Table of contents for 3rd Edition in Windows 10 Tips, Tricks & Apps

With Windows 10 Microsoft has created an OS that feels both familiar and futuristic, yet has returned to the comfortable familiarity of the pre-Windows 8 operating systems. From the return of the Start menu to the introduction of the new Edge web browser, Windows 10 is packed with brilliant features, abilities and apps that aim to make your computing experience as integrated as possible. But while Windows 10 is absolutely accessible to newcomers and veterans alike, some of its more powerful and complex settings and features may not be immediately apparent. That’s where this new edition of Windows 10 Tips, Tricks & Apps comes in. In this bookazine we will teach you to get the most out of Microsoft’s built-in apps, how to download the Anniversary Update, how to tweak…

Windows 10 has more features and settings than ever, and this is great because it means that you can customise it in a variety of ways to make it work the way you want it to. There are many settings and configuration options that change the way Windows 10 works, and we explore some of these in our collection of top tips. For example, you can choose what is displayed when the computer starts, and either the new Start menu or the old Start screen can be used. You can change File Explorer’s view and how it responds to clicks; Cortana can be customised and trained to provide a better understanding of your needs; and there is much more. The tips explore new and better ways to work with your…

The Lock screen should be familiar to any previous Windows user, as it’s one of the primary methods of securing or moving away from the desktop when the PC/laptop is not in use. In Windows 10, the Lock screen taps into a lot of the features we covered earlier, such as the ability to use a custom image or slideshow (in this context a screen saver) to effectively turn the device into a digital picture frame and prevent screen burn. However, the Locks screen’s real-estate can be put to better use with a series of detailed and quick status updates for a range of apps that are included with Windows 10. We showcase how to enable these features in our tutorial below. Lock screen Unlock its best features 1: Access…

Each new release of Windows is more secure than the previous one and if you have upgraded from a very old version like Windows XP then the difference is huge. Windows 10 is the most secure yet, but that does not mean that you can forget security issues. Security features like Windows Defender and Windows Firewall must be enabled to boost the PCs protection. The question is, are they turned on? Our guides show how to check that everything is safe. Windows Defender is used to scan the disk for malware like viruses and spyware. Windows will remind you when you need to scan and reminder messages appear in Action Centre. Windows Firewall is a feature that prevents unauthorised access to your computer through the internet by hackers and malicious…

Another sure fire way of increasing productivity is to maximise the screen space with Windows 10’s Snap Assistant function. For Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users, you may already be familiar with this feature (known as Aero Snap in Windows 7), but with Snap Assistant you can have up to four Windows open at once and have these snapped into all four corners of the screen. Alternatively you can have two windows snapped side by side or even three screens. If you work with two monitors you can theoretically double this amount. Snapping Windows is great if you want to work on a document in say one window, while viewing your latest emails or Twitter posts in another. It does take a bit of practise to perfect the snapping aspect…

1: Default apps Click on the Windows Start icon and then head to Settings. From here click System>Default apps, which can be found on the left context menu. You’ll then see a list of all your default apps. 2: Change association Now click on a particular app and from the list you can then choose a suitable replacement. One that you actually want to use as opposed to Windows forced recommendation! 3: Switch on the fly If you want to view a particular document or photo in a different app, you can right-click a file from ‘File Explorer’ and then choose Open With to pick an alternative app from the list.…

You may have noticed that we’ve skimped on a lot of the apps in this section and instead concentrated on core Windows 10 features we felt would benefit you from a productivity point of view. However, alongside Sticky Notes, one app that most certainly needs to be mentioned is the Calendar app. In this tutorial we are not going to showcase simply how to add events to your calendar – rather, we’ll look at how to add third-party accounts to it, such as iCloud and Google Calendar. This will allow you to pull over and sync changes between different platforms you may own, which is a great productivity tool. It’s worth bearing in mind that a side effect of this process is the Mail and People app will also be…

The Calendar app in Windows 10 is a useful tool for organising your time. You can not only look up dates, you can also add events and appointments so you never miss another one again. Just as with the Maps app, Cortana can interact with the Calendar app and the two work together. This enables you to create events in Calendar without having to open the app and go through the tedious process of creating them. You just speak to Cortana. Cortana understands times and dates, words like ‘tomorrow’ and phrases like ‘all day event’. It can even move events from one time slot to another, which is handy for when you need to re-organise your schedule to fit something in. Cortana Add events to your calendar 1: Create an…

OneDrive is a special folder on the PC’s disk that can be used to store documents, pictures, music and videos. Anything you put in the OneDrive folder on the PC’s disk is also stored online and Microsoft provides private and secure storage space. Online is an exact copy of everything in the PC’s OneDrive folder. What’s more, every Windows computer you own has a OneDrive folder and the contents are kept in sync. Save a file in the OneDrive folder on one PC and it appears in the OneDrive folders of your other PCs. Desktop and laptop computers for example, are kept in sync, and all have the same files. Files can also be accessed from any computer through a web browser, even if it does not use Windows, like…

Some web pages look very smart and are expertly designed to make them easy to read and navigate. This is not true of all web pages though and some sites seem to be overloaded pages with an excessive amount of distracting clutter. There can be many adverts in banner, skyscraper and pop-up formats, and when the mouse moves around the screen it can trigger even more popups and animations. It isn’t much fun and it makes the content of some web pages hard to read. The solution is to use Reading view and this strips away all the distracting items that clutter up web pages. What’s left is the page content and this is beautifully presented in a very clean and simple format. The difference is amazing and it makes…

1: Save a page To save a web page so you can read it later, click the Favourites Star in the Toolbar. In the panel that appears, click Reading list, edit the name and click the Add button. 2: View the Reading list Click the Hub icon in the Toolbar (three lines) and then select the Reading list tab in the panel (second icon). These are the web pages that have been saved for reading later. 3: View, pin and remove To keep the reading list on the screen, click the pin icon in the top right corner. Click an item to read the saved page. Right-click an item to remove it from the list.…

One of Windows 10’s redeeming features is that a lot of its core apps share a common interface/theme, so the News app will be instantly familiar if you have followed other tutorials in this book. As the name suggests, the News app offers a platform for accessing a range of topics, such as Entertainment and Technology, taken from multiple news sources from around the world. The beauty of this app is that you have control over what interests you the most. For example, if you want to read about the Xbox One or remove some of the pre-installed topics, then you can. In the tutorial here, we showcase this process in action, so you can keep on top of events that matter the most to you. News Read news that…

Microsoft’s plan with Windows 10 was to develop an evolving platform that will support both consumers and businesses alike. From a consumer point of view we are talking about entertainment. Now, Microsoft Edge is one default example that can keep you entertained by allowing you to find web content and then tap into a Reading viewer to strip away the ads to concentrate on the article. Likewise you can use the browser to enjoy TV and Movie streaming services from the BBC, Amazon and Netflix. However this is just a standard way of keeping yourself entertained and Windows 10 offers a lot more variety thanks to its core apps and services. One in particular is the integration of Xbox Live and its accompanying Xbox app, which provides a useful platform…

1: Download and sign in Download the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store and once this is installed Open the app and choose Sign In. A prompt will now appear asking for your security credentials. 2: Continue reading If you have signed in with an existing account all your books will appear on-screen. You can select a thumbnail cover to read your book – it should allow you to continue from where you left off! 3: Pin to Start A useful tip is if you select the top right bookmark icon and then right click the page you can select ‘Pin to Start’. Now you can jump straight to a bookmarked page from the Start Menu!…

The Windows Store is divided into sections, these include Apps, Games, Music, and Film & TV. Each section is quite similar and whether you are purchasing a movie or downloading a free app, the store experience is pretty much the same. Our tutorial will focus on apps, but the other store sections are similar, so if you are looking for music or even movies you can apply the techniques we outline and browse, search and purchase items in the same way. The store opens with highlighted items that show promoted apps, moves or music, and it provides links to see the top items within each of the sections. You can view charts that show the best selling items in each store section, the top free content, what’s new and rising.…

1: Start menu options Ratings and opinions are important in the Windows Store and have probably guided your purchases, so add your own. Right-click an app on the Start menu, select More, Rate and review. 2: Add a comment The Windows Store app opens, goes to the selected app’s page, and a window appears with options to rate the app and add a comment. Keep it short, but make it helpful to others. 3: View your review Click the Submit button and your rating and comment is added to the page. To see it, go to ‘Ratings and reviews’ and click the ‘Show all’ link. Select Most recent under Sort by.…

Unlike the desktop, Windows 10 handles the tablet mode’s multitasking slightly differently. In fact it works in a similar way to the Android or Windows Phone experience. For example when you click on the Start icon it will now switch back to the Start screen from whatever app you were in and a further press of the Start icon will switch you instantly back to the app you were using. The back button can be used to switch between running programs in a set order. The main benefit of Tablet mode is certainly the speed in which you can move between programs. Multitasking Switch between apps 1: Switch between a single app From the main Start screen launch Microsoft Edge or access this via the bottom left ‘All apps’ icon.…

With an active user-base of over 110 million, Windows 10 is certainly a popular operating system, given that it had only been available for a few months at the time of writing. Mind you this is partially due to the free upgrade – available on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 machines – that Microsoft ran until 29 July 2016. However, we can hazard a guess that there are still a lot of people who have reserved their copy but not yet upgraded! So in one of the tutorials we will take a quick look at how to initiate the free-upgrade if you have reserved your copy, plus more importantly showcase how to roll back to your previous copy of Windows if you can’t get on with Windows 10. Uninstalling it…

In recent times, we have reached a point where speech recognition is now usable to a point that you can talk at a natural pace and have almost every word recognised perfectly. It used to be the case that a keyboard was by far the quickest data-input method, but with Windows 10, there is enough intelligent software running in the background to make this feature feel completely natural every single time you use it. We will show you how to set it up, which is a very quick and logical process, and also some of the benefits that can be gained if you use it in every app that it is compatible with. Over time, you may find that it becomes your preferred way of inputting data in most of…

Set up a homegroup on your home network to enable files and devices connected to one PC to be accessed from another PC. It only takes a minute and then everyone can share their photos, videos, music and other files over a wireless connection. Windows has had networking capabilities built in since its early days and sharing files and printers has always been possible. However, it was often difficult to set up, so recent editions of Windows have included a super-easy sharing feature called homegroup. This provides simple controls for connecting computers over a network and choosing exactly what you share with other people. One computer creates the homegroup, and it does not matter which one it is, then all the other computers can join it. Once a homegroup has…

Device Manager is a useful tool that can solve certain types of PC problems. When the computer is not working properly, when it has strange error messages and faults, when you have tried every other way to fix it, Device Manager might be able to do the trick. It will not repair every type of problem, but programs crashing or freezing and becoming unresponsive, the PC running very slowly for no obvious reason, screen issues, troublesome mice, webcam and touchpad issues can sometimes be fixed using Device Manager. When everything else fails, it can offer a solution to whatever the problem may be. There are thousands of different types of computer because they can be built from hundreds of different components. Instead of Windows accessing the hardware directly, an intermediary…

The Camera app in Windows 10 is designed to let you capture photos whenever the time is right and to work as a basic tool for this process. Most computer setups nowadays involve a camera of some sort, Microsoft understands though that most computers do not come with great quality cameras built in and are used most often for menial tasks where quality isn’t an issue. The Camera app provides options that will help you improve any photos that you do take. You can change the aspect ratio, deal with flickering and also decide what resolution you want videos to be captured in. Once you have captured the images, you can then jump over to the Photos app to add fine adjustments in order to make them look exactly as…

OneNote is by no means a new piece of software, but it is one that has been gradually improved over time to the point that we now have a solution that is not only reliable, but also fast and incredibly flexible. It is capable of dealing with simple text notes, as well as complex pages with images and tables embedded, and it is also accessible from many other apps within Windows 10. Indeed, if you are looking for one place to store every piece of information that is important to you, there are very few rivals to OneNote. It can be used on smartphones, tablets and multiple computers. What’s more is that the notes will always be kept in sync and backed up online, so you need not worry about…

On the whole you should not need to mess around with power settings too much, because Windows 10 does a very good job of working efficiently even when pushed, but there will always be times when your own usage will require the need for a personal profile which may better suit your needs. There are a couple of simple options that you can manage within the standard Settings screens, but if you delve a little deeper you will find a lot more, all of which will let you tailor the power management of your machine in a variety of ways. As is standard, you will see the traditional presentation for the advanced power management settings. Windows 10 does an excellent job of reassuring however, because it immediately lets you know…

Anew computer is fast and responsive, and works brilliantly, but after it has been used for some time it will inevitably begin to slow down. What can you do to solve this perpetual problem? As a matter of fact there are a number of things! Here is a collection of speed tweaks that will restore lost performance for your PC. They can rejuvenate an old computer and they keep new computers running smoothly – all of which prevents them from slowing down. For example, there are lots of special effects used by the Windows 10 interface, such as animations in the taskbar, fading or sliding tooltips into view, and so on. They look great, but turning these effects off enables the computer to run faster. The files on the disk…

Your computer is made for productivity. From word processors to databases, it has helped businesses become more efficient and industrious. Furthering business, after all, was one of the main reasons for creating the personal computer in the first place. Yet, as technology has progressed, PC productivity is also doing a terrific job of delivering an unwelcome by-product: stress. Therefore, entertainment on that same platform has been recognised as a salve to the user’s sanity. More than a counter for over-working, though, the PC has now been welcomed into the living room, becoming more widely accessible and is now offering a realistic way to integrate entertainment within the home. From movies to music, the PC has become an essential friend of the family to not only escape a hard day’s work…

The crack of the cricket bat, the roar of the rugby crowd, the heckling of the football referee… Sport – you can’t beat it. No matter which sports or team you follow, there is bound to be an app that covers it. What role can your Windows 10 device play in a professional sports setting? The possibilities are limitless. Whether you’re tracking the statistics on your favourite players or lining up the bet that will make your fortune, download a few of the best sports apps onto your Windows 10 PC, laptop or tablet and you’re sure to have an edge on the competition. The apps themselves range from batting-average calculators to statistics databases and up-to-the-minute news trackers. Sports apps can definitely add a new dimension to a favourite pastime…

Need a nutritionist to answer questions at the supermarket? Perhaps a personal trainer for running a first-time 5K? Often, we need an added push to go the extra mile with exercise. For some, that extra push comes in the form of an overzealous spin instructor or passionate personal trainer. If your Windows 10 device isn’t already your best workout buddy, it could be. Tracking your progress on an app makes it easier to eat right, sleep well and push a workout harder. The availability of health apps is climbing fast and the industry expects the number of health and fitness apps to quadruple between 2010 to 2016. For those who like exercising solo or individuals who prefer being outside the gym – whether you’re a runner or need help tracking…

Windows 10 is the brand new and most exciting version of Microsoft’s operating system yet. It is designed for multiple devices, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones and hybrid devices, such as the Surface. It is an impressive blend of old and familiar features, and new and interesting ones, and this means that you will instantly feel at home whether you have used Windows 7 or 8, but there are also lots of great new features to discover and use. An example of this can be seen when browsing the internet. There is the old and familiar Internet Explorer, but also a new browser called Edge that is fast and packed with innovative and useful features that take it beyond the capabilities of the previous browser. Edge is the…

Use virtual desktops The desktop is back and there is not just one of them, but as many as you want! Windows 10 has made virtual desktops, previously only available with third-party software, a feature that everyone can use. With a keypress, you can easily create new desktops or switch between existing ones. Now you can spread out your apps, and each one can be on a different desktop. Talk to Cortana The personal digital assistant is now in Windows 10, so you are able to issue commands to your computer using Cortana. It can be manually activated when needed, or it will cleverly listen for the wake-up call “Hey, Cortana!” You can then ask it for information about pretty much anything, or ask for actions to be carried…

If you are upgrading from an older operating system or starting from scratch, Windows 10 offers plenty of ways to personalise your experience. You may be wondering why you would want to do such a thing. Well, think of Windows 10 as a new house: you move in and want to add your own touch, such as new wallpaper in the form of a background image, or new furniture in the form of managing desktop icons. The personalisation side of Windows 10 is simply setting the operating system to how you want it to look. In the series of tutorials below we will cover the basics, such as setting new wallpaper, and expand upon this by showing you how to adjust your Lockscreen image (where you sign in), add a…

1: Right click Context Menu From the desktop view, which you can get back to by pressing Win key+M, you first need to right-click on an empty space, and from the resulting menu hover your mouse over View. 2: Adjust icon size A bullet point will appear next to the default icon size. You can now select an alternative like ‘Large icons’ and watch how the desktop icons change in real time. Now adjust these options to taste. 3: Sort out the icons Right-click the desktop and go back to View. From the options, adjust how the icons are aligned on the screen. For example, if you want them to automatically line up, choose ‘Auto arrange icons’.…

The internet is a fantastic resource and there are some great websites and lots of superb software, but lurking among the sites and programs are viruses and spyware. Malware is quite rare if you only use trusted websites and sources of software, but there is still a small chance that it could get onto your computer. Windows Defender does two things and the first is to try to prevent malware from installing and the second is to scan for anything that might have slipped through and to remove it before it can do any harm to your computer. I t’s a good idea to scan the disk for viruses and spyware using Windows Defender at least once a week. If you don’t, then Windows will remind you to carry out…

1: Security and Maintenance Click the search box in the taskbar, enter ‘security and maintenance’ and click it in the results. The Control Panel opens and you can see the current security status of the computer. 2: User Account Control settings Click Change User Account Control settings on the left and the slider is one notch down from the top by default. Drag it to the top if you want to set the security even higher. 3: SmartScreen settings Click ‘Change Windows SmartScreen settings’. This feature checks programs downloaded from the internet and blocks any unrecognised ones. The top setting is the best one to use.…

If you have used Windows in the past, you’re probably familiar with the way you can switch between running programs. But the introduction of Windows 10 has taken multitasking to a new level in the form of its Task View feature, allowing you to create virtual desktops, each with their own set of running programs. For example, in one desktop you could have three apps running and then create another desktop with a different set. The only snag appears to be standard Windows 10 apps, such as Edge, as these can only exist on the primary desktop. Even so, it’s still a superb way of maximising your productivity! Task View Create a new desktop 1: Prep the first desktop Prep the first desktop by launching programs that you want to…

Cortana is one of the major new features in Windows 10 and it is an exciting new digital personal assistant that can carry out your commands, perform a variety of actions, and generally save you from tedious typing at the keyboard. You just say what you want and Cortana does it, whether it is setting an alarm, looking up information on the internet, or getting driving directions from one place to another. Try talking to Cortana and say things like “Tell me a joke”. There are often very entertaining responses to questions like these and you can have a lot of fun. Cortana can also perform serious tasks as we will show in the tutorials. For example, it can create calendar appointments, show you your schedule for the next day…

It is hard to pick the best feature of OneDrive, but file sharing is undeniably one of the strongest contending features available. It has several uses and you can share files with other people to enable collaboration and team working. For example, you can co-author a document or even an ebook with someone else. This is a powerful feature and you can choose whether other people can read files or read and write files through permissions. As well as this, OneDrive can be incredibly useful when you need to send someone one or more large files by email. You don’t want to fill their inbox with a file that is several or even tens of megabytes, so instead the file can be put in OneDrive. Using the sharing facilities in…

1: Go to Settings Go to the right side of the taskbar and click the up arrow to show hidden icons. Find the OneDrive cloud icon and right click it. Select Settings in the menu that is displayed. 2: Auto-save options Choose whether to save documents and pictures to OneDrive or the PC. Tick the option to save photos and videos to OneDrive if you prefer to save them online, but only if there is space. 3: Sync selected folders Select the Account tab and click Choose Folders. Tick the folders you want to keep the same online and offline, but clear ticks against folders that you prefer to be ignored.…

We can all recall the addresses of our favourite websites and type them into a web browser, but the number probably does not exceed half a dozen. There are millions of websites and there are many excellent ones that you will want to regularly revisit. To overcome our limited memory, Edge enables you to store your favourite websites in a Favourites list, Edge Favourites are just a click away and they enable you to browse your most liked websites and visit them with a mouse click instead of having to remember and type in long and sometimes complicated addresses. In this tutorial we show how to add to the Favourites list and the favourites bar. Microsoft Edge Build up your Favourites 1: Go to a favourite site When you are…

Times have certainly changed when it comes to keeping up to date with current events. In the past, we tended to rely on the television and newspapers to learn about breakingnews stories. Now, with the boom of social media, a news piece can start to trend within seconds of a story happening! However, social media is just one of the many ways to find out about the latest goings on. Similar to previous versions, Windows 10 has plenty of default apps or third-party apps that you can tap into from the Windows Store to give that instant current-event fix. In the following tutorials, we will look at a few of these apps. For example, the Sport app will enable you to add and track a favourite sport or team. Alternatively,…

One of the best forms of entertainment is to tap into the wealth of video content from YouTube! There are literally millions- uponmillions of videos to watch, ranging from gameplay commentary to fan made films! By default in Windows 10 you are limited to a web browser in order to tap into this content; as the Windows store does not have a dedicated app available (at the time of writing). However even with an app you are still tied down to an internet connection in order to view the videos. Thankfully there is a useful app alternative available from the Windows Store called Tube Box. In its basic format it allows you to search and play videos like you would from YouTube directly or you can add videos to playlists,…

1: Standard controls Launch Groove Music and select either Albums or Songs from the main context menu. Now doubleclick a track and then use the Play-back options at the base of the album or song to control the music. 2: Taskbar controls Now minimise the Groove Music App and then hover your mouse over the app’s taskbar icon; a small thumbnail pop-up will now appear. From here you can then pause, play or skip your music tracks. 3: Volume control Alternatively keep playing a track and then increase or decrease the volume with your keyboard. This will bring up a playback control panel in the top left corner from which you can manipulate the music!…

The Xbox app enables you to play multiplayer games, chat with others in parties, seamlessly record gameplay clips and additionally keep track of your achievements! Granted achievements can be earned with games from the Xbox One, but they can also be earned from playing games downloaded from the Windows Store; as long as they sport the Xbox wording at the top of their thumbnail image. When you get an achievement for completing a given task or challenge within a game, you can view this in the Xbox app and even compare your success against a friend for a more social and competitive interaction. Xbox app Play games and track your achievements 1: Play your game Launch the Xbox app and from the left-hand menu choose My Games. It will list…

In this section we take a look at the account menu and its various subsections. There is a lot to explore here and it enables the Windows Store app settings to be customised, such as enabling automatic updates, checking for new updates and viewing downloads, viewing all of the devices that access your Microsoft account, viewing recent transactions and payments, and more. There are some important topics on the account menu and you should visit each section as soon as you can. If you have used Windows 8, much of the information will be familiar to you, but it is presented in a different way because the Windows Store app has a new design for the new operating system. Windows Store View account settings 1: Show the account menu Open…

Microsoft has always been keen on tapping into the tablet market by providing an OS that could blend the desktop with a tablet experience. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, their last attempts with Windows 8 and 8.1 were not that popular, primarily because they tried to add a Metro-style Start interface with a desktop experience tagged on at the back. However, with Windows 10 the OS has been built around its continuum feature where the entire operating system can intelligently switch from a tablet to desktop experience when you plug the latter into a docking station and switch back afterwards. On top of this you have a lot of universal apps, which are designed to scale depending on your screen-size. From a desktop point of view you can still…

Windows 10 has a newly revised update section, which is there to provide vital security and general fixes for the Windows 10 operating system and its first party apps such as Microsoft Office. In this tutorial we will take a look at how this option works because nine times out of ten downloading an update can cure most problems; such as system crashes! Of course this is in an ideal world and yet there is always the one time where an update can have the opposite effect, turning a perfectly functional computer into a glorified door stop! So again we will showcase how to remove the updates once they are installed – usually it will be the last update added to the system that will have caused the issue. It’s…

1: Sound properties From the Cortana’s search bar type in ‘manage audio’ and from the top click on the option ‘Manage audio devices’. From the Sound window click on Recording and then your microphone. 2: Adjust your levels With the microphone selected choose Properties at the base of the window. From here click on the tab Levels and then using your mouse adjust both sliders to their max settings to boost the pickup. 3: ‘Hey Cortana’ Once this has been adjusted click OK twice to close both windows and then say “Hey Cortana” (assuming you have followed our guide to turn it on). Cortana will now be more responsive.…

Windows is a pretty complex operating system, and can handle an awful lot of tasks going on in the background at the same time. You don’t need to know anything about what’s happening behind the scenes, as Windows just works. But sometimes, you need to take control. Windows has had a Task Manager for a long time now, and in Windows 10 it has had a spruce up and been made more user friendly, so that when you do need to spend some time with it, the process isn’t too daunting or difficult. Task Manager can help you boost your computer’s performance by controlling what runs automatically when you switch your computer on. You can use it to force applications that are hogging space to shut down and free up…

Each new version of Windows has increased the level of its built-in security. But even with the extra improvements, it isn’t completely safe to use without additional security software. To ensure that your machine is safe and sound, it is best to download and install a third-party program. There are many to choose from and AVG, explored in this tutorial, is just one example. AVG protects the computer as you use it, but it is a good idea to perform a full system scan once a week to make sure nothing has slipped through. Full scans take a long time to complete, but right-clicking a folder enables you to perform a quick scan of the contents and can be performed at any time, and it is a good idea to…

Mail is a very straightforward app from an aesthetic point of view, and this is certainly an advantage, because the main task here is to create and respond to emails in the most efficient way possible. Once you have set up your account, or accounts if you would rather have everything in one place, you will be able to deal with all of your communications in real time, and make sure that what you are saying is considered. It is not often talked about, but the presentation of Mail is so professional and simple that it actually makes organisation much easier, and you are therefore far more likely to send clearer emails that have not simply been rushed out of your inbox. We will highlight the changes that you are…

It’s very rare that a photo should turn out just as you want it. There are so many factors to consider, and sometimes it’s impossible to ensure that they’re all working in your favour. However, it is possible to edit a photo so that it re-creates a memory more accurately, and so that it is more visually pleasing. You could spend a lot of money on an expensive photo-editing app for this purpose, or you could use the free Photos app that is bundled with Windows 10. The good news is that the Photos app is fully featured and, as such, offers all of the features that you will need to make minor and wide-ranging adjustments with just a few clicks. What’s more is that it does not take long…

The Calendar app in Windows 10 is pretty basic, but armed with the right tools you can make it easier to read and more useful to boot. The Calendar app syncs in with your online Microsoft calendar – since the release of Windows 8.1, support for all other calendar services has been discontinued. The trick to making the calendar easier to use is to take advantage of how it works: rather than provide a single catch-all calendar, you’re expected to set up and use multiple calendars, each one dedicated to serving a specific purpose. Managing these calendars can’t be done from within the Calendar app, so first you need to log on to your Microsoft account through your web browser. In this tutorial we’ll reveal everything you need to know…

At one time PCs used to suffer from performance issues as they grew older, and this was partly due to fragmented files on the disk. Files literally become broken into small pieces, and when they need to be accessed it takes time to find all the pieces. The solution was to manually defragment them by running Disk Defragmenter. This finds files split into several pieces and puts them back together, making them faster to access the next time you need them. With most modern computers disk defragmentation is automatic, but there may still be occasions where it is beneficial to run it manually. We will show you how to accomplish this in the following tutorial. Defragmentation occurs according to a schedule and this can be changed to make it more…

Unlike other recent app-based platforms, the PC has a rich history of creating games that reaches back towards the dawn of computing. There are millions of the games available to play, with new titles being created all the time. Similarly, the type of games available for the user is quite staggering. From the shoot-’em-up, mindless action-type apps to the role-playing games that often combine action with a measure of puzzle solving. There are also the puzzle-based titles that require serious thought. The PC has a wealth of examples on offer that will appeal to all ages and all interests. The following list of titles doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s available, but it does provide a flavour of the sort of games that you can download – often for…

Photography is one of the most vibrant sections of the app store. There is a gamut of impressive cameras and technology out there: from specialist digital cameras or the increasingly complex phone-based affairs. Along with digital technology, modern photography also takes advantage of cloud technology (like OneDrive), syncing photos snapped on a phone, for example, to virtual storage, as well as to a Mac or PC, streamlining the process of backing up photos or sharing them with friends. It’s another convenience that makes the new breed of smart cameras a killer type of technology. Using this kit, users often build some wildly inventive images. Whether you’re a professional photographer or a just complete beginner, you can’t help but appreciate the variety and quality of photography apps that are on offer…

The benefit of blending Windows 10 with the vast resources of the internet is that if you want to read a book or research information within a reference section, then you are more than likely to find what you are looking for. Books can range from the literary classics such as the likes of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to more modern fare. There are also both paid-for and free titles – these are either out of copyright or are tomes that are privately pressed and have been issued freely to gain publicity. Research can be done at sites that provide a wide, catch-all service bringing you information from all areas of interest. More specialist research areas can provide information from science to history and from astronomy to…

Settings app The new Settings app enables you to customise Windows and configure a range of options. It has a powerful search facility too Desktop apps Apps no longer run full screen and are in resizeable windows like regular desktop software. Bundled apps must be redesigned Start menu The Start screen has been replaced by the Start menu, which has menus and tiles. Both its size and content are easily customised Action Centre This icon in the taskbar opens the new Action Centre, which has buttons to access common functions, notifications and messages The Windows desktop has been a feature of the operating system since the earliest days, and everyone loved it because there was so much great software for it. It was familiar and easy to use, and whether…

“Some PCs can be upgraded, but others require a clean install” Most PCs running older versions of Windows can run Windows 10. Some can be upgraded, but others require a clean install. So, should you upgrade or clean install Windows 10? Windows XP and Vista users cannot upgrade; a clean install is the only option. Many Windows 7 and 8 users can upgrade, but it depends on several factors. For some, a clean install is a must. A clean install erases everything on the disk before installing Windows 10. This clears out junk files that have accumulated, and afterwards the computer will run better than before. The disadvantage is that your files are erased. Before starting, plug in a USB drive and copy your Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music folders…

In this part of the tutorial, we will expand on the desktop background idea by looking at slideshows. A slideshow will simply switch between images at pre-set intervals; thus transforming your desktop into a digital photoframe, which is great for looking back on events to give you a boost during the day. It also saves you from changing the background manually. By default in Windows 10, slideshow images are sourced from your Pictures. This naming convention is taken from the default Photos app, which is covered elsewhere in the book, and is useful for knowing how to manage images on your computer. To avoid confusion for previous Windows users, this location is simply a folder on your computer called Pictures. However, in this tutorial we will showcase how to choose…

1: Add icons In Settings>Personalisation>Themes, click Desktop Icon Settings. Click on the top-left check boxes to add additional icons to the desktop, such as Computer (originally known as My Computer). 2: Change the look of the icon Now click on the icon ‘This PC’, then choose the Change Icon option directly beneath. From here, pick a new icon from the list, then click OK. Now choose Apply to save the changes. 3: View the desktop Click on OK then use the Windows shortcut ‘Win key+M’ to return to the desktop to view the icon. If you right-click the ‘This PC’ icon you can perform similar tasks found on the older operating systems.…

So far in our range of tutorials we have tapped into a lot of the Settings>Personalisation options that are built in to Windows 10. Most of these are relatively straightforward to use, however there is still a lot of customisation involved, and going back and forth between things such as background, colours and so on. Thankfully, Windows 10 offers one more method of personalisation, and it is a system that will be familiar to many Windows 7 and 8 users, because it simply involves themes! A theme will include a whole range of changes, such as a new background, taskbar and Start menu customisation – and the Windows 10 Anniversary Update even includes high contrast ‘dark’ themes to reduce eye strain in low light situations. Here’s how to install them.…

In the Settings app is a privacy section that enables you to determine what information is revealed about you to Microsoft and the apps you run. These settings affect your security and they can be configured to prevent apps knowing where you are located, from accessing account information like your photo and name, from taking pictures using a built in webcam, listening to what you say with the microphone, and so on. Spend a few minutes going through the Privacy settings and make sure you are happy with the amount of information you are sharing. The default settings are applied as new apps are installed and they can gain access to information. Settings Increase privacy and security 1: Open the Settings app Press Windows+I to open the Settings app and…

In business being more productive will allow you to get work done faster and more efficiently! Windows 10 was released to tap into this ethos as it brings to the table a lot of productivity tools that are built directly into the OS. In particular, one of its standout features is its universal appeal, which means that whatever platform you run Windows 10 on, if it’s the desktop, tablet or Windows Mobile, the core experience will be the same. This also translates to its app support, but sadly the number of universal apps is still thin on the ground at the time of writing. However, the new Windows store is still a useful place to visit if you want to install third-party productivity tools. In this series of tutorials we…

1: Bring up the search bar First, either click on the left most Search bar (next to the Start Icon) or activate this using the Win key+Q keyboard shortcut. Now type the name of the file you want to find. 2: My Stuff! Due to the universal nature of the Search bar Windows will now display a list of any related content to the inputted request. However ignore this and click on ‘My Stuff’. 3: Locate and run A long list - broken down into sections - will now appear in front of you. Simply use the mouse to scroll through these to find the file you want. Once found, select this to open/run it.…

Cortana has a detailed knowledge of maps and can show you them within the Cortana panel. It can also open the Maps app to view larger maps and to get more information. Suppose you want to know where a city or town is located, you can simply ask Cortana to show a map of the place. It might not know every little village, but most towns are recognised. This feature can be used to look up places before you go there, such as on a holiday. If you are planning a trip to Rome, Italy then just ask Cortana to show you a map. There is a Maps app in Windows 10 of course, and Cortana will sometimes open it to display map results. If a map is shown in…

1: Start a new note Notes can be created and stored by Cortana and it saves you having to type them into an app. Say “Take a note,” and Cortana responds with “Tell me your note.” Speak it. 2: Record your note Cortana translates your spoken note into text and it can be as long or short as required. The result is displayed on the the screen and you can click the note to edit it. 3: Make and view notes Another way to create notes is to say “Note,” and then follow it with the note you want to create spoken out loud. To view your notes, open the OneNote app on the Start menu.…

Although you may have hundreds of gigabytes of disk space on your computer, the files in the OneDrive folder are limited by your storage plan. This used to be 15GB for free, but from 2016 it is now 5GB. If you are short of OneDrive online storage space your plan can be upgraded to get more. If you subscribe to Microsoft Office then OneDrive can hold up to 1TB of files, but there are cheaper alternatives starting at just £1.99 a month. In this tutorial we show how to see what plan you have, how much online storage space is being used, and the amount of free space available. In fact, sometimes extra space is given with mobile phones or tablets. OneDrive Buy more storage 1: Find the icon There…

Edge is the name of Microsoft’s new web browser and it is the best way to access the web. Anyone that has used Windows before will be familiar with Internet Explorer because it has been around for decades. The most recent version is IE11 and it is still in Windows 10 if you want to search for it on the Start menu. However, it is based on old technology and Edge is a brand new start for Windows 10. It has features that are not in Internet Explorer 11, for example, there is a reading mode available that makes web pages easier on the eye by removing distracting content like adverts. Edge and Cortana work together and text can be highlighted on the page and then Cortana can find answers…

Love it or loath it, sport is one of the world’s most popular pastimes, and if we are not participating in a sport of some description, many of us are almost certainly watching one! Of course, this trend is magnified when global sporting events are happening, such as the Rugby World Cup or Wimbledon tennis, for example. The only problem with keeping on top of the latest events is that there is so much choice, and if you like several sports or teams, it can be time consuming to look on the internet or piece together separate apps in order to get your fix. However, thanks to Windows 10’s Sport app, you won’t have to worry for long, as the app provides a nest bed for adding your favourite sports…

1: Customise notifications If you have third-party News apps, adjust how notifications are handled. Click on the Start icon, then head to Settings>System>Notifications & actions. A list of apps will now appear. 2: Change the notifications In this example, we have a listed app called ‘Appy Gamer’, which displays gaming news. Simply click the app’s title and from here you can adjust how notifications are handled by the system. 3: Action the notifications Once a notification kicks in, you’ll get an alert. Click on the notification (if you’re fast) or use the Action Centre (bottom-right of the taskbar). Click the relevant notification to launch/read the article.…

Groove Music is the default music app on Windows 10 and it provides all the tools you need to play your favourite music tracks; including a Spotify-style subscription service, which allows access to millions of songs! By default Groove Music scans your Music folder, which is handy, because most third party apps store music in there too – so don’t be surprised if you find your library is populated already! The focus of this tutorial is to showcase how to add tracks to your online OneDrive storage. This enables other devices you own to play the same music library. We showcase how to upload music to your OneDrive folder using File Explorer, but you can also upload to www.onedrive.com. Groove Music Add tracks to OneDrive 1: File Explorer location First…

There are countless sources of software on the internet and tens of thousands of applications, utilities and games that can be downloaded. Although there are some great programs around, there are also viruses, spyware, and types of malware. In contrast, the Windows Store is a safe place to find and download software. There are many fantastic apps and it is very easy to navigate, find apps and install them. It takes the hassle and risk out of getting software for your computer. There are lots of free apps in the store, but if you choose to buy some, payments are safe and secure. The Windows Store is recommended because of its ease of use and safety compared to the wild west frontier of the open internet where many dangers lurk.…

By now you should have discovered what happens when the Tablet mode is initialised. Essentially it will transform the standard desktop experience to one that is similar to Windows 8 and 8.1. Thus the Start icon appears at the base still, but the Menu that you are used to effectively becomes a Start screen (all of the tiles are displayed across the entire width of the screen). Additionally the bottom Taskbar will also change to a solid black colour and most of your taskbar icons will have disappeared; including the large Cortana search bar. On top of this you will find the placement of a back button, which most Android and Windows Phone users will be familiar with and a Task View icon; but both of these options will become…

1: Bringing back the taskbar From the main Start screen Right-click on the taskbar and then from the resulting context menu choose ‘Show app icons’. Once enabled this will bring back the icons you had from your desktop! 2: Multitasking functionality With the taskbar icons showing you will also get a coloured underline on those apps that are currently open. You can then click on one to switch between them. Or right-click an icon for additional options. 3: Show all notification icons Right-click the taskbar on an empty space and choose the option ‘Show all notification icons’. This will now bring back the small notification icons, including the hidden icons upward arrow.…

The old analogy of prevention is sometimes better than cure certainly holds true when dealing with a lot of Windows 10 problems. So far we have shown that a good starting point is to keep your Windows System and app updates current so you get all the latest fixes. However sometimes the inevitable can happen – an update is installed that makes your computer sluggish. In this tutorial we are going to showcase how to create a system restore point, so that in the event of the above happening you can go back to a previous working state. Alongside this we will also take a quick look at how to run a scan disk on your hard drive to automatically fix problems. System Properties Restore your system 1: Accessing the…

The Windows 10 Start menu looks and feels familiar to anyone who used Windows 7 and strips away the full-screen tiled effect that Windows 8 brought in to varying degrees of success. In actual fact, it does a lot more than that because you can now set it up to fit the way you work, whether that will look more like Windows 8 or 10, and you can then change other aspects until you are happy with the end result. It feels as though Microsoft has finally got the design of the Start menu right in Windows 10 by making it all things to all people and the end result is a flexible feature which can be tailored to look completely unique. Even better, it is not difficult at all…

It used to be the case that setting up and managing devices within Windows took forever and the process was also fraught with unreliability and random errors, but this has all changed now. Once the setup process has been completed for each of your devices, you can leave them alone to perform the tasks they need to and not worry about anything else. Drivers are still needed for some devices, but it is fast becoming the norm for devices to work via a plug-and-play setup, which means that you have to tweak no settings at all. We will guide you through the process of troubleshooting devices that are not behaving as they should and also show you how to access every setting you could possibly need. The real surprise is…

Is your computer protected from malware on the internet? Is it protected from hackers that might try to gain access through a wireless or wired network? Are you receiving important updates to Windows that contain patches and new features? The answer to these questions and many more can be found in the Security and Maintenance settings screen – where Windows collates all sorts of useful and important information to ensure that your computer is running smoothly. When you switch to the desktop you might occasionally see various messages pop up at the right-hand side of the screen. If the message appears above a small white flag, then that is your Security and Maintenance settings notifying you of a potential problem with the computer. Don’t panic because many of the problems…

Skype is understandably hugely popular, and with very good reason. Video and audio calls can be made anywhere in the world for free and so can sending messages, well the good news is that the app just got a whole lot slicker thanks to the new Preview/Universal edition of Skpye that comes with the Windows Anniversary update. In this tutorial we help you access and tweak your Skype settings to get the app working better for you and introduce you to the all-new army of Bots that have invaded the app. These Bots are fun in-app widgets that you can use to play games and socialise with like-minded people – ideal for killing time while you wait for the friends and family that you intend to contact to get back…

Microsoft Office is the standard productivity package on the PC, used by businesses and individuals everywhere. It is a powerful suite of applications, but if you do not need to create complex documents, presentations or spreadsheets, the webbased version could be all you require. When using Office web apps, there is no need to buy a subscription and the apps themselves run in a web browser. Just go to onedrive.com in Edge. You might need to sign in with your Microsoft account the first time you access the website, but from then on you will be able to dive straight in. A list of your OneDrive files and folders will be displayed, and this is a direct mirror of OneDrive on the disk drive. Click the menu button in the…

We keep so much information on our computers these days that it can sometimes get a bit out of hand. Files can be really large, and that can mean we can run out of space to store them. Some email accounts have a ceiling on the size of file attachments which can make sharing difficult. A lot of us also use cloud-based storage such as Dropbox, and again there are limits. Zipping files is one way to overcome file size limitations, because zipping can reduce file sizes considerably. You could zip a large file or group of files to email to someone, or to cram them onto a memory stick or memory card for sharing. Zipping can be useful in other ways too. If you like to archive old data,…

If you want to increase the amount of space available for storing videos, photos, music and documents, a simple way to do this is to add an extra disk drive. Although drives can be added internally to desktop PCs, the easiest option is to plug in a USB drive. Windows 10 offers a different way to use extra disk drives through a feature called Storage Spaces. A virtual disk drive of any size can be created, then you can add physical drives to provide the space. Normally each drive appears as a different drive and letter, E, F and so on, but when used as a storage space, there is just one virtual drive with one letter. Extra drives can be added at any time. This is a simple and…

One of the great things about recent software and hardware developments is the ever-increasing progress in the field of communication. The computer has become a force for good in communications, in terms of keeping you in touch with people you love, making friends, forging links with like-minded individuals and hobbies and bringing down the costs of telecommunications. Technologies like Skype have forced phone companies to look again at their tariffs, which have produced far more competitive and enlightened price points, especially when communicating abroad. Add immensely popular services such as Facebook and Twitter and you can see how complex our communications are today and, with the continuing ‘Arab Spring’ movement, for example, how much it has changed the entire world. “The computer has become a force for good, keeping you…

Both of these app genres ask you to search for downloadable files or provide the option to load up and play such content. Some of them allow you to handle both data types from one app. Hence both variants being bundled together into one section. Both music and video have, like much of the other data content types, been evolving at a tremendous pace, becoming more sophisticated with new features hanging off them like fruit from a tree. Some offer official video or music from major record labels or broadcasters, others give independent content creators a look-in. Some ask for money to experience the full experience while others give away their files free. Whatever the deal, be sure that, no matter what genre of music or video you enjoy, there…

Combine the best in fast computing technology with an internet connection via a sprightly broadband link and you have a wealth of information at your fingertips. There are two distinct categories of information, however, that depend on speed to remain relevant: news and weather. Maintaining the latter can mean that you can successfully plan your day. Friends and family may or may not have to make journeys to meet up depending on weather-based information, while the threat of extreme weather conditions has made such reports less a figure of amusement and fun and more of a serious matter. Similarly, keeping in touch with the news via computer and the internet means that you can follow breaking stories on a minute-by-minute basis, monitoring a changing situation which, again, might have repercussions…