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How to open Windows 8 Sidebar Charm bar ?

Here are the steps that guide you that how to open Windows 8 sidebar charm bar. Here’s the complete procedure:

Wondering how to start with Windows 8? All you can see is a Screen full of tiles with no familiar things on it? Where is the Start Menu ? Where to start from? These could be a very common problem for the newbies.The old Windows Start menu is missing in Windows 8 and has been replaced by Sidebars (also known as the Charm bar ).

The functionality is quite the same, only difference lies in the user interface.Sidebar( charms) can be accessed easily from any Windows Tab, Apps, Internet explorer. Almost similar to the traditional start menu we use to have in previous Windows Versions.It acts as a toolbar to move from one Window to another or to access anything in Windows 8.

Windows 8 Sidebar/Charm Bar can be open in two ways

1. Move the cursor towards the extreme top right corner or extreme bottom right corner of the screen. Sidebar will pop up with some options.

2. Using Windows Shortcuts. Press Windows key + C. Sidebar will pop up automatically.


A small box on the bottom left will also appear on the screen as shown in the picture above. It displays the Current Date and Time along with battery and wifi connectivity strength. Sidebar has five main options (from top to bottom) such as Search, Share, Start, Devices and Settings.

With Search option you can search for any application such as documents, videos, pictures, control panel, window media player, downloaded files and more. The new search bar is much much faster and easy to use than the older traditional Search tool. On the Start screen just start typing what you are looking for and the search box will open automatically with instantaneous results.

With Share option you can share anything from the PC with your family, friends or other people via mail or skydrive application present in Windows 8. Note that Share does not function from the Windows desktop or Start screen. In the Windows preview, not many examples are shown defining the functionality of the Share tab, but obviously one of them was through which you can share a web page via email.

Clicking on the Start button will direct you to the Start screen from anywhere on the PC. In case you’re working on the desktop and you want to move to the main start screen, you just need to click on the Start button. It helps you switch to the start screen from the currently opened window( Windows Desktop, Apps, Control Panel, PC Settings).

Devices shows all the peripheral devices that are connected to your PC such as for example a projector. User can access all connected devices from here.

All computer settings are displayed in Settings. Few settings are directly accessible such as wifi settings, sound, brightness, notifications and language.

You can also find Power option here though which you can turn off the system. To access more settings, you can open Control Panel which is displayed at the top of the Settings bar.

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