Finding Windows 8 Programs

Yes, the All Programs is missing from the Start button. What you have with Windows 8 is a whole Start Screen. Ewwwwww! I don't know about you, but it isn't my favorite screen. I really miss browsing through the All Programs part of the old Start Menu.

Let's look at what we do have now. If you move your mouse pointer down to the very bottom of the Start screen of Windows 8.1 (that's what I have), you will see a horizontal scrollbar appear. Whenever you see any scrollbar, it is an indication there is more to be seen. Scroll to the right and you will see that Start screen is only a part of what is available. Your Windows 8 Start screen actually extends a lot, depending on what you have installed on your machine. Every time you install something, that something will pin a representative icon (little rectangle looking thing) on your Start Screen. If you right click on it (good old right mouse button) you will see (image on the right) there are some interesting (new) things you can do in this area.

To the left is a rough idea of how the "old" program files list appeared. It is my husband's machine with the latest version of Windows 8 on it, but a few of my favorite "cheater" programs on it so he has the comfort of seeing it more like something he is used to.

Right clicking on a program icon in the old style menu gave you quite a few choices, depending on software you have installed, etc. The new one lets you know it is a program icon that is "pinned" to the Start menu screen, and gives you the option to "unpin" it. There is also an option to Uninstall the program you have right clicked on. Now that sure beats going to the Programs area and wading through all your programs just to uninstall something. You don't have these two options in the older view.

Look Again... From the main Start Screen, look in the bottom left area for a down pointing arrow. If you have installed anything new, you will see a little reminder here. Click the little arrow (left single click) and a whole new way of looking at everything you have installed on your machine will appear.

Oh yes! Now this is more like it, even if it is a bit of an overkill and takes up your entire screen. Here you will see (and be able to scroll with your left or right arrow on your keyboard to see it all) ALL the software you have installed on your machine, in nice alphabetical order. This area looks odd, but at least it is a way to browse through all your installed stuff on your machine. Clicking on any of the icons will cause that program to run. Right clicking gives you an added option to "pin" the program icon to your main Start Screen (and will give it a larger icon. If it is already pinned to the Start Screen, you will have the option to "unpin" it. Same thing goes for the taskbar. I would think you want to keep the main Start screen lean and mean so you have easy access to your most used programs, You could use this when you need access to everything. Same thing goes for the Taskbar. It could get really crowded really fast if you aren't careful.