- You think you know everything about Windows?
- Uh, yeah.
- Well, think again, maggot.
We got tips,
hot tips, tech tips, 10 tips,
for all you Windows power users out there.
And we're not telling you a thing until we tell you,
MSI sponsored this video and we're going
to be going through our tips on their Summit E13 Flip Evo,
their first laptop with wifi 6E and up to 20 hours
of battery life and their Crosshair 15
with up to 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processors
and RTX 3060 GPU's.
(gentle music)
(metal clanks)
(upbeat music)
Everyone knows at least one or two keyboard shortcuts
that they use all the time,
but whenever you're watching someone else use Windows,
there's a good chance that they'll use one that you don't.
This resource, which we'll have linked down below
lists every Windows shortcut, but we've got some favorites.
Windows print screen saves directly
to your screenshots folder.
Windows E opens up File Explorer.
Windows I opens the settings app,
why the went with I we'll never know,
but it's handy,
and Windows Tab opens up task view,
just to name a few.
Did you know that instead of control alt delete,
you can press control shift escape to directly
open Task Manager without taking a detour
to the lock screen?
And did you know that you can create new virtual desktops
with Windows control D and then swap between these desktops
with Windows control and the arrow keys?
Ah, that's actually tip number two,
whether you lost your second monitor
in that last round of budget cuts,
or you just plain love min-max in your productivity,
multiple desktops are a game changer.
In less than a second, I can go from researching
and writing up a report,
to collaborating with my colleagues,
to touching up some photos for the company website,
that beanie's looking good Chase, lttstore.com.
And of course, those who work hard, usually play hard,
am I right?
So the second your lunch break starts or any other break,
bam, you are instantly playing your favorite game,
catching up on Reddit and chatting it up
in your favorite Discord server.
Note that the more applications you want to keep open
at a time though, the more system memory you'll need.
So for heavier users,
I'd recommend the version of the E13 Flip Evo
with 32 gigs of LPDDR4x memory.
Now let's customize our desktop,
whether you like multiple desktops or just one,
I'm sure we can all agree that it should look its best.
Now decades ago, the in thing was custom pointers
and different sound themes for your Windows alerts.
And guess what?
It's totally still a thing.
Your pointer can change size, color, and shape
to just about anything and Windows alerts can be swapped
on a per type basis.
So you will never again be confused
about whether a USB device was plugged in or removed.
"Hello Linus, you are quite good at plugging me in."
Another handy feature for the minimalists out there
is the ability to hide desktop icons and the task bar
for that ultra clean look
or to save your old LED display from unsightly burn in.
For those of you wanting an even more custom experience,
check out Rainmeter.
It's a third-party app that adds custom widgets
like weather, clocks or usage meters,
all in whatever style you can find,
one that matches the gaming aesthetics and RGB
of the Crosshair 15 or something more muted,
if you prefer.
You can even make one yourself.
Speaking of making it yourself, we made our own screwdriver.
And once it's ready,
we're going to have a full video on the process,
get subscribed so you don't miss it.
If you want to customize a bit more,
but you prefer to stay within the Microsoft product suite,
there are some really cool add ons in PowerToys
and Microsoft Garage.
A lot of the functionality of FancyZones,
which is one of my personal favorites,
is built into Windows 11 now,
but it still offers an outstanding degree of control
over the snapping functionality
and appearance of your Windows.
Awake is helpful if you want to keep your power
and sleep settings, but put them on pause
for a little while, say to ensure
that a render completes overnight
and Keyboard Manager lets you make
your own keyboard shortcuts and remap keys.
PowerRename is handy for renaming files in bulk.
And there are a few others with more in the works.
So be sure to check it out
and choose the right PowerToy for you.
Another handy tool, particularly for those of you
working from home with multiple computers,
is Mouse Without Borders,
which is available through Microsoft Garage.
With it, you can use the same mouse and keyboard
for up to four computers over your network
and even copy text and drag and drop files between them.
Now that our desktop is ready, let's talk pins.
I can't count how many tasks bars I've seen
that are still using whatever stock pins Windows comes with.
Even ones they couldn't possibly use,
this is prime real estate guys for one click shortcuts
to whatever apps used frequently.
Chrome, Discord, Steam, Excel,
anything you're pretty much guaranteed to open
after restarting your PC, should be pinned,
and don't feel limited to just left clicking on those pins,
many applications have shortcuts in the context menu
so that you can right click
and launch Steam Big Picture or Steam VR directly
going from asleep to gaming in seconds.
You can open recent Word documents,
change your status on Microsoft Teams, the works.
Pinning is also super handy in File Explorer.
Quick access at the top will keep your recent files
and folders ready for you, but for privacy reasons,
I prefer to disable this automatic behavior
and create my own pins.
It's particularly useful, if you have a lot
of different server paths that you might have trouble
remembering, go there once pin the folder
and never search for it again.
Also check this out.
You can move them around to your heart's content
with a simple drag and drop.
"But Linus," you might say,
"I don't want all those icons
cluttering up my pristine task bar.
Can I just search for them?"
Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news.
The good news is yes.
The Windows 11 search function is both accurate
and responsive, I mean, yes, this is a fast machine
with a high-performance SSD,
but still, finally PC users are getting a taste
of what Mac folks have been enjoying for over 15 years
with Spotlight.
The bad news is that if you're not on Windows 11,
it's still terrible.
It does work for many installed apps,
so you can at least stay clutter-free by searching
for every app you want to open,
but I've seen all kinds of undesirable behavior.
I mean, look at this, I searched for Explorer,
seems like an appropriate keyword to bring up File Explorer,
and it pulls up Microsoft Edge, thanks, Windows,
guess I'll use my hot key next time.
It's also pretty bad for anything file specific,
offering useless web results,
even when you've already downloaded the file
and it's sitting in your local drive.
So be gone to the depths of hell Windows 10 search,
glory to Windows 11 search our new savior.
Tip number seven.
Your mouse has three buttons.
Well, often more these days actually,
but who's keeping track.
These tips are for the main three.
Let's start with the forgotten button
that no one pays proper attention to.
I mean, yes, we all know that the middle wheel can scroll up
and down, but it's also got a click which is handy
for opening and closing tabs in third-party applications
like Chrome and Firefox.
Ooh, and here's one of my personal favorites,
left clicking File Explorer,
if you already have a window open,
just minimizes and maximizes it over and over again,
terrible, but middle click and, bam, as many new instances
of File Explorer as you could ever need.
Now, most of you probably use right click all the time,
but did you know that you can right click and drag
to open up a context menu in File Explorer?
Take your zipped file for example.
Right click on it, hold that, drag it over here
and extract directly to where you've dragged to
saving valuable fractions of a second.
As for our trusty left click, holding shift
or alt while you left click and drag will change
how you're highlighting text,
which can be particularly useful in Word
or other text editors.
You can also double click to highlight a word
and triple click to highlight an entire paragraph,
if you're in a hurry.
Pro tip, by the way, modern trackpads, like these ones,
support these same interactions.
One finger is left, two is right,
three is middle click and if you swipe
with all four fingers, you can slide over to a second
of your multiple desktops, now you know.
Another area where Apple is killing it
and Microsoft is catching up, is phone integration,
but at least there's progress.
These days, you can sync your Android phone
to your PC so you can use your favorite mobile apps
and even send SMS messages and make calls from your desktop.
Making a to-do list in notepad that you want to take
with you, just transfer it over before you get up
and you're good to go, sort of, honestly,
it's still kind of basic,
but at least for those of us who are pretty much tethered
to our computers, it's nice to finally be able to come home
and put the phone down for the night.
Now some folks might leave this out,
but there is a lot more to Task Manager these days
than just processes and services,
particularly the Performance tab.
And while there are better tools for monitoring this sort
of thing, like Hardware Info,
when you need to quickly check if your memory is running
at the right speed or in dual channel mode,
or you need a quick and dirty look into your CPU usage
and GPU usage, look no further.
It's especially useful when you're trying
to troubleshoot someone else's PC without being able
to remote in since just about anyone and their dog
can figure out how to open up Task Manager
and navigate through its tabs.
I mean, good luck trying to get your grandma
to install hardware info and parse this.
It's even gotten more and more useful over the years
with the Users tab introduced with Windows XP,
and then that came in handy for me a lot.
My mom always used to leave crap open in her instance
and my performance would suck,
so I'd have to go in and check and I'd see that, anyway,
the Services tab showed up in Windows Vista,
and more recently we got GPU usage, including temperatures,
meaning that now anyone can diagnose a thermal issue
that is slowing down their games.
Just whatever you do, make sure you hit
the more details button that they added with Windows 8.
(grunts) Now I wouldn't really know anything about this,
but I can imagine that if I had friends,
I might run into a situation where their banking app
isn't working, so they need access to my computer.
Well, fear not, it is easy to make
what's known as a kiosk account for guests
that only has access to a web browser.
Just set up another account,
go to account settings on admin and set up assigned access.
If you want to be extra careful,
you can also encrypt your own files by right clicking
on the file or folder, selecting properties,
advanced, encrypt contents to secure data.
Your key is tied to your account password though,
so this is really only handy for multiple users,
sharing a single PC.
You can always hide files and folders by the way
for a little bit of extra stealth.
But most people who are going to be digging around
probably already know about show hidden files.
On the other hand, if you're forever alone, like many of us,
this won't be a problem unless your computer gets stolen.
Speaking of which, backups, Windows's own
integrated backup system, isn't the best.
Acronis' solution, which we made a sponsored video
about recently, is absolutely better,
but anything is better than what most people do,
which is nothing.
Windows has an image backup function,
that should be your foundation.
It's just a bit of a pain to find,
look in Control Panel, System and Security, File History,
and then click
on the small bottom left System Image Backup link,
click Set Up Backup and follow the instructions,
either saving it to an extra drive or elsewhere
on your network.
The best way to use this, is to also have a third air gap
or non network connected copy of your OS and files
on something like an external USB drive.
So that way you will basically never have to worry
about ransomware or malware again.
Another perfect example of somehow progress
also makes things worse, is Microsoft's compulsive desire
to hide useful features that people shouldn't have
to go digging around for, for example,
the old Control Panel, from way back
in the Windows Vista days, is still around.
It's just hidden
under an All Control Panel options dropdown
that is really easy to miss.
Now, most average users shouldn't need most
of the stuff that's in here, but you're a power user.
You needed new tools, power option, storage spaces,
and device manager.
You need them all in one, easy to find location.
Speaking of stuff the average user wouldn't need,
another useful Windows feature is the command prompt,
but that's actually not the tip.
Did you know that you can change transparency
with control shift, scroll wheel?
It sure makes inputting lines that you're copying
from a website easy when you're working
with limited screen space,
like on one of these fine MSI laptops.
Did I mention MSI sponsored this video?
Thanks guys.
We'll have affiliate links to them down below.
And one last thing about Windows,
especially if you're a power user,
it can end up getting a little confused.
Maybe your USB port stopped working
or your PC thinks your camera's in use when it's not,
whatever the case, don't be afraid
to just back up your files and run the included reset tool,
a clean will fix just about any issue,
and unlike the old days, it doesn't require you
to re-install your drivers, re-register your product key
or any of that junk.
You know, what's not junk?
This segue to our sponsor MSI.
The experience of using Windows is great
on a modern high performance machine like one of these.
For productivity, the Summit E13 Flip
features unrivaled CPU computing ability
in same class laptops.
Seriously, up to 28 Watts of power in this puppy.
It's the first laptop equipped with wifi 6E
with up to 20 hours of battery life
with its 70 watt hour battery.
It's quiet, under 35 decibels in balanced mode
to meet World Health Organization noise guidelines,
and it supports the MSI pen with support for MPP 2.0
and it can work as a presentation remote.
They've also got an MSI USBC docking station to go with it.
And for gaming, the Crosshair 15 can be equipped
with up to an 11th Gen Core i7 processor and RTX 3060 GPU.
It's got a brand new chassis design
with a kind of tough titanium gray metal styled shell
to resemble weaponry.
It's got their Cooler Boost 5 dedicated thermal solution
with two fans and six heat pipes.
And the heat pipes are thinner than ever,
allowing it to fit in this nice compact chasis.
Want more tech tips, maybe check out our video
on "How Motherboards Work, Turbo Nerd Edition,"
that suggestion alone is another tech tip, free of charge.