We’ve all got a good look at the new Metro UI that comes with Windows 8 thanks to the developer preview which Microsoft has made available to download. I’m sure many of our readers have installed Windows 8 and played around with it a bit. I think the new Metro UI is quite good, but I’m still not going to make the jump to using Windows 8 as my main operating system just yet. However there is a way that you and I can have the cool Metro UI in our browsers. Read on to find out how.

Windows 8 Metro UI

A plugin called EIGHT for Firefox, Chrome, IE and Safari – (in fact any browser according to the developer ) will allow you to set your browser start page so it looks like the Metro UI.

This nifty little plugin was created by Ľubomír Krupa.  It provides quick and easy access to your favorite websites, and works similarly to the default start screens featured in a number of modern browsers. It’s very like Chrome’s and Safari’s only that it’s got the Metro UI instead. There’s plenty of customisation that you can do with the plugin as well.

Have a look at the video below to see it in action, and it also provides a detailed walk through on how to set it up

You’ll be able to customise this a good bit too, especially if you know a bit of code and CSS. You’ll be able to change the color scheme and such so as to match the current version of the Metro UI that Microsoft have in the Windows 8 developer preview.

You can download this plugin over at Deviant Art

Make Your Browser Start Screen Look Like Windows 8 Metro UI is a post from Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips - The Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumours & Screenshots. Visit Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumors, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

In an earlier article, we demonstrated how you could install the Windows 8 Developer Preview with a dual-boot setup if your computer does not support virtualization. Now many are asking the question “How do I uninstall this?” It can certainly get annoying when you restart your system and you have to go through the Developer Preview setup and then you have 30 seconds to decide which operating system you want to use. If this doesn’t bother you and you want to keep the Windows 8 Developer Preview on dual-boot that is fine. If you are wondering how to get rid of it, this tutorial will guide you. After all, you still have time to re-install, especially if you burned an ISO image to a DVD or USB device. This is especially important if you did not like the Preview. Many did not and many did. Let us take a look at how to remove it entirely.

Rather than using the command line to change the BCD settings, we will use a utility called EasyBCD. Download here.

This makes this entire process as easy as clicking “Next” and so on, much like you would do with any other utility. It automatically launches upon installation. We want to delete the Windows 8 Developer Preview from the BCD. In the left pane, you will notice a button labeled “Edit Boot Menu”. Click this button to begin.
However, before you “begin”, please backup your entire system. This is not without risk. The last thing you want is an unbootable PC.

Use reliable backup software and use an external destination drive for the backup. Create a boot disk and a disk image for your system. That way, if anything goes wrong, you can boot from the disk and use the backup for recovery. This is something that you should have established on your PC already. If you do not, stop now and take care of this. Moving forward, after clicking “Edit Boot Menu”, you will see this:

Notice that, on this system, there is a list of only two boot loaders. One is Windows 7 Professional and the other is the Windows Developer Preview. Select the Preview to highlight it and then click the delete button. Naturally, there will be a confirmation prompt. Choose “yes” if you have backed up your system and you are ready to go.

Windows 7 will be the only entry in the database and it will need to be set as the default option.

Under Timeout Options, select the button “Skip the boot menu” unless you have another operating system in the list, e.g. a Linux distribution.

So skip the boot menu and “Save Settings”. You should see that bootloader settings have been saved successfully. Now when you reboot, which would be the next step, you should boot directly into Windows 7.
If you used either a partition or a VHD for the allocated space to Windows 8 Developer Preview, you will need to reclaim that space using the Disk Management Console snap-in. Once you re-format a partition, all data will be lost. When the Disk Management Console is loaded (Windows key +R), delete the volume which contains Windows 8.

Now all you have to do is format the drive and you are done. You will see an empty partition noted by a black-scratch header. You are now finished!

Uninstall Windows 8 Developer Preview From a Dual-Boot Setup is a post from Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips - The Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumours & Screenshots. Visit Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumors, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

I’m sure plenty of you have installed the Windows 8 developer preview. So far it seems that people are more than happy with it, however I’m slightly annoyed with the new Metro UI at times because I’m only using it on my laptop without a touchscreen. I’m sure the experience is completely different on a touchscreen but I am yet to try it out so until then I’ll reserve my comment on it.

I’ve found it difficult at times to do simply things like even shutting down Windows 8 or searching for things. With Windows 7 it’s as simple as going to the start menu and everything is at your fingertips. But now everytime I click on that start menu it flips back to the Metro UI. That sent me looking for a solution, I wanted to be able to turn off the metro UI and that lead me to MetroController. It allows you to disable some or even all of the new Metro features in Windows 8.

This is a handy little piece of software. It allows you to either

• Disable Metro UI, Start Screen, Explorer Ribbon UI and Enable the Old Start Menu
• Or you can just disable the Metro UI, Start Screen and Bring back the old Start Menu but still keep the new Explorer Ribbon UI

Metro Controller

Download

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When I first made it to the Windows 8 Start screen desktop, I was a little confused about the different navigation shortcuts and techniques for finding my way around the menus and screens. While many of the old Windows shortcuts still work, there are some new ones to use. This is my next… has posted an article that details Windows 8 on a laptop with a keyboard and mouse as the means for navigation. What’s even more helpful is the list of shortcuts they have compiled which may help you guys with navigation. Here is the list:

• The Start button takes you to Start Screen and lets you toggle between open apps
• Alt-Tab cycles through apps in sequence, as usual
• Arrow keys allow you to move through the Start screen
• Windows + C brings up the Charm menu, as does hovering over the lower-left hand corner of the screen
• Windows + F brings up the Search screen, though simply typing (when on the Start screen) is more convenient
• Windows + Z in a fullscreen app brings up the contextual menus
• Windows + D takes you to the desktop
• Windows + L locks the PC, invoking the lock screen
• Windows + P pulls up multi-monitor settings
• Windows + I brings up the Settings charm
• Windows + E invokes Windows Explorer, as ever
• Windows + R brings up the Run prompt
• Windows + Y makes all your open windows (and the Metro UI) transparent, so you can see the desktop beneath
• Windows + X shows Windows Mobility Center, which appears to serve much the same role as the Settings charm but on the desktop instead
• The Scroll wheel pans across Start screen, slowly
• Right-click brings up contextual menus in a full screen app
• Left-click on the Start screen brings up options to unpin, resize and uninstall apps
• Ctrl-Alt-Delete summons a screen with options to shut down, switch users, log off or quickly open the Task Manager

Hopefully these shortcuts help you guys. I know I needed a few of them to help with navigation. Feel free to post some of your own in the comments below.

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Have you visited the Windows 8 Forum?  If not, then maybe you should today.  There are nearly 4,000 active users in the forum that we share with our sister site Windows 7 News, and a number of Windows 8 posts and rumours are starting to appear.

Register Now!

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