Here's something we didn't realise would be this easy - running apps like Excel and Word on one screen, and new Windows 8 apps on the other.
If you're playing with Windows 8 but don’t like the swapping between the classic desktop (the one that looks like Windows 7) and the new tiled Windows 8 interface there is an easy way around it - use two computer monitors.
We've discussed the advantages of using two computer screens before, but with Windows 8 it's possible, and very easy, to set things up so that one screen displays the familiar desktop and the other shows Windows 8's new face.
The trick is to use the "Expand the Desktop" option in the display properties.
- You can get to those settings from either Control Panel or by right-clicking the desktop and choosing "Screen Resolution".
- Then choose which display will be the primary one: Under "Multiple Displays" choose the "Extend these displays" option so that you can use both screens rather than have the same information shown on both screens (which is the "Duplicate these Displays" option)
We found this really hand as there are a number of new Windows 8 apps we quite like, but we still need to fall back to desktop applications like Word and Excel. This way, you can run them side by side.
