I just installed Windows 8 and it really isn't that bad. I've watched the videos on Windows 8 a few times before making the switch and it's pretty good (not as good as Windows 7 for sure)....but are there any more tips and tricks anyones learned that isn't covered in those videos?
I haven't watched those. What I immediately install on W8 is StartIsBack and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
Keyboard Shortcuts. Learn to navigate without using your mouse and it makes life 100x easier. Keep your Start screen organized. Unpin all unnecessary programs and use the Search function when you need to launch something. Here's mine:
Desktop, Calc, Store on first block; Common apps on second; Dev stuff on third; games on fourth. If you keep everything on your Start then things get cluttered quickly.
Also, http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/new-keyboard-shortcuts#1TC=t1
It takes some getting used to, but it's actually really nice. Don't get frustrated when it doesn't work exactly like previous versions of Windows. This is a tablet OS too, you know.
Seriously though, I cannot stress enough how much using your keyboard helps.
I use keyboard. To laucnh programs, I press Windows key, type the part of the program title and press enter. Usually takes less than 7 keystrokes to launch a program.
Start screen is way worse for that because it covers the entire screen, search box is on the right and results are on the left and I can't imeediately see results from control panel. And it's all just pointless anyway. Start screen on PC is pure waste of screen space because with mouse large UI elements are counter-productive. I also need to disable hot corners because they do nothing useful and frustrate by popping up when at the wrong times.
Even though Logan already did one, I might do a few Windows 8 videos, seems pretty logical.
⊞ + Q Displays all Apps
⊞ + W Search Settings
I barely to never use the metro, I am using classic shell.
I do love the taskmanager though, and the screen before I punch in my login info.