Making Everything Bigger in Windows 10

From "Fonts, sizes and color settings of the Outlook interface"

Windows 10

- Right click on an empty spot on your Desktop and choose “Display Settings”.

- In the “Scale and layout section”, use the “Change the size of text, apps, and other items” dropdown list to set your preferred zoom level.

- To set a custom zoom level, press the Custom scaling link (Windows 10 Version 1709) or the “Advanced scaling settings” link (Windows 10 Version 1803). Since Version 1803, Windows can also detect desktop apps which don’t zoom and improve their graphics output via the option: Let Windows try to fix apps so they’re not blurry.

Another way to adjust this is the Ctrl + and - in your browser. If things are too big, you can always adjust things in browsers. 

How to Pin Any Folder to the Start Menu in Windows 10

 Thanks to https://winaero.com/blog/pin-folder-taskbar-windows-10/ for showing me how to pin a folder to the Windows 10 start menu. 

The picture below shows "Pin to taskbar". In my case, it showed "Pin to Start". It will let me open this directory in Windows Explorer quickly. 

How to schedule Windows Update installations in Windows 10 Pro

From https://www.windowscentral.com/how-schedule-windows-updates-windows-10


How to schedule Windows Updates
1. Launch Local Group Policy Editor
Type (or copy/paste) gpedit.msc into the Cortana/search bar or use Win + R and paste in gpedit.msc into the Run entry box

2. Navigate
Using the Local Group Policy Editor navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update

3. Double-Click
Double-Click Configure Automatic Updates to open the configuration window

4. Choose your destiny
The console is quite clear on what are your choices. These were detailed above in the prelude section. First you need to choose Enabled in the upper left corner as it is Not Configured by default. Once Enabled the Options section becomes active. You can now choose which policy you want to enable.

5. Date Time
If you are using option #4, you can also select the day and exact time you want the updates installed. Note that the time and day options are only applicable to option #4 as the other options are just notifications for installations. Once completed you can hit Apply to make sure the setting takes and then hit OK to exit the window.

How to set apps to always run as an administrator on Windows 10

From https://www.windowscentral.com/how-set-apps-always-run-administrator-windows-10

Here is one way to always run as an administrator

- Pin the application to the windows taskbar.
- Right click on the application in the taskbar.
- Right click on the application in the popup. Choose Properties then the Advanced button
- Check the "Run as administrator" checkbox

Windows 10 Night Light Settings

f.lux, Blue light, red shift.

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/01/12/windows-10-creators-update-blue-light-mode/

Steps I took to install Windows 10 on a New Hard Drive

I am installing Windows 10 on a new machine. I used the "Create Windows 10 installation media" tool from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
to create a USB to install Windows 10 from.

I had to press F12 while it was booting up while the USB was in the correct slot. The first slot I picked did not work.

I also had to disconnect the secondary hard drive.

I had to partition the hard drive and format it. I used method 3 from https://www.avoiderrors.net/unable-create-new-system-partition/. I found this from his video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ilMAAk1Q8

Method 3
1. When you see the error in question, press Shift+F10 to open the command prompt.
2. In the command prompt type diskpart and hit Enter.
3. Then type list disk and hit Enter.
4. Type select disk  X (X being the local drive.), and then hit Enter. In my case the disk where I want to install Windows 7 is Disk 0, so the command would be “select disk 0”
5. Type clean and hit Enter.
6. Now type create partition primary size=5000 and hit Enter.
7. Now type format fs=ntfs quick and phit Enter. This command will format the partition using NTFS.
8. Type assign and hit Enter. This will assign a drive letter to the partition.
9. Type active and hit Enter.
10. Type list volume and hit Enter. To list the drive letters of the Windows installation media (USB/Disc).

I modified the steps above. I used the diskpart command line program to partition and format the whole SSD. I had the secondary hard drive plugged in. One of the other methods probably would have worked if I had disconnected it to begin with. Once I disconnected it and tried again, it was able to start the installation.

When the installation wizard asked, I entered my license key from the defective hard drive.

I did not have it use a Microsoft account. I used a disconnected one.


The first error was "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one.". This was fixed by using diskpart to partition and format the disk.

The second error was "we couldn't install windows in the location you choose 0x80300001" I solved this by powering off the PC and disconnecting the secondary hard drive.

Show Titles of Windows in Taskbar

 [Windows-Logo]+[Q] and search for taskbar

Go down to the "Combine taskbar buttons" and change the setting to "When taskbar is full"

A tooltip is stuck on the desktop and will not go away.

On my new Windows 10 laptop, I sometimes will get a tooltip that remains on the screen. It stays if I switch applications, if I minimize, if I lock the screen.

From Microsoft Answers I found that if I press [Windows Key] + [D], it minimizes all windows and it goes away.

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. 

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.

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Permanently Remove the 'Get Windows 10' Icon

I have a laptop that I upgraded to Windows 10. The sound then stopped working and I could not find a driver that would work. I had passed the 30 days to uninstall windows 10. So I reinstalled Windows 7 from scratch.

I used this article and utility to ensure that my kids to not inadvertently re-install windows 10 on it.

How to add or remove startup apps in Windows 10

- Press Win + R shortcut keys together and type the following into the Run box:
shell:Startup
- Add or delete shortcuts to the programs you want running to this folder.

Adapted from How to add or remove startup apps in Windows 10

Speed Up Windows 10

Disable Shadow and Animation Effects to Improve Performance: 

By default, Windows 10 and all its previous version comes with eye catching shadow and animation effect that looks beautiful but this feature compromise with system performance. Extra effects and animation increase CPU and RAM loads, which results in slow system performance (High Speed CPU and Higher RAM works well). The situation became worse if you have got no great power CPU and and have minimal RAM.

But hey! Microsoft has added few options to disable shadow and animation effect. 

Open System > Properties > Advanced system settings. Now click on Settings available under Performance group in Advanced Tab. 

Quick Tips: You can also run sysdm.cpl command in Windows RUN (Win +R) box to open System Properties. (Speed Up Windows 10 – Master Tutorial to Make Windows 10 Super Fast)