9 Hidden Windows 10 Tips and Tricks You Should Know

As many people upgrade to Windows 10, they need to know how the experience has changed. Whether you have a love-hate relationship with Windows 10, it still has a lot of useful features. Here are several tips and tricks to help you get more out of Windows 10:

1. Action Center

Action Center is a very useful notification and quick settings sidebar. On Windows 10, the Action Center feature has been expanded to include more information regarding applications and other data on your computer. It’s a unified place for all system notifications and quick access to various settings. It lives in a slide-out pane that appears at the press of an icon in the taskbar. Among the many features, the Action Center allows you to easily check your calendar, incoming emails, enable/disable wi-fi, connect to a Bluetooth device, check your Twitter feed and access computer settings. Great thing about the Action Center is that you can customize it to your liking

2. Cortana & Search Bar

Powered by Cortana (Microsoft’s personal assistant) Windows 10 comes equipped with a Search Bar that allows you to not only look for things in your computer like files, programs or settings, but also enables users to ask virtually any question like the weather, traffic, movie times, recipes or anything that you would search for in Google. All you need to do is type your question on the search bar (or using your voice) and voila!

3. Dark Theme

If you have been looking for ways to give your PC a more stylish look, then you want a dark theme. Steps:

• Go to “start.” Select “settings.”
• Then, select “personalization.”
• Next, in the left panel, “select colors.”

●    Last, you will notice the default is light. You need to switch it to a dark theme.

4. Virtual Desktops

The Windows virtual desktop is a new feature that allows you to create multiple monitors on one computer. So, if you want to open six to seven windows, you can easily do it with this feature. For example, if you are doing video editing and you want to split between two applications, this function lets you have a separate desktop. Steps

• To create a new virtual desktop, select “task view.” Then, select the “plus sign.” From there, you have two options to create a desktop.
• From there, go to the bottom right and click “new desktop.” This will create a new desktop.

5. Print To PDF

With this feature, you can finally save a document as a .pdf without using third-party software. It works with everything. Steps

• If you are using Chrome, select “print.” Choose “change.”
• Then, select “Microsoft print PDF.”
• Next, choose “print.” Decide where you want to save.

6. Emojis

To use Emojis, you must enable the keyboard. Steps

• Click on the “taskbar.” Make sure the touchboard keyboard button is activated. This will give you the option to select the keyboard.
• Then, select the “Emoji icon.” You will have a variety of emojis from which to choose.

7. Manage Notifications

Getting notifications can get a little frustrating. Thankfully, you can shut them off. Steps

• Go to “settings.” Select “system.”
• In the left pane, notification and actions, you can turn off notifications from apps and other senders.
• If you scroll down, you can turn off notifications individually.

If you have Windows 10 Creator’s Update (released in the middle of 2017), here’s 2 tips made just for you. You can read how to get the update here.

8. Nightlight

The night light removes the blue light and helps you sleep better. Steps

• To activate, select “system.” Then, under color, select “turn it on or off.”
• If you are running a multiple monitor setup, this will turn the light off or on.

 

9. Storage Sense

The storage sense is a newly updated feature created to delete unneeded temporary files and files in the recycle bin that are more than 30 days old. Steps:

• While in settings, select “system.”
• In the left pane, select “storage” Switch it on.
• Select “how we free up space now.” Leave these options turned on.