Great Windows 10 Shortcut Features!

Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 10, includes some great new features that can improve a user's computing experience. Since that is what we are all about at Opus, I figured I would put some of the ones I discovered and use the most so others can benefit as well. At first, I didn't like some of the changes from 7 and 8 to 10 because it seemed to be harder to find settings that I needed. Now that I have had time to play with the OS, though, I've found that most things are actually easier to get to.

The new feature I use the most is found through the Windows icon at the bottom left of the screen. A simple right-click on the Windows icon displays a number of truly helpful features. In Windows 7 and 8, I had to browse for most of those features through Control Panel icons. Now, the options for Device Manager, Apps and Features (...used to be Add/Remove Programs), Network Connections, Power Options, Search and other features can be accessed directly with a right-click. The typical user may not find these options as helpful as a tech, but I find that walking clients through troubleshooting is often easier due to these options. Try it out and see what options you might use there.

Another feature that has been a wonderful addition to the operating system is the multiple monitor taskbar. Now your applications show up on all screens if you have multiple monitors. In the past, we had to install 3rd party programs that would create a toolbar that showed up on the other screens. (Multi-mon comes to mind.) Those programs were great, but they had issues with screen resolution changes and could crash. The new taskbar is well integrated into Windows and behaves like the normal toolbar we are used to seeing.

Moving from screen to screen is also easy. In Windows 10, the screens can even be split up into quadrants using the Windows button to the left of ALT on your keyboard and the cursor keys (up, down, right, left). If you hold down the Windows button and hit the Up cursor key, your active window will be maximized. If you keep holding the Windows button and hit the down key, it will resize the window back to where it was previously. If you hold the Windows button and hit the Right cursor key, the window will be moved to the right half of your monitor. Keep holding the Windows key and hit the Right cursor again and the window will move over to your right monitor (if you have one) without having to use your mouse. Experiment with the cursor keys and you will see that moving windows around is very easy in Windows 10.

The Task Switch feature allows you to see all of the open applications on your machine so you can left-click on the application you want in the foreground without having to minimize and look through all of the other open applications. Just hold down ALT and hit TAB and you will see your open applications. You can scroll through them with the cursor keys as well.

I will blog about some other features in the future. If you have a feature that you really like, add it here for others to see.