Windows 10: The Ultimate User Guide in Using Your Windows 10 (4 page)

To keep your computer and account secure, it is always advisable to change your account passwords or PIN. This is important even when you feel you have a strong password that cannot be easily cracked.

You can change the standard password, PIN or picture password associated with your user account by doing the following:

• Go to
  Start
  and then click
  Settings
  .
  
• When in Settings, go to
  Accounts
  , and click
  Sign-In Options
  in the left pane.
  
• Under
  Password
  ,
  PIN
  or
  Picture
  , click Change and then follow the prompts.
  

You can reset the Password, if you are using a local account and you’ve lost or forgotten your password, you can recover and reset the password by following these simple steps:

• Using another computer, open a browser window and access https:// account.live.com/ password/ reset.
  
• Specify why you can’t login as
  I Forgot My Password
  , click
  Next
  and then follow the prompts.
  

If you are using a local account and you’ve can’t remember your password, you can use a different account to recover (this is only possible if you have multiple accounts)

• In the Search box type “
  User Accounts”
  and press Enter. The
  User Accounts
  page will open in
  Control Panel
  .
  
• Go to
  Manage User Accounts
  . If you are currently using a standard User account, you will need to enter the account name and password of an administrator when prompted and then click
  Yes
  .
  
• In the
  User Accounts dialog
  , choose the account you want to change and then click
  Reset Password
  .
  
• Finish the process by clicking
  OK
  . You’ll then be able to login using this password.
  

Note
: As stated earlier in the section you will lose files like the EFS-encrypted files, personal certificates, and stored passwords websites and also network resources.

Automatically log in to your Windows 10 PC

Windows 10 is similar to Windows 8 in that it requires you to login with a Microsoft account. Bypassing this log-in screen isn't as simple as it may at first look. You have to go to
User Accounts settings
to bypass that step.

Note
: For security reasons, only bypass the log-in screen for your personal computer or a computer that you will not have to share with anyone else.

Start by opening the Run command box,  you can do this by either going to
Start,
then
All apps, Windows System
and choose
Run.
You can also use the keyboard short cut
Windows key + R
.

A text box will appear, type
netplwiz
and press
Enter
.

This will open the
User Accounts
window. Choose your username and password which should now be under .
Users for this computer.

Ensure the following option is not selected
; Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer
.

When you click
Apply,
a new window labelled
Automatically sign in
will be displayed. Type your password twice and then click
OK
.

You can customize the sign in process further by using the sign-in options, so that Windows will never require you to sign in after your PC wakes from sleep by going to
Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options
.

Connecting Your Account to the Store

Windows 10 is attempting to target 1 billion devices with apps. The Software giant has ensured that apps created once can be run on any device running Windows 10. For example, if you are able to create an app for the desktop, you should be able to run it on a Windows phone, tablet, and any other compatible device without changing anything.

This means that apps are going to be a very important part of a Windows 10 user in the near future. For this reason, it is important to always have access to the store in case you need it.

However, most people are still put off by Microsoft’s insistence on keeping track of all your online activities. You may therefore want to use another account to stay connected to their store. You may login using an outlook, Msn or Live.com account.

• On the Tool bar, go to
  Account Options
  , then click
  Sign In
  .
  
• Choose an account, and click Microsoft account.
  
• Enter account credentials of the Microsoft account you want to use and click
  Sign In
  .
  
• You may be required to provide your current Windows password, click Next and connect using your current Microsoft account.
  
• Specify that you don’t want to switch to a Microsoft account for login by clicking the
  Sign In
  . This limits the use of your account for only login into the store.
  

In case you do not have a Microsoft account (which includes Hotmail, Live.com, MSN, Outlook.com,) you may use the following steps.

• Locate
  Account Options
  on the tool bar and click
  sign in
  .
  
• When asked to pick an account, choose
  Create One link.
  
• Enter your name in the text boxes that come up.
  
• You will be required to provide an email address to use for accessing Microsoft networks.
  
• Pick any email, but ensure that it is secure, since you will be using it to recover your passwords.
  
• Whether you entered your email address or created a new one, you must next enter a password. You will be using the password to access the Microsoft network and should therefore not be the same one you use for login or email access.
  
• You will now need to specify your country of origin and birth date and then click.
  
• Protect your account by entering a phone number that can be used to validate your account. Or choose the
  Add an Alternate
  Email Instead link and then enter an alternate email address.
  
• After you finish, you may now click Next twice. When prompted for your current Windows password, as shown previously, do one of the following: Provide your password and click Next to connect your current account to the Microsoft account and thereafter, you’ll need to log in to your Windows device using the Microsoft account and password.
  
• Specify that you don’t want switch to a Microsoft account for login by clicking the
  Sign In To Just This App Instead
  link. This limits the use of your account for only login into the store.
  

Installing Apps and Cancelling Automatic Updates

After you finish the steps provided above, you can now start using the apps from the store. When you find an app you want in the store, you can install it, simply by clicking its purchase button. For the free apps, you will see a Free button on the store’s page.

If this is the first time you are purchasing an app from the store, you will need to enter payment information.

By default, the apps you download will be updated automatically so it eliminates the need to going back online to check for updates. There are however, users who prefer this longer route of updating apps. If you would like to remove automatic updates, click by following these simple steps.

• Go to
  Accounts Options
  and then choose
  Settings
  .
  
• Turn the
  Update Apps Automatically
  to
  Off,
  on the Settings page. From then on, you will have to check for updates manually. This is not always a good idea for some apps.
  

You may also set it to only update apps when connecting to Wi-Fi by;

Go to
Only Update The Tile
… option which is under settings and turn it Off.

Extra Features

As social media becomes more ubiquitous, sharing photos and other media files is becoming a day to day activity we perform on the computer.

In Windows 8, the Charms Bar (with all the issues users had with it) provided a convenient way to quickly share by use of the Share Charm. In Windows 10, the Charms Bar is no longer there, but you can quickly share from File explorer. The File Explorer now has a share button. You can quickly share media files such as photos and videos, as well as files such as documents and PDF’s.

• Go to
  File Explorer
  and locate the file or files you want to share. Click on the file to share. 
  
• Note: not all files can be shared. For example, you won’t be able to share some systems files and .exe files.
  

The Share button in the
File Explorer
is actually hidden inside the Sharing menu. You can open the sharing menu by:

• Clicking
  Share
  to open up the sharing menu. The options will be displayed. Since there are files that you can’t share the share, button will be grayed out.
  
• You may now click the Share button
  

You can specify the program you want to share the file with. To do this, go to the sharing menu and choose whichever program you want to share the file with.

There are several sharing options you can change. For example, the share menu shows the program you often share the files with. You can change this setting by following these simple steps.

• Go to
  Settings menu
  , click on
  System
  , and select the
  Share
  tab.
  
• On the share tab you will see a number of options. For example, frequently shared apps can either be turned on or off. You can choose the number of times they will appear on the list, etc.
  

The snipping tool was introduced in Windows 7 as a more convenient way to capture your screen. Preciously, you could only use the
PrintScreen
function if you were using XP or the operating systems that came before it.

PrintScreen took a screenshot of the entire screen. This was very inconvenient when you wanted to capture only a section of the screen. The snipping tool was introduced in Windows 7 with a wider range of optns, such only sections of the screen.

There are many improvements that have been made to the Snipping tool. The Snipping tool now in Windows has a time-delay shutter option; you can now cropped and uncropped screenshots of the pop-up menus. This wasn’t possible with the earlier version of this tool.

In earlier versions of Windows, the Snipping tool could only be used to capture items that did not involve mouse movements. The only way to capture pop-up menus and tooltips in Windows 7 and 8 is to use the old-fashioned method of setting up your screenshot, hitting the
PrintScreen
button on your keyboard, and then pasting the image in Paint for cropping and saving.

There is a new
Delay
option in Windows 10, you can capture popup menus:

• Open the Snipping tool and click
  Delay
  to choose your delay time in seconds. You can choose between 0 and 5 seconds (the default is 0).
  
• From there you may now pick the type of snip you want, by clicking the arrow next to
  New
  
• Now click on
  New
  to start the snipping process. Unlike a regular snip, the screen will not immediately fade out for you to create your snip. Instead, you will have between 1 and 5 seconds, depending on the delay you chose, to set up your screenshot.
  
• Right-click and open that pop-up menu you so desperately want to capture.
  
• After the time is up, the screen will freeze and fade out so you can create your snip. Any pop-up menus that were open when the screen froze will stay open.
  
• At this point you can create your snip by making an outline of a rectangle around the part of the screen you want to capture if you chose free-form or rectangular; if you chose window or full-screen, your snip will be automatically created when the screen freezes.
  
• Click the
  Save
  button to save the image.