familiar Taskbar is still a component of the Windows 10 interface; it behaves in much the same way as in previous versions of Windows. For example, if the Taskbar is unlocked, you can position it at any of the four edges of the display. Figure 1.8 shows the Taskbar docked at the left edge of the display.
Figure 1.8 The Taskbar is docked at the left edge of the display.
You can pin apps to the Taskbar as you can in previous versions of Windows, including both modern apps and legacy desktop apps. The Taskbar retains the notification area, which shows icons and messages for running apps and services, with the date and time at the far right corner (when the Taskbar is docked at the bottom of the display). The Taskbar by default shows the Search box at the left next to the Start button. The Taskbar includes an icon for Task View, which is described in the following section.
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The Taskbar remains when you switch to Tablet Mode, but changes slightly. For example, the Search box changes to a Search button and shortcut icons on the taskbar are hidden.
Experienced Windows users are familiar with the Alt+Tab feature in Windows, which enables you to switch between running applications. The Task View is a similar feature that is available from the Taskbar, both in desktop mode and Tablet Mode. Clicking or tapping the Task View icon in the Taskbar displays a filmstrip of the running apps (Figure 1.9). You can then click or tap an app to make it active and bring it to the foreground. You can also close apps from the Task View by first highlighting an app and then clicking or tapping the close button in the upper right of the app's tile.
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Task View lets you switch between multiple virtual desktops, which are described in the following section.
Figure 1.9 Use the Task View to switch between running apps.
In Windows, the term multiple desktops refers to the capability to create more than one virtual desktop, each with one or more apps running on that virtual desktop, and switch between desktops. Windows has supported multiple virtual desktops for several years in multiple versions, although not as a mainstream feature. Windows 10 is the first version to offer multiple displays as a prominent feature of the interface.
If your device has multiple displays, you may be wondering why you would want to create multiple desktops; after all, you can simply move apps from one display to another and group them as needed. Multiple desktops let you group together apps onto a virtual desktop. Although they are most useful on single-display devices, multiple desktops can also be useful on multi-display devices.
For example, you may be multitasking between work and personal activities. In this scenario, you can create a desktop for your work apps and another for your personal apps and switch between the two desktops as needed. Even on a multi-display device, you may find multiple desktops useful for helping you group specific apps together so you can focus on them as a set.
Creating a virtual desktop is easy. Just open the Task View from the Taskbar and click or tap New Desktop. Then open the apps that you want to use on that desktop. When you need to switch between desktops, either use the Task View or press Windows Key+Ctrl+Left Arrow or Windows Key+Ctrl+Right Arrow.
One of the Windows 8.x interface elements that is gone from Windows 10 is the Charms bar. In Windows 8.x, the Charms bar expands out from the right side of the display to give you access to settings, device functions, search, and other features. Many of these items have been moved into other parts of the Windows 10 interface. For example, Search has been integrated into the Taskbar.
Even though the Charms bar is gone, something similar to it remains in Windows 10. In the Taskbar, next to the date and time, is a Notifications button that, when clicked or tapped, displays the fly-out interface element called the Action Center, shown in Figure 1.10.
Figure 1.10 The Action Center replaces some of the functions in the Charms bar.
The Action Center shows notifications, and through a selection of tiles at the bottom, gives you quick access to the Settings app, tablet mode, airplane mode, and other settings and features. When you need to change display brightness, for example, open the Action Center, tap the Display tile, and then use the brightness slider in the Settings app that subsequently opens.
Web Browsing
Internet Explorer (IE) has long been a love/hate app. Some users love it, but other users hate it (and often move to Firefox or Chrome because of IE's drawbacks). In addition, application compatibility for line-of-business apps and in-house apps has long been a consideration with IE for businesses that have sometimes struggled to keep their apps compatible with IE as the browser evolved.
Windows 10 ships with a new browser named Microsoft Edge (Figure 1.11). Some of the key goals of the Edge development team were to streamline the interface, integrate Cortana for faster search and better discoverability, optimize browsing across multiple platforms, provide a great experience on touch devices, and add features such as the capability to annotate web pages. Edge is a single browser designed to work across the entire Windows 10 device family.
Figure 1.11 The Edge web browser provides a streamlined browsing experience.
Edge moves from the markup used in IE to the same markup used in other modern browsers. Edge introduces a new proprietary rendering engine dubbed EdgeHTML that replaces the Trident rendering engine found in IE. In the initial beta releases of Edge, the new browser incorporated both the legacy Trident rendering engine and the new Edge rendering engine. During the development cycle, however, Microsoft decided to use only the Edge engine in Edge. In order to support legacy sites that require the Trident engine, Windows 10 ships with both the new Edge and legacy IE 11 browsers. Organizations can choose to designate the default browser through group policy, enabling them to ensure that IE 11 is the users' default browser if needed to support intranet sites or line-of-business apps that require IE compatibility.
In addition to a new rendering engine, Edge also integrates Cortana as a built-in search assistant, a new reading list that enables you to gather content to read and even export web pages to PDF, and as mentioned previously in this section, the new inking features that enable you to mark up and annotate web content and share those comments with others.
Cortana
Cortana, named for the fictional artificial intelligence character in the Halo game series, was introduced on the Windows Phone 8.1 platform. It is an intelligent personal assistant that can help you set reminders, perform searches, answer questions, recognize music, and launch apps using voice or text commands. If you speak a question, Cortana typically speaks the answer. If you type a question, Cortana answers with a text response.
Cortana (if you let her) can learn about you, your interests and habits, locations you often visit, and other information to simplify your work or personal life. For example, Cortana can search for and detect flight schedules in your e-mails and add the information to your calendar for you, or identify
