Table of contents:
- 1. Minimizing unnecessary windows
- 2. Adjust the size of the Start menu
- 3. Record the contents of windows
- 4. Quick launch of "Explorer"
- 5. Opening a second copy of the program
- 6. Disable background applications
2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
Simple tricks with the Start menu, windows and background programs to make your life a little easier.
1. Minimizing unnecessary windows
Let's say you have a bunch of unnecessary programs on your desktop. You don't want to collapse them all one at a time, leaving only the one you are currently using.
Grab the title of the window you need and "shake" it - all other windows will be minimized.
2. Adjust the size of the Start menu
In Windows 10, the Start menu is quite large and filled with a bunch of different tiles of questionable usefulness. You can force Start to take up less space.
To do this, remove the extra tiles from there by right-clicking them and choosing the "Unpin from Start" option. Then grab the edge of the menu with your mouse and shrink it.
You can resize both vertically and horizontally.
3. Record the contents of windows
Sometimes it is necessary to record from the screen a sequence of actions performed by you on the computer. For example, to show relatives how to enter Odnoklassniki. Installing a separate application for this is often too lazy, but fortunately, Windows 10 already has a built-in tool.
Press the Win + Alt + R keys and it will start recording the currently active window. When done, click the square button on the pop-up panel on the right, or press Win + Alt + R again. The recording will be saved in the Videos → Clips folder. This trick is for recording games, but it works great in regular programs as well.
4. Quick launch of "Explorer"
To instantly open a new File Explorer window, you do not need to search for it on the taskbar or go to the Start menu. Press Win + E and it will open the Explorer home folder. You can close the window by pressing Ctrl + W. There are a lot of such hotkeys in the system.
5. Opening a second copy of the program
When you click on the icon of a running program on the taskbar, you only expand its existing window. And to start another copy of the program, click it while holding down the Shift key.
6. Disable background applications
In Windows 10, you can restrict the operation of some applications so that they do not take unnecessary resources from the system. True, this only works for so-called "universal" apps, those that you install from the Microsoft Store.
Open Start → Settings → Privacy → Background Apps and disable the ones you don't need. This will save some battery life in your laptop.
Recommended:
5 of Jamie Dornan's best roles you might not know
Jamie Dornan rose to fame as Christian Gray from Fifty Shades of Gray. But the actor has lesser-known, but excellent roles in other films and TV series
15 fascinating dystopian books you might not know about
S.N.U.F.F by Viktor Pelevin, "Snail on the Slope" by the Strugatskikhs, "Pit" by Platonov … Lifehacker offers the most exciting dystopias for fans of the works of Orwell, Zamyatin, Huxley and Bradbury
10 useful Google services you might not know about
Google Alerts, Authenticator and Fonts, "Academy" and "Drawings" - Lifehacker has selected interesting Google services that may have escaped your attention
10 useful features of "VKontakte" that you might not know about
Non-obvious functions and tricks that will be useful to users of the social network. 1. Sending a message to yourself Sending a message to yourself is the easiest way to make a quick note or reminder to come back to later. In the VKontakte social network, you just need to type your name and surname in the chat list in the Messages section and select the proposed contact.
7 Word spreadsheet tricks you might not know about
Think tables in Word are the most annoying part of a word processor? Are they clumsy and unmanageable, hard to format? We will change your mind