Here are my top 20 Windows 10 tips and tricks. Windows 10 has been around for a
while and there's been several updates released, including the fall 2017
creators update. I'm going to cover several tips and tricks that I found
useful all the way through early 2018. I hope you'll find them useful too. Here
are my top 20 in no particular order. Number 1 - Spatial Sound. Give your
computer an easy upgrade to 3D Spatial Sound with the new Windows 10 feature.
All you do is go in the lower right corner and right-click on your earpiece
and choose Spatial Sound. From the menu choose Windows Sonic or Dolby Atmos. now
i've noticed that both of those sound very much the same but the Dolby Atmos
requires a download of an app so i'm going to choose the Windows Sonic and
hit OK. Try that sound quality now and see if you notice the difference. Number
2 - Steps Recorder. Steps Recorder is a way to record your actions in Windows 10
and translates them to a handy document you can save and share. To run it, go to
your Start menu and type in Steps. You'll see the Steps Recorder app. Click on that
and it opens up a simple recorder with a start and stop. I'm going to go ahead and
start the record and do something as simple as open up a browser, move the
browser around, and hit stop. It's recorded all those steps including the
images followed by a detailed step by step instruction of every movement
you've made. You can easily save this to a location on your hard drive and then
attach it and send it to somebody with an explanation of how you wanted to walk
through some steps. It makes it really handy to show somebody what you're trying to
do. Number 3 - Media Streaming. Media
Streaming allows you to share music, photos, and videos with other people on
your local network. To enable it find your network icon in the bottom right
corner of your desktop. Right-click on that and go to Open Network and Sharing
Center. Choose this Change Advanced Sharing settings and hit the down-arrow
next to all networks. You'll see the media streaming menu with Choose Media
Streaming Options. Click on that and this is where you enable the streaming. You
can choose to allow All Computers, you can select between All Networks or Local
Networks, and when you're ready with a name just hit OK and that makes your
media files discoverable by other computers on your network. Number 4 -
Quick Assist. Quick Assist is available from your Start menu. Just click Start,
type in Quick, and select the Quick Assist desktop app. This brings up the
Quick Assist menu and you have two choices. You can either Get Assistance
from somebody else or you can Give Assistance. In this case I'm going to
select Give Assistance. You sign into your Microsoft account and it provides
you a security code with ten minutes to make the connection. All you have to do
is contact the other person, give them the security code. They choose Get
Assistance from the menu and enter the code to connect to you remotely. You can
also choose to copy it to your clipboard or send it to them via email and once
they open the email they can select that code and connect. Once the code is
entered you will remotely control their desktop and you can walk through stuff
together with them over the screen. Number 5 - Reset This PC.
Occasionally we run into problems with Windows and you have to reinstall. Well
you can prevent doing that by choosing Reset This PC. Go to Start, click on the
Settings gear, go into Update & Security, and choose Recovery from the
menu. Right at the top is Reset This PC. If you click Get Started it gives you two
choices. You can keep your files or you can
remove everything. Windows takes a few minutes and it recovers everything back
to the original factory defaults. If you choose to keep your files all of your
files will be there but it does remove apps and you'll have to reinstall
software but it's surprising how many problems with Windows this will actually
solve. Number 6 - Fast Startup. Fast Startup has been around since Windows
8 but the fall creators update turned Fast Startup on by default. You can get to it
by going to the Start menu, going into Settings, click on Power, select Power and
Sleep, choose Additional Power Settings, and select Choose What the Power Buttons
Do. And here it is with Fast Startup enabled. Shutting down your computer
doesn't really shut it down. It enters a hibernation mode that allows for quick
booting. You may want to turn this feature off to shutdown fully
but if speed is your preference check to make sure this option is enabled. Number
7 - Storage Sense. Storage sense helps you get rid of junk files when you're
getting low on disk space. It is turned off by default but to turn it on go to
your Start menu, into Settings, click on System, and go to Storage. Right here is
Storage Sense and as you can see it's turned off. So we're gonna click that to
turn it on and we're gonna change how we free up space. With it turned on it
automatically deletes temporary files that apps aren't using and it deletes
files that have been in the recycle bin over 30 days. You can also go to Clean
Now and it triggers those commands automatically. It's a helpful tool to
keep this automated process of cleaning up your disk space. Number 8 - Snipping
Tool. The Snipping tool is a handy app for taking snapshots of your screen. To
run it, click on the Start menu and just type in Snip. Select the Snipping Tool
app and it opens the Snipping Tool. Click New and it allows you to select an area
of the screen and it brings it up into the snipping tool where you can edit and
copy, paste, save, do whatever you want to. It comes with nifty little tools like a
pen you can change the colors, a highlighter, or an eraser and you can
select the highlighter for example, and highlight an area on your screen that
you want to identify. You can turn around and save it, give it
a name, and send it to somebody. You also have a mode option where you can change
it to a rectangular snip which is the standard or you can make it a freeform
snip and it allows you to highlight an area by drawing a circle around it and
then it just captures that information. It makes it very easy to copy screen
information to share with others. Number 9 - Night Light. Night Light is a setting
to reduce the blue light emitted from your screen that often keeps you awake
at night. To enable it, click on the Start menu, go into Settings, click on System
and right on the main display screen scroll down to the Night Light. You can
check this box to turn it on and you can go into the Night Light Settings to
adjust things. If you want to enable it right now you can click this button. If
you want to adjust the temperature slide this bar back and forth and you can even
set it to be on a schedule and set the hours of when you want to turn it on and
when you want to turn it off. So if you want to use your computer at night you
may want to enable the Night Light setting.
Number 10 - Aero Shake & Snap. Windows 10 brings new capabilities to manage
windows on your desktop. If you grab a window and shake it,
it minimizes everything behind it. If you shake it again, it brings them back. You
can also take a window and bump it to the top to make it full screen. Drag it
down and it returns to the original position. If you drag it to the left it
opens it up on half of the left side of the screen and allows you to select from
one of the other windows to bring up in the right side of the screen. Drag them
back down and they return to their original size. You can also drag a window
down to the left corner and it brings it up into the one-quarter area of the
screen. Drag the other ones to the other corners
and you can adjust Windows by doing the Aero Snap & Aero Shake capabilities.
Number 11 - Edge Reading View. Windows 10 has replaced Internet
Explorer with Edge but did you know that Edge has a reading view option? If you
look at this page there's a number of graphics and advertisements mixed within
the text but if you click this Reading View option it makes it into a nice
readable format and eliminates a lot of the other junk. Number 12 -
System Restore Point. To avoid having to reset your PC as I shown earlier it's a
good idea to create a system restore point. Go to the Start menu, type in
Restore and click on this Create a Restore Point. Now at the bottom click
Create and type the name and hit the Create button. This creates a system
restore point if you have any problems with Windows updates or other damage to
Windows files. To restore you can click on this System Restore button, click Next
and you can select from the list of previous restore points. Hit next and your
computer will be restored to the state it was in at that point. When I have
a good clean working copy of Windows I go ahead and make a restore point so
that I'll be able to recover back to that at a later date if I run into
problems. Number 13 - Hidden Start menu. Did you know Windows
has a hidden Start menu? All you have to do is right-click on the Start menu and
it brings up a number of options mostly from your system settings but it also
gives you the File Explorer and some other options for shutting down or
signing out. It's a handy little quick menu. Number 14 - Default Apps. Have you
ever had the wrong application load when clicking on a file? Windows 10 has moved
the location of default app settings. Click on Start, go to Settings, choose
Apps, and select Default Apps. The most common apps are listed with their
associated defaults. Just click on the app that you want to change
and select a different one from the list or if it's not listed you can look it up
in the App Store. The default apps are listed here but if you don't see the one
that you want to change you can choose Default Apps by File Type. This brings
up hundreds of known file extensions with their associated default app and
you can change one just by clicking on it and selecting from the list in the
same manner. So if the wrong app opens when you click on a file this is how you
fix it. Number 15 - Download Maps. If you intend to
go offline with a mobile device running Windows 10 it's a good idea to download
your maps before you do that. Click on Start, Settings, and go into Apps and
choose Offline Maps. Click this to choose an area that you want to download and it
will download that map and make it available when you're offline. Number 16 -
Notifications. In the bottom right corner of your screen is the Notification
Action Center which gives you quick access to commonly used settings and
notifications. You can customize this area by going to Start, Settings, System,
and click on Notifications & Actions. Modify the list by holding down and
dragging these icons around and you can rearrange them however you want. You can
also change the notifications coming from apps by turning on and off these
different settings here and you can select individual apps and turn them on
or off for notifications. So if you have a bunch of pesky notifications coming up
just turn these off. Number 17 - Startup Programs. When Windows 10 boots some
applications load automatically at startup. Over time you may have made
changes that leave unwanted applications in the startup. To speed up your computer
and clear these unwanted apps go down to the taskbar, right-click and run the Task
Manager. In the window click the Startup tab. You'll notice there are several apps
loading at startup. Take a look at this list and right-click on any that you
want to disable. That reduces the load at startup and makes your computer boot
much better. Number 18 - God Mode. As you've seen in
this video several settings and windows are divided between the Control Panel,
the Start menu, and the Settings menu. With each new version of Windows we
often see changes to menus and it's not always easy to find them. God Mode is the
answer. Just create a new folder on your desktop and copy and paste this
information and hit enter. This creates an icon that connects you to the program
tasks list. Open it up and you'll see all of those menu items in one big long list.
That's God Mode. Number 19 - Advanced Performance. Windows 10 has added
animated controls, animations, translucent windows, and a host of other features to
improve the look and feel of the system. If you're looking for peak performance
and don't care about those improvements, you can crank up the system performance
by going into the Control Panel, click on System, and go to Advanced System
Settings. From the Advanced Menu click on Settings. Change this from Let Windows
Choose What's Best for my Computer to Adjust for Best Performance. That
eliminates a lot of those settings and speeds up your system. Give it a try and
see if you notice the difference. Number 20 - Virtual Desktops. An
advanced feature in Windows 10 is Virtual Desktops. With Virtual Desktops
you can create multiple, separate desktops with different apps and windows
allowing you to organize distinct desktops for each purpose. Its
represented by this Task View button on your taskbar. When you click it, it comes
up with the open applications on your desktop and there's an option in the
bottom right corner to create a New Desktop. If you hit that, it creates a
desktop 1 and a desktop 2 and you can now move applications into each one
of those. So for example, I can take this Word document and drag it over to the
desktop 2 and now I have different applications between those two locations.
Now you can open up windows in your new location, click the task view, switch over
to another desktop, and you have a separate set of windows and applications
located there. Click the Windows-Tab buttons to select between those desktops
rather than clicking the task view. You can also switch between them with
Ctrl-Windows-Left-Arrow and Right-Arrow. You can create as many virtual
desktops as you would like but I recommend using them as temporary
workspaces to help you get organized. That is the main purpose. You've just
watched the Top 20 Windows 10 Tips & Tricks. Don't forget to check
out the other tips and tricks playlist and watch PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Skype
for Business, OneDrive and several others. Hey, if you want to see more videos like
this one please subscribe and if you've enjoyed this video be sure to click the
thumbs-up and leave a comment. I really do appreciate your support!