Microsoft Windows Tweaks, Tips and How-To Articles - Page 5

Share your entire Windows Desktop Screen with Chromecast

Posted in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP by Steve Sinchak

If you own a Google Chromecast streaming device, you can easily share a browser tab in Chrome browser or even your entire desktop.  This can be very useful when presenting from your laptop or if you just want to watch something on a big screen that is only on your PC.  The only requirement is you must be on the same network as your Chromecast device and using a recent version of the Chrome browser. 

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Configure Windows 10 to Prompt for Update Installs

Posted in Windows 10 by Steve Sinchak

Keeping your Windows PC up to date is the most important thing you can do to keep your personal information secure. In addition, an up-to-date PC is less likely to be infested with malware which is not just bad for you, but its bad to everyone else in the world if it ends up in a botnet.  That is why I'm very happy that Microsoft has taken an aggressive approach by automatically installing updates when they become available by default.  This is perfect for the average consumer that doesn't want to worry about maintaining yet another thing. But for advanced users that prefer more control, it can be incredibly annoying. So rather than disable automatic updates completely which is just a terrible idea, how about configuring Windows 10 to prompt when an update is ready to be installed?

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Configure File Explorer to Display your Drives instead of Quick Access

Posted in Windows 10 by Steve Sinchak

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive about Windows is from users asking to restore the old behavior of Windows Explorer.  Upon launch, the old Windows Explorer would simply list your drives compared to the new File Explorer that displays recently/frequently accessed content by default.  There were a number of ways to change the launch behavior over the years, my personal favorite was tweaking the Windows Explorer shortcut.  In Windows 10, Microsoft finally made it really easy for everyone to customize this setting. 

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Keep organized with Virtual Desktops

Posted in Windows 10 by Steve Sinchak

People are multitasking more than ever and it can be very hard to keep your work and personal life organized.  How many of you routinely have dozens of tabs open in your web browser?  And how many apps do you have open as well?  The different things you are working on are mixed up with everything else making it difficult to switch between the items you are juggling.  Virtual Desktops in Windows 10 provide a great way simplify the chaos keep everything organized.

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Updating the Windows Subsystem for Linux

Posted in Windows 10 by Steve Sinchak

If you installed the Windows subsystem for Linux on your Windows 10 PC so you could run Bash and other Linux apps on Windows 10, I am going to show you some basic maintenance tasks to keep everything up to date and your PC secure.  Just like other apps and operating systems, the more software you install the more you need to keep up to date, otherwise you risk running an outdated version that could make your PC vulnerable.

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Disable Start Menu Ads in Windows 10

Posted in Windows 10 by Steve Sinchak

After using Windows 10 for a few days you may begin to notice suggested app advertisements right on your Start Menu. Microsoft decided to use a small portion of the Start Menu to promote apps in the Windows App Store. This has become a controversial feature that many users want to disable simply because they don’t want ads in their Start Menu. This article will show you two easy methods to disable Start Menu ads on your PC. 

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Run Bash, SSH and other Linux Apps on Windows 10

Posted in Windows 10 by Steve Sinchak

This sounds like an April fool’s day joke, but I am going to show you how to run Bash and other Linux apps on Windows 10 using a hidden feature in the Windows 10 Anniversary release (version 1607).  Running Linux on Windows has been possible for a long time with virtualization software, but with the new “Windows Subsystem for Linux” Ubuntu Linux binaries can run directly on Windows without the need for the Linux Kernel running in a VM. 

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Monitor your PC with Sidebar Diagnostics

Posted in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 by Steve Sinchak

Keeping an eye on your system performance is a must for any power user but using Task Manager or Resource Monitor can be inconvenient.  In Windows Vista Microsoft created sidebar gadgets that displayed useful performance information on the right side of your screen.  Unfortunately, Microsoft pulled the feature from Windows due to “serious vulnerabilities.”   Picking up where Microsoft left off, a new utility was created by Ryan K. (ArcadeRenegade) on GitHub called Sidebar Diagnostics.  This free utility displays all of the important system performance stats on a sidebar with a simplistic design. 

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