In my opinion having access to diagnostic tools quickly and easily is more important than shaving some seconds off of the time it takes Windows to starts. With that said, this tutorial will explain how to enable the F8 key in Windows 8 so you can quickly and easily access the Safe Mode boot options and other diagnostic tools. As a bonus, by enabling this option on a dual-boot system with multiple operating systems, you will now find it easier to select the operating system you wish to use when you start your computer.

To enable the F8 key in Windows 8 you will first need to open an elevated command prompt. To do this you can follow the steps in this tutorial:

How to open an Elevated Command Prompt in Windows 8

When the elevated command prompt is open you will be at the C:\Windows\System32> prompt. To enable F8 in Windows 8 you need to type the following in the command prompt and then press the Enter key.

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

Once you enter the above text, your command prompt should look like:

Once the command has been enter as shown above, press the Enter key on your keyboard. If you entered the command correctly, Windows will report that the "The operation completed successfully.". You now need to restart your computer for the change to go into effect. With this settings configured, you can now press F8 while Windows 8 starts in order to access Safe Mode and other Advanced Boot options.

If you would like to disable the F8 key and go back to the original Windows 8 setting you can open an elevated command prompt and enter the following command:

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard

Once you enter the above command, press Enter on your keyboard. If you entered the command correctly, Windows will report that the "The operation completed successfully." and you should now restart your computer. The F8 key will now be disabled in Windows 8.

I would like to thank Melanie for posting this tip as a comment in our Windows 8 Safe Mode tutorial. If you have any questions regarding this process, please feel free to ask us in the Windows 8 forum.

The first step in moving your mail store is to start Windows Live Mail. Once the program has started click on the on the program's menu, which is found in the upper left hand corner of the program as shown below.

Once the menu is open click on the Options section and then click on the Mail menu option. This will open the General tab of the Mail options screen. Please click on the Advanced tab and you will be shown a screen similar to the one below.

Now click on the Maintenance option as indicated by the red arrow in the image above. This will bring you to the Maintenance settings screen.

Now click on the Store Folder option. This will open a small dialog box that shows the path to the current mail store folder.

On the above screen we can change the location that Windows Live Mail stores its email. To do this, click on the Change button and you will now be presented with a Browse dialog box where you can select the new location for the mail store.

Browse to an existing location that you wish to move your mail to or create a new folder. Once you are done, click on the OK button. You will now be shown the Store Location dialog box with the new path that you selected.

To have Windows Live Mail use this new folder, click on the OK button. Once you click on the OK button, you will be shown a prompt that states you need to restart Windows Live Mail for these changes to go into effect. Click on the OK button in this prompt and then close Windows Live Mail.

Once you close Windows Live Mail, the program will automatically copy all your existing mail and mail folders to the new location.

Once it is done, you can start Windows Live Mail again and the program will now be storing your mail in the new location.

Unfortunately, even though Windows Live Mail states it is moving your mail it is actually just copying it. You will still need to delete your old Windows Live Mail folder in order to free up the space on your C: drive. To do this close Windows Live Mail and browse to the old Windows Live Mail folder which is located under the following folder:

Windows 8, Windows7, Windows Vista: C:\Users\<login name>AppData\Local\Microsoft\

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<login name>\Application Data\Microsoft\

When you open that folder you will see a subfolder named Windows Live Mail. This is your old mail store. First rename it to Windows Live Mail.old and start Windows Live Mail again. If you can still access your email then we know that the program is using the new folder and we can safely delete the old one. Close Windows Live Mail again and now delete the Windows Live Mail.old folder. When the folder has finished deleting, you can now empty your Recycle Bin.

Windows Live Mail is now using the new folder and you have freed up the space it was using on your C: drive.

If you have any questions performing these steps, please ask in the Web Browsing/Email and Other Internet Applications forum.

The first step is to create a folder that you will use to store your command-line programs. This folder can be located anywhere, but should have a name that describes what it is being used for. Some example folder names that you can use are bin, cl, or command-line. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will use the folder C:\command-line to store the command-line tools that we would like to use. Once the folder has been created, we now want to add it to the Windows PATH so that we do not have to type the full path to the command-line tool every time we wish to use one.

To do this, click on the Start button and type System. If you are using Windows 8, you can just type System from the Start Screen. When the search results appear, click on the System control panel in the search results to open the control panel as shown below.

Now click on the Advanced system settings option as indicated by the red arrow in the image above. This will open the Advanced tab for the System Properties screen.

Now click on the Environment Variables button to open a screen that lists the various environment variables that are configured in Windows.

Under the System variables box scroll down till you see the Path variable. Once you see that variable, double-click on it to open a screen where you can edit it.

The Path variable is a list of folders separated by a semi-colon (;) that Windows will use to search for programs to execute when you type them in. When you try to launch a program from the command-line, Windows will search through all the folders in its path and execute the program if it is found. As we do not want to have to type the full path to a command-line program (C:\command-line\program.exe) every time we use it, we can add the C:\Command-line folder to our path so we only have to type the program name (program.exe) to launch it.

As our command-line tools in this tutorial are located in C:\command-line we want to add this folder to the end of the list of folders that are already present in the Variable value field. To do this, go to the very end of the text in the Variable value field and type ;C:\command-line. When you do this you will need to substitute C:\command-line with the path to your folder. When you are done, you should now see the field that looks similar to the image above.

To save your changes, click on the OK button and then close the System Control Panel. Now whenever you type in a program name that is stored in your command-line program folder, Windows will be able to find it and execute it.

Useful Command-line programs to add to your command-line toolkit

This section will list a variety of command-line programs that can you use to start your toolkit. When using the list below, if the program is not bundled with Windows, then the name of the program will also be a link to the site that you can use to download the program and save it to your command-line folder. If the program name does not contain a link, then it is bundled with Windows and can already be used from your command prompt. If there are any other tools that you recommend we add to this list, please let us know.

Administration and Troubleshooting Programs

Boot and Windows Startup Programs

File Comparison, Search, and Viewing Programs

File Permission and Management Programs

Filesystem Management Programs

Network Diagnostics & Administration Programs

Process Management Programs

If there are any other command-line tools that you think we missed, please let us know about them.

When you log off, Windows will retain a history of past notifications as well as the last notification. That way when you log back in this history is retained and you will be shown the last notification that was displayed. If you wish to reset all notifications every time you log off of Windows, you can set a group policy to do so. This will make it so that all tiles are reset back to their basic state whenever you logoff. This would make the screen look like the following.

Notice how the tiles are not showing any notifications and are just the basic tile. After a few seconds the app will once again start showing the latest notifications.

To clear notifications on logoff please use the steps below to do this.

To access the Group Policy Editor you should type Group Policy in the Start Screen and then click on the Settings category. The option for Edit Group Policy should now appear. Click on the Edit Group Policy option and the Group Policy editor will open. Under the Local Computer Policy, expand the tree to the following path:

User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar

When you see Start Menu and Taskbar, left click on it to select it as shown in the image below.

In the right-hand pane you should now see a variety of settings. Double-click on the Clear history of tile notifications on exit setting and its properties screen will open.

Select the Enabled radio button and then click on the Apply button. Finally click on the OK button and close the Group Policy Editor. Windows 8 will now reset all notifications when you log out of Windows 8. If you want to enable this feature in the future, just go back to the same setting and change it to Not Configured.

If you are not using Windows 8 Professional or Enterprise you will not have access to the Group Policy Editor. Instead you will need to enable the setting through the Windows Registry. This setting can be enabled by creating the ClearTilesOnExit REG_DWORD value under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer Registry key and setting it to 1.

If you do not feel comfortable editing the Registry, you can download this Registry file that will enable the Clear Tile History policy for you:

http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/reg/windows-8/policies/explorer/EnClearTiles.reg

Just download the above Registry file and double-click on it. When it asks if you wish to merge the data, click on the Yes button.

If you would like to disable the Clear Tile History policy you can download and run this Registry file:

http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/reg/windows-8/policies/explorer/DisClearTiles.reg

If you have any questions regarding this process, please feel free to ask us in the Windows 8 Forum.

To start using tabs, open Internet Explorer on the Start Screen by clicking on the Internet Explorer icon as shown in the image below.

When you click on the icon, the Internet Explorer app will open.

To see a list of open tabs, right-click anywhere on the web page and you should see the address bar appear on the bottom and the different open tabs on the top.

When the tab list opens, as shown by the red arrow in the image above, you will see a thumbnail of each tab that you currently have open in Internet Explorer 10. To close a tab, simply click on the button on the particular tab you would like to close. This will close the tab and the associated web site.

If you wanted to switch to another tab, simply click on the thumbnail for the web site you would like to switch to. This will make that tab the active one.

Last, but not least, to open a new tab click on the button. This will open a blank screen with the address bar and list of favorites at the bottom of the screen.

Enter a web address in the address field or select a Favorite or Frequent site that you wish to open in the new tab. Internet Explorer will then open that site in the new tab.

If you have any questions regarding these steps, please feel free to ask us in the Windows 8 Forum.

To start Internet Explorer from the Start Screen, click on the Internet Explorer icon as shown in the image below.

When you click on the icon, the Internet Explorer app will open as shown below.

If the address bar is not open, as shown in the image above, press the Windows + Z ( + ) keyboard combination to open it. Once the address bar is open, click on the wrench button as indicated by the red arrow in the image above to open the page tools menu.

To switch to Internet Explorer desktop mode, click on the View on the desktop menu option. Windows 8 will now switch to the classic desktop and start Internet Explorer 10 to the exact same page you are currently viewing.

You can now use the full features of Internet Explorer 10 as necessary.

To switch back to the Windows app mode, hover your mouse cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen and you will see a small thumbnail of the last app you used.

If this was Internet Explorer 10, simply click on it to switch back to the Windows UI app mode. If the app that shows in the thumbnail is not Internet Explorer, you can use the Windows+Alt ( + ) to see a list of all open apps. When you see the Internet Explorer app, simply click on it to go back to using it.

If you have any questions regarding these steps, please feel free to ask us in the Windows 8 Forum.

To disable the lock screen on wake type users at the Windows 8 Start Screen and then click on the Settings category as shown below.

When the search results appear, click on the Users option to open the User Settings screen.

On the above screen scroll down and click on the Change button underneath the label Any user who has a password must enter it when this PC. You will now be shown a confirmation screen asking if you are sure you wish to disable the requirement to enter a password when waking up Windows 8.

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If you are sure you wish to disable entering the password, click on the OK button. You will now be back at the User settings screen.

You will now see that the text above the Change button will now read Any user who has a password doesn't need to enter it when waking this PC. The next time your computer goes to sleep and you wake it up, it will no longer go the lock screen. In the future if you wish to enable a password on waking the PC, click on the Change button again to revert it back.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please feel free to ask us in the Windows 8 Forum.

If a driver is classified as malware by Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection because it is malicious or because of a false positive, the driver may not be allowed to load. If this is a necessary driver for Windows to start properly, then we could have a problem where Windows is unable to boot up properly. To protect Windows from a situation like this, Microsoft added a method for you to disable Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection during a boot so that you can resolve your issues by either updating your virus detections or removing the problematic malware driver. Then the next time you reboot your computer, Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection will automatically start again and continue protecting your computer.

This tutorial will walk you through disabling the Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection so that you can resolve any issues that may be causing Windows to not start properly. To do this please follow these steps to access the Startup Settings screen.

Please type Advanced on the Windows 8 Start Screen. When the search results appear click on the Settings category as shown in the image below.

Now click on the option labeled Advanced startup options and you will be brought to the General PC Settings screen. Scroll down to the bottom until you see an option labeled Advanced startup. Click on the Restart now button and Windows 8 will restart your computer and go directly into the Advanced Startup options menu.

Now click on the Troubleshoot button and then the Advanced options button. You will now be at the Advanced options screen where you should click on the Startup settings option.

At the Startup Settings screen, click on the Restart button. Your computer will be restarted and brought into the Startup Settings menu as shown below.

Now press the number 8 on your keyboard. This will launch Windows, but with the early launch anti-malware protection disabled. You can now login to Windows and update your virus definitions or perform further scans for malicious programs that may be causing Windows to not start properly. The next time you reboot, Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection will be enabled again automatically.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please feel free to ask us in the Windows 8 Forum.

It is possible to customize what type of drivers are allowed to load based on their classification of good, bad, or unknown. This tutorial will explain how to use the Boot-start Driver Initialization Policy to control what driver classifications are allowed to start when when being scanned by an early launch anti-malware program. It will also explain what each classification means and the possible ramifications of selecting some of these classification. If you are using Windows 8 Professional and Enterprise you can use the Group Policy Editor to configure this policy. For Windows 8, you will need to use the Windows Registry to set the classification you would like to use.

Depending on your version of Windows, please select the section below that best suits your needs:

Configure Early Launch Anti-malware Protection with the Group Policy Editor
Configuring Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection via the Registry

If you have any questions regarding this process, please feel free to ask in the Windows 8 Forum.

Configure Early Launch Anti-malware Protection with the Group Policy Editor

To access the Group Policy Editor in Windows 8, you should type Group Policy in the Start Screen and then click on the Settings category. The option for Edit Group Policy should now appear. Click on the Edit Group Policy option and the Group Policy editor will open.

Under Local Computer Policy expand the tree to the following path:

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Early Launch Antimalware

When you see Logon select it so that the screen looks like the following:

In the right-hand pane you should see a setting called Boot-start Driver Initialization Policy. Double-click on this setting and its properties screen will open.

To customize the what boot-start drivers can be loaded, click on the Enabled option. When you do that the menu of driver classifications will be enabled as shown below.

This menu will allow you to specify what classification of boot-start drivers you would like an anti-virus program to allow to load. The default setting is Good, unknown, and bad but critical, but you may want to be stricter or more casual depending on your environment. The classifications that you can choose are:

Good only

This classification means that only drivers that are signed and have not been modified in any way are allowed to boot. Drivers that are not signed and known malware drivers will not load even if that means Windows may not be able to start.

Good and unknown

This classification will only allow drivers that are signed or ones that have not been detected as malware or classified by the antivirus software's early launch antimalware driver.

Good, unknown, and bad but critical

This is the default classification used by early launch anti-malware protection. This classification will allow good drivers, unknown drivers, and even malicious drivers. These malicious, or malware, drivers will only be allowed to load if Windows would not start without them.

All

This setting will allow any driver to start regardless of whether its good, bad, or unknown.

Deciding what setting to use can be tricky as you obviously do not want to load a malware driver, but at the same time you do not want to make it so you can't start your computer. This is the reason why the default setting is Good, unknown, and bad but critical as even though you are loading a malware driver, you will be able to boot Windows and clean it. At the same time, you can select the Good and Unknown classification and then if your computer does not boot, you can disable Early launch anti-malware protection via the Windows 8 Startup Settings screen. Disabling early launch anti-malware protection will then allow you to boot Windows and perform a cleanup as well. The last classification, All, should never be selected as it does not protect you from any malicious drivers.

Once you decide what classification you would like to use, click on the Apply button and then press the OK button to close the policy properties screen. You can then close the group policy editor. You now need to reboot your computer to put the policy into effect. Early launch anti-malware protection will now use the classification that you have selected.

Configuring Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection via the Registry

If you are not using Windows 8 Professional or Enterprise you will not have access to the Group Policy Editor. Instead you will need to enable this setting through the Windows Registry. This setting can be enabled by creating a REG_DWORD value named DriverLoadPolicy under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\EarlyLaunch Registry key.

You would then have to assign one of 4 data values to the DriveLoadPolicy value to configure a particular classification. The decimal values that you can choose to assign to the DriverLoadPolicy value are:

For a description of each of the classifications, please see the previous section. Once you add this Registry value you will need to reboot Windows in order for it to go into effect. Early launch anti-malware protection will now use the classification that you have selected.

To access the Group Policy Editor in Windows 8, you should type Group Policy in the Start Screen and then click on the Settings category. The option for Edit Group Policy should now appear. Click on the Edit Group Policy option and the Group Policy editor will open. Under Local Computer Policy expand the tree to the following path:

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon

When you see Logon select it so that the screen looks like the following:

In the right-hand pane you should now see a variety of settings. Double-click on the Turn on PIN sign-in setting and its properties screen will open.

Select the Enabled radio button and then click on the Apply button. Finally click on the OK button and close the Group Policy Editor. Windows 8 will now allow domain users to use PIN sign-in on a domain.

If you are not using Windows 8 Professional or Enterprise you will not have access to the Group Policy Editor. Instead you will need to enable the setting through the Windows Registry. This setting can be enabled by creating the AllowDomainPINLogon REG_DWORD value under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System Registry key and setting it to 1.

If you do not feel comfortable editing the Registry, you can download this Registry file that will enable PIN sign-in for domain users:

http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/reg/windows-8/policies/system/EnPin.reg

Just download the above Registry file and double-click on it. When it asks if you wish to merge the data, click on the Yes button.

If you want to disable the ability for domain users to use PIN sign-in you can run this Registry file:

http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/reg/windows-8/policies/system/DisPin.reg

If you have any questions regarding this process, please feel free to ask us in the Windows 8 Forum.