Saturday, January 13, 2018

How to change Windows 10 Lock Screen Timeout Period

Windows 10 has a beautiful "Windows Spotlight" background on the lock screen.
The problem is that by default you only get a minute of it. Here is how to set that value.

(Similar instructions at https://www.onmsft.com/how-to/adjust-windows-10-lock-screen-timeout )
From http://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-console-lock-display-timeout-windows-8

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key: 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Power\ PowerSettings\ 7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\ 8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7 
Now in the right pane, you will see Attributes. Double-click on it to change its DWORD value data from the default 1 to 2.
Having done this, now open Power Options > Advanced Power Settings via Control Panel. Expand the Display item. You will now see an additional entry: Console lock display off timeout. 
You would not have seen it earlier, but after editing the registry, you will get to see it. 

Friday, January 05, 2018

Windows Keyboard Shortcuts I Use

Windows 10

Winkey + A - Activates Action Center

Winkey + R - Run a command

Winkey + E - Opens File Explorer

Winkey + D - Shows desktop

Winkey + E - Opens File Explorer

Winkey + L - Locks a machine

Winkey + R - Run a command

Winkey + S - Activates Cortana

Winkey + X - Opens power user features

Winkey + Left / Right / Up / Down - Snaps apps to the side of a screen (press Up or Down after snapping left / right to enable four apps to snap)

Alt+Tab - Switch Tasks

From "The best Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts",  29 Jul 2015, Tom Warren, The Verge

PureText

https://stevemiller.net/puretext/

Winkey + V - pastes plain text

Windows 7




Taskbar and Start Menu Preferences

Here are the settings I like on Windows 10

Combine taskbar buttons 



I like the "When the taskbar is full" setting.















Here is what it looks like


















Adjust for best performance


To adjust the visual effects in Windows
1. In the search box on the taskbar, type performance, then select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows.
2. In the Performance Options dialog box, on the Visual Effects tab, select Adjust for best performance > Apply.

3. Restart your PC and see if that speeds up your PC.
(Tip #9 from this post)

I usually add a few things back to it like this.




---