Start Screen, Desktop, File Explorer confusion

During a live seminar, we point out the differences between

Start Screen (first image below) This is the new screen that causes much confusion.

Start's app selector (first image below, see the arrow at the bottom of screen capture) This is also new.

Desktop (second image below)

File Explorer (third image below)

The first thing people complain about when first encountering Windows 8 is the Start screen. Some people experience fear and loathing! This web page attempts to show you how to get to the familiar Desktop and File Explorer.

There are hidden controls in the corners of the screens that allow you to do various things. In a live seminar, we let you switch between Start and Desktop, use of ALT-F4 to close a program. We show you how to pin your most-used programs to the Start screen. For John, these are Wordpad, Notepad, and Paint.

This is the familiar Desktop. The default wallpaper or background is not the bland purple that I chose for this screen capture. The default might be quite distracting. You can change the background by right clicking away from icons, then click on Personalize.

From Desktop, click on the file folder at the bottom edge to get into the familiar File Explorer.

The two Storage Spaces that are set up on this Win 8.1 computer are disks D: and E:. You can see that they are locked by BitLocker. Both D: and E: are software RAID, one striped and one mirrored. They are built up from a storage pool of three Seagate drives. The pool is not all used up, more Storage Spaces can be configured from leftover space.

The Start screen is where you can type in a program or search term without first clicking in a text box. The example here is getting into the C: drive without going through the Desktop and File Explorer.

The Start screen is especially for tablet and smart phone users, whereas Desktop and File Explorer are more for computers with large screens.