Affiliate 1. Desktop & Beginning Menu

These days, the graphic user interface (the colorful world of icons, windows, and menus) is standard. Mac, Windows, Chrome OS, Linux—every operating system is fundamentally the same, which is to say a very long way from the lines of typed commands that defined the earliest computers.

Windows 10 restores the desktop to its traditional importance, following a weird three-year detour into "what the heck" state known equally Windows eight. The desktop is once again your simply dwelling house base, your single starting indicate. It's the view that greets y'all when the computer turns on, and it offers all the tools you need to manage and organize your files.

Herewith: a one thousand tour of the state of the art in computer desktops—the i in Windows 10.

The Lock Screen

When you turn on a Windows ten machine, yous know right abroad that y'all're non in Kansas anymore. The first thing you run across is a colorful curtain that's been drawn over the computer'south earth. It'due south the Lock screen (Figure 1-1).

The Lock screen serves the aforementioned purpose information technology does on a phone: It gives a quick glance at the time, the date, your WiFi signal force, the conditions, and (on laptops and tablets) your battery charge. As y'all download and install new apps, they can add together informational tidbits to this Lock screen, too.

The point is that sometimes you don't really need to wake the machine upwards. You just want to know what fourth dimension it is.

The Lock screen can likewise give you instant access to your Camera and Skype apps (Camera and Skype). Yous might want to accept a picture or answer a telephone call without having to go through the red tape of fully logging in.

You can control which apps are allowed to add information to the Lock screen in Settings (like the weather report shown here).You're not stuck with the Lock screen photo as Mother Microsoft has installed it, either. You can change the picture, if you like, or you can eliminate it altogether. Chapter 4 has the details.

Figure 1-1. Y'all can control which apps are allowed to add together information to the Lock screen in Settings (similar the weather condition written report shown here). You're not stuck with the Lock screen photograph equally Mother Microsoft has installed it, either. You tin change the picture, if y'all similar, or you can eliminate information technology altogether. Chapter 4 has the details.

When you practice desire to go past the Lock screen to log in, there'south cipher to it. Nearly anything you practise that says, "I'm here!" works:

  • Touchscreen : Swipe a finger upward. (Swipe downward to spring into Camera way.)

  • Mouse : Click anywhere. Or plough the mouse bicycle.

  • Keyboard : Press any key.

The Lock screen slides up and out of the way, revealing the Login screen (Effigy 1-2, top).

Tip

You lot can change the photo background of the Lock screen, make information technology a slideshow, or fiddle with which data appears here; run across Customizing the Lock Screen. You lot tin can even eliminate the Lock screen altogether—subsequently all, information technology's an extra click every time you log in. For step-by-step instructions, see "Eliminating the Windows 10 Lock Screen," a free downloadable PDF appendix on this volume'due south "Missing CD" page at world wide web.missingmanuals.com.

The Login Screen

As in any modern operating system, you have your own account in Windows. It's your world of files, settings, and preferences. So the second thing y'all encounter in Windows ten is the Login screen. Hither, at lower left, you see the name and photo for each person who has an account on this machine (Figure one-ii). Choose yours.

This is also where you're supposed to log in—to bear witness that y'all're you. But logging in no longer has to hateful typing a password . One of Windows ten's primary goals is to embrace touchscreens, and typing is a pain on tablets.

Lower left: If your machine has more than one account set up, tap or click your icon to sign in.Top right: Typing is so 2009! In Windows 10, you can log into your account using any of several more touchscreen-friendly methods, like drawing three predetermined lines on a photograph.

Figure 1-two. Lower left: If your machine has more than one account set upwardly, tap or click your icon to sign in. Tiptop correct: Typing is so 2009! In Windows x, you can log into your account using any of several more touchscreen-friendly methods, like drawing three predetermined lines on a photograph.

Therefore, you lot can log in using any of these techniques:

  • Just look at your screen. On laptops or tablets with Intel'due south RealSense infrared cameras, facial recognition logs you in.

  • Swipe your finger beyond the fingerprint reader, if your calculator has one.

  • Put your heart upwards to the iris reader, if your auto is and so equipped.

  • Depict three lines, taps, or circles on a photograph yous've selected (Figure 1-two, meridian).

  • Type in a Pin y'all've memorized.

  • Blazon a traditional password.

  • Skip the security altogether. Leap directly to the desktop when you plough on the auto.

See Affiliate 19 for instructions on setting each of these upwardly.

The Desktop

One time you lot've gotten by the security barrier, you finally wind upwardly at the home base of Windows: the desktop. Run into Figure 1-3 for a refresher course.

You can, and should, brand the desktop look like whatever you desire. You can change its background motion picture or color scheme; you can make the text larger; yous tin clutter upwardly the whole thing with icons you use a lot. Chapter four is a crash course in desktop interior decoration.

The desktop returns in Windows 10 as everybody's starting place. It's once again the first thing you see after you log in. It has a shiny, clean, new look, but the time-honored landmarks—Start menu, taskbar, system tray—are just where they've always been.

Effigy 1-3. The desktop returns in Windows 10 every bit everybody's starting identify. It'due south again the first matter you see afterward you log in. It has a shiny, make clean, new look, but the fourth dimension-honored landmarks—Commencement menu, taskbar, system tray—are only where they've always been.

Come across the Offset Carte du jour

Windows is composed of 50 million lines of reckoner code, scattered across your hard drive in thousands of files. The vast bulk of them are not for you; they're support files, at that place for behind-the-scenes use by Windows and your applications. They may equally well bear a sticker reading, "No user-serviceable parts inside."

That's why the Start menu is and so important (Figure i-4). Information technology lists every useful piece of software on your reckoner, including commands, programs, and files. But about everything you do on your PC begins—or tin can begin—with your Outset bill of fare.

In Windows 10, as yous've probably noticed, the word "Start" doesn't really announced on the Start bill of fare, as it did for years; now the Kickoff carte du jour is just a square button in the lower-left corner of your screen, bearing the Windows logo ( ). But information technology's nonetheless chosen the Start menu, and it's still the gateway to everything on the PC.

If you're the type who bills past the hour, yous can open the Start menu (Figure 1-3, lower left) by clicking information technology with the mouse. If yous feel that life'south too curt, withal, tap the cardinal on the keyboard instead, or the button if information technology'southward a tablet.

Really, truly: Learn this . Tap to open up the Kickoff menu (or to close it!).

The Outset menu (Figure 1-4) is divide into ii columns. For convenience, let'due south phone call them the left side and the correct side.

Here it is, the single biggest change in Windows 10: the new, hybrid Start menu. The left side gives you direct access to apps you use frequently, or that you've installed recently, as well as important commands and places like Power and

Figure 1-iv. Here information technology is, the unmarried biggest change in Windows 10: the new, hybrid Starting time carte du jour. The left side gives you direct access to apps you utilise frequently, or that you've installed recently, every bit well every bit important commands and places like Ability and "All apps." The right side is yours to customize.

Annotation

If your calculator is a tablet, and it has no physical keyboard at all, then it may start upward in Windows 10'due south new Tablet style . In this manner, the right side of the Start menu fills the entire screen, and the left side doesn't appear unless y'all tap the in the top-left corner. For details on Tablet mode, see Chapter 13.

Start Menu: The Left Side

The about amazing matter about the Windows 10 Commencement menu is that Windows 10 has a Start menu—something that'south been missing since Windows 7. The left side, or something like information technology, has been with Windows from the get-go. The correct side is a pared-back version of the Start screen that distinguished Windows eight.

The left side may wait similar the Start menu that's been in Windows from the first (except during that ane unfortunate 3-year Windows 8 phase). But there'due south a big departure: In Windows 10, you tin can't use it to listing your ain favorite programs, folders, and files. (That'due south what the right side is for.) The left side is meant to be managed and run entirely by Windows itself.

The left side has five sections, described here from pinnacle to lesser:

[Your name]

Run across your account name and picture in the upper-left corner of the Start carte du jour (Figure 1-v)?

Your account icon isn't just an icon; it's also a pop-up menu. Click it to see the

Figure 1-5. Your account icon isn't just an icon; it'due south also a pop-up menu. Click information technology to see the "Sign out" and "Lock" commands, as well as a shortcut to your account settings.

That's non just helpful information. The moving-picture show is also a popular-upward menu. And its commands all have to do with switching from one account to another. (In Windows' accounts characteristic, each person who uses this PC gets to see her own desktop picture, email account, files, then on. Meet Affiliate 19.) Here's what they practise.

Tip

Some keystrokes from previous Windows versions are still around. For case, you tin can still press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to summon the three commands described here: "Lock," "Switch user," and "Sign out"—plus a bonus link for the Task Manager (Exiting Programs).

  • Change account settings takes you direct to the Settings→Account screen, where you lot can change your business relationship picture, password, login method, and other details of your account—and you can create accounts for other family members.

  • Lock . This command takes you lot dorsum to the Lock screen described at the beginning of this chapter. In essence, it throws a sheet of inch-thick steel over everything you were doing, hiding your screen from view. This is an ideal way to protect your PC from nosy people who happen to wander by your desk while you're away getting coffee or luncheon.

    Whatever yous had running remains open behind the scenes. When you log in once again, you'll observe all your open programs and documents exactly as you left them.

  • Sign out . When you lot choose "Sign out," Windows closes all your open programs and documents (giving you an opportunity to save any unsaved documents get-go). It then presents a new Login screen so that somebody else can log in.

Most Used

Below your name icon, you get a listing of the programs that Windows sees you using a lot. Windows computes this list automatically and continuously. It's a really great feature, considering, well, if you've been using something a lot recently, you'll probably use it a lot more still, and now you lot don't accept to burrow around looking for it.

On the other hand, if you'd rather not have Windows runway what you're doing, you tin become rid of this list, or just certain items on information technology; see the box below.

If you run across a submenu arrow (>) next to a program'southward name in the Get-go menu, congrats. You've just institute a jump list , a feature that gives y'all quick access to documents you've opened recently. See Jump Lists in the Taskbar for details on creating, deleting, and working with bound lists.

Tip

So how does Windows decide what to put into the "Most used" list? Information technology's an algorithm, Microsoft says, ane that it intends to keep refining to make the list more useful. One thing is for sure, though: Any app yous've put onto the correct side of the Start carte doesn't appear in the "Near used" listing. Microsoft figures you don't need to see its name twice.

Recently Added

The middle section of the left side shows one item: whatever app you've most recently downloaded or installed. Information technology'due south surprisingly handy, specially for novices, who frequently download something from the Net and and then can't detect where it landed.

If you've installed more than one new app recently, open the "All apps" listing described below; the fiddling "New" indicators show you which are the recent arrivals.

Tip

Information technology probably goes without saying, but you lot can hide the "Recently added" department if you lot like. Open the Get-go menu; choose Settings→Personalization→Start; turn off "Show recently added apps." Close Settings.

Important Places

In full general, the lesser of the left side is devoted to listing important places on the computer. On a shiny new PC, the listing includes these:

  • File Explorer . This "app" is the standard desktop window, showing the contents of your drives and folders (Chapter ii).

  • Settings . Yes, adjusting the settings and preferences of your PC is about six steps quicker now, since Settings is listed right here in the Start carte du jour. Affiliate 7 covers Settings in absurd item.

  • Ability . Hard though it may be to believe, there may come a twenty-four hours when you want to shut down or restart your computer. Meet Modify the colour.

  • All apps opens the complete main listing of all your programs, as described below.

What's great, though, is that y'all can add other important folders to this list, post-obit the steps shown in Figure one-6. These are some of your options:

  • Documents : This command opens upwards your Documents binder, a very important binder indeed. It's designed to store just nigh all the piece of work you exercise on your PC—everything except music, pictures, and videos, which get folders of their own.

    Of course, you're welcome to file your documents anywhere on the difficult drive, but about programs propose depositing newly created documents into the Documents folder. That principle makes navigation easy. You never have to wonder where you filed something, since all your stuff is sitting correct there in Documents.

    Note

    The Documents folder actually sits in the This PC Local Disk (C:) Users [ Your Name] folder.

    If y'all written report that path carefully, it should become clear that what's in Documents when you log in isn't the same affair other people volition encounter when they log in. That is, each business relationship holder (Affiliate 19) has a unlike Documents folder, whose contents switch according to who'due south logged in.

  • Downloads . For decades, computer novices have been baffled: They download something from the web simply so can't detect where it went. Now you'll know. Out of the box, Windows puts your downloaded files into this Downloads folder (which is inside your Personal folder). It makes perfect sense to add this item to your Commencement menu and so you have quick admission to information technology.

    You can add other important folders to your Start menu. Choose →Settings. In the Settings window (top right), choose Personalization. On the next screen, click Start. Finally, click

    Figure ane-six. Y'all can add other important folders to your Start menu. Choose →Settings. In the Settings window (top right), cull Personalization. On the next screen, click Offset. Finally, click "Cull which folders appear on Start" (middle). Upwards pops a list of items like File Explorer, Settings, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, HomeGroup, and Network, so that you can turn on or off the ones you like (bottom).

  • Music, Pictures, Videos . Microsoft assumes (correctly) that most people these days utilise their home computers for managing digital music, photos, and video collections. Every bit yous can probably guess, the Music, Pictures, and Videos folders are intended to house them—and these Start menu commands are quick ways to open them.

    In fact, whatsoever software came with your phone, digital photographic camera, or MP3 player probably dumps your photos into, and sucks your music files out of, these folders automatically. You'll find much more on photos and music in Chapter 8.

  • HomeGroup is Microsoft's name for an easy file-sharing system. It lets you see what'south on other computers on your habitation network, then that you can shove folders and files back and forth without running all over the house with a flash bulldoze. This command opens the HomeGroup window (HomeGroups).

  • Network opens (what else?) the Network binder, where yous can see a map of your home or office network and make changes to the settings. Meet Affiliate 20.

  • Personal folder . Equally the box below makes clear, Windows keeps all your stuff—your files, folders, email, pictures, music, bookmarks, fifty-fifty settings and preferences—in one handy, central location: your Personal folder . This folder bears your name, or whatever account proper noun yous typed when y'all installed Windows.

    Anybody with an account on your PC has a Personal binder.

    Technically, your Personal binder lurks inside the C:→Users folder. Simply that's a lot of burrowing when you simply want a view of your empire. That'southward why your Personal folder tin likewise be installed here.

All Apps

When you click "All apps" at the lesser of the Start menu, y'all're shown an important list indeed: the primary catalog of every program on your computer (Figure 1-7). You can spring directly to your discussion processor, agenda, or favorite game, for example, merely by choosing its name in this scrolling list. As a handy bonus, the give-and-take "New" appears beneath the name of whatever new programs—ones y'all've installed simply haven't yet used.

You tin can restore the original left-side column by clicking Back (at the lesser of the listing).

Tip

You can likewise open the "All apps" carte with a quick swipe up anywhere on the left side of the Start bill of fare—either with the mouse, trackpad, or your finger on a touchscreen. Try it!

In that location are even more ways to open "All apps" if the Showtime carte is already open. Click the phrase "All apps," or point to information technology and keep the mouse still for a moment, or press the , cardinal (to highlight "All apps"). And then tap the Enter key, the cardinal, or the space bar. Simply for keyboard fanatics: In one case the "All apps" listing is open up, you tin also cull anything in it without involving the mouse. Merely printing the and keys to highlight the particular you desire (or type a few letters of its proper name). Then press Enter to seal the bargain.

The "All apps" list used to be called All Programs, of grade, but Microsoft had to go with the lingo of those crazy kids today. Only there is one handy play tricks in Windows ten that never existed earlier: You tin can at present jump around in the list using an alphabetic index, shown at correct in Figure ane-vii.

Left: When the

Figure 1-7. Left: When the "All apps" list is visible, your apps are grouped alphabetically. Turns out that those letter headings (A, B, C…) are as well buttons. When y'all click one, Windows offers you a grid of the unabridged alphabet (correct). Click a letter of the alphabet to leap directly to that section of the "All apps" list. If you accept a lot of programs, this fob can save you a lot of scrolling.

Folders

As you'll apace discover, the "All apps" listing doesn't list just programs. Information technology also houses a number of folders . Run into Figure one-8.

Tip

Submenus, also known as cascading menus, largely have been eliminated from the Starting time menu. Instead, when you lot open something that contains other things—like a binder listed in the Showtime carte—y'all run across its contents listed beneath, indented slightly, equally shown at correct in Figure 1-8. Click the folder name again to collapse the sublisting.

Keyboard freaks should note that you can likewise open a highlighted folder in the listing by pressing the Enter key (or the primal). Close the binder by pressing Enter again (or the key).

You know when you're looking at a folder in the

Effigy 1-8. You know when yous're looking at a folder in the "All apps" list considering a appears to the right of its name (left). Click the folder'southward name to expand the listing—to meet what's hiding inside. (You don't have to click right on the .) When the folder is expanded, the symbol changes to , just in case you didn't get the point.

  • Software-visitor folders . Some of these folders bear the names of software you've installed; yous might see a binder called, for example, PowerSoft or Logitech. These generally contain programs, uninstallers, educational activity manuals, and other related junk.

  • Program-group folders . Another set of folders is designed to trim down the Programs carte du jour by consolidating related programs, like Games, Accessories (little unmarried-purpose programs), and Maintenance. Everything in these folders is described in Affiliate 8.

How to Customize the Left Side

You lot can't add together anything to the left side yourself, which is a big change from Windows 7. Nor can you change the order of annihilation here.

You do, however, take three opportunities to redesign the left side:

  • Eliminate the "Most used" list (or certain items in information technology) . Run into the box on Getting Rid of the "Virtually Used" List.

  • Move something to Start or the taskbar . Suppose there'south some app—say, Calculator—that'due south listed in "Most used" or the "All apps" list. And you call back yous'd rather have it installed on your taskbar, visible at all times. Or you think it'd work best as a tile on the correct side.

    Turns out you tin can correct-click its name on the left side. From the shortcut menu, choose "Pivot to taskbar" or "Pivot to Start." It disappears from the "Most used" list (if that'due south where it was) and goes where y'all sent it.

    Tip

    If you have a touchscreen, you can "correct-click" something by property your finger down on it for ane second.

  • Add together certain Windows folders to the Important Places listing . You do that in Settings, as described on Recently Added.

Tip

How cool is this? You tin uninstall a program right from the "All apps" listing. Just right-click it (or concur your finger down on it); from the shortcut menu, choose Uninstall. Ostend in the dialog box that appears. (You can't uninstall apps that came with Windows x this way—only stuff you've added.

Start Menu: The Right Side

The right side of the Start card is all that remains of the Great Touchscreen Experiment of 2012, during which Microsoft expected every PC on earth to come with a touchscreen. Instead of a Start menu, you got a Start screen , stretching from border to edge of your monitor, displaying your files, folders, and programs as big rectangular tiles.

Unfortunately, the Start screen covered up your entire screen, blocking whatever you were working on. Information technology was horribly space-inefficient—finding a new program you'd downloaded often meant scrolling several screens to the correct. And it just felt discrete from the balance of the Windows world.

Turns out most people preferred the Commencement menu .

There were some nice aspects of the Start-screen idea, though. For one thing, it's more than just a launcher. Information technology'south likewise a dashboard. Each tile isn't but a button that opens the corresponding plan; information technology'southward besides a footling display—a live tile , every bit Microsoft calls it—that can show you lot real-time data from that program. The Agenda tile shows you your next date. Your Mail tile shows the latest incoming subject line. The People tile shows Twitter and Facebook posts as they pour in.

Tip

Not all Start menu tiles display their own names. Some apps, similar the ones for Calendar, People, and Mail, are meant to be visual dashboards. To observe out such an app's name, point to it with your cursor without clicking. A tinted, rectangular tooltip bar appears, identifying the name.

So in Windows 10, Microsoft decided to retain those colorful live tiles—on the right side of the Start menu (Figure i-nine).

As you drag the top or right edge of the Right Side of the Start menu, you see it snap to a larger size once you've moved your cursor far enough. You don't have an infinite degree of freedom here; you can only double the width or, if you have one of those rare Samsung Billboard Monitors, maybe triple it.You can also adjust the height of the Start menu—by dragging the top edge. You can goose it all the way to the top of your screen, or you can squish it down to mushroom height.

Figure 1-9. Equally yous drag the top or right border of the Right Side of the Start menu, you see it snap to a larger size once you've moved your cursor far enough. You don't have an infinite degree of freedom here; you tin can only double the width or, if you have one of those rare Samsung Billboard Monitors, maybe triple it. You tin can also arrange the height of the Offset card—past dragging the top edge. You can goose it all the manner to the tiptop of your screen, or you can squish information technology downward to mushroom height.

Yous tin can make this scrolling "cavalcade" bigger; you can fifty-fifty go far fill the screen, equally it did in Windows 8; or you lot can hibernate information technology completely. Merely the point is that this fourth dimension, it's up to you. The "Showtime screen" takes over your world only equally much as you want it to.

Tip

If you're keyboard oriented, yous can use the arrow keys to highlight the icon y'all want and and so press the Enter key to open it.

How to Customize the Right Side

The left side is really Windows' playground; you lot can't do much to alter it.

The correct side, nevertheless, is your playground. You lot can customize it in lots of different ways. If your electric current job doesn't piece of work out, you could become a total-time right-side customizer.

Brand the right side bigger or smaller

If you lot have a mouse or a trackpad, you tin brand the right side of the Outset bill of fare either wider or taller; just grab the right edge or the top edge and elevate. (In the initial release of Windows 10, you can't enlarge the Showtime menu with your finger on a touchscreen.)

Make the right side make full the screen

Maybe you were ane of the 11 people who actually liked Windows 8, including the manner information technology had a Start screen instead of a Start menu. Well, that look is still available.

Right-click anywhere on the desktop. (Touchscreen: Hold your finger down on the desktop.) From the shortcut carte du jour, choose Personalize. On the Settings screen, click Start, and then click turn on "Use Start total screen."

In this mode, the left side of the Start menu is gone. The live tiles make full your entire desktop (which is handy for touchscreens).

Note

If your goal is to use Windows 10 on a tablet, you don't need to exercise all this. Only turn on Tablet mode (Chapter thirteen). In Tablet fashion, the Start screen is standard and automatic.

Movement a tile

You can, of form, drag the right side'south tiles into a new gild, putting the personal dorsum into personal computer .

With the Start menu open, merely drag the tile to a new spot. The other tiles scoot out of the style to make room.

That works fine if y'all have a mouse or a trackpad. Simply if you're using a touchscreen, that instruction leaves out a key fact: Dragging scrolls the right side! Instead, concord your finger down on the tile for half a second earlier dragging it.

Resize a tile

Tiles come up in four sizes: three square sizes and one rectangle. Every bit role of your Kickoff carte du jour interior decoration binge, you may want to make some of them bigger and some of them smaller. Maybe you desire to make the important ones rectangular so you tin read more information on them. Maybe you want to make the rarely used ones smaller so that more of them fit into a compact space.

Right-click the tile. (Touchscreen: Hold your finger downwardly on the tile; tap the … button that appears.) From the shortcut menu, cull Resize. All icons give y'all a choice of Small and Medium; some apps offering Broad or Large options, too. See Figure 1-10.

Tiles on the right side come in four sizes: Small (tiny square, no label); Medium (4x the times of Small—room for a name); Wide (twice the width of Medium); and Large (4x the size of Medium). Wide and Large options appear only for apps whose live tiles can display useful information. Drag them around into a mosaic that satisfies your inner Mondrian.

Effigy 1-10. Tiles on the correct side come in 4 sizes: Small (tiny foursquare, no label); Medium (4x the times of Small-scale—room for a name); Wide (twice the width of Medium); and Large (4x the size of Medium). Wide and Large options announced only for apps whose alive tiles can display useful information. Drag them effectually into a mosaic that satisfies your inner Mondrian.

Add new tiles

You can add together tiles to the right side. They can be apps, folders, or disks (merely non individual files). You lot can use either of 2 techniques: dragging or correct-clicking.

  • The drag method . Drag the icon directly into the open Showtime card—from the desktop, an open window, the "All apps" list, or the left side of the Start menu.

  • The correct-click method . Right-click an icon wherever fine icons are found: in a window, on the desktop, in the "All apps" listing, or on the left side. (Touchscreen: Agree your finger down on the icon for a second.) From the shortcut menu, cull Pivot to Offset.

Tip

In the Edge browser, you lot can likewise add together a web page to the right side. With the page open, click the … button at top right; choose Pin to Start.

In each instance, the newly installed tile appears at the bottom of the right side. (Yous might have to scroll to see it.)

Make a tile stop blinking

Some of your right side tiles are alive tiles— tiny dashboards that display real-time incoming information. There, on the Mail tile, you run across the subject lines of the last few incoming letters; in that location, on the Calendar tile, is your next engagement; and and then on.

Information technology has to exist said, though: Altogether, a Start card filled with blinky, scrolling icons tin expect a little similar Times Square at midnight.

If you're feeling quite caffeinated plenty already, you might not want live tiles so much every bit, well, dead ones.

If you'd rather silence the animation of a live tile, right-click it. (Touchscreen: Agree your finger down on it, and then tap .) From the shortcut carte, choose "Plough live tile off." The tile's electric current data disappears, and the live updating stops.

To opposite the procedure, "correct-click" an unmoving tile; from the shortcut bill of fare, cull "Turn live tile on" instead.

Remove a tile

Open the Start menu. Right-click the tile yous want to eliminate. (Touchscreen: Concord your finger down on information technology, and so tap the … button.) From the shortcut menu, cull Unpin from Start. (You're not actually discarding that item—just getting its tile off the Start menu.)

Group your tiles

The right side's tiles aren't scattered pell-mell; they present an attractive, orderly mosaic. Non only are they mathematically nestled amongst one another, but they're actually grouped . Each cluster of related tiles can bear a proper noun , similar "Life at a glance" (Calendar, Mail service, Weather…) or "Play and explore" (games, music, Boob tube…).

But yous tin can alter those headings, or those groupings, and come up with new ones of your ain.

The technique isn't quite obvious, only you'll get the hang of information technology (meet Figure i-11). It works like this:

  1. Drag a tile to the very lesser of the existing ones. (Touchscreen: Hold your finger still for a second earlier dragging.)

    When you elevate far enough—the correct side might scroll, but keep your finger down—a horizontal bar appears, as shown in Effigy 1-11. That'south Windows telling you, "I get it. You want to create a new group right here."

  2. Elevate the tile beneath the bar and release it .

    Release the tile you're dragging; it'due south now happily setting upward the homestead. Go go some other tiles to elevate over into the new group to bring together it, if you lot like. Build upwards the group's population.

  3. Click or tap just above your newly grouped tiles .

    The words "Proper noun group" announced.

  4. Type a proper name for this grouping, and then press Enter .

    Your group name is at present immortalized.

By the way: Whenever you point to (or tap) the heading of any grouping, y'all may detect a little "grip strip" at the correct side. If you lot similar, you can elevate that strip up or down to move the entire grouping to a new spot amidst your existing groups. (Or horizontally, if y'all accept a multicolumn right side.)

Top: To create a new tile group, start by dragging one lonely tile below all other tiles. This is your colonist. A fat horizontal divider bar appears when you've gone far enough. Let go.Middle: Point to the starter name (

Figure ane-11. Top: To create a new tile group, offset by dragging ane lone tile beneath all other tiles. This is your colonist. A fatty horizontal divider bar appears when you've gone far plenty. Permit get. Middle: Point to the starter proper name ("Proper noun group") and click. Bottom: Type a proper name for the group. Use the grip strip to drag the group into a new spot, if you lot similar.

At whatever point, you tin rename a grouping (click or tap its name; type). To eliminate a group, only drag all of its tiles into other groups, one at a time. When the grouping is empty, its name vanishes into wherever withered, obsolete tile groups get.

Eliminate all tiles

Yes, information technology'due south possible to eliminate the entire right side. If y'all like your Start menu to wait like it did in the good old days, with only the left side showing, you can do that, as shown in Figure 1-12.

Of course, once y'all've done that, you lot've but eliminated one of the most useful means of opening things on your PC. At present you tin can open up apps only from the left side or the taskbar.

Top: To remove all the tiles from the right side, right-click it and choose Unpin from Start. (Touchscreen: Hold your finger down on the tile, and then tap the … button to see Unpin from Start.) Repeat until you've eliminated all the tiles.Middle: Now only the left column remains, just as it was in Windows 7.Bottom: Drag the right edge of the menu inward, closing up the empty space where the right side used to be.

Figure 1-12. Top: To remove all the tiles from the right side, correct-click it and cull Unpin from Start. (Touchscreen: Hold your finger down on the tile, and and then tap the … button to come across Unpin from Start.) Repeat until yous've eliminated all the tiles. Heart: Now only the left column remains, simply as information technology was in Windows 7. Lesser: Elevate the right edge of the menu inward, closing up the empty space where the right side used to exist.

Change the colour

You can also change colors of the various Starting time carte elements (and the taskbar, and the Action Center). See Affiliate 4 for the step-by-steps.

Turn off ads

From time to time, yous may spot a Start-menu tile that yous didn't put there. It'south a suggestion of an app that Microsoft thinks you lot might like—in other words, an advertizement.

If you'd prefer Microsoft and its ad partners to keep their darned apps to themselves, open Settings→Personalization→Outset, and plough off "Occasionally testify suggestions in Start."

Shutting Downward

What should yous do when you're finished using your reckoner for the moment?

Millions of people close their PCs off, but they shouldn't; it's a jumbo waste of time. When you close down, you have to wait for all your programs to shut—and then the side by side morning, you have to reopen everything, reposition your windows, and get everything dorsum the style you lot had it.

You shouldn't just leave your estimator on all the time, either. That'due south a waste of electricity, a security risk, and a black mark for the environs.

What y'all should exercise is put your machine to sleep. If information technology's a laptop, merely close the lid. If it'southward a tablet, just press the Sleep switch. If it's a desktop PC, information technology's usually a matter of pressing the physical power push.

The Slumber/Shut Down/Restart Commands

If you actually want to do the sleeping or shutting down matter using the onscreen commands, you'll exist happy to know that in Windows 10, y'all no longer need 20 minutes and a tour guide to find them. They're right at that place in the Start carte, well-nigh the bottom. Choose Power to see them.

Equally shown in Figure one-13, shutting down is only one of the options for finishing your piece of work session. What follows are your others.

Sleep

Sleep is cracking. When the flying attendant hands over your pretzels and cranberry cocktail, you can have a intermission without endmost all your programs or shutting down the calculator.

Shutting down your computer requires only two steps now, rather than 417 (as in Windows 8).Open the Start menu. Choose Power, and then

Figure i-13. Shutting down your calculator requires merely two steps at present, rather than 417 (as in Windows viii). Open the Start menu. Choose Ability, and then "Shut down".

The instant you put the computer to sleep, Windows quietly transfers a copy of everything in memory into an invisible file on the hard drive. But it however keeps everything alive in retentiveness—the battery provides a tiny trickle of ability—for when you lot return and desire to dive back into work.

If y'all do return presently, the next startup is lightning-fast. Everything reappears on the screen faster than you can say, "Redmond, Washington."

If you don't return shortly, and so Windows eventually cuts power, abandoning what it had memorized in RAM. Now your computer is using no power at all; information technology'south in hibernate way.

Fortunately, Windows still has the hard drive copy of your work environment. Then now when you tap a key to wake the computer, you may have to wait 30 seconds or so—not as fast as ii seconds, but certainly better than the v minutes it would have to start upward, reopen all your programs, reposition your document windows, and so on.

The bottom line: When you're washed working for the moment—or for the day—put your figurer to sleep instead of shutting it down. You save power, you save time, and y'all don't risk any data loss.

You can send a laptop to sleep simply by closing the chapeau. On any kind of estimator, you tin can trigger Sleep by choosing it from the →Ability command, or by pushing the PC's power button, if you lot've set it upward that way, equally described below.

Restart

This command quits all open programs and so quits and restarts Windows once more automatically. The estimator doesn't actually turn off. You lot might exercise this to "refresh" your figurer when yous observe that information technology's responding sluggishly, for example.

Close down

This is what most people would call "really, really off." When you lot shut downwardly your PC, Windows quits all open programs, offers yous the opportunity to salve whatever unsaved documents, exits Windows, and turns off the calculator.

At that place'southward almost no reason to shut downwards your PC anymore, though. Sleep is near always better all the way around.

The only exceptions have to do with hardware installation. Anytime you lot take to open up up the PC to make a change (installing retentiveness, hard drives, or sound or video cards), y'all should close the thing downwardly kickoff.

Tip

If you're a keyboardy sort of person, you might prefer this faster route to shut downwards: Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to summon the Lock/Switch User screen, and and then Tab your way over to the button in the lower correct. Press Enter, and arrow-cardinal your way to Shut downwards. Press Enter again.

Three Triggers for Sleep/Close Down—and How to Change Them

You now know how to trigger the Shut downwards command using the Start card→Power push. But in that location are even faster ways.

If you take a laptop, only close the chapeau. If it'due south a tablet, tap its Sleep switch. If you accept a desktop PC, press its power button ( ).

In each of these cases, though—carte, lid, switch, or button— you can decide whether the computer shuts down, goes to sleep, hibernates, or just ignores y'all.

To find the manufacturing plant setting that controls what happens when you close the lid or hit the ability button, click in the "Ask me anything" search box and type chapeau .

In the search results, the height hit is "Modify what closing the lid does." Press Enter to select it.

At present you arrive at the "Ascertain power buttons" screen. Here, for each option (pressing the ability push; pressing the Sleep push, if yous have 1; closing the lid), y'all can choose "Sleep," "Do nothing," "Hibernate," "Shut downward," or "Plough off the display."

And you tin can ready up different behaviors for when the automobile is plugged in and when it's running on battery power.

Navigating the Kickoff Card past Keyboard

If your computer has a physical keyboard—you old-timer, you!—you can navigate and control the Start menu in either of ii ways:

Apply the Arrow Keys

Once the Start carte is open, you can use the arrow keys to "walk" upwardly and down the carte du jour. For case, press to enter the left-side column from the bottom. Or press and then to enter the right side.

Either way, in one case you've highlighted something in either column, you can printing the or keys to hop to the opposite side of the menu, or press the or keys to highlight other commands in the column (fifty-fifty the Ability command or "All apps"). (You can no longer type the first initial of something to select it.)

In one case you've highlighted something, you can press Enter to "click" it (open it), or tap the key or Esc to close the Outset menu and forget the whole thing.

Employ the Search Box

This thing is awesome . The instant you lot press the key, your insertion point blinks in the new "Ask me anything" search box beneath the Start carte du jour (Effigy 1-13).

Annotation

If y'all click in the "Ask me anything" search box instead of pressing , you become a panel total of news, weather, and other details Windows thinks might be relevant to your life. That's all part of Cortana, the vocalism assistant described in Affiliate 5.

That's your cue that you tin can at present brainstorm typing the proper name of whatever you want to open.

Note

The search box used to be office of the Start menu. At present it's really part of the taskbar. Information technology still takes you one click, tap, or keystroke to highlight it for typing—simply considering it's always visible, it seems more than nowadays and useful. Y'all know?

The instant yous kickoff to type, you trigger Windows' very fast, whole-computer search function. This search tin can discover files, folders, programs, email messages, address book entries, agenda appointments, pictures, movies, PDF documents, music files, spider web bookmarks, and Microsoft Office documents, amidst other things.

It likewise finds anything in the Starting time menu, making it a very quick way to pull upwardly something without having to click through a bunch of submenus.

You lot can read the compact details about search in Chapter 3.

Jump Lists in the Beginning Menu

Jump lists are submenus that list frequently used commands and files in each of your programs for quick access.

For example, the spring list for a spider web browser might offering commands like "New window" and "Close window"; the jump list for a Microsoft Function program (like Word) might list documents y'all've edited lately.

In other words, leap lists can save y'all time when you desire to resume work on something you had open recently. They salve you lot burrowing through folders.

Now, spring lists tin can appear either in the Start menu (in the "Almost used" department) or on your taskbar. Jump Lists in the Taskbar describes the taskbar versions, merely here's a quick rundown on the Commencement menu versions.

Recently Opened Documents

The left side of the Offset menu—the "Most used" section—keeps rails of recently used documents automatically, equally shown in Figure 1-14. This list of Recent documents changes every bit your workflow does; documents drop off the list if you don't open them much anymore.

Y'all tin, even so, pin a certificate to its jump list, meaning that information technology won't disappear even if you never open it. Figure 1-14 shows the technique.

Jump lists display the most recently opened documents in each program. Click the > button to see them.To pin one of these document s so that it won't disappear on you, point to it without clicking, as shown here, and then click the pushpin icon. Now there's a new section in the jump list called Pinned, where that document will remain undisturbed until you unpin it (by clicking the pushpin again).

Effigy 1-14. Jump lists display the most recently opened documents in each program. Click the > button to meet them. To pin ane of these document southward and then that it won't disappear on you, point to it without clicking, every bit shown hither, and so click the pushpin icon. Now there's a new section in the jump list called Pinned, where that document volition remain undisturbed until y'all unpin it (past clicking the pushpin once again).

The Hole-and-corner Start Menu

Windows ten'southward new (old) Start button harbors a secret: It can sprout a tiny utility menu, equally shown in Figure ane-xv.

To run into it, r ight-click the push, or (on a touchscreen) hold your finger down on information technology.

Tip

Or press +Ten to brand the hole-and-corner Start menu appear (if you take a keyboard, of course).

This secret little menu of options appears when you right-click the button. It's a shortcut to the Task Manager and the Control Panel, among other things.

Figure i-15. This secret little menu of options appears when you correct-click the button. Information technology'due south a shortcut to the Job Director and the Control Panel, amid other things.

There, in all its majesty, is the clandestine Start carte du jour. It's seething with shortcuts to toys for the technically inclined.

All the items in it are described elsewhere in this book, but some are specially useful to accept at your mousetip:

  • System opens a window that provides every possible detail about your machine.

  • Control Panel is the quickest known method to get to the desktop Control Console, described in Chapter vii.

  • Task Managing director . Huge. This special screen (Exiting Programs) is your lifeline when a program seems to exist locked up. Thanks to the Task Manager, y'all can quit that app and go on with your life.

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