Before I ask.... I want to say I love Windows 8.1. I adore it. It is so great!!!! I have a laptop from 2006 with a single (Yonah) core Centrino and 3 gigs of RAM and it runs like a bat out of hell with Win 8.1. I am astonished at how great it is. And the more I get used to the new UI the more I am in love with it - and when I need the desktop it's still there, too!!!!

Anyway - Enough gushing.  In Win 8.1 I drag my app from the top of the screen to the bottom.  If I just drag it, Windows will manage the memory and close it if needed.  I'm a control freak on my computer so I like to have the app closed (I'll ease up on that).  On my desktop - an AMD Phenom II quad core PC with 6G RAM and ATI integrated graphics the closing app just blinks the icon when it closes.  On my ancient 2006 laptop with integrated Intel Centrino CPU and graphics, I get a neato animation of the app flipping backwards.

I can't help but wonder why?  Why don't I get the neato animation on the MUCH more powerful computer?

Hi,

In Windows 8, user drag the app to the bottom of the screen to close an app, after that, app process would still appear in task manager. However if user simply hold the app three for a second untill the app tile changes to its own logo, the app process would disappear from task manager.

According to your description, I'm not sure your first computer(much more powerful) status when drag to close an app. So, after you take the action as you said, you can check Task Manager if its process exits. If not, this app should closed completely.