Solved Goodbye Mail Tile app and Picture Viewer unless...

somebody can straighten me out. I have tried to use the new Win 8 stuff on my desktop but I came across a couple of things I didn't see how to overcome. I"m certainly open to any advice to get me back on the path.

I thought I would clean up my Inbox. Normally, I'd sort by name and then click and shift-click to select the ones for deletion and that would be it. With the new app I couldn't find any way to sort by name and delete.

I was composing a message to a friend and remembered he had asked me a couple of questions in an earlier email. Normally I would have opened the other message and read it to refresh my memory about the questions. No way to open a second message while the one I am currently writing is open. So I downloaded and installed Live Mail 2012.

I might as well throw in the other new app that is poor IMO. The picture viewer. Can't do anything much with it and if you have a multipage jpg file such as a bunch of combined scans you can only see the first one. When you back out, you end up back at My Pictures not at the folder containing the picture you started with. If I wanted the OS to think like this for me and tell me where it thinks I should put my files, I'd have bought a darn Mac. So back to the Win 7 style picture program.

Like I said, I'm willing to be enlightened. I do like Win 8 but the above problems are real negative influences on my productivity.

It's true that the mail app is... well, limited. But it works pretty well for basic email. There are a few tricks you do.

For instance, for deleting mail by a specific user, you can simply search for that user (WinKey+Q) and then you can highlight and delete. Not as simple as sorting, and you need to re-search for each group of emails, but it's at least an option.

These apps are basic apps, and you can expect that more powerful ones will be coming down the pike. Meanwhile, you might try any of the dozens of other photo apps in the Windows Store. (You did install all the latest Windows Store App updates, right?)

Windows Live Essentials 2012 also has a photo app.

Yep, the metro apps are just more or less appetizers. They're not a whole feast, but they're not samples.

The mail client I use is Outlook 2013, and I have NO complaints there.

As for the Photo app, navigation is different with the file picker as you have the Go up link, that just is like a back button of sorts but just takes you up a level in the folder hierarchy. You'd need to click on the drop down menu to go back to Pictures.

Windows 8 is a pick-and-choose type of OS. You can use the apps, but if they don't suit you, the Desktop is still there and works.

Thanks for the info, at least I know it's not something I'm overlooking.

Yep!

With time, and if Microsoft realizes that they need to make a better effort, the apps will get better. It's like if you buy a Surface RT tablet, you have a limited selection of apps. It's more or less something that will appreciate over time, a time investment per se.

I agree with you OP. The mail app is useless i was hoping it would be nice with notification and so on. I am sticking with Outlook 2010! So much better if you have the money. As far as the document viewer it hasn't bother me so i left it. I hope we get a outlook integrated with metro so i can get notification do a search specifically for mail without launching outlook but i dont think this will happen. One can dream

We must remember that the basic APPS in Windows 8 are just like the "apps" we get in all Flavors of Windows - Paint, WordPad, Notepad... small but useful utilities that are FREE with the operating sytem.

There will be much better APPS soon to come.... some FREE and some $$$$$$$.... but you can't beat FREE for basic computing.

And if you can't find a good FREE app, you can always click/swipe on Desktop and run one of a myriad of great Windows 7 applications that will do a fine job.

Give it time........ I hated Windows 8 at first, but after installing the Pro version and playing with it........ it works!!!