Windows 10 cheat sheet
Get to know the interface, options, and shortcuts in Microsoft’s newest working system. (Now up to date for Windows 10 model 21H2.)
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When it was first launched in July 2015, Windows 10 was one of the best working system to come back alongside from Microsoft in a very long time. A shape-shifter that modified its interface relying upon whether or not you have been utilizing a standard pc or a touch-based one, it undid the injury wrought by Windows 8, together with eliminating the awkward Charms bar and bringing again the long-mourned Start menu.
Windows 10 launched many different key options as effectively, together with the Edge browser, the Cortana digital assistant, hyperlinks to Microsoft’s cloud-based OneDrive cloud storage service, and many extra.
That’s to not say that Microsoft received every thing proper out of the gate. The firm has honed these options, added new ones, and scrapped some that didn’t work out because it rolled out 11 main updates to Windows 10 since its preliminary launch. This story is predicated on the Windows 10 November 2021 Update (model 21H2), so the options described right here and the screenshots you see might differ from what you see in case you have an older model of Windows 10. I’ll cowl every thing it is advisable to know, and I’ve additionally supplied quick-reference charts itemizing helpful keyboard shortcuts, touchscreen gestures, and touchpad gestures.
[ See more Windows and Office cheat sheets ]
Note: If you wish to get essentially the most out of Windows 10, you will have to make use of a Microsoft ID as your consumer account. Without a Microsoft ID, you will not be capable of use a lot of Windows 10 apps or sync settings amongst a number of units. So whenever you arrange Windows 10 for the primary time, sign up with an present Microsoft ID or create a brand new one.
Before I get began, a couple of phrases about some terminology you will must know. Microsoft has sowed huge confusion with a set of light-weight apps that have been initially designed for the Windows 8 touch-oriented Start display screen interface. It first known as them Metro apps, after which by means of the years modified their names to Modern apps, Windows Store apps, after which Universal Windows apps. Now it is settled merely on Windows apps, though at occasions the corporate additionally calls them Universal Windows apps. In this text, I’ll check with them as Windows apps.
What about apps designed for the desktop? Microsoft now calls them Windows desktop purposes. In this text I’ll name them desktop purposes for simplicity’s sake.
The Start menu
The loudest criticism that desktop customers had about Windows 8 was the loss of life of the Start menu. In Windows 10 it is again with a vengeance. When you employ Windows 10 on a desktop or laptop computer, you boot immediately into the desktop. Click the Start button on the decrease left of the desktop to convey up the Start menu — command central for conventional PC customers. (Those who use Windows 10 on a pill will as a substitute see a Start display screen; extra on that later within the story.)
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The Start menu is command central for Windows 10. (Click any picture on this story to enlarge it.)
The menu is split into two sections. Down its left facet you will discover the next:
All Apps: Up on the prime left of the display screen is a “hamburger menu” (three parallel horizontal traces) that when clicked is a toggle for turning on or off an inventory of all Windows apps and desktop purposes. (By default, the checklist is turned on.) At the very prime of the All Apps checklist you’ll discover apps you’ve just lately put in. Just beneath which can be all of the apps and purposes in your PC, in alphabetical order. Click any app to run it.
Right-click any app and also you’ll see an inventory of the recordsdata you’ve just lately opened in it. Click the file to open the applying or app, with the file loaded into it.
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The bounce checklist for Excel exhibits the recordsdata you’ve just lately opened.
In some circumstances you’ll see a folder with a down arrow subsequent to it relatively than an icon. That means there are a number of choices there — for instance, to run the Dropbox app or go to the Dropbox web site. Click the folder to indicate all of the choices, then click on the choice you wish to run. (Also notice that in some cases, there might be a folder, however whenever you click on it, you solely get one possibility, to run the app or utility.)
Account: Down towards the underside left of the display screen is a set of stacked icons, beginning with an icon to your consumer account. Click it to signal out of Windows, lock your PC, or change your account settings. When you select to vary your account settings, you will be despatched to a display screen that permits you to change your account image, your password, and quite a lot of different settings.
Documents, Pictures, Settings, Power: These icons on the backside left of the Start menu aren’t any thriller: Documents opens the Documents folder utilizing File Explorer; Pictures opens the Pictures folder utilizing File Explorer; Settings brings you to the Windows Settings app (extra on that later); and Power allows you to put your PC to sleep, shut it down, or restart it. Click any icon to run it.
If you’re confused about which icons are for Account, Documents, Pictures, Settings, and Power, simply hover your mouse over any of them. The icons disappear and are changed by textual content labels.
The proper facet of the Start menu has tiles for Windows apps and desktop purposes. Click any tile to run the app related to it. They’re grouped into classes together with Productivity and Explore, after which, in case you have extra apps than slot in these two, they’re grouped into unnamed classes beneath that. New tiles might be added to the unnamed teams as you put in new apps and desktop purposes.
(Note that for those who’re utilizing an enterprise version of Windows 10, your IT division might have configured different groupings, equivalent to productiveness purposes or help instruments, to look on the appropriate facet of the Start menu. In some cases, your PC producer might add its personal classes. For instance, on my Evoo laptop computer, there may be an OEM class — not a very clever use of branding, it should be admitted.)
Some tiles are “dwell” — that’s, real-time data will get piped into them. So the Mail tile, for instance, exhibits your newest e-mail, the Weather exhibits the climate and so forth. Only Windows apps have dwell tiles. Desktop purposes, equivalent to Microsoft Office, do not. Each group of tiles is three columns huge, with most tiles taking on one column by default.
The Start menu is extremely customizable. To change its peak, hover your cursor over its prime edge till a two-headed arrow seems, then drag it up or all the way down to develop or shrink it. On some Windows 10 installations you are able to do the identical factor on the proper fringe of the menu to develop it to the appropriate or shrink it again once more, though this does not work for everyone.
To rename a bunch of tiles, click on the group identify and sort in a brand new identify for it. You also can transfer tiles across the Start menu by dragging them from one group to a different, or, to create a brand new group, drag tiles to a clean space on the menu. You can identify any unnamed group by clicking on the clean space above it and typing in a reputation.
You also can widen the teams within the Start menu in order that tiles take up 4 columns relatively than three. To do it, from the Start menu choose Settings > Personalization > Start, and within the “Show extra tiles on Start” setting, transfer the slider to On. The tiles will now take up 4 columns, however to reap the benefits of the additional area you’ll should manually drag tiles to the fourth column.
You can personalize many different features of the Start menu from this Settings web page, together with whether or not to indicate your most used apps on the prime of the All Apps checklist, have the Start display screen run full display screen, and extra.
When you right-click a tile, a menu pops up. Here’s the place issues get a bit complicated, as a result of not each Windows app and desktop utility has the identical pop-up menu, and relying in your set up you might need to click on More to see a few of these choices. Most have some mixture of those decisions:
Unpin from Start: Select this and the tile vanishes from the Start menu.
Resize: As you’d count on, this allows you to resize the tile. You can select Small, Medium, or Large, and a few tiles even have a Wide selection that makes it span two columns in its group.
Turn dwell tile off: This stops real-time data from streaming into the tile. If it is already off, you will get a Turn dwell tile on selection.
Pin to taskbar: As it says, this pins the app to the taskbar. If it is already pinned, you will get an Unpin from taskbar selection.
App settings: This results in a display screen that permits you to change the app’s settings, equivalent to whether or not to permit it to run within the background or get entry to your microphone.
Uninstall: This uninstalls the app. Some Windows apps created by Microsoft, equivalent to Skype and Solitaire, cannot be uninstalled. However, over time, Windows 10 has allow you to uninstall extra built-in apps than beforehand, together with Mail, Calendar, Sticky Notes, and others.
Rate and overview: This possibility is obtainable just for apps downloaded from the Microsoft Store. It brings you to a web page that permits you to fee the app on a one-to-five-star foundation and write a overview. The score and overview seem within the app’s description within the Microsoft Store.
Share: This allows you to share a hyperlink to the app utilizing quite a lot of strategies, together with e-mail, Twitter, and others.
Run as an administrator: This allows you to run the app or utility as an administrator.
Open file location: Opens File Explorer to the folder the place the applying lives.
Some Windows apps produce other decisions as effectively, relying on their functions. For instance, right-click the This PC app and also you get decisions equivalent to mapping or unmapping a community drive.
If you’ve enabled the “Most used” checklist of apps on the left facet of the Start menu, you’ll be able to right-click the icons for these apps in addition to the File Explorer, Settings, and Power icons beneath them. Windows apps and desktop purposes on the “Most used” app menu usually have related decisions to these already outlined (with some hidden below the “More” submenu). In addition, you may discover these choices:
Pin to Start: This strikes the app from the “Most used” checklist to the appropriate facet of the Start menu.
Run as a distinct consumer: This allows you to run the app as somebody apart from the individual presently logged in.
Don’t present on this checklist: Takes the app off the “Most used” checklist.
Cortana and Windows search
Windows 10 introduced Microsoft’s Siri-like digital assistant Cortana to computer systems. (It was first launched on Windows Phones in 2014.) Through the years, Cortana has gone by means of important modifications on Windows 10. At first, it grew to become carefully built-in with Windows Search, and its outcomes appeared within the Search field. It additionally was given a substantial quantity of energy, in a position to do issues as numerous as enjoying music and controlling your private home’s good home equipment.
But these days are gone. Microsoft has dramatically reduce on Cortana’s options, and it’s not carefully built-in into Windows and Windows Search. Now, Cortana is its personal app that works like every other Windows 10 app, together with operating in a resizable window that may be moved across the display screen.
The solely approach to make use of Cortana is to run the app. Start it by clicking the Cortana icon within the taskbar simply to the appropriate of the search field, urgent the Windows key + C, or saying “Hey, Cortana.” You can then converse your search, or kind your search into the app.
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Cortana is not built-in with the Search field; it now shows leads to its personal window.
When you ask Cortana a simple query or problem a simple command, Cortana shows the consequence onscreen and reads it to you. However, for those who ask a extra sophisticated query that requires a show of net hyperlinks, Cortana will present the hyperlinks within the Edge browser.
To ensure that Cortana responds to “Hey Cortana,” click on the Start button and choose Settings > Privacy > Voice activation. Turn the slider on in Allow apps to make use of voice activation, then scroll all the way down to “Choose which apps can use voice activation” and within the Cortana part, flip the slider on for Let Cortana reply to “Cortana” key phrase. If you wish to use Cortana even when your pc is locked, transfer the slider on subsequent to Use Cortana even when my system is locked.
After that, click on the Cortana button to the appropriate of the Search field to launch the app. Click the three-dot icon on the prime left of the display screen after which click on the Settings button (it’s within the form of a gear) and choose Keyboard shortcut. From right here you’ll be able to select whether or not to have Cortana reply solely to the Windows key + C shortcut, or additionally through talking.
You also can take away the Cortana button to the appropriate of the search field. Right-click the taskbar and uncheck Show Cortana button from the menu that seems.
(You may even flip off the search field on this approach. Right-click the taskbar, choose Search, and click on Hidden.)
Although Microsoft has scaled again Cortana, there are a selection of issues it will probably do for you. The greatest is the way in which it will probably remind you about duties or upcoming occasions. It’s straightforward to set a reminder — simply say or kind in plain English what you wish to be reminded about, for instance, “Create a reminder for my weekly Tuesday 2pm Zoom meeting.” In order for Cortana to pop up alerts concerning the reminders you’ve set, it is advisable to activate Windows 10’s notification function. To do it, go to Settings > System > Notifications & actions after which flip the slider on within the Get notifications from apps and different senders part.
For extra about utilizing Cortana, see “4 quick tips for Cortana in Windows 10.” And for a have a look at the place Cortana is headed, see “Cortana explained: The rocky past and promising future of Microsoft’s digital assistant.”
Using search
The Windows 10 search you’ve been used to for the reason that working system was launched has modified over time, notably when Cortana and Search went their very own methods. So even for those who assume you understand how it really works, you may want a refresher, which I’ll present right here.
To do a search, kind it into the Search field on the backside left of the display screen, or in case you have a Search icon there relatively than a field, click on the icon and sort in your search on the display screen that seems. (To make the search icon seem, right-click the taskbar and choose Search > Show search icon. To have the Search field seem there as a substitute, right-click the taskbar and choose Search > Show search field.) Search makes use of the Bing search engine to look by means of your recordsdata, your Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage, your movies and music, the apps in your PC, your settings, your e-mail, and the net. When you do a search, a collection of tabs seems throughout the highest of the display screen:
- All shows all search outcomes.
- Apps exhibits any app-related matches.
- Documents exhibits paperwork in your PC that match the search.
- Web shows outcomes from the net.
- More exhibits outcomes from different locations, together with particular person folders, e-mail and apps together with Music, People, Photos, Settings, and Videos. You’ll should click on the down arrow subsequent to More to see all of them.
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Search exhibits leads to a flyout mini-browser.
The Search field will be helpful even for those who don’t do a search. Put your cursor in it and also you’ll see an inventory of the apps you most ceaselessly use, in addition to an inventory of “Quick searches” you’ll be able to click on to get information, climate, occasions that occurred in the present day in historical past, and COVID-19 coronavirus traits. Click a search or app to open it.
Putting your cursor within the search field additionally allows you to do focused searches — you’ll be able to restrict searches to simply apps, paperwork, the net, and extra. Click the suitable tab on the prime of the display screen and sort in your search.
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Put your cursor into the search field to see your most-used apps and to do focused searches.
By default, Search solely appears by means of a restricted collection of default libraries and folders together with OneDrive, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop. It gained’t discover recordsdata stored in different places in your PC. However, you’ll be able to change that. Go to Settings > Search > Searching Windows, and within the “Find My Files” part, choose Enhanced. That will inform Windows to go looking by means of your whole PC. If there are folders you wish to exclude from the search, go to the “Excluded Folders” part, then click on Add an excluded folder and browse to the folder you don’t wish to search.