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Mouse: Point at the top- or bottom-right corners.
Keyboard: Press the Windows key + C.
I agree that Win8 is not great and I still love Win 7 more than ever but Win8 is not that bad. I installed Start8 and never had problems with Win8 ever again. Give it a try.
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Life would have been much easier if I had the source-code!!
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Windows? How delightfully infra-dig dear boy. 
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You know, you could just press Windows+C.
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Doh! You're complaining because the charms bar is too hard to open??
I'm complaining because it's too damned EASY to open.
I work in VS most of the day, using a laptop with a couple of screens. I have a mouse as well as my laptop's mousepad. I prefer to use the mouse but when I need to do some straight coding, I move the mouse well out of the way of the laptop keyboard, and this simple movement (that I've been making for years without problem) now results in the pointer going to the bottom right of screen and the bloody charms thing popping up, HIDING what I'm working on. I then need to alt-tab to get it back. But instinctively while my right hand is moving the mouse, my left is already starting to type, so I lose characters, or send them to the wrong app, or.. aagghhhhhhhh. This probably happens to me 30 - 40 times a day and it's driving me up the wall. Not charms, but a curse.   
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Have you ever considered one of those programs like Start8, Power8, Start Menu Reviver, etc? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Start_Menu_replacements_for_Windows_8[^] has a bunch of freeware listings of programs of this sort. One common theme is turning off the charms, restoring the start menu to a Win7 state (yet still using win8, course with the fully functional start menu back you don't even need the charms), and most will bypass the Metro startup, going into the Windows desktop at startup.
I got sick of the whole thing early, but didn't have a Windows 7 install CD. However, for the sake of staying legal, a friend suggested this option to me.
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So many replies on "why not press Windows + C"!
Basically it does help, but I guess those that answered this did not read my original thread. I am running inside a VM on terminal desktop (this is another story and I have no way around it).
So let me answer: Windows + C does NOT work. Why? Because if I press it the command goes to the outer machine, not the Windows Server 2012 that I have RDPd to and it is the one that I need to show the charms bar.
Present anytime, anywhere: www.ccview.me
Clipboard in the cloud: www.cloudclipx.com
-- If I have 8 hours to chop down a tree, I spend 6 sharpening my ax! And I mostly do in CodeProject and Pluralsight!
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I assume you have a keyboard. Windows-C gets you to the charms fast. I can find no use-case for going back to anything as clunky as the Start Menu or any new pretenders such as Start-88.
I have arranged the Start Page to suit my usage eg most frequently required on the left - sensible groupings - eliminating links to unused programs. Also put frequently used desktop programs as shortcuts on desktop. The beauty of Windows has always been its configurability.
For rarely used programs, such as regedit, I resort to the Windows-R Run option.
I spend 90% of my time in (on?) the desktop but find no issue in dropping into the start page if need be - the transition is so quick and fluid - especially using wheel-mouse (this was even the case with an old laptop with only 512MB of RAM).
Other people mention the (shouting) caps menus in VS and Office. They do look bad but these are easily fixed and converted to lowercase and all is well.
I have used every version of Windows since Windows 1. Favourites 3.1, 98, XP, 7, and 8.
(By the way I also use Mac OSX, IOS7, and Android).
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Why do it with the mouse when you can hit Win-C so easily?
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what? a new Hotkey-Combination? I will have to change my own bindings then...  should I ever upgrade to Windows 8 
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Nicholas Marty wrote: a new Hotkey-Combination? I will have to change my own bindings then...
Either that or get a trackpad that supports Win8 gestures so that you can use it to swipe the charm bar into view (I have one of these for my desktop machine).
Nicholas Marty wrote: should I ever upgrade to Windows 8
You should! 
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I thinks the charms bar is ok, what's not ok is that they make it the only place where you can turn off your computer, I think they should have put these options under the User Image/Name on the Start Page, just below Log Out.
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RafagaX wrote: I think they should have put these options under the User Image/Name on the
Start Page, just below Log Out.
Agreed.
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I agree. It's not like there is a shortage of ways to turn off the computer, but since options in the charms are hidden it lacks discoverability. Once you know where everything is, it's a joy going through several menus without clutter.
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You can also hit WINDOWS+C. I have a keyboard with this in there that brings up the charms bar every time. You can also hit CONTROL+SHIFT+ESC for the Windows Key as you probably also know.
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Yes I know. Try RDP within a VM (company restriction) and you will see how it does not work.
Present anytime, anywhere: www.ccview.me
Clipboard in the cloud: www.cloudclipx.com
-- If I have 8 hours to chop down a tree, I spend 6 sharpening my ax! And I mostly do in CodeProject and Pluralsight!
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Are you talking about using the mouse to trigger the charms in a NOT fullscreen VNC of a Windows 8 machine?
Otherwise, I don't get it.
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Yes, non full screen on Windows Server 2012. Which brings me to the next point, who will use Windows Server 2012 in a tablet? hahaha
Why not keep it as Win 2k8?
Present anytime, anywhere: www.ccview.me
Clipboard in the cloud: www.cloudclipx.com
-- If I have 8 hours to chop down a tree, I spend 6 sharpening my ax! And I mostly do in CodeProject and Pluralsight!
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Yeah, it only works properly with full screen, since you need to pass by the screen corners. But if you're VNCing, you're smart enough to use Windows keys shortcuts (Win + C, Win + Tab, etc).
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Win + C in my environment doesn't work. There is a Citrix in the middle and a lot of other complicated stuff, basically for security
Present anytime, anywhere: www.ccview.me
Clipboard in the cloud: www.cloudclipx.com
-- If I have 8 hours to chop down a tree, I spend 6 sharpening my ax! And I mostly do in CodeProject and Pluralsight!
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It's an unfortunate fact of life that the users outnumber the developers by an incredible ratio. Guess where MS makes all of their money... It sure isn't from the developers.
Fletcher Glenn
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True. But the developers are who are creating the content that users use. Without content, windows will die. Just as so many OSs died over the past decades without support from developers. It's the developers who made the C=64 survive well into the 16 bit PC times. It's the lack of developers that made it's successor, the C=Plus/4 a huge failure. I'm not saying W8 is like the C=Plus/4 OS, but this is an example for two very similar systems where the developers decided which is to live and which is to die. If the developers don't like a system, they won't develop for it. It's that easy.
Also, MS made statements that are clearly false: they promised a system that will cater to all platforms. What they delivered is a system that runs on all platforms, but is clearly focused on smartphones and tablets. Desktop usability has been sacrificed in that transition, to the point where W7 is clearly the better alternative!
MS is forgetting that they don't (yet) have a good foothold in the mobile market, and they're risking their market share in the one market where they do: Steam is already busy advertising it's own SteamOS to circumvent the restictions of the MicroSoft Store. Articles abound that claim Linux is on the rise again in the desktop market, and this time for real. If MS isn't careful they'll lose many Windows developers to Android and Linux - and that will affect mobile development as well.
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I love the charms bar - can't use windows without it.
When people ask me how to use windows 8 I tell them move your mouse to the corner.
The corners is all you have to remember.
When people ask me how to use any other OS I'm on the phone for hours trying to explain simple concepts.
I use a chainsaw for chopping down trees.
This lack of future tools may explain to you why windows 8 is the way windows 8 is.
When the chainsaw came out, people that use axes got confused and resisted to something they had to learn.
Greg Colborne.
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Use in RDP There is no exact corner. You will move your mouse out of the corner 9 out of 10 times!
Present anytime, anywhere: www.ccview.me
Clipboard in the cloud: www.cloudclipx.com
-- If I have 8 hours to chop down a tree, I spend 6 sharpening my ax! And I mostly do in CodeProject and Pluralsight!
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Hover the mouse in the corner
The menu will show gray
move your mouse in the direction of the menu
if nothing shows up on the left side menu - there are no programs open
Right click to bring up any programs app bar
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