Learn the Windows 10 application settings to maximize productivity and speed
Some custom settings of Windows 10 operating system are very useful to increase the efficiency and speed of implementation of commands, which we introduce in this article.
Default operating system settings are what the main manufacturer and developer set for conventional performance. In fact, these configurations and settings are not focused on the end user and may not meet his or her productivity needs.
As a primary user, especially in Windows 10, you need to make settings and configurations that meet your needs. Of course, sometimes it takes hours of research to find useful configurations.
Later this Zvmyt , some application settings and configurations in Windows 10 look somewhat increase the speed of doing things. Of course, the main advantage of the settings is in cleaning the work environment and less distractions when performing tasks.
Basic Windows 10 application settings
Basic taskbar settings
The taskbar is critical for most Windows 10 users. Quick access to applications and commands and adding and deleting them by default increases performance in Windows . Some simple settings can also increase performance to some extent. The first two configurations for the taskbar are suggested as follows: First click on the taskbar (Taskbar) and after entering the Taskbar Settings section, activate the following options.
- Lock the taskbar
- Use small taskbar buttons
In the Taskbar location section, select Bottom تا so that the taskbar always stays in the same default position. Numerous experiments show that moving the taskbar to the side or top of the screen does not have a positive effect on productivity. There is another useful option in the settings section called Combine Taskbar Buttons. It is recommended to set this option to When taskbar is full. Disable all other taskbar settings options. In fact, you should disable additional options such as Show taskbar on all displays.
Large icons do not work as well in Windows 10.
They take up a lot of screen space and are almost useless. The settings of the Combine Taskbar Buttons were also changed to make it easier to switch between multiple open files in the app. The image below shows the toolbar with the appropriate productivity settings. In this configuration, each game file can be seen well and the files can be found quickly. The toolbar is also very small and takes up less than 3% of the screen space.
The image below does not show the appropriate settings for the Windows 10 toolbar. Icons are too large to display open filenames. As you can see, there is a lot of extra space on the screen and the toolbar takes up about 10% of the screen space.
If you use the above configuration for the toolbar, when opening multiple files in a single application (which is likely to happen a lot), you must first click on the application icon and after a preview of the file appears, you must select the file you want.
More functional settings for taskbar
Hide Cortana : Right-click on the taskbar and disable the Show Cortana button. You do not need this button to use Cortana. Remember that Cortana will not be deactivated by disabling the button.
Hide Search Icon : Click on the taskbar and select Hidden in the Search submenu.
Task view option: It is recommended that you do not disable the Task View button (icon on the right side of the Start menu in the image above). This option indicates the functionality of Windows 10. Of course, by combining the Windows + Tab buttons, you can also use its capabilities.
Disable all toolbars :
Right-click on the taskbar and from the Toolbars section turn off all options to make the toolbar space more private.
Hide contacts : Showing contact names is of little use in the taskbar. Activate more space in the taskbar by right-clicking on the taskbar and disabling the Show People on the taskbar option.
Hide useless icons in the taskbar Windows 10: When you remove useless icons from the taskbar, you will have more space. Application icons include battery and audio and wireless settings, or cloud storage applications such as Google Drive .
Remove extra apps from the taskbar: The average Windows user will likely need a shortcut to apps like Explorer, Chrome, and a few applications in the toolbar, depending on their job. It is recommended that you do not fix any extras in the taskbar other than these applications to avoid clutter. Lastly, do not forget that by pressing the Windows key and a number, you can quickly run the applications attached to the taskbar.
Professional application configurations in Windows 10
Changing the background image to dark gray: At first glance, the color and design of the background image may not affect your performance and productivity; But do not forget that the combination of colors and designs will have a great effect, especially in getting tired while working. To set the background image, right-click on the desktop and select Personalize. Then in the Background section, find the Solid option and select the dark gray color. You may prefer to see attractive images in the background of the desktop; But that change is likely to have a huge impact on your productivity.
Remove all icons from the desktop: Some professional users suggest leaving the Windows 10 desktop as private as possible. Most of us have a lot of icons on the desktop and we store multiple files in the same place. If you get used to the desktop being empty and empty, you will have to use the more useful Windows 10 tools, which are also very useful. In the following sections, we will introduce some of the capabilities of Explorer professionals that have many applications in creating this new habit.
Activate the dark theme: Using a dark theme will be especially useful, especially to reduce distraction in daily activities. To enable the dark theme, right-click on the desktop, go to Personalize, and select Colors. Then select Dark from the Choose your color drop-down menu.
Scale Adjustment:
One of the options that might improve your user experience on small screens is to scale icons and pages. On most laptops, a scale of 110 to 150% is recommended to improve the user experience. To do this, after right-clicking on the desktop and entering the Display settngs section, select the scale you want from Scale and layout.
The configurations that we introduce below all require a change of settings in Windows. Importantly, most of them are accessible by pressing the Windows key and typing the final command or settings; But in the following tutorials, we will also mention the manual path of each.
Setting Notifications: Windows 10 provides professional settings for the Notifications section. It is recommended that you disable most notifications to be more productive at work. Of course, notifications related to business messages must remain active during business hours. To turn off notifications, go to Settings> System> Notifications & actions and turn off all options. The notification area (icon at the bottom right of the screen) is also customizable. The best option in it can be called Focus Assist, which suggests activating the Alarms Only option in this section.
For quick access to the notifications section, don’t forget the Windows + A shortcut.
Enable Windows Hello : If your laptop has biometric authentication capabilities such as fingerprint or smart camera, enabling this option will not be without merit. This option has been added to Windows 10 for faster access to the operating system environment and even some applications. To configure it, go to Settings> Home> Sign-in options and configure Windows Hello. As mentioned, this option often only works for modern, professional laptops and may not be supported by your corporate computer.
Enable Clipboard History : Go to Start> Settings> System> Clipboard, go to Clipboard Settings, and enable Clipboard history. From now on, by pressing the Windows + V buttons, you will see all the copied items in Windows at once, which will definitely be very useful.
Enable Encryption: One of the most important security settings in Windows 10 is encrypting files and the entire computer. By going to Settings> Update & Security> Device encryption, you will see the main encryption settings. By activating them, you will not have to worry about your data if your personal computer is lost or stolen. Experts recommend enabling data encryption, especially on laptops. In enterprise computers, there are often peripherals for encrypting and protecting corporate data.
Increase mouse sensitivity :
These settings depend a bit on each user’s user experience and preference; But a slight increase in sensitivity will probably work for everyone. Go to Settings> Home> Mouse> Additional mouse options> Pointer options> Motion and increase the sensitivity a bit. If you’re using a laptop, go to Settings> Devices> Touchpad in the touchpad settings to improve the user experience a bit. It is recommended to set the sensitivity of the touchpad indicator to 6 or more. You must enable all select options with one or two touches for the touchpad. Also, the motion or selection settings with three and four fingers should be optimized.
Laptop Fn setting : This button is used on laptops to enable or disable the function buttons, and in some cases, instead of the control key, it is located at the bottom left of the keyboard. On these laptops, you can use the BIOS settings to move the button and the Fn function, and in the Windows settings there is a section to completely disable the button. Some users prefer not to use the Fn shortcut key to use the F keys; For this reason, they disable it. In this case, you must use your Windows buttons to execute commands such as volume up and down.
Windows Explorer application settings
Most professional users believe that the default Windows Explorer is a great tool for browsing files and documents. Some application settings in this application greatly increase its productivity.
Among the Windows Explorer application configurations, you can add application folders to the Quick Access section. It is recommended that you add 10 to 15 commonly used folders in this section and remove the desktop from it. As we said before, it is better to use the desktop folder as little as possible to save the files. Default folders in the Quick Access section will no longer be of much use to you.
Windows Explorer has three main shortcuts that you should keep in mind:
- Control + Shift + N: Used to create a new, empty folder.
- F2: Used to rename files.
- Alt> V> HF: To show or not show file extensions
Select the download folder as the default folder :
Each time you click on the Windows Explorer icon, the Quick Access folder opens by default, which may not be of much use to you. It is recommended to select the Downloads folder as the default folder, which is more efficient. To do this, you need to make some manual changes to the Windows registry. For the desired changes, after pressing the Windows key, type the word Registry to enter the main settings. Then follow the path below:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
In the Value data field, enter 3 to display the download folder by default when you open Windows Explorer. Default values for other folders include:
Setting the details view by default : Windows 10 gives you several options for how to display files and folders. Of all these, the Details view shows better details of each file and looks more useful. By activating the above view, you can easily see the various details and options of each file, such as name, date, type and dimensions. More options such as Author and Cration Date can also be enabled. Finally, the same default options seem to be enough to view the file details. As you know, it is much easier to sort files in the Details view. To set the Details view, you can easily enable it from the View menu in Windows Explorer.
Windows 10 ribbon bar settings
Ribbon Bar in Windows 10 is widely used in Explorer and Office 365 applications. Users can enable multiple shortcuts in this bar. In Windows Explorer, it is recommended that you hide this bar; Because it takes up a lot of space at the top of the application. Of course, there are many uses for this tape in Office 365, and it is recommended that you keep it in the default state. You can use the Ctrl + F1 shortcut or the small arrow icon to the right of the ribbon to display or not.
If you know the practical details of ribbon tape in Windows 10, it will be very interesting to use. There are several shortcuts to activate options. When the ribbon bar is hidden in Explorer, you can see multiple selectable options by pressing the Alt key. Pressing each letter activates a ribbon bar menu. Finally, it is recommended that you increase the speed of your operating system by learning shortcuts in Windows 10 and popular applications.
Office 365 application settings and shortcuts
Office 365 and its document editing tools are popular applications for Windows users. Some settings and shortcuts will multiply the use of applications for you and will definitely increase speed and productivity. One of the most important configurations can be seen in the Quick Access Toolbar personalization. It is recommended that you add the following options to the bar.
- Save File
- Undo and Redo
- Copy format
- Font color
- Fill color
To add the above options, just click the button and select the Add to Quick Access Toolbar option.
Shortcuts used in Office 365, especially Excel
- Control + F1: Display or not the ribbon bar, which is especially useful on laptops with small screens.
- Control + Shift +1 to 5: Change the format of cells in Excel
- F11: Quickly generate graphs from selected data
- Alt> N> V: Quickly create a pivot table
- Alt + Shift + 0: Add all the cells above a cell in Excel
- + + Control: Add a new cell. You can also delete the selected cell using – + Control.
Remember that Microsoft sometimes changes shortcuts in its applications. If you see a change in shortcuts by updating an app, use the official Microsoft tutorial to learn the new keys.
Google Chrome configuration and application settings
Most Windows 10 users use Google Chrome as their default browser; As a result, familiarity with its settings and application tools will be very useful for increasing productivity. It is recommend that you first install the following plugins to increase productivity:
- Adblock is a very useful plugin to remove annoying ads and some websites detect the use of this plugin and warn the user. To overcome this obstacle, you can open the page in Incognito mode.
- Evernote or Notion or OneNote or any note-taking app you prefer
- Instapaper or Pocket for storing articles and reading in the future
- LastPass or any app you prefer for password management
- Video Speed Controller is used to change the video playback speed with D and S buttons; Especially in educational videos, it is recommending to watch the content faster (for example, 1.5x).
You can specify shortcuts for each of the most commonly used extensions in Chrome. To do this, select Extensions from the drop-down menu at the top right of Chrome and the More Tools subset. In the new window, select Keyboard shortcuts from the three-line menu on the left and set a keyboard shortcut for each commonly used extension.
Important shortcuts in Google Chrome:
