An Easy Tips & Tricks Guide to

Windows 10
A step by step guide to the most common settings.

Written by Louise Welbourn

 DEDICATION

To those who thought I wouldn’t make it.

Copyright © 2018 Louise Welbourn All rights reserved. Any unauthorized
reprint or use of the material is prohibited. No part of this book may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
systems without express permission from the author.

Disclaimer: While all attempts have been making to verify the accuracy of the
information provided in this publication, the author assumes no responsibility for
any errors or omissions. Should the reader face any untoward website
difficulties, it is recommended that they see out professional technical support to
rectify the same. The author will not be held responsible for any repercussions
beyond the scope of this book.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
PREVIEW PROGRAM WINDOWS
CONFIGURE AUTOPLAY
BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER
MAXIMISE BATTERY LIFE
BLUETOOTH CONNECTION
GOOGLE SEARCH FROM THE TASKBAR
COMPATIBILITY MODE
CREATING A MICROSOFT ACCOUNT
CUSTOMIZE THE START MENU
Folders and Tiles
Live Tiles
Pinned Tiles and Shortcuts
OPEN PDF’S
DESKTOP ICONS
DISABLE LIVE TILES
DISABLE THE LOGIN SCREEN (BE CAREFUL WITH THIS
ONE)
DISABLE STICKY KEYS
DISABLING THE LOCK SCREEN ADS
MICROSOFT EDGE BROWSER EXTENSION
PREVIEWING YOUR FONTS
 TASKBAR OPTIONS
ANNOYING TASKBAR ICONS
HIDE THE SEARCH BAR
HYBRID DEVICE SETTINGS
MAKE SETTINGS MORE ACCESSIBLE
MANAGE STARTUP APPS
MANAGING AD PERSONALIZATIONS
PIN SAVED SEARCHES
QUICK ACCESS MENU
REMOVING THE ANNOYING “GET OFFICE”
STOP SUGGESTED APPS
SETTING UP AUTOMATIC LOGIN
SHARE FILES, AND MORE WITH HOMEGROUPS
STOP WINDOWS FROM ASKING PERMISSIONS
KID FRIENDLY
SUPERVISE YOUR FAMILY COMPUTERS
USAGE
TURNING ON ONEDRIVE FETCH
TASK BUTTONS: THE WAY YOU LIKE IT
WINDOWS ANNOYANCES
TAKING CONTROL OF UAC
REVEALING CLOCKS FROM OTHER TIMES
VIEW DRIVE USAGE
VIRTUAL DESKTOP
 ARRANGING THE WINDOWS
WINDOWS 10 IS SPYING ON YOU
Windows Defender
WINDOWS PRIVACY
MAKING WINDOWS 10 DO THE WORK FOR YOU
Accessibility
Reading the small print
Bright and Bold
Clearer Captions
SHOW ALL YOUR
DRIVES
ACTIVATE DARK MODE
INTRODUCTION
Do you find yourself unable to remember your password to login to your
computer? Do you need help in trying to read the computer screen? Are you
clueless about Windows 10? Are you concerned about Privacy?

In this e-book, you will learn how to login without needing to use a password.
You will learn how to personalize your computer, change the theme the pictures
and a whole lot more. Discover how to turn off those annoying Windows 10
Ads. (You know the Ads that appear on the Start Menu, the tiles) Master the 5
essential techniques for improving your experience with Windows 10. You will
learn how to turn on Windows Privacy options and monitor your children’s
activities on the computer.

I put this e-book together because I wanted to share some useful tips and tricks
with Windows 10 that I have collected since Windows 10 first came out.

The e-book is designed as a Step by Step guide with lots of large pictures so that
you can follow along. There have been a lot of changes to Windows 10 since it
came out a few years ago so some of the things mentioned in the e-book may not
be applicable to your version of Windows 10. Unfortunately, operating systems
get out of date fairly quickly as Microsoft updates features and tightens security.
I will update this e-book from time to time with the changes.

Let’s get you started with Chapter 1.

PREVIEW PROGRAM WINDOWS
If you have more than one program running and you can’t tell which one you
want to switch to, Windows 10 has made it easier with a preview of the
programs.

1. If you hover the mouse over the programs Taskbar button it will display
the preview of any programs that are running.

2. You can then click on one of these programs and it will open up to the
full program
CONFIGURE AUTOPLAY
There is nothing more annoying when you insert a USB drive and nothing
happens. Windows 10 recognizes the device, but sometimes doesn’t actually ask
what you do want to do with that each time. If you would like to avoid this
prompt clears rather annoying thing annoying. It’s very easy to do.
1. In the taskbar search area type Autoplay settings.

2. Switch Autoplay from all media devices to off or choose an

action that occurs only when you have inserted specific media
3. Selecting the other options for removable drive reveals a few different
options.

4. You can also check the memory card to reveal additional options.
5. In some cases, it might be better to leave it at Take no Option or Open
folder to view files (File Explorer) that way you can choose the option
you want.
 BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER

1. Go to this website and download the free software.

2. Click the download button and select home unless you are a
business.

3. Once download run.

4. If you get this message

6. Click Run and you will see this screen

7. Click Download

8. Select Yes 9. Wait for the software to download and it might take some
time due to how large the file is.

10. Finished downloading

 11. Go Next prepare to install, accept the license agreement 12. Get a
license key
13. Just follow along with the wizard 14. Your choice to register

15. Accept the defaults to install

16. Click Finish 17. Start the program. It will ask you for registration but
you don’t have to register.
18. Select whatever you want. Remember if you give them your email
 address you will receive correspondence from them.

19. Macrium Reflect software then will analyze the hard drive.

20. You will receive the following message:

21. You can create this later so select No or Yes but in this instance for the e-
book 22. Click Yes
23. Follow the Wizard and accept the defaults.

24. Click Next

25. Continue to accept the defaults.

26. Just keep clicking next.

27. If you have a DVD burner, follow the prompts, if you have a USB device
then select USB device.
28. Click Next.
29. I have used USB rather than DVD’s as there are a lot of computers that do
not have a DVD drive but will have a USB drive.
28. As the message box says, shutdown and restart the computer with the USB
still attached. The computer should boot up the Macrium Reflect screen below.
29. Create a backup plan.
30. Select the source drive and image destination

30.

You can create your own backup plans based on your own backup requirements.
Selecting different types of backups starting from a full backup which is a
backup of everything to the differential backup and incremental.

There are plenty of different options to choose from depending on if the

computer is for business or personal. If the computer is used mainly for business
then a full backup every week followed by differential or incremental backups
would be needed whereas a home personal computer used only occasionally
might need a full back up once a week.

An incremental backup only includes data that has changed since the previous
backup, whereas a differential backup contains all the data that has changed
since the last backup was performed. The main advantage of differential has
over incremental comes down to shorter restore times.
31. Click Next for a summary
32. Save your backup to another drive, external drive or on the network. Then
run the backup.

33. You will need to enter your account details to run the scheduled tasks.
34. The Backup is ready to run and depending on how much as to be backed up
will depend on how long it will take.
35. The backup is now completed.

36. Final summary of the backup and schedule.

 MAXIMISE BATTERY LIFE
Windows 10 power saving functions to get the most out the battery life.

1. Opening the battery saver from the settings from the start menu.
2. Choose System 3. On the left panel scroll down to the battery label.

Follow along with the pictures below.

4. Click on Battery to show the status of the battery on your laptop.

As you can see the battery window is split into two areas. There is the overview
area which shows the current battery level, time left and a few other options.

The Battery saver option shows off but it can be turned on and what level is
allowed before it is activated.

As soon as I turned it on the screen brightness darkness to conserve battery Note

these settings only work when the computer is not on power.
Battery Usage

5. Select Battery usage which gives a breakdown of the battery usage

across recently running apps. This is a great way to know what appears
to have been using the power and to avoid the battery hungry apps until
you are on power. I have selected Battery Usage by the app as in the
screenshot below.

You can break the list down further to installed applications or those that you got
from the store.
 6. Click on the app itself will give a further breakdown of usage

You can see the individual apps gives you a breakdown of how much battery is
used as Windows Explorer is using 41% battery on my computer To check on
the Background apps, you need to go back to the Setting screen and click

privacy

1. In the privacy settings scroll down on the column left-hand side

until you see background apps.

2. Click on Background apps to change some of the settings

3. You can then choose to which apps to stop receiving information,
sending information and staying up to do date when not using them. This is
another way to conserve power by getting rid of the applications you no
longer use.

4. There are some other apps such as the Power Scheme Switcher
which is a tool to help you with better battery plans according to your usage.

Power Plan

These pre-defined battery savers a profile that can be customized for different
usage scenarios.
a) Go to Power & Sleep
b) You will see these options.

c) If you click Select Additional power settings and this will open up the
old control panel

d) You can change a number of options here, a collection of defined

hardware and system settings known as the power plan. You can tweak
the settings to start one from scratch Selection power saver plan
 e) Then click the change plan settings, here you can do some tweaking

You can also do this with balance and high f) Clicking the Change advanced
power settings has more settings to change if you really want to change further
to minute detail.

g) If you feel you have changed the settings too much you can always
select restore plan default and this will default the settings again.
h) You also create your own powers settings
i) Choose what the power buttons do

j) It is here where you might need to go if you have a laptop but you a
desktop monitor and you want to close the lid of the laptop.
k) Create Your own power plan
l) Click Next

m) Change the settings to suit your own power plan

 n) Click Create

o) So now I have a customized power plan

You can certainly spend some time here looking at the various power settings,
trying out the different settings to see which works. Just be careful that the
power settings you choose are the right settings for the appropriate tasks you are
using on the laptop. You don’t want to be in the middle of the game when the
laptop changes power plans and you lose the game.
 BLUETOOTH CONNECTION
If you have a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard or perhaps another Bluetooth device,
it is easy to get them connected.
1. You need to turn on the Bluetooth on your pc and device. From the

Settings Menu, find devices

2. You should see the highlighted, Bluetooth and other devices.

Make sure the Bluetooth is turned on

3. Turn on your device such as the mouse and follow the instructions
provided on starting the Bluetooth functionality 4. Back on the
computer simply click the + Add Bluetooth or other devices
5. You might find that the computer has already detected the device so just
selected and allow it to pair.
6. If not Click the Bluetooth to add your mouse, keyboard 7. You should
see some online instructions about pairing the device, follow the
instructions and once paired your pc will automatically recognize the
device when in range.
8. Troubleshooting. If the device is not connecting try turning off the
device, switching Bluetooth off on the computer and repeat the above.
Occasionally the device may drop off so just repeat the process again.
Also, check the batteries on the device in case this is the issue.
 GOOGLE SEARCH FROM THE
TASKBAR
If you want to search using the search box in the Taskbar you will be using
Microsoft Bing but if you want to use Google Search instead you will need to
make a change in settings.
1. Go to Settings, System and check under the default apps to set this to
Google Chrome.
2. Now open Chrome and install chrometana chrome from the Google
website and choose Google on the page that opens.
3. Add the extension
4. Select Google below

5. Now when searching from the taskbar the default will be Google rather
than Bing.
 COMPATIBILITY MODE
When you have some older software that you use a lot but it doesn't seem to
work under Windows 10, you can try using the Compatibility mode.

1. Right-click the program

2. Select Properties
3. The click on the Shortcut tab
4. Click Compatibility Mode where there are a couple of options to change
to get the program to work.

5. Tick Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows version of

your choice.
6. And there are a few options to select from and you should try to select the
option that is closest to the last time you used the program.

7. I chose the Windows XP option. If you are not sure you can run the
compatibility troubleshooter.
8. The option to update the program as this might fix the issue or you can
continue to troubleshoot the program.

9. Don’t forget to change settings for everyone, You also don’t have to
change all the settings but any of the options might help and at the end
of the day if it doesn’t work you might just need to buy the update if
there is one.
 CREATING A MICROSOFT
ACCOUNT
If you have computer given to you or bought with Microsoft Account, this is one
way to set up an account for yourself, the adult. If you have already account you
don’t need to do this you just Sign in to a Microsoft Account

1. Click Sign in with Microsoft Account 2. You will see the following

screen

3. Log in with your own account or select create one. For this exercise
going to create one.
4. Click to Get a new email address 5. The fun part is select a suitable

name
6. Then choose a good password to go with the account 7. Add the
additional security

8. Once select password click next

9. Untick if you are not interested in the information.

10. In many cases, you might have a blank password or you may have a
password you use to log on to the computer 11. In any case, once you
have done this, click next

12. Choose a Pin number as it might be easier for you to remember such as
 6920 is the pin

13. Click Ok and the process is done.

14. Close the setting window and open up again to see the new online
account 15. If you log out to log back in you will see you will need to

enter a pin

16. If you lose your password you need to go to account.live.com

17. Go to the Sign in page.

18. Select forgot my password

19. Choose the option appropriate to the situation. Probably the first option
of forgot my password. Select this option.
20. Click next to recover the password. I am hoping when you set up the
account you selected a recovery account email or phone number.

21. Select the recovery email

22. The code is sent and once you have the new code, enter the code and
then new password required.

23. Finally, your password has been recovered.

24. If you don’t have an email address or some other option then check I

don’t have any of these

25. Complete another contact email address, It must be different to the one
you are trying to recover. Be patient as it makes take a bit of time to
receive the email for the verification code. Also, check the address to
make sure.
26. Enter the code sent to your other email address.
27. The email account will now get the security code

28. After verifying

29. Just follow the Wizard 30. The account is now active.
 CUSTOMIZE THE START MENU
Changing the Start Menu background.

This can be any color you like so let’s change the color by going to: 1.

Settings

2. Settings open to reveal personalization

3. Under personalization and colors, there is an option called untick

automatically pick an accent color from my background option. This
will enable you to pick any color from the palate.
4. The menu can be a contrasting color rather than stand dull blue or grey.
5. And the color has changed
 Folders and Tiles
Revisiting the Start Menu, Settings and personalization and Start gives you a
variety of different options to change.

1. For an example is selecting the show app list in Start menu, select this to
off produces this result
2. The applications are now missing

3. Selecting to change the show recently added apps means that any
applications you have installed recently will no longer appear
4. Turning it off and no recently added

5. The most used applications, that is the application you find yourself
using a lot, selecting this put them at the top of the tree
6. Having both the options selected produces the following

7. There is no harm in turning the settings on and off to see what

happened
Turning on the Use Start Full Screen
1. Going back to settings, scroll down to

2. You have a number of folders that can also appear on the start menu

3. At the moment the menu only has my profile settings and shutting down
the computer, I will add a couple of these folders such as File Explorer,
Documents, and Downloads. Now I have them on a ready menu to use
4. By clicking the File Explorer

5. File explorer will open.

 Live Tiles
Live tiles as the name suggests are tiles on the start menu that are
constantly updated with data.

When I am referring to tiles I am referring to these boxes found on the

start menu.

The Calendar, Mail are good examples of live tiles.

1. If you right-click the Calendar tile, choose more then there is an option
to Turn Live the On, turn it on.

2. Now it shows the date and if there is anything on that date

3. You can repeat the process to turn off if you no longer wish to see the
live tile.
 Pinned Tiles and Shortcuts
If you want to find something quickly and gets lots on the start menu lists, you
can pin it to the tiles 1. To do this, locate the application from the Start Menu

list and right click

2. It must be the application, not the folder in order for the right-click
functions to work.
3. Selecting the Right click, select pin to start option 4. It is now pinned a

tile
5. To undo this function, simply right-click the tile

6. And choose the Unpin from Start option 7. On the Right click menu is
More with an arrow, click more to reveal Pin to Taskbar, you can add
the application to the taskbar.

8. The application is now on the taskbar

 OPEN PDF’S
You might dislike the way pdf’s open in the Edge rather than another dedicated
PDF reader.

You can change this by typing default app settings into the Taskbar search

1. Click the highlighted Default apps which will open the settings menu.
Scroll until you find choose default application by file type.
2. Then scroll down until you see a .pdf filed extension.

3. As you can see Microsoft Edge is the default program. To change to

another program on it by click on it and choose another app from the list
 4. This will open another menu.

5. You now see there are two options, Microsoft edge, and solid converter
PDF in order to change this. You just need to select solid converter PDF
as your default program.

6. After selecting the solid converter PDF you will see that now see that
the PDFs are associated with this program.

7. So when you click on a program that has an a.pdf extension. It will now
open. The solid converter PDF.

This method also works for any other file extension.

 DESKTOP ICONS
If you don’t like the desktop icons in windows 10, it is easier to
change them. There are certainly some icon packs that are available
online to make shinier icons like those in Windows 8 and using them
as a matter of just going back to the start and settings, personalization
and themes 1. Start Settings, Personalization, and Themes

From the Desktop Icon Settings, you can see that there are some different icons
that you can place on the desktop, just like the old days and then from there you
can change their look so let’s select a couple to put on the desktop.
2. Go to Desktop Icon Settings. Click to add all or just a couple of the
icons.

3. You will now see those icons on the desktop

4. There are two other options at the bottom of the Desktop Icon
settings are two other buttons, the change and restore button.

5. By clicking the change icon button, you need to highlight one

of the icons you wish to change. Click on the Change Icon
button and choose one of the icons to change. For this
example I chose the This Pc icon to change, you will then you
see a number of icons that you can choose from.
 6. Simply click one of the other icons to replace it and if you have
downloaded other icons you can install them. Once you have
chosen your icon. Don’t forget to click over change and then
click okay and then go back to your desktop and you will now

see that that icon’s changed like in the picture below

7. By clicking, Browse takes you to this directory

8. You can repeat this process for any number of the icons and then as
you will have seen before. There is a button that says restore icon by
clicking this will restore the icon to its original form.

I’m not showing you here where to get the icons from as this is a basic
introduction to changing some of the icons but if you certainly Google it all
using being and simply type in windows icons you’ll come up with a number of
websites such as icon archives where you can download a numerous different
icons to try and hopefully some of the free ones.

You would need to download the ico file and add to the directory shown above.
 DISABLE LIVE TILES
Live Tiles in the Start Bar, might look pretty and interested but often used for
software makers to advertise their titles, recommendations and generally upsell.
Like many of the things we have seen so far, this can be turn off.

1. Right Click on any of the live tiles that you don’t like and select More

2. And select to Turn the life Tile off. Now the Tile will be Static only.
 DISABLE THE LOGIN SCREEN
(BE CAREFUL WITH THIS ONE)
If you are working in your own home with no other people you might find that it
is not necessary to have a password for you to log in. It can be rather annoying if
it’s only yourself and nobody else. But you can remove this process altogether.

1. Type in the search area netplwiz and this will show the netplwiz run
command option. Hit enter.

2. This will open up the user account dialog box. Where it says users
must enter password uncheck the box and so next time you go to login.
There will be no need for a password.
3. When you click apply you will be presented with this box

4. Specify your name and leave the password box blank and click okay 5.
The next time you turn on the computer you will be automatically
signed in.
 DISABLE STICKY KEYS
Sticky keys is a funny name but is an option in the accessibility section for those
people who have problems pressing more than one key at a time. It is actually
disabled by default so to disable or enable sticky keys is to press the shift key 5
times in succession and this would make the sticky keys popular appeal

Unfortunately for gamers the pressing of the shift key 5 times might actually be
a part of a game or cause the game to be interrupted which is not ideal but there
is a way around this is to make sure the popup doesn't appear is to press the shift
5 times and there is a link to go to ease of access to disable To disable it or
enable it: 1. Type in the Search box, Ease of Access Center 2. This will open
up the Ease of Access box

3. Choose the option of Make the Keyboard Easier to Use. Turn on an off
the sticky keys from this location.
Or this one.
 DISABLING THE LOCK SCREEN
ADS
The windows Spotlight lock screen looks great but unfortunately, in the midst of
photos, you might find some ads. You can turn this off but you will no longer

get the Spotlight wallpapers 1. Go to Settings

2. Go to Personalization

3. Select Lock Screen

4. Change the Background to anything but the Windows Spotlight and this
 will disappear

Example

5. Finished.
 MICROSOFT EDGE BROWSER
EXTENSION
Microsoft’s edge is the default browser now on Windows 10 and you might be
used to seeing an army of extensions in Chrome or Firefox and wondering if the
Edge has the same extensions. Good News, the Edge has its own extensions.

1. If you open up the edge browser. In the top right-hand corner is three
little dots as pictured below

2. Scroll down until you see the extensions and click on the link. This will
take you to the extensions for Edge page. Click on the get extensions
from the store and this will take you to the actual Microsoft windows
store.
3. You will then see a number of extensions that can be applied to the

Edge browser

4. Simply click on the ones you would like to add

5. Click get the extension and then wait for it to be installed.

6. Once completed, it’ll be ready to launch they just click the launch

button

7. Clicking on launch will then take you back to the Edge Browser we will
see a message about turning a starting new extension on or off
8. The new extension is now ready to be used. You can continue to go and
add more extensions, if you need to, or if you want to.
 PREVIEWING YOUR FONTS
If you want to know what fonts are stored on your computer or would like to add
some more fonts then there is an easy way to do this.
1. Type in the search box “control panel”

2. Open the font’s folder from the Control Panel

3. In the top right-hand corner is the search function. Type to search for

Fonts
4. Click on the preview, delete or show, hide the fonts

5. Lots of fonts you can see which can be added too if you wish.

6. Whilst in this area you will see something on my left-hand side called
clear type. This is still an amazing thing it’s been around for a number
of years and is great to turn on, so go over to that left and click the
adjusted clear type font. This makes the text you see on the screen
sharper, clearer, and easier to read.
7. Continue to follow the wizard until the end.
And that is it.
 TASKBAR OPTIONS
In Windows 10, we know that the taskbar is useful, but you may not realize that
you don’t have to have it displayed all the time. To maximize the size of the
desktop, to make it look bigger in size then follow the steps below.
1. Simply right-click an empty section of the taskbar and select Taskbar
settings

This will open the many taskbar options you have available. There are some
very useful things you can do here. Looking at the options you can see
“automatically hide the taskbar” in tablet mode and in desktop mode.

2. Let’s look at what happens with the first option automatically hide the
taskbar in desk mode. This should actually make the taskbar disappear.
3. Once you have selected the automatically hide the taskbar in the
desktop mode your super taskbar disappears

4. If you move the mouse on a keyboard are/this will bring back the
taskbar again, it’s still there.
5. The automatically hide the taskbar in tablet mode is exactly the
same is the first one except this is useful if you own a tablet.

6. If you click the button. “use small taskbar buttons”the taskbar icons go
small.

7. If you select the use “Peak to preview the desktop” when you move
your mouse to show the desktop buttons at the end of the taskbar. If you
move the mouse over the top, you will actually get at peak of the
applications.

So you can see there are certainly a few options to change the taskbar to make
more desktop space. Another thing you can do is it can actually move the taskbar
to the side rather than the bottom as this will make use of the width of your
widescreen monitor.

Before trying to move the taskbar you need to unlock the taskbar. To do this
simply right-click an empty section of the taskbar and make sure they use the
lock the taskbar option is unlocked or if locked, unlock it.

8. Click unlock the taskbar, then simply hold down with your left mouse
button and drag the taskbar to the right or left-hand side and in my case
over drag the taskbar to the right-hand side. This shows in the picture

below

9. Then simply right click and lock the taskbar again this will prevent from
moving until such time as you want to put it back in the bottom of the
screen or to the left-hand side.
 ANNOYING TASKBAR ICONS
You have started to find that some of those taskbar icons are really stacking up
and take space away from the screen. There is a way to reduce that down from
the setting within the menu. That way you can remove the icons you no longer
need.

To do this you will need to go to

1. Settings
2. Go to Personalization

3. Within the Taskbar settings, there are a number of options from making the
taskbar thinner, auto-hide it but we are interested in the icons. Scroll down
to the Notification area.

4. Click on Select which icons appear on the taskbar 5. You will see which
 icons appear or tried to appear here and those that have been switched off.
There might be some icons that have been relegated to the icon draw which
appear next to the icons on the bottom right, but is the up arrow.

6. You can always go back to the taskbar settings and click on turn system
icons on or off. This is one way to get rid of the power indication, the

network and perhaps the action center

7. Check out the different settings and see what happens. If you don’t like it
you can always reverse the options.
 HIDE THE SEARCH BAR
The Search/Cortana function is useful at times but it does take up a lot of real
estate on the Taskbar. If you would like to reclaim this space without losing any
of the functionality, it is fairly easy to do.

1. The size of the Search/Taskbar image below is quite large. To get rid of
the search bar, you need to click on an unused portion of the taskbar, the
look or either Cortana or Search in the context menu.

2. Using the mouse hover over Cortana to reveal the other menu: Hidden,
Show Cortana or show search box.
3. Click Hidden. The Search or Cortana have disappeared.

4. To access Windows search function, all you have to do is press the

Windows key on your keyboard, this will bring up the start menu and
start typing your search there. You will notice that as soon as you start
typing, the search box will open.

5. To enable, simply repeat the process above but instead of hiding this
time click Show the Search to remove the search bar again.
 HYBRID DEVICE SETTINGS
Your 2-1 laptop is tablet/laptop is great but sometimes very annoying when it
chooses to turn on tablet mode when you have it opened as a laptop. To bypass
the Continuum settings mode which is Windows 10 automatically switches
between tablet and laptop mode depending on whether it is docked with a
keyboard. You can manually change this setting via the notification center

1. Untick the Tablet Mode box will change it. You can tweak other table
mode preferences in the Settings menu 2. Click the System icon and
then scroll to the Tablet Mode settings

3. In this menu, you can change the way you sign it according to the
hardware so if it is s laptop then it should sign in as a laptop, that it is
not a hybrid. There are a number of other settings you can try to find
out which best suits your computer.
 MAKE SETTINGS MORE
ACCESSIBLE
If you have a favorite tweak that you find your self-using a lot you can create a
one-click shortcut in a few different ways.

1. You can pin it as a tile to the start menu simply by locating it in settings,
then right-click the entry and left and chose pin to start
2. Or Right Click on the Desktop to reveal the Right Click menu.

3. Select New

4. From the New option select shortcut

5. You will then be asked to create a shortcut.

6. Select Browse to find the location of the program, files or folders etc.
7. Once the program or file has been located, click next.

8. You will now see the full path to the program.

9. Click Next and type a name for the shortcut

10. And click finish

11. The Shortcut is now created and on the desktop

12. You can create many shortcuts this way.
 MANAGE STARTUP APPS
Sometimes you need to know what apps are starting when you first turn the
computer on. In Windows 10 the new Task Manager gives you that ability to
control what starts up and removing those annoying apps.
You can get access to the Task Manager a couple of ways.

1. Press Win-X on the keyboard to bring up the following options.

2. Or you Can right click the start button

3. You can also Right Click on the Task Bar. Choose Task Manager.

4. Once you have opened the Task Manager go to the Startup Tab
There are a lot of apps starting up so you can disable them by click one by one to
and selecting disable.

The item is now disabled.

5. Go through each of the programs. You can also re-enable it again by

doing the reverse. Highlight the program and down the bottom is a
button to enable not disable as seen before.
6. It is easy to disable those programs and you will find your computer will
start quicker as it won’t be loading those additional programs.
 MANAGING AD
PERSONALIZATIONS
If you would like to manage your account history, what data is being a collection
and have some way of managing the kinds of ads you see.

1. Go to Settings, Privacy

2. Scroll down until you see the link Manage my Microsoft Advertising
and other personalization information

3. The link should open to this page where you can scroll some of the
 settings

4. Turn off personalized ads in this browser and it does this through the
use of cookies to the notified Microsoft site to no longer deliver
personalized ads as well as your Microsoft account. So when you are
logged in to your Microsoft account on any device you will not that
personalization ads.

5. Have a look and read through the website 6. Finally, the other option is
to settings, privacy and turn this option off
 PIN SAVED SEARCHES

File Explorer is a great search tool as you can for example set up a search to
reveal all recently modified word or excel documents in a specific folder. File
Explorer also allows browsing to that location and then typing the word into the
search box. Click save search. Give it a good name and this will be added to the
search folder.

1. Click in the search bar alters file explorer

2. Clicking the search tab reveals the following menu

3. Type in the box where you see a magnify search box, your word choice.
I have chosen the word file. You will now see the search results for the
word file.
4. I can keep that search by click on the Save Search function.

5. Give it a Save Search file name

 6. Choose the location to save file. I chose to save the example to the
desktop.

7. Save in Searches folder

8. Click Save

9. Saved to Saved Searches. To find again is simply a matter of going

to the user profile on the C drive

10. Double click on searches and your saved searches can be found here.
 QUICK ACCESS MENU
If you are like lots of people who find the Quick Access menu in File explorer
annoying, waste of space and confusing, there is a way to remove it when we
start up.

1. The easy way is to go to File Explorer

2. Click on View at the top of the Window and the to options as this will
bring up the Folder Options
3. Change the folder option to Open File Explorer to This PC.

4. Uncheck the two boxes under Privacy

5. Click Okay, so now Quick Access will be there but it will be empty and
it won't be the default folder when you open explorer
 REMOVING THE ANNOYING
“GET OFFICE”
If you are not running the latest version of office or no office at all you will be
getting these message about “get office” To remove this annoying message is to
1. Right-click the notification area when you get the one and chose the option
to disable notification for that app. The other option is to disable it by going to
Settings, System, Notifications, and actions and turn it off there.

2. The other option is to uninstall office.

3. Right Click on the Start Button

4. Go to Program and Features

5. Scroll down to office

6. Click on it to show this

7. And select uninstall. Follow the prompt to remove 8. The other option
depending on the version of Windows 10 is to Simply click the start
button to display all the apps and scroll down to office
9. Right - Click to reveal to the Right click menu option and choose to
uninstall.

10. So now the Get office has been removed

 STOP SUGGESTED APPS
In Windows 10 you will often see suggested apps for you in the Start Menu. In
other words, it is advertising the Windows store and the things you can purchase
from there.

The easy fix is to go to

1. Settings, Personalization Start

2. You can turn this off by clicking the slider and moves to off position
SETTING UP AUTOMATIC LOGIN
It is a security issue if you do disable the automatic login but if you have a login
you have to remember a password and it drives you crazy or you are the only
person in your household, then this is the way to get rid of it.

1. Press Win-R to bring up the run dialog command and type Netplwiz

2. This opens the user account box

3. Untick the box for “Users much enter their username and password to
use this computer and click apply.
4. You will then be asked to choose a user that will be automatically

signed in

5. Enter their username and password.

6. Once you have done that, you will be automatically logged into that
account when windows start.
7. Other users can still use the computer but you will need to use the
switch user option for them to access the desktop.
 SHARE FILES, AND MORE WITH
HOMEGROUPS
Homegroup is a way of being able to share files, printer, and devices over your
network. Once it has been set up, it makes it easy to choose what to share and
the good news you don’t to log into any shared folders or other network settings.

Once the Homegroup has been sent up you can easily browse other people’s
folders just from the file explorer. The Homegroup can also by use by Mac and
Linux and all required is a username or Microsoft Email account and password
to access the folders To start with.

Access Homegroup Settings Using Windows 10, 1. Go to Control Panel from

start settings network and Internet or use Cortana Search box to find
Homegroup. You may need to type in the search box for Control Panel
depending on the Windows version you are using.

2. Click o Network and Internet and locate the Home Group

3. You may see this message below.

4. Click Create A Homegroup.

5. Then you need to select what you would like to share.
6. Then click Next

7. You can write or print this password for the other is to use.

8. Then Click Finish Windows 8

1. Go to the Control Panel 2. Network Settings

3. Click the Homegroup 4. A Search for a Homegroup once found a

Homegroup, you click to join and enter the passcode and now you will
be able to share.
 STOP WINDOWS FROM
ASKING PERMISSIONS
Nobody likes that annoying popup you get about asking for permission to
change a Windows systems or install an application. Unfortunately, this has been
in Windows for a very long time.

This is something you can turn off especially if you find it annoying. It is called
User Account control but this does come with a caveat, it does exist for a reason.
It is there to stop apps from making unauthorized changes to Windows settings
without your permission which may cause issues to the computer. Also provides
a bit of protection against viruses.

But if you are careful it is something easy to switch off.

1. Press Win-X on the keyboard or right-click the start button and go to the
Control Panel, if you have an earlier version of Windows 10 you may
need to use Cortana/Search for the control panel or simply type UAC
into the search to reveal the User Accounts Control Panel
2. Go to User Accounts

3. Select change account type and select Change User Account Control

Settings

4. Drag the bar down to Never Notify me

KID FRIENDLY WINDOWS 10
1. Created a Microsoft Account as this will allow them to personalize their
own computer such as desktop 2. Start, Settings

3. Go to Accounts

4. Click Family & Other People

5. Once you have logged in with your own account 6. You can then set
up family members 7. Click the add family member
8. Click the Add Family member

9. If your child doesn’t have an email address or you don’t want them too,
just click The person I want to add doesn’t have an email address

10. Click the highlighted I blue, the person I want doesn't have an email
address. If they do have an email address then add t it.
11. Once click the person doesn't have an email address then the let’s create
an account dialog box appears. Just follow the wizard to complete the
checkup.

12. Enter an email address if they already have an account

13. The child has not received or accepted the link so let us look at logging

the child account on

14. The system will now set up the account on the computer.

Note. If they are too young to accept the confirmation email you can do
this for them by logging onto their account.
 SUPERVISE YOUR FAMILY
COMPUTERS USAGE IN
WINDOWS
Lockdown account

1. Go to Control Panel, right click start button

2. Click User Accounts and Family Safety. Accessing all the setting
relating to managing user accounts.
3. Click Family Safety

4. Setting up an existing child account to turn on.

5. Turn on Safety 6. This opens up the Settings option for Windows 8,

and to accounts

7. Since I have no account here, I will add a child account

8. You will then be presented with this screen

9. You may not wish to have a child to use email choose the option to add
a child’s account without email

10. Fill in the details

11. The account has been created

12. Back to the Control panel

13. Click Family Safety and now there is the new child
 14. Click the Child account Ted

15. Setup how Ted can use the computer

16. Family safety is on by default, Activity reporting is also on by default.

Click Web Filtering

17. You can control which websites the child can view, by selecting “Ted
 can only use the websites I allow” will restrict his access to sites only
you deem to be appropriate.

18. By selecting this option to allow you to set up web filtering level.

19. Perhaps selecting Design for children will keep him or her restricted to
ABC Kids website.

20. Obviously, you can become very granular here which may defeat the
purpose of some children.

The Allow or block specific websites could be useful if you know Ted likes to
watch YouTube searches for interesting things you might not like Block it

Example
21. Back to the earlier screens where you can select TimeLimits

22. Selecting “Ted can only use the pc for the amount of time.” gives you a
couple of options in setting the amount of time he can use the computer.

23. Setting a Curfew

You might feel about blocking the time of day the child should be on

the Internet
 24. Game and Window Store app restrictions can all be applied

25. Click Set game and Window Store ratings open up a whole range of

ratings

Block specific games or apps if you have any installed on the computer.

26. Back the earlier screen you can see an option for Desktop app
restrictions. Click Which Apps can Ted the child use, The child can
only run apps that I have allowed or needed by Windows
From the above options, you can choose to let Ted use Wordpad

27. Finally, under the user settings, you can now have a summary of what

Ted can or cannot use

28. Now you can do that for each of your children and view the activity

report of Ted
29. An example of Ted trying to log in
30. Selecting Get More time, allows the parent o add additional time

31. Ted logs on after changing the time.

 32. To the Store

Ted tries to install a game and he was successful due to the rating of the app
trying to install. Ted tried to install another game and received the following

warning:

Ted tries to access a website which has been blocked due to restrictions applied
to his account.
Ted then tries another website like news.com.au and he is allowed to view the
site.

Below is another couple of examples where the page has been blocked.
 33. Going back to your own account you now check your children activities

As you can see Ted tried a few different sites that were blocked. This is a great
way to monitor your children’s activities online.
 TURNING ON ONEDRIVE FETCH

One Drive fetch is a setting that gives you access remotely to all your pc files not
just those on the One Drive. To do this 1. Right-click the OneDrive taskbar

notification icon,

2. Select Settings

3. Select the Settings Tab

 4. So now you can log onto OneDrive from any browser, click the menu
button and select your pc under pc, If switched on you will have access

to your file system

If you don’t happen to see anything here then it might mean that your pc is not to
set to use OneDrive as the place to hold documents.

5. To do this, go back to the OneDrive Settings

6. Go to Autosave and change the settings
7. And if you check
Files will be sync
It is a bit of process but it will happen, already see a difference.
 TASK BUTTONS: THE WAY YOU
LIKE IT
Windows saves space by combining windows from the same applications into
one taskbar icon. If you prefer to see each window individually. This is the way
to do it.

1. Right-click the Taskbar select settings

2. Scroll down to the menu that says something about combining task

buttons

3. If you click on the down arrow. You will see that you have got choices
always hide labels when taskbar is full or never make a choice.
 WINDOWS ANNOYANCES
Sending us reminders, to do things is annoying as we don’t want to be bothered
with or things we don’t care. How can I turn those off?

1. Down the bottom of the screen near the date and time is the notification
bar as per the picture below.

2. Click on the Notification text shows all the notifications.

3. To get rid of this is easy. When you get a notification form an app or
service that you no longer want you just right click on the Action Centre
and select the option to disable notification.
4. You can also manage the notification globally from the Window setting,
you will find this under System – Notifications and Actions and here
you can manually switch on or off notification for individual apps. You
can also disable the lock screen notifications.
 TAKING CONTROL OF THAT
THING CALLED UAC
This user account control option or has been around since Windows Vista days
and is account control is great and a great window security feature, but you can
adjust it to suit your circumstances.

1. Click the start button and then typing UAC in lowercase and press enter
2. Here you can then just the slider to choose what sort of warnings issued
appear on your Windows 10 desktop.

An example is one where you can simply take it down to its lowest level and this
way, you never get notified when the apps are trying to install software when
you make changes to the computer, but obviously, this is not a recommended
security setting. The best option really is to leave it as its default.
\
 REVEALING CLOCKS FROM
OTHER TIMES
This can be most useful. If you’re traveling to different countries or you have
family overseas in different countries all you’re just fascinated by the time zones
are many different countries around the world so that you can view these country
times and it is quite easy.

The taskbar shows current time and date, but are also can be used to check the
time of up to 2 other countries.

To do this is quite simple:

1. Go to the date and time settings in settings.

2. Click Additional date, time and regional settings 3. Select Date and
 Time
4. You can now see the current date and time for the computer.

5. The next tab across shows additional clocks. Select this.

6. You can now add an additional clock.

7. Now the time and date shows the two time zones
 VIEW DRIVE USAGE
If you are wondering what is taking up the share of hard drive or other devices.

1. Go to Settings

2. Select System

3. Scroll down to Storage

 4. Click on the “This Pc” which will open up the menu to show how space

is being used

5. The overview that it is system files that are taking the space so you
might not be able to clean much from here.

6. To save disk space you can install apps on another drive or a different
location.

You will see the following:

7. Using the drop-down arrow menu under new apps save to and select
your target drive. It is possible to move some Windows Store apps too if
space is really at a premium.

8. Simple click The apps and features, scroll down to the app you would
like to transfer, click on the app and as long as the move is not grey out,
click your destination and then select Move.
 VIRTUAL DESKTOP
A wonderful feature in Windows 10 is the use of Virtual Desktops. If you find
you have a number of applications open or you want to start clean then you can
create a new virtual desktop.

To do is very simple as shown in the example below:

1. To the right of the Cortana/search box is and another little icon. This is
the Virtual Desktop icon. (if you don’t see the icon you may have a
more up to date version of Windows ) Click it.

2. You will see a + for a New Desktop. Click the + will create a new
desktop.
3. You may well end up with something like the image below.

4. If you start using your desktop, click the Virtual desktop again.

5. Click the plus to create a new desktop

6. Click to the Desktop 2

You have no applications on this screen so you can now open up a new
application
7. If you click the icon again and there are now two desktops again.

8. Simply Click Desktop 1 will take you back to Desktop 1.

9. You can have a number of new if you want to have different
applications on different desktops 10. If you hover over the virtual
desktop, you can see the desks and you can close the desktop here

11. Or simply close the applications on the other desktops and returning to
the original desktop will close.
 ARRANGING THE WINDOWS
In addition to the snapping, you can also arrange windows and other ways and to

do this is 1. Right-clicking on the taskbar

2. You will now see cascade windows will show windows stacked show
windows side by side, and so there are three options that you can choose
here to arrange the windows. Try each of the options to see which
works best
WINDOWS 10 IS SPYING ON YOU
If you get the feeling the computer is making notes on you, then you could well
be right. Although Microsoft claims that the collection of information, the data
is benign, all about giving you a better experience with the operating system but
if you are no comfortable with this gathering of information then you can take
the following measures Privacy Options

Check Privacy settings

1. Go to settings and click on privacy

2. You can turn off all these setting but I recommend you leave the
SmartScreen Filter for apps as this filter malicious URLs visited by the
Windows Store apps. It is like what Internet Explorer does. It means
that you can’t land on a website that contains malicious content in any
 of the apps from the store

3. This is how it looks all turned off

Feedback and Diagnostics

4. In the same area, if you scroll down on the left-hand side you will see
 the Feedback and Diagnostics section

5. This is the area where you can control the number of times Windows
10 ask for feedback, notification and the information it gathers to send
back to Microsoft for help resolving system issues.

6. There is no easy way to turn it off completely, you can turn off the
feedback, to eliminate those annoying open questions but for the
Diagnostic and usage date the best is set to basic
7. But even if an app crashes the basic diagnostic date will still pop up
requesting disaster data and will send your full system specs, the
program running, the IP address and other network information It is
better than nothing.

8. For the more advanced user, you can turn off the service that sends the
information to Microsoft. To do this press Windows-R which will
open up the run box and type services.msc

9. Locate the Connected User Experience and Telemetry in the list of

services

10. You can then just double-click on it to bring up the settings window
11. Click Stop to Stop the service, then under startup type click disabled.
This means it will not stay when Windows starts.

12. You repeat the process for the dmwappushservice. If it started

 Windows Defender
By default Windows, Defender sends back samples and information to Microsoft
for analysis. This can also, in turn, off as well going back to settings. Update

and Security

1. Turn off by unchecking the boxes for Cloud-Based Protection and

Automatic Sample submission.

2. So overall the changes to the settings should keep some information to

yourself with little communication going to Microsoft.
 WINDOWS PRIVACY
The Privacy Settings in more depth.

1. From the Start Menu

2. Select the privacy icon

 3. Clicking on this opens a wide range of privacy settings

4. And where we can make the more adjustments.

General sections
Recommend turn off all the settings except for the SmartScreen filter. We leave
the SmartScreenFilter as it is a part of Microsoft anti-phishing technology as it
plays an important role in preventing your browser and certain apps form access
website that is known to contain malicious code.
Location

You can turn this off you if are worried about being tracked but it is useful for
things such as finding local restaurants.

Even if it is turned off, the first time you use an app that wants a location you
will be asked if you want to give a specific app permission then only that app
can have the permission.

Further down from default location is all the list of apps you have given
permission to. You can display them at any time and also manual clean history
so the app cannot trace history.
Camera
A similar situation applies the Camera, and microphones settings, you can turn
off all access and when the app needs you can enable it again.
There is something to consider with rules and that these rely only on especially
to new apps developed introduced in Windows 8. The older classic apps
developed or older platform can still access your microphone and camera
whether you have given permission or not. It is important to know these
settings.

Account Info
Here is the option to turn off the ability of any 3rd. party apps to access your
name, picture, and the account information. This is a way of remaining as
anonymous as possible. Although like with other settings Windows will ask you
on an app by app basis if you want to allow it. It’s not that dangerous to leave it
on.

The same applies to your contacts

Calendar

And Messaging
Feedback and Diagnostics

Here are some settings that are worth changing, although you cannot completely
turn them off.

The feedback is not so much of an issue rather it is annoying. It is the diagnostic

and usage data is a little more interesting as you cannot completely turn it off.
The idea being when your system or app crashes it sends a basic system info and
send this report back to Microsoft. It sends your app history and in full it will
grab system files and memory snapshots.
Microsoft Login or Local login

These settings can be changed by going to the Settings menu, accounts

Selecting your account you will see the options for local account.

Which one you use depends on how much information you want to send back to
Microsoft by using your Microsoft account to login. When you log in, it
automatically logs you to OneDrive and a number of other different services.
And when you use Cortana or Bing the ads will be targeted ads for the Microsoft
systems.

If you choose a local login, it works pretty much the same as it has always done.
Your pc logins and your password are only stored on the computer. You will
have to login into individual apps. Good news your Microsoft account can still
be attached to your local login.
 Wifi Sense

Wifi Sense has been removed but if you still have it on your pc you need finish
upgrading Windows 10 to the latest version.

The basic goal of Wifi Sense is to allow family and family members to come
over to use your Wifi and hence your Wifi password. You might not remember
the password so instead, you used Wifi Senses at will automatically hand over
your password sot people on your Outlook.com, Facebook and Skype contact
lists. They won’t be able to see the password which is good but there are still
some security implications.

There is the possibility of being a spoof or social engineering used in

finding the wrong person on Facebook. Maybe the neighbor has been
friended on Facebook not has the access to the internet connection.

Wifi Sense is found under Settings, Networks

Click Wifi to reveal the side menu options

Turn it off if it is not off

Also, it may be worth turn ting the other options off as well for extra security.
The open hotspots and the paid wifi services.

This is what my computer currently has. Turning off the last services
A reminder that if see the above settings then your Windows 10 is not running
the latest edition. Please for your own security update Windows 10.
MAKING WINDOWS 10 DO THE
WORK FOR YOU
Accessibility

Read it out loud.

1. Go to Start Settings,

2. Locate Ease of Access

3. Click Narrator
This is ideal if you have difficulty ready the text, the Narrator will read the text
for you. So when the Narrator is activated it reads the text around when you
move your mouse over something (control), clicks or type text.
You can use the toggles to decide the events to trigger. It is easy to turn them on
and off necessary.

4. There are many options to choose from

5. Perhaps turn them all on to find out which ones you like and which
ones you don’t
Reading the small print

Sometimes we all have difficulty reading the small text on the screen so you
might appreciate this very useful tool called the Magnifier. When activated it
does what the name says and makes the text look bigger

6. By choosing Magnifier gives you some options

Turning the magnifier on magnifies everything

7. Try the settings, the invest the colors on your screen is all about making
the text easier to read on colored backgrounds
Bright and Bold

If you would like to make the screen more legible or having problems with
colors you can check out the High Contrast Settings.

8. Try out the different themes until you have the right one. Once you
 have chosen one, then check to apply

Window 10 will temporarily flash off and then you will back-back with your

chosen theme

To return to original color go back to choose the theme setting to click none and
then apply.

It is all about choosing one of the four options, two with white background and
two with black backgrounds. These color schemes are to make windows much
clearer. Websites and other programs you have installed on the computer are
unaffected so you will probably just have to use the magnifier.
Clearer Captions

Closed Captions you see on many TV shows and video programs so for those
who have limited hearing. Windows 10 Film and TV apps support close
Caption. To do this you need to have the video playing right click can you will
see I the CC option is available.

In Windows 10, lets you customize the color and the size of the captions and add
effects to and easy to read.
 SHOW ALL YOUR DRIVES.
So, if you like to seal the drive letters at all times, including those with doesn’t
have any media on them such as the CD-ROM. This is what need to do 1. Click
options under the file explorer ribbon.

2. Click on options and then you’ll see the change folder and search option
click on this little box.
3. Once for the box is open click the view tab, then uncheck the box
labeled hide empty drives.
4. Once you have clicked the box, make sure you click apply, and click
okay and then now you’ll see all your PCs drives
 ACTIVATE DARK MODE
If you are someone who dislikes a bright screen, or someone who finds it puts
unnecessary strain on your eyes, then you can change to dark mode.
1. Go to Settings, Personalization, Colours App Mode and select Dark.

2. Within color scroll down

3. Change it to Dark

4. If you don’t like it dark then change it back.

 CONCLUSION.
Thank you for purchasing An Easy Tips & Tricks Guide to Windows 10 e-book.
I hope you found the contents interesting and useful. Windows 10 is evolving
each month with Microsoft continually updating the operating system that some
things in the e-book might be out of date. I will continually check and update
the e-book for any changes.

If you would like to be notified of an update this e-book contact me at

[email protected]

For online and classroom learning please visit TheTutorZone.com

My registered business name is Bourne Business Solutions.

I also sell printables for children and adults on thetutorzone website.