Introduction xi
Introduction
Congratulations on getting a Surface
tablet. The tablet will change the way you
think about Microsoft Windows and may
even change the way you think about
tablets. It has a new interface and a com-
pletely re-designed way to interact with
apps. Depending on the model you got,
it might also have come with a spacious
tactile QWERTY keyboard complete with
shortcut keys designed to work exclusively
with the tablet. Since it can run apps like
Microsoft Office and offers 7 GB of cloud-
based storage via SkyDrive, it could be
the only device you need to take with you
when traveling.
The operating system (OS) features a
graphics-based user interface (UI) on the
Start screen that you navigate by using
touch-based gestures and movements. The
Start screen is what you will use to access
and use apps. You can even run two apps
simultaneously side by side on the screen
using a new feature called
snapping
. The
Start screen is filled with graphical squares
and rectangles called
tiles
A
. They can be
resized, moved around on the screen, and
kept from appearing on the Start screen.
A
The Start screen features tiles, which launch
programs and display relevant information.
You can customize the Surface tablet to
see the apps you use most first. Tiles are
how you access apps—just tap a tile to
launch the app. Tiles can be
live
, meaning
an app’s information can display on the tile.
The Surface tablet is Microsoft’s first entry
into the quickly growing tablet market. It’s
a good initial effort. As is the case with
any first-to-market device, there are some
bugs. The good news is that the Surface
tablet is updateable, and system and app
updates are continually pushed out to it. If
something doesn’t work correctly the first
time, an update just might fix it. That is also
why some images or steps in this book
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Weight and Dimensions
