Using Touch in Windows 8

If you’ve seen any of the videos about Windows 8 Developer Preview (you can watch one of mine by clicking here), you have probably noticed that you can tap, drag, flick, and pinch your new operating system to get it to do the things you most want it to do. That’s a neat trick, considering we’ve been pointing and clicking a mouse since the 1990s.

If you have a smartphone, you may already be familiar with touch gestures. But let’s go through the ones you’re likely to use most often in Windows 8.

>>>step-by-step: Single Tap

You’ll use a single tap gesture to launch an app on the Windows 8 Start screen, select a setting, or choose an item to display.

1. Display the Windows 8 Start screen or the app with the option you want to select.