place to place, but don’t move the items they launch. If you do, the shortcut won’t be able to find the item, causing Windows to panic and search (usually in vain) for the relocated goods.

• Want to see what program a shortcut will launch? Right-click the shortcut and click Open File Location (if available). The shortcut quickly takes you to its leader.

Absolutely Essential Guide to Cutting, Copying, and Pasting

Windows took a tip from the kindergartners and made cut and paste an integral part of computing life. You can electronically cut or copy just about anything and then paste it just about anyplace else with little fuss and even less mess.

For example, you can copy a photo and paste it onto your party invitation fliers. You can move files by cutting them from one folder and pasting them into another. You can cut and paste your digital camera’s photos into a folder inside your Pictures folder. And you can easily cut and paste paragraphs to different locations within a word processor.

The beauty of the Windows desktop is that, with all those windows onscreen at the same time, you can easily grab bits and pieces from any of them and paste all the parts into a brand-new window.

Don’t overlook copying and pasting for the small stuff. Copying a name and an address is much faster and more accurate than typing them into your letter by hand. Or, when somebody e-mails you a web address, copy and paste it directly into your browser’s Address bar. It’s easy to copy most items displayed on websites, too (much to the dismay of many professional photographers).

Selecting things to cut or copy

Before you can shuttle pieces of information to new places, you have to tell Windows exactly what you want to grab. The easiest way to tell it is to select the information with a mouse. In most cases, selecting involves one swift trick with the mouse, which then highlights whatever you’ve selected.

• To select text in a document, website, or spreadsheet: Put the mouse arrow or cursor at the beginning of the information you want and hold down the mouse button. Then move the mouse to the end of the information and release the button. That’s it! That action selects all the stuff lying between where you clicked and released, as shown in Figure 6-7.

  On a touchscreen, double-tap one word to select it. To extend your selection, touch the highlighted word again, keeping your finger pressed on the glass. Slide your finger along the glass until you’ve reached the area where the highlighting should stop. Done? Remove your finger to select that portion of text.

  Be careful after you highlight a bunch of text. If you accidentally press the K key, for example, the program replaces your highlighted text with the letter k. To reverse that calamity, choose Undo from the program’s Edit menu (or press Ctrl+Z, which is the keyboard shortcut for Undo).

• To select any files or folders: Simply click a file or folder to select it. To select several items, try these tricks:
  • If all the files are in a row: Click the first item in the bunch, hold down the Shift key, and then select the last item. Windows highlights the first and last items as well as everything in between.
  • If the files aren’t in a row: Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking each file or folder you want to select.

Now that you’ve selected the item, the next section explains how to cut or copy it.

• After you’ve selected something, cut it or copy it immediately. If you absentmindedly click the mouse someplace else, your highlighted text or file reverts to its boring self, and you’re forced to start over.

• To delete any selected item, be it a file, paragraph, or picture, press the Delete key. Alternatively, right-click the item and choose Delete from the pop-up menu.

Cutting or copying your selected goods

After you select some information (which I describe in the preceding section, in case you just arrived), you’re ready to start playing with it. You can cut it or copy it. (Or just press Delete to delete it.)

This bears repeating. After selecting something, right-click it. (On a touchscreen, touch it and hold down your finger to fetch the pop-up menu.) When the menu appears, choose Cut or Copy, depending on your needs, as shown in Figure 6-8. Then right-click your destination and choose Paste.

The Cut and Copy options differ drastically. How do you know which one to choose?

• Choose Cut to move information. Cutting wipes the selected information off the screen, but you haven’t lost anything: Windows stores the cut information in a hidden Windows storage tank called the Clipboard, waiting for you to paste it.

  Feel free to cut and paste entire files to different folders. When you cut a file from a folder, the icon dims until you paste it. (Making the icon disappear would be too scary.) Changed your mind in mid-cut? Press Esc to cancel the cut, and the icon reverts to normal.

• Choose Copy to make a copy of the information. Compared with cutting, copying information is quite anticlimactic. Whereas cutting removes the item from view, copying the selected item leaves it in the window, seemingly untouched. Copied information also goes to the Clipboard until you paste it.

To save a picture of your entire screen, press  +PrtScr. (Some keyboards call that key Print Screen or PrintScr.) Windows quickly saves the image in a file called Screenshot inside your Pictures folder. Do it again, and the screenshot is named Screenshot (2). (You get the idea.)

Pasting information to another place

After you cut or copy information to the Windows Clipboard, it’s checked in and ready for travel. You can paste that information nearly anyplace else.

Pasting is relatively straightforward:

1. Open the destination window and move the mouse pointer or cursor to the spot where you want the stuff to appear.

2. Right-click the mouse and choose Paste from the pop-up menu.

   Presto! The item you just cut or copied immediately leaps into its new spot.

Or, if you want to paste a file onto the desktop, right-click on the desktop and choose Paste. The cut or copied file appears where you’ve right-clicked.

• The Paste command inserts a copy of the information that’s sitting on the Clipboard. The information stays on the Clipboard, so you can keep pasting the same thing into other places if you want.

• To paste on a touchscreen, hold down your finger where you’d like to paste the information. When the menu pops up, tap Paste.

• Some programs, including File Explorer, have toolbars along their tops, offering one-click access to the Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons, as shown in Figure 6-9. (Hint: Look on File Explorer’s Home tab.)