Hello everyone and welcome to our new Windows 10 tips and tricks article. Today we will be focusing on small Windows tricks that could prove very useful in everyday workflow and hopefully make your life easier by implementing them in your daily routine.
I am very excited to share this with you all and I hope that you will use them from now on. That being said let us begin.
Tip 1: Minimize all open windows except one.
Daily to the daily routine can involve many opened windows on a desktop and sometimes things can get messy, if you want to minimize all windows to the taskbar except one do this:
Click on one window thus selecting him,
click and hold the left mouse button on that windows title bar, now
shake it up and down and all other windows will escape down to taskbar leaving only one you are shaking on the desktop.
Tip 2: Open the Secret Windows menu.
Through our tutorials on various errors and fixes, we have used this method already but here it is again since it is worth mentioning. If you want to open the command prompt easy and fast, or device manager, event viewer, shut down, etc. In order to open this secret menu all you need to do is press
⊞ WINDOWS +
X.
Tip 3: Create an Event without opening the calendar application.
You can easily create an event without opening a calendar application, all you have to do is left-click on the clock in the taskbar, click once on a date for the event, and under calendar in event field type event description. The event will show in the calendar application like it was entered there.
Tip 4: Taking a screenshot.
This one is my favorite and it speeds up workflow very very much. Typically you take screenshots by pressing the
PrntScr button on your keyboard. Now, the problem with this approach is that the screen is placed in computer memory, in the clipboard and you will need another picture processing application in order to save it.
Now if you would press
⊞ WINDOWS +
PrntScr, the picture would be automatically saved in your pictures/screenshots folder.
And if that is not enough, you can press
⊞ WINDOWS +
S +
SHIFT to start Snip & Sketch tool and select the area which you would like to screen capture, this method will also place pictures in the clipboard.
Tip 5: Open pinned applications in your taskbar with your keyboard.
We have covered this one in our Windows keyboard shortcuts tips and tricks
here, but if you missed that article here is the tip again. By pressing
⊞ WINDOWS + number
1,
2,
3...
0 you will start the application from your taskbar counted from left to right.
Tip 6: Check how much Hard drive space installed applications are taking.
Applications and temporary files grow over time and can slow the system and cause some other unpleasant experiences. Go to
Settings > System > Storage, click on the Hard drive on which you have installed applications, and see how much each one is taking, you can remove it from this screen also freeing some space.
Tip 7: Remove ads from the START menu.
Windows has so-called suggestions in the
START menu, no matter how Microsoft is calling them, let's face it, they are ads and in my opinion, they do not belong in my
START menu. To turn them off, go to
Settings > Personalization > Start. Toggle the setting called
Show suggestions occasionally in Start to the
off position.
Tip 8: Shut down background applications.
Some applications are running in the back and are taking system resources and can send telemetry information, if you want to turn them all off go to
Settings > Privacy > Background apps. To stop all apps from running in the background, toggle
Let apps run in the background to
off. You can choose which apps to run in the background individually by going down the list on the same page.
Tip 9: Use Background scrolling.
Did you know that you can scroll on inactive windows? To do this, just hover over the inactive background window and roll your mouse when the content of the window should be scrolling even if it's not one you are working on. If by any chance this is not happening, go to
Settings > Devices > Mouse, and toggle
Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them to
On.
Tip 10: Show file extensions in File Explorer.
By default extensions of files are hidden, so let's say that for example, you are in a folder with pictures, you have plenty of pictures there but you do not know are they
JPG or
JPEG for example, do not worry there is an easy fix to bring showing extensions back. Start
File Explorer, click on
view top menu item, click on
options, Uncheck the box that says
Hide extensions for known file types. Click
Apply, and
OK.
Tip 11: Use focus assist.
Set it up by going to
Settings > System > Focus assist. Choose from three options:
Off (get all notifications from your apps and contacts),
Priority (see only selected notifications from a priority list that you customize, and send the rest to your action center), and
Alarms only (hide all notifications, except for alarms). You can also choose to automatically turn this feature on during certain hours, or when you're playing a game.
Tip 12: Rotate your screen.
If you have multiple screens set up or you have the rotatable screen press and hold
CTRL +
ALT together, then use a
directional arrow to flip the screen. The right and left arrows turn the screen 90 degrees, while the down arrow will flip it upside down. Use the up arrow to bring the screen back to its normal position.
Tip 13: Enable GOD mode.
Have you always felt limited with Windows settings? Don't be,
Right-click on the desktop and select
New > Folder. Re-name the new folder with this bit of code:
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} To enter the "God Mode" window,
double-click the folder.
Tip 14: Use Virtual Desktops.
Click on
Task View (the icon next to the search box). This will separate all your open windows and apps into icons. You can then drag any of them over to where it says "
New desktop," which creates a new virtual desktop. Once you click out of Task View, you can toggle between virtual desktops by pressing the
⊞ WINDOWS +
CTRL +
right/left arrows. To remove the virtual desktops, just go back into task view and delete the individual virtual desktops, this will not close out the apps contained within that desktop, but rather just send them to the next lower desktop.
Tip 15: Customize the command prompt.
Yes, you can customize the command prompt, in order to do so, open it and
right-click on its title bar, choose
properties and go wild. Special badge if you make it look like commodore 64 BASIC.
Tip 16: Dictate, not type.
If you have speech recognition ON, pressing
⊞ WINDOWS +
H will bring up a voice recorder, just speak and see how you can easily "write" emails, etc.
Tip 17: Use sandbox.
In Windows you have a sandbox option, which will open another Windows instance inside Windows, what do you need this? Well once the sandbox is closed everything in it is closed and if you catch the virus or other dangerous software, closing the sandbox will destroy it not affecting your actual Windows. Use it for safety testing and enjoy an easy life.
Enable Windows Sandbox inside the Control Panel.
Tip 18: Use a hidden game bar.
Press the
⊞ WINDOWS +
G, you can pull up the new-and-improved Game Bar. This lets you switch your Windows PC into gaming mode, which pools system resources to the game, turns off notifications, and lets you record and broadcast your gaming, along with added panels for controlling your audio, monitoring FPS, and tracking achievements.
And that's it, Our 18 tips and trick to make your Windows 10 life easier, more productive, and overall more enjoyable. I certainly hope you have enjoyed reading this article same as I was writing it. Until next time if I do not see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
Microsoft has released Windows 11 as a public beta release for all the people that are not willing to be in the insider program.
Beta release as of this moment is identical to Insider Preview build 22000.100. and updates will not roll so fast as in insider preview and it is marked as unstable release, same as insider build.
I would not install Windows 11 beta on the main PC since some drivers still have issues and may lead to some blue screens.
Be aware that the beta build will have all Windows 11 system requirements including TPM 2.0. This is a big difference from insider build which can be installed on systems lacking official requirements.
So basically if you have a spare PC that could run Windows 11 install it so you can see what it brings and feel it so you can make a decision will upgrade once it is released later this year. 
Coursera was one of the pioneers when it comes to college education online. When it started all courses were free and offered certificates if the taker has done tasks with a passing grade. Today not everything is free but still, there are tons of free courses that can help you to learn something new and to advance in your work or hobby.
Google is using the Coursera platform to deliver its courses to the audience and besides google a lot of academic professors from Princeton, Stanford, John Hopkins and many more are presently offering their course material.
edX has evolved from MITx, MIT’s free initiative to place some free academic lectures from its classrooms free into the world. Since it was rebranded into edX it started including other big university names like Berkeley, University of Texas System, Harvard, and many more.
Since its infant days, edX has expanded and included many areas that it offers coursework from arts to science. Certificated today are mostly not free but course videos are, so if you care to learn and not wave certificates around this is a great place to do it.
Udemy has a little different approach to course material than previously mentioned websites. Teachers on Udemy are mostly people that are working in a given field. Programmers will teach programming, fitness instructors will teach training, etc.
There are vas variety of topics even on lifestyle, hobbies even gaming to more serious ones like software developing hardware, etc.
There are free courses but mostly are one-time purchases with unlimited access to course material and with frequent discounts udemy might be a good place to look if you can find anything interesting.
Alison is kind of Udemy if we are talking about course material and who is teaching, the difference however is that it has more free content and it is one of the rare websites on this list that has Language courses.
Courses vary from beginner level to more advanced ones.
Udacity was also one of the earlier websites to offer free courses, in today’s world it still has free material but there is also paying one.
The big difference from other competitors is that Udacity focuses mostly on programming, data science, and web development and it is very strong in this field. There are no courses about art. Music or similar, mostly IT stuff is covered here.
If this is something that interests you, make a free account and give it a go.
Codecademy is a website mainly focused on teaching you how to code. Pro plan is there but there are a lot of basic and free courses on the mentioned subject.
The curriculum is really wide covering Python, R, Java, JavaScript, SQL, Ruby, C#, C++, Swift, PHP, HTML, CSS and more so I am sure that if you are interested in coding this would be a pretty good place to find things.
Besides pure language coding courses site offers also, Cybersecurity, Web design, Data science, web development, Game Development, Mobile Development, and many more courses on provided subjects.
Academic Earth has been built with one simple premise: Everyone deserves access to education.
Lead by this kind of mindset on Academic Earth you will find well, academic courses similar to ones found on edX and Coursera, but from mentioned sites here all courses are free and you will find only academic ones, there are no entrepreneur or expert courses here, just pure academic ones.
If you wish to see and learn something the way it is taught in Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, etc this is the place for you.
Khan academy is completely free and it is offering courses matching certain grades for children. It is offering courses for all 8 years of elementary school, math courses for high school and college with some coursework on topics like science, arts & humanities, reading, life skills, etc.
Despite not being on the same level as some university courses presented on other mentioned websites Khan Academy is a good place to learn a lot of basic skills that you could build upon later.
EVE Online is one of the earliest MMO games out there but since its release, it is still actively developed and is receiving updates. This science-fiction Sandbox will offer space lovers everything they need and more. Large scale PvP, mining, pirating, etc. It can be daunting and complex for beginners but take your time to get familiar with its systems and you will be rewarded greatly with an immersive and complex game worth the time. Open PvP in some zones might not be everyone’s cup of tea and seeing only your ship might be a turn-off for some players, but if you do not mind these things give it a go. It is free to play with an item shop.
FF14 had a tough start, so tough that it was scrapped and destroyed and has been remade again and that idea was great. The game now is better than ever and at this time it is experiencing large players from other games surging into it. This on the rails fantasy MMO will offer you a great story and great leveling experience. It has a free trial where you can play the whole original game for free but if you wish to continue playing you will have to buy the expansion and pay a monthly subscription but the content is well worth the money.
Let’s be honest, not a single list of MMO games cannot be without a once greatest and most successful MMO ever made, World of Warcraft. But instead of me praising the game why it was the greatest and why you should play it and how great it is I am going to take a little different approach. I am going to recommend you World of Warcraft classic, yup, you read it correctly, classic. Now World of Warcraft is a retail game with a subscription service but with that one subscription you will be able to access three games in the World of Warcraft universe: World of Warcraft retail (standard game), World of Warcraft Classic (vanilla WOW without expansions offering you experience as it once was when it was released) and World of Warcraft the Burning Crusade classic (same as WOW classic but with the first expansion the Burning Crusade). Among all solutions, I would really urge you to play either WOW classic or WOW TBC classic simply for reason that they are far superior games in comparison to typical retail ones, but if you like easier game go for retail, it is included in the sub anyway.
Guild Wars 1 was one of my favorite games and I sank a lot of times in it and once Guild Wars 2 came I must admit I was pleasantly surprised with it and I would recommend it highly. The base game is completely free to play with only expansion to be purchased and it is buy to play model without monthly fees. It has specific mechanics different from other games and interesting classes to try. The living world is a great feature of the game and it is still very strong with its player base.
This game is made for people who enjoy, love, and like Star Wars. Mechanically besides being able to have henchmen with you and space battles (which I do not really like how they are done) game itself does not offer anything special. Where it shines is in the story and overall Star Wars experience. If you look at this game as a single-player game with multiplayer dungeons you will have a great time, since the story is really good but sadly end game lacks in comparison.
I am going to admit something here, I was not fond of the idea to make the beloved Elder Scrolls series into MMO, but in time I gave it a go and I am really glad I did. This game is great and it is getting better and better as time progresses. It is buy to play without monthly fees and basic game free, same as FF14 but without fees. It has a decent community and offers a really good Elder Scrolls experience and now it is packing Morrowind expansions and other great areas. Highly recommended for any Elder Scrolls fan.
This one is troublesome to recommend, on one side you have free to play games deeply inside Tolkien Lord of the Rings lore, on the other side, you have outdated graphics and some stupid item shop decisions like buys specific classes. But if you look past stupid item shop decisions and can live with playing free class in the game you will be pleasantly surprised. The game itself is surprisingly good, the story is great as expected from the game infused with lore taken from one of the best books series ever written, and the feeling when visiting iconic landscape is epic. But if I need to be real as I should, I would recommend this one to people appreciate good story and lore and ones that are fans of Lord of the Rings itself.
Neverwinter is a premium and licensed D&D MMO game and it is well strange. The free-to-play model of the game will let you enjoy it until you hit the end game, then you will have to shell real money if you want to be competitive but the journey until then is great. I would recommend it to D&D lovers and people that love to try other people's maps, yup you read it correctly. Neverwinter has a map editor making it one of a kind MMO game where you can create your own dungeons and post them for other players to play, this user-generated content makes it a very specific beast in this list, and for that feature alone it has my recommendation.
Another one of the older titles, Tera will offer you nor depth nor anything new in terms of leveling, quests, or end game except… the COMBAT. This is maybe the greatest MMO Combat game ever created and it is quite fascinating that even after so many years no other game has managed to create a better combat system than one of Tera. If you enjoy action combat and like some specific aesthetics Tera is a game for you.
Albion is a sandbox game with open-world PvP and building mechanics where you can build your own forest, house, etc. You know, sandbox stuff, including a lot of crafting and well, other sandbox stuff. If you want great quests and some occasional play then skip Albion, this game is made for a more hardcore player base not being afraid to die and spend some time crafting and going through the economy. The best comparison might be with EVE but in fantasy settings.
Black Desert is also a sandbox game but different from Albion, here you can organize and hire a workforce and send them to different nodes on a map to harvest resources and build an economy while you are on some epic adventure. Housing is also included but you can buy already made houses instead of making your own in the world. Combat is a game that comes very close to Tera combat and it is very enjoyable. The end game is money sink and PvP based so be careful when choosing this one.
If you like occult and supernatural with new world order themes and conspiracy theories, Secret World Legends is the game for you. Somewhat little clunky its setting and story really set it apart in many many ways. It has semi-action combat and it is free to play with item shop but all the content can be experienced for free. Recommended for fans of deeper gameplay and horror lore.
When I said no MMO list can be without World of Warcraft, it also cannot be without Runescape, one of the oldest games it was revamped with newer mechanics and graphics, free to play all the way and you can also pick old school Runescape if you really want to go all the way on a nostalgia trip. I would recommend a newer one for newer players, the game offers a great story and unusual quests infused with puzzles and interesting storylines. If you like really good quest design without fetch and grind quests along with interesting story this is a game for you.
Last on my list would be AION, a very interesting game made also a long way back, but the fact that is completely free with the cosmetic shop will make it as one to recommend since you can experience the whole game for free. It has some limited flying mechanics in it and later game zone are open PvP zones, story is interesting and leveling process is enjoyable. Also game itself is not really easy and if not careful you can get yourself in danger quite quickly. Recommended for old-school feeling.
The Clear Linux Project creates an operating system and software stack that offers highly optimized performance, security, versatility, and manageability.
Clearly optimized for Intel CPUs and based on GNOME it will offer you incredible speeds if you are on Intel CPU.
The big news, though, is that Clear Linux sports the shiny new Gnome 40. This is a fresher Gnome than you'll find even on Ubuntu's more experimental 21.04 release. The only big names that let you test drive Gnome 40 are Fedora and Arch Linux.
