In Windows 7, Winkey + Tab triggered a unique task switcher called Windows Flip 3D. That action is no longer available in Windows 8.
• Keyboard: This is, by far, the easiest way. Just tap Winkey + Tab to activate Switcher. You can hold down Winkey and repeatedly tap Tab to navigate through each of the various available apps. Just let go of Tab when you find the one to which you want to switch.
• Mouse: Move the mouse cursor to the upper-left corner of the screen to activate the Back experience as described previously. Then, move the mouse cursor down the left edge of the screen to activate Switcher and select the app to which you’d like switch.
Note that there is a subtle indication that the Switcher is waiting for you when you engage Back; as you can see in Figure 4-8, there are a few app thumbnail outlines barely visible down the left edge of the screen.
• Touch: This is the hardest one of all. You need to swipe in from the left side of the screen as if you are going to switch to the previously used app. When the previous app thumbnail appears under your finger, move back to the left until Switcher appears. If you do it just right, Switcher will actually dock on the screen and stay there until you do something.
Figure 4-8: Look closely, and you’ll see a hint that Switcher is available.
While Switcher is visible on the screen, either by being docked with touch or just by being made visible with the mouse, there are some additional capabilities you can use. These include the following:
This will not work with Start or the desktop, only Metro-style apps.
• Removing an app from the Back stack: If you’d like to remove a Metro-style app from the Back stack—effectively closing or quitting it—you can do so by dragging its thumbnail out of Switcher and down to the bottom of the screen. You can do this with the mouse or touch input types.
You can also remove apps from the Back stack by right-clicking and choosing Close.
• Snapping an app for use in side-by-side mode: As described next, Windows 8 supports a unique side-by-side screen sharing mode called Snap that lets you use two apps next to each other on-screen. There are a few different ways to enable this functionality, as you’ll see, but if you’d like to snap a previous app that’s visible in the Switcher to a side of the screen alongside the current app (or desktop), you can right-click it in the Switcher and choose either Snap left or Snap right, as shown in Figure 4-9.
Figure 4-9: A power user method for snapping secondary apps to a side of the screen
Don’t worry if the notion of side-by-side apps is confusing. That’s right: Side-by-side is our next topic.
With all this new task switching goodness, you may be thinking that good old Windows Flip—the familiar Alt + Tab task switcher that dates back decades—is on life support in Windows 8. Not so fast. As it turns out, Windows Flip has some important advantages over Switcher, particularly for those who will be spending a lot of time in the desktop. And since Microsoft sees Metro and the desktop coexisting for the foreseeable future, we think it’s fair to say that Windows Flip has some life left in it indeed.
The key advantage of this interface is that it differentiates between multiple desktop applications as well as individual Metro-style apps. So if you have Microsoft Word and File Explorer windows open on the desktop, and Mail and Calendar open in the Metro runtime environment, and then engage Windows Flip, you’ll see five items: Word, Explorer, Mail, Calendar, and Desktop. But in Switcher, you’ll see just three: Mail, Calendar, and Start. (This assumes you activate Switcher from the desktop.) There are no desktop applications—or even the desktop itself—available in Switcher if you use it from the desktop.
This means that Switcher isn’t of use to individual desktop applications at all, especially if you activate it while using the desktop. So Windows Flip will remain a frequently used tool for all desktop users in Windows 8.
That said, it is a bit curious that Start doesn’t appear in the Windows Flip task list. But keyboard users simply need to use the Windows key instead.
Snap: Side-by-Side Apps
The new Metro environment in Windows 8 is designed for apps that run full screen, similar to how smartphone and tablet device apps work. But Windows 8 kicks things up a notch by offering a special side-by-side mode in which two apps can share the screen, albeit in limited ways. And one of those two apps can be the desktop, which is why we’re discussing it here.
Yes, we’re sure this name is an allusion to the Aero Snap window docking feature that debuted in Windows 7 and is still available on the Windows 8 desktop.
Sadly, side-by-side display sharing is not particularly customizable. You can have just two apps, and the one that is considered the primary app takes up about two-thirds of the available on-screen real estate. Meanwhile, the secondary app is stuck with just one-third, roughly, of the available space. Apps that are side by side in this fashion are said to snap into place.
Confused? A picture will make things clearer. Consider Figure 4-10, in which Microsoft’s Calendar (Metro-style) app is snapped next to the Windows desktop.
That configuration in the previous figure is one of two possible ways in which a snapped, or secondary, app can be snapped in place next to another app. The other, of course, has the snapped app placed on the right side of the screen, as shown in Figure 4-11. Which side you use is a matter of taste.
Figure 4-10: You can snap Metro-style apps next to the desktop.
Figure 4-11: You can also snap Metro-style apps to the right of the desktop.
So why would you ever want to snap the desktop? The best reason we’ve seen is to monitor a download that’s occurring in a desktop-based web browser. But frankly, it’s not very useful otherwise.
Conversely, it’s also possible for the Windows desktop to be the snapped, or secondary, app. However, when you enable this view, as in Figure 4-12, you’ll notice that the snapped desktop only displays thumbnails of the available open windows and isn’t too useful.
Figure 4-12: You can even snap the desktop.
One interface you can’t snap is the Start screen. And to be honest, such a capability would be truly useful, since it could provide a snapped list of tiles with live updates. Maybe in Windows 9.
The new side-by-side app mode can be enabled in various ways, but here are some instructions for the common input types. In each case, it’s best to launch the app you intend to use in the secondary, or snapped, mode first and then launch the app you intend to use as the primary app. Then you can use one of the following techniques to enable the snap mode:
• Mouse: Move the mouse cursor to the upper-left corner of the screen to display the Back thumbnail. Then, while holding down the mouse button, drag the thumbnail downward. It will turn into a larger, floating thumbnail, as shown in Figure 4-13, and the side-by-side Snap bar will appear.