Windows 10 tips and tricks page 6

• Swipe menu

All your apps run full-screen when you're using Windows in the Tablet mode. To bring up the menu and access any commands and the window control, simply swipe in from the top.

• Analyse available storage space

To figure out what kind of files are taking up room on your computer, head to Start > Settings > System > Storage and click on the drive name to get a breakdown of how the space is being used.

• Save apps to external drives

If you use an SSD as your system drive you can ask Windows 10 to install apps on another disk by heading to Start > Settings > System > Storage and pointing to it under the 'New apps will save to' option.

• Customise your default app associations

If the default file associations don't work for you, you can change them by right-clicking on a file and selecting the 'Open with' option. Now select the 'Choose another app' option and pick the app you wish to use.

• Define a keyboard shortcut for any app

To get faster access to apps, you can launch them by using custom keyboard shortcuts. For this, right-click on an app's icon and head to Properties > Shortcut.

Now click inside the text box labelled 'Shortcut key' and press any key.

• Customise your app notifications

Notifications from all the installed apps can make you miss the real important ones. To curb notifications head to Start > Settings > System > Notifications & action. Scroll down and selectively turn off apps that you don't want to hear from.

• Offline maps

Save time and money when searching for directions on the go by downloading an offline version of a map. Head to Start > Settings > System > Offline Maps and then click the Download maps button.

Now you can drill down to the geographic region you're interested in to download the map.

• Side load Windows apps

Just like Android, Windows 10 now lets you install Windows apps from other sources besides the Windows Store. To enable this action, simply head over to Start > Settings > Update & security > For developers and click the 'Sideload app' option.

• Speed up app launches at boot

On a super-fast machine you can disable the artificial app startup delay. Launch regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer.

Right click Explorer, select New > Key, and name it Serialize. Under this key, simply create a DWORD value called StartupDelayInMSec and set it to 0.

• Run app as admin

If you want to run installed apps with escalated privileges for more freedom, right-click on them and select the 'Run as administrator' option.

Remember however that this facility is available only for regular apps and isn't available for Modern apps.

• Record a video of an app

You can now use Windows 10's Game DVR function to record video of any open app or desktop software. Press Win + G to open the game bar which has a circular Record button. Recorded videos are saved under Video > Captures folder.

Note that recording may slow performance depending on the demands of the app.

• Edit and share photos

You can use the built-in Photos app to fix many common photo flaws. You can straighten and sharpen images and apply filters and effects.

If you have installed social apps such as Facebook or Twitter you can use Photos to share images with friends and family.

• Generate a Battery Report

If you want to keep tabs on your laptops' battery level, launch the Administrative command prompt and type the following command: powercfg -energy -output C:\report.html. The command will analyse the battery status and create a Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report in the root directory of the C: drive.

• Create a recovery disc

Plug in a USB drive and head to Start > Settings and type 'recovery' in the Find a setting textbox and select the 'Create a recovery drive' option.

This will launch a wizard which wipes the USB drive and transforms it into a recovery drive. Our how to create a Windows 10 recovery disc guide explains the steps further.

• Create a system image

Head to Start > Settings and type 'file' in the textbox and select the 'File History' tool. Click the 'System Image Backup' link in the lower-left corner to start a wizard; this lets you select the destination drive for storing the backup image.

• Bypass the sign-in screen in Windows 10

Speed up boot by logging straight into Windows 10 by typing 'netplwiz' in the search bar to bring up the User Accounts window.

In the Users tab, deselect the 'Users must enter a username and password to use this computer' option.

• Set display per-monitor

With Windows 10 you can configure different DPI scaling ratios if you've got multiple monitors attached to your computer.

Right-click on the desktop and head to Display settings which lets you configure each detected display individually.

• God mode

GodMode is a one-stop panel that gathers all Control Panel commands within Windows 10. Create a folder on your desktop named: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}.

Once created the folder will change to the Control Panel icon and rename itself 'GodMode'.
92. No automatic updates
By default some Windows updates will automatically restart your computer to finishing installing. To put yourself in charge, head to Start > Settings > Updates and Security > Windows Update > Advanced Options.

Under the 'Choose how updates are installed' pull-down menu, select the 'Notify to schedule restart' option.

• Schedule restarts

To continue working uninterrupted, you can ask Windows 10 to delay applying an update that requires a restart. Head to Start > Settings > Updates & security.

If you have an update pending, you can schedule your reboot after selecting the 'Select a restart time' radio button.

• Get updates from other sources

Windows 10 lets you download updates from other computers on the network and the Internet using peer-to-peer technology, rather than Microsoft directly.

To tinker with the setting, head to Settings > Update & Recovery > Windows Update > Advanced Options > Choose how you download updates.

• Setup Metered connections

If you are connected to a mobile WiFi hotspot, you might want to configure it as a metered connection to restrict your data usage.

Head over to Notifications > All settings > Network & Internet > WiFi > Advanced options and under 'Metered connection' enable the 'Set as metered connection' option.

• Slide down the desktop to shutdown

Head to Windows > System32 and double-click on the slidetoshutdown.exe program. Performing this action from now on will drop in your lock screen image from the top and cover half of your screen.

Just slide the image to the bottom of your screen to shut down your computer.

• Disable data collection

To prevent your computer from communicating with Microsoft HQ, type 'services' in the Start menu search bar to bring up the Services Management console. Now find and disable the services named 'Diagnostics Tracking Service' and 'dmwappushsvc'. You're done.

• Improved Registry Editor

If you use the Registry Editor, Windows 10 now lets you navigate the quintessential power user app with ease.

You can now jump between the same entries under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER hives using a special context-menu entry.

• Modify Windows update policy

If you want to always be notified of an impending Windows update, you can change the setting in the Registry Editor.

Launch regedit and head to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows key. Here create a new key under Windows key and set its name as WindowsUpdate.

Lastly click 'Check for updates' in Windows Update to bring the changes into effect.

• Enable the handy Administrator account

By default, the built-in Administrator account is hidden to users. To enable it, launch the Command Prompt as Administrator and type net user administrator /active:yes. Now logout to see the newly added Administrator account on the login screen.

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