Four essential Windows 8 gestures

This article first appeared on October 26th, 2012.

Microsoft has now introduced Windows 8 and its Surface tablets. Instead of having menus constantly cluttering up your screen, many of the menus in Windows 8 are hidden and appear after you swipe your fingers across the screen in a particular way.

Here are four key gestures you’ll need to remember:

• Swiping your finger from the right edge of the screen to the middle will reveal a menu that has search, share, devices, settings and a shortcut to your Start screen.

• Swiping your finger from the left edge to middle of the screen will bring up a list of all the apps you have open at the moment, allowing you to switch between them.

• Swiping your finger from the top edge to the middle will bring up a number of options for the app you’re running – sort of like the menu bar at the top of a window in Windows 7.

• Finally, swiping your finger from the top edge to the bottom of your screen will close the app that’s currently open.