Lock Screen
The moment you switch on your Windows 8 PC, you will realise it is nothing like any Windows you know. The first thing you encounter is the lock screen which can be unlocked using a number of different ways like the traditional password, or different customisable gestures. You can also customise the lock screen to show either weather or a calendar at all times. Further any seven apps can be customised to send push notifications to the lock screen.
Start Screen
This is the most vibrant screen you have ever seen on any PC. All the apps on your PC are shown as colourful tiles that you can re-arrange and re-size. These tiles are not just static tiles, but are live with information they are pulling from the apps. Photos, tweets, Facebook wall postings, weather, you choose it and your tile keeps updating live giving you the latest information without having to jump into the individual app. You can also pin whatever you like to the start screen, so that your favorite websites, or music are just a click/touch away.
Gestures and Charms
Windows 8 includes a lot of gestures by either using specially designed mouse, track pads on laptops or using fingers on touch screens. While you can pinch and zoom like any other mobile OS, a great feature of Windows 8 is semantic zoom which lets you zoom out completely so you can see a high-level view of whichever screen you are on thereby reducing your scrolling time. You can also swipe in from left to switch apps, and from left to bring on charms which are easy access buttons for search, share, start screen and for devices and settings.
System-wide search
If you want to find anything on Windows 8, just start typing and it jumps into the system-wide search. With this feature you can search in any files and folders, apps, and even settings. And if you know that what you are searching for is not on your computer, just tap the Bing or Market button to search for something on the Internet or for apps on the Windows market.
Sharing
Windows 8 recognises that you want to share stuff. So whichever app you are in, it brings system-wide sharing to social networks like Twitter and Facebook and more traditional sharing options like e-mail. It also allows app-to-app sharing. So if you copy some text from a website you can share it with a notepad, thereby doing away with copy and paste.