Top 13 Windows 10 Tricks and Hacks

Today, Windows 10 is one of the best and most popular operating systems for personal computing. It has loads of newly added features and optimizations, making it stand out in terms of performance and security compared to other operating systems.

Windows 10 is the most convenient and user-friendly version of windows so far, which was released to the public in July 2015. Since then, it has made its place in most of the world’s personal computers, giving users an excellent experience.

It has many added tweaks and tricks compared to the previous version, creating a whole new user experience. It has hundreds of user interface and security-related changes ranging from including a whole new and secure edge browser to boost its performance while playing games manually or to curb the performance to save the battery.

The best 13 tweaks and tricks of Windows 10 are mentioned below.

Regarding the look & feel and Personalization

Windows 10 has various UI customizations, making it more flexible in day-to-day usage. Just by clicking on personalization in the settings menu, one can try a variety of tweaks to the UI, from customizing the start menu to applying different themes and accent colors.

The best tricks regarding the personalization are listed below

#1 Slideshow

This basic feature is among the most pleasing and attractive to the user. To run a slideshow instead of a fixed wallpaper, you must go to settings>personalization>background. There you will see an option under the background named slideshow. That is it. All you need to choose now is the time after which the wallpaper should change.

Also, the same option is there for the lock screen. In the personalization section, go to the lock screen, where you will see the same option of the slideshow. You can also go to the advanced slideshow settings link just below the “choose albums” option to get more options.

#2  Applying a theme

Changing or applying a new theme is the quickest way to create a whole new experience regarding look and feel. Changing themes will change your background and accent colors both at once.

You need to go to settings>personalization>themes. From there, you can select from the inbuilt themes available. But that’s not all of it.

You can download several themes from the Microsoft store. All you need to do is click on the “Get more themes in the store” link, which will take you to the app store, where you can pick any theme you want by clicking “get.” It will start downloading the theme, and once it is downloaded, you have to click the launch button to go back to the themes menu. You will see your downloaded theme there, and then you can apply it.

There is also an option available in themes: “use custom themes.” From that, you can make your themes as you like.

#3 Customizing the taskbar

This is another unique improvement in the UI section which gives more options to change the look & feel and the taskbar’s utility. These options help in adding more real estate to the desktop.

To customize the taskbar, you need to open settings, personalization, and taskbar. You will see dozens of options with ON and OFF toggles in that.

You can enable and disable any of them you want. Also, there are options regarding the location of the taskbar. You can keep your taskbar at the bottom, top left, or right on the desktop, wherever you want.

Additionally, in the taskbar section, you can customize the notifications. All you need to do is jump to the notification area in the taskbar section. Under that, again, you have tons of different options. You can select the number of apps you want notifications from on the taskbar and disable the ones you don’t want. You have to click “Select which icons appear on the taskbar,” and your job is done.

You can also optimize the taskbar space by just right-clicking the taskbar. Doing that will create a dialog box with many options related to what and how to show anything on the taskbar. For example, to keep the full Cortana search bar or just the Cortana button, check or uncheck against “Show Cortana Icon” or “Show Search Box.” There are other options also included in this box.

#4 Customizing the Start Menu

This change is a considerable upgrade compared to the previous version of windows. It changes the visibility, UI, and apps in the start menu.

For basic start menu changes, go to settings>personalization>start.

There you will see several different toggles sufficient for basic changes in the start menu. For example, there are toggles to show more tiles in the start menu, recently added apps, most used apps, and recently opened apps, etc. These all can be enabled or disabled by clicking on the toggle button.

There is also an option to select the number of folders on the start menu. Folders appear as a group of tiles on the start menu. To customize that, you need to click on the “Choose which folders appear on start” option inside the start section of personalization and enable the toggle which prompts to show folders. Also, creating new folders is very easy. You need to drag and drop a tile on another tile inside the start menu, and it will be a new folder. These folders can also be resized by just right-clicking on them.

You can also customize the left start menu column, which shows the “shut down” and “settings” options as default. For that, again click on “Choose which folders appear on start,” and then you will see many toggles which, on enabling, will add icons on the left smaller column of the start menu. That’s all.

These few easy tricks mentioned above are helpful in completely changing the look & feel of your windows OS. It includes changes related to accent colors, themes, wallpapers, icons, toolbars, and mainly the start menu.

The new Cortana

Of course, one of the best features of windows 10 OS is the new Cortana assistant, which is exclusive to windows 10 when it comes to personal computers. It was there for windows 8.1 phone OS but not as functional and efficient as on Windows 10 PC Operating System. It has tons of AI features which makes it very easy and, at the same time, “friendly” to use.

#5 Enabling voice search hot word

To enable your voice detection with Cortana, click the search box next to the start button. Then, from there, you will see a popup, and a notebook icon will be on the bottom-left corner of the popup menu. Click on that icon and head to its settings. From there, jump down to the “Hey Cortana” option and enable it. Then click “Learn my voice,” and it will ask you to speak to match the voice. Once the setup is complete, you can do many things by just speaking the hot word “Hey, Cortana.”

You can directly log in to your PC after it starts by saying, “Hey, Cortana.” Also, it will assist you when you want to search for anything on the internet. Just say, “Hey, Cortana,” Once it activates, you can ask whatever you want.

(As a matter of fact, when Cortana was still in its developmental stage, it could predict the winners of the first 14 matches of the FIFA 2014 world cup knockout stage, which was a huge surprise.)  So much is its accuracy.

#6 Getting the perfect assistance

As Cortana is one of the best A.I. assistants, it gets your job done in many cases, and that too perfectly. You can do several things with its help of it. These functionalities include:

Searching with Bing: Cortana uses Edge browser and bing search engine as default to search for required information. This information can be anything, for example, weather conditions, sports scores, politics, etc.

As a notebook: Cortana can be used as a notebook or precisely as a personal diary to store your private information. To use the Cortana notebook, you need to open the Cortana menu; below the home icon, there will be a notebook icon. Click on “About me” in the notebook icon, and then you can add any information you want to, and it will be safe.

Setting reminders: This is, again, a handy feature of Cortana. All you need to do is activate Cortana by speaking “Hey Cortana” or by clicking on the Cortana button and then speaking out what reminder you want to set and when. After doing that, your job is done. It will give you the notification of your reminder without any mistakes.

These were the main uses of Cortana. These tricks enable users to get a taste of assistance they have never received.

Regarding the updates

The not-so-popular feature of windows until its latest OS upgrade was its updates section. Microsoft made the update process easy and convenient with the Windows 10 OS. Now you can update your system whenever you want. Also, you can download updates in patches, and mainly, by enrolling in the insider program, you can get a taste of unreleased Windows 10.

#7 Update anytime

With Windows 10, you can update your windows at any time you want, and that, too, very easily. You need to go to settings, then “Update and security,” and then to “Windows update.” You will see a link saying, “Change active hours.” Click on that, and you can choose your desired time for the update.

You can also update overnight by turning on the download and leaving your PC on at night. Just remember to plug in if it is a laptop and stay connected to wifi. This is a good option to avoid any daily interruptions.

#8 Freeing up space

Windows 10 comes with a smart feature of “storage sense,” which ensures the routine removal of unwanted files automatically. It deletes all the junk files to free up space for future updates.

You need to go to settings, system, and storage to enable this. There you will see a toggle under storage sense which, on enabling, will activate “Storage sense”.

Useful Gestures

This is mainly for users using Windows 10 on laptops. Several touchpad gestures are extremely useful in day-to-day tasks. These gestures allow users to get most of the work done with their touchpads on laptops.

#9 Show more commands-gesture

This gesture is used as an alternative to a right click. All you need to do is tap two fingers on the touchpad, and it will open the dialog box showing more commands

#10 See all open windows

This gesture gives a birds-eye view of all the open windows. You need to place your three fingers on the touchpad and swipe them away from you or towards the PC screen, and your job is done.

#11 Switch between open windows

After viewing all your open windows, you can switch between them just by swiping your three fingers right or left. By doing this, all the windows will open consecutively.

#12 Open action Center 

To do this, you need to tap four fingers on the touchpad, and the action center will open directly.

#13 Switch between virtual desktops

Windows 10 also has the option to jump between desktops just by a simple gesture. You must place four fingers on the touchpad and swipe right or left.

NOTE:- Some touchpad gestures will only work on precision touchpads. They are special touchpads specially made for Windows 10 and do not come with all laptops.