So you’ve mastered Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts and Snap open home windows like a boss. Now what?
Windows 10 presents many different energy instruments for lovers—if the place to search out them. Some are older, but nonetheless obscure. Others are comparatively new, added in the course of the twice-annual main upgrades Microsoft’s been pushing out since Windows 10 launched over 5 lengthy years in the past (although most up-to-date function upgrades, like the May 2020 Update, are usually minor). But all 10 of those little-used tips and instruments may help hardened PC customers save time or get rid of complications.
If you’re searching for a information to much more of the working system’s darker corners after studying this, make sure to take a look at our roundup of the best Windows 10 tips and tweaks, in addition to our information to time-saving Windows tricks. We’ve additionally revealed a tutorial on find out how to tune Windows 10 for laser-focused productivity. Most everybody will be taught slightly one thing! Microsoft’s been aggressive about rolling out new options for Windows 10, however not essentially about selling them. Speaking of which…
1. Timeline
Microsoft rolled out Windows 10’s Timeline function as a part of the April 2018 Update, and it’s superior. It’s principally like a browser historical past on your desktop packages, exhibiting recordsdata you’ve opened beforehand in chronological order. Selecting one opens the file as soon as once more. Paired with the “Pick up where you left off” in fashionable Microsoft Office apps, you could be knee-deep in that mission from two weeks in the past very quickly. Better but, Timeline’s tied to your Microsoft account relatively than a person PC. If you retailer your recordsdata within the cloud, you possibly can choose up the place you left off irrespective of which gadget you occur to make use of.
Windows 10 Timeline function is a part of the working system’s Task View interface.
Timeline isn’t excellent. Developers want to permit their software program to hook into the function, and lots of widespread packages—together with Google Chrome—don’t hassle. That provides the instrument a Microsoft-centric really feel. But it’s extremely useful regardless, particularly should you spend loads of time working in Office.
Open Timeline by clicking the Task View icon in Windows 10’s taskbar or by urgent Windows Key + Tab, and make sure to learn our Windows 10 Timeline guide for extra granular particulars.
2. Virtual desktops
Virtual desktops are catnip for organization-obsessed energy customers. They’re wildly helpful, letting you arrange separate “virtual” variations of your desktop, every working its personal cases of software program. You might run one digital desktop for work duties and one other on your leisure apps, as an illustration, or hold a main working desktop stocked with Office apps for spreadsheet-slinging, and one other dedicated to multimedia modifying.
Virtual desktops lastly grew to become native in Windows 10 after years of recognition on Linux working methods…however Microsoft’s hidden away the once-prominent function because the years have handed. To begin rolling your individual, click on the Task View icon in Windows 10’s taskbar to summon your Timeline and choose the tiny +New desktop textual content on the top-left of the display. Once you’re arrange, use the identical Task View interface to swap amongst open digital desktops within the bar that seems on the high of the display. Enjoy your newfound productiveness!
3. Cloud clipboard
Brad Chacos/IDGIt’s a multi-device world. If you could have a behavior of hopping from PC to PC, Windows 10’s synchronization options (tied to your Microsoft account) could make each system you sit at really feel like house. As of the October 2018 Update, even the contents of your clipboard can journey with you. The new Cloud Clipboard permits you to copy textual content on one PC, then paste it on one other. It’s a sterling mixture with the also-new Clipboard History enabled within the October 2018 Update.
To get began utilizing it, head to Start > Settings > System > Clipboard and flip each toggles to the On place.
4. Nearby Sharing
Brad Chacos/IDGSometimes it is advisable to share extra than simply textual content amongst a number of PCs, and inevitably it’s when you possibly can’t put fingers in your trusty flash drive. Enter Nearby Sharing, one other latest Windows 10 addition that makes use of the facility of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to allow you to wirelessly share recordsdata and hyperlinks with native PCs. Simply right-click a file, choose the Share possibility, and choose the vacation spot native laptop. The recipient will obtain a Windows pop-up notification exhibiting the switch.
You’ll have to arrange Nearby Sharing earlier than you need to use it, and your rigs want Bluetooth capabilities to benefit from the function. If you meet that requirement, head to Start > Settings > System > Shared Experiences and activate the choice to “Share across devices.” You can select whether or not the sharing function works with any close by PC, or solely ones tied to your individual Microsoft account.
Check out our Nearby Sharing explainer for extra nitty-gritty particulars.
5. Storage Sense
Brad Chacos/IDGYour Recycle bin and Downloads folder are the silent space-eaters in your Windows PC. Over time, they will every bloat to gigabytes and gigabytes in dimension—particularly should you repeatedly replace your discrete graphics drivers, every iteration of which weighs in at round 500MB a pop. Combat the creep! Windows 10’s Storage Sense helps to purge undesirable recordsdata in these places mechanically when particular, user-defined situations are met.
Head to Start > Settings > System > Storage to allow Storage Sense, then fine-tune the settings by clicking the Change how we liberate area mechanically hyperlink. Personally, I prefer to run it each day, however have the scans delete solely recordsdata which can be greater than 30 days outdated.
If you need to give Storage Sense much more management over your stuff, you possibly can have it handle the recordsdata which can be saved in your native OneDrive folder and backed as much as your OneDrive account within the cloud. Storage Sense can ship any recordsdata which were left unopened for a given size of time straight to the cloud, deleting the native model. That’s a bridge too far for my tastes, however should you lean closely on OneDrive cloud storage, it might be a really handy choice to activate.
6. File History
Michael Homnick/IDGSometimes you don’t need to lose what you’ve left behind. Windows 10’s superior, but obscure File History function retains recoverable information of each change you’ve made to a doc, taking backup snapshots of your Libraries, Desktop, Contacts, and Favorites each hour (although the frequency could be tweaked). If it is advisable to reclaim deleted textual content from a earlier model of a file, File History has your again.
You’ll have to dedicate a secondary drive to File History, however it may be both inside storage or a conveyable drive—yay! Check out our File History guide for step-by-step directions on setting it up, and our roundup of the best external hard drives should you want {hardware} to retailer all these bits and bytes on.
7. Secret energy person menu
Here’s an oldie however a goodie: If you right-click the Start menu, it’ll summon an enormous record of hyperlinks to enthusiast-class options, just like the Device Manager, Task Manager, Event Viewer, Disk Management, and PowerShell.
8. God Mode
If you need easy accessibility to an entire host of tweaking choices, look no additional than this different historic, but oft-forgotten fanatic tweak: God Mode. This Easter Egg consolidates an enormous quantity of energy person settings right into a single, easy-to-parse interface. The choices are grouped into logical classes primarily based on activity varieties, similar to “Administrative tools,” “Ease of access center,” and “System.” It’s nice.
Brad Chacos/IDGBehold, the face of God Mode.
To allow God Mode, create a brand new folder and go away it empty. (I prefer to plop God Mode on my desktop.) Then right-click the folder, choose Rename, and provides it the next identify:
God Mode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}.
Just minimize and paste that in to make sure you don’t make any typos. Feel free to alter the textual content earlier than the primary interval, which supplies the folder its identify—should you aren’t eager on the standard “God Mode” moniker, you possibly can change it to no matter pleases you. Press Enter to save lots of the identify change, and the folder’s icon will change to imitate the Control Panel’s picture. Open up and delight in God Mode’s absolutely unified glory.
If you need to be taught extra about this Easter Egg, together with various variations devoted to particular varieties of settings, take a look at our God Mode explainer from the Windows 7 period. Told you it’s been round some time—however many lovers I discuss to have by no means heard of it.
9. Dynamic lock
Enthusiasts typically juggle a number of duties concurrently, and also you don’t need prying eyes peeking at these initiatives if you step away out of your desk. But should you overlook to jam Windows + L if you saunter off, your PC can be an open guide to any bystanders—except you employ Windows 10’s Dynamic Lock.
IDG / Mark HachmanWindows 10 can use your cellphone to find out if you’re away out of your PC and lock it down.
Dynamic Lock pairs together with your cellphone through Bluetooth and mechanically locks the paired PC if you get lost. What extra are you able to ask for? Activating the function requires a fast multi-step course of the place you tie your gadgets collectively. Hit up our Dynamic Lock tutorial to show it on, full with deeper efficiency insights and hyperlinks to useful instruments that may allow you to fine-tune how far it is advisable to wander earlier than Dynamic Lock kicks in.
Heads up: Your laptop will want Bluetooth capabilities to run Dynamic Lock, and the function impacts the battery lifetime of each your cellphone and laptop computer.
10. Windows Reliability Monitor
Brad Chacos/IDGFinally, there’s a little-known instrument that may typically warn you of impending catastrophe—be it in software program or {hardware} type—earlier than your system provides up the ghost. The Windows Reliability Monitor gives a day-by-day and case-by-case snapshot of the well being of your system. It’s particularly useful should you’re making an attempt to seek out problematic software program that might be inflicting instability in your rig. (On my system, it’s the notoriously buggy yet hilariously awesome Goat Simulator that causes essentially the most points.)
To discover it, merely sort Reliability into the Windows search bar and choose the View reliability historical past possibility that seems.
If you see an avalanche of purple X’s if you test it out, make sure your backups are in order—and no, File History isn’t an appropriate backup resolution by its lonesome. Better secure than sorry!