Change Location Of Default Screenshot Folder

One of the many new bright spots of Windows 8 is the freshly designed screenshot feature. You no longer need to launch the Snipping Tool or any third-party screenshot app like Greenshot for the purpose; simply press Win + Print screen and everything is taken care of; this hotkey saves a snapshot of any on-screen activity to the Screenshots folder under your Pictures library. By default, the screenshots are saved in C:\Users\(user-name)\Pictures\Screenshots directory. If you’re looking for a way to move this folder to a different location on your computer, there’s a fairly easy solution for that. In what follows, we will guide you through the process of changing the screenshot folder, as well as restoring it back to its default location.


Open the Screenshot folder by heading over to the following directory in File Explorer.

C:\Users\(user-name)\Pictures\Screenshots

Right-click in this window and select Properties from the context menu.

The Screenshot Properties window consists of four tabs; General, Sharing, Security and Location. Our target here is the Location tab. Click this tab, followed by clicking the Move button as demonstrated in the screenshot below.

Now select the directory that you want to move the default folder to. You can select any folder of your choice but it’s advisable to choose a location that is both accessible and easy to remember. After selecting the directory, click the ‘Select Folder’ button.

You will notice that the output location has been changed to the new location. Click OK to apply the changes.

A ‘Move Folder’ dialog box will pop up. Click Yes to complete the process. From now on, all the screenshots you capture will be saved to the new directory.

Restore Default Location Of The Screenshot Folder

In case you want to revert your changes, restoring the Screenshots folder back to its original location is even easier. Just go to the location where you moved the folder in the preceding steps, right-click the Screenshot directory and select Properties from the context menu.

Under the Location tab, click the ‘Restore Default’ button and then click OK.

Windows will prompt you that the folder doesn’t exist anymore, and offer you to create it. Simply click Yes, which in turn will recreate the Screenshot folder and move all the files back to it.

Afterwards, click Yes in the ‘Move Folder’ dialog to complete the restore process.

Source: Addictivetips

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How to Use a PIN Instead of a Password in Windows 8

Entering your full password on a touch screen device can really become a pain in the neck, luckily for us we can link a short 4 digit PIN to our user account and log in with that instead.

Note: PIN codes are nowhere near as safe as using an alphanumeric password, however, they do still have a purpose when you don’t want to enter your 15 character password on a touch screen device.

Creating a PIN

Press the Win + I keyboard combination to bring up the Settings Charm, then click on the Change PC settings link.

This will open up the Modern UI PC Settings app, where you can click on the Users section.

On the right hand side you will see a Create a PIN button, click on it.

Now you will need to verify that you are the owner of this user account by entering your password.

Then you can choose a PIN, remember that it can only contain digits.

Now when you get to the login screen you will have the option to use a PIN.

Good luck!

Source: Howtogeek

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How to Disable Screen Auto-Rotation in Windows 8

Windows 8 is strongly aimed at tablets, most of which allow use in both landscape and portrait orientations. Depending on your personal preference, you may wish to disable this auto-rotating behavior. Here’s how to do it.

Note: While testing out devices we noticed that the setting to disable screen rotation isn’t available on all devices, so we have provided a way to disable it in the registry as well.

Disable it Using the Brightness Slider

If you open up the Charms Bar’s Settings option or use the WIN + I keyboard shortcut, you can use the Brightness control to lock the screen.

It’s worth noting that we’ve seen some instances where the auto-rotate button didn’t appear here when it should.

Disable it Using the Keyboard

It couldn’t get much simpler than this – if you are using a device with a keyboard attached, you can simply use the WIN + O (the letter, not zero) to toggle Auto-Rotation on or off.  Obviously this isn’t going to work on a tablet unless you have a keyboard attached, and we’re not certain it works on all devices.

Disable it Using the GUI

Right click on your Desktop and select the Screen resolution option from the context menu.

When the Control Panel applet loads, uncheck the Allow the screen to auto-rotate checkbox.

Then click OK.

Disable Using the Tablet Button (if available)

Some tablets have a button that allows you to quickly disable the auto-rotate function. You’ll need to check your manual to see if one of the buttons is meant for that function.

Disable it Using the Registry

Alternatively you could disable it using the registry. To do so, press the Win + R keyboard combination to open a run box, then type regedit and hit enter.

When the Registry Editor opens, navigate down to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AutoRotation

On the right hand side you will see a value called Enable, right click on it and select modify from the context menu.

If your device currently has rotation enabled it will be set to 1. To disable it, change it to 0 then click OK.

That’s all there is to it.

Source: Howtogeek

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How to Change the Window Border Size in Windows 8

The window borders on Windows 8’s desktop are fairly thick by default, but they don’t have to be – you can customize the side of the window borders with an easy-to-use application or a quick registry tweak.

You can shrink the window borders and make them fairly thin, just as they were on previous versions of Windows. Or you can increase the window border size and make them extremely thick, if you prefer..

Tiny Window Borders

To resize the window borders without editing the registry yourself, download Tiny Window Borders for Windows 8 from WinAero. The application requires no installation – just double-click the .exe file in the archive to run it.

To shrink the borders, reduce the border width and padding by dragging the sliders to the left. Click the Apply button and your borders will shrink instantly.

You can also make the window borders ridiculously large, if you like.

To use the default settings again, set Border Width to 1 and Border Padding to 4.

Registry Edit

You can also modify the window border width and padding from the registry without using any third-party software. First, open the Registry Editor by pressing the Windows key, typing regedit, and pressing Enter.

Navigate to the following key in the Registry Editor:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

You’ll need to modify the following two values in the right pane: BorderWidth and PaddedBorderWidth

To make your window borders as small as possible, double-click BorderWidth and set it to 0, and then double-click PaddedBoderWidth and set it to 0.

Sign out and sign back in to activate your new window border width.

To use the default window border width again, set BorderWidth to -15 and PaddedBorderWidth to -60.

Source: Howtogeek

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