So you've been using Windows forever, and you think you know everything it has to offer.
But I'm here to tell you that you're WRONG!
Windows has lots of little hidden features and tools hidden away that you may have never
even heard of.
Some of them are very minor features, and others are actually really significant.
So now I'm going to give you a list of 10 Advanced Windows features you probably never
knew about.
And first I'm going to quickly plug my Instagram, I like to post cool stuff on there if you're
interested, it's just @ThioJoe.
Starting off we have a cool tool built into windows called "Cipher".
This one is great for anybody even a little bit security conscious, but even I didn't
know about it until recently.
Cipher is a simple command line program you run through the command prompt, that allows
you to encrypt or decrypt data on your computer, as well as security erase files so they can't
be recovered after deletion.
There are a lot of options with this, but if you simply want to encrypt or decrypt something,
you just type in Cipher, /e, then the path of the folder you want to encrypt.
The /e is just for encrypt, where-as /d would be decrypt.
Then it will do it's thing, and now that folder is encrypted.
And you can tell, because now the folder should have a little lock icon on it, which will
also show on any other files in the folder.
But I think the coolest thing about this is now, any more files you put into that encrypted
folder will automatically be encrypted on the fly, so you don't have to keep running
the command.
The operating system handles everything.
Also, the encryption key is tied to your user account, so you don't have to remember any
extra password.
That way, the encrypted files are not accessible unless the computer is on and you're logged
in.
But you should backup the encryption key, which it might prompt you to do.
The other useful feature of cipher is being able to securely erase deleted data.
For this you use the /w parameter, so it's Cipher, /w, then the name of the volume or
path, such as E:/
. What this will do is take all the unused space on the drive, not any actual files or
folders, and overwrite it.
This makes it impossible to recover anything that has been deleted.
So overall, this is a really powerful and awesome tool, and I bet many of you didn't
even know you could encrypt files this way.
Next up, we have the "Mobility Center".
It's just a little window that gives you an easy view of some common features you might
need on a portable devices.
It's usually only enabled on laptops and tablet devices, but with some registry tweaks you
could probably get it on desktop.
To run it you can search for it in the start menu, or run it directly, "mblctr.exe" Some
of the settings it has are screen brightness, volume, battery mode, WiFi toggling, presentation
mode, external display settings, and maybe more.
As you can imagine, most of this doesn't really matter on desktop, but on a laptop or tablet
these settings are definitely nice to have close by.
Moving on we have another quick little feature, this time for Windows Explorer.
You know how in any window there's obviously a search box to look for files.
But did you know you can SAVE searches you make frequently?
When you type in a search term, a "Search Tools" tab will appear, which has a lot of
options.
Here you can save a search, which will actually create a file with the search term in it.
And you can pin that folder so all your search terms are easily accessible.
This is especially good if you do a lot of advanced searches, like for specific file
types.
These extra filters can be applied by clicking kind, size, and other properties.
So even though Windows search is pretty slow, it can probably do more than you thought.
Up Next is a neat feature for the Windows clock.
What you wanna do is right click the clock in the task bar, then hit Adjust/Date Time.
Here you'll see a link to "Add clocks for different time zones".
It's pretty straight forward, but it allows you to not only display one time, but now
multiple.
This is great if you have friends in other time zones, or do business there or whatever.
So now you can click on the clock in the taskbar, and below the current time, you'll see your
extra time zone as well.
Alright this will be number 5.
Have you ever heard of the Math Input panel?
For many people, it's useless, but for others, it's a life saver.
You can open it just by searching for it in the start menu.
Then you'll be shown what looks like graph paper or something.
What this tool lets you do is draw out mathematical equations, and it will attempt to convert
it to text.
So say I'm in Microsoft Word writing a document, and I need to add a bit of math for whatever
reason.
Normally you'd have to painsteakingly go through all the math symbols, try to correctly place
the symbols as fractions, all that.
But with this, you can simply write it out, and it will do all that for you, and you just
hit the "Insert" button to paste it into the document.
It's not always perfect, but you can easily fix it's mistakes using the select and correct
tool.
So if it gets anything wrong, you can pick from other symbols it might be.
I think anyone who takes math courses will find this especially useful.
Number 6 is another very small and simple, but also useful feature, the Volume Mixer
Panel.
Normally when you click on the speaker icon in the taskbar, you just have the option to
raise the whole system volume up and down.
But what if you want to change the volume of just one program?
What you do is right click the speaker, and hit Open Volume Mixer.
Now, it will show you not one, but several volume sliders, one for the whole system,
and one for each individual program!
You'll notice when you raise one program above the whole system volume, the maximum of the
system will increase to allow this, and all other programs will stay the same.
You can also lower an individual program as well obviously.
And the cool thing is now when you adjust the total system volume, it will keep scaling
them based on the relative volumes you just set.
I think this is one feature that really everyone can find useful, but is surprisngly not well
known.
Ok next we have a neat feature in regards to the quick launch bar.
You might have several programs down there so you can quickly launch them, but there
is perhaps an even faster way still.
Did you know that if you press the Windows key, and a number key, it will launch whatever
program in the quick launch bar that corresponds to that number.
So if you press Win + 1, it launches the first program, Win + 2, the second one, and so on.
You might say, well that's not even really faster than clicking on it.
And I think you're right, but there might be cases where it is still useful.
Like maybe you're on a laptop without a mouse, and hitting those keys IS actually faster
than scrolling over to the button.
Or maybe you're using a full screen program, and you want to run a program or shortcut
without having to Alt-Tab out first.
I'm sure you can get creative with it.
Number 8.
This is actually a hugely useful one, for some people at least.
It's the Linux Bash Shell, in Windows.
Microsoft just added this in a recent update, much to the surprise of everyone.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Microsoft basically allows you to install
a "Subsystem" for Linux, specifically ubuntu, allowing it to actually run some linux applications.
And this includes Linux's "bash shell", which you can kind of think of as the Command Prompt
of Linux.
Great so how do you enable it?
First you need to enable Windows developer mode by going to Settings, Update and Security,
For Developers, then selecting Developer Mode.
Then you search the start menu for the "Turn Windows Features On and Off" menu.
Find where it says "Windows subsystem for Linux Beta", check the box, and you're done.
You might have to reboot, but now if you search for "bash" it should come up.
After installing the Ubuntu subsystem, and creating a Unix usernamd and password, you
now successfully are in a Linux Environment, running on Windows.
And if you have no idea what any of that stuff means, don't worry, not many average windows
users will ever need this, but is definitely useful for IT professionals and that sort.
Number 9 is really quick and simple.
If you've ever had Windows Explorer freeze up, you know it can be a real pain, and normally
you have to launch the task manager, find Explorer.exe, and end it.
But there's actually a much easier way.
All you have to do is hold Control and Shift then right click the task bar, and at the
bottom you'll see a new option to "Exit Explorer".
Obviously way simpler than doing all that other nonsense if you're having issues, and
should come in handy.
Ok, finally, the big daddy of hidden tools, which isn't even a single tool, but a collection
of many.
And it's not actually included in Windows, but Microsoft has it on their site to download
separately.
You may have heard of it, it's called the "SysInternals Suite".
If you haven't heard of it, you're in for a real treat lemme tell you, good thing you
stuck around till the end here.
On the download page, linked in description, you will see a list of a TON of extra Windows
tools made by Microsoft, that are super useful, but not included in Windows by default.
One good example is the "Process Explorer", which is basically the task manager on serious
steroids.
It will show you a list of all running processes, and so much more.
For example, if you've ever tried to move or change a file but couldn't because it was
in use by a program, you can use process explorer to figure out what program it is.
You press the binoculars to do a search, type in the name of the file, and it will tell
you which program is using it.
And if you want to quickly find a program in the list, you can drag the crosshairs over
the programs Window, and it will go to it automatically.
And that's just scratching the surface.
Another good one is "Autoruns".
Windows already has a built in feature for showing what programs launch on boot up, but
it doesn't always show everything.
Autoruns will.
You'll run it and see a HUGE list of everything that startsup with Windows.
Not just programs, but services, DLLs being called, what registry entry calls it, even
what media codecs get loaded.
I think this one is super important, because there have been times where I KNOW a program
is starting up with Windows, but it just doesn't show up anywhere.
This should help you fix that.
Those are just two utilities in Sysinternals, but as you saw there are a ton more.
I might need to make an entire separate video talking about the best of those.
So that's everything.
Of course check comments, maybe there are other cool features someone else knows about
I didn't mention.
If you want to keep watching, here are some other videos I think you'll like as well.
If you want to subscribe, I make new videos every tuesday thursday saturday.
And again if you want you can follow me on Instagram, it's @ThioJoe.
So looking forward to hearing from you, I'll see you next time, have a good one.