Many programs have tray icons that will change when they need your attention. By default windows hides most of these to free up the taskbar. You can change this by right clicking the taskbar > Properties > Customize (under notification area). There is an option to always show all the icons, or you can change them individually. Now you’ll never miss those antivirus alerts!
Windows 10 comes with live tiles in the start menu. If you’re used to windows 7, or prefer a simpler start menu, you can turn these off easily. Just right click on each tile and click “Turn live tile off”, or “Unpin from Start”. You can then resize the start menu once you have removed enough of them.
To access the Task Manager (where hanging programs can be terminated) directly, use CTRL-SHIFT-ESC. This can be crucial when the computer is struggling to even bring up the ALT-CTRL-DEL menu through which Task Manager is normally accessed.
Holding the SHIFT key while right-clicking brings up the advanced menu, with options such as “Run as User” (a specific user, as opposed to “Run as Administrator”) and “Open command menu here”.
If you have a piece of software you frequently use, but don’t want to take your hands off the keyboard and search for it with the mouse, you can assign a custom shortcut key combination to launch it. Just open the properties of the program, and pick a combination. For example; CTRL + ALT + W could launch Word.
Ever go to post a picture on Facebook and have to dig around your hard drive looking for the file? Well a simple solution to that is to right click on the file while holding the shift key, and click “copy as path”. Then you can paste that into the browse window, it will show you the right folder you need to be in, as well as the file name.
Mac and Linux have had this for years, but now windows has caught up. You can press windows key + Tab and then press the “+ New Desktop” button. You can then click on the desktop to access it. Use windows key + tab again to switch back.
Now in windows 10, you can tie your product key (license for windows) to your Microsoft account. All you need to do is first verify that your computer is activated in Settings>Update & Security>Activation.
Then you can navigate to Settings>Accounts>Your Info. Click sign in with a Microsoft account. Enter your account details and voila you will have automatically associated it with your license. You can double check in the activation window to see if it has taken effect. You will see “Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account” if it worked.
Doing this allows you to activate windows after a reinstall or move to a new machine, just by signing into your Microsoft account.
Big files clog up your hard drive and many of them are just garbage that you can delete. Instead of downloading a utility to do find them, you can use Windows Explorer. Simply type ‘size:gigantic’ into the Search box and Windows will show you all the files that are larger than 128MB in the folder (and sub-folders) you’re currently browsing. Delete any you’re sure you don’t need.
Want to be able to notice certain important folders at a glance in Windows Explorer or your applications? The secret is to highlight them using a different icon instead of the usual picture of a beige folder. Right click on the folder in Windows Explorer, select Properties and then the Customize tab. Click on ‘Change Icon’ and make your choice. You can even use your own icon by clicking on Browse.
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