Huge crowded All Apps screen? A Tip.

I've noticed many comments relating to the All Apps screen being too large with too many icons/tiles, meaning the user has to scroll for miles to get to the right-hand end. This turns many off using it, instead of the Start screen, as a Start menu, despite it being arguably far superior.

Limited customising options for the All Apps screen also makes it hard to cull these unwanted entries.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/20705-apps-screen-add-remove-items-windows-8-a.html

Oh, and do back the Programs folder up first, in case you make a mistake.

I reduced the length and clutter of my All Apps screen by over 50% using this method. See below.

Hope some of you may find this to be of some help.


Wenda.


Before...



After...

:thumb: There is stuff in "C:\Users\(your username)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" too. I've been doing this for a while, getting rid of all the readme's etc. I like to remove the uninstall shortcuts too, it saves that accidental click. I'd just as soon uninstall from control panel anyway. I originally found those locations while searching for the "Startup" folders. The nag to register my Logitech device was getting to a pain.

Yes, Alphanumeric, you are correct re the entries under Users, but (in my case at least) it contained very few entries, none of which I desired to get rid of. This is why I didn't think to mention it.

Sorry...

Cheers!

Wenda.

No need to be sorry. Like you said, most of the shortcuts are in the other location. I wasn't sure that you knew of both so I posted the second one.

In addition, to make the app tiles smaller or larger on the Apps screen.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/43181-apps-screen-show-more-apps-windows-8-1-update.html

I only nuke the useless shortcuts for readme's etc. Still it doesn't hurt to advise some caution. If there was a delete option instead of the uninstall you wouldn't have to go hunting for the shortcuts in the first place.

Yes, I've left all of those alone.

I found that it was programs etc that I'd installed myself that were causing most of the clutter, so got rid of a lot of that.

But the stuff Windows installs by default, I left alone.

Perhaps I should have added a rider: Do not attempt this unless you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing.


Wenda.

Yeah, its installed programs that create most of the clutter. Readme's, web link's to the authors site, help files, etc.

Brink said:

In addition, to make the app tiles smaller or larger on the Apps screen.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/43181-apps-screen-show-more-apps-windows-8-1-update.html

Click to expand...

Yeah, good point Brink. Tried that too.

It only saved me around a third of a screen, if that, though it would be useful if you didn't want to go through the procedure I described, but still wanted to reduce the distance you need to scroll.

My method above reduced the width of my All Apps screen from just over six screens wide to just on three.

I'd never bothered to play with the All Apps screen in Win 8 because 1/ I had Classic Start installed and 2/ in Win 8 you can't go directly to All Apps from the Start button but must go through the Start screen. But when I installed the Win 8.1 RTM I refrained from installing Classic Shell and decided to use All Apps as my Start menu because now I could go directly to it. Once the unwanted tiles are removed, and if you run it set to sort the tiles by category, it works like a dream. So much so that I hardly ever even go to or use the Start screen any longer (as can be seen in the pic below).

And now, with the added options available on All Apps (and the Start screen) it's what it should have been in Win 8. Had it been, I reckon Win 8 would have been far more successful than it actually was.


Wenda.

This worked great for me, thanks

Edwin said:

Bare minimum Apps Screen. Everything else resides on the task bar, in the Startup folder or is launched from the right click context menu.

View attachment 41240

(The system icons were moved to an auxiliary folder within the System Folder)

Click to expand...

Very neat and functional, Edwin. Looks good, well done. :thumb:

I'm one of those who dislike programs pinned to the taskbar, though. I prefer mine to show running programs only, so rather than pin to the taskbar as you have, I've enabled the Quick-Launch toolbar and run my most-used programs from there.

In the pic below IE, Media Player and File Explorer are shown 'pinned' as they are my most-commonly used entries in the QL toolbar. I can hide them by sliding QL to the extreme left of the taskbar. The icons to the right are currently open, but minimised programs.


Wenda

Ah. So I may as well not have bothered.

Oh well. (shrugs).

EDIT: I did look to see if anyone else had posted the tip, but somehow missed the tut.


Wenda.

Wenda said:

Ah. So I may as well not have bothered.

Oh well.


Wenda.

Click to expand...

I'm glad you did. I followed your suggestion and it is far better - especially deleting all those rubbish read-me and help page things.

Thanks, Adam, and others who have 'repped' me for the tip.

It does make the All Apps screen much more user-friendly, doesn't it?

For another interesting comparison, here's my old (and seldom used) Windows 8 All Apps screen. Notice that the tiles are all over the place like a mad woman's breakfast, especially the games.

Wenda.

The problem though is the same. In older operating systems they made you go through some bizarre hierarchy to find an application. Unlucky if it isn't in the path you expect. If you know the path you certainly don't need a start button and if you need a start button you need to know the path.

Windows 8 just dumps the lot and lets you have a stab at finding them.

If there was a better way I guess someone would have thought of it by now but at least your way lets us trim them out somewhat

adamf said:

Windows 8 just dumps the lot and lets you have a stab at finding them. If there was a better way I guess someone would have thought of it by now but at least your way lets us trim them out somewhat

Click to expand...

Using Ctrl Minus is useful. Typing a few letters while in apps view is also useful.

This is an area of interest to me. Has anyone mentioned Ctrl - (Ctrl minus).

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4869-zoom-view-start-apps-screen-windows-8-a.html

... would like to add that it depends on preference but it is not necessary to delete or move shortcuts out.
(Unless I missed the post.) Just hide them. Right click - properties - select hidden - reboot.

I like to place hundreds of shortcuts in the AppData - start menu folder under programs.
These are now available from apps or start screen, or explorer.