If you’re like most people, the start screen is a great place to start your day. It’s always fresh and new, and it’s a great way to get started on your day. But if you’re like me, sometimes I find myself stuck in the same task for hours on end. And that’s why I’ve come up with a few tips on how to switch tasks on the start screen in Windows 8.

  1. Open the charms bar and type “Task Manager” into the search bar. The Task Manager will open and you’ll be able to see all of your currently running tasks.
  2. To switch between tasks, use the arrow keys or the left mouse button. If you use the arrow keys, you’ll move one task to the front of the list and if you use the left mouse button, you’ll move one task to the back of the list.
  3. To stop a task from running, click on it and then click “End Task.”

The Start, or Modern, screen doesn’t have a taskbar, so when you run Modern apps you might lose track of which apps are running. There are a few ways to check which Modern apps are running and switch among all running apps.

One way of seeing which Modern apps are running is to press Alt + Tab. A dialog displays showing thumbnails of all apps running from the Modern screen. As long as you hold down Alt + Tab, the dialog stays on the screen. To cycle through the open apps, hold down the Alt key and press the Tab key. Each time you press the Tab key, the next app is selected on the dialog. When you get to the app to which you want to switch, release both keys.

NOTE: On a touch screen, swiping repeatedly from the left cycles through running Modern apps.

You can also move the mouse to the extreme, upper, left corner of the Start screen. A thumbnail of the last active Modern app displays. Click on it to activate that app.

Notice that there are partial outlines of boxes below the thumbnail. If you move your mouse down to those boxes, a sidebar displays thumbnails of the open Modern apps. Click a thumbnail to activate that app.

This sidebar also displays on the Desktop.

Clicking the Start button at the bottom of the sidebar also seems to take you to the last active app, unless you are on the Desktop. In that case, it takes you to the Start screen.

You can also simply launch a Modern app again to activate it. If the app is already running, it will become active. To toggle between the Start screen and the last Modern app you ran, press the Windows key.