Exit Developer Preview Apps (aka Closing Metro Apps)

Question

Good day!

Started to try out the developer preview for Windows 8 and one thing I have noticed or haven't seen, I cannot exit apps, instead, I could just switch from one app to another. For control Panel as well, there is no option to exit.

Answer 1

yeah has anyone figured this out yet how to exit an app??

btw the tweet app doesnt work for me either.

 

-gob

Answer 2

Good question.  I haven't figure it out either, except by pressing the "Windows" Key and then Ctrl-Alt-Del to open the Task Manager.  LOL.

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Answer 3

It's not really necessary to close the applications, all metro apps will be paused when they aren't active so at most they would use up some ram. On a normal keyboard/mouse environment the Alt+F4 combo does work for closing any application.

Answer 4

As I understand, Metro Apps can't be properly closed at the moment. Except for ending the task in the task manager, Metro Apps just go into their frozen state.

 

This is a REALLY bad feature, in my opinion. Imagine having 30 metro apps running on top of the app developer programs. You'd have 30 or more things to alt+tab through. It would be ostentatious at best.

Answer 5

still downloading my copy so i cant be sure but have you tried the app bar? the one that pops up from the bottom? 

Answer 6

I found this a little disturbing.

 

Not that I dont trust the system about ressource managment, but at this time I try this Preview via a virtualized installation on my Hyper-V R2 server and as I access to the VM through RDP Windows Key press is not always send to the RDP host (when I'm not in full screen view windows shortcut are for the main system on the client computer).

So I'm stuck on the metro App without any way to exit or go back to main screen. Needed to send CTRL+ALT+DEL command to kill the app or logoff-logon to go to main screen.
Worst: the weather app doesn't show on the task manager: how can I kill it ? 

 

I think that's really not a good idea to not have any button or way to exit (or go back to main screen) an app on the GUI

Answer 7

I found this a little disturbing.

 

Not that I dont trust the system about ressource managment, but at this time I try this Preview via a virtualized installation on my Hyper-V R2 server and as I access to the VM through RDP Windows Key press is not always send to the RDP host (when I'm not in full screen view windows shortcut are for the main system on the client computer).

So I'm stuck on the metro App without any way to exit or go back to main screen. Needed to send CTRL+ALT+DEL command to kill the app or logoff-logon to go to main screen.
Worst: the weather app doesn't show on the task manager: how can I kill it ? 

 

I think that's really not a good idea to not have any button or way to exit (or go back to main screen) an app on the GUI

I had that problem to but realized its an RDP setting. If you go to the Local Resources tab of the RDP connection settings you can specify if you want Windows key combinations only in full screen, local computer, or remote computer. Once I changed that it saved me. Note: That will only help you if you are connected through RDP if you are at the Hyper-v console it wont work I had the same problem once I was in a Metro app I couldn't back out.

Answer 8

Yea, exiting is really way better than having the app paused. 

Answer 9

You can go back to the start screen from any metro app by mousing to the bottom left corner of the screen and clicking start when the menu comes up. As for actually closing the apps, don't there there is a way yet, but don't forget this isn't even beta yet.

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Matt Kleinwaks - MSMVP MSDN Forums Moderator - www.zerosandtheone.com

Answer 10

You can go back to the start screen from any metro app by mousing to the bottom left corner of the screen and clicking start when the menu comes up. As for actually closing the apps, don't there there is a way yet, but don't forget this isn't even beta yet.

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Matt Kleinwaks - MSMVP MSDN Forums Moderator - www.zerosandtheone.com

I don't see any menu when i mouse over the bottom left corner 

Maybe because of the RDP windows.. weird !

Answer 11

I had that problem to but realized its an RDP setting. If you go to the Local Resources tab of the RDP connection settings you can specify if you want Windows key combinations only in full screen, local computer, or remote computer. Once I changed that it saved me. Note: That will only help you if you are connected through RDP if you are at the Hyper-v console it wont work I had the same problem once I was in a Metro app I couldn't back out.

I did the same settings, but usually I prefere to have Windows shortcut managed by the main system and not by the RDP windows.

Answer 12

I think the idea here is that users don't have to manage apps. As a workaround for now: Alt + F4 closes the apps

Answer 13

I understand the idea, but in practice it's annoying when you want to switch quickly between two apps and it thinks you have 20 open.

 

I said this elsewhere, but I think the solution is to put an X in the top right on mouseover, like the start button in the bottom left.

 

With touch, it'd be easy to swipe from the top to show that (whereas currently swiping from the top duplicates swiping from the bottom).

Answer 14

I don't see any menu when i mouse over the bottom left corner. Maybe because of the RDP windows.. weird !

Me neither. And I can't get the "charms" bar to appear either. Like you, I'm running under Hyper-V.

Answer 15

Um, Alt-F4 does NOT close Metro apps.

There is no way to manually exit them except via something like Task Manager or Process Explorer.

I know that MSFT wants to use the whole "freeze dry" and "rehydration" thing where apps are suspended to avoid resource usage when they are not active, and that the OS will exit apps as it sees fit after periods of inactivity and/or resource constraints.

But there is a problem of task switching.  Alt-Tab and swipe become overcrowded with apps that I am no longer using.  And if the OS closes an app that I really did intend to return to, I need to relaunch it instead of switching to it.

Furthermore, people are used to the paradigm of closing apps.  Even if MSFT wants to move away from that, at the very least, they should give people an illusion of doing so (e.g., a close button might do nothing more than switch to the start screen and suspend the app).

Answer 16

Yea, I have my task manager always up. Having so much apps running may be very irritating especially when switching from app to app. Wouldn't it take reasonable amount of memory even though it is "paused"?

Answer 17

The idea is Metro Style apps are not closed. The system takes care of keeping the apps from consuming background resources automatically. You can examine the app lifetime information in the developer documentation if you'd like.

Thanks very much to everyone here for the good feedback.

Alt+F4 only works in the dev tools integrated builds as a developer feature and is not a general mechanism. Again thanks for the feedback.

Answer 18

I think you should add something similar as we have on Windows Phone when pressing the back arrow button for a while. I think you could do the same but with the windows flag button; pressing for a while, we could have a switching apps interface similar as shown with win+tab but "more metroish"

Answer 19

Hey Microsoft, love everything so far but I've got some thoughts on this feature.

WP7 also uses the method of auto managing apps for you and imo experience it works great, I've never had my phone run out of resources and don't ever recall missing an app that has been pushed out of memory to make space for another. Not bad for 512mb of ram so I can see the idea behind doing the same with potentially 4gb+ of ram on the PC, however because we have more ram to play with obviously more apps can lie in the suspended state making switching between them a difficult and unsure process.

What we need is a Mango style app switcher that is perhaps activated using a two finger swipe instead of the one for Back. WP7 tried this method you guys are doing now of going back to Start constantly to change apps and it's was clear that this never really worked and became tiring after the first hour of play (hence the switcher in Mango).

I'd hate to have to wait until Windows 9 to get this so get it in now! Please. :)

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On another note how about in said app switcher we can use a gesture to remove the apps from the list (not closing, simply removing) similar to that of dismissing notifications where it springs off the screen. This way apps can still run, but the user can maintain a personalized list of frequently used apps that they can manage nicely and switch between quickly and confidently at will.

WP7 has shown me that the OS managing apps can work but that doesn't mean ALL control should be taken away from the user, we should still get a say in what is running and what isn't, keep it in memory by all means but make it possible for the user to switch between these apps in a manner other than going Back and trying to blindly remember how far back a certain app they're looking for is. The method now doesn't instill confidence in the user and quickly becomes a pot-luck scenario.

Just some food for thought.

Answer 20

The idea is Metro Style apps are not closed. The system takes care of keeping the apps from consuming background resources automatically. 

This is missing the point of why users depend on task managing (not using the actually task manager). The idea of suspended apps are fine but when you don't give users that extra control of closing them you lose sight of what is important with Windows. This may work on a portable device like a phone or tablet but certainly not for a desktop operating system.

Users running Windows 8 on the desktop are going to be opening several apps at a time, seeing all those apps running when we only needed to "glance" at them for a while is pointless even at a frozen state. Another scenario is privacy, what if we want to let someone use the computer temporarily but not have access to those opened Metro apps? Would also be nice to have password protection (using pin) on selected Metro apps if user wants it.

Answer 21

I wish Win 8 had a soft "back" button on the "charms" bar. When pressed it would bring up a Windows Phone 7.5 "cards view" or something like "alt + tab" that showed all your open "cards" and they had little "x" with a circle around them to close them out. it would make switching a little bit easier than launching the "Start screen" again or having to cycle through all the open apps. Anybody else like this solution?

Answer 22

As others have mentioned already, the main problem with an inability to close is polluting the task switching mechanisms (either with Alt+Tab or with the left side swipe), if you're running your PC for several days pretty soon all of your apps will appear when you attempt to task switch. I think a default 'close' button in the swipe-up app bar should be a minimum requirement if you can't come up with a better close metaphor.

 

 

Answer 23

What if I want a music application (pandora, last.fm, local media player) to still play music in the background when I switch away from the application and go do other stuff?

Even worse, what if an application starts playing an obnoxious sound and I really really want it to stop, but I can't unless I go to the Desktop, open Task Manager and terminate its process?

We need the option to permanently close applications. What is currently in the developer preview build is the complete opposite of "being in control of my PC".

Answer 24

Wow, people are hard headed ;)

Press the windows key, that takes you back to the ribbon, pick which app you want to jump to off the ribbon. 

Stop thinking "alt tab".

My CPU gadget from win 7 works fine in win8, I put it in the same place on the 2nd monitor. I'm not seeing resources chewed up by apps that are suspended.

Answer 25

The idea is Metro Style apps are not closed. The system takes care of keeping the apps from consuming background resources automatically. You can examine the app lifetime information in the developer documentation if you'd like.

Thanks very much to everyone here for the good feedback.

Alt+F4 only works in the dev tools integrated builds as a developer feature and is not a general mechanism. Again thanks for the feedback.

I see you guys are sticking to this as intended behavior.  But honestly, re-think that idea.  As others have pointed out task switching will become a hassle.  If we want to close an app when we're done, we should have the option.  Maybe we don't want to flip through so many apps to get to what we want.

To me it's not about resource management - that part is awesome.  It's simply having control.

Answer 26

As others have mentioned already, the main problem with an inability to close is polluting the task switching mechanisms (either with Alt+Tab or with the left side swipe), if you're running your PC for several days pretty soon all of your apps will appear when you attempt to task switch. I think a default 'close' button in the swipe-up app bar should be a minimum requirement if you can't come up with a better close metaphor.

totally agree with this option. app bar seems like a logical place to put this option. propsed as answer. ",

Answer 27

Wow, people are hard headed ;)

Press the windows key, that takes you back to the ribbon, pick which app you want to jump to off the ribbon. 

Stop thinking "alt tab".

This is not an issue of being hardheaded; its looking for the easiest way to accomplish things. Your example does work; but what if said app. is located somewhere at the last of the several Metro screens?

All that time you now spend on dragging could have been used to simply select the app. you want.

Don't forget: normally the list of opened applications is a lot shorter than the list of available applications.

 

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With kind regards, Peter

Answer 28

Please consider adding the option to close and track running Apps without resorting to the task manager. For example add a group for all running apps (as in IE tab window grouping in Win7) on the App bar in the Desktop and being able to use Alt+F4 inside the app.

You could add a close option when nudging tiles on the start page to accommodate tablets (I'm not 100% on the mechanics there as I don't have a touch device).

When I launched the apps from the metro interface in the developer preview I felt I lost a lot of control compared to my regular Windows experience and I feel that there is no good reason for it. Apples IOS added a method for closing apps when they introduced multitasking, please don't take a step backwards.

 

Answer 29

What if I want a music application (pandora, last.fm, local media player) to still play music in the background when I switch away from the application and go do other stuff?

Even worse, what if an application starts playing an obnoxious sound and I really really want it to stop, but I can't unless I go to the Desktop, open Task Manager and terminate its process?

We need the option to permanently close applications. What is currently in the developer preview build is the complete opposite of "being in control of my PC".

I'd be fine with the way it works now *IF* they properly suspended an app. All of the "games" that come with the Win8 Dev Preview continue to play their annoying sounds when navigated away. Have to open task manager to kill it to shut it up. This needs a fix fast.

Answer 30

Inside of a regular, non-full-screen, RDP client, you can use alt-home as the Windows key.

Answer 31

I don't see any menu when i mouse over the bottom left corner. Maybe because of the RDP windows.. weird !

Me neither. And I can't get the "charms" bar to appear either. Like you, I'm running under Hyper-V.

I finally was able to see the left-bottom corner menu with my Win7 Desktop client whith launching the rdp client in full screen mode

Answer 32

Consider this yet another vote for the fact that there needs to be some way to intentionally exit Metro style apps.   Given that it should be uniform across all such apps, I would suggest it should be one more Charm added to the standard list.  

Not having this exposed is completely contrary to the theme of user control and customizability that appears to pervade the rest of the Metro design language.

Answer 33

If you're annoyed by having to alt-tab though the suspended metro apps, the solution is in Control Panel, in the Privacy section of all places. Set App history to 0 to not see any metro apps, or 1 to be able to alt-tab to the last one you used.

Answer 34

This is such a bad idea - removing the user's control over open apps.

Answer 35

It becomes pretty annoying to keep swiping through apps that I only wanted to do something in briefly. I've found myself using Task Manager a fair bit just to close apps.

Answer 36

This pre beta build dosent have an exit option still, you can kill the process thru task manager or just swap the apps, hope to see exit feature in future builds,,,

Answer 37

For me its ok that automatically get suspended but WHY they consume memory suspended?

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Juan Pablo G.C. MAP 2010 MCTS

Answer 38

If you're annoyed by having to alt-tab though the suspended metro apps, the solution is in Control Panel, in the Privacy section of all places. Set App history to 0 to not see any metro apps, or 1 to be able to alt-tab to the last one you used.

I'm glad that this works, but I'd hate for it to be the only way to keep my task switcher clean.

Answer 39

You can go back to the start screen from any metro app by mousing to the bottom left corner of the screen and clicking start when the menu comes up. As for actually closing the apps, don't there there is a way yet, but don't forget this isn't even beta yet.

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Matt Kleinwaks - MSMVP MSDN Forums Moderator - www.zerosandtheone.com

I think I can accept not being able to close an app. But at least I should be able to minimize/hide it in a quicker way than having to hover the mouse onto the bottom left, then click. Or will we rely on some HW "home button-like" thing to do this?

Answer 40

Having system to manage resources used by apps is a good thing and it works on other platforms too such as iphones, ipads, winphone7 and so on.

But on all of these platforms the vendors later on came with a solution for quick task switching. Why? Because users want to be in control of a short list of apps they "consider" to be running and they want to switch to quickly.

Users want to manage this list and therefore both apple and winphone7 allow users to remove apps from this list. In this way user thinks that the app has been closed and is happy. It doesnt necesarilly have to be killed as a process but at least i dont want to see it in the list of apps i am currently using. In apple you can remove it from taskbar or how it is called and in winphone you can even think you are closing the app by hitting the back button.

I cannot imagine that after a full day at work i come home and the list of apps i am runing and to which i can swipe to has 36 items. This makes me make decisions like: "hmm i have today used an app that is three screens to the right at start menu but it could be 17 swipes to the left or 18 to the right, how do i switch to it now?". You suggest the users not to restart the computer so does that mean that the list of "running apps" will grow indefinitelly? if not who will decide what is on the list? System or the user?

It seems to me that you are going the "system decides" and not the "user decides" way but i honestly believe people will hate you for that.

I suggest you maintain a list of "running apps".

• Every Metro app you start from start menu is added to this list
• After user presses Back or Close button  on app A (an left pointing arrow as seen on zune) user goes back to start screen or to the previous app on list and app A is removed from the list.
• The user can swipe to apps on the running apps list.
• If you swipe from app A to app B. App A remains on the list.
• User can show this list as on winphone by a gesture and/or keyboard shortcut and switch to an app that is on the list quickly and even remove an app from the list directly.

This way user can micromanage a short list of apps he considers to be running and can feel to be in control. Although the apps not on list may still be running as if this list didnt even exist.

Answer 41

I'm not usually one to complain about features, as i know that there has usually been a lot of thought gone into changes like this, but on this occasion, i have to say i'm really not a fan of this choice. The problem is control... I'm not a noob to computing, I'm perfectly capable of managing what applications i do and don't want open and when, and by having this extra process step in and baby-sit how i manage what i'm doing, I loose control over what my computer is doing.

This is the main issue that i have with android 3.x, as it decides what's open and what's not, everything becomes sluggish as programs that you don't want, hang around in the background taking up memory. 

I do hope this is changed, as going into task manager to close a metro application is a tremendous waist of time, and even then certain things like control panel are hard to distinguish from other processes task manager, so end up hanging around in your alt+tab menu.

Other than that i like allot of the new features and changes made to windows 8, and it's be sad to have it spoilt by silly things like this.

Martin

Answer 42

I tried to install Adobe Flash. But with IE running as Metro it can't be shut down easily. So a simple thing turns into a complicated detour to the task manager.

Answer 43

Why does the Escape key do nothing?

-Noel

Answer 44

I agree that a "kill" option needs to be created. Being able to freeze my metro apps is all well and good, but it can take forever to get from IE to Notespace to Inkspace to Piano to Copper and back to IE. There needs to be a murder button.

 

Suggestion: Top right corner, right above the scroll bar. Could be contextual, with a Kill/Flip drop-down

Answer 45

In the developer preview, the metro does not look to be user-friendly for mouse-lovers. There are still many in the world who do not use smartphones or tablets    :-)

Answer 46

IMHO Windows 8 should have an easy way to kill Metro Style Apps.  Suppose I started one by mistake or I am through using one. I just want the task to be removed!  Also, I am new to Metro Style apps and I have been seeing that when you leave the app the system pauses it. Well suppose I want the app to continue running, maybe it is doing an extensive calculation or search or ???  How can this done with a Metro Style App or is that something I should not consider?  I also agree with many other comments about having to wade through a list of Apps -- even on a touch screen this will become annoying.

 

 

 

Answer 47

I am also confused by this. I can't see any reason not to let users close apps they don't want to have open. I have already had one bad experience with an app that I opened, but wanted to close. When I say "bad," I mean that the app was interrupting what I was trying to do with the PC. The only way to close an app is with Task Manager, at least as far as I have found. As for the Alt-F4 option, most people don't navigate Windows with the keyboard. Consider this:

Scenario 1: Windows has the option to close apps. People accept it as normal, close apps when they are done, and never bother to think about it.

Scenario 2: Windows cannot close apps. People are confused, start abusing the "Abort Process" function in the Task Manager, corrupt data, become confused about why their computer won't stop playing music, and take the "broken" computer back to the store.

If Windows 8 ships like this, Scenario 2 is a likely possibility, and the inability to close apps is a major shortcoming. I'm actually reminded of the "Eat Dismiss Clicks" scenario in the design of Office 2007, where a change was made to the UI to prevent the program from feeling broken. The circumstances are different, but the idea is the same. Without the ability to close programs, people will assume that something is wrong or that wonder what is going on. Nobody will notice if apps can be closed normally.

Answer 48

I just started the control panel Metro applet that changes the user tile picture, then did Alt-Tab to return to the traditional desktop.

I don't see the control panel app anywhere in Applications list at first in the Task Manager, nor is it in the Task Bar yet there it is when I Alt-tab.  Finally, I see it as System Settings Application (suspended) in the Background processes list and over in the Details pane in blue (i.e., it's Suspended).

It's absolutely UNACCEPTABLE not to be able to control one's system to keep one's tasks cleaned up!  Some of us are organized, and don't just bumble around starting everything we can until the system crashes.

-Noel

 

Answer 49

@PeteJS:

There's a lot of stuff in the API.  Have you examined the Windows.ApplicationModel.Background namespace?  Surely you don't think that they've completely overlooked the possibility that an app is going to want to do things in the background now and then?  That'd be ridiculous, and it's already been shown to be possible.  (Otherwise, how would those RSS apps retrieve new feeds when they aren't actively running in the foreground?  How would notifications happen?)

Answer 50

In the case of the games it must have a exit option or at least a silence button, in the case of Johny whant to surf the background music never end, I understand the concept of metro style app and It's grate but something like the background sound are basic only the media player should keep their sound if they're "paused"

Answer 51

I had the same issue. For now I have found and easy work around. I press windows key + tab. Just like you would in win 7 to fly though the open windows. Works easier the control alt delete.

This is in the Pre-Beta phase. I am just glad I can say tried this early in the game. I have found this os to work very much like win 7. Nearly every command from win7 works here. I guess I have been lucky. Hope this helps.

Answer 52

I loaded the Developer Preview and have to say that the biggest annoyance is the Windows Phone 7 like approach to closing applications. WHY does the Metro UI not allow you to close an application? I hate it in my phone and I really hate it in Windows.

I don't care if it seems old hat, it's very logical to want to close an application when you have finished with it, especially when you look in the advanced mode task manager and see how much all these paused applications are pinching my RAM.

I look after hundreds of clients who are used to closing applications, this will make the phone ring off the hook when they start using this interface.

I appreciate this is pre-beta but the metro interface is REALLY BAD with keyboard and mouse.  Why can you not click and drag the metro panes with your mouse and wherever a swipe is used a mouse drag should work also?

Are you basically saying that no-one is going to use a desktop PC with Windows 8 that doesn't have a touch screen, or no-one is going to use desktop PCs we are all going to use tablets.  I don't think so!?

Apart from anything else I hate the greasy fingermarks on my screen! (biggest cause of eye strain by the way is down to greasy or dusty screens).

After using the preview for two days I can say that this feels really disjointed. Metro is for mobile devices not desktop PCs that need to do real work.  It's a consumer oriented idea for people who are just browsing the web and doing lightweight stuff, it cannot translate into how a person who works all day on spreadsheets, web design, video production, word documents etc. I cannot imagine spending all day with my arms outstretched trying to work on a spreadsheet or database.

I can't see how these two separate worlds can be brought together. I would have "Windows 8 Metro" for tablets and mobile devices, "Windows 8 Home Premium" for home desktops that are used for games and homework and the family accounts where the user is seated at a desk using a keyboard and a mouse and "Windows 8 Professional" for work desktops.  The latter two would have Metro Disabled and the old Win7 style start menu turned back on and fully implemented.

I think the benefits of trying to make Windows 8 work with low power devices is bringing benefits, I love how quickly it shuts down and pretty impressed with how fast it starts up, it's not 4 seconds on my ageing HP laptop with an SSD drive, but it's quicker than Windows 7. This attention to power, RAM and CPU usage is the selling point for the home user and the business user as they move from what's good in Windows 7 forward to Windows 8.

I think the truth is that MS want to try and grab some of the iPad market share on tablets and Metro was available and now they are trying to stitch two incompatible paradigms into one Windows and it won't work.  All you will do is upset your huge Windows Desktop user base which if this mess continues to production will see them leaving Windows in favour of Apple or Linux.

I am not saying this because I don't like change, I am saying this because I make my living supporting Windows and have been a Windows fan since 3.1 and this just sticks out like a sore thumb. The two ideas are incompatible.

Siv

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Graham Sivill - Martley, Worcester. UK

Answer 53

Please let users close apps. It's an extremely natural behavior that users will expect. They will also want to close apps so they don't show up when Alt-tabbing around.

Answer 54

This is a terrible decision that must be changed. Even the iPhone, which is notorious for its lack of user control, has the ability to close an app. If the user can't close an app, then there shouldn't be a concept of "open" apps at all; just use the same mechanism to launch the app every time, regardless of whether or not it was open previously. But if you are going to include a task-switching mechanism that switches between open apps, then there MUST be a way to close apps and remove them from this list.

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Moderator | MCTS .NET 2.0 Web Applications | My Blog: http://www.commongenius.com

Answer 55

I actually don't really have a problem with the fact that i cant close apps. I have more of a problem with the fact that apps close on me. Now i understand that if you let apps be "open" indefinitely (whatever that means, because apperantly open apps arent really open in windows 8) without being able to close them, then you have a problem.

So, since apps closing themselves isn't good in my opinion and you cant have apps stay open forever without being able to close them, the only conclusion is to let us close apps.

There must be a way to implement this without ruining the flow of metro ui.

One idea i have:

perhaps when you swipe from the left and you are "holding" the next app, a bar at the top would pop up with a trashcan logo- and if you drag the app there it would close. so basically when you drag an app from the left you would have 3 options: you could drag it to the middle to switch to that app, you could drag it to either side to pin it to that side, or you could drag it to the top to close the app.

basically, i HATE that apps close on me. Please change this somehow. 

Answer 56

Not being able to close apps doesn't make any since. Takes long enough to find things when I have what I'm using open. This has to be changed or it's Windows 8's going to wind up like vista.

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Computer Repair & Support Services in Longview Texas

Answer 57

no need to close apps and does not chew ram, dont ctrl alt delete just click the desktop app and right click on the task bar to start task manager. Its a very smooth operating system, has a few bugs but very very fast

Answer 58

Try the Windows key on the keyboard.

Answer 59

I get why most decisions were made but this makes no sense to me.

Answer 60

I'm afraid I have to agree that's it's really a poor decision to not be able to "close" a Metro app.  (I mean actually "close" it.)  I don't want a giant cell phone interface on my high end desktop and have to cycle through every Metro app I ran since I last booted just to get to a different one that I'm interested in.  And for that matter, I don't get the point of Metro apps at all since they get suspended if they are not visible.  What happened to that whole 'multi-tasking' thing Windows is supposed to offer?  Are Metro apps supposed to be nothing more than "Paper Toss" or "Angry Birds" cell phone type apps where you run one at a time for a few minutes and then you're done?

Answer 61

I've got a brand new Windows 8 house! It has all these great windows in it that I can I open just by touching them. But, for some reason, I can't touch one to make them close. I have to rely on my new house to close the windows for me. Sometimes I get too hot, sometimes I get too cold. But I never know when those windows are going to close for me.

My new house needs to listen to my rules for when the windows should be open or closed. And it would especially help if when I touched a window to open it, I could touch it again to close it. Automated houses are fun, except when they don't follow instructions. I want my house to start singing, "Daisy, daisy..." in an ever slower manner when I close a window, too. (But I'd be happy with a window just closing when I want it to when using Windows 8 Metro-style.)

Answer 62

What if i actually want to keep or more than 2 applications running even when i switch to other applications ?

Can i request Windows 8 not to suspend my applications ?

is Windows 8 going to provide only running Single Application in Metro UI ?

 

Answer 63

Its not even a matter of closing apps... I mean that is an issue (For instance if I have 5 apps open at one point but only want to use 2 I don't want to have to cycle throgh all 5 apps to get to the 2 I'm using). So closing them is an essential part of multitasking. There needs to be a WP7.5 style cards view for apps. So that A) they can be closed easily and B) You can easily select an app without having to cycle through it. I am a big fan of the direction Win8 is going but without a better way to multitask it will be less powerful than a Windows Phone running Mango.

FIX THIS MICROSOFT!

Answer 64

http://zainadeel.deviantart.com/art/Windows-8-Multitask-2-258512670?q=gallery%3Azainadeel&qo=0

 

http://zainadeel.deviantart.com/art/Windows-8-Multitask-1-258512549?q=gallery%3Azainadeel&qo=1

Answer 65

This looks nice. I do prefer the first option since this way i would see more apps at once.

A matrix layout would be nice too so that i can see all the apps at once up to number of lets say 24 apps.

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Mirronelli

Answer 66

The idea is Metro Style apps are not closed. The system takes care of keeping the apps from consuming background resources automatically. You can examine the app lifetime information in the developer documentation if you'd like.

Thanks very much to everyone here for the good feedback.

Alt+F4 only works in the dev tools integrated builds as a developer feature and is not a general mechanism. Again thanks for the feedback.

As someone commented: "But there is a problem of task switching.  Alt-Tab and swipe become overcrowded with apps that I am no longer using.  And if the OS closes an app that I really did intend to return to, I need to relaunch it instead of switching to it."

 

I totally agree.

Why not put an X on the "app bar" underneath,

AND

implement webOS' way of closing an app with a swiping up motion.

 That would be perfect. (And at least you were the ones who threw WP7 phones to webOS developers to join and take part in WP7 development, and those guys know how to do app touch navigation properly :)

As Engadget put it: "There's something very satisfying about literally throwing away a window that you no longer want cluttering up your screen or your RAM"

 

Now this is what you should seriously consider!

 

Answer 67

I think a easy solution without cluttering the Screen would be:

On the Startscreen add a App bar that will add a few functions, one of them to have a Expose of all current opened Metro applications in a Tile View with a Close button in the upper corner of each Tile (tiles should be big enough to not accidently close unwanted) or a swipe method on the Tile.

In the Current open Application: Swipe the Charms bar and hold Windows Key for 1200ms (not too long, not too short)

Done.

Answer 68

thanks for making me aware of the Background namespace Greg D,  As I indicated I am new to Metro Apps.  I understand the response about RSS and that for example, the Metro Weather App is updated on the screen. If I understand you correctly that under normal circumstances the Metro App is paused and eventually removed because there is no exit Metro App option, but with the Background namespace, this can be overridden so that if an App is performing a very long calculation or Database search operation on a server or in the cloud then the it will continue to run and not be paused. If so then this is good news.

 

 

Answer 69

http://zainadeel.deviantart.com/art/Windows-8-Multitask-2-258512670?q=gallery%3Azainadeel&qo=0

 

http://zainadeel.deviantart.com/art/Windows-8-Multitask-1-258512549?q=gallery%3Azainadeel&qo=1

both options are great! I love the 1st one simply because I can see more apps. now the only question is how to bring up that view. I propose that Alt-Tab brings launches it... and possibly a soft key on the "Charm Bar"

Answer 70

We need to be able to close apps. I don't want to have to swipe through them when I'm done using them. I'd recommend X on the bottom of the right-side swipe menu under Settings.
 Then any app can be quickly closed with right-swipe, X

Answer 71

Switching between applications is very annoying when I have open many of them because I can't close them. I dont like it.

I dont understand the need of having open an application if I'm not using it.

Answer 72

Since I posted my first message, I did discover that you can limit how many apps to alt-tab through by changing the "App History" setting.

 

That being said, even having one or two apps that you aren't using still open is annoying.  At least with a keyboard and mouse, you can use Alt-Tab, Win-Tab, or bring your mouse to the left side of the screen and use the mouse wheel to actually select which application you want to use before you drag it onto the screen.

 

With touch, you can only cycle through the apps one at a time.  Yes, I know that if you pull it out a bit, and then swipe it back to the edge, and then pull out a different app, you can cycle through them a little faster, but if I've got it limited to maybe keep 5 apps open, only 2 of which I'm using, then I'm doing way too much swiping to pick the app I want.

 

Honestly, I don't even care if the app is only suspended when I hit a close button, I just need it to be removed from the GUI.

Also, I do agree that Windows 8 could really use something like the webOS card view or Mac Expose to see all open applications, even if you still can't close them that way.  On a touchscreen, that'd be much faster than sliding back and forth a bunch of times.

Answer 73

Please Microsoft team find a solution to this basic problem. Once I open the Control Panel it stays open until I restart. The unnecessary persistent windows is really annoying. Thank you.

Answer 74

Can there at least be a back button?  It seems like Windows 8 is Microsoft's answer to the tabled revolution (iPad/Android), however, for example Apple still has Mac OSX for desktops and laptops... It's fine to combine the idea of the tablet/smart phone and the desktop, because it does seem to be going that way, but when I'm sitting at a computer with a mouse and keyboard, I still want to be able to close an app that I've opened, if I just wanted to check it out for a second.  Maybe at least a back button to back out of an app?

I do have to say.. so far, I'm not a huge fan of the "Metro" stuff.  I want to be able to click the start button, and see my apps like normal, without some weird squares being forced on me.  Metro seems like a nice add-on, but I wouldn't force users to use it as the main feature of the OS.. at least not for desktops and laptops.  Things just aren't intuitive... it took me FOREVER to figure out how to restart the computer.

Answer 75

i think the search screen layout could be a solution to this problem.  a new link in the bottom-left menu something like "running" could open up a screen similar to the search area layout but listing all currently open apps and each app has as someone above mentioned a close link next to it so you can choose the ones you want closed or click one to open it. that would be a good solution having every running app listed in one screen with the option to close or open. simple and effective :). and perhaps a small bar you can slide down from the top containing links to the running apps youve accessed the most

Answer 76

If this doesn't change, users will now be forced into one of two options:

- Cycling through dozens of apps everytime they want to change programs

- Manually closing down each app by exiting out of Metro, going to the classic desktop, starting Task Manager, finding the program you want to close, and forcing it to shut down.

I thought MS was trying to make Windows 8 easy to use?  To think that I thought iOS's method of task swapping sucked.  This is much worse.

 

Answer 77

I agree, this is a horrible design decision for a desktop OS. It makes sense on a device like a table or phone - but not here.

Answer 78

here's my take on Metro UI. first off Metro UI intent is not for every single app you install on your computer. Just the ones you use everyday with minimum impact on the system. Large application is probably not good to be placed in Metro UI. The intent is for short easy apps for information only, and entertainment. Crysis 2 should not be ran from Metro UI. LOL! if folks use common sense on what apps they assign to metro, you'll bee surprise just how small a footprint it will make.  And Remember Folks this is a pre- beta. many changes will occur between now and RTM. :)

Answer 79

That may make sense for tablet or phone (which are primarily media consumption devices) but how does that even make sense for a desktop / workstation? Why would I create and use an entire new user interface which only covers about 5% of what an individual does with their PC on a day to day basis? If I want to check the news or weather I use a browser on my desktop - Metro offers no advantages at all.

Microsoft needs to concentrate on making it great for tablets and keeping it off my desktop!

Answer 80

Crysis 2 should not be ran from Metro UI. LOL!

Actually, as most games go "full screen", games seem a better match to Metro than other more serious apps.

-Noel

Answer 81

EDIT: Forgot to attach who I was talking to ;)

@Siv

Er...I'm using Windows 8 RIGHT THIS MOMENT to type this message, and I'm not seeing any of the issues you are (at least, it doesn't seem that way).

1. I definitely agree on closing apps. No task-manager to do this - I actually don't really care that they are open in the background, but I want to be able to close apps that I am definitely done with. A better task switcher would really help with this as well - suspend apps when I close, but hide them from the task switcher and allow for a "Gaming Mode" button of sorts which closes all suspended apps. The task switching experience right now is really not that informative as to what you actually have open; and that really bugs me.

2. You CAN click and drag Metro panes; are you talking about the Metro-Style desktop? Just click and drag. If you're talking about things like the tabbed interface in IE10 Metro-Style, then I don't really see the point. Mouse drags do work whenever swipe-and-drags work, just not in some situations. The devices/settings/charms panel, for example. You click-drag to switch apps, you click-drag to scroll on the home page - but none of these are nearly as intuitive as actually using the functions designed for mouse and keyboard.

I just don't see why you are complaining about this - you right click to bring up any tabs, menus, etc. and you swipe to switch apps amongst a few other things. For instance - opening up tabs in IE10. I don't want to swipe. Right-clicking is much faster. Scrolling the Metro desktop; I want to use the scroll wheel, not swiping. Scrolling down a page? No way. Scroll wheel is much more precise for non-touch. It is a really well thought-out design there, and the majority of features are still needing implementation so give them a chance!

3. Metro could be very useful for business IF they implement more powerful task-switching, finish up the UI, and a few other things. The OS is actually incredible for a pre-beta! Full compatibility with Win-7 applications (among others), great mouse/keyboard interface, and a simple, easy to use UI. For PC newcomers, I would definitely recommend it - really easy to learn. Plus, you can confine yourself to the desktop if you really want to.

Answer 82

I am now on three days with Windows 8 and as I said in my post above, the feeling that this is wrong for desktop PC usage is definitely right. This will be fine on tablets and other mobile devices, it's just not right for desktop PCs.  The desktop seems like an afterthought if your using it on a tablet and the metro interface looks like an afterthought if your using it on a desktop PC.

I find that the Metro interface makes me feel trapped like someone else said. I use Windows Phone 7 and I like that and it feels right on the phone, I was hopeful that it would be the same on the Desktop but the more I use it the more I hate it. It just doesn't work with a mouse and keyboard in a desktop environment. It's probably better with touch, but I don't want to be poking on my TFT screen. I am pleased that you can set a registry hack to re-enable the start menu on the desktop and this disables Metro. Hopefully in the final version that will be a control panel option.

The problems with Metro for Windows are as follows:

1. It's not obvious from the UI what you are running, I like that visual clue you get from the taskbar where you can see at a glance what you have running.
2. Metro is not as discoverable as the traditional Windows desktop with tool tips and right click menus etc.
3. It shouldn't be hard to figure out how to shut down Windows and until you find it you just would not know in Metro.
4. The full screen thing is good for the one application you are running but it blocks what other applications are doing, this is the feeling of being trapped in one application I mentioned that someone else picked up on.
5. Windows is going backwards, you feel that you are going back to a single tasking Operating System like DOS where you have to close one thing to get to another (well it would be if you could actually close the application!!!!).
6. I am in Metro IE10 typing this and it bugs me that I can't see at a glance what tabs I have open I have to right click and a pane drops down showing the pages I have open. This also bugs me on the phone, but I can accept it there as the idea is to give you big buttons that you can use your fingers to select things with not a precise mouse pointer. Again, this using a finger to select things is why Metro is right for that mode of working, but not for using a mouse.
7. The whole thing feels dumbed down, it's like the interface you would build for small children to keep it very simple with limited controls. I.e. Windows is Lego where Metro is Duplo!

This is the mobile Windows UI and should NOT be on desktop PCs.

Siv

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Graham Sivill - Martley, Worcester. UK

Answer 83

I wondered the same thing, it is all very tablet centric and raw at the moment but I find using Control+Escape closes the app from view and the OS does a very good job of tidying itself up and then removing it out of the running process list on some apps 5 in a Row is a good example whereas the others will go to suspended.

On others they do go to suspended. But come on guys it is pre beta and most of the Metro apps are designed for tablets.

 

 

Answer 84

One issue that comes up with not being able to close applications is that some apps still run in the background with no way of stopping it.  For example, I ran the full screen Metro version of IE and it took me to the build website where i started a video playing, then I returned to the start screen and opened another app.  I quickly realized that the audio from IE was still playing.   I then had to return to IE to stop the video playing.  Navigating back to IE to do something like that is very frustrating.  If that video had been an annoying ad video or something that i couldn't have simply paused, i couldn't have closed IE to stop it from playing, i would have opened the tab menu and close it that way.  It would have been far more helpful if i could have just closed IE when i was done with what i was viewing.

The point of my rambling is that there are some times where you need to be able to actually close the app.  There needs to be a way to force things closed so that sort of thing can be avoided.  Maybe an exit button somewhere that takes you back to the start menu, and forces it closed.

Sort of like on WP7 when there is a difference between tombstoning an app by hitting the start button and actually closing it.

Answer 85

This is accurate, the alt-tab becomes very difficult to use if the apps are not closed.

Answer 86

This is the same theory in Android 2.3. It's a horrible idea. Quite possibly the worst thing you guys could have done. Here's why. I have a Samsung Nexus S phone running stock Android 2.3.5. I have about 70 apps installed on the phone. All of the apps that support App2SD are installed to the USB storage, not the 512MB of internal RAM. Let's say I start the Weather Channel app. After I'm done I hit home. Then I decide to open Google Reader to check out the latest tech news articles. After I'm done I hit home. Then I decide to use the stock Android web browser. As I'm using it, some of the links I click on open in a new window. I don't know this right away because hitting menu and tapping on the Windows button is the only way to find this out. Since I don't even know that new windows are being opened there's really no reason for me to be hitting Menu and then the Windows button. In the mean time all of these windows along with the other apps I've been using over time are all still in memory. After a few days my phone's super snappy performance has slowed to a crawl because of all these web browser windows and all of the apps I've been using for the past week or so. Suspending unused apps frees up CPU resources but it doesn't free up system RAM that apps need when they're actually being used. Eventually my phone freezes up and I have to reboot it. I really don't want to end up with a similar experience on my home desktop PC with Windows 8 and its Metro style apps.

Answer 87

Just bring your mouse pointer to right corner facing then click.

Answer 88

Si, con Tasto Windows + M Yes, with Windows key + M

Answer 89

I have to agree with Siv here, the Windows 8 preview feels schizophrenic. While I'm not a huge fan of the Metro interface, it looks like it could work well on tablet devices. The Windows interface will continue to work better for the standard Windows desktop.

Here's an idea - if you don't have a display capable of multi-touch just run the standard Windows desktop on login. If you do have a multi-touch display then assume it's on a tablet or other suitable device and run Metro. Better yet, it would be ideal if my Windows 8 tablet could auto-switch between Metro mode and a "docked" desktop mode where all my real applications are running.

I think the "stitched together" paradigm could work, but it can't be so fluid between the models. When you're running in tablet mode the device should be limited to those capabilities. When you're running in desktop mode the system should behave like a traditional Windows desktop.

Answer 90

Metro apps cannot be closed. This is ok but I don't know how normal desktop users would feel about it. I find even myself trying to figure out how to *close* and app and get to another one. turns out I have to press the start button. 

The experience is ok for a tablet but a desktop user like myself feels crippled by this. Multitasking is also currently broken . Overall I feel there will be a considerable learning curve for desktop users which is not good. Also it feels too much keyboard oriented most home users don't use keyboard shortcuts.

People will love the look of the metro UI but the feel; not so much on the desktop .

Answer 91

Not all keyboards have a Windows key, even today.

 

-Noel

Answer 92

I think this is an design issue, users just want more control. The apps don't have to close, we just need to design the user experience for the swipe process. A touch gesture or small button to bring up all the app users have recently opened would create a more organized experienced. What we really need is an enhance version of 'mission control' or a Metro style task manager for Metro user.

Answer 93

Hello,

 

To assist with thread management we are going to lock this thread. If you would like to continue the discussion or have additional questions feel free to create a new thread.

 

Thanks!

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Steven