7 tips to get you started with Windows Phone 8!!

7 tips to get you started with Windows Phone 8

Featuring Windows Phone 8, Nokia’s Lumia line of devices are the flagship phones for Microsoft. If you’re invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, adding a Lumia or other Windows Phone 8 completes the circle quite nicely. If you’re moving from a feature phone, Android, BlackBerry, or iPhone to Windows Phone, here are some helpful tips to get you started.

1.Customize the lock screen and set a password

The first thing you’ll want to do after setting up your service is secure your phone with a password. To do so, go to settings > lock screen then scroll down and turn the password switch on. You’ll then be prompted to enter in a password twice. In settings you can also set up how much time passes before the screen locks itself and a password is required.

Customizing the lock screen is easy too. Launch settings and under system, tap lock screen. Here you have several different options you can combine to make a truly unique lock screen. You can set the background as a static photo, the Bing image of the day, or show the band or artist while music is playing. You can also select which apps you want to show quick status notifications for, such as the calendar, email, or weather.

2.Customize live tiles

Customizing the live tiles is a lot like customizing them in Windows 8.1. Tap and hold a tile until you see icons overlaid on the lower and upper right corners. Tap the arrow icon to change the size, or the tack icon to pin the tile to the main screen. You can change some tiles between small, medium, and large, and others only allow small or medium. While in this mode, you can move the tiles around on your phone too. Moving tiles to the top allows you to see the data that’s most important to you at a glance.

3.Add a microSD Card for more storage

If you want to increase storage on your Windows phone, you’ll need to install a microSD card. A 64 GB card should set you back around US$50. To install it, power off the phone and remove the back and the battery. Then insert the card into the appropriate slot.

After inserting the card, put the battery back in and pop the back into place. When you turn on your Windows Phone you’ll see the following message that a card has been found, tap “Yes.” Then to monitor the card storage space go to settings > phone storage and see how much storage space is being used. Here you can also change where media is stored.

4.Remove useless carrier and manufacturer apps

It’s great when you purchase a new Windows computer at a cheap price, but the savings come with a caveat – tons of junkware apps loaded on the system. That is the case with smartphones too. Luckily, getting rid of extra apps you don’t need or want on Windows Phone is easier than on a PC. From the list of installed apps, press and hold the app you want to get rid of. When the menu pops up, tap “Uninstall,” then verify you want to get rid of it.

5.Enable kid’s corner

Getting back to phone security, Microsoft added a helpful feature for parents called kids corner. This lets you create a sandboxed profile for your kids with their own start screen, so they can only access child friendly games, and other items that you specify. Plus, no matter what they hit on the phone, it won’t screw up your important settings. To enable it, go tosettings > kid’s corner. Then go in to each category and check only the items you want them to use.

After setting it up, you can get to it by swiping left from your lock screen. Then to leave it, just press the power button.

6.Back up your phone’s data

Just like with your computer, you need to make sure your phone’s data is backed up. Windows Phone 8 makes it easy to back up and restore settings, your app list, text messages, and photos to SkyDrive. The option to automatically back up is usually activated during initial set up of the phone, but to verify it’s set up or to change anything, go to settings > system > backup. Select anything on the backup list to turn it off or change the settings.

An important backup feature to note is photos and videos. You can have them backed up automatically to SkyDrive and choose the quality. By default it’s set to good quality, but if you want your pictures and videos backed up at high quality, you’ll need to be connected to Wi-Fi. This is to ensure your data usage doesn’t get out of control.

7.Get to know the Windows phone store

The Windows phone store is laid out nicely and is straight-forward to use. This is where you get not only apps, but music, games, and podcasts. When you launch the store just tap on what you’re looking for. Xbox Music lets you browse through genres and artists and listen to thirty second grabs of new albums. If you’re a fan of podcasts, you’ll find a large selection and can easily browse through them by category.

The apps section of the store features categories and what’s popular, top free and best rated lists. It also allows you to search for specific apps. When you find one you want you can read more about it and user reviews. Tap the install button to download it to your phone.

Conclusion

There are a lot of features available in Windows Phone 8, and these tips should help get you up and running with your new phone quickly.

Set a custom boot logo for Windows 8 or 8.1

When you boot your Windows pc, the first thing you see after the power-on process is the Boot Screen carrying a Windows logo at the center. This is a process during Windows starts loading the required system files to get the OS up and running. Changing this boot logo with a custom image of your choice is not a new concept and there is a lot of softwares available to do this. However, most of these existing softwares don’t yet support Windows 8 and 8.1. Fortunately, there’s now a new tool called 8oot Logo Changer that can replace the default boot logo of both these versions of Windows quickly and easily.

Windows 8 & 8.1 Boot Screen

Using 8oot Logo Changer to change the boot screen is extremely easy. But downloading and installing it on your computer is where you need to pay attention, because it's setup file comes packaged with a ton of unwanted software. Don’t worry – I will guide you on how to avoid that.

Security Warning

During setup, when you are asked if you want to install additional tools with the main app, simply unmark that option and then make sure to click Cancel in the proceeding pop up. Even then, the setup process will try to install other bloatware, so simply decline the offer whenever prompted. You’ll then be asked to select a location to save the file. Once it's setup file is downloaded, you can proceed with the straightforward installation process that doesn’t carry any additional malware.

Download 8oot Logo Changer

You can download 8oot Logo Changer from the following link. Don't worry. It is a free app.

Download From Here

Steps

The main application window of 8oot Logo Changer carries two tabs at the top-left: Bitmaps and Testmode. 

1 First of all, you need to load a new image file that you want to use in place of the default logo. To do that, click the Load Picture button, followed by selecting the image file.



2 If you’re using Windows 8.1, you will also need to turn on Test Signing under the Testmode tab. Test Signing is required to force Microsoft’s latest Windows update to display a custom image, and not doing so will simply display a blank boot screen. To do that, simply navigate to Testmode tab, click the Turn it ON or OFF button and then switch back to the Bitmaps tab.



3 After importing the image into the app, you can select the area that you want to capture by dragging your mouse over the required region. After that, click the right-arrow button under Edited Pictures, which will allow it to generate 6 BMP files. You can also double-click a file from the list to preview the image before applying any changes.

4 The next step is to generate the new bootres.dll file to display the new logo. But before proceeding with that step, you need to backup your current boot image for safety purpose.

Click on the Backup button to create a backup of your original bootres.dll image file. The backup file will come in handy if you ever need to revert back to the original boot logo. 

5 After taking the backup, click Generate bootres.dll, followed by Apply.

6 When you see the following Security Warning dialog, click Yes and then restart your computer for the changes to come into effect.

6 It should be mentioned here that if you have the Test Signing mode turned ON, a Test Mode watermark will appear on the desktop. To hide it, relaunch 8oot Logo Changer, navigate to Test mode tab, and click Backup shell32.dll.mui and Backup basebrd.dll.mui buttons to backup those original files. After that, click the pertaining Patch buttons. Next, click Restart Explorer.exe to hide the Testing mode watermark.

 

That's it. Now enjoy your new boot screen. If you don't like your new boot screen image, easily you can go back to the previous image from the backup image using the same procedure.

How to install Android OS on your pc without any emulator

There are several softwares, like BlueStacks, to use Android operating system on your computer . But most of them require high configuration and much RAM to run on your pc. So if your computer's configuration is low, these software won't work or these will start lagging. 

But don't worry. I am here to solve your problem. In this tutorial, I will show you how to install Android OS of any version like GingerBread, HoneyComb, Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean to your computer with low configuration. You will be able to use it with windows or linux operating system. It means, it will not remove your current operating system from your pc, rather it will install individually along with that operating system. So you will be able to run both OS on your computer. And surely, you will be able to uninstall the new OS anytime you want.

Enough talking. Now lets get to work!

Download your desired Android OS

• First go to this link.
• You will see some iso files like "android-x86-4.2-20130228.iso"
• Android x86 means these are 32bit OS and 4.2 means Jelly Bean
• So if you are thinking to use gingerbread, then find android-x86-2.3 and 4.04 for ICS.
• Now click on the file link that you want to use. Then download and save the iso file.

Install Android to Hard disk Using UNetbootin

• Download Unetbootin from this link.
• Open it. Click on the checkbox diskimage like screenshot given below.
• Click on the browse button. Go there where you saved the iso file. Select that and then click on the open Button.
• Click on the 4 numbered dropdown menu shown in the screenshot. Select Hard Disk.
• Click OK to start installing Android OS to your pc.

After successful installation, click on Reboot to test the newly installed OS or Press Exit if you want to try it later. 

After rebooting your computer, you will see two options. One is your previous OS and another named Unetbootin is your newly installed Android OS. Now select UNetbootin by the arrow key of your computer's keyboard and Press Enter. Wait for a few seconds to load. That's it. 

Now enjoy Your Newly Installed Android OS on your pc!! :)

Poems of Independence War [Windows Phone App]

Windows Phone (abbreviated as WP) is getting very popular nowadays. And as per the competition with Google Play Store of Android OS, apps of Windows Store are also getting increased. Poems of Independence War is a Windows Phone App which works perfectly with Windows Phone 8 (WP8).

This application is based on the poems of Independence war of Bangladesh during 1971. Many poems had been written that time in order to encourage the freedom fighters. Those who loves to read poems, this app will suit best for them.

App Features:

• Easy to view the book content, 
• Lots of remarkable poems, 
• Biography about remarkable poets, 
• Impressive User Interface (UI), 
• Amazing lock screen support, 
• Includes related Youtube videos. 

Screenshots:

Requirement:

This application requires Windows Phone 8. It is available in these screen resolutions HD720P (720x1280), WVGA (480x800) & WXGA (768x1280).

Download:

You can download this app from Windows Store. Click here to go to the link.