On the Windows 8 Metro-style Start page, you can sort individual app tiles into groups and rename them -- but the function isn't particularly obvious. Here's how to do it.

Windows 8 will launch any application from the Start screen if you type its name and hit enter. But if you want the familiarity of the Run dialog from older Windows versions, you can add that too.

Whenever I get on a new Windows machine, the first thing I do is switch off the annoying defaults which hide file extensions and conceal hidden files in Explorer. Fortunately, that task is a lot easier on Windows 8.

It's hard not to be at least a little excited about upgrading to a shiny new operating system, but the catch is that a new OS sometimes means your ageing computer isn't up to the task. So is your current PC powerful enough to handle Windows 8? Most likely!

Whatever Windows 8's virtues on a touchscreen device or a 17-inch notebook, there's one clear lesson from the newly-released consumer preview version: there is no point in trying to run it on most of the netbooks on the market. And unless Microsoft outlines some plans to fix that pretty quickly, it is effectively conceding the netbook market to Linux or to oblivion.

A lot of people will be spending time today downloading the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 and setting it up. The process is fairly straightforward, but there are some traps you can fall into. Here are three things to watch out for.

We've talked about some of the new features you'll find in Windows 8, but if you're a bit more curious about how it works in real life, we've put together a short video demo of what you'll find in Microsoft's latest operating system.