Windows 10: The Ultimate User Guide in Using Your Windows 10 (2 page)

The Start Menu

Windows 8 has a new start screen interface. It includes Windows 8 Tiles and the classic start menu of operating systems preceding Windows 8. The result is a hybrid that consists of part start menu and part start screen.

The Start Screen

When you start your computer, you will see two columns/panels on the screen. The left column is the menu that is similar to the common classic Windows menu. This menu enables you to access the recently used apps and settings.

On the right column is the Live Tiles that came with Windows 8. It consists of mainly apps. It helps you to quickly access apps like Mail, Calendar, and News.

All Apps option

The start menu neither does not display all apps nor does the column on the left consisting of Live Tiles. You can display all apps with one simple click. To display all Apps installed, go to the bottom left corner of the screen. Click on the
“All Apps”
option.

If you want to find something quickly, you can use the search function. Microsoft has made efforts to make the search function even more effective. It can intelligently determine whether what you need should is online or on your local drive.

To use the Search function, simply type the name of the resource you want in the search box. You can use it to find Apps, photos, media files, or any other resource.

Switch between the Start menu, or the Start screen

The start menu besides being a hybrid of previous Windows menus can also be customized. You can choose to switch between the start menu and the start screen. You can also pick a few more options to suit your preferences.

• Click Start, then choose Settings from the Menu.
  
• After picking Settings, choose the personalization option.
  
• Choose Start from the options that appear on Personalization screen.
  
• There are several options. For example, you can turn
  “Use Start Full Screen”
  on. On the personalization screen, you can change the colour of the Windows borders, themes or activate the lock screen.
  

If you have the start screen as the default, you can reverse it by:

• Go to Start >> choose the Settings option.
  
• Pick personalization from the Window that appears.
  
• Select the start option.
  
• Locate
  “Use Start full screen”
  and turn it off.
  

• Locate the app in the start menu.
  
• Right-click on it, choose
  “Pin to Start”
  (you may also drag and drop it in the appropriate location).
  

To unpin

• Choose the tile you want to unpin.
  
• Right-click on it and choose
  “Unpin from Start”.
  
• Note: Currently you can only pin apps to the start menu. Files and other resources cannot be pinned in the same way on this menu.
  

Move and Resize

If you are upgrading from Windows 8, you should have an easy time moving the tiles and resizing them, since it is similar to Windows 10.

• To resize, simply right-click on a tile.
  
• If you hover over the tile for a little bit longer then a menu will pop up.
  
• It has several options, chose resize then choose either small, medium wide, or large.
  

To move the tile:

• Click on it and hold down.
  
• Drag to new location.
  

Through the personalization screen, you can change a lot of the default settings to suit your needs. You can change how folders and files are displayed by following the self explanatory options.

The Edge browser is the new internet browser introduced by Microsoft that is designed to be a more viable replacement for IE. It has some interesting features that you may want to look at.

Minimalistic design

Microsoft has made efforts to remove everything that is unnecessary in the browser. For example, they removed the home button. According to Microsoft the browser was
“Built for doing”.

This is to say their main objective was to ensure that the browser helped its users achieve the highest level of productivity. Microsoft also claimed that the engine running the new browser is faster than Chrome’s. However, some tests have shown that it still lags behind, but performs much better than IE.

Caret Browsing

A Caret is simply a cursor, also commonly referred to as a text selection cursor. In a browser, it is useful when you want to select snippets of text by using the keyboard.

This feature is also available on Mozilla and Internet Explorer, but it is absent on browsers such as the Google Chrome browser. Browser like Chrome will only highlight and point to links, but do not have the same function. This is particularly useful when you’re using a touchpad, which makes it difficult to pick a chunk of text.

You can turn on the feature for the active tab only by hitting
F7
key and following the prompt.

To turn on the feature permanently, choose
Settings
on the upper right corner of the browser and go to
View Advanced Settings
then
Advanced Settings
and choose
Always Use Caret Browsing
.

Cortana

Microsoft has been pushing for its intelligent voice assistant since its inception. Now this voice assistant has been fully integrated into Windows 10.

It is designed to work with the new Edge browser to provide you with information as you are browsing online.

There are two ways you can use Cortana as you’re browsing. One is by using the blue Cortana button to get more information about a website. The second is by highlighting text with its Caret browsing capability and using Cortana to search the internet for the highlighted information.

Reading Mode

Edge browser is not the first browser to use this feature. Apple’s Safari has had the feature for some time. This is however, the first time a Microsoft browser is making use of it.

The reading/reader mode strips off all unnecessary stuff from the browser leaving only the necessary text and images. You can mark the web pages or save PDF files and HTML pages for future reference. This can be useful when you are going through a webpage that has not been optimized for tablets.

Coding Support

The New browser has introduced coding support, which was not available on IE. Extensions will also be available for this browser using common web technologies like html and Javascript.

Annotations

If you want to share a specific snippet from a webpage, you can do that with annotations. This feature has been there on other browsers. You can use it to select text and photos and share it with friends on Social Media platforms.

There are three main ways you can customize this browser.

Change Theme

This enables you to change the theme, if you don’t particularly like the default one.

• Locate the (
  …
  ) button on the top right corner of the screen.
  
• Choose
  Settings
  , from
  Settings,
  then
  Choose a Theme
  option.
  
• You may now choose between
  Light
  and
  Dark
  .
  

Start Page

• Locate the (
  …
  ) button on the top right corner of the screen.
  
• Choose
  Settings
  , then move to the
  Open With
  section.
  
• You may choose the following options for your start page "
  Start page
  ", "
  New tab page
  ", "
  Previous pages
  ” and "
  A specific page or pages
  ".
  

Customize Edge Browser’s Tabs

• Locate the (
  …
  ) button on the top right corner of the screen.
  
• Choose
  Settings
  , then choose
  Open new tabs with
  .
  
• A drop down menu appears, choose your preferences from there.
  
• The option
  Top sites and suggested content
  has more options such as
  Customize
  . You can choose the top sites you want to appear by specifying them under
  Top Sites
  .
  

Importing Book Marks

You can easily import bookmarks from other browsers into Edge. However, the browser doesn’t support importing directly from HTML files. Here is how to import bookmarks.

• Locate the (
  …
  ) on your Edge browser.
  
• Go to
  Settings
  to Open the Settings dialog.
  
• Choose the option
  Import Favourites from another browser
  .
  
• Edge will list all compatible browsers. Pick from where you want to import the bookmarks.
  

Conclusion:

The windows Edge Browser is definitely much better than Internet Explorer. However, Microsoft still has a long way to go before they can compete with the other browsers like Chrome. It seems to be good enough for some, while other people have decided to go back to common browsers like Chrome, Opera and Mozilla. You may use the Edge browser to find out if it works for you.

Working with Windows 10 Interface

If you’re using multiple displays, having multiple desktops would be a good way to manage everything as you work. Windows has now introduced virtual desktops. This is a feature that Windows has been working on, but has not fully implemented it until now.

Windows 10 no makes it easy to introduce multiple desktops even for a user using a single display. The Task View pane feature has now made it possible to open multiple desktops. It still has many limitations, but more features may be coming up in later editions.

Some limitations you will encounter in the current edition of windows 10 are:

• You can’t change the wall paper on your desktop yet.
  
• You can’t skip to the target desktop, unless you go through each of them.
  

Here is how to play around and manipulate the desktops.

Add a virtual Desktop

Adding a new virtual desktop is simple:

On the Task bar, click on the
Task View button
(if you can’t locate them, they are the two overlapping triangles)
. Or click on Windows key + Tab.

Once you’re in the task view pane, click on
New Desktop.

Choose the option "
Add a desktop
" a plus symbol will appear.

This shortcut will take you straight to that option,
Windows Key + Ctrl + D
.

Switching Between Desktops

To switch between desktops, you may either use this shortcut
Windows Key + Ctrl + Left Arrow
to move left and
Windows Key + Ctrl + Right Arrow
to move right
.

You may also navigate through the
Task View
pane by using left and arrow key. You cannot skip a desktop and you have to go through all of them to get to the target virtual desktop.

Move Window between Desktops

• You need to go to the Task View pane by either using the Keyboard shortcut
  Windows Key + Ctrl + D,
  or by clicking on
  Task View
  button
  .
  
• Hover over the target desktop you want to move to. The windows on that desktop will pop up.
  
• Pick the window you want to move, then
  right-click
  it, and go to
  Move to
  
• Move the Window to your desired Desktop.
  

Close the Desktop

• Open the
  Task View
  pane as indicated above.
  
• Hover over the desktop that you want to close until the
  X
  symbol appears in the upper right corner.
  
• You may now simply click on the X symbol to close the desktop.
  
• You may close the active Desktop by using a simple keyboard short cut:
  Windows Key + Ctrl + F4
  . Instead of using the process above.