Windows 10/11 Tips, Tricks, Hacks & Features

[Potamoi]

FEATURE: WINDOWS SUBSYSTEM FOR ANDROID

Often times we see particular apps designed specifically for Android or iOS but no native Windows App or Universal App available. In this use case there are a few third party emulators to allow these Apps to run in a Windows environment. Enter Windows Subsystem for Android available for Windows 11 (all versions) or Windows 10 Insider version.

In my world, nearly every TV I own has a PC attached to it and a monitor. My living room TV has this arrangement but to watch Smarters IPTV I have had to use either the Android box I purchased with it or an Amazon Fire TV.

NOTE: Smarters does have a Windows App but it does not work well and more channels show a blank screen with audio than show them properly.

I found this method to sideload Apps to the Android Subsystem in Windows: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-side ... windows-11

TIP: The platform-tools_r33.0.2-windows.zip is newer than shown in the tutorial which apparently has a broader compatibility with android apps: https://developer.android.com/studio/re ... orm-tools

Following the tutorial I downloaded the Smarters.apk using the “Direct Download” button and copied it to the same folder as the platform-tools from here: https://www.iptvsmarters.com/#downloads

After installing via Admin command line I then simply had to open the app and enter my login details and web site address (acquired from Denis at Smarters IPTV last year). Bobs my uncle and it works well on my bedroom PC when the wife wants to watch Thai TV in the living room.

CAUTION: One must LOGOUT of one device to use your IPTV Smarters app on another device. Simultaneous logins will result in your account being locked!

There are other specialised Apps I will load this way as I much prefer using a PC, keyboard and mouse to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, downloaded video files off my NAS drive and now the IPTV app.

This thread is for Windows 10 or 11 tips, tricks and hacks or new features to be shared.
This thread is NOT for Mac or Linux fanboys to tell us how much better those OS’s are compared to Windows Me or Vista nor Bill Gates conspiracy theorist claims.

[Potamoi]

REGISTRY HACK: MenuShowDelay

I perform this little registry hack whenever I upgrade someone's laptop or desktop PC. It speeds up menus and makes (especially older) machines "feel" faster.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/144 ... enu%20bar.

CAUTION: Always backup your registry prior to making any changes

[Potamoi]

FEATURE: WINDOWS 11 TASKBAR LOCATION

Have you recently upgraded to Windows 11 and can not stand the default location of the START button on the taskbar?

To change it to LEFT justified:

• Right click in a blank area of your task bar, click taskbar settings

• Click the arrow down button on the bottom item: Taskbar behaviors

• The Top selection is Taskbar alignment, Default is Center, Click on Left

• Close the Window and now it may feel more familiar

[tamada]

Good stuff, thanks.

Any tips to speed up the boot time on a laptop? Compared to my desktop, it takes twice as long. Both machines started as W7 machines over ten tears ago and have been upgraded to W10, both have SSD's and are maxed out on RAM.

Laptop: Intel i5 2410M (Sandy Bridge) @2.3GHz, 2-core, 4 thread. 8 Gb (2 x 4 Gb) DDR3 dual channel memory.
Brick: Intel i5 2500 (Sandy Bridge) @3.3GHz, 4-core, 4-thread. 8 Gb (2 x 4 Gb) DDR3 dual channel memory.

There's a lot more programs and utilities on the laptop but I have already skinned the Startup group. Maybe it's just a function of having a faster CPU and twice as many cores?

Ta
tam

[Bandung_Dero]

On an HP Notebook W11 how does one control the double arrow to change the window size just using the finger pad?
I'm stuck in Swampy without a mouse!

[Potamoi]

Any tips to speed up the boot time on a laptop? Compared to my desktop, it takes twice as long. Both machines started as W7 machines over ten tears ago and have been upgraded to W10, both have SSD's and are maxed out on RAM.

Hiya Tam,

If you have upgraded the laptop to a modern SSD and maxed out the RAM, I can only suggest a clean "nuke and pave" install of W10. If you have upgraded from W7 its is good to keep the product key and licence key. If you use a MS id for login, (email address from hotmail, live, msn etc) these are kept for you in the cloud and associated with the motherboard on the laptop if not, you need the product key or buy one.

If you have an unregistered copy of Windows and want to legitimise it you can buy a cheap legit key here: https://www.vip-cdkdeals.com/microsoft- ... -one.html

Once you are ready, download Windows 10 as a fresh install instead of upgrade from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows10

Make sure you have all of the data backed up and product keys as well as install disks if necessary of the programs you need to reinstall after the full reinstall (like MS Office or other special programs). There a few ways to do this but the bottom line is you need to backup what is outside the Windows 10 OS first!

There are a few more tweaks to speed up boot times but this should put you at near the best case so if its still unreasonably slow, it may be about reducing expectations or there is an actual hardware issue or simply getting too long in the tooth.

BTW: I have a couple of 12 year old machines that still perform well enough for workshop PCs or playing shop music etc.

[Potamoi]

TRICK: TWO HANDED TRACKPAD MOUSE METHOD

On an HP Notebook W11 how does one control the double arrow to change the window size just using the finger pad?
I'm stuck in Swampy without a mouse!

Hi Bandung,

Ummm double arrow window? If you mean the bookmarks bar extra bookmark dropdown menu the only way I know how to scroll down is to click the bottom arrow down portion.

If you are talking about a different double arrow, forgive me and please describe.

EDIT: I think I know what you mean by double arrow now. The double arrow you get in the corner of any window when resizing. I tried to show the type in the next screenshot but capturing it is hard so I simulated it.
In any case, the two hand method described below is the solution me thinks.

I hate being without a mouse, I feel your pain but the trackpad should work okay for most tasks although you may need two hands to hold the left click down with one while you move the mouse (drag a finger) with the other. Touch screens obviously help make this even easier but it sounds like you don't have that option.

[Potamoi]

TIPS: WINDOWS 10 TIPS

I subscribe to Leila's channel for her Excel Tips but she has quite good knowledge for all Office apps and Windows itself.

W10 users may find these two videos useful:

This one is about a year old now but some great tips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekuMzKOTmYE

This one a couple of years old but still very relevant especially if you recently upgraded to W10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do06MPWf9E4

Leila Gharani is an easy to listen to instructor with concise steps and impressive scope of tech tips.

https://www.youtube.com/c/LeilaGharani/videos

[tamada]

I found a website that recommended the following to speed up a W10 boot.

1. Select Fast Boot option in Power settings (already done)
2. Tidy up programs and utils in the Startup group (already done)
3. Install SSD and maximize RAM (already done).

So I revisited the Startup group and disabled functions related to Opera (updater), Canon function (print related), DropBox (not used daily) and a couple of others related to Acronis (disk cloning/management and probably update checkers).

The first boot this morning looked faster than before (but notice the Canon desktop utility still launches). I will check it again and see if the Canon feature is one of those awful utilities that automatically loads at Startup like it knows better. I hardly use Opera but noticed whenever I did, it instantly told me I had the latest version... now I know why. It's configured to load itself in the Startup group regardless of how you use it (or not).

[Potamoi]

TIP: WINDOWS10 STARTUP APPS

As Tam stated above you can remove unnecessary apps from loading at startup by:

Windows search bar in bottom left, type startup apps. You can turn on and off as desired. The ones having a high impact should help the most to reduce resource usage at startup and general background.

[Potamoi]

UPGRADE: HDD to SSD

Generally speaking the single best thing to speed up any PC with a spinning HDD is upgrade it to a SSD. Extra RAM helps too for multitasking etc but the best bang for the buck is to boot from a SSD for sure.

A quick way to find out if you have a SSD or HDD, type Defragment and Optimize Drives in the bottom left search box or by typing Windows Key + R to get the Run box window and typing dfrgui there.

This will also tell you your defrag and trim status which can also speed things up a little:

Upgrading to a SSD can be easy in most desktops and modern laptops but some laptops are a little tricky and may be best done by a pro.

If one has a lot of applications installed and does not want to start all over one can clone the HDD to a new SSD so everything is as it was as far as data and apps go using these cloning software examples:

https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php

https://www.acronis.com/en-us/products/true-image/

The most improvement for performance however is to copy all the data and photos to a portable HDD or network then start fresh and do a fresh install of Windows10 or 11 on the new SSD.

It truly does breathe new life into older PC's. I have done this upgrade perhaps 20 times in the last few years and have yet to see it not speed everything up significantly.

[Bandung_Dero]

TRICK: TWO HANDED TRACKPAD MOUSE METHOD

EDIT: I think I know what you mean by double arrow now. The double arrow you get in the corner of any window when resizing. I tried to show the type in the next screenshot but capturing it is hard so I simulated it.
In any case, the two hand method described below is the solution me thinks.

Bookmark Double arrow Corner.jpg

I hate being without a mouse, I feel your pain but the trackpad should work okay for most tasks although you may need two hands to hold the left click down with one while you move the mouse (drag a finger) with the other. Touch screens obviously help make this even easier but it sounds like you don't have that option.

Thanks @Potamoi that's what I'm on about. Problem is my trackpad doesn't have right and left buttons. I just tap the pad anywhere to simulate a left click but do not know how to simulate a right click or a left click and hold.

The problem has now gone away now I'm settled in Adelaide for a month and have a mouse hooked up.

[Potamoi]

Righto, sorry about bad timing.mate. Mice are goood.

[Potamoi]

TIP: SNIP & SKETCH

In the olden days I purchased a program called SnagIt. This utility made screen capture and annotations easy and was especially useful for making how to documents or sharing what you are trying to describe easily.

Windows then added the Snipping Tool to the OS in 2002 but I still preferred SnagIt.

Snip and Sketch was added to the Windows 10 OS in 2019. This tool is now good enough to replace my SnagIt app.

On Windows 11 Snip & Sketch is preinstalled (confoundingly renamed to Snipping Tool). It's right there for you using the same SHIFT+WIN+S hotkey.

Enjoy!

[Potamoi]

TIP: AutoHotKey

This free opensource tool is not exactly a Windows Feature but is does cross over between Windows and applications. I use it for entering my email address, dates and time stamp plus a longer text group for my business. I just started using it recently but one tip I can share is if you use a MS account to share a OneDrive between machines (or any cloud storage really), you can save the *.ahk script file and use the same HotKeys or HotStrings on multiple PC's with edits replicating from the cloud file.

It has many, many other uses and can be used in a much more complex way than I currently use it so some of the more technical UMers may find it useful in a deeper way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOq1ay2hcEY

Leila Gharani does a great introduction and Joe Glines gets more in the weeds.

https://www.youtube.com/c/JoeGlines-Automator/videos

[Potamoi]

FEATURE: VOICE TYPING

I began using this voice typing feature recently. It seems to work pretty well. I'm using it now to type this post. It could also be used for LINE, WhatsApp or other texting applications. I suppose it would work better for someone who uses Alexa or Siri or Cortana more often than I do.

to try it use Windows key+H. I think it will get better and better with time.

[glalt]

I have two older but fast and reliable desktop computers. One is a Dell Precision and the other is an HP ProDesk. Both are much faster than a newer HP all in one that I bought for my game room. Neither are able or qualified to run Windows 11. If MS guessed that I will buy a new computer to run Windows 11, they have guessed wrong.

[Potamoi]

TIP: Check your PC for HDD or SDD

I have two older but fast and reliable desktop computers. One is a Dell Precision and the other is an HP ProDesk. Both are much faster than a newer HP all in one that I bought for my game room. Neither are able or qualified to run Windows 11. If MS guessed that I will buy a new computer to run Windows 11, they have guessed wrong.

I'm with you glat, I have a PC in my workshop running since 2008. Yes, I have changed the crappy video card 3 times and upgraded to a SSD but it runs Windows 10 just fine. I built the HTPC in the living room in 2011 its had a new motherboard and a SSD added but it runs perfectly and is how I watch Netflix, Amazon Prime and downloaded TV/movies on the main TV. 5 other PCs around the house and office all can only run Windows 10 which works perfectly adequate.

The two laptops my wife and I use are W11 compatible so we updated to W11 when the time came and use them that way.

I suppose what I am saying here is that I am a fan of both W10 and W11. Windows 7 was fine as well and some Linux distros are nearly ready for aunt Milly. Hardware does eventually become more expensive to repair than buy new however. My workshop PC does not have much life left in it as eBay parts are disappearing for its small form factor design.

Something sounds wrong about your newer PC being slower than the older ones. Your HP all-in-one may have a spinning HDD in it which will slow it right down. I upgraded one for a friend recently and I frankly could not believe my eyes when I saw this modern PC with a spinning HDD crammed in that form factor instead of a faster cooler running SSD.

If you would like to know if you have a SSD or HDD you can press CTRL+SHFT+Esc to get the Task Manager, click on the Performance tab and your Drives will be on the left panel.

The example shows my office PC with two SSD drives and a 3TB HDD.

PM me if you need advice on solving the slow new PC issue. I enjoy trying to solve these mysteries.

[deankham]

^ thanks for the CTR+SHIFT+ESC shortcut, very useful.

[tamada]

If one is after the Swiss Army Knife or even the Mother of All shortcuts, you won't go far wrong with adding this one to your desktop.

C:\Windows\explorer.exe shell:::{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Chances are there's at most half-a-dozen that get used regularly by the average computer user but it's handy when you forget where stuff is stored in the regular Settings like Task Manager or System Tools and Computer Manager.