Windows 10 Top Short Cuts that May Change Your Life! Vol 9 rel 7

Well it’s no secret that many of you have adopted Windows 10 as your desktop OS.  So, at this juncture, we thought that sharing a few hidden secrets would be in order.  As with most things – there’s always shortcuts that can save time and energy.  Windows 10 is no different.  We’ve compiled a collection of easy keystrokes that are almost essential to your everyday computing needs.  It should be noted, that some of these items have been available in Windows for a number of generations, while others are native to Windows 10. Microsoft's most recent update for the OS arrived in November, but the May 2019 update did kill a few; however, there are plenty of new features and tricks to make the most of a constantly evolving Windows experience.

Secret Start Menu

If you're a fan of that old-school (i.e. non-tiled) Start menu experience, you can still (sort of) have it. If you right-click on the Windows icon in the bottom-left corner, it will prompt a textual jump menu with a number of familiar popular destinations (Apps and Features, Search, Run). All these options are available through the standard menu interface, but you'll be able to access them quicker through this textual interface.

Clipboard History and Cloud

The Windows clipboard History allows you to save multiple items at once and paste across devices. Open Settings > System > Clipboard and turn on Clipboard History to start doing more. However, what you may not be aware of is the ability to sync your clipboard history with any of your other devices…

Now when you hit:

+ V

you get a list of captured items you copied to choose from.

Shake

This feature actually debuted in Windows 7, but many don't know about it or use it (but they should—it's cool!). If you have a display full of windows, clear the clutter by grabbing the top of the window you do like and "shaking" it to minimize all the other windows. Suddenly having shaker's remorse? Shake again and the windows will come back.

Enable 'God Mode'

Are you a power user who wants access to your PC's nitty gritty? "God mode" is for you. 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 and go nuts.

Right-Click on Tiles

Want to personalize those tiles quick? Just right-click on them to prompt a pop-up menu. This menu will give you various options, like the ability to un-pin from the Start menu, resize the windows, or turn that live tile off.

Right-Click on the Taskbar

Here's a handy menu that will allow you to quickly access a number of presets for the toolbars, Cortana, and window schemes. There's a lot there, and it's just a click away.

Drag to Pin Windows

This feature was available as far back as Windows 7, but has some extras in Windows 10.

Grab any window and drag it to the side, where it will "fit" to half the screen. In Windows 10, you have the option of dragging the window to any corner to have the window take over a quarter of the screen instead of half. If you're using multiple screens, drag to a border corner and wait for a prompt signal to let you know if the window will open in that corner.

You can prompt similar behavior by using the Windows key plus any of the directional arrow buttons.

Quickly Jump Between Virtual Desktops

Do you like to multitask on your PC? In Windows 10, Microsoft finally provided out-of-the-box access to virtual desktops.

So now you can really multitask.

To try it out, click on Task View (the icon to the right of the Windows menu). 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.  Or better yet just hit the keys:

CTRL ++ D

This would allow you to, say, separate your work apps, personal apps, and social media into different desktops.

Once you click out of Task View, you can toggle between virtual desktops by pressing the keys:

CTRL ++ Right/Left Arrow

 This will allow you to automatically switch between all the open windows which you've separated into different desktops, while leaving all the icons on your desktop unmoved.

To remove the virtual desktops, just press the keys

CTRL ++ F4

—this will not close out the apps contained within that desktop, but rather just send them to the next lower desktop.

Make Your Command Prompt Window Transparent

This feature will probably only be useful to a narrow niche of users, but if you like to dig your virtual fingers into the innards of Windows Command Prompt.

Windows 10 provides a ghostly way to interface with it.

To access the Command Prompt interface in Windows 10, click on the Windows menu and type "Command Prompt" to bring up quick access to its desktop app. Click that. You can personalize the experience by right-clicking at the top of the window to prompt a pop-up menu and choose "Properties."

Click over to the Colors tab to see a range of personalization options. At the bottom of this tab, you'll find the Opacity slider, which allows you to see through the Command Prompt window.This feature lets you code away in the Command Prompt while simultaneously observing the desktop.

Silence Notifications With Focus Assist

Formerly known as Quiet Hours, Focus Assist is a redesigned feature that gives you greater control over the notifications that pop up on your PC. Head to Settings > System > Focus Assist and then read our full how to guide for customizing notifications for everything from contacts and apps to task-specific alarms.

Nearby Sharing

In an open document or photo, you can share the file directly with nearby devices the same way Apple's AirDrop works. Click the Share icon atop your doc or photo toolbar to open the panel, and then click Turn On Nearby Sharing to see which nearby recipients are in range.

Stop Typing, Start Dictating

Speech Recognition as always been a strong suit for Microsoft, but recent Windows 10 releases have made it almost second nature. At any time you can use the Windows hotkey combination:

+ H

to pop up a box that records your voice through your Windows machine's microphone and dictates the speech in your current text field. You'll still need to type manual punctuation, but save yourself some typing by dictating emails, messages, and more.

Dark Mode and Light Mode

Windows 10 gives you a significant amount of control over color themes. Open Settings > Personalization > Colors and you can set the operating system to either dark mode or light mode. These themes change the color of the Start menu, taskbar, action center, File Explorer, settings menus, and any other programs that are compliant with these palette changes.

There is also a custom option that will let you set one theme for Windows menus and another for apps. Want a little more color? There are swatches of color themes available to choose from that can help your menus and taskbars really pop.

Screen Capture

Screen Capture is a feature where Microsoft is finally closing the functionality gap with macOS in the October 2018 Update. Instead of the clunky Snipping Tool, you can now pull up a new clipping utility called Snip & Sketch with a simple 

Shift ++ S

 command to take a full-screen or rectangular screen capture. It's like MacOS screen-capture tool, but with the added digital inking capability.

Hidden Game Bar

Using the 

+ G

command, 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.

You can also search for the Game Bar in the Start menu to configure custom keyboard shortcuts for turning your microphone, screen capture, recording timer, and more on and off while gaming.  

Press Pause On Updates

We all know updates are important. They give your OS the latest features, security patches, and more. But sometimes you just want Windows to leave you alone without those incessant pop-ups. With the May 2019 Update, go to Settings > Updates and Security > Windows Update and you can pause upcoming feature updates. Options vary based on which version of Windows 10 you have (Home vs. Pro).

Unlock Kaimoji and Symbols

Hit Windows Key-Period(.) to pop up an expanded bottom-right menu of emojis, "Kaimoji" characters built from unicode characters, and a wide array of miscellaneous symbols.

Measure Everything with Built-in Apps

Windows has several built-in apps that may look useless but offer helpful hidden features. For instance, the Calculator app does so much more than solve mathematical equations. It can calculate the difference between two dates and convert basically any unit of measures—time, energy, temperature, mass, and even currency.

Ever try to calculate time differences in your head? It's not easy. The Alarms & Clock app can help calculate the differences between two locations, even into the future. Open the app, click the Clock tab, and select the + icon at the bottom to add different locations.

You can then click the Compare icon to open a timeline. As you scroll across the timeline, the time changes on the map points, allowing you to keep track of time differences more easily.

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We would like to thank our sponsors, for without them - our fine content wouldn't be deliverable!

Rick's Cafe' American

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Source

• https://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-10-hacks-11-hidden-tricks-to-master-after-you-upgrade/\
• https://www.pcmag.com/news/23-hidden-tricks-inside-windows-10
• https://windowsreport.com/secret-features-windows-10/

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;”

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About Rick Ricker

An IT professional with over 23 years' experience in Information Security, wireless broadband, network and Infrastructure design, development, and support.

For more information, contact Rick at rwricker@gmail.com